The Role of Women in Organizations - Essay Example

Women in organizations In this paper I am going to find out what both female employees and organizations they work for gain from advance of women tothe labor market. I also intend to explore what is specific in organizations led by women and how women influence the way organizations behave. Business area where women can apply their talents was rather limited due to thousand of years' tradition. Statistics show that women succeed mostly in small and medium size enterprises of service sector. Here they do their best because centuries of housekeeping help them to plan financial benefits. Education, received in time of scientific and technological revolution, made women doomed for success. Thus a lot of women in the United States and Europe managed to overcome psychological, financial and society barriers on the road to their recognition in business. In 1980s businesswomen became a powerful force in the European and US economy. The transition to post-industrial society boosted structural changes in economy and rapid development in services sector. Women were opening multitude of service enterprises, which grew and gained public recognition. Society had to admit that small business was made for women. A study, conducted by Coates in Britain, showed that, while women represented a third of overall respondent managers, they nevertheless only represented 4.3% of executive positions against 9.9% of men. By far the largest single group overall was middle managers (47%), even here only 25 of the women studied had attained this level. The vast majority of women were thus junior managers (Coates, 1997). Women are now more than 1% of the Fortune 500 CEOs, yet research shows that companies with the highest percentage of women at the top financially outperform those with the lowest number of women at the top. There are eight Fortune 500 companies led by women in 2005 listed at the Figure 1. Company Executive Year named CEO Fortune 500 rank Sara Lee Brenda Barnes Feb. 2005 104 Rite Aid Mary Sammons June 2003 128 Xerox Anne Mulcahy Aug. 2001 130 Lucent Tech. Patricia Russo Jan. 2002 243 Avon Andrea Jung Nov. 1999 275 Mirant S. Marce Fuller July 1999 314 Pathmark Eileen Scott Oct. 2002 432 Golden West Marion Sandler Aug. 1963 440 Fig. 1 - Female executives of the 2005 Fortune 500 companies. ("Eight Fortune 500 Companies Led by Women") Here, women-owned and managed businesses are now employing more people in the United States than the Fortune 500 companies worldwide. The number of women-owned firms in the United States has jumped 103 percent from 1987 to 1999. Today there are 9.1 million, representing 38 percent of all businesses and employing more than 27.5 million people. Companies run by women are as financially sound and creditworthy as the typical firm in the U.S. economy, and are more likely to remain in business than the average US firm. In 1987 two million female-owned businesses had $25bn in sales. One year later, five million female-owned businesses had $83bn in sales. Around the world, women-owned firms comprise between one-quarter and one-third of the businesses in the formal economy, and are likely to play an even greater role in informal sectors. In Japan, the number of women managers is still small (around 300,000), but it has more than doubled over the past 10 years. In Australia, the proportion of women working in their own business is also growing. Women working in their own business in Australia numbered 216,300 in 1983-84 and 272,400 in 1989-90, an increase of approximately 26 per cent (Milojevic). Why does it happen that companies with women occupying senior positions perform better than those with male leaders One of the reasons may be that women's leadership style, based on openness, trust, sociability, interest in people, caring, ongoing education, compassion and collaboration. Women are more likely to succeed because of their natural qualities and because they admit they need help and surround themselves with good people: they are cautions, strategic risk takers, whose resourcefulness and resolve increase as circumstance become more difficult (this from a study by Avon Corporation and an American based research firm). Qualities usually mentioned include attitudes towards team building and consensus. For example, a study of 550 city managers in the US showed that women were more likely than their male counterparts to incorporate citizen input, facilitate communication and encourage citizen involvement in their decision-making (Milojevic). Former CEO of Hewlett-Packard Development Company (HP) Carleton "Carly" Fiorina says, "Collaboration: I think it is what this organization is all about, and I think because of the nature of the changes that are going on in the world today, collaboration is particularly important." in her speech "Collaborating to succeed". Now Carly Fiorina's ideas are supported by other female leaders of HP: Ann O. Baskins, Ann M. Livermore, Cathy Lyons, Marcela Perez de Alonso; the main corporate objective of HP is customer loyalty. (HP) Coming into business, women brought in their understanding