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Developing female leaders: Helping women reach the top
Industrial and Commercial Training
Abstract
Purpose
– The purpose of this article is to explore the reasons behind the extremely small proportion of women at the top of UK business. It argues that companies must change their approach if they are to address this problem successfully. The article also describes the innovative Impact Programme for talented and senior women run by the author since 2008.
Design/methodology/approach
– The article is based on a combination of data, analysis and experience. It draws on a wide range of research evidence relating to female leaders and differences in how men and women behave. It describes and brings alive the benefits of the Impact Programme through examples of participant behaviour.
Findings
– The article finds that current efforts to increase the number of senior women in businesses are mostly fragmented, cosmetic and ineffective. Invisible organisational barriers holding women back must be addressed. The differences between men and women should be fully understood so that more high-potential women are identified and promoted. It concludes that women themselves also need to make changes to how they lead and should be offered development programmes which help them increase their self-belief, assertiveness and impact without losing their emotional intelligence or authenticity.
Originality/value
– This article brings a powerful new set of arguments to bear on an important issue. The Impact Programme described is a highly original and effective intervention. Business leaders and executives, both male and female, and members of the HR and L&D community will find it of significant conceptual and practical value.
... Rather than being a forgotten relic of the "fix the women" era, demand for women's leadership programs is high (J. de Vries, 2010;Debebe et al., 2016;Kassotakis, 2017;Kolhatkar, 2016), and many major organisations have a women's leadership program (Anderson et al., 2008;Sandler, 2014). Taking a global perspective, over the last two decades 36% of Australian universities had implemented staff development programs exclusively for women (Tessens, 2008). ...
... An absence of women's leadership theory in programs and evaluations studies is problematic. Echoing Gray's (1994) criticisms, a-theoretical interventions have been accused of being cosmetic, fragmented and ineffective (Sandler, 2014), resulting in (at best) slow progress or (at worst) harm, in that they reinforce inequality (Janssens & Zanoni, 2014). ...
... The importance of LDPs has been asserted in the literature (Morrison, 2000;Trehan, 2007). Sandler (2014) notes that LDPs are needed to develop and enable female leadership because the quantity and quality of female leaders in the workplace largely depends on the availability and quality of LDPs. Chaturvedi et al. (2012) found a positive association between LDPs in organisations and the ability of females to emerge as leaders. ...
Guided by the role congruity theory (RCT), this paper examines the mismatch in female-leader role stereotypes and how this mismatch may lead to prejudicial evaluations against female leaders. It also tests how gender equality practices and leadership development programmes may mitigate prejudicial evaluations against female leaders. Following a quantitative approach, this study uses a paired sample t-test and linear approach (i.e. multiple regression) to model the relationships and test the hypotheses formulated. Drawing on a survey of 392 employees working in 4-star and 5-star hotels in Jordan, the study shows that employees stereotype successful leaders to be more masculine than feminine while they attribute both feminine and masculine stereotypes to women. There is thus an element of congruity in female-leader role stereotypes which reduces prejudicial evaluations against female leaders. Moreover, the results indicate that gender equality practices and leadership development programmes significantly enhance the emergence and effectiveness of women leaders. The importance of this study derives from extending the role congruity theory through a contextual investigation in the hotel sector in Jordan. This was done by considering two additional constructs, i.e. gender equality practices and leadership development programmes that mitigate prejudice against female leaders.
... B. aufgrund von Stereotypen, geschaffen werden. Zudem ist zu klären, inwieweit die aktuellen Verfahren der Potenzial-und Leistungsbeurteilung gendergerecht sind und geeignet sind, weibliche Nachwuchstalente zu identifizieren (Peus und Welpe 2011;Sandler 2014). Die Bundeswehr sollte Entwicklungsmöglichkeiten bieten, die Diversität berücksichtigen und einen Perspektivwechsel ermöglichen. ...
