matched male/female manager pairs, male meanings overall were more similar
to top managers’ meanings than were females’ meanings. Top managers’ mean-
ings included task delivery, putting yourself out, being proactive, being ready
for a challenge and being business aware. More women overall gave meanings
oriented towards the organisation, particularly good citizenship behaviours,
which would be less visible to managers, whilst men overall gave meanings
benefiting themselves as well as the organisation, which were very active and
highly visible.
Research into motivation/commitment reflects a complicated picture;
however, the effect of social-role theory (Eagly, 1987) can still be seen in differ-
ences in meanings of commitment and issues relating to achievement orientation
for women. In this respect, it is important to bear in mind the evolutionary
nature of sex roles. Given the dramatic changes in social roles for men and
women in countries such as the UK and the US, for instance, future studies may
find very different attitudes relating to motivation/commitment amongst both
young men and women.
Managerial/leadership behaviourConflicting results in relation to women’s motivation/commitment reflect that
this is only part of the story of why there are so few women at the most senior
managerial positions. A key area of research in this respect focuses on how pre-
vailing views of senior management styles might impact on women’s progress
into these positions. Given that women have the same motivation to succeed
as men in similar circumstances, why do so few achieve executive status? Are
women innately less suited to management?
In line with Adler’s complementary contribution model (1986/1987) and
Rothwell’s (1991) vision of a ‘woman-shaped pattern of life’, the unique
management styleof women is expounded by a number of writers, amongst
them Marshall (1984), who argues that the literature on management impli-
citly alludes to masculine qualities which are equated to ‘good’ management.
Marshall views women as having different managerial/leadership styles, with
an emphasis on interpersonal, intuitive and cooperative skills, but argues that
these are often seen as deficient in contrast to the predominant male style.
However, such qualities are being emphasised increasingly as especially suited
to the needs of international management. Rosener (1990) details the ways in
which women’s interactive leadership style is especially well suited to contem-
porary business. Women ‘encourage participation, share power and informa-
tion, enhance other people’s self-worth and get others excited about their
work’. Sharma (1990) describes the feminine management style as being dis-
tinct and non-traditional. The main attributes of women’s approach are col-
laboration and cooperation, teamwork, and intuition and creativity. Tom
Peters, one of management’s most celebrated gurus, is reported as having
362 International Human Resource Management