Majority of women, men prefer younger bosses: Survey

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Mumbai: About 52 per cent women and 75 per cent men prefer to work under "younger bosses" who are perceived as less prejudiced, tech-savvy and open to diverse viewpoints, a new survey of workplaces in India released here on Wednesday said.

Youngsters are considered less patriarchal and more sensitive towards gender parity, so women employees in the start-up sector favour younger bosses, said 'The Younger Boss -- Older Subordinate Relationship' survey on India's evolving World of Work conducted by TeamLease Study.

The liking for younger bosses is not just restricted to women and even male employees preferred them -- a whopping 75 per cent -- indicating a clear shift in the qualities that define leadership.

But, there is an equal and strong wave of resentment towards the younger bosses' leadership style, the WoW survey revealed.

While more than 57 per cent of the entry-to-mid level employees across sectors preferred younger superiors, around 75 per cent of the seasoned professionals with more than 20 years experience were inclined to working with older bosses.

The latter category attributed older chiefs with better capabilities to handle complexities, ambiguity, people and organisational transformations.

Around 41 per cent employees found younger bosses "more understanding" than older ones, 27 per cent say the are "more practical", 21 per cent older employees found reporting to younger bosses a "big challenge", 18 per cent feel younger bosses are "friendly, fun and easy to work with", 17 per cent consider them "unrealistic" and 11 per cent believe young bosses "lack business-relevant knowledge".

"The shift in power equations is mainly due to the increasing thrust on technological prowess. Besides tech-suaveness, the young boss brigade is per cent as more agile and innovation friendly," said TeamLease Services Ltd Senior Vice-President Kunal Sen.

However, for long-term growth, Sen cautioned that organisations would require "a good mix of talent, both and old and young, with capabilities to handle the many complex situations a company will face in its growth journey".

From the sectoral perspective -- barring the automobile sector in which 73 per cent preferred older and more experiences leaders -- both IT (69 per cent) and non-IT sector (58 per cent) opted for youngsters, as per the WoW survey.

This is the TeamLease's second in the WoW series survey, and was administered on human resources managers across sectors to understand the pulse of the young Indian workforce to different aspects that govern the workplace environment.