Die Rolle von Frauen in der Bundeswehr ist auch nach fast zwei Jahrzehnten noch umstritten, dies gilt besonders für die Wahrnehmung von Führungsaufgaben durch Frauen. Auch innerhalb der Bundeswehr bestehen noch Vorurteile hinsichtlich der Eignung von Frauen für militärische Führungspositionen. In den höheren Besoldungsgruppen geht der Frauenanteil überproportional zurück. Hier stellt sich nicht nur die Frage nach Aufstiegsbarrieren, sondern auch nach geeigneten Maßnahmen zur Förderung von weiblichem Führungsnachwuchs – ist es doch erklärtes politisches Ziel, den Frauenanteil insbesondere auch in Führungspositionen zu erhöhen. Wie kann die Bundeswehr aber junge weibliche Offiziere in ihrer Karriereentwicklung unterstützen? In der zivilen Wirtschaft gelten die Förderung von Netzwerken, das Mentoring und das Lernen am Modell durch geeignete Karrierevorbilder schon lange als wirksame Maßnahmen der Frauenförderung. Im vorliegenden Beitrag wird der Frage nachgegangen, wie Netzwerke, Mentoring sowie Karrierevorbilder an der Bun-deswehr durch die Soldatinnen wahrgenommen und in Bezug auf die eigene Karriere beurteilt werden. Eine repräsentative Befragung weiblicher Offiziere ergab eine deutliche Diskrepanz zwischen der Beurteilung der Bedeutsamkeit von Netzwerken und Mentoring für die eigene Karriere und den Möglichkeiten solche Fördermöglichkeiten innerhalb der Bundeswehr selbst zu nutzen. Dabei konnten Unterschiede hinsichtlich der Beurteilung von weiblich und männlich geprägten Netzwerken sowie weiblicher und männlicher Mentor*innen festgestellt werden. Männlich geprägte Netzwerke sowie männliche Mentoren werden von den Befragten als wirksamer für die eigene Karriere beurteilt. Aus den Erkenntnissen der empirischen Studie werden Handlungsempfehlungen für die Personalentwicklung der Bundeswehr, so z. B. für eine systematische Förderung des Netzwerkens von Frauen und die Installation eines Mentoring-Programms für die zukünftigen weiblichen Führungskräfte abgeleitet.
... Research from around the world has implied that women underrepresentation in management positions is typical of not just for-profit (Sandler, 2014) but also NSO settings (Cunningham, 2008;Riot et al., 2008;Wicker, Breuer and von Hanau, 2012;Schlesinger et al., 2013). We observed a similar pattern at out study locale. ...
Research and practice have overlooked the emotional intelligence (EI) of senior leaders in non-profit organizations. Our research aims to explore and compare the EI capacity of two groups of such leaders; voluntary (i.e., presidents of sport federations) and remunerated (i.e., provincial directors of sports), in the sport governance system of Turkey. The results of a small-scale census revealed that voluntary leaders were older, had more years of sporting experience, and achieved significantly higher EI scores than their paid counterparts. A regression analysis to examine whether age and sporting experience predicted the EI scores returned positive results for age only. A priori and post hoc power analyses assured that results had sufficient power for practically meaningful implications (.95 and .85, respectively). These results suggest that sports-governing non-profit organizations can benefit from some EI training for the development of their leaders, including those younger and with limited sporting experience. We discuss the implications of our findings within the metamorphosis of sports governing bodies from a non-profit organization to a more business-like entity.
... However, employers can proactively address some challenges by designing appropriate FFPs. In addition to FFPs, certain challenges can be tackled by using innovative tools and training (Al-Jahwari and , career management (Agarwal and Lenka, 2015), and career development (Sandler, 2014). ...
