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The purpose of this study is to explore how gender and gender role identity separately and jointly affect managerial aspirations.

The study was cross-sectional in nature. Survey data were collected from Chinese Government sectors. Two-way analysis of variance was used to test the research hypotheses.

The results showed that gender role identity and combination of gender and gender role identity predict management aspirations while gender alone does not affect management aspirations. Androgynous individuals self-reported higher scores of managerial aspirations. Female managers who perceive themselves as androgynous and masculine tend to possess higher management aspirations. However, when they perceive themselves to exhibit feminine traits, they are more likely to hold lower management aspirations. Moreover, male managers with androgynous and feminine traits are inclined to have higher management aspirations.

Due to cross-sectional survey data, research results may be biased by common method variance. In addition, because of a convenient sample, the research results may lack generalizability. Moreover, with participants from different organizations, the percentage of men and women in the organization and participants’ role conflicts between work and family life would impact the gender role identity of individuals. Future research should control for the gender composition of the workplace and participants’ role conflicts between work and family life.

The findings can help narrow the gender gap of managerial aspirations through focusing on gender role identity in selecting managers and designing the leadership training program, ultimately resulting in diminishing disparity in top leadership positions between men and women.

This study examines how gender and gender role identity separately and jointly affects managerial aspirations in the Chinese context.

The main purpose of this study is to increase the scholarly understanding of managerial growth aspirations in small firms. Research has shown that managers' aspirations are important to ensure firms' growth, but researchers know less of where their aspirations come from and how variation in these aspirations shapes organizational outcomes. By focusing on two growth strategies of particular importance for small firms – innovation and internationalization – the authors map out how managers' ambitious aspirations may create negative organizational effects and also how they may counteract such effects.

The study employs structural equation modeling (SEM) on a sample of 249 Norwegian small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The findings of this study suggest that managerial experience is associated with high aspirations as well as high change effectiveness on the managerial team. The authors find that ambitious growth aspirations are associated with exploration in the form of radical innovation but also lead to reduced employee well-being. Managers' level of perceived change effectiveness, on the other hand, is positively associated with radical innovation and also raises employee well-being.

This study highlights the positive and negative effects of managerial aspirations on different organizational outcomes. Further, it shows that managerial teams working effectively together in the face of change is important for the well-being of employees. Results confirm the positive relationship between aspirations for growth and applied growth strategies in organizations. The data sample is, however, extracted from one country only, and the authors cannot exclude the possibility that findings will be different elsewhere.

To ensure successful growth, managers should combine ambitious aspirations with attention to the top management team's (TMT) experience levels and change effectiveness. Assessment of possible needs for development and adjustments could ensure growth processes with limited negative effects for employee well-being.

By distinguishing between growth through international sales (exploitation) and growth through a more change-intensive strategy of radical innovation (exploration), the authors investigate how variations in managerial aspirations and perceptions influence organizational growth processes. This paper paints a unique picture of how managers can be both the cause and cure of employee well-being in change-demanding situations.

The study examined the influence of individual (internal) and situational (external) factors on the career advancement of women and men (N = 88) in a Swedish nation‐wide organization. Using, among other methods, LISREL path analyses, the results revealed that the internal factor of instrumental qualities was the major predictor of managerial advancement regardless of gender. Thus, the findings imply that the norms for managers are still quite traditional, leading both women and men to adopt an instrumental managerial style. Contrary to expectations, the impact of the external factor was not indicative of managerial aspirations or managerial group membership (attending a managerial program provided by the organization). However, women in both groups suffered more from work/family pressure than men in both groups. The results are discussed in terms of the contemporary view that there might be a shift in the definition of the managerial role in favor of women.

The purpose of this study is to examine linkages of gender and gender-related variables to aspirations to top management over a period spanning five decades.

During each of the past five decades, samples from two early-career populations (n = 2131), undergraduate business students and part-time (evening) MBAs, completed an aspirations to top management measure and described themselves on an instrument that assessed self-ascribed masculinity and femininity.

Aspirations to top management were predicted by respondent gender for undergraduates, with women’s aspirations lower than those of men, and by masculinity for both populations. Suggesting a shifting role of gender, undergraduate women’s aspirations to top management declined during the 21st century, whereas undergraduate men’s aspirations did not.