of how it should be done. Thus, they introduced new methods in management and changed behaviour of organizations towards their employees and clientele. "More than half of businesswomen (53%) emphasize intuitive or "right-brain" thinking. This style stresses creativity, sensitivity and values-based decision making. Seven out of ten (71%) businessmen emphasize logical or "left-brain" thinking. This style stresses analysis, processing information methodically and developing procedures. Businesswomen's decision-making style is more "whole-brained" than their male counterparts, that is, more evenly distributed between right and left brain thinking. According to Australian National Foundation for Women Business Owners, forty per cent of women-owned businesses offer flexitime, while only 30 per cent of all small firms do, which suggests that women business owners are more likely than all business owners to accommodate the special work needs of their employees. This gap widens as business size increases, with 40 per cent of women-owned firms with 25 or more employees offering flexitime, compared with only 19 per cent of all firms of approximately the same size" (Milojevic). The most vivid example of successful women CEOs is Catherine Elizabeth "Cathy" Hughes, the Radio Personality. Born Catherine Elizabeth Woods, she attended Creighton University and the University of Nebraska at Omaha but did not graduate. Around 1969 she began working at KOWH, a black radio station in Omaha, handling various jobs, and becoming well known. Her success prompted the School of Communications at Howard University in Washington, DC, to offer her a job as lecturer. In 1973 she became sales director at WHUR-FM. Two years later she became the station's general manager, boosting sales revenue to $3.5 million from $300,000. In 1979, she and her husband, Dewey Hughes, purchased a small Washington radio station, WOL, creating Radio One. Her marriage eventually ended, and she bought her husband's share in the station. But Hughes was forced to give up her apartment and live at the station for a time in order to make ends meet. Over time, she made the station profitable, and her own talk show became a hit. By purchasing stations in other cities, the company eventually became the nation's largest black-owned radio chain. She is the first African American woman to head a firm publicly traded on a stock exchange in the United States. She has been married twice and has one son. One more women CEO, is Muriel "Mickey" Siebert, a stockbroker. Siebert attended Western Reserve University (now known as Case Western) but dropped out after two years when her father got cancer. In 1954 she arrived in New York City with $500 to search for a job. She was hired as a trainee research analyst at the Wall Street firm Bache & Co. She later worked as an analyst at a number of firms. In 1967 she became the first woman to purchase a seat on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). For ten years she was the only female among the 1,366 members. In 1969 she became the first woman to own and operate a brokerage firm that belonged to the NYSE, Muriel Siebert & Co, now Siebert Financial Corp. In 1975 when the U.S. government abolished fixed commissions for stockbrokers, Siebert turned her company into a discount brokerage firm. In 1977 she was named New York State banking superintendent. She stepped down in 1982 to run for the senate but lost the Republican primary. Since then Siebert has run her company and been involved with charitable work. She is often called "The First Woman of Finance." Some organizations establish women groups and boards which promote diversity of gender and ideas in their companies. Here we can name Citigroup whose Diversity Steering Committee, chaired by the regional CEO, comprises Heads of Businesses, Diversity and HR. It defines, prioritizes and reviews diversity strategy. Its members play a personal role in it. Specifically, they: are jointly accountable for achievement of diversity goals; translate diversity strategy into goals for their businesses; personally sponsor networks and projects; promote diversity as role models; mentor network leaders; provide resources; actively participate in diversity activities (Citigroup). Today businesswomen in developed and democratic countries feel government support, provided in laws, women's networks and women support programs. Here, we can name the Association for Progressive Communications Women's Networking Support Program (APC WNSP), which is a global network of women who support women networking for social change and gender justice, through the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). It numbers over 100 women from more than 35 countries. They are individual women and women's groups and organizations working in the field of gender and ICT and actively supporting women's networking. WNSP's members have formed themselves into regional networks in Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Africa and are building an emerging network in Europe. The program members are specialists in areas such as training, information