Gender Roles and Organizational Behavior

Gender roles form a fundamental part of everything people do. This fact includes the behavior of males and females in business organizations. And, male/female nature plays a vital part in how businesses market and service their customers.

Before discussing gender roles the first thing to do is to strip away the political agendas associated with male and female discussion. Gender demographics are being used by many organizations to further their own respective political agendas.

What is of concern here is the facts of male and female complimentatary functionality to enable business organizations to maximize their potential and serve their customers optimally. Know yourself, then you can be yourself.

The first step in becoming a better person, and realizing your potential as an individual and as an organization is to know what your strengths and weaknesses are. If you know what your limitations are, then you can know what your potential is, and how to function in organizational environments.

Many personal development specialists have promoted the idea that you can become anything you want to become, and that there are no boundaries to what you can achieve. This sounds good, and flatters our egos, but it is far from reality. Certainly, human potential in general is far reaching. And, no one knows the limits of what the human being is capable of achieving.

The first step in achieving great things and achieving your potential is to know that you have limitations. Then, you can channel your energies in areas that will maximize your abilities.

Study history to get more understanding in the area of gender roles. Because, hindsight, produces insight, which in turn produces foresight. Wouldn't it be wonderful to be on target when considering demographics in business planning and marketing?

Also, before going further in this discussion it is noteworthy to point out that the two human genders, male and female, compliment each other. Complimentatary nature is a fundamental purpose of gender roles in human nature. Human gender serves to produce harmony, as opposed to conflict. Yes, conflict does occur between the sexes, but conflict is not a function of gender differences.

Gender communication is important in structuring and operating organizations. Men and women do have gender communication differences and priorities in communication.

The most authoritative research on communication differences seems to suggest that women speak more words per day (20,000 to 25,000) than men (around 7,000). The numbers vary from research report to research report, but the overwhelming theme in the area of gender communication patterns suggests that women speak more words overall per day than men.

The thing to identify in organizational settings is where men and women have their priorities because in their respective areas of priority each of the genders will tend to be more active in communication. If women have no interest in a given subject area they will tend be less communicative.

The two sexes have priority keywords. Some important priority keywords for men are:

• Dominate
• Overwhelm
• Win
• Penetrate
• Target
• Overpower
• Master
• Career
• Build, Construct
• Conquer
• Control
• Book(s)
• Knowledge
• Building/house
• Leadership.

Some priority keywords for women are:

• Relationships
• Family
• Education
• Sex
• Romance
• Communication
• Language
• Etiquette
• Develop
• Peace
• Words
• Library
• Room(s)
• Love.

It is worth noting that female keywords though not a priority part of male daily activity, nevertheless do into male human actualization. And further, both sexes have some level of activity in many, if not most or all of the other's gender keywords.

The female gender has a stronger functional social orientation than the male gender. Studies have revealed that women want and seek competitive, challenging situations, but the difference in women is that they want competitive situations in a safe, secure environment.

Men seek open, no holds barred competitive environments. Further, men are more linear directed than women in competitive situations. Men want a target to go after; something to get their juices flowing. Women are more likely to want to achieve multiple goals at the same time.

Studies on left brain (rational) versus right brain (emotional) function suggests that women use more of their brain capacity in a given situation than men. Overall, women are better at multi-tasking than men.

Gender plays a role in how a person processes information and stimuli in the environment. Left brain/right brain is at work in information processing.

In general, men don't like to "go shopping" at least in part due to how men process data and information in the environment. When a man walks into a department store and looks at all the data and information to be processed from all the signs, products, etc., the computer in his more linear functioning brain flashes a warning, "Information Overload! Move to a safer environment."

Gender roles are a huge topic. This discussion is only intended to state that there are differences in gender behavior, and that these differences affect how organizations function.

When business organizations develop sales and marketing campaigns gender roles must be contemplated in order to maximize success. Organizational composition and structure is also affected by gender differences. Men and women perform basically the same roles in business organizations that they do in the home, or wherever people are.

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