Women in Business Management - Literature review Example

Women in Business Management Women in Business Management Introduction: Gone are those days when women were considered less than men in terms of qualification, abilities and capabilities and their only job was to look after their family. With the passage of time women has proved to be equal to men in all the fields whether it is science, finance and equity or any other male dominated subject- women have representation in all walks of life now. Women’s representation has increased drastically in the labor workforce in last few years. The point to be emphasized is that despite of the fact that women are now more educated, highly qualified and more career orientated than they were ever before they still don’t reach the top most positions in the organization and are still either underrepresented on the senior positions or are stuck in the middle managerial levels only. However many researches and scholarly worked showed that women can due to their uniqueness can benefit the organization in many ways. Their different style of leadership can help organization achieve its objectives and their representation on senior level adds greater diversity and transparency in the organization. Despite of all these researches women don’t make their way to the top management level due to many reasons that hinder women growth. In this essay I shall discuss the problems faced by women in reaching the top levels in organizations, the sex stereotyping and misconceptions about working women, how men and women lead differently and the advantages and benefits an organization can have of women representation in the senior management. Theoretical background: Statistical Analysis: With the passage of time women all over the world are striving to become independent, the increasing number of women have joined the labor workforce in last few years and they continue to do so. According to US Bureau of Labor Statistics of 2008 women constitutes about 48% of the total labor workforce in US. Despite of being almost half of the total labor workforce, women are unable to make their mark in the top position. The first article that discussed barriers for women’s advancement in the senior managerial roles appeared in The Wall Street Journal in 1986. The study and work on the subject is also referred to as ‘glass ceiling’ which blocked women to take the senior level positions. Since then many researches and scholarly works have appeared regarding the issues. Studies revealed that women are not presented equally on the senior management positions, even if they reach these positions they remain under paid. In 2002, in the Fortune 500 companies women only acquired 15.7% of the corporate officer level position. While in recent times, according to a study released by Catalyst- a non profit organization working for the empowerment of women, the main reason stopping women to be a part of senior management in the organization is the gender stereotyping. Despite of being equivalent to men, women are often left with conflicting, unfavorable options due to such circumstances. Catalyst’s data released in 2011 showed that women hold 46.7% of total labor workforce in US out of which 51.5% of women, almost half hold professional and management occupations and according to Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) women hold 33% of top managerial positions in UK. However, even after holding such high percentage of total workforce women are still underrepresented in the top 500 fortune companies of the world where they hold only 6.7% of the top senior management positions that include corporate officer positions, board seats and chief executive titles. (BILIMORIA & PIDERIT. 2007; ARFKEN, BELLAR & HELMS. 2004; PICHLER, SIMPSON, & STROH. 2008; EVANS, D. 2011) With the passage of time there have been certain changes in women’s participation in the total labor work force. Initially women workers constitute more of part-time workers than full time, now with the changing trend the number of full time and part time working women are almost the same. Even the percentage of married women in the labor force has increased after the legislation changes that allow women to go on maternity leaves and resume their work later on. It is also noted that in the last few years women have pursued a professional career seriously and there was an increasing number of women who enrolled in business administration programs and took up managerial positions. (PSVCHOGIOS. A. G. 2007) The Glass Ceiling: The literature on glass ceiling has focused on the issues like characteristics of women that limit their chances of climbing up the managerial positions such as their priorities, traits, career thinking etc and organizational features that effect women’s advancement in the organization. Morrison and Von Glinow’s work on the subject gained substantial amount of importance. They identified and discussed three theoretical reasons for the differential treatment and attainment levels of men and women, the reasons being incapability of women to act as a manager, structural discrimination and biasness by dominant groups like media etc and effects of negative stereotypes. After their study many researchers and scholars worked on the reasons individually. Previous researchers even analyzed that women have more role in human resource management than any other field and they are overrepresented in HR roles. Despite of all these facts and being equally qualified as men, women still are not able to make their place in the top managerial positions. The questions being the topic of concern of much scholarly work is about women’s commitment, their reasons for opting out of the managerial positions, women being less dedicated and hard working than men etc. (BILIMORIA & PIDERIT. 