Customer Reviews

12 Views from Women's Eyes: Managing the New Majority

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Are gender differences in the workplace that important? Do men and women really approach their work differently? Can't we just treat everyone the same?

Laura Ricci and George Wilkerson would claim yes - and no.

What Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus brought to light for day-to-day living, 12 Views from Women's Eyes: Managing the New Majority does for the workplace. Men and women clearly approach work differently. They bring different strengths, different ways of knowing, different ways of interpreting and acting on what goes on around them. Those different ways are changing the way we work with our peers, our subordinates, and with our management.

12 Views is a markedly accessible book for men and women who are seeking answers to how to best understand and capitalize on the remarkable abilities and talents of the growing diversity in today's workplace. Ricci and Wilkerson's book provides a quick read, liberally sprinkled with stories and memos. Many of the stories remind me of those I've heard again and again from women in the workplace - about promotability, about honest and open communication, about how to win rewards commensurate with your value to the organization, and about how to deal with conflict. If your organization is starting to look for answers to many of these issues, 12 Views is worth a look.

Between budget development, employee evaluations, development of a state-wide virtual university, and getting 28 courses and faculty off the ground I have finally finished reading 12 Views from Women's Eyes: Managing the New Majority. My hat is off to the authors.

As I read the text, I found myself wandering around work, dealing with people, and being able to clearly identify the behaviors and scenarios the authors presented. The authors' analysis of gender makes visible the cultural underpinning of relationships that develop in the workplace. This book helps reveal how the relationships we observe, lived out in the workplace daily, develop because of culturally sanctioned gender roles. The text had a significant effect on my day to day management and understanding people.

I really appreciated the e-mail inserts imbedded in the text. These provided me with a deeper understanding of the material, as well as giving me insight I don't usually get in a text about the authors and how they struggle with making meaning. I love this "inside look" at the authors and the material. Also, I like the exercise breaks. They seemed to come just in the moment I needed to shift gears as the reader.

On several pages I wrote in the margins "well-said and delicately put...good ideology for the development of a critical thinking and problem-solving team approach...this is all great...EXCELLENT!" The book obviously made a deep connection with me.

I want to buy about 12 copies and send them anonomously to several folks who could benefit from reading this book!

This book was an excellent, hands-on, interesting discussion of the strengths of both sexes and how to run a team or business to effectively use those strengths. Atop the utility of the book, it was also well written and entertaining.

Ricci and Wilkerson have provided us the necessary first step in truly integrating "female" capability into the workplace. Their message rings all too true to a 25-year veteran of a "male" model corporation. This book will be a welcome assist to those well-intentioned managers who watched with bewilderment as droves of capable women left their organizations only to contribute huge successes to their competitors. The remaining problem is carrying the insightful message into those "male" model organizations with low awareness of the need to integrate the female perspective. But, then, I suppose those organizations are self-limiting. I predict that current shake-ups in the market place will prove the validity and necessity for integration of both gender-specific approaches to managing and performing productive work. BRAVO!!

I bought the book looking for some practical guidance on how better to manage women in the work force. I was dissapointed. I found the examples dated and the behavior of the "men" in the examples very exaggerated and simply bad managment style and techniques - not examples on how to manage women. I could barely get through the book. I tested my (male) reactions and gave the book to our (female) HR manager who reacted the same as I did. I am still looking for a good book on the differences of managing women. John Gray's "Mars and Venus in the Workforce" is better but he views everything through his "Mars and Venus" lens which is not serious enough for me.