The “good manager” over five decades: towards an androgynous profile?

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine stability and change in the linkage between gender and managerial stereotypes over a five-decade period.

Design/methodology/approach

Samples from two populations (n = 2347) described a “good manager” on an instrument that assessed masculinity and femininity during each of the past five decades.

Findings

Good-manager descriptions exhibited a decreasing emphasis on masculinity and increasing emphasis on femininity over time, culminating in an androgynous profile, or a balance of masculine and feminine traits, for each population in the most recently collected data.

Practical implications

Although women face systemic barriers in the managerial ranks of organizations, a change in managerial stereotypes to an androgynous rather than masculine profile would represent one less barrier for them to overcome.

Social implications

If managers come to be held to an androgynous standard in their behavior regardless of their gender, there would be a more level playing field for candidates for open managerial positions, rather than one tilted in favor of men.

Originality/value

The analysis of data from samples of the same population types using the same measures systematically over five decades, and the provocative finding of an androgynous profile of a good manager in the most recently collected data, are original contributions to the literature.

Citation

Powell, G.N., Butterfield, D.A. and Jiang, X. (2021), "The “good manager” over five decades: towards an androgynous profile?", Gender in Management, Vol. 36 No. 6, pp. 714-730. https://doi.org/10.1108/GM-01-2021-0023