Gender differences in rating reports: female managers are harsher raters, particularly of males

Male and female managers, at or beyond a specified managerial level, were required to rate their subordinate report staff on six personalized key result area (KRA) ratings, 32 management practices, common to all staff, and a weighted overall score. Company wide data were collected from 810 managers and at least one report staff who they rated. Analysis of variance on the three composite scores indicated that female managers rating male staff gave the lowest ratings. There were main effects for sex of employee (males were rated lower than females) and interaction effects (female managers gave males the lowest and females the highest ratings). Limitations of the study are considered as well as possible implications of the results.