Gender influence in project management: analysis of a case study based on master students

It is widely demonstrated that men and women have differentiated managerial styles. This study explores the differences in gender managerial styles based on the answers provided by the students of a Master on Project Management to a case study. In such case study, a series of scenarios are given to the students for them to take decisions with the perspective of a project manager. The case study includes 53 situations and each situation has four different options. The case study is not designed to analyze gender or leadership style differences, it is simply an exercise for the students to choose an option and justify the decisions they may make. Despite of this limitation, it has been found that men and women make different decisions at least in relation to some scenarios related to project management. The study carried out have found differences in 5 of 53 situations. It has been demonstrated the statistical significance at least for one of those situations be means of chi-square test of hypothesis. This situation remarks the most authoritarian approach of men against the most social of women.