facilitation, technical work and policy issues. (APS Women Networking Support Program). At the same time developing countries take only first steps towards bringing males and females on the same footing in business. Together with that they have to tackle the racial discrimination. South Africa, for example, "has over a hundred women in Parliament (one of the highest percentages of parliamentarians in the world) women continue to be vastly underrepresented in decision-making structures in both public and private sectors. For example, in 1994, women made up 16% of the uniformed personnel of the South African National Defense Force and 36% of the civilian force. It is interesting to note that 93% of the female uniformed personnel and 56% of the female civilian personnel were white. Secondly, a survey of 100 corporate sector companies in South Africa in 1990 found that women comprised 36.6% of the workforce. Of this figure, only 13% were in management. A close investigation of one major corporation revealed the following profile: White Males White Female Black Male Black Female Senior Management 199 (98%) 3 (1.5%) 1 (0.5%) 0 Middle Management 1,919 (93.5%) 103 (5%) 20 (1%) 3 (0.5%) Fig. 2 - A breakdown of the management structure of ESKOM by race and gender" (Wintour, 1991, cited in David Johnson). Unsurprisingly, this situation has led to calls to "eliminate occupational segregation, especially by promoting the equal participation of women in highly skilled jobs and senior management positions. Second, the main thrust of the document is its emphasis to set in place a "National Machinery" to integrate gender into all projects and programs of the government. The aim is to "mainstream gender within government and civil society by the transformation of the institutions, policies, procedures, consultative process, budgetary allocation and priorities of all branches of government" (Beijing Conference Plan of Action, 1995, cited in David Johnson). Primitive descriptions of the "manager of the future" uncannily match those of female leadership. And consultants try to teach male managers to relinquish the command-and-control mode. For women that came naturally - many of the attributes for which women's leadership is praised are rooted in women's socialized roles. The traditional female value of caring for others - balanced with sufficient objectivity - is the basis of the management skill of supporting and encouraging people and bringing out their best, a skill now highly valued by management experts (Milojevic). Women's success in traditionally women industries seems natural, even if a lot of hard work precedes to it. Founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics, one of the largest beauty products firms in the United States, Mary Kay Ash sold a child psychology book door to door in the late 1930s and then was a sales representative and manager at the Stanley Home Products Co. from 1939 to 1952. Later, she was national training director at the World Gift Co. In 1963, with $5,000, she founded Mary Kay Cosmetics in a Dallas storefront. The firm sold products door to door using nine saleswomen, called "beauty consultants." The business grew steadily, helped by Ash's positive philosophy and her generous use of incentives, such as free pink Cadillacs and diamond jewelry, for successful sales people. With over 300,000 sales people and more than $1 billion in sales from 19 countries, the firm remains a major presence in the competitive beauty market. She was married three times and had a daughter and two sons. However, this is only a prospect of the future but at present women should unwillingly follow the male image of a manager. As managers in western society might be considered particularly open to their persuasion. They tend to be aware of the 'selling' possibilities of (brand) images. To sell (and therefore buy into) the organization as well becomes one step further on the ladder. The culture approach, with its peculiar masculine concepts - myths, rites, rituals, artifacts, lore - and their 'ambiguous' meaning (Gagliardi, 1990), is traditionally seen as likely to induce tension and a dis-interest where women are concerned. (Gherardi, 1992). These concepts are offered to organizational members as part of the seductive process of achieving membership and commitment (Linstead and Grafton-Small, 1992). At a corporate level, however, a distinctive masculine commitment culture might appear to have a 'symbolic' value in terms of appearing progressive, modern with a public image of paternalism towards its employees (Coates, 1997). Moreover, a study, conducted by Coates, showed that corporate success for women has meant learning male-type behaviors and male emotional expression - competing with men on men's terms. Traditional identity is of the male breadwinner in masculine occupations, which tends to devalue a female identity at work. Organizations thus assert in subtle ways, what employees feel and how they can express those feelings; these must be very much more than add-on features to the economic or management purpose of the organization, they must be part of it. This