Manager Study Authors Deny Sex Stereotype

Sponsors of an International Women’s Forum study, which concluded that female managers lead differently than men, today denied charges that the report contributed to sexual stereotypes.

The study said that women manage, to a greater extent than men, by personal interaction with their subordinates. It says men are more likely to manage on a more authoritarian, reward-and-punishment system.

“We are not blaming them. We are not saying it’s better or worse. We are just saying it’s different,” Judy B. Rosener, a professor in the graduate school of management at UC Irvine, said at a news conference.

“We don’t want an interactive leader in Saudi Arabia at the moment,” said Rosener, the author of the report. “I would think we want a command-and-control type.”

The International Women’s Forum is an organization of prominent women in 16 countries, including astronaut Sally Ride, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

Rosener said she has received about a hundred telephone calls about the study since her article on its findings appeared in the November-December issue of the Harvard Business Review.

“People are saying, ‘Gender has nothing to do with it. You are really enforcing gender stereotypes,’ ” she said.

But, she said, “We are not saying that all women behave one way and all men behave another way.”

The study was based on responses from 355 members of the forum and 101 men in similar positions.

It says the typical woman surveyed “prefers the use of personal power, that is, power based on her charisma, work record and contact, as contrasted with structural power based on the authority that comes with organizational position, title and the ability to reward and punish.”

It says the women make the same amount of money as men in comparable positions but “appear to lead differently than their male colleagues.