Chromosomal Management

A debate that began in the New York Times last week over whether women make better managers has spilled over into a full-on blogospheric kerfuffle, with some folks arguing that the assertion that women are better communicators is discredited pop science, and others arguing that because it's hard for women to get into management positions, the ones who get there have to be better at the job than their male counterparts.

From what I can tell, a lot of the research that both sides are relying on in this debate examines how workers feel about their bosses. Do people of both genders prefer working for a male or a female boss? Do they feel like they get different kinds of feedback depending on the gender of their manager? Do they feel like women are more likely to stick with troubled projects and take time to right the ship? Do men come across as more quick to judge? All of these questions are very interesting, and they certainly are part of the equation that makes someone a good manager.

But I'd be very curious to see a comprehensive, rigorous study that examines performance outcomes of teams led by people of different genders. If someone could prove that, across industries and workplaces, managers of one gender or the other produced substantially different performance results, I'd be fascinated to see it.