2007; ARFKEN, BELLAR & HELMS. 2004; PICHLER, SIMPSON & STROH. 2008) The glass ceiling discusses about the invisible barriers imposed by the corporate leaders and managers that makes difficult for women to take up senior positions, however new researches suggests that women’s mobility towards top position is hindered when personal reasons like maternity, culture and tradition and organizational reasons like stereotypes, preconceptions and perceptions of men about women’s inability to lead, meet together. (SCHWARTZ, F. N. 1989) Sex Stereotyping: Sex Stereotyping has been a prevailing issue faced by women all around the world. Stereotyping happens when people are judged on certain generalized traits of the group from where they belong. Weak, emotional, less determined, nurturing, facilitative, lacking career commitment etc. are all sex stereotyping about women. Sex stereotyping can result in a perception that women less deserve to be on a managerial position than men and can lead to bias decisions about women’s qualification and career. Schein’s work on the subject discussed the issues about the traits required to become a successful managers and the association of those traits to men or women in general and to what extent the relationship between sex roles stereotypes and required traits for becoming a successful manager existed. This research even emphasized on the sex stereotyping done by male managers and their unchanged attitudes towards women which hinders women’s growth in the organizations and become a hurdle for reaching senior management positions. (PICHLER, SIMPSON, & STROH. 2008; BRENNER, TOMKIEWICZ & SCHEIN. 1989) Role of Media in Sex Stereotyping: Recent analysis also revealed that not only men’s attitude towards women hinder their growth towards senior management position but also media has started portraying a gendered frame about feminine leadership in the organizations. A general perception is created by the media about educated women leaving workforce thus reducing number of women competing for senior management positions, women are less dedicated and committed than men to fill the senior management positions, women avoid powerful positions, women are passive to claim their rewards and women prefer staying at home and consider that more rewarding. Many researches about women regarding these claims have been conducted to assess the validity of these perceptions about women. Over all a very little or no support for these media claims were found by the researchers and scholars and media’s baseless stereotyping about women just became a hurdle for women’s growth in the organization. (BILIMORIA & PIDERIT. 2007) Leading and Management Styles of Women: Earlier researchers mostly worked on two issues that are the differences and similarities found between men’s and women’s managing and leading styles. There is also significant stereotyping found in the perception about the ways women manages and leads. It is assumed that women leads in a participative style are more equity based and nurturing than men. However some researchers even brought a different picture of management styles being situational and men and women adopt the management style required for a particular situation that has nothing to do with the gender. It is still quoted by many researchers that women tend to manage and adopt an interactive leadership style which encourage participation. Women are still seen as never right when it comes to leading; they are believed to violate accepted norms of leadership. Women are still in the process of ‘proving’ themselves to be great leaders to men and still face high standards set by male managers. Even if women leads the way typically men do, with assertiveness she is seen as competent but not very well liked and is considered masculine. (KRISMANN, C. 2005; EVANS, D. 2011) The barriers that hamper women’s growth in the organization often include lack of flexibility at the workplace, inappropriate or no strategies of development of women, excluding women from informal networks, lack of role models for women etc. There is a close association of leadership styles and the potential of becoming a transformational leader. Many studies about the leadership styles and gender don’t support the idea of stereotypical feminine and masculine styles of leadership. (EVANS, D. 2011). Much literature on women leadership stressed that women’s managerial and leadership capabilities are equal to men. A few even argued that women’s feminine skills and traits can benefit organization and could make contribution to organizational development. A research on the same subject even revealed that though the leadership traits associated with men and women are different, it is just that male traits are more valued than female traits, what required is a repositioning of thinking. A scholar wrote that women can be used for bringing a radical change in the organization by their experience in maintaining households. Women’s skills of cooperation, communication and orientation towards power can make them better facilitator, encourage communication and interaction in the organization and making others enthusiastic about their work. That is why it is often consider that women perform best in the areas related to Human Resources management. (PSVCHOGIOS. A. G. 2007) Women in Real World of Business: As mentioned earlier women do hold a significant percentage of labor workforces all over the world, yet they