ARE WOMEN MANAGERS BETTER?
To begin with –“Who is a manager?”- One who is asked to perform all managerial activities right from planning till controlling and one who has to see that all the employees are working towards a common goal – the successful completion of the business objectives. But, in a competitive corporate scenario it is difficult to pinpoint a single aspect of managers that defines them as they perform diverse roles. A manager is an individual who has a multi faceted personality, is executively trained to perform diverse functions and is capable of getting things done by his/her sub-ordinates either through leadership skills or through motivational incentives. Now the question arises is- “Do women make better managers than men?”
The corporate arena has always been a male dominated field. Earlier the corporate world was not considered a cup of tea for the women. But the situation is changing rapidly especially in many developing countries like India. Women too are entering the corporate world and proving to be competent in all fields of business. Whether it is about doing things or getting things done! The question that women managers are better than men is a very debatable issue.
Looking at the situation from a neutral point of view, I tried to analyse the pros and cons of women in business. Generally women are said to be more sensitive, and hence their attempts to empathize with others is comparatively more. Because of this, women can prove to be far more effective in the field of human resources. They are even said to be more capable of handling stress as they are emotionally very strong.
These points may prove to be very essential for a manager, as they have to work with different types of people and stress is common in the business world. But seeing the other side of the coin we can say that women tend to get involved in situations very easily and they generally lack ambition.
How often we see that a women’s career takes a backseat once she has a family of her own. But on the whole these assumptions of women behaviour are far too generalized and outdated. Now-a-days we do find sharp and highly ambitious women managers too who manage their careers and home together at equal ease.
Examples of women managers as Ekta Kapoor of Balaji, Shobana Bhartia of Hindustan Times, Kiran Mazumdar of Biocon and Swati Piramal of Piramal Industries are some of the very few Indian women who have taken the definition of women managers far ahead and stepped out of homes to prove that women can be best at whatever they do.
In the end I tend to realise that the question that need to be asked is not who makes a better manager but who is best at their job. Because it is the one who fulfills his/her responsibilities considered to be a true manager and that also ignoring the fact who dominated the profession through the ages. The one who is capable and able can only do justice to the job.