SURVEY: Women make better business decisions than men!

There should be more women in the boardroom, a study has found – and not just in the name of equality.

They make better bosses than men because they are fairer and have more scruples.

It means companies with women on the board are more likely to make decisions that benefit everyone, from investors to staff, rather than just the top brass.

Women also tend to consult others in the decision-making process, leading to a more cooperative feeling in the firm.

In fact the study, which surveyed 600 board members, concluded that female-influenced companies were more successful than male-dominated ones.

The study, published this week in the International Journal of Business Governance and Ethics, also found that male directors prefer to make decisions using rules, regulations and traditional ways of doing business.

Female directors, on the other hand, are less constrained by these parameters and more prepared to use initiative than male colleagues.

In addition, female directors - who, globally, make up around nine per cent of corporate boards - are significantly more inclined to make decisions by taking the interests of multiple stakeholders into account in order to arrive at a fair decision.

They also tend to use cooperation, collaboration and consensus-building more often - and more effectively - in order to make sound decisions.

The study was conducted by Chris Bart, professor of strategic management at the DeGroote School of Business at Canada's McMaster University, and Gregory McQueen, a McMaster graduate and senior executive associate dean at A.T. Still University's School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona.