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Article
Publication date: 17 January 2020

Arpita Agnihotri and Saurabh Bhattacharya

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the adverse impact of a female executive’s fraudulent behaviour on other female employees working in the same organisation.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the adverse impact of a female executive’s fraudulent behaviour on other female employees working in the same organisation.

Design/methodology/approach

This developmental study uses a comprehensive literature review and a set of propositions to identify the consequences of a female’s fraudulent activity on other female employees working in the focal organisation. It develops a conceptual framework for the same. Propositions are further supported by five focus group interviews.

Findings

Leveraging stigma-by-association theory, the paper asserts that fraud committed by one female executive in an organisation enhances discriminatory practices against other female employees in the organisation. The level of adverse impact is contingent on the seniority of the female executive committing the fraud, severity of the fraud, gender of the other female employees’ managers and diversity in culture in the organisation.

Research limitations/implications

This paper extends the stigma-by-association theory. In its original spirit, the theory describes how individuals who keep company with stigmatised individuals are also stigmatised. This study asserts that for this effect to take place, especially under fraudulent conditions, mere group affiliation, such as working in the same organisation, may cause an adverse effect on other women.

Originality/value

The paper is based on a rich conceptual and theoretical discussion that identifies the key consequences of a female executive’s fraudulent activity in an organisation. The study also conceptually establishes the moderating relationship between a female executive’s fraudulent activity and several key organisation-level variables.

Details

International Journal of Organizational Analysis, vol. 28 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1934-8835

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 November 2003

Su Olsson and Robyn Walker

Executive leadership is constituted as a predominantly male domain, placing women in an antithetical position to executive power. In theorising this situation, a social…

2792

Abstract

Executive leadership is constituted as a predominantly male domain, placing women in an antithetical position to executive power. In theorising this situation, a social constructionist model of gender suggests that in the corporate world, as elsewhere, perceptions of the behaviour of men and women are “automatically filtered through a gendered lens” and reconstituted within a more general discourse on gender difference, tapping into subconscious images of leadership to reinforce a masculinist construction of executive power. Yet today women are increasingly in executive roles. This study explores the relationship between a social constructionist model of gender and executive discourse by drawing on interviews with ten male and ten female New Zealand executives. Given that these executives hold comparable organisational status and power, the study examines whether or not a gendered lens still operates in their representations of one another, and if there are indications of gender and social change in the discourse.

Details

Leadership & Organization Development Journal, vol. 24 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-7739

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 July 2010

Susan M. Adams, Atul Gupta and John D. Leeth

The purpose of this paper is to investigate differences in compensation related to gender concentrations among industries at different organisation levels of management to…

4385

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate differences in compensation related to gender concentrations among industries at different organisation levels of management to identify gender‐based patterns of compensation at the macro level not investigated in previous studies that simply suggest industry or occupational differences. Findings provide guidance for selection processes, career path management for maximising compensation and policy‐making.

Design/methodology/approach

Data from the Current Population Surveys and the Standard and Poor's ExecuComp database were used to examine differences in compensation of managers and top executives.

Findings

Findings suggest that men and women must seek different paths and endpoints to optimize compensation. Maximising compensation for women requires working as a minority and changing industries. Men, on the other hand, may work in male‐dominated industries at every level or may move to female‐dominated industries at the managerial and executive levels and still receive equitable pay.

Research limitations/implications

The paper was conducted on a USA sample so further research should examine data from other countries.

Practical implications

In practice, this paper suggests that men and women must seek different paths and endpoints to optimize compensation. Human resource managers should be aware of these potential biases and try to rectify them within their organisations through the use of appropriate selection and compensation practices. At the macro‐level, policy‐makers can identify patterns of inequity to address.

Originality/value

Gender‐related difference studies of compensation offer little understanding about how to maximise compensation during one's management career as it progresses through management levels and across industries.

