Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / As greater numbers of women throughout the past few decades have assumed managerial roles in organizations, the question of whether gender differences exist in the ability to manage effectively has become an important concern. According to Korabik, Baril, and Watson (1993), conflict management skills are a fundamental aspect of leadership effectiveness and “perceptions of how females handle crisis and conflict often are cited as blocks to the female manager’s ascent to the executive suite” (Shockley-Zalabak, 1981, p. 289). Additionally, the importance of likability of supervisors by their subordinates has become of greater importance in the past few years as researchers have discovered that more people leave their job because they do not like their supervisor than for any other reason (Agrusa, Spears, Agrusa, & Tanner, 2006; Joyce, 2006). The purpose of this study was to examine gender differences in supervisor’s conflict management styles and to determine how they relate to both effectiveness and likability among their subordinates. Specifically, research was conducted to reveal a) what differences exist between conflict management styles chosen by women and men leaders, b) if a relationship exists between conflict management styles and likeability among subordinates, c) what influence conflict management styles have upon perceived effectiveness among subordinates, and d) what correlation exists between likability and perceived effectiveness.

This study examined comparisons of gender stereotypes of executives in two cultures, American and Japanese. Undergraduate students in Japan and the U.S. estimated the extent to which executives in general, male and female exectuives possessed person-oriented and task-oriented leadership traits.

This thesis examines how men and women as co-interactants in management meetings use various interactional mechanisms to play out their roles and identities, as they position their ideas in a particular way for intended meaning and effect. The study aims to demonstrate how a particular approach to the examination of naturalistic data, gathered through the use of a case study design, based on recordings and supported by a number of ethnographic strategies can, when examined and informed by conversation analysis, pragmatics and more indirectly critical discourse analysis, generate further insights into the semantic and pragmatic meanings of utterances. The study focuses on four companies in postcolonial Zimbabwe, where the entry of women into senior management positions has changed the complexion of most organisations, but men continue to be the fundamental power brokers in the corporate workplace, which remains a site of social struggle where language, power and gender are important variables. This study finds that while perceptions of power may not vary significantly between men and women, how they use language to play out this power in meetings is of significance. The study suggests that gender-linked communication styles are reflected in management of talk in areas of influence, such as the corporate boardroom. It also shows that men and women, irrespective of their levels of position power or perceived power, present themselves in meetings in different ways, possibly due to gender-role socialisation processes. Apart from generating some new insights regarding theory and research methodology, and describing and interpreting male-female interaction in an under-researched domain (management meetings in a Zimbabwean corporate setting at a time of major socio-economic transformation), it is hoped that this study will also be of value at an applicational level: serving for instance to support applied linguistic goals such as the development of Language for Specific Purposes courses; and conscientising corporate citizens, in particular, to be more accommodating about, and appreciative of differences in communication styles that may be gender-based. / Linguistics / D.Litt. et Phil. (Linguistics)

This thesis examines how men and women as co-interactants in management meetings use various interactional mechanisms to play out their roles and identities, as they position their ideas in a particular way for intended meaning and effect. The study aims to demonstrate how a particular approach to the examination of naturalistic data, gathered through the use of a case study design, based on recordings and supported by a number of ethnographic strategies can, when examined and informed by conversation analysis, pragmatics and more indirectly critical discourse analysis, generate further insights into the semantic and pragmatic meanings of utterances. The study focuses on four companies in postcolonial Zimbabwe, where the entry of women into senior management positions has changed the complexion of most organisations, but men continue to be the fundamental power brokers in the corporate workplace, which remains a site of social struggle where language, power and gender are important variables. This study finds that while perceptions of power may not vary significantly between men and women, how they use language to play out this power in meetings is of significance. The study suggests that gender-linked communication styles are reflected in management of talk in areas of influence, such as the corporate boardroom. It also shows that men and women, irrespective of their levels of position power or perceived power, present themselves in meetings in different ways, possibly due to gender-role socialisation processes. Apart from generating some new insights regarding theory and research methodology, and describing and interpreting male-female interaction in an under-researched domain (management meetings in a Zimbabwean corporate setting at a time of major socio-economic transformation), it is hoped that this study will also be of value at an applicational level: serving for instance to support applied linguistic goals such as the development of Language for Specific Purposes courses; and conscientising corporate citizens, in particular, to be more accommodating about, and appreciative of differences in communication styles that may be gender-based. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / D.Litt. et Phil. (Linguistics)