cover image Swim with the Dolphins: How Women Can Succeed in Corporate America on Their Own Terms

Swim with the Dolphins: How Women Can Succeed in Corporate America on Their Own Terms

Connie Brown Glaser, Barbara Steinberg Smalley. Grand Central Publishing, $28 (340pp) ISBN 978-0-446-51802-4

Citing profile-interviews with more than 200 woman managers in top corporations--Tellabs, Hewlett-Packard, Coca-Cola, Xerox, MTV, Westinghouse et al.--Glaser and Smalley (More Power to You) here describe the new business world in which gregarious, caring women (dolphins) successfully counteract the perceived harsh and entrenched management attitudes of men (sharks). ``Being female is no longer a hindrance. It's an advantage,'' stress the authors, who have discovered a broad range of humane and productive innovations in job orientation, team building, quality control, stress defusing and so on that women workers, largely through qualities traditionally ascribed to females, have effected in the workplace. Being ``leaders'' rather than ``bosses,'' the authors find, most women show firm but fair and good-humored guidance, are patient listeners and negotiators and ``make decisions from the heart as well as the head.'' They seem, moreover, to share power readily, admit mistakes and welcome new ideas. An inviting and enlightening guide that businessmen should read. (Mar.)