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Human and social capital as influencers on women’s careers: Rosemary Pledger’s path to career success and mobility

Silvia Ines Monserrat (Centro de Estudios en Administración, Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, Tandil, Argentina)
Claire A. Simmers (Department of Management, School of Business, Saint Joseph's University Erivan K. Haub, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA)

Journal of Management History

ISSN: 1751-1348

Article publication date: 16 April 2020

Issue publication date: 21 August 2020

474

Abstract

Purpose

In 1979, Rosemary Pledger became the first female President of the Academy of Management (AOM). AOM, through scholarship and teaching about management and organizations, is well known for its contributions to the development of modern management theory. The purpose of this paper is to understand and analyze the human and social influencers which enabled Pledger’s career success. She climbed to the top of her profession and became a role model for other professional women, especially in the academic field; she successfully cracked the glass ceiling.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors used a qualitative methodology as most appropriate to examine the research question of how Pledger used human and social skills to overcome barriers to career success. In addition to her biographical data, the authors analyzed 1,593 pages of documents from the AOM Archives at the Khell Center, Martin P. Catherwood Library, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.

Findings

Pledger succeeded because she developed strong human and social capital critical for career success and career mobility. Becoming part of the top management team in three organizations – the AOM, the Southwestern AOM and the University of Houston – Clear Lake City is evidence of her skill in using her capital to crack the glass ceiling.

Research limitations/implications

The limitation of author interpretation of secondary data is recognized.

Practical implications

This work illustrates the appropriateness of qualitative research, specifically, in placing important management figures in context, and it makes clear how human and social capital factors are critical to career success for women.

Originality/value

AOM’s contribution to the development of modern management theory is widely recognized; however, there is a lack of studies related to the career successes of AOM’s female leaders. This paper chronicles the career life of Rosemary Pledger who became the first female president of the AOM and a successful Dean and examines the factors that contributed to her career success despite the presence of a glass ceiling.

Keywords

Citation

Monserrat, S.I. and Simmers, C.A. (2020), "Human and social capital as influencers on women’s careers: Rosemary Pledger’s path to career success and mobility", Journal of Management History, Vol. 26 No. 4, pp. 471-489. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMH-11-2019-0069

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited

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