To be more successful, hire women!

If a man wants to be more productive, according to the latest sociologic polls, he should hire more members of the opposite sex.

Companies should rather employ more women and make them progress in the company. It is what asserts a research work led by Michel Ferrary, professor in Ceram (College of business to Nice-Sophia Antipolis), from a sample of forty two big companies. This study demonstrates that those who employ more than 35 % of women see their turnover progressing more than the others (of upper 28,5 %). These companies are also more profitable (with an upper rate of 116,1 %), have a better productivity (48,6 %) and create more jobs(uses) (72,9 %). It's the same for those whose supervisory staff is more than feminine 35 %.

Previous studies on the influence of the rate of feminization on the economic performances of companies had ended in contradictory results, recognizes the author. Doubtless because - a social group has to reach a critical size to really influence the functioning of an organization, change the nature of the interactions and modify the dynamics of the group, - explains the sociologist.

This threshold is reached when the minority group represents at least 35 % of the set, according to Rosabeth Moss Kanter's works, professor in Harvard. Reason for which Michel Ferrary chose to compare both populations of companies as they were situated beyond or below this threshold. Applied to all the staff, the variety improves the decision-making, the creativity, the adaptability, among others, reminds Mr Ferrary. As far as - the women and the men behave differently in particular when in risk, of their practice of management, of their charm for the competition, of their motivations, - he adds.

These differences could explain another paradoxical result of this study. In spite of good economic performances, the stock exchange prices of the most feminized companies increased less faster than the others between 2002 and 2006: of 30,7 % only, against 83,1 % for the others.