is part of the need for women to be noticeably better than comparable men at the same job to be considered as equals. Recently information technology was considered as traditionally male battlefield. This point of view was completely broken by Carleton "Carly" Fiorina who became CEO of Hewlett-Packard. Carly Fiorina was already crowned the most powerful woman in American business by Fortune magazine before joining HP. She had successfully guided Lucent Technologies Inc., out from the shadow of AT&T and through an IPO worth $3 billion in 1996. When Fiorina took over HP in 1999, she was hailed by the media as a star who would rescue the ailing high-tech giant. But her initial success at Hewlett-Packard began to falter with the $19 billion acquisition of Compaq Computer in 2002, referred to by some as "Fiorina's Folly." The deal was vehemently opposed by the heirs of HP's founders. Fiorina prevailed, but most industry analysts considered the acquisition a mistake, and HP's stock stagnated in the two years following the merger. Fiorina was also faulted for not fostering HP's long tradition as an innovator. In Feb. 2005, her six-year tenure at Hewlett-Packard ended when she was abruptly ousted. Nevertheless HP is the world's second-largest computer maker; it is one of the 30 so-called "blue-chip" companies that makes up the Dow Jones Index and has close to $50 billion in annual revenue. It is ranked #11 on the 2005 Fortune 500 list. One more woman CEO example is Anne M. Mulcahy, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Xerox Corporation, Stamford, Conn. She was named CEO of Xerox on Aug. 1, 2001, and chairman on Jan. 1, 2002. Mulcahy most recently was president and chief operating officer of Xerox from May 2000 through July 2001. Prior to that, she was president of Xerox's General Markets Operations, which created and sold products for reseller, dealer and retail channels. She began her Xerox career as a field sales representative in 1976 and assumed increasingly responsible sales and senior management positions. From 1992-1995, Mulcahy was vice president for human resources, responsible for compensation, benefits, human resource strategy, labor relations, management development and employee training. Mulcahy became chief staff officer in 1997 and corporate senior vice president in 1998. Prior to that, she served as vice president and staff officer for Customer Operations, covering South America and Central America, Europe, Asia and Africa, and China. Mulcahy earned a bachelor of arts degree in English/Journalism from Marymount College in Tarrytown, N.Y., in 1974. In addition to the Xerox board, she is a member of the boards of directors of Catalyst, Citigroup Inc., Fuji Xerox Company, Ltd. and Target Corporation, and is a member of The Business Council. Another challenge women meet working among men is lower salary. In England however, the pay gap between the sexes is closing, and it's now at its lowest since the New Earnings Survey began. The average hourly earning (without overtime) for full-time women is still only 82% of the amount for men. The problem starts as soon as women start work. Pay differences might not be deliberate but can exist because companies have not looked at their pay structure. The Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) found that: female graduates earn 15% less than men before they reach 24. The gap between women's and men's average salary increases with age, with men earning 43% more by their late 40s. The average 24-year-old male graduate earns 16,738, but would earn 14,592 if he were female. These pay differences showed up even when the graduates studied the same subjects, had the same degree result, worked in the same occupation and were employed in the same industry. It assumed that there is a limited "wage cake" and that male workers should hold back in order to let disadvantaged female workers get a larger slice of that cake. However, the British study of women's pay since 1968 found that women's pay, as a percentage of men's, improves when the total share of wages in gross domestic product increases. In other words, there is not a limited fund to be shared between workers. Rather, when the "cake" increases, women's wages increase faster than men's (www.bbc.co.uk). In the US we see similar picture. A close look at the earnings of women and men who work 40 hours or more per week reveals that the wage gap may actually widen as the number of hours worked increases. Women working 41 to 44 hours per week earn 84.6% of what men working similar hours earn; women working more than 60 hours per week earn only 78.3% of what men in the same time category earn. Furthermore, women may work longer to receive the promotions that provide access to higher pay. For example, among school principals, women have an average of 3 years longer as teachers than men do (Lips). Now, what are we moving to in the future with all the facts listed above In the future, under the influence of women managers and due to changes in corporate cultures institutions will be organized according to the networking model (as opposed to the pyramid