are still underrepresented in the top senior management and strategic positions worldwide. These facts reveal that women do initiate a career but due to reasons and circumstances are unable to make their positions to the top management. Improvement in Financial Results: A study under taken by McKinsey and Company in 2010 clearly indicated that women’s increased participation at the corporate level can lead to increased financial results. The inclusion on women at top management level and gender diversity can drive performance. Catalyst worked on the relationship between presence of women on the senior level management and financial performance of the company. It took 4 period data from 353 Fortune 500 companies and measured their performances based on return on equity and return on shareholders. The study showed companies with women representation on the board yielded higher returns than companies with male dominance. Catalyst study summarized the work as “The business case for recruiting, developing and advancing women maintains that companies that have diversity and manage it properly make better decisions, produce better products and retain several key business advantages over more homogenous companies. In short, the business case for women in management contends that companies that achieve diversity and manage it well attain better financial results than other companies.”(RUTTER, M. 2010; PSVCHOGIOS. A. G. 2007) Gender stereotyping Problems and Preventive Steps Taken by Companies: It is often considered that women are more expensive to employ due to their interruptions in the career. Corporation recruit people and spent a lot of money on their development and training. Due to high turnover rate, changes in priorities and career interruptions many corporation believe it’s more expensive to employ women as compared to men. Mostly corporations fear that there employee will not turn up after the maternity leaves or once she becomes a mother and probably they could do nothing about it. The problem starts from the perception ‘nothing could be done about it’, which eventually leave women stuck in the lower managerial roles only and restrict their growth as the corporation or employer were not facilitating enough. (ROSENER, J. B. 1990) Gender stereotyping has always been a reason that hinders women’s growth to reach the top management positions. In recent years, many companies, particularly men dominated fields like accounting and finance adopted strategies to bring diversity and increase women’s participation in all aspects of their business. In 1989 even Ann Hopkins sued Price Water Coopers for not accepting her as a partner due to gender biasness. Recently a Big four audit firm KPMG aimed to increase the number of women partners in the firm and allowing flexible working to women. Grant Thorton another leading accountancy firm also developed ‘Women at Grant Thorton’ to ensure women’s participation and their development. It also implemented flexible working policies for women and allowed parental leaves to encourage participation of women in different managerial roles. (EVANS, D. 2011). Effect of Women’s Leadership Style on Organization: There is a difference between how men and women lead, the fact men and women are not alike has to be accepted to remove all the perceptions that create gender biasness. Women leaders would focus on encouraging participation and sharing ideas and information, which is participative style of management. But what they mean by encouraging participation is much more than that. Women leaders tend to provide opportunities, where people are sure of their abilities and the work they perform, hence giving better results. Inclusion of people in major aspects of business and even major decisions is an example of participative management. Women do this through conversations between the staff. Women tend to lead in a transformational way while men do it transactional. Men view job performance as a series of transactions with the subordinates while women motivate and lead by making others transform their goals into organization’s goals. Women ask for suggestions before reaching a conclusion which helps in generating good ideas and make employees understand the complexity of management decisions. Participation increases support in a decision and often helps in reducing risks associated with a project and investment and in this way a second opinion is usually available. (ROSENER, J. B. 1990) Women can be successful in business world because the management work to be done by them can be easily linked to the household work and women found their role consistent with that they play at homes. The women’s interactive leadership comes from women’s socialization skill that comes naturally to them and many women believe this style of leadership has benefited their organization. It is accepted by many researchers that the way women lead and manages can contribute greatly to the organization; although pay, reward and promotion are important to employees it is much important for them to feel that they are effectively contributing for the growth of the organization to which they are associated. Women’s style to manage people motivates them more in this aspect. (ROSENER, J. B. 1990) In large organization it is important to bring diversity in the boards of directors. Women being on board can bring the required and different expertise to make connections with different stakeholders. Additionally for a more transparent board independent people are required who have no financial interest in the company’s affairs and this objective of independent board of directors can