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Management training for men and women - is there any difference?

We do know that men and women have slightly different characteristics, strengths and weaknesses. There are some observers who contend that in general women make better managers than men because they are usually more sensitive, responsive, organised and pay better attention to detail. Equally there are others who feel that men make better managers because of their general tendency to see the bigger picture, be more business like and more decisive.
So is this difference in style just a perception or is it based on any evidence?
We are aware of the animal studies than show the differences in behaviour between males and females that have characterised females as being more nurturing and of males classically exhibiting aggressive, dominant “A” type behaviour – but how far do these results transfer across to management roles in organisations?
We also know that there are differences in some physical performance aspects of men and women which have to be taken account – especially in occupations where physical strength and stamina is important e g The Army, The Fire Brigade.
When we look at some of the more sophisticated Psychometric tests measuring personality characteristics such as 16pf , we do know that there are some gender differences which are significant enough for us to use different norm tables for men or women in order to normalise any comparative results.
So if we accept that there are some gender based differences in managerial style and approach should we then provide different forms of management development training for men and women?
I think that the answer is probably no – because there are other factors that are even more important to consider when we look at the role of a manager, their styles, approaches and when we consider the people that they are managing or dealing with as customers and clients.
The sorts of factors that are more important to consider are these:-
• What are the gender types and likely responses of the customer set for your product or service?
• How good at your managers at understanding personality differences and gender styles in this customer set? Can they deal effectively with diverse types?
• What makes a successful manager in your business from a competency point of view?
• What are the different learning styles of your participants on any training programme and how well are you delivering your programme to reach and appeal to these different styles of activist, pragmatist, reflector etc?
• What is the culture and style of your organisation that you are looking to reinforce and encourage – whether it is adopted by male or female managers is less relevant.
In conclusion whilst accepting that differences do exist in the styles of individual managers, there is a broad spectrum of styles and approaches produced by individual differences rather than by simple gender stereotyping and that there are other factors outlined above which are more significant.