Friday, October 30, 2015

The Executive Gender Theory

The other day I happened upon an article from the Harvard Business Review which delved into the perplexing question of why so many incompetent men become leaders, a not-so-veiled expose at the underrepresentation of women in the C-suite.

Now I’m sure if you post the question of gender bias in the workplace to 10 people, you would most likely receive as many responses ranging from plausible to preposterous. In the interest of time, the author posits three popular explanations regarding the gender disparity the management ranks:

(1) Women are not capable;
(2) Women are not interested;
(3) Women are both interested and capable but unable to break that prejudicial glass-ceiling.

Personally I don’t agree with the first two and more than slightly with the third. I’ve seen a number of capable women passed over for promotions in favor of their male colleagues with little or no explanation. Well okay in one instance the internal auditor discovered one potential female candidate for an executive post had falsified an expense receipt for a high-end restaurant that in fact turned out to be a fur coat. You’ve probably guessed she not only didn’t get the job, but spent the next morning scouring the classified ads. 

But in the author’s view (and also mine) - he believes that the primary reason for the uneven management demographics is our innate inability to discern the difference between the two Cs – confidence and competence. He cites studies where leaderless groups tend to skew toward electing narcissistic and overconfident individuals to lead them and men seem to be imbued with more than their share of arrogance and hubris compared to women. 

I point only to the current occupant of the Oval Office for proof of that.

As someone who has worked for a number of mid-sized companies, I can say without hesitation that I’ve seen more than my share of bumbling incompetents elevate themselves to impressive positions of authority with little more than a confident demeanor and stride. There’s a folksy saying down in Texas that describes this creature perfectly: “He’s all hat and no cattle.”

I don’t know if that applies as much to the accounting profession because you actually have to have skills to practice – although that doesn’t completely excuse the fact that less than 20 percent of the women in the profession are equity owners of firms.

But as long as the above scenario keeps occurring with almost frightening frequency, there’s little chance that corporate lampoons like Dilbert will run out of material anytime soon. 

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