Employees prefer male bosses: Randstad Report
While organizations are worried about diversified workforce, a survey by Randstad has found that 65% respondents prefer to work with male bosses rather than female. And in the South-East Asian Countries like Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia, the employees strongly desire to work for male bosses – the percentage which actually surpasses the global average.
According to the Randstad’s Global Q3 2016 Workmonitor Report, respondents in 75% respondents in Singapore, 78% in Hong Kong and 73% in Malaysia favour working with male bosses. The global average is 65% in this context.
Females in the region also cited a robust preference for male direct bosses, with women in Singapore (74%), Hong Kong (74%) and Malaysia (63%) outranking the much lower global average of 58%.
Globally, Japan and Greece had the strongest preference for male bosses at 80%. And about 65% of Australian respondents said they prefer a male as a direct manager, yet 90% reported a preference to work in a gender diverse team. However, gender bias was still considered an issue in more than half of Australian workplaces, with 60% indicating that men are favoured over women when two candidates equally qualify for the same job.
The Report also suggested that despite employees preferring male bosses, team diversity is highly appreciated, as 87% prefer working in a gender-diverse team. Also, 84% believe that gender-diverse teams achieve better results than single sex/gender teams. And merely 36% of the global respondents consider it a good thing that one gender is favoured over another in order to meet the diversity target.
And the 79% of respondents also believed that males and females who have the similar positions in organization draw same compensation – depicting that they are not fully attuned to the problems faced by many female staff.
Respondents from Singapore (81%), Hong Kong (81%), and Malaysia (83%) echo similar sentiments.
The Workmonitor results show a worrying trend in this region with such strong preferences for having male bosses in the workplace - despite open discussions around the issue of gender equality going on around the world,” said Michael Smith, MD for Randstad Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia.
“Corporate and government initiatives are just a start, but for real change to take place, the issues around gender equality need to be recognised and mind-sets need to evolve. As a staunch supporter of gender equality in the workplace, I expect to see these sentiments slowly change for the better over the coming years as traditional family structures, where the notion of men being the sole family breadwinner, are starting to be challenged in the region.”
With regard to reward, 79% of the respondents think that men and women are rewarded equally in similar jobs. In Q1 2013, this was 73%, indicating a rise in perception.
In heading a team, 76% of the global respondents say that their direct manager plays an important role in setting the team spirit and 73% agree that their direct manager advocates company culture and sets the example. Ton Hopmans, Chief HR Officer at Randstad, comments: "Company culture, and within that trust specifically, is at the heart of successful team work. If trust is embedded in company culture, and trust exists between managers and their teams, it not only enhances team spirit, but also drives engagement and productivity."
The Randstad Workmonitor quarterly report surveyed employees in 34 countries worldwide, with a minimum of 400 respondents per country. The quantitative study is conducted through an online questionnaire and covers people aged between 18 and 65 who work a minimum of 24 hours a week in a paid job.