Women, men and management styles

The author seeks to disentangle the terminological complexities behind opposed concepts such as sex and gender, masculine and feminine, biological and socially constructed attributes. In so doing, she shows that stereotypes are often less clear-cut than they seem and that erstwhile weaknesses can come to be viewed as valuable skills, formerly perceived strengths as inflexible and one-dimensional. As management culture starts to appreciate and incorporate gender differences it is coming to see the value of a mixture of so-called feminine and masculine characteristics in the panoply of management skills needed in the highly competitive global marker place.