How do Women Lead?
-Janet Schayan, Germany
If there is a new women's movement in Germany, then it is
heading for the executive suite. This is not a quick onwards and upwards development, but
a long, measured-but so far constant-progression. Three facts:; Around a third of all new
businesses in Germany today are started by women, not the least reason for which is the
fact that if you have your own company it is easier to coordinate family and career. From
1986 to 1999 the percentage of women at all management levels has risen from 4% to 13%;
not a satisfactory figure, but at least it is moving in the right direction. The number of
women legislators has also been rising consistently, from 9% in 1980 to over 31% in 2001,
a figure, which puts Germany in the fifth place in the European Union.
However, the air gets awfully thin for women at the highest
levels of Germany's major companies. At this level, the glass ceiling-that famous
invisible barrier that blocks women from reaching the top levels of management-seems a lot
more solid thean it is medium and smaller sixed firms. the percentage of top of management
jobs held by women at large meager 5%. The pictue is smaller all over the wordl. Only 1%
to 3% of the top executive jobs at teh world's largest companies are March
2001 study bye the International labor organization. with some 4% of management jobs
occupied by women. the United States seems to do imposingly well in the regard. Whether
this figure is fair however. cna be argued, as the term "management" is sued in
that country to describe even some very low level positions.
With more women assuming mangaemnet position. does this
also mean that they are bringing with them particular femal style of management? Is there
such a thing?/ Do women lead differently?/ This is a question which a great many
management circles, seminars and books are constantly re-examining with both zest and
controversy. And if we were to believe some authors on the subject, then we are facing the
beginning of an age characterized as "female"', an age in which characteristics
associated especially with women-communication skills, team orientation, task-specific
working-will become the main ingredients in the recipe for business success. The economist
Christian Lutz, director of Switzerland's leading think tank on the future, sees women
"when they assume key functions in future organizations as being as privileged then
as they have been disadvantaged in the past". He notes that being future-oriented
does not just mean in terms of expert capability in one's field but in a social sense as
well:; Less leading the way and more forming the team; more pragmatism, less ideology, all
factors which are stereo-typically thought of as intrinsically female.
Author ELKE DOBNER (How women lead") also believes women
have a different management and leadership style. Men, she says, tend to exert pressure
from the top down, whereas women use teams to reach a common solution. She maintains that
the EQ, emotional quotient, is simply higher in women than in men. Professor Gertrud
Hohler, the grande dame of German political and business advisers, registered her thoughts
not long in her book, "She-wolves amongst wolves"'. When men make mistakes when
women aren't there". She noted: "Men focus more, women also take the periphery
of the spectrum into account. Men pursue goals, women look at the people who are to
achieve them. Men communicate strategically, women communicate in order to engender
trust".
"She wolves" with high EQs
What does the empirical evidence show in this regard? Sonja
Bischoff, professor of economics in Hamburg, has published three studies since 1986 on
"Men and women in leadership Positions in German Business." Her results: "
There is no durable evidence that women basically lead any differently than men do."
Both sexes, she says, have cooperative and authoritarian methods of managing, independent
of the situation. Bischoff says that when it comes to gender-specific role behavior,
"no difference can be seen at the executive level." She maintains that today
women have an exceptionally positive relationship to power, which was not the case at all
in 1990. What is also interesting is that, according to her studies, men and women have
the same ideas about the leadership qualities needed for the future: cooperation, team
orientation, communication skills. And in the real world the topic does not seem to be one
either: "Whether women lead differently is not something that interests us"',
says Nicole Funck of "Women in Management." "What is important is whether
it works"'.
May be the central question can only be answered with some
precision when we have the empirical basis of more women being in management positions
than is the case today. There are many programs aimed at exactly this, such as the joint
EU-German Federal Government initiatives "Preparing Women to Lead" and
"E-Quality Management". One important step in the right direction was the
"Promotion of Equal Opportunity in Private Industry", launched by the Federal
government and leading industry associations in July 2001. This was the first time ever
that German industry actively undertook to develop an equal opportunity policy, up to an
including top management level. Federal minister Christine Bergmann, responsible for
Families, Senior Citizens Women, and children:; "'Our society and industry can no
longer afford to do without the know-how and abilities of women". Seen this way, it
makes no difference whether women lead differently than men or not: The main thing is that
they do it.
The author is an editor of Deutschland magazine. Text
courtesy: Deuschland magazine E4 Nr.5/2001. Embassy of Germany in Kathmandu.
The Euro is on the way
-Annik BIANCHINI, France
In a few weeks, the French will all have coins and banknote
in euros in their pockets. It is the currency adopted by twelve member countries of the
European Union. The public authorities and financial establishments are using pedagogy to
prepare the French for the withdrawal of the franc.