Details

Gender in Management: An International Journal, vol. 25 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1754-2413

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 May 2002

Linda A. Krefting

Perceived compatibility between requirements of managerial work and attributes of women is believed important to the advancement and success of women, and research demonstrates…

1907

Abstract

Perceived compatibility between requirements of managerial work and attributes of women is believed important to the advancement and success of women, and research demonstrates continued ambivalence about women executives. The question of how images of women executives are disseminated, reproducing or contesting negative characterizations, has received little attention. The research reported here focuses on US business press as a cultural carrier disseminating images of women executives. Critical discourse analysis examined 27 front page Wall Street Journal accounts of 22 women executives in the year following Carly Fiorina’s appointment to head Hewlett‐Packard; 20 front page accounts of 24 men executives were used as comparison. Prominently featured articles on women executives provide fractured images of women as executives: while some accounts are positive, other portrayals reinforce negative perceptions of women’s competence and likeability as executives and concerns about the social order. Similar issues are not raised in coverage of male executives. Author gender does not seem to affect the portrayal.

Details

Women in Management Review, vol. 17 no. 3/4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0964-9425

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 February 2011

David Brady, Katelin Isaacs, Martha Reeves, Rebekah Burroway and Megan Reynolds

Although women remain substantially underrepresented in the top echelons of large corporations, a non‐trivial presence of female executives has emerged in recent years. The…

2608

Abstract

Purpose

Although women remain substantially underrepresented in the top echelons of large corporations, a non‐trivial presence of female executives has emerged in recent years. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the firm characteristics that predict the sex of the executive office holder, classifying the plausible firm characteristics that could explain the presence of female executives into four explanations: sector, size, stability, and scandal.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper provides perhaps the first large‐sample analyses of the sex of executive officers in Fortune 500 firms by analyzing a sample of 3,691 executives in 444 Fortune 500 companies.

Findings

In the paper's sample, 252 of the executives, or 6.4 percent of the sample, are women. The authors' analyses reveal that women are less likely to be chief executive officers and chief operations officers, but more likely to be chief corporate officers and general counsels. Female executives are somewhat less likely to be present in the construction sector, but there is evidence that they are more likely to be present in retail trade. Firms with greater assets and sales growth are less likely to have female executives. Using originally collected data, it is shown that firms that have experienced a scandal in recent years are more likely to have female executives. However, the nature and quantity of scandals do not have significant effects.

Originality/value

Ultimately, the authors' analyses reveal that key firm characteristics predict whether an executive office is held by a woman.

Details

Gender in Management: An International Journal, vol. 26 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1754-2413

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 March 2019

Leanne Dzubinski, Amy Diehl and Michelle Taylor

This paper aims to present a model describing how women enact executive leadership, taking into account gendered organizational patterns that may constrain women to perform…

1594

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to present a model describing how women enact executive leadership, taking into account gendered organizational patterns that may constrain women to perform leadership in context-specific ways.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper discusses gendered organizations, role congruity theory and organizational culture and work context. These strands of theory are interwoven to construct a model describing ways in which executive-level women are constrained to self-monitor based on context.

Findings

The pressure on women to conform to an organization’s executive leadership culture is enormous. Executive women in strongly male-normed executive leadership contexts must exercise strong gendered self-constraint to break through the glass ceiling. Women in strongly male-normed contexts using lessened gendered self-constraint may encounter a glass cliff. Women in gender-diverse-normed contexts may still operate using strong gendered self-constraint due to internalized gender scripts. Only in gender-diverse-normed contexts with lessened gendered-self-restraint can executive women operate from their authentic selves.

Practical implications

Organizational leaders should examine their leadership culture to determine levels of pressure on women to act with gendered self-constraint and to work toward creating change. Women may use the model to make strategic choices regarding whether or how much to self-monitor based on their career aspirations and life goals.

Originality/value

Little has been written on male-normed and gender-diverse-normed contexts as a marker for how executive-level women perform leadership. This paper offers a model describing how different contexts constrain women to behave in specific, gendered ways.

Details

Gender in Management: An International Journal , vol. 34 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1754-2413

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 July 2004

Su Olsson and Robyn Walker

Research into “corporate masculinity” suggests that executive men position their difference, status and power through discourses which involve the strategies of “identification…

2321

Abstract

Research into “corporate masculinity” suggests that executive men position their difference, status and power through discourses which involve the strategies of “identification with some men and differentiation from others, including women”. While these processes apparently place women in an antithetical relationship to power, women are increasingly achieving executive leadership. This paper examines the career representations of 30 senior women executives. Drawing on a social constructionist approach to gender and identity, examines women's positioning of self within the discourse and discusses how they deal with the apparent paradoxes or contradictions of female identity within a world dominated by corporate masculinity. Our findings suggest that women engage in processes of identification and differentiation comparable to those of men. Perhaps unexpectedly, these processes often involve an assertion and celebration of female difference that includes distinctions between “the wo‐men and the boys”. They also involve a more tentative process of differentiation from corporate masculinity through the construction of an emerging new culture, the culture of women in business.

