Sustainable Management Futures - Essay Example

Future of sustainable management According to the report of Ambition and Gender at work which is the institute of leadership and management in the United Kingdom stated that even though half of the workforces are women with a percentage of 49.9, their involvement in the pot executive positrons is not proportional. They just occupy 12% of the 100 directorships and nearly 22% of senior positions of management. Several countries in Europe have taken some measures to ensure equal access to the top positions of management; such an attempt has been evident in Norway.

In the united kingdom, the same discussion has been aired in special reports for instance in Lord Davies report on women on Boards in 2011, that is the chartered institute foe development and even in the media. These reports have been aired basically in an effort to find out the driving forces behind career ambition and to explore the hindrances of women’s’ advancement into top management and positions of leadership. However, the analysis reveals that three quarters of women there are the stamping blocks for them into top management positions.

These barriers are the maternity and child caring issues. More so women managers are impeded in their careers by their lower ambitions and expectations. Men often have self belief and confidence and this makes them be considered more in those top executive positions, however, women tend to have low self belief and confidence in their opportunities in careers. In addition, women tend to have fewer ambitions and career expectation compared to men. Nearly over 52% of men mangers have a clear idea of their career ambition and the expectations and this makes them have an upper hand when it comes to top management positions.

For this matter twice as many women as men do not want top management positions. The ambition gap is another issue as women tend to lack behind since they have less career ambitions. Basically women in general set lower sights compared to men and this limits them from attaining the top ranked positions in management. Very few women aspire and expect to reach a position of a general manager or director level by the end of her career, but this is not the case in men, they have high aspiration all through their career.

Lower career confidence makes then have lower chances in that top management in their careers than men. More than 70% of men have high self confidence compared to relatively 50% of women. This lowers their expectations and aspirations of reaching a leadership and even management role hence less likely to attain their career ambitions. Their tendency of being cautious approaches to job application or positions put them at risk of not being considered. These hesitations put women at a disadvantage since climbing the career ladder is obviously competitive hence ending up only few determined women.

Women are most likely to willingly step back the career ladder due to maternity and children cre issues. This situation occupies a 42% of women whereas it only affects 9% of women. And to those women in top positions,%42 of women have the likelihood of differing to have children due to the demanding job, this makes them end up without children compared to 28% of men. Counties aiming to seize the initiative in order to acquire equality in gender representation in top management positions have taken voluntary and transparent and self imposed targets for women representation at board and senior executive levels.

Currently executive leaders have taken accountability for their organizations talent pipeline. They have made it a priority to proactively identify, develop and promote potential leaders of both genders. Employers can now make use of their impact of their investment in development of leadership by focusing it to the diverse needs of both male and female managers. Mentoring and coaching have been improvised to tackle the issue of low women confidence and ambition. To hasten this, women are now being encouraged to realize their leadership capabilities.

Governments are now trying to stop talented women from pulling out of leadership careers by doing away with the notion of male breadwinner career model and instead make senior leadership roles more appealing to people with the demands of the family. Also career development has to reflect skills and competencies with minimum emphasis on time served. People need to understand that flexible working and career sharing and work life balance policies are equally vital in sustainable management. Evolution is also taking place in recruitment practices so that to widen the net and pinpoint a balance of candidates of both sexes for board level positions.

Talents and potentialities should be considered over mere focus on experience to consider women candidates. References Ghaffari, E. 2011 Women Leaders at Work: Untold Tales of Women Achieving Their Ambitions London: Pan Books