Search results
11 – 20 of over 56000Lynette Kvasny, Eileen M. Trauth and Allison J. Morgan
Social exclusion as a result of gender, race, and class inequality is perhaps one of the most pressing challenges associated with the development of a diverse information…
Abstract
Purpose
Social exclusion as a result of gender, race, and class inequality is perhaps one of the most pressing challenges associated with the development of a diverse information technology (IT) workforce. Women remain under represented in the IT workforce and college majors that prepare students for IT careers. Research on the under representation of women in IT typically assumes women to be homogeneous in nature, something that blinds the research to variation that exists among women. This paper aims to address these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper challenges the assumption of heterogeneity by investigating how the intersection of gender, race, and class identities shape the experiences of Black female IT workers and learners in the USA.
Findings
The results of this meta‐analysis offer new ways of theorizing that provide nuanced understanding of social exclusion and varied emancipatory practices in reaction to shared group exposure to oppression.
Originality/value
This study on the under‐representation of women as IT workers and learners in the USA considers race and class as equally important factors for understanding variation among women. In addition, this paper provides rich insights into the experiences of Black women, a group that is largely absent from the research on gender and IT.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this research is to explore the experiences regarding diversity and inclusion in the professional context. The stories of female IT professionals included the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to explore the experiences regarding diversity and inclusion in the professional context. The stories of female IT professionals included the discussion around enablers and blockers of career and development in IT and talking about worst and best daily experiences at the workplace.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a qualitative study that presents the findings from four focus groups with 50 participants – selected female IT professionals working in Poland. The IT professionals were taking part in the Women in Tech Summit in Warsaw in 2019. LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® projective technique has been applied during the group interviews to help the participants express their experiences in a creative way.
Findings
The findings include conceptualization of the three main sources of inequalities: (1) Imbalance in rewards and recognition and performance visibility (2) Inability to build wider women-oriented strategic alliances and meaningful relationships around D&I and (3) Willingness but no practical mechanisms to contribute to the business value and being a part of meaningful activities and two concepts of how to improve employee experiences, namely: business strategizing based on daily meaningful experience and mentoring others and impacting business reality through creating professional alliances that matter and are recognized as business value generators as the key directions.
Research limitations/implications
The research was conducted before the pandemic.
Practical implications
The research creates a practical conversational framework for managers giving directions on how to talk about diversity and inclusion in the workplace using a perspective of “daily interactions” and “everyday employee experiences”.
Social implications
The emerged concepts help to direct the corporate discussions around Social Development Goal No. 5 – Gender Equality in a practical business dimension.
Originality/value
The originality is brought by (1) LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® – the method of creative exploration used during the focused groups (2) social significance of gender equality in the technological roles and industries, especially in the context of reskilling approaches (3) Central and Eastern European perspective of the research.
Details
Keywords
Since liberalization in the 1990s, India has witnessed a growth in the number of educated middle-class women in professions. However, there are few women in leadership positions…
Abstract
Purpose
Since liberalization in the 1990s, India has witnessed a growth in the number of educated middle-class women in professions. However, there are few women in leadership positions and decision-making bodies. While the earlier notion of the ideal woman as homemaker has been replaced by one which idealizes women of substance, a woman’s role in the family continues to be pivotal and is even viewed as central in defining Indian culture. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how and to what extent gender inequalities are reproduced in the organizations employing educated professionals.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the perspective that gender is socially constructed, this paper analyzes gender inequality in Indian organizations through semi-structured interviews of men and women scientists in two private pharmaceutical laboratories.
Findings
The findings show reproduction of a gendered normative order through two types of norms and practices: one, norms and practices that favor men and second, socio-cultural norms that devalue women in public spaces which help to maintain masculinity in the workplace. Although these practices might be found elsewhere in the world, the manner in which they are enacted reflects national cultural norms.
