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Female students who want graduate jobs as managers have been warned by a new study that employees react badly to women who seem unkind and insensitive.

The research, carried out by Kristin Byron, assistant professor of management at the Whitman School of Management in the US, involved students being given temporary work in management positions, reports onrec.com.

Male managers were not judged harshly for showing the same characteristics, according to the study.

Dr Byron told onrec.com: "It seems female managers may be expected to be sensitive to others' emotions and to demonstrate this sensitivity by providing emotional support. Because of this female managers' job performance is judged on them being understanding, kind, supportive and sensitive."

She added that male managers are evaluated differently saying it is more important for men to be seen as "analytical, logical and good at reasoning".

Employees of the managers were asked to answer questions such as how good their manager was at spotting emotions, how supportive their manager was, how persuasive they were and how satisfied they were with their manager.

Meanwhile, this year's National Ban Bullying at Work Day was the most successful yet with over three million people and hundreds of businesses taking part, according to onrec.com.

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