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The Effect of Female Strategic Managers on Organizational Performance

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Abstract

Little empirical work explores the impact of female managers on organizational performance. This paper uses Miles and Snow’s management strategies to empirically determine if female and male managers use different strategies and what influence these strategies have on organizational performance. Using data and superintendent survey responses from Texas school districts from the years 2000 through 2005, differences between male and female managers are discovered. Female managers and the strategies they use have a positive influence on performance. These results are discussed in the context of the gender and management literature and in the general field of public management.

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Notes

  1. To determine if one is more likely to prospect or defend, researchers must examine the priorities attached to the strategies.

  2. There is a dialogue in the gender literature about the difference between gender, which is an identity, and sex, which is a physical attribute (Stivers 2002; Duerst-Lahti and Kelly 1995). This study focuses on the sex rather than the gender of the manager.

  3. Data were collected and provided to me by Ken Meier and the Project for Equity, Representation and Governance at Texas A&M University.

  4. Meier and O’Toole (2005) tested and found this measure to be valid and reliable (see also Meier et al. 2007).

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Correspondence to Morgen S. Johansen.

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Johansen, M.S. The Effect of Female Strategic Managers on Organizational Performance. Public Organiz Rev 7, 269–279 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11115-007-0036-1

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