A study of 60,000 US employees has found most have no preference what the gender of their boss is, while males and females are likely to judge managers of the opposite sex more favourably.

The study, published in the journal Human Relations, found 54 per cent of respondents said they wouldn’t care if they worked under a male or female manager, 33 per cent said they would rather a male boss, while 13 per cent preferred female bosses.

Study authors Kim Elsesser and Janet Lever said this was the first time a survey question of this nature recorded a majority, and this indicated a positive trend regarding attitudes towards female leaders.

The reasons that respondents gave for preferring one gender over another included their past experiences with male/female bosses and the industry they worked in (for example, male bosses were preferred in male-dominated sectors like engineering).

Elsesser and Lever concluded that while the study indicated gender bias was on the wane, it still existed in certain forms.

“Our analysis indicated participants were less likely to show gender bias when evaluating their own boss, indicating minimal prescriptive bias (bias against women for adopting a leadership position),” they wrote.

“However, our study suggests that a high level of descriptive bias (where women are seen as having less potential for management) still prevails when one imagines an ideal manager.”

Interestingly, when evaluating the performance of their boss, male employees rated women just ahead of men, while female employees gave the nod to male managers, albeit the differences in both cases were small.

What do you think of the results of the study? Let us know your thoughts on the VECCI Blog.