Management trends come and go.

They are good or bad depending on many variables: industry; company culture; education level of workers; existing contracts and laws; etc. Mostly, however, they are good or bad depending on how well they are applied. You know the names of the most recent batch. We have all been impacted, in one way or another, by downsizing, re-engineering, restructuring, delayering and so on. Re-engineering is a solid business management tool, but applied incorrectly it can cause more harm than good. Downsizing, when done improperly, is appropriately called dumbsizing. The latest management buzzword isn't really a trend. It is more a reaction to the last few trends. The new buzzword is brightsizing. While it provides more opportunity for comic relief, courtesy of Dilbert, it is no laughing matter. Brightsizing is downright dangerous and you need to protect your organization from it. Brightsizing is defined, by Paul McFedries' Word Spy, as "corporate downsizing in which the brightest workers are let go. This happens when a company lays off those workers with the least seniority, but its those young workers who are often the best trained and educated." Sometimes brightsizing is blamed on union contracts, which enforce seniority-based hiring/firing practices. It is, unfortunately, just as common in non-union companies. Many companies have policy statements in their employee handbooks that state that in layoff decisions "among equally qualified candidates preference will be given to the employee with the greatest seniority." When faced with decisions that will result in a reduction in staff, make sure you first evaluate the value of the employee to the organization and THEN look at other mitigating factors, such as length of time with the company. ------One company I worked with kept an individual with them because he was one of their first employees. They kept finding jobs he could do as the company grew rapidly and outgrew his capabilities. Eventually, the made him responsible for picking up dignitaries at the airport and bringing them to the office. While I believe in company loyalty and retraining employees, you have to draw the line somewhere based on performance and value to the company. The driver had gotten old, was nearly blind, and could not even converse socially with the dignitaries he picked up. He did not make a good first impression for the company. This individual, incidentally, became an even greater liability to the company because he never adjusted to the changing social rules on interpersonal conduct. His remarks and actions were usually dismissed because "hes just a harmless old man", but the potential for a harassment lawsuit was significant.

------Remember, your first obligation is to the health of your company, not to any individual. While it is important that you respect your employees as a group, and always treat them fairly, you can not sacrifice the company for any individual. If the company suffers as a result of poor personnel decisions on your part, it may result in further downsizing and more employees would have to be released. Don't brightsize your company by keeping people with the greatest seniority. Don't cripple it, either, by applying any other arbitrary measurement. Don't just keep the tall people, for instance, or the blondes. Don't keep people just because they are friendly or dependable. Make all your staffing decisions based on what is best for the company. ------If you have any questions or comments about this article, or if there is an issue you would like us to address, please post them on our Management Forum to share with the entire group. More Management Feature Articles Suggested Reading

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Women in Management
Women in management face many specific different challenges. These resources and articles are to help you with these challenges and to celebrate the successes of women who have overcome them.

Why Do Women Earn Less Than Men?

Why do women earn less then men? Is it rampant gender discrimination? Or is it the choices men and women make in their careers as Warren Farrell suggests?

Why Men Earn More

Warren Farrell's book Why Men Earn More: The Startling Truth Behind the Pay Gap-and What Women Can Do About It demonstrates that women's choice for balance between work and life is a greater factor in the pay gap than discrimination. Here are specific things women can choose to do if they want to make equal or greater pay than their male counterparts and things men can do if they want a better balance in their lives.

A Crack In The Glass Ceiling

Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) named Carly Fiorina its new president and chief executive in July 1999. It is fitting that the first woman chosen to lead a Fortune 50 company was number 1 on Fortune Magazine's list of the 50 Most Powerful Women in American Business only eight months before.

Another First For Fiorina.

It should come as no surprise to anyone that Carly Fiorina has been named Chairman of Hewlett-Packard in addition to her duties as President and CEO. Having become the first woman to head a major US

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Chairman or Chairwoman?
Is this a step forward in removing gender from titles, or is it a "slight" to a woman who is clearly a leader in her field?

Advancing Women
This site provides career and business strategy, tools, and resources to support womens' career, business, and leadership goals.

Business Women in Canada

Resources for Canadian business women.

Catalyst
Award-winning programs to recruit, develop, and advance women. The Catalyst Awards Dinner is the signature event for Catalyst. It celebrates extraordinary programs that result in the recruitment, development, and advancement of women in the workplace. Maintains benchmark data on women's progress in executive and director roles.

The Glass Ceiling: Who Said That?

From the Glass Hammer blog, this is an excellent article about the woman generally credited with having originated the term "glass ceiling".

Glass Ceilings: The Status of Women as Officials and Managers

This US Government report, based on 2002 data, provides insights into the status of women as officials and managers in the private sector. The executive summary at the beginning is good to read.

The National Association for Female Executives

The National Association for Female Executives (NAFE) has a rich history of providing education, networking, and public advocacy to empower its members to achieve career success and financial security.

The National Foundation for Women Business Owners

The NFWBO is a non-profit research, leadership development and entrepreneurial training foundation and a source of information and statistics on women business owners and their businesses.

Womens Institute of Management

WIM's seeks to create a positive image of women and to promote the leadership of women in all sectors through ongoing training, brainstorming and dialogue.

Women in Management, Inc.

