Workers prefer male managers: survey

Female bosses need to be “authentic” in the workplace and develop a management style that suits their personality, a workplace expert says.

The advice comes after a survey found two-thirds of women preferred a male boss because they were perceived as more straight-talking.

Male managers were also perceived as much less likely to have a hidden agenda or get involved in office politics, the survey found.

About 3000 men and women in the UK were questioned for the research, and three-quarters of men agreed they’d rather work for a man than a woman.

A quarter of women accused female bosses of backstabbing and bringing their personal lives into the office.

And a third said women with power were loose cannons who often felt threatened by colleagues.

David Brown, of online recruitment firm UKJobs.net, which commissioned the research, said: “Incredibly, both men and women are in total agreement that men make better bosses – 63 per cent of women and 75 per cent of men.

The study found that the average worker has had two female and three male bosses.

A third have left a job because they didn’t like their boss, and of these, the majority of women claimed they left because of a female manager.

But CareerOne editor Kate Southam said that the responses could be partially explained by the difficult job market in the UK, which has a jobless rate of 7.8 per cent compared with Australia’s unemployment rate of 5.3 per cent.

“When people are under pressure at work, they tend to look for someone to blame or have a scapegoat,” she said.

‘Easier for men to follow the alpha male’

Ms Southam said female managers needed to be aware of their natural strengths and areas of improvement because they lack natural role-models at work.

“You need to be authentic, you need to manage in the way you would tend to behave,” she said.

“You’ve built up your technical skills, which has led you into a position of management.

“But once you’re there, you need to use your natural strengths.

“If you know you have a challenge area – perhaps you over-consult or are over-communicative – you should get some coaching.”

Another problem for female managers is the lack of a “female alpha” role-model in many workplaces.

“Men tend to align themselves with whoever is the alpha male in the office,” Ms Southam said.

“I’ve been told about offices where the senior male will start to bring his lunch to work, and all the other males in the office start doing the same thing.

“Or the alpha male will wear certain types of shirts, and all the other men start to copy.

“It’s easier for men to know how to behave by aligning with the alpha male.”