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How male and female bosses learn to manage: Gender differences are important, but can also be
misleading
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A powerful elite
A report by the Department of Trade and Industry in 2005 indicated that female
entrepreneurs represent 6.7 per cent of the UK population and 14 per cent of all
businesses.
They make an annual contribution of 50-70 billion to the gross value added to the UK
economy each year. Taken together, these statistics paint a picture of women who are more
than holding their own when compared with male counterparts.
Nevertheless, the culture surrounding entrepreneurship is inherently masculine and to
some degree that reinforces the view that women are not suited to running a business.
Popular entrepreneurial role models, pace the likes of Karren Brady on The Apprentices
(BBC TV), tend to be White males, with little reference to females. The dominant view is that
females are a limited group in terms of entrepreneurial activity or even of the potential to
become entrepreneurial. It might also be added that when female entrepreneurs are being
praised in the media, an emphasis is often placed on the male characteristics that allegedly
enabled to get where they are today!
Therefore, this study which is exploratory in nature aims to examine the differences in the
learning experiences between men and women in the business environment. Specifically,
the study investigates how critical events affect the learning behavior of entrepreneurs and
whether the critical events are likely to be different between male and female
entrepreneurs.
DOI 10.1108/SD-07-2015-0117
VOL. 31 NO. 10 2015, pp. 33-35, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 0258-0543 STRATEGIC DIRECTION
PAGE 33
questioning. Here, participants reflected on their stories regarding the main influences/
motives for starting a business, their experiences in running the enterprise. In later
interviews, themes that had emerged earlier were explored in more depth; data analysis
was used to explore all the findings. The whole process took place over five years.
Other female entrepreneurs were clearly thinking along the same lines. An owner-manager
in the catering industry, who also mentioned lack of confidence, provided evidence of a
business plan she prepared herself after some sessions with a business adviser. The
findings therefore suggest that entrepreneurial learning is triggered by critical events and
that those critical events are different for female and male entrepreneurs.
In the same way, there are differences in the way that both men and women tend to learn
from others. With men, there was a greater emphasis on learning from the likes of
accountants, solicitors and business advisors. One male owner-manager talked of how in
the past four years he has learned human resources management from his business
advisor, and financial management and cash flow management from his accountant. Within
a business services firm, another man learned some element of financial control from his
bank manager to run a flexible bank overdraft with credit card facilities. The male
owner-managers in three more enterprises also learned from a wide circle of stakeholders
including accountants, customers and employees.
Comment
Keywords:
Gender,
Sex,
Small firms,
Entrepreneurial learning
Reference
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