Exploring Gender Issues: Causes and Strategies for Effective Management

Gender Issues

Management means the process of designing and maintaining an environment in which individuals, working together in groups, efficiently accomplish selected aims. Gender does neither mean 'women' nor 'feminine. Gender related issues are here to rock the world and its impacts are being felt in all organizations in terms of gender related biases, discrimination, sexual harassment, Organisational conflicts etc. These issues need to be addressed properly otherwise can disturb the entire work culture smooth functioning of the organisation. Achieving gender equity needs restitution of employees towards gender differences through various workshops, lectures, conferences, role playing etc., so that these differences are perceived as strengths of organisation rather than an obstacle.

Work and gender 

We cannot separate our social identify from our sex and gender. Gutex (1985) has identified three significant influences of gender in the workplace.

1. Sex segregation of work: Most of the employed women in USA and elsewhere work in clinical work or less prestigious professions, and their work is less diverse than that of women
2. Differences in power, states and prestige: men typically hold jobs with more of these characteristics;
3. Work conditions wait person characteristics that emphasize the effect of gender: women’s job usually have more pleasant working conditions and emphasize appearance more than men’s.

The Causes of Gender Differences

1. As political and sociological reasons: Man being superior physically assigned itself the various role of decision making, supporting family and safeguarding it slowly emerged more powerful in every aspect and started dominating women and build a system more suited to its own interest and this has carried on since long.
2. As psychological reason: Chodorow, Horrigan; Kellov suggest that as children grow the male is able to objectify and control his environment, and to define himself as separate from the world around him. The female on the other hand defines herself in relation to world around her, or as part of a community, in a subjective environment.
3. Sex role behaviour has changed radically over the past few decades. Exposure of women as an outcome of education, media revolution and modernization of culture and society has remarkable changed perception of women about her from limiting herself to household chores to woman of substances, able to storm the world. This new outlook has created some conflict in society and organisation are also falling its victim.
4. As Economic Reason: Prior to industrial revolution, women in man societies enjoyed equal status performing as an equal economic entity performing valuable work in their homes and on their lands. Though the work of women was regregated by gender, but highly valued for its vital contribution to family. While women ran their home, bore children and worked in fields, their male counterparts would Snare, hunt, trap animals and the like and thus dependent upon efforts of each other. But with the industrialization, it was largely men who moved into wage-based economy.

Conflicts in organisation and its causes

1. Communication Barriers between Women and Men
2. Women as Weaker Sex
3. Problem of Compatibility between business and family
4. Sexual Harassment
5. How to tackle the issue with professional resistance from both men and women in the organisation.

Managing Gender Issue

1. Building a Shared Vision - organisation must share their vision with every employee and their response and understanding of the vision must be taken onto consideration before putting vision onto action.
2. A Gender-Sensitive Working Environment - building an environment which is sensitive to the needs of all the members working in the organisation should be such that allow all persons to carry out their work. Satisfactorily and permit each members’ qualities to be recognized, encouraged and harnessed to the betterment of the organisation.
3. Achieving Gender Equality - Carry out employee surveys to obtain regular feedback from employees on policies to achieve gender equity and Implement gender awareness training programmes.
4. Ensuring gender sensitive and equitable recruitment and selection policy - Prepare gender-sensitive job descriptions and specifications. Ensure that all staff responsible for recruitment is committed to gender equity.
5. Equitable Remuneration - Adjust pay rates so that jobs of equal value to the organisation are paid equally
6. Performance Appraisal to be fair - Gender review of all management and procedural manuals, to ensure that gender biases in language and procedure are removed and gender issues are highlighted including those for performance appraisal and monitoring, to ensure that women’s and men’s different perceptions and priorities are reflected.
7. Helping women in ensuring balance in work and family life.

Cross Cultural Dynamics

Culture is the human made part of the environment. Collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another there is a diffuse range of elements involved in cultural programming. 

• Language
• Economics 
• Religion
• Politics 
• Attitude 
• Manners 
• Customs
• Nature of Friendship
• Decision-making
• Handling Emotions
• Education
• Status of Women 
• Food e.tc

WE SEE THEM AS WE ARE Perceptual thinking should be we don’t see things the way they are...

In essence, every aspect of management (planning, organizing, staffing, coordinating, and controlling), in one form or another, involves decision making. Decision making is thus the manger’s most difficult task, and when managers cross National borders and cultures, the task becomes even more difficult. These are because people in different cultures view problems differently and apply unique decision-making processes. A decision or a decision-making process that works in one culture is often ineffective in another culture. Furthermore, different situations also require different decision-making styles Leadership and motivation are interrelated and interdependent. However, the leadership style and the types of inducements to which individuals respond vary from one culture to another. Thus, the managerial behaviour that works welling one culture will not necessarily work welling another. For example, culturally, the French and the Swedish tend not to respond to the same leadership style.

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Sandeep Ghatuary

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