Women and Management: Current Research Issues Volume II

Citation

Olsson, S. (2001), "Women and Management: Current Research Issues Volume II", Women in Management Review, Vol. 16 No. 1, pp. 42-46. https://doi.org/10.1108/wimr.2001.16.1.42.2

This collection provides a most useful resource for women in management researchers and practitioners. The articles are grouped in four broad sections:

1. 1.

   (1) women managers and entrepreneurs;

2. 2.

   (2) career development and high fliers;

3. 3.

   (3) occupational stress and black and ethnic minority issues; and

4. 4.

   (4) organizational and governmental initiatives.

The first section, including the introductory chapter by Marilyn Davidson and Ronald Burke, provides empirical data up to 1998 on the position of women in the workforce and draws some comparisons with data collected for the 1994 Women in Management: Current Issues Volume I. The articles show that women’s labour force participation has increased to just over 50 percent in the UK and to the high and low 40 percentages in countries such as New Zealand and France. At the same time, women form the majority of the part‐time workforce. In “The position of women in management in Europe”, Susan Vinnicombe suggests a new gender polarization is occurring between part‐time workers (80 per cent women in Europe) and full‐timers (men and women).

The main focus, however, is on women managers and women entrepreneurs. While the statistics show positive increases in the western global position of women in management, the articles show that women continue to be under‐represented at senior management level and on corporate boards. Vinnicombe points to the related issues of vertical and horizontal segregation of the labour market, gender pay differentials and initiatives to overcome the attitudinal and systemic barriers for women in management. In “French women managers”, Jacqueline Laufer argues that the French management model of long working hours impacts negatively on women’s executive levels, particularly in respect to balancing the tension between professional and family responsibilities. A welcome overview of the statistics is provided by Judy McGregor and David Tweed in “Women managers and entrepreneurs in New Zealand”. They point out that New Zealand fits into the ILO analysis of women in management which shows women’s overall share of management positions rarely exceeds 20 percent, with half of these within junior management levels and 8 percent as compared with 20 percent of males in top management positions.

On the positive side, McGregor and Tweed’s study of small and medium‐sized businesses in New Zealand reveals a “spectacular” increase in women business owners. The article explores the attitudes and implications of this trend to independence and entrepreneurship. Astrid Richardson and Ronald Burke’s account of female entrepreneurs in Norway details a similar growth, but here women are concentrated mainly in small ventures, with 83 percent earning less than the average wage per annum. One of the most stimulating articles in this group, Mary C. Mattis’s “Women entrepreneurs in the United States”, builds up a profile of women in self‐employment based on interviews with 650 women and 150 men US business owners. Detailing the move into entrepreneurship of women who have gained their skills in the “corporate incubator”, Mattis provides organizations with cogent recommendations on the means both to retain women and to recruit women from self‐employment onto corporate boards and senior management positions.

In Part II the focus moves to issues surrounding career development. Cheryl Travers and Carole Pemberton’s article on networking, including cross‐cultural networking, leads on well to Linda K. Stroh, Arup Varma and Stacey J. Valy‐Durbin’s re‐examination of the myths first identified by Adler that are held to impact negatively on women’s opportunities for international assignments. This re‐examination involved a survey of female international assignes/expatriates and their supervisors and draws specific implications for organisations and for future research.

Underlying issues of career development is the similarities/differences debate. Claartje J. Vinkenburg, Paul G.W. Jansen and Paul L. Koopman provide a useful review of research into gender differences in managerial behaviour and effectiveness, which points to the lack of consistent empirical proof of consistent gender differences, particularly in the task‐relation dimension. In turn, Diana Bilimoria and Jane V. Wheeler compile a representative summary of survey‐type studies on women directors.

The last article in this section, Barbara White’s “Lessons from the careers of successful women” posits an age‐linked triple helix model of women’s career development. While White finds that successful women display high career centrality and continuous full‐time employment, she argues for the importance of the reconceptualized helix or spiral career model for women in negotiating career structures which suit their lives.

Part III covers occupational stress and black and ethnic majority issues. Two articles in particular stand out in this section. The first is Sandra L. Fielden and Marilyn J Davidson’s comparative study, “Stress and the unemployed woman manager”. Based on interviews with 113 female and 169 male unemployed managers, the study reveals the stigma associated with unemployment as a major stressor for both sexes. But whereas age discrimination was a main stressor for men, women reported gender discrimination in recruitment processes and an underlying lack of recognition of the importance of work in the lives of female managers. The second article, “Refracted lives: sources of disconnection between black and white women”, draws on a “life history” approach to successful US women executives to point to sources of disconnection. These include not only the community ethos of black women as opposed to the nuclear family base and individualism of white women, but also the socio‐economic background as a source of disconnection. Written by Ella L.J. Edmondson Bell and Stella M. Nkomo, this article creates a real understanding of the forces of race, gender and class and suggests the socio‐psychological bridges necessary for these two groups to develop trusting relationships.

Finally, Part IV looks towards the future and discusses organizational and governmental initiatives. In “The glass ceiling: explaining the good and bad news”, Gary N. Powell examines prior reviews and related statistics on the status of women in managerial ranks. He also discusses person‐centred and situation‐centred explanations for the under‐representation of women in top management positions. In “The business case and the management of diversity” Catherine Cassell sees the management of diversity as essential to strategic human resource and organizational planning in order to achieve the business goals of success and competitive advantage. While she mentions the possible trap of this emphasis on individual difference as leading to the gendered division of labour, no critique is offered of the possible dilution, or even submersion, of women’s issues within the discourse of diversity. Similarly, Andrew Hede’s “Affirmative action in Australia: employment equity at the crossroads” traces the initiatives stemming from the Affirmative Action Act (1986) and notes, but does not critique, the gradual shift towards the supposedly more encompassing language of diversity.

In contrast to the empirically‐based, interpretative realism of most of this collection, David L. Collinson and Jeff Hearn, in “Critical studies on men, masculinities and managements”, review recent studies, including what they describe as the seminal work of Kanter, that examine the complex gendered processes of power that characterise contemporary management. They suggest the examination of discourses of masculinist control forms a basis for developing new forms of the analysis of power in management and organisations. They call for feminist/ pro‐feminist and self‐reflexive studies of the enduring dominance and interrelations of men, masculinities and power.

The final article in this collection, Cary L. Cooper’s “Towards short‐term contract cultures: the future impact on women in management”, discusses the changing nature of the employment market as organisations downsize, restructure and outsource to move towards a short‐term contract or freelance culture. Cooper describes the possibility of “virtual organisations” together with “an army of blue‐collar, white‐collar and managerial temps” (p. 297). Certainly, women need to be aware of and prepare transferable skills for these trends, but to link the current predominance of women in the part‐time workforce to the assertion that “the future is female in the workplace” seems to be an overstatement that willfully ignores the complex gendered processes of power discussed by Collinson and Hearn.

In conclusion, this collection is dominated by interpretative realism appropriate to the context of business. Thus its messages reach organizations and practitioners as well as academics. For researchers in the area of management it provides a useful empirical basis, while pointing to the need for further theorization in areas such as career models. Finally, a number of chapters combine recommendations for organizations with possibilities and directions for future research into women and management.