Women make better managers as compared to their male counterparts. Management is as natural as giving birth to a child. An Indian woman is conditioned to play a number of roles at home itself. Her training in management starts at home, from a very young age?in the multiple tasks assigned to her.
Today around 17 per cent of the companies have women board members, while less than 3 per cent of them reach higher positions of CEOs and MDs in India. In the words of banking icon, Naina Lal Kidwai, ?It is time to celebrate positions and achievements of Indian women.?
?Definitely, women are better managers,? says Chandra Garodia, President, FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO). She adds: ?A woman is always emotionally attached to her work. She thinks with her heart when trying to deliver better results for the organisation.?
?A woman understands behavioural functioning of her co-workers and uses her analysing their capabilities to get work done from them in a better way,? says Uma Chugh, Delhi-based HR manager.
For FLO president it is ?a roller-coaster ride? for a woman in ?a predominantly male society?. She says, ?Once she reaches her position and the wheel starts moving, the roller-coaster will automatically move for her.?
Union Ministry of Finance has a proposal for a mandatory quota for women in the topmost decision-making body of companies. ?Women do not need any quota. Slow and steady wins the race,? says FLO president, adding, ?working hard while facing the music of the world is the only key for young women to reach the topmost position.?
Sharing a similar stand on the quota requirement in the cooperate cosmos, Chugh opines, ?Quota is not required but if it is implemented, it will boost the morale of younger women to join the corporate world. There will be ample opportunities and motivation for women.?
As per the research conducted by a Bangalore-based institute, women are more efficient under stressful conditions. Female executives perform better than their male counterparts when it comes to inter-personal skills and taking difficult decisions. Also, women fare marginally better in terms of stress tolerance and listening skills. Women acquire the ability to handle stress and show greater resilience over an extended period in the workplace, reveals this study.
While the research conducted by Management Today magazine says women are the new role models, young women cope with stress better than young men as they possess a special ?anti-stress? hormone. This hormone not only ensures a balanced state of mind, but also gives one the ability to take unbiased decisions.
It is often proved that men deal better with acute stress, such as tension triggered off by a sudden outbreak of a fire, while women cope better with chronic stress, such as long periods of financial stress or mischievous children.
An HR survey has disclosed that 70 per cent of women graduates in India are domestic.
A New York research group, Catalyst, has found in a study that each group of women managers earns less than their male counterpart around the world. Asian women earn the most at $593 a week (a median number): White women, $528; African-American women, $514; Hispanic women, $423. The study also points out that Asian women managers are better educated than any other group of women.
Another research conducted by a California-based firm of psychologists, who specialise in leadership development, reveals that women managers are better at keeping people informed, efficient in using influence rather than authority, capable of managing a diverse workforce, more tolerant of differences, and less bound by social traditions.
Till date, women are duty-bound to take on the work of both home and office in our country. To out-perform the male companions, women need technological, financial and marketing assistance. There is a need for requisite family support for attaining the best results from women. Women are better managers, they are stress busters, they are the one who utter their words first, they symbolise shakti and are capable of providing the best results.
As Biocon Managing Director, Kiran Mazumdar Shah, on receiving the women achievers award said, ?India shining only for women shining?.
