Work Styles, Attitudes, and Productivity of Scientists in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom: A Comparison by Gender**
Management Revue › Band 17 Nr. 2, April 2006
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Zusammenfassung
With scientific research growing increasingly multidisciplinary in nature, team playing and communication skills have become critical in the achievement of scientific breakthroughs. This study adds valuable evidence to the oft-cited "productivity puzzle" in the sciences by comparing the work styles, attitudes, and productivity of female and male scientists. The application of t-test analysis to data on scientists from the United Kingdom and the Netherlands indicates that women report relatively higher abilities in communication skills and teamwork than men. Also, both female and male scientists report difficulties in balancing work and family responsibilities, but proportionately more women than men rely on outside sources of childcare. A separate distribution analysis of academic productivity demonstrates substantial overlap between men and women in the number of scientific publications per year. These results add support to mounting pressure for policy reforms that effectively support the retention and advancement of women in the sciences.
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Work Styles, Attitudes, and Productivity of Scientists in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom: A Comparison by Gender**
1. Introduction
Creativity leads to innovations, higher productivity, and ultimately, to economic growth. Human factors govern scientific innovation, with creativity across industries as an important factor in the stimulation of innovation in all its forms.1 Innovation, in turn, contributes to competitiveness and economic growth. A variety of ways of thinking and backgrounds are needed for an environment in which fruitful ideas can prosper. A broader participation in the scientific workforce is the "surest strategy for bringing the best ideas, highest creativity, and greatest innovation to the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics enterprise and the service of the nation," (CEOSE 2004: xv).Cultural factors can also have a direct impact on scientific output and productivity, and cultural differences between the United States and Europe have been linked to differences in scientific productivity. In comparison with Americans, Europeans are notably less inclined to risk failure.2 The same is true for companies in terms of their willingness to be bold and experimental, and their general attitudes toward risk. However, the increasing demand on personnel to continually adapt their skills to the requirements of the labor market has provided impetus for many on both continents to acquire new knowledge and skills. European institutions have become the source of a growth in the number of high quality publications, and a growing amount of basic research is originating from European laboratories (TFFAI 2005).Questions...Siehe den Gesamtinhalt dieses Dokumentes
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