be achieved by having more women on board. A company is a perception of its customers, and similarly should include the diverse ideas, education, gender perceptive and experience of the masses. That is why a company’s board should be diverse. (ROSENER, J. B. 1990) Importance of Women’s Representation on Board of Directors: Glass ceiling has often been identified as a reason for underrepresentation of women on senior level positions and board. Women are held back in advancing to top positions due to informal channels of communication which includes stereotyping of women and preconceptions about women’s ability to act as successful leaders. Even though there is an increasing trend of women being appointed as directors and member of the boards, but that trend is increasing at a fairly slow pace. Also, in many male dominated professions, women are still not considered for potential positions. The general perception of men dominating important positions has still not changed even with the passage of time. However, a lot of companies have made it a point to appoint a certain quota of women, on top level positions and on their board. The companies nowadays are trying to maintain a diverse board, by keeping aside biasness. It is also observed that the number of women directors on boards, show a falling trend in times of recession, as a large number of unemployed male candidates are available for the position and men are preferred over women in such situations. (ROSENER, J. B. 1990) A study revealed the fact that 78 companies from FTSE 100 companies have women participation and presentation on their boards. Women add greater diversity to the board pooling in expertise different from that of women. It is also emphasized that these women being on board have caused the board to take transparent decisions and are a better governance indicators than male dominated board.( RUTTER, M. 2010) Conclusion: Initially women were underrepresented on the senior management in the organization world wide. With the passage of time the trend has changed and women have taken up roles in many levels of organization. There still seems need of researches to be done on leadership styles of women and the ways women manage the managerial roles and their similarities and differences with the ways men do it. Gender stereotyping and glass ceiling are the major issues that act as a barrier of women’s growth in the organization. There is an increasing need for larger organizations to expand their definition of effective leadership and not just associate effective leadership qualities to men only. A shift in the perception of organization particularly males are required. Organizations should take additional steps to eradicate stereotyping in the workplace. Increasing awareness is required regarding stereotypical perceptions of leading styles of women among the employees and women leaders. Training and education regarding importance of diversity, effects of biasness and gender stereotyping and causes that lead to such differences and biasness shall be identified and highlighted in the training programs. Creation of an environment should be done that identify risks associated with gender biasness and measures to deal with those once they occur. Clear management system and performance evaluation criteria should be implemented in the organization. (ROSENER, J. B. 1990; EVANS, D. 2011) Being in top senior management and board of directors women can greatly benefit the organization. Women usually adopt a participative leadership style both nurturing and employee participation, which works best with customers, employees and other stakeholders while focus on high achievement and risk taking. The companies which have women on board tend to yield greater financial results as the transparency diversity on the board is increased by their presence. Thus today’s women have a great deal of roles to play; she has to see a rewarding, fulfilling job, has to be a good mother and look after the home. Women with all their abilities can not only run their homes very well but also can do wonders in their professional careers. Bibliography KRISMANN, C. (2005). Encyclopedia of American women in business: from colonial times to the present. Westport, Conn, Greenwood Press. BILIMORIA, D., & PIDERIT, S. K. (2007). Handbook on women in business and management. Cheltenham, UK, Edward Elgar. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=182128. PICHLER, S., SIMPSON, P. A., & STROH, L. K. (2008). The glass ceiling in human resources: Exploring the link between womens representation in management and the practices of strategic human resource management and employee involvement. Human Resource Management. 47, 463. EVANS, D. (2011). Room at the Top: Advancement and Equity for Women in the Business World. National Civic Review. 100, 62-64. ROSENER, J. B. (1990). Ways women lead. SCHWARTZ, F. N. (1989). Management women and the new facts of life. Boston, HBR Reprints. BRENNER, O. C., TOMKIEWICZ, J., & SCHEIN, V. E. (1989). The Relationship between Sex Role Stereotypes and Requisite Management Characteristics Revisited. Academy of Management Journal. 32,. ARFKEN, D. E., BELLAR, S. L., & HELMS, M. M. (2004). The Ultimate Glass Ceiling Revisited: The Presence of Women on Corporate Boards. Journal of Business Ethics. 50, 177-186. RUTTER, M. (2010). Women Are Good for Business But is Business Good for Women? Couselling at work. Retrieved from: www.bacpworkplace.org.uk PSVCHOGIOS. A. G. (2007) Towards the Transformational Leader: Addressing Womens Leadership Style in Modern Business Management. Journal of Business and Society. Read More