Report finds negative impact of gender and age on confidence of managers

A fifth (20 percent) of female managers admit they would rather be managed by a male colleague and unsurprisingly given that opinion, the same proportion worry their gender hinders people’s confidence in them. The data, commissioned by AVADO also revealed that age played a part in management attitudes, with 68 percent of young leaders (20-24) saying they felt their age hindered colleague’s confidence in them as a manager.  However, when asked about who they perceive to make the better managers, respondents said it would be the person who was most qualified to do the job (44 percent. By contrast almost half of men (48 percent) said that they were very confident in their management skills, compared to 30 percent of women.

Despite a clear importance placed on training and qualifications, 18 percent said they had asked for training and not received it. Half of UK managers (50 percent) feel their workplace doesn’t do enough to invest in digital literacy and 83 percent also said they had heard excuses for a lack of training such as it was too expensive (45 percent), the company was too busy (42 percent) and that staff should be paying themselves (19 percent).

Said Amy Crawford, Managing Director, AVADO: “From our research, it was disappointing to see the negative impact gender and age had on confidence in management capabilities, but encouraging to see the powerful impact that being qualified can have on employees.

“Worryingly, just under a third (30 percent) of those concerned admit that their company many not be investing digitally due to widespread digital illiteracy throughout the company, with just under one in ten (7 percent) even saying they feel their bosses don’t want them to be more literate them they are.”