Business Writing & Communication, Discrimination in the Workplace, Sex Role & the Work Place, Organizational Behavior - General & Miscellaneous, Sex Differences, Sex Discrimination
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Overview
Every day, every woman who heads for the office faces the reality of the communication gap. It exists whenever a man's comment makes a woman defensive, and whenever a woman unconsciously casts herself in a subordinate role to a male colleague. Many men haven't learned to define women in terms of their achievement, pigeonholing them instead as wife, daughter, mother, secretary. Women have their own set of myths: it pays to be a good, quiet little worker; so don't make waves. Inadequate communication and fear of challenging the status quo hold women back. Kathleen Reardon's mission is to explain what women - and men - can do about it. They Don't Get It, Do They? is incisive and practical, based on the experiences of hundreds of working women and filled with telling real-life examples. It is an essential handbook on the different perceptions, objectives, statements, and body language that open up the chasm between the sexes at work. Women don't have to become men, but they must learn how to respond to the hidden subtext of professional interactions to advance their careers - and claim their rightful place in America's businesses.Based on hundreds of interviews and filled with illuminating real-life examples, this important book shows how the gender communication gap holds women back in the workplace, and offers dynamic, practical prescriptions for change.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
Businesswomen who considered Deborah Tannen's You Just Don't Understand enlightening will find this volume about the problems of intergender communication on the job of special interest. Reardon, associate professor of management and organization at the Univ. of Southern California, here confronts the barrier to job promotion known as the ``glass ceiling.'' Although she writes primarily for women, male executives with an open mind will profit from her advice as well. Reardon's point of departure is what she calls dysfunctional communications patterns, often in evidence when female executives headed for the top find themselves ignored, dismissed or patronized. She also points out how to overcome stereotypes that are used against women and analyzes power and its uses, arguing that ``skill in communications is transportable power.'' Further, she applauds women executives who devote time to mentoring and networking. She offers caveats as well: a woman must never get the reputation of being a feminist, and women in companies still run by male neanderthals should leave, for their situation is hopeless. (Apr.)Library Journal
Reardon (Persuasion in Practice, Ohio Univ. Pr., 1991. 2d ed.) asks why women still occupy less than five percent of the top management positions when women constitute 44 percent of the managerial workforce, a critical mass. She concludes that men and women do not "speak the same language." Reardon evokes the 75 percent rule: "Each of us is at least 75 percent responsible for how people treat us." Each chapter explores ways for women to communicate more effectively with men in the workplace. Key to better worksite communication is identifying and overcoming dysfunctional communication patterns (DCPs). Reardon also advocates using a situational leadership style and includes a Leadership Style Inventory. There is much to consider here. A worthy addition to academic, business, and communication collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 11/1/94.]-Nancy Myers, Univ. of South Dakota Lib., VermillionBook Details
Published
March 1, 1995
Publisher
Boston : Little, Brown, c1995.
Pages
200
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780316736411