Details

Women in Management Review, vol. 19 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0964-9425

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 February 2008

Beáta Nagy and Lilla Vicsek

The study sets out to examine how male and female managers in general and male and female municipal executives in particular are evaluated by the members of the organisation.

1093

Abstract

Purpose

The study sets out to examine how male and female managers in general and male and female municipal executives in particular are evaluated by the members of the organisation.

Design/methodology/approach

The study presented used the methodology of focus group discussion.

Findings

The results show that employees clearly had different expectations regarding the characteristics of male and female executives. The most negative image of female executives emerged in the group of men. However, even female office managers tended to mention numerous negative features of women executives, and seemed to prefer men in executive positions.

Research limitations/implications

The research involved four focus group sessions at the municipality in the autumn of 2004, consequently the research results cannot be generalised.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to the limited number of academic literature on female executives in Hungary, and explores the deep prejudices against women in leading positions.

Details

Gender in Management: An International Journal, vol. 23 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1754-2413

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 4 September 2017

Luca Flabbi, Claudia Piras and Scott Abrahams

Despite gender parity in the general working population, the higher up one looks in ranks within the firm the fewer women one finds. This under-representation of women in top…

1081

Abstract

Purpose

Despite gender parity in the general working population, the higher up one looks in ranks within the firm the fewer women one finds. This under-representation of women in top positions at firms is purportedly even more acute in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). LAC is a large and increasingly important region of the world where women are well-represented in the workforce and are comparatively better educated than men. Documenting if this resource is utilized at full potential is therefore of crucial importance. The purpose of this paper is to document the level and impact of female representation at the executive level in the region, as no systematic study exists on this topic.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors collect an original database of publicly listed companies to determine prevailing gender ratios among board members and executives in LAC region. The authors then estimate whether companies with women board members are more likely to appoint women executives. Finally, the authors estimate whether measures of female leadership at the firm are correlated with company performance.

Findings

The authors find that women are as under-represented in LAC as in the USA, but much less so in the Caribbean. The authors find that companies with women board members are more likely to appoint women executives in LAC. The authors find that measures of female leadership at the firm are correlated with company performance but only regarding board membership and only when the proportion of women on the board is greater than 30 percent. Again composition effects are important. Overall, the authors conclude that the LAC region exhibits empirical regularities about under-representation of women in leadership positions at the firm that are very similar to those found for high-income countries in Europe and North America.

Originality/value

The authors are the first and so far unique systematic study exists able to document the level and impact of female representation at the executive level in the region.

Details

International Journal of Manpower, vol. 38 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-7720

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 5 December 2023

Susanna Bairoh

The purpose of this study is to understand how executives in technology companies relate to targets for gender equality, especially pertaining to top management.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to understand how executives in technology companies relate to targets for gender equality, especially pertaining to top management.

Design/methodology/approach

The study draws on 19 interviews of CEOs, senior line managers and HR directors in ten technology companies operating in Finland. The method is (reflexive) thematic analysis.

Findings

Previous studies on the role of executives in promoting gender equality provide somewhat mixed results: while their role is vital, senior leaders may not be inclined to support gender equality targets and measures. Drawing on critical feminist theorizing, this study identifies three ways in which the executives in technology companies related to gender equality targets: endorsing, negotiating and resisting. However, all these responses were constrained by the executives’ assumption that their companies are meritocratic. The study illustrates how executives’ narrow understanding of gender equality and reliance on the presumably well-working systems, combined with underlying doubts about the competence of women, hinder the advancement of women to top management.

Originality/value

While previous studies have evaluated targets to increase the number/percentage of women, both in certain “ideal case” companies and in terms of their effectiveness more broadly, this study discusses how technology company executives navigate these targets in relation to women's assumed “competence”.

Details

Gender in Management: An International Journal , vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1754-2413

Keywords

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