Case study: what you say is what you get...?

The issues surrounding perception and communication are clearly complex and varies. What we see and hear is very often mediated by a whole range of cultural and individual factors which distort and vary our understanding of what is happening and therefore affect our reactions to it. The way in which people in organisations communicate and how those communications are perceived and acted upon can, therefore, have a major impact on individual success, team performance and personal career paths. One way in which this question repeatedly makes its way into both academic management texts and media reports of managerial life is via the differential career paths and success rates which appear to exist between men and women. While questions of perception and communication may not tell the whole story about the position of women in organisational life, they do tell part of it. Many women may not be able, or even wish, to challenge the dominant masculine model of society in general and work organisations in particular (this dominance of a male paradigm is often termed patriarchy). Nevertheless, information about gender-related differences in matters of perception and communication can help individuals, both men and women, to become more effective in their working lives.