Female bosses expected to be caring

Female managers who are seen as unkind, insensitive and unaware of others’ feelings are judged as worse bosses because of it – yet men who exhibit the same qualities aren’t.

This is the conclusion of Kristin Byron, assistant professor of management in the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University, who wanted to see if being good at spotting emotions meant managers had more satisfied staff.

She found that female managers who couldn’t read unspoken emotions, such as facial expressions, posture, and tone of voice, were seen as less caring and thus received lower ratings of satisfaction from their staff.

However, male leaders who were bad at spotting emotions were not subject to the same expectations.

Byron studied 44 part-time students who were employed in a position with supervisory responsibilities as part of their MBA course, and 78 managers from four companies in the hospitality industry (i.e. upscale restaurant and catering companies), to see how good they were at spotting emotions.

She also asked the staff of these managers to rate:

• How supportive their manager was (by scoring statements such as My manager shows concern for me as a person)
• How persuasive they were (scoring statements such as My manager can inspire enthusiasm for a project)
• How satisfied they were (scoring statements like I am satisfied with the degree of respect and fair treatment I get from my boss)

“It seems female managers may be expected to be sensitive to others’ emotions and to demonstrate this sensitivity by providing emotional support. Because of this, female managers’ job performance is judged on them being understanding, kind, supportive and sensitive,” said Byron.

“In contrast, this is not the basis to evaluate the performance of male managers. It is far more important for male managers, and men, in general, to be seen as analytical, logical and good at reasoning than showing care and concern for others,” said Byron.

Reference

Byron, K. (2007). Male and female managers’ ability to read emotions: Relationships with supervisor’s performance ratings and subordinates’ satisfaction ratings. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, in press. doi: 10.1348/096317907X174349

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