When Ms Harman launched her tirade against male bosses last week, the Journal of Financial Economics published research (which you have to pay for unfortunately) by Daniel Ferreira, of the London School of Economics with Renee Adams of the University of Queensland that showed that women in boardrooms can wreck a company.
The study of 2,000 boards and as reported in the Daily Mail said that "Employing more women in the boardroom can wreak havoc on the financial performance of companies, fresh research suggests. Two academics found that female directors were more likely to 'meddle' with boards and get rid of male chief executives who are not up to the job. However, their more ruthless approach could produce unexpected results and be 'bad for a company's coffers.' "
Essentially the research was saying that women make a good impact in struggling companies but can damage those which are performing.
As readers of the site know, this is not an anti-women site, but the research is certainly an antidote to the "all men bad, all women good" approach by Harriet Harman and others like the Equalities Commission and the Fawcett Society.
Full coverage at Google News with the Times article being a highlight.
However, the most striking research to certainly nail the lie that male bosses are worse than female bosses is from OnePoll. Their research showed that women prefer working for male bosses!
Their research showed that 2/3rds of women prefer male bosses because they are better managers and less prone to moods like women. Also they found female bosses felt threatened by other women at work.
When I heard the story today I could hear the wailing and tears from the Fawcett Society and Harman Towers at the traitorous women for suggesting they prefer male bosses.
Seriously though, these two pieces of research are another nail in coffin of the myth that Harman and others have been peddling.
Coverage - Daily Mail
And of course more than anything, people like to have a boss who is competent, good at their job and in the role on merit, i.e. not there ahed of better candidates just to fill some sexist quota as demanded by Harman.
Posted by: John Kimble | Friday, 14 August 2009 at 02:43
Very well put John. But let us not forget, the latter is what happens.
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Posted by: OllieErickson | Monday, 02 April 2012 at 09:59