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Distressing Bosses
If you're a female boss, you're probably not going to like this story. The women who work for you are more likely to suffer physical and psychological problems than if they were working for a male boss, according to a study by researchers at the University of Toronto. The study's authors say they're not sure why this is the case, or why men don't seem to be affected by the gender of their bosses. But experts who have studied women managers say it may have to do with the fact that many women -- bosses and subordinates alike -- feel more vulnerable in their jobs than men do. And they say HR leaders need to work harder to change that. The study, which was published in the September issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, looked at more than 1,700 American working adults. It found that women with a female boss suffered more "psychological distress," such as trouble sleeping, difficulty focusing on work, depression and anxiety, and had more "physical distress," such as headaches, stomach pain or heartburn, neck and back pain and tiredness, than women who had a male boss. Job level and interpersonal conflicts do not appear to be the source of the problem. Scott Schieman, a psychology professor who was one of the study's authors, says the results appeared to be the same regardless of the worker's income, occupation, job level or type of industry. Women who were high-level managers, for example, felt the same amount of distress as line workers. The study also found that the psychological and physical problems didn't appear to arise from any interpersonal conflict between female subordinates and their supervisors, says Schieman. "The level of their interaction was not harsher," he says. Schieman says he can only speculate why women with female bosses have more problems. One possibility, he says, is that women who work for other women "may be expecting cooperative, mentoring-like relationships, and those aren't being realized." It's also possible, he says, is that there is something about the relationship between female subordinates and bosses that the study didn't pick up. The study also found that when there is a pair of bosses -- a man and a woman -- women subordinates report more physical and psychological problems than men do. That suggests that women in the workplace simply may be more stressed than men, says Liz Cornish, a Healdsburg, Calif.-based consultant and author of Hit the Ground Running: The Woman's Guide to Success for the First 100 Days on the Job. "Because we are an evolving culture, women still feel the pull to be all things to all people," she says. "There are so many tugs on the time and psyche. They need to be great professionals, mothers, daughters, volunteers ... and look good, too. It's exhausting." Some experts who have studied women in the workplace say the stereotype that women bosses tend to be harder on other women -- because of jealousy or other reasons -- has been shown to be false. However, they say, studies have shown that both men and women are more comfortable with men in authority. "We know from research that people are ambivalent about having women in authority," says Robin Ely, a professor of organizational behavior at Harvard Business School in Cambridge, Mass. "It played out with Hillary, and in media representations of women. "Psychologically and emotionally," she says, "it can be a different experience having a female and a male boss." In addition, she says, women managers tend to have fewer resources and less access to power than their male counterparts. They may be feeling more vulnerable, and the women who work for them -- who may not feel as valued as men to begin with -- feel doubly vulnerable, she says. Deborah Kolb, a professor of women and leadership at the Simmons School of Management in Boston, says women managers also feel more vulnerable because they often don't have the mentors and networks that might protect them. "Good leaders are well-networked in their organizations and can find resources,' says Kolb. "Women bosses as not as well networked, and not as able to protect their people." It's HR's job, she and others say, to help make women managers feel more secure in their jobs -- which in turn will make their female subordinates more secure as well. HR should help women find more supportive networks, says Kolb. And it should make workplace policies and procedures more transparent, so that women mangers don't feel left out of the picture, and more vulnerable. Kolb, who authored Her Place at the Table: A Woman's Guide to Negotiating the Five Key Challenges to Leadership Success, says the study should not be seen as an indictment of female managers. "Blaming the women bosses is a 'blame-the-woman problem,' " she says. "It's more complicated than that." October 1, 2008 Copyright 2008© LRP Publications |
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