Purpose
The participation and productivity of women in Oman’s labor force are very low and heavily skewed toward the government sector. There are few women in the private sector and the reasons for this are not well-known. The challenges that women workers face specifically in the Arab World are worth understanding from a participation and policy perspective. The purpose of this paper is to explore employers’ perceptions of women workers and the major challenges they face in Oman in the context of government efforts to develop the female workforce in this Middle East region.
Design/methodology/approach
Data collected by interviewing the top executives (employers) from 28 organizations in two major cities in Oman were analyzed qualitatively, grouped into emerging themes, triangulated, and discussed.
Findings
The results indicated that employers, in general, are impressed by women workers in Oman. However, they identify a number of challenges women face. This study synthesized and grouped employers’ perceptions of these challenges in the following categories: women’s natural and physiological composition, their attitude at work, post-marital challenges, socio-cultural barriers, nature and place of work, organizational preparedness and governance, biases or prejudices of employers, and work-life balance (WLB) issues facing them.
Practical implications
This study suggests that since female participation in the government sector in Oman is substantial, women can also be attracted to work in the private sector if policies are formulated to safeguard their interests.
Originality/value
There is an absolute dearth of studies about female participation in the Omani workforce; this study is one of the pioneering efforts. Whereas the extant literature on WLB issues represents mostly the western perspective, this study highlights the major WLB issues in Oman and fills some important gaps between the West and the Middle East by focusing on women, WLB, and policies triangle.
... In this analysis, the focus was on the development of female leaders rather than the development from the macro senses. Human capital is an instrumental factor in the preparation of women for leadership positions (Sandler, 2014). Women who reached the top leadership rung of organizations were found to possess a specialized knowledge base. ...
The low representation of female leaders is problematic in work organizations. In fact, women historically have had trouble entering the managerial hierarchy of a multitude of industries including the sport industry. Accordingly, the evolution of sport has proffered a diverse array of jobs with growth potential. Despite this, sport remains a male dominated sector where women’s perspectives on work issues have not been fully investigated. The purpose of this study is to examine perceived organizational factors impacting the representation of female leaders in college athletics. To promptly investigate issues and concerns of working women in sport, the research focused on human resource management (HRM). This study utilized survey design, specifically snowball sampling, to generated 60 completed questionnaires from female administrators working in U.S. collegiate athletics. A Qualtrics online survey site was created to gather responses. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Demographics showed the level of work experience, position titles, and educational background varied across the sample. Results showed that structures were important factors in recruiting and advancing female leaders, while the ’ole’ boys’ networks and limited social capital negatively impacted leadership development. In conclusion, leadership opportunities for women in intercollegiate athletics were perceived to be shaped by organizational practices.
Keywords: female leaders, U.S. college athletics, social capital, organizational practices, HRM structures. JEL Classification: M14
... It can be observed that the role of female leaders have become important in the modern era. If male leaders lead by authoritative approach and result-oriented, female leaders lead differently by using their emotional intelligence in dealing with subordinates (Sandler, 2014). The initiative for leadership studies in Malaysia could be tracked from the colonialism legacy where the practices were done based in top-down approach or autocratic. ...
Some corporate failures such as Enron and WorldCom were due to mismanagement and frauds committed by the top management of the organization and even the external auditors. Leadership was cited as one of the factors that led to the collapse of Enron. The Islamic financial institutions discussed in this paper focuses on Islamic banking and Takaful sectors. In both sectors, the level of governance has not received an extensive coverage as most studies have the tendency to focus on the people " s perceptions and acceptance towards the respective sectors as well as its product offering. This paper incorporates two aspects; firstly, leadership from the theoretical perspective such as traits, behaviour, and contingency theory. Secondly, this paper also reviewed governance from the conventional practices as well as from the Islamic viewpoints. The final section of the paper presents the existing studies on leadership and governance and explains the significance of this study.
