Differences in Communication Styles based on Gender: Truth or Assumptions
In order to understand the dynamics of communication management, itis first imperative to look at one of the issues that prevail in theworkplace environment: gender diversity in terms of communication. Lookingat the communication styles of females and males is important because inthis issue lies the solution in ascertaining whether communication andinteraction are indeed gender-based or not. Conversational styles adopted by males and females provide a clue indetermining the relational systems existing between males and females inthe workplace. For many years, research and studies on communication inthe workplace persisted that there is a dichotomy, or difference, betweenmale and female communication styles. The male-female dichotomy in communication is determined throughconversational styles used by people in the workplace. Men are generallyperceived as direct, confrontational, subjective and dominant, andassertive in conversing with people. Women, on the other hand, are theexact opposites of men, utilizing indirect, consensual, objective andcooperative, and non-confident and -authoritative conversational styles. Assumptions illustrating these male-female dichotomy i
Through the analysis oflanguage use among men and women in the business setting, Mail determinedhow communication styles are developed. " Buck (1994) alsoillustrate how power dynamics, particularly differences in power andposition in hierarchical organization such as business companies andorganizations, is also an influential determinant of the communicationstyles of men and women. However, there have also been studies that challenge the perceiveddichotomy of male and female communication styles. What makes men's conversational style as informative, termed asreport talk, and women's communication style as relational, or rapporttalk' Barbara Ash (1996) enumerates the substance of each conversationalstyle in her discussion of into Men's and Women's category: Maleconversations/communication are mainly humorous, goal-oriented,authoritative, and often characterized by loud and interruptive talks,while Women conversations/communication tend to be based on self-mockery,indirectness, consideration, and compliment-giving is considered a"ritual. " Ash's study confirms that indeed, the assumption that men andwomen have different conversational styles in both substance (content) andmanner of communicating. " Mail (2000) in "Bridging the Gender Gap"assents to Zielinski's findings about the differences in communicationstyles of males and females in the workplace. n communicationand interaction dynamics in the business setting are shown in the study ofZielinski (1998) on the oral communication skills of males and femalesduring business public presentations. In the study, Zielinski discussedhow male presenters are characteristically perceived as confident andbetter than women presenters in delivering oral presentations. Researchers on thestudy of communication based on gender differences contend thatcommunication are not solely based on gender differences, but may alsoinvolve power dynamics and cultural differences. Deborah Tannen also posits the same argument similar to Ng,warning that even though differences may exist between male and femaleconversations/communication, it is still important to note that culturalinfluences and individual conversational styles are also influential inaffecting the communication and interaction of males and females in theworkplace (Koonce, 1997). The author goes on todescribe the emerging characteristic of male and female conversationalstyle during public presentations: the rapport talk versus the report talk. Findings of the study yielded thefinding that the primary motivation of men in adapting the report talk isto "preserve independence and maintain their position in the group. Thus, individuals occupying higher positions tendto be more authoritative and direct in communicating (the maleconversational style) while individuals in the lower ranks adopt the womenconversational style (interestingly, most subordinate workers are womenalso, explaining why rapport talks or the relational conversation style isprevalent). In fact, a studyconducted in determining the communication styles of males and females inHongkong suggests that communication style is culture-based, since thefindings of the study yielded results that show there is no significantdifference on communication styles adopted between males and females.
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