Male bosses put placards around pole (11)
I believe the answer is:
postmasters
'male bosses' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both people as well as being plural nouns.
Perhaps you can see a link between them that I can't see?
'placards around pole' is the wordplay.
'placards' becomes 'posters' ('poster' can be a synonym of 'placard').
'around' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'pole' becomes 'mast' (mast is a kind of pole).
'posters' enclosing 'mast' is 'POSTMASTERS'.
'put' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for postmasters that I've seen is " Managers of sorts, perhaps".)