Women behave differently from men in the development of their career. Additionally, women use networking relationships for advancement of their careers. Therefore, the purpose of this literature review is to analyze the different empirical views on barriers in women’s networking and its impact on their career development. The literature review comprises journal articles, conference proceedings and institutional reports by multidimensional organizations on the topic of women’s networking and their career development. This review article identifies five critical aspects in the literature as old boy’s networks, gender stereotype for networks, women network structure, network preference and attitude on women’s networking. Finally, this paper presents the deficiencies of existing literature and directions to future research.
Could language be a reason why women are under-represented
at senior level in the business world? The Language of Female Leadership investigates how female leaders actually use language to achieve their business and relational goals. The author proposes that the language of women leaders is shaped by the type of corporation they work for. Based on the latest research, three types of ‘gendered corporation’ appear to affect the way women interact with colleagues: the male-dominated,the gender-divided and the gender-multiple. This book shows that senior women have to carry out extra ‘linguistic work’ to make their mark in the boardroom. In male-dominated and gender-divided corporations, women must develop an extraordinary
linguistic expertise just to survive. In gender-multiple corporations, this linguistic expertise helps them to be highly regarded and effective leaders.
Judith Baxter lectures in Applied Linguistics at the University of Aston. She has written and edited many publications in the field of language and gender, language and education and the language of leadership. She won a government award to conduct a major research study in the language of female leadership.
Business leaders send a powerful message when they make a commitment to diversity that goes beyond rhetoric. But what motivates them to do so, and how do they actually create inclusive cultures? To find out, the authors interviewed 24 CEOs whose firms were known for embracing people of all backgrounds. These executives saw diversity as a strategic and moral imperative and made promoting it a personal mission. Many had experienced what it was like to be an outsider, which gave them a deeper understanding of the barriers that women, in particular, face at work. The CEOs resoundingly agreed that an inclusive environment was one in which employees contributed to success as their authentic selves, and the organization respected and leveraged their talents and provided a sense of connectedness. Eight best organizational practices for instilling such a culture emerged from their interviews: 1. Measure diversity and inclusion. 2. Hold managers accountable. 3. Support flexible arrangements. 4. Recruit and promote from diverse pools of candidates. 5. Provide leadership education. 6. Sponsor employee resource groups and mentoring programs. 7. Offer quality role models. 8. Make the chief diversity officer position count. It's also key for CEOs to dedicate time to work personally on diversity initiatives. That sets the tone for everyone and helps ensure that organizations attract and develop the best talent.
Even when CEOs make gender diversity a priority by setting aspirational goals for the proportion of women in leadership roles, insisting on diverse slates of candidates for senior positions, and developing mentoring and training programs they are often frustrated by a lack of results. That's because they haven't addressed the fundamental identity shift involved in coming to see oneself, and to be seen by others, as a leader. Research shows, the authors write, that the subtle "second generation" gender bias still present in organizations and in society disrupts the learning cycle at the heart of becoming a leader. Women must establish credibility in a culture that is deeply conflicted about whether, when, and how they should exercise authority. Practices that equate leadership with behaviors considered more common in men suggest that women are simply not cut out to be leaders. Furthermore, the human tendency to gravitate to people who are like oneself leads powerful men to sponsor and advocate for other men when leadership opportunities arise. The authors suggest three actions to support and advance gender diversity: Educate women and men about second-generation gender bias; create safe "identity workspaces" to support transitions to bigger roles; and anchor women's development efforts in their sense of leadership purpose rather than in how they are perceived.
The Language of Female LeadershipGreat leaders who make the mix work
- J Baxter
- Palgrave
- Basingstoke
- B Broysberg
- K Connolly
Baxter, J. (2009), The Language of Female Leadership, Palgrave, Basingstoke. Broysberg, B. and Connolly, K. (2013), ''Great leaders who make the mix work'', Harvard Business Review, September.
A Woman in Your Own Right
- A Dickson
Dickson, A. (2012), A Woman in Your Own Right: Assertiveness and You, Quartet.
Great leaders who make the mix work
- B Broysberg
- K Connolly