Authors : Sulaiman O. Adebayo and Maimuna I. Ogbonna
Abstract: The evaluations of successful male and female managers in terms of likability was examined from responses to 4 variations of the Schein descriptive index by 200 randomly selected students of University of Jos, Nigeria. Findings indicated that both the ratings of successful female managers, ratings of successful male managers, were similar to those of likable managers (r = 0.89, r1 = 0.94; r = 0.89, r1 = 0.92; p<0.01); implying that both successful male managers and successful female managers are perceived to have Schein index attributes commonly ascribed to likable managers. This was same for correlations of ratings of successful male managers (r = 0.92, r1 = 0.92, p<0.01), successful female managers (r = 0.89, r1 = 0.94, p<0.01) and likable managers (r = 0.85, r1 = 0.96, p<0.01) with ratings of successful managers (non-gender identified). Similarly, male participants’ ratings were similar to female participants' ratings of all the managerial profiles. Contrary to the think manager-think male phenomenon, results generally indicate that to think likable manager is to think both successful male manager and successful female manager. Further research needs to be conducted to assess other possible ramifications of this phenomenon by assessing directly if to think unlikable manager is to think successful female manager and/or successful male manager.
Sulaiman O. Adebayo and Maimuna I. Ogbonna , 2009. Think Likeable Managers Think Successful Male Managers: A Study of University of Jos Students on an Age-Long Stereotype . The Social Sciences, 4: 240-247.