世論 What Japan Thinks

Gender might have been a more correct word to use in the headline, but I’m sure it wouldn’t have got so many click-throughs! This recent survey from iShare looked at the interesting, but not as saucy as the title might suggest, topic of desired gender of bosses in Japan.

Demographics

Between the 10th and 15th of September 2009 555 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 57.1% of the sample were male, 35.1% in their twenties, 30.8% in their thirties, and 34.1% in their forties.

I’ve had my share of bosses of both sexes in Japan, and I can say that all bar one of the male bosses were awful. I don’t know whether it is the company training practices, promotion scheme, or just that most of them worked for or under others at some point and the uselessness rubbed off. The common faults in all their management styles are an inability to delegate meaningfully, presumption of their own correctness (reinforced by Japan’s sempai-kohai relationship) to the extent of ignoring differing opinions, and the ability to drone on at length on random subjects at the drop of a hat. Oh, and just in case my current male boss is reading, yes, that includes you too.

Research results

Q1: Which do you think it is easier to work under, a boss of the same or opposite gender? If you’ve not experienced one or the other, answer how you imagine it might be. (Sample size=555)

	All	Male N=317	Female N=238
Same gender (to SQ1)	34.2%	46.7%	17.6%
Opposite gender (to SQ2)	16.0%	5.7%	29.8%
No difference between the two	49.7%	47.6%	52.5%

Q1SQ1: Why do you think it is easier to work under a boss of the same gender? (Sample size=190, multiple answer)

	All	Male N=148	Female N=42
Easy to talk with	74.2%	72.3%	81.0%
Can understand my feelings	42.1%	37.8%	57.1%
Are reliable	27.9%	29.7%	21.4%
Can be friends outside work	12.1%	10.8%	16.7%
Will easily notice when I’m not 100%	8.4%	0.7%	35.7%
Not scary	5.8%	2.0%	19.0%
Other	8.9%	10.1%	4.8%

Q1SQ2: Why do you think it is easier to work under a boss of the opposite gender? (Sample size=89, multiple answer)

	All	Male N=18	Female N=71
Easy to talk with	60.7%	66.7%	59.2%
Are reliable	43.8%	0.0%	54.9%
Not scary	10.1%	16.7%	8.5%
Can understand my feelings	4.5%	16.7%	1.4%
Can be friends outside work	3.4%	11.1%	1.4%
Will easily notice when I’m not 100%	3.4%	11.1%	1.4%
Other	23.6%	16.7%	25.4%

Q2: If you were a boss, which do you think it would be easier to work under, underlings of the same or opposite gender? If you’ve not experienced one or the other, answer how you imagine it might be. (Sample size=555)

	All	Male N=317	Female N=238
Same gender	31.2%	36.0%	24.8%
Opposite gender	10.6%	6.6%	16.0%
No difference between the two	58.2%	57.4%	59.2%