structure). The top responsibility of managers will be creating a nourishing environment for personal growth, providing holistic development and motivation. The management style of women is ideally suited to these people priorities (Milojevic). Some companies are already taking steps towards change in the style of management, which leads to increase in workers' efficiency and company's performance. For example, an Australian company Arup, a consulting engineering company operating within an industry sector that has predominantly more male employees, conducted a study in work/life balance, maternity leave return rates and graduate recruitment numbers. Staff was consulted regarding the effectiveness of the Competency Based Appraisal system following its first year of implementation, through focus groups and interviews conducted by an organizational psychologist. A Graduate Recruitment survey was conducted across the Division to examine various aspects of graduate roles (development, rotation, mentoring, etc). Particular emphasis was placed on examining issues for female graduates in the organization. Consultation with senior female staff showed that a mentoring program was crucial in creating career paths for women within the organization. Maternity leave return rates showed that a high percentage of female staff was not returning. With five times the number employees pregnant in 2001 compared to the previous year, and 30% of that number employed at associate level, creating an incentive to return was considered critical. The response to this problem was allocating buddies and mentors, accelerating learning and revisiting work/life balance initiatives. In 2001 group leaders acted as "buddies" for all graduates, and the HR manager took on a mentoring/coaching role for senior female staff. Existing leadership development and accelerated learning programs flagged to aid all employees develop skills required for promotion. The appraisals process initiated the creation of individual action plans for employee training and development needs. A national Appraisal database was created to capture training needs in all locations. The taken steps resulted in promoting women to senior levels, leadership training and paid maternity leave. In 2001 Women represented 24% of all promotions to associate level and above, up from 6% in 2000. In November 2001 30% of the Leading the Development of the Future (LCF) attendees were female; up from 10% in July the same year. In 2001 32% of graduates recruited to Arup were female; three times the number of female engineering students at Sydney University for that year. 10% of women recruited in 2001 were employed at associate level and above. Of the total number of women recruited in 2001, 40% were employed in technical roles. 8 weeks' paid maternity leave was introduced (4 weeks paid when on leave, 4 weeks paid upon return) (Duncan, 2001). Now let us briefly look at multi-cultural Asia where generalization is difficult. Asia is scattered with successful Asian business women and entrepreneurs, admittedly many who have had a helping hand courtesy of another significant force in Asian business power - the family company. In Singapore and Hong Kong, sex has become much less of a barrier to success in management. In Thailand and the Philippines, you can count many women in the top echelons of business, and political leadership is also not just for the men. Sri Lanka has a women leader, the Philippines had one, Malaysia now has a woman as the leader of the political reform movement, and women are in powerful political positions in Hong Kong and Malaysia particularly. The boss of the Raffles group in Singapore is a women as is the boss of the Dusit Thani group in Thailand, and it is highly likely that a women will become CEO of the Siam Commercial Bank in Thailand in the near future. While success stories are re-enforced by the new media, business in Asia at large remains a man's world. While "face" remains a force, and the old stamping grounds of the karaoke club (sexism at its finest) and the golf course predominate as play grounds, breaking the informal barriers are certainly not impossible, but a hard grind (Woo, 1999). Thus, it is obvious that bit by bit women occupy new position in organizations, enterprises and companies slowly moving towards the top of the hierarchy. Backed up by the legislature and powerful women's organizations they make a lodgment on the occupied steps of the social ladder. Taking high ranked management positions they introduce new ways of management, change the corporate culture and create a new image of manager. At the same time, there is still a lot of prejudice and stereotypes to overcome. It is not enough to employ women CEO's and raise their salary to the level of the men's. It is necessary to change the attitude towards women's role in society in general and a businesswoman in particular. Works Cited: APS Women's Networking Support Program. July 23, 2005 Citigroup. 2005. July 23, 2005 Coates, G. Organization - Man - Woman and Organizational Culture. Sociological Research Online, vol.2, No 3, July 23, 2005 Read More