Male Management Students Research Articles

Impact of entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial intentions of business and engineering students in Ethiopia

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the entrepreneurial intentions of undergraduate university students in Ethiopia by making a comparative analysis among different groups of students.Design/methodology/approachA total of 156 students completed entrepreneurship intention questionnaire. The questionnaire has seven parts extracting information about personal attraction, subjective norm, self‐efficacy, entrepreneurial intention, need for achievement, locus of control, and instrumental readiness. The respondents were asked to state their agreement/disagreement on statements on a seven‐point Likert type scale.FindingsThe result identified that students who had undergone entrepreneurship education (business management student in this case) tend to have better entrepreneurial intention than those who had not taken entrepreneurship course (engineering students). Also, it was observed that male management students have higher personal attraction towards entrepreneurial career, subjective norms, self‐efficacy and achievement need than female management students, as well as male and female engineering students, while female management students have the lowest instrumental readiness than students in other groups. The study did not find significant difference in entrepreneurial intention of students who had exposure to entrepreneurial activity through family and those who had no such exposures.Research limitations/implicationsThe limitation of this research lies in the sample size and the study units (universities) from which samples have been taken. Future research is recommended to predict entrepreneurship intention of students by taking larger sample from more universities in the country.Practical implicationsThe study strongly suggests the need to incorporate entrepreneurship education in the curriculum of technical disciplines in Ethiopian universities.Originality/valueThe research provides assessment of entrepreneurship intention of university students in the country/culture which was not explored in the past and hence it further enriches literature and helps to universalize intention theories.

Do they speak SNAG?

PurposeBarrett compared the perceptions of female management students and senior female managers about effective and probable workplace communication strategies, and the extent to which each group's perceptions were influenced by gender norms in communication. The purpose of this paper is to compare male students' perceptions of the strategies to those of female students and female managers.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 255 second‐year male management students evaluated strategies for the same dilemmas as the two female groups.FindingsOverall, male students resemble female students rather than senior female managers. They reject some stereotypically male strategies, seeing them as more effective for women. Yet, male students regard an ineffective but probable approach to getting credit for ideas as even less effective for men than for women, and an effective, but feminine, strategy for getting noticed for promotion as more effective for women. Male students may believe using overtly feminine strategies penalizes men. Like female students, male students' confidence affects their personal choice of strategy.Research limitations/implicationsThe study used a limited number of dilemmas and demographic factors, limiting the results' generalizability. “Paper” scenarios, even if drawn from typical workplace dilemmas, may not reflect the work world. Nevertheless, the findings suggest language ideologies at work are changing for both genders.Originality/valueThis paper describes the first study comparing students' and senior women managers' reactions to classic workplace communication problems. In addition, it investigates the perceptions of young men rather than stereotypical males.

Women in management: reflections and projections

PurposeA major barrier to women's progress in management worldwide continues to be the gender stereotyping of the managerial position. The purpose of the paper is to examine how this “think manager – think male” attitude has changed over the three decades since the author's initial research and to consider the implications of the outcomes for women's advancement in management today.Design/methodology/approachThe paper reviews the author's research, first conducted in the 1970s and replicated in the USA and internationally, on gender stereotyping and requisite management characteristics.FindingsThe overview reveals the strength and inflexibility of the “think manager – think male” attitude held by males across time and national borders. Over the last three decades corporate males in the USA continue to see women as less qualified than men for managerial positions. Internationally, the view of women as less likely than men to possess requisite management characteristics is also a commonly held belief among male management students in the USA, the UK, Germany, China and Japan.Practical implicationsWomen's continued progress depends on recognizing the intractable nature of these negative attitudes and continually seeking ways to ensure that these attitudes do not derail their success. The need to maintain and expand legal efforts is discussed. An argument is also made for challenging the “corporate convenient” way of working and restructuring managerial work to facilitate a work and family interface.Originality/valueBased upon three decades of research, the paper highlights the importance of maintaining and increasing efforts to ensure that women advance to positions of power and influence in organizations worldwide.

Gender Stereotypes and the Attribution of Leadership Traits: A Cross-Cultural Comparison

In this study, we analyzed cultural variations of managerial gender typing, that is, that managers are perceived as possessing traits that are part of the masculine stereotype. Management students of both sexes from three different countries—Australia, Germany, and India—estimated the percentage to which one of three stimulus groups, that is, executives-in-general (no gender specification), male executives, or female executives, possesses person-orientedand task-oriented leadership traits. Participants also rated the importance of these characteristics for the respective group. Furthermore, another group of participants described themselves regarding the two types of traits and their importance for themselves. Altogether, the results indicate a less traditional view of leadership compared to previous findings, which is very similar in all three countries. Nevertheless, there exists an interculturally shared view of a female-specific leadership competence according to which women possess a higher person orientation than men. The self-descriptions of the female and male management students regarding person- and task-oriented traits were found to be very similar.

Think manager—think male: a global phenomenon?

The relationship between sex role stereotypes and characteristics perceived as necessary for management success was examined among 361 male and 228 female management students in Japan and the People's Republic of China. The results revealed that males and females in both countries perceive that successful middle managers possess characteristics, attitudes and temperaments more commonly ascribed to men in general than to women in general. These results were compared with previous studies done in the U.S., Great Britain and Germany, using the same Schein 92-item Descriptive Index, and similar samples and procedures. The comparison supports the view that ‘think manager—think male’ is a global phenomenon, especially among males. Regardless of country context, there was a strong and similar degree of managerial sex typing among male management students in all five countries. Among females, the managerial sex typing hypothesis was confirmed in every country except the U.S., in which men and women are seen as equally likely to possess requisite management characteristics. Unlike those of their male counterparts, the females' pattern of outcomes varied across countries, possibly a reflection of their respective opportunities for managerial participation. The implications of managerial sex typing as a global phenomenon are discussed.

The relationship between sex role stereotypes and requisite management characteristics among college students

The relationship between sex role stereotypes and characteristics perceived as necessary for management success was examined among male and female undergraduate management students and compared with results of managers today as well as with those of managers studied 15 years ago. Male management students, similar to their managerial counterparts in the 1980s and 1970s, still adhere to the male managerial stereotype and perceive that successful middle managers possess characteristics, attitudes, and temperaments more commonly ascribed to men in general than to women in general. Female management students, similar to today's female managers, no longer sex type the managerial job, a change from the female managers of the 1970s. Implications of these outcomes for undergraduate management education are discussed.

Ratings of Prestige and Desirability

A study by Touhey (1974) indicated that increasing numbers of women entering a high status occupation decreased subjective ratings of the prestige and desirability of those occupations. A replication by Suchner (1979) failed to support these findings. Suchner has called for further research on this phenomenon in populations other than those used in his and Touhey's studies. This study is a conceptual replication of the Touhey and Suchner studies using business-related occupations and a population of male management students from a college of business administration. The,esults of this study are consistent with those of Suchner's.