America's Competitive Secret Women Managers

The United States has a large number of well educated, experienced professional women ready, willing and able to move into the boardrooms and executive suites of corporate America. Together they represent a great, untapped economic resource, a resource no other country in the world can claim.This is America's competitive secret, argues Judy B. Rosener in this refreshingly pragmatic new book for managers who want to improve their bottom line. A leading expert on women and men at work and a highly sought-after speaker, Rosener argues that not only are men and women different, so are male and female managers. Drawing on in-depth interviews with top-flight executives and middle managers and the latest research on working women andorganizational change, she describes the unique contribution of female professionals. Her profiles of top women managers reveal that they cope well with ambiguity, are comfortable sharing power, and they tend to empower others-- leadership traits that Rosener contends lead to increased employeeproductivity, innovation, and profits. As businesses today struggle with corporate reorganization and an increasingly diverse workforce, America's Competitive Secret offers compelling evidence that the changes that help organizations more fully utilize the talents of women are the same changes thatwill give them an important edge in today's fast-changing, service oriented, global workplace. Rosener explains why the so-called glass ceiling still prevents many competent women from reaching the upper echelons of management. She analyzes why women and men are perceived and evaluated differently at work, and provides new insight into the feelings of men who are asked to interact withwomen in new roles when there are few new rules. Rosener shows that removing the glass ceiling can no longer be viewed solely in terms of social equity--it is now an economic imperative. Too many American businesses have limited their economic strength by viewing the promotion of women employees only within the context of federally mandated affirmative action laws and policies. America's Competitive Secret redefines the issue for a new era, showing that America's most successfulcompetitive strategy is one that most effectively utilizes all its human resources.

Judy B. Rosener, Ph.D. is a professor in the Graduate School of Management at UC-Irvine. She is the author of the celebrated Harvard Business Review article, "Ways Women Lead," and co-author of Workforce America! Managing Employee Diversity as a Vital Resource.