Businesses Urged to Harness the Power of Difference for More Effective Team Management
LONDON--(Marketwire - November 5, 2009) - Cisco (
The 'Style of the Sexes' survey, jointly commissioned by Cisco and Gender IQ, addresses issues such as how conflict is dealt with in the workplace, which factors men and women consider important in a job, whether job concerns are shared with co-workers, and whether employees prefer to work in teams of mostly men or mostly women. While the findings indicate that real differences exist in how men and women deal with aspects of their work, organizations that seek to better understand and respect differences in the workplace get the best out of their employees and teams.
Highlights / Key Facts:
On the Makeup of Teams
The majority of both men and women (88 per cent) prefer to work in roughly equally mixed teams.
However, both men and women preferred working in mostly male teams (21.6 per cent) rather than mainly female teams (8.1 per cent).
On What's Important
Generally speaking, women are more demanding than men about what is important in a job, with 79 per cent saying getting training is important, compared with 73 per cent of men, and 75 per cent seeking flexible hours, compared with 69 per cent of the men. The only areas that more men than women find important are chances of promotion and benefits beyond pay.
Pay ranked first in importance for women, with equipment second. An interesting job role shared third place with flexibility in work location or the ability to work from home. Men rated pay and equipment as most important, followed by an interesting role and flexible work location or the ability to work from home.
Having a role model was least important for both men and women.
On Dealing with Conflict
Women are far more likely to have experienced conflict in the workplace: 55 per cent stated they've faced conflict compared with 46 per cent of men.
Women take longer to recover from conflict as well: 41 per cent of those who had experienced conflict said it took more than a month to recover; 25 per cent of the men needed more than a month to recover.
In a conflict situation, men and women also respond differently: 73 per cent of the men said they would confront the situation face to face, compared with 63 per cent of the women. Women are also more likely to ask for intervention, with 59 per cent likely to talk to their manager and 39 per cent likely to report the situation to HR, compared with 52 per cent and 35 per cent of the men, respectively.
On Sharing Concerns
Quotes:
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Cisco, Gender IQ, Cisco Diversity and Inclusion, diversity, women, gender, teamworking, business performance
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Notes to Editors:
The research was undertaken during October 2009 in an online survey with 615 demographically representative employees in the UK. The survey was conducted by Loudhouse Research, an independent research agency, on behalf of Cisco and Gender IQ.
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