Originality/value
The paper highlights how various norms and practices enacted in the specific Indian socio-cultural context construct and maintain masculinity at workplace depriving opportunities to professional women which affect their rise to leadership positions.
Details
Keywords
Vasanthi Srinivasan, L.S. Murty and Monisha Nakra
This paper seeks to explore career centrality, belief in gender disadvantage, and career success definition as the determinants of career persistence among women software…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to explore career centrality, belief in gender disadvantage, and career success definition as the determinants of career persistence among women software professionals in emerging economies like India. The control variables used are marital and parental status.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey questionnaire was administered to 190 software women professionals and statistical analyses were used to test the hypotheses.
Findings
Belief in gender disadvantage and objective success definition are differentiators for career persistence while career centrality is not. Marital status and parental status are relevant control variables.
Research limitations/implications
Further exploration is needed of the dimensions of career centrality constructs and control for demographic variables.
Practical implications
Organizations should consider investments in child care support and other flexible work options so that women continue to remain in their careers.
Originality/value
This is the first known study to explore career persistence among women with a focus on culture unique to Asian countries like India.
Details
Keywords
Dhara Shah, Narendra M. Agrawal and Miriam Moeller
Despite more than 50 years of research into gender and work, the impact of female expatriates persists to be underrepresented in mainstream international human resource management…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite more than 50 years of research into gender and work, the impact of female expatriates persists to be underrepresented in mainstream international human resource management (IHRM) literature. The purpose of this paper is to identify and explore the perceptions of married Indian information technology (IT) women regarding career and expatriating discussions they have with their husbands and its impact on their decision making to undertake international assignments.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 24 married Indian IT women who had undertaken international assignments after marriage. The study includes two data sets, 1: women on less than one-year assignment; 2: women on greater than one-year assignments.
Findings
The study found that women who went on short-term assignments of less than one year travelled alone and found it fortunate and convenient to leave their children in the care of their husbands, in-laws, parents and maids. While in the cases of women travelling for longer-term assignments, most husbands accompanied them. The study suggests that while spousal support was the key, having a shared purpose with husbands along with extended family support was equally significant to facilitate women undertaking an international assignment. As an impetus, the authors note a change within the Indian society where both partners come together to make decisions about expatriating.
Research limitations/implications
The authors discuss the implications for IHRM as they relate to gender diversity within organisations.
Originality/value
The research, underpinned by the early workings of a theory of career hierarchy, explores the complexities in expatriation decision-making processes of married women from the emerging economy of India with traditional family values, who are working within a modern and liberal IT industry.
Details
Keywords
During the past two decades, an increasing amount of research has focused on career progress for women; however, gender has been the main focus of study, with the aspect of race…
Abstract
During the past two decades, an increasing amount of research has focused on career progress for women; however, gender has been the main focus of study, with the aspect of race rarely mentioned. In response, recent studies have begun to refute the implicit assumption that references to “women” in such research include all women, and that the experiences of all women are similar. This preliminary study focuses on the life and career experiences of a group of black women managers and administrators, exploring factors they identify as having impacted their career progress. Interviews and focus groups were used to gather data. Discusses ideas for additional research and implications for organizations interested in fostering a more supportive environment for women of colour.
Details
Keywords
Leonie V. Still and Cecily Guerin
Networking is increasingly important to women as their careers advance in a wide range of professions and occupations. However, while they are aware of its benefits, an Australian…
Abstract
Networking is increasingly important to women as their careers advance in a wide range of professions and occupations. However, while they are aware of its benefits, an Australian study reveals differences between men and women executives in the way they network. Men emerge as better at networking in the business, professional, and social environments. The study suggests that women could improve their skills by observing male strategies. While women's networks are of great assistance, women could benefit even more if they had more experience in the men's version of the networking game.
Ellen R. Auster and Karen L. Ekstein
The dynamics of professional women's mid‐career satisfaction are important to understand, given the vast knowledge, experience and skills typically accrued by mid‐career that are…
Abstract
Purpose
The dynamics of professional women's mid‐career satisfaction are important to understand, given the vast knowledge, experience and skills typically accrued by mid‐career that are often difficult to replace.
