Male leaders better, say S'poreans

Three in four Singaporeans believe that male leaders are more capable than their female counterparts of navigating the country through challenging and rapidly changing times over the next five years, a new survey shows.

By contrast, the 13-country poll of more than 6,500 people in the latest annual Ketchum Leadership Communication Monitor showed narrower differences between global perceptions of male and female leaders.

Male leaders closely edged out their female counterparts between 54 per cent and 46 per cent.

TOUGH DECISIONS

These countries included the US, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Canada, China, Italy, Singapore, India, the United Arab Emirates, South Africa and Brazil.

Furthermore, some 83 per cent of the 500 respondents in Singapore believe men are best at making tough decisions, providing a clear overall, long-term vision (77 per cent) and handling controversial issues or crises calmly and confidently (75 per cent).

The global findings also pointed a new, more "feminine" model of leadership communication emerging.

Female leaders were ahead of men in traits such as leading by example (57 per cent to 43 per cent), communicating in an open and transparent way (62 per cent to 38 per cent) and bringing out the best in others (61 per cent to 39 per cent), the report said.

For details, go to www.ketchum.com/sites/default/files/2014_klcm_report.pdf

This article was first published on May 23, 2014.
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