Male bosses judged more harshly

With the recent, alarming statistics from the USA that women earn 84.6% and 78.3% of their male counterparts, in accordance with the number of hours they work (41-44 hours and over 60 hours respectively), it seems that women are still getting a raw deal in the workplace. However, men are getting a hard time in another way it seems.

According to a new study, conducted by the Pennsylvania State University, male bosses who make mistakes are judged more harshly than women leaders who make the same errors.

We all make mistakes but it seems the consequences of these errors can damage the perceptions of leaders who make them, for some more than others. Indeed, male bosses who make errors were deemed less competent and less effective as leaders and, as a result, employees were less likely to trust their decisions and were less willing to work for them.

The findings, published in Springer's Journal of Business and Psychology online, went further to evaluate the effects of gender when the domain of work was considered to be traditionally male (construction) or female (nursing). Researchers discovered that male leaders were judged more negatively than female leaders for mistakes made in a male domain of work. This suggests male bosses are not reaching expectations of performance in this domain, but women are not expected to succeed in 'man’s work' anyway.

Although it is advisable to avoid mistakes altogether this isn’t always possible because we are only human. It is important however, particularly for male bosses it seems, to consider how these errors affect the way workers view you.

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