Design/methodology/approach
This study empirically examines Auster's multilevel framework of factors affecting the mid‐career satisfaction of professional women using a sample of 125 professional women engineers.
Findings
Results of logistic regressions reveal that individual, career, job, stress and organizational factors all impact the mid‐career satisfaction of professional women, but that stress and job factors are the most powerful determinants for this sample of women.
Research limitations/implications
While this study offers many insights and possible directions for future research on women at mid‐career, there are a number of limitations. Future research could broaden the macro and micro factors explored, as well as compare these results with those of women in other fields and industries, women at other career stages, and women across other geographic regions.
Practical implications
Organizations should strive to be more transparent about advancement options and opportunities, provide interesting and challenging work and more flexibility in work schedules (emphasize output, not face time), and offer support for key drivers of stress.
Originality/value
This is the first fairly large‐scale empirical study of macro and micro factors affecting women's mid‐career satisfaction. This article should be of interest to managers concerned with retention of high‐performing employees, HR practitioners, and academics specializing in careers, women's issues, and human resource management.
Details
Keywords
Elizabeth Hamilton Volpe and Wendy Marcinkus Murphy
The purpose of this paper is to address the idea of “opting out” for married professional women by presenting a conceptual investigation into the impact that a woman's identity…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to address the idea of “opting out” for married professional women by presenting a conceptual investigation into the impact that a woman's identity and social networks have in shaping her decisions surrounding career exit. A model is developed and intended to help researchers in this area move beyond existing frameworks when attempting to explain and predict women's career exit.
Design/methodology/approach
Research from the identity, social networks, turnover, and careers literatures was analyzed and integrated to put forth a new theoretical lens, represented by the conceptual model developed in this paper, that helps to explain married professional women's career exit.
Findings
Development of the model reveals a complex, reciprocal relationship between a woman's identity and her social network and depicts how these factors act in concert to shape women's decisions regarding career exit or “opting out.” This model also highlights the importance of structural constraints shaping a woman's social network, moderators impacting the relationship between a woman's identity and career exit behaviors, and outcomes of career exit.
Originality/value
Although identity is a fundamental element of career development and relationships with others serve as an origin of self and source of self‐understanding, the integration of these perspectives has been conspicuously absent from research on women's career exit. Examining the convergence of identity and social networks and the reciprocal relationship these constructs have on career phenomena advances our knowledge of why married professional women choose to “opt out” or exit their careers.
Details
Keywords
I.M. Jawahar and Pegah Hemmasi
The purpose of this paper is to examine if organization's failure to support women's advancement increases turnover intentions of well qualified and experienced professional women…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine if organization's failure to support women's advancement increases turnover intentions of well qualified and experienced professional women, as asserted by many scholars and the mediating influence of job satisfaction and employer satisfaction on the relationship between organizational support and turnover intentions.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 332 female executives (Study 1) and 186 female managers and professionals (Study 2) were surveyed to examine specific, heretofore, untested hypotheses. Such replications ensure that the results are repeatable and not artefactual to particular samples/or settings.
Findings
Results of both studies were identical. Perceptions of support were related to turnover intentions. Employer satisfaction had a stronger effect on turnover intentions than job satisfaction, and fully mediated the relationship between support and turnover intentions.
Originality/value
Drawing on the social exchange theory, it was expected that perceived organizational support (POS) for women's advancement would be negatively related to turnover intentions. POS for women's advancement is more specific and relevant to professional women than POS per se. Another new construct was introduced – employer satisfaction – and as hypothesized it was found that employer satisfaction was more strongly related to turnover intentions than job satisfaction; it also mediates the support‐turnover relationship more strongly than job satisfaction. Implications of results are discussed and directions for future research are offered.
Details