The mission of Women in Management, Inc., is to promote the professionalism of our members through education, development, encouragement and mentoring

WOMEN Unlimited, Inc.

As a nationally recognized resource for cultivating leadership excellence, WOMEN Unlimited, Inc. identifies and develops success strategies for women in the workplace through cross-industry development programs and ongoing partnerships.

Advice to Women Managers

Advice from Kathy Keeton, President of General Media International, to women managers or women who want to be managers.

Why Should Women Earn Less Than Men?

Why do women earn less then men? Is it rampant gender discrimination? Or is it the choices men and women make in their careers as Warren Farrell suggests? Free Management Newsletter!

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A new government report found that women have made few inroads into management positions over the past decade and still face a persistent pay gap with their male counterparts. The findings, released today by the Government Accountability Office, and reported in the New York Times, showed that in 2007, the latest data available, women accounted for about 40% of managers in the U.S. work force. That number is up just slightly from 2000, when women held 39% of management positions. Meanwhile, the pay gap between male and female managers-especially those who are parents still remains strong. Among the managerial ranks, women full-time managers earned 81 cents for every dollar earned by male full-time managers in 2007. However, female managers fared worse if they were mothers; managers who were mothers earned 79 cents of every dollar paid to managers who were fathers, after adjusting for things like age and education. This gap has stayed the same since at least 2000, the Times reported. Perhaps as a result of this motherhood penalty, female managers are less likely to have childrenor even be married than male managers. In 2007, 63% of female managers were childless, compared with just 57% of male managers. Of those managers who did have children, men on average had more children than their female counterparts.

And female managers were also less likely to be married than male managers, at rates of 59% vs. 74%, respectively. When working women have kids, they know it will change their lives, but they are stunned at how much it changes their paycheck, said N.Y. Democratic Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, who requested the report, to the Times. How do women fare in the managerial ranks at your employers? Are the female managers you know less likely to have children or be married than their male counterparts?

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Management in all business and organizational activities is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively. Management comprises planning, organizing, staffing, leading or directing, and controlling an organization (a group of one or more people or entities) or effort for the purpose of accomplishing a goal. Resourcing encompasses the deployment and manipulation of human resources, financial resources, technological resources and natural resources. Since organizations can be viewed as systems, management can also be defined as human action, including design, to facilitate the production of useful outcomes from a system. This view opens the opportunity to 'manage' oneself, a pre-requisite to attempting to manage others.

Directors and managers have the power and responsibility to make decisions to manage an enterprise when given the authority by the shareholders. As a discipline, management comprises the interlocking functions of formulating corporate policy and organizing, planning, controlling, and directing the firm's resources to achieve the policy's objectives. The size of management can range from one person in a small firm to hundreds or thousands of managers in multinational companies. In large firms the board of directors formulates the policy which is implemented by the chief executive officeCultural Conditioning Results in Gender Stereotyping for Women in Management

Management in all business and organizational activities is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively. Management comprises planning, organizing, staffing, leading or directing, and controlling an organization (a group of one or more people or entities) or effort for the purpose of accomplishing a goal. Resourcing encompasses the deployment and manipulation of human resources, financial resources, technological resources and natural resources. Since organizations can be viewed as systems, management can also be defined as human action, including design, to facilitate the production of useful outcomes from a system. This view opens the opportunity to 'manage' oneself, a pre-requisite to attempting to manage others.

As little boys, many men grew up building forts and forming secret clubs for the exclusive benefit of themselves and their friends. This conditioning led them to see themselves in militaristic terms, part of a good old boys network, and they saw little girls as sissies, unable to compete and certainly not belonging in their well fortified boys only world. When their parents shrugged off their sometimes harmful antics with oh well, boys will be boys, they were given a green light to carry their behavior styles forward into adulthood. Yet, while all this was going on, the girls were getting much better grades in school and becoming fast learners! So much for mens skills being superior to womens! If you should ever doubt your skills in relation to those of your male counterparts . . . remember the immortal words of Faith Whittlesay, twice U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland, Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did! And she did it backwards in high heels.
Communication Style Differences Between Men and Women in Management

Communications is one of the two issues cited most often when business women are asked what they find most difficult to deal with at work. (The other is finding balance between work and family.) The distinct ways men and women have of (mis)communicating with each other is the most frequent result of gender stereotyping. The result is a perceived power struggle. (I don't think any other word showed up in my research on gender differences in the workplace as often as the word "power" - see below.)

Women and men who work together often get tied up in communication knots, especially over issues that involve power, advocacy and managing their teams. Thats because the sexes have distinct ways of communicating. They request action and advice differently, their responses and timing are different, and they have different styles for expressing work-related demands and needs. And its all the result of that early social conditioning. Getting past this communication gap is a matter of paying attention to gender differences, not just with co-workers, but probably with male customers and vendors too, then subtly building bridges over the communications divide.
Office Politics and Power r. Leadership Style Differences Northwestern professor Alice Eagley, who specializes in the subject of gender differences, writes that there are a number of differences in the leadership styles of business men and business women.

Mens styles are characterized as being:

task-oriented autocratic command-and-control punishment-oriented

Womens styles are characterized as being:

team players democratic transformational reward-oriented