45% feeling males make better bosses while only 24% feel the same aboutfemale bosses

TeamLease Services, India’s largest staffing company, todayreleased the survey “Gender Preferences in Bosses” to understand perceived gender preferencesamong bosses across major cities in India as well as its implications atthe workplace.

‘Glass Ceiling” stays put with 45% ofrespondents feeling males make better bosses while only 24% feel the same aboutfemale bosses.
‘Woman power’prevails in Ahmedabad as maximumrespondents in the city felt women bosses have better Administrative, PeopleManagement and Target Aggression
‘Focus only on work’is Pune’s mantra with over 70% sayingthat the Boss’s gender does not make a difference to their work performance

This is the fifthsurvey commissioned by TeamLease in a series to understand “India’s new world of work”.

Across all thecities where the survey was commissioned, the common trend was that mostrespondents had male bosses than female bosses.

There was almost anequal split in the respondents’ gender and the average age was around 28 years.

Says Surabhi Mathur-Gandhi,General Manager, Permanent Staffing, TeamLease Services, ‘The increased rolefor women in the workplace today seems to reflect a pragmatic but sometimesreluctant change in attitudes, objectivity and aptitudes. Women are seen asbringing different skills but despite equal competence continue to battleunfair and dated perception issues”.

Key findings of the survey

Ø ‘Walk the walk and talk the talk’– Two thirdsof the surveyed workforce across cities agree to women being more expressiveabout their emotions with only the cities of Bangalore, Mumbai and Punedisagreeing to this

Ø Constraints of the fairersex? 75% of the respondents say ‘being a woman’ is reason enough not to take upsenior level opportunities

Ø Liberal thinking? Morethan half of Chennai, Ahmedabad and Kolkata respondents prefer to have bossesof the opposite gender

Ø Pune’s focus is workand not the gender of the boss! ‘Really, it does not matter’ say over 70% of Pune workers when asked aboutgender preference for their boss

Ø This vote goes toWomen bosses …with over 80% of Ahmedabadrespondents favouring women for better Administrative, People Managementand Target Aggression skills

Ø ‘Feminine powerre-surfaces again’ in Hyderabad with over 80% giving 5-stars to women bossesfor Time Management, Administrative and Mentoring skills

Ø ‘Thumbs down’ to womenbosses in New Delhi (above 65%) for Decision making, Administrative andTarget aggression skills

Surabhi Mathur adds, “Women embody the power of multi-tasking with a stronger understandingof the complexities of emotions and relationships in the workplace. Theseskills can be particularly valuable in tough times like today and workplaceswho do not recognize this are handicapped relative to equal opportunity andgender blind workforces”

A structuredquestionnaire was administered by global researchfirm Synovate for TeamLease using a mix of telephonic andcomputer-aided-telephonic-interviewing (CATI) technology to working adultsacross eight major cities (Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune) for atotal sample size of 407.

CITY HIGHLIGHTS

Ahmedabad

Bangalore

50% of city’s respondents feel men make better bosses to 40% saying women do
Over 80% of the city’s workers feel women posses better capability in Administrative, People Management and Target Aggression skills
82% of workers feel women tend to show more emotions at work
100% of respondents feel that being a woman constrains her to take up senior level opportunity
100% of respondents feel that being a woman constrains her to take up senior level opportunity
50% of city’s workers disagree that women tend to show more emotions at work
87% of Bangalore respondents find women better in Administrative skills with only 13% voting for men on the same
Only 12% feels women make better bosses compared to 48% are of the opinion men are better
Chennai

New Delhi

58% of Chennai feel men have a better chance of getting ahead at the workplace
74% feel women tend to show more emotions at work
Only 5% of Chennai workers feel that being a woman constrains an individual to take up a senior level opportunity
58% of respondents prefer their boss to be of opposite gender
69% of city’s respondents say women tend to show more emotions at work
Delhi does not feel that being a woman constrains an individual to take up senior level opportunity
65% of respondents feel women do not possess decision making skills
36% of workers have an opinion that males make a better boss
Hyderabad

Kolkata

84% of respondents have reported to a manager of the opposite gender
Only 8% prefer female bosses compared to 32% preferring male bosses
72% of female respondents are more neutral to the question ‘who makes a better boss
Over 80% of the city’s workers feel women posses better capability in Administrative, Time Management and Mentoring skills
62% of Kolkata’s respondents have reported to male bosses
50% of office-goers prefer their bosses to be of the opposite gender
Only 20% feel women make better bosses
84% of the city’s workers feel women are not capable of better business planning
80% feel women tend to show more emotion at workplace
Mumbai

Pune

City has higher number of female bosses when compared to other cities
50:50 - Mumbai sees an equal split between the genders of the bosses they have reported to.
60% of Mumbai would not prefer their boss to be of opposite gender
54% of city’s respondents say men have a better chance of getting ahead at the workplace
Majority of Pune respondents do not have any particular gender preference for their boss
More than 50% of the city office-goers feel males make better bosses
Women workers in Pune are more flexible and do not show any particular gender bias
42% of Pune feel disagree that women tend to show more emotions at work
- End -

About Teamlease’s “India’s changing world ofwork” survey series

Teamlease, as a marketleader, has self-interest in a deeper understanding of India’slabour market changes and makes substantial investments in research. Thecurrent survey series aims to look at India’slabour markets from an angle to conventional thought. The first of the serieslooked at ‘Romance at the workplace’ while the second one covered the issues of‘Two career couples’, followed by ‘Why youth pick and chuck jobs’ and thefourth one being ‘Nothing ethical about ethics’.

About TeamLease Services Pvt. Ltd
TeamLease Services is India’s largest Staffing Company having pioneered temporary staffing in India. Currently they have over 74,000 employees on therolls, presence across 470 locations with 24 offices in India. TeamLease’s biggestvisible accomplishment is the speed of scaling (have hired somebody every 5minutes for the last four years, weekends and nights included). Inthe permanent recruitment domain, TeamLease Services provides executive search, database selection, advertisedselection and turnkey solution,withdomain experts to anchor specific industry verticals. TeamLease Services is head quartered in Bangalore.