On 1 January 2002, France will end more than six
centuries of the reign of franc and the single currency will come into effect in twelve
European countries. Never, in fiduciary history, has such a drastic change occurred
simultaneously in so many countries. Neither will such an event ever have had such
significance on a political and economic level, but also on a cultural and psychological
one. It is in the name of an efficient Europe, but also a strong, sound and united Europe,
that twelve nations have exchanged their currencies for banknote and coins with a
promising future. In order to prepare public opinion for the arrival of the euro, in
France, a nationwide information campaign has been carried out all year. To find
information, private individuals can consult the guide called "A hundred questions
and a hundred answers on the practical changeover to the euro", published by the
Banque de France and available on its Internet site (1) but also visit the French ministry
of economy. Finance and Industry site (2). From January 2001, French electricity and gas
bills were drawn up in euros with the total amount in francs written for information in
small characters. From the summer, France Telecom did the same thing. On 1 July, the bank
accounts of private customers started to be switched over to the euro and civil servants
received their first pay slips in euros. Any new chequebooks issued are now systematically
no longer in francs but in the new European currency. However, nothing has changed when it
comes to paying for purchases in shops in both large and small volume distribution:
private individuals can pay either in euros, using their new chequbook or their usual visa
cards, or continue to pay in francs with their cards or old chequebook until the end of
the year. 99% of supermarkets display prices in both francs and euros.
Today, the euro concerns everybody. That is why information
is a priority. "The euro is easier together"' French slogan goes. The
information campaign, run by the advertising agency Publicis, has a budget of 42.6 million
euros. This large amount of money is justified by the fact that the campaign, spread over
eighteen months following a schedule divided up into four phases, is aimed at the largest
target possible, the whole of the French population without any distinction of age, social
status or place of residence. After the radio messages broadcast at the beginning of the
year, television films have taken over, followed by notices in the daily press and
magazines. At the same time, thirty million copies of the leaflet presenting the main
stages of the changeover to the single currency and a single guide to the euro have been
distributed. Small businesses and teachers also benefit from specific action which is
being taken for their benefit. "School children, who are inquisitive and interested
in anything new, quickly grasp the euro and ask the right questions", a primary
school-teacher notes. "What is more, unlike most private individuals, they can handle
their future money as the pedagogical tools thatwe use always include samples of coins and
banknotes." Once the euro has been adopted, the campaign will continue until
September 2002 with information aimed at people who will experience the most difficulty in
adopting the new currency. In addition to using the media, information will be available
in public places such as stations and shopping centers in "Euro kiosks". A few
weeks away from the day of the big changeover, one has to be practical. (By time this
issue reaches the readers, the Euro will have come into action already-chief editor). The
movement is in full swing. The French banking federation congratulates itself; "In
mid-September, a million cheques were written in euros everyday compared with 600,000 at
the end of August that is 6% of the total number of cheques processed daily"'. Banks
consider that they will have provided their customers with cheque-books in euros by 31
October. It is a good idea to get into the habit as, from January, it will be quite
impossible to write chques in francs.
On Saturday 15 December 2001, packs of the first euros will
be available in financial institutions and at the post office. French people will be able
to buy packs of euro coins, containing forty coins woth 100 francs, to get accustomed to
this currency. However, they will be not able to use these coins until the beginning of
2002. The most sensitive period will start on Tuesday 1st January 2002 with the beginning
of cash payments in euros, and will end on Sunday 17 February at midnight, the date on
which payments in francs will stop. During those seven weeks, both currencies will be
legal tender. From 1 January 2002, private individuals will be able to change their francs
to euros at the fixed rate of 6.55957 francs to euro. Mr. Laurent Fabius, the French
minister of the Economy, Finance and Industry, was keen to point out that "'there
will be no charge". For the period stretching from 18 February to 30 June 2002, any
remaining francs will be exchanged for euros in banks or at the post office free of
charge. However, in France, it will still be possible to exchange any coins at the Banque
de France for three years and bank-notes for ten years. Europeans will be able to use
seven new denominations of bank-notes, 5,10,20,50,100,200 and 500 euros, the main one
being the 20 euro note and eight values of coins. Most banks, in France, will give their
customers currency converters. The post office decided against calculators in favor of
hologram cards. This is a card which, on being tilted, will reveal the equivalent in euros
of an amount indicated in Francs. The Societe Generale bank, which has 6,3 million
customers, has decided to give out proper calculator-converters. It has already
distributed more than 2.5 million of them. The euro odyssey has many stages but no violent
episode. So much the better. Until now, the changeover to the euro has been a matter for
technocrats and central banks. From now on, it concerns everyone. |
