my paper Friday,
Sep 02, 2011 By
Victoria Barker
MALE bosses are preferred by both female and male employees in the
private sector, findings from a study revealed
yesterday.
Just over half of the female employees surveyed said they would
rather have a manager of the opposite sex, compared to just one in
five male workers.
Just over half of the women polled and nearly six in 10 men also
prefer working with male colleagues.
The study by global recruitment firm Randstad took place over
several weeks from July to last month, and involved 405
Singapore-based employees - split evenly between men and women aged
18 to 65 - who completed an online questionnaire.
Almost seven in 10 employees polled currently report to a male
superior.
Ms Karin Clarke, regional director for Randstad's Singapore and
Malaysia offices, said: "Women are very good at building strong
teams, empowering staff... Men tend to compete to win.
"(But) the most important factor is that employees respect the
authority of their leader, are motivated, inspired and feel
valued."
Accounts manager Ronald Naidu, 27, who works for a communications
company and reports to a male boss, agreed.
"To me, as long as the boss is fair and reasonable, gender doesn't
matter," he said.
However, Ms Michelle Fong agreed with the report's findings. The
29-year-old sales executive for a home-grown engineering company
said: "I've had female bosses in the past and found that they tend
to be more moody and emotional.
"Guys are usually more laid-back...as long as you do your job
well."
Despite the preference for male colleagues and bosses, some
respondents - nearly three in 10 - said they believe the
performance of their organisation would improve if there were more
women in higher management.
Ms Clarke attributed this finding to the fact that women are often
perceived as being more collaborative and inclusive in their
leadership.
"In turn, this can drive better business performance, with
employees becoming more engaged and motivated as their
contributions are recognised," she added.
Almost half of all employees also felt that their companies perform
best when there is an equal ratio of men to women on the team.
Mr David Ang, executive director of the Singapore Human Resources
Institute, said that the results could be attributed to the fact
that there are simply more men in the Singapore workforce, but
added that each gender brings different things to the table.
"Men may be more rational and straight to the point, while women
may be more nurturing (as bosses)... Each have different
strengths," he said.
He added that gender should not matter to employers when recruiting
staff.
"The manager should, most importantly, have the skills, knowledge
and experience to do his or her job," he said.
