Male leaders 'much more likely to take risks'

The main reason for differences in leadership style between men and women is that men take more risks, according to a British Psychological Society study.

The researchers Geoff Trickey and So Yi Yeung, from Psychological Consultancy Limited, say the three-year study "provides evidence to corroborate anecdotal assertions that the typical female leadership style is more effective than male in the current, austere, post-crisis, economic conditions".

Over 20 occupational sectors across four continents were surveyed, involving almost 2,000 individual assessments with people from a wide range of professions.

The magnitude of the difference in risk-taking between men and women was unexpected, say the researchers. Women were more than twice as likely to be wary and almost twice as likely to be prudent whilst males were more than twice as likely to be adventurous and almost twice as likely to be carefree. From the scale of these findings the researchers conclude that risk-taking must be a distinctive feature of gender.

Trickey called for organisations to do more to ensure a balance of risk taking behaviour for optimum results.

The research was triggered by FSA requirements to assess risk tolerance in investors.  The remit for the programme of work was to create an assessment tool to measure individual propensity for risk.