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Successful women of the Americas: the same or different?

Jo Ann Duffy (Department of Management and Marketing, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, Texas, USA)
Suzy Fox (Institute of Human Resources and Industrial Relations, Graduate School of Business, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA)
Betty Jane Punnett (Department of Management Studies, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados)
Ann Gregory (Faculty of Business Administration, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL, Canada)
Terri Lituchy (Department of International Management and Organizational Behavior, Department of Management, John Molson School of Business, Montreal, Quebec, Canada)
Silvia Inés Monserrat (Universidad Nacional del Centro, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas Sede Rectorado, Tandil, Buenos Aires, Argentina)
Miguel R. Olivas‐Luján (Department of Management, Clarion University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, USA)
Neusa Maria Bastos F. Santos (Graduate Programme in Accounting and Finance, Pontifica Catholica Universidade, Sao Paulo, Brazil)
John Miller (Department of Economics and International Business, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, Texas, USA)

Management Research News

ISSN: 0140-9174

Article publication date: 1 September 2006

2066

Abstract

Purpose

The intent of this cross‐national research is to study the personal and cultural characteristics of successful professional women. High‐achieving women may share certain personal characteristics, beliefs, and experiences, regardless of the countries in which they live. However, every individual is socialized within a particular national culture, and may be expected to share certain values and expectations with other members of that culture.

Design/methodology/approach

Over 1,100 professionally “successful women” (including high‐level managers, entrepreneurs, academics, government personnel, and professionals) and 531 undergraduate business students in nine countries – Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Mexico, the USA and the West Indies (Barbados, Jamaica, St. Vincent, and the Grenadines) completed surveys containing two sets of variables: national/cultural (collectivism/individualism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance) and personal (self‐efficacy, locus of control, need for achievement).

Findings

There were significant differences in the personal characteristics between successful women and the student comparison samples, with successful women consistently higher on self‐efficacy and need for achievement, and more internal on locus of control. There were some significant but smaller than expected differences in cultural characteristics between national samples.

Originality/value

This contrast of successful women living in the Americas provides new insights for managers of international companies seeking to be gender inclusive.

Keywords

Citation

Duffy, J.A., Fox, S., Punnett, B.J., Gregory, A., Lituchy, T., Inés Monserrat, S., Olivas‐Luján, M.R., Bastos F. Santos, N.M. and Miller, J. (2006), "Successful women of the Americas: the same or different?", Management Research News, Vol. 29 No. 9, pp. 552-572. https://doi.org/10.1108/01409170610708998

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2006, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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