Study: Asians Perceived To Lack Charisma [NPR]If we look at the current U.S. census, what you find is Asians are the most educated group within the United States right now. They surpass their Caucasian counterpart in education. They also surpass a Caucasian counterpart in terms of earnings per capita. And in some of the research, they also surpassed all other groups with regards to their experience for the same type of position. So here you have this very capable group, who by other standards, are surpassing all other groups in the U.S. society. But yet, when it comes to leadership opportunities, promotions, perception of leadership capability, this group is perceived as less ideal of a leader.
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And what our research suggests is there's a sense among Asian-Americans that all I have to do is work hard, be technically competent, and I will be automatically promoted - higher management ranks. And our research is showing focusing the competent aspect, the technical competence, is not the path to take. One should focus on the masculinity, the strength. These are the core elements that American society seems to feel as ideal for leaders. So what do you...
MARTIN: That's a tough message for women? I dont know.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Interesting NPR interview about Asian Americans and leadership. A sample:
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Very true. If you work in any white collar setting and are Korean American, learn the inter-workings of college basketball and football.
ReplyDeleteIt also helps to have a low handicap in golf.
Don't forget drinking and happy hours.
Forget Ivy League schools. Most of Corporate America went to Big East schools, Big Ten, PAC Ten, and SEC schools. Go there, party hard and get good grades.
Check out the most recent Newsweek magazine. There's an article about "Beached White Males." Seeing that upper management jobs relying primarily on "charisma" skills are getting obliterated, maybe the pendulum is now swinging back to core technical skills as a factor in leadership capabilities (or at the very least, employability).
ReplyDeleteIf I may add a few things.
ReplyDeleteA friend's bro went to harvard law. Yes harvard law!. my friend told me his bro considered the mba students at harvard biz school as idiots.
another thing i overheard was that to get through mba program, you just need to know how to talk sports (football, baseball only really) while drinking beer in a bar with fellow students (this was from an mba graduate). i'm sure there's more to it but hearing GolfAddict23, i was reminded of that comment.
i'm hoping one day someone will do a study of culture of mba schools, the ones who eventually lead corporate america, and try to explain why it led to the debacles of American economy.