Any decline in early-career women’s aspirations to top management over a sustained period may contribute in the long run to perpetuating the under-representation of women in top management.

The finding of a striking decline in women’s aspirations to top management during the 21st century in an early-career population is an original contribution to the gender in management literature.

This study aims to compare alternative search behaviors managers enact with regard to firm aspirations.

The behavioral theory of the firm predicts that poor performance relative to aspiration levels leads to search for ways to raise performance over aspirations. Most researchers have assumed search leads to risk‐taking or innovation. However, firms might search for ways to raise performance without incurring additional risk, such as reducing expenses. This paper compares the two models of search using data on research and development (R&D) spending.

The results generally support the cost cutting argument; R&D spending increases monotonically with performance relative to social aspirations.

These results suggest researchers need to consider searches that emphasize cost reduction, as well as searches that emphasize innovation.

Overall, this paper extends behavioral work on risk‐taking and R&D to provide a more complex view of the interactions between kinds of aspiration levels and both innovation and search behavior.

The purpose of this paper is to address the research gap on Lebanese women managers and to demonstrate how gender, work, and family factors influence the career advancement of women managers.

The research is qualitative in nature. A total of 32 in‐depth face‐to face interviews were conducted with 32 women managers.

Interview data reveal that Lebanese women managers do not perceive gender‐centered factors as obstacles to career advancement. The women in the study used different terms to describe the impact of gender, work, and family factors on their career progression to those found in existing literature. Their responsibilities towards their families were not perceived as barriers hindering their career progress. In addition, their personality traits, aspirations for management, levels of educational attainment and work experience, and family‐related factors were also not perceived as inhibiting their careers.

The paper provides new practical insights into the relationships and the interconnections between Arab society, women, and their managerial careers. A strong theme is the significant role of Wasta, the reliance and dependence on social connections versus personal education and achievements to achieve career progress, in enhancing career progression and how gender is less of a criterion in the presence of Wasta.

This paper contributes to the limited knowledge about women and management in Lebanon, as well as the Middle Eastern region in general.

“Which advertisement fits reality?” asked Pamela Butler, researcher into gender communication. The top ad represents selected adjectives used to describe feminine characteristics in the Bern Sex Role Inventory (BSRI), a psychometric testing instrument, while the bottom ad represents so‐called masculine personality characteristics. The ads were adapted from Butler's advertisements for “Insurance Executives” in Self‐Assertion for Women.

Wanted: Manager Affectionate, childlike person who does not use harsh language, to head our administrative division. We want someone who is cheerful and eager to sooth hurt feelings. The position requires gullibility. This is the perfect job for the tender, yielding individual. Wanted: Manager Competitive, ambitious person with leadership ability to head our administrative division. We want someone who is dominant and self‐sufficient. The position requires strong analytical ability. This is the perfect job for a self‐reliant, independent person.

Focuses on the relationship between managerialattitudes towards exporting and exporting behaviour. A basic premiss is that the widely held assumption of a positive relationship between managerial attitudes and behaviour in exporting does not hold true in all circumstances, implying that in some cases a negative or no relationship between attitude and behaviour in exporting can be expected. Survey responses from a sample of manufacturing firms in Illinois support the basic premiss herein. Furthermore, the magnitude of attitude‐behaviour discrepancy among industrial firms was estimated to be sizeable among non‐exporting firms. Concludes with research, managerial, and policy implications of these findings.

Although previous research has investigated how performance feedback may affect firms’ strategic actions, their findings has been inconsistent. The relationship between performance feedback and firms’ strategic activities thus appears complex. Moreover, the authors contend that it may vary with the measurement strategies employed (i.e. social or historical feedback, operationalizations of strategic actions or accounting- and market-based performance indicators) and the national contexts.

Therefore, the current article presents a comprehensive meta-analysis of prior research, including 1,637,817 sample observations from 101 studies that span more than 18 countries.

The results indicate that (1) performance that are below or above aspirational levels generally has a positive relationship with firms’ strategic actions; (2) these relationships are contingent on the implementation forms taken by the key variables, such as performance feedback, strategic actions and performance indicators; and (3) the relationships are much stronger in countries where managerial discretion is greater.

The findings contribute to the clarification of long-standing theoretical and empirical debates regarding the relationship between performance feedback and strategic actions, as well as some pertinent directions for future research.