Differences in Perceptions of Managerial Roles by Gender among Southern Business Students

Abstract

Perception of the roles necessary for managerial success based on the 10 verbal descriptors of the Mintzberg roles were gathered from 128 business students at a southern U.S. university. The objective was to assess whether these 72 men and 56 women viewed the importance of the roles differently. Ratings were collected on the 10 roles for each of four different types of managers. The data were analyzed by one-way analysis of variance, chi-squared analysis, and Spearman rank-order correlation. No differences were observed in the perception of men and women in these roles or of their relative importance.

Managerial effectiveness in a global context

“…Pavett and Lau (1983) found significant differences between top-and lower-level managers on eight of the ten Mintzberg roles and differences between middle-and lower-level managers on six of the ten roles. Other studies have considered the person variables in terms of gender differences (Smith & Schellenberger, 1991) as well as age, tenure, and educational level (Beggs & Doolittle, 1988).…”