Communication Differences Between Male and Female Managers

The Oxford Dictionary defines communication as the action of communication or means of sending or receiving information[1]. Our textbook defines communication as making common our understanding[2]. Throughout the years, we have all learned about communication. We start when we are a baby and we cry to let someone know that we need something, for example, food or a diaper changing. Later on, we learn to vocalize our needs and wants, as we expand our communication circle from family members to friends, teachers, significant others, and colleagues. Just as the definition of communication varies depending whom you ask, or the matter in which you are referring; male and female managers communicate in different ways with their peers and subordinates. Little did we know that the communication differences we experienced as children on the playground would move from the classroom to the boardroom. Based on her research, Deborah Tannen concludes that “boys’ and girls’ early social lives are so different that they grow up in what are essentially different cultures.”[3] Therefore, talk between women and men could be considered cross-cultural communication, lined with as many potential misunderstandings as communication which would take place between individuals from different countries, ethnic backgrounds, or languages. Tannen’s view establishes that men see themselves as engaged in a hierarchical social order in which they are either "one up or one down" in relation to others. Their communication styles and reactions to others' communications often stress the need to "preserve independence and avoid failure."[4] Women, on the other hand, tend to see the world as a network of connections, and their communications and interpretations of others' communications seek to "preserve intimacy and avoid isolation."[5] As the face of business transforms with more women occupying key management positions, the requirement of reducing the gender communication