Gender differences in management style: Evidence from Serbia

Abstract

Gender equality in all spheres of social life is a very actual social and research topic. The subject of this paper is to examine distinctions in management between men and women in order to detect the characteristic style of women managers. The research on attitudes of women and men managers about important elements of company success, managerial errors, dominant features of managerial behavior, decision making and tendency to delegate, has disclosed the significant differences between managers of different sex in the work situation. Based on the results, a female manager might be described as the manager who makes decisions in the mutual process between management and subordinates, in which the decisions are made by consensus. She advocates competence development of subordinates, fosters their ambition and loyalty, and gives priority to intelligence, which indicates that a woman manager usually selects associates who have desire and ability to be trained for the demanding tasks.