The Impact of Gender Differences on the Conflict Management Styles of Managers in Bangladesh: An Analysis

This book examines the impact of gender on the choice of conflict management styles of managers in Bangladesh. It explores the influence of contextual factors, including the present socio-cultural and economic changes taking place in Bangladesh, on the choice of conflict management styles of managers in Bangladesh and the factors that might create gender differences in managerial styles. In doing so, the book includes factors such as age, education, managerial hierarchy, gender role orientation, and gender stereotyped organisational environment, as well as biological sex. The book suggests that exhibiting socially expected roles and using conflict management modes do not occur in vacuums. Both factors are intensely affected by socio-cultural expectations governed by a rigid patriarchal system, organisational processes, and the magnitude of individuals' unsatisfied needs. All these factors in various combinations affect the managerial styles of managers, and female managers imitate the well-accepted male managerial styles as a survival mechanism in the workplace. This results in no apparent gender differences in the preference of conflict management styles among managers, though the reasons for choosing a particular style may not be the same for females and males. This book also asserts that globally, organisations are steadily moving away from a mechanistic approach to a more humanistic approach, and with this changing management trend organisations have started appreciating the much -condemned 'feminine quality of relationship-orientation'. The book maintains that this gradual shift is also taking place in Bangladeshi organisations for certain jobs and organisations, and females are becoming sought-after employees. The cumulative effects of all these rapid changes transforming the socio-economic and socio-cultural expectations of the Bangladeshi population are leading to calls for urgent attention to the study of their long-term effects on patriarchy and gender relations in the workplace. This book is a step forward in that direction.
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