Ways Women Lead
TL;DR: Women managers are succeeding not by adopting the traditional command-and-control leadership style but by drawing on what is unique to their experience as women, according to a study the author conducted for the International Women's Forum.
Abstract: While Mary Hartman helped us see the importance of continually rethinking our response to the issues that women face, Judy Rosener frames the problems and opportunities that women encounter in organizations in a very specific way. Her response is one that emphasizes the unique contributions that women leaders make within organizations. In her now classic article on women leaders we find a demonstration that a transformative collaborative model of leading is both more typical of women leaders and actually very effective, particularly in large organizations. As the book progresses, we shall see that the strategy of emphasizing women leaders’ “unique” leadership style also has its dangers, as it tends to strengthen gender stereotypes. We however include this perspective here because we want to trace the various possible responses to the changing situation of women within organizations, and consider its costs and benefits before offering new perspectives. Rosener’s article does offer us some crucial insights into alternative leadership models that may be more appropriate responses to contemporary organizational dynamics. Although Rosener barely touches on it, a transformational leader is more comfortable in a complex environment of a large multinational corporation, and that style of leadership, in turn, is more conducive to leadership success in global companies.
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TL;DR: This paper identified three different perspectives on workforce diversity: the integration-and-learning perspective, the access-andlegitimacy perspective, and the discrimination-andfairness perspective.
Abstract: This paper develops theory about the conditions under which cultural diversity enhances or detracts from work group functioning. From qualitative research in three culturally diverse organizations, we identified three different perspectives on workforce diversity: the integration-and-learning perspective, the access-and-legitimacy perspective, and the discrimination-and-fairness perspective. The perspective on diversity a work group held influenced how people expressed and managed tensions related to diversity, whether those who had been traditionally underrepresented in the organization felt respected and valued by their colleagues, and how people interpreted the meaning of their racial identity at work. These, in turn, had implications for how well the work group and its members functioned. All three perspectives on diversity had been successful in motivating managers to diversify their staffs, but only the integration-and-learning perspective provided the rationale and guidance needed to achieve sustai...
1,948 citations
Cites background from "Ways Women Lead"
...Hence, they argue, gender diversity in managerial ranks would serve the group's needs better than most current arrangements, in which men are numerically dominant at those levels (Helgesen, 1990; Rosener, 1990)....
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the organizational context in which interaction networks are embedded produces unique constraints on women and racial minorities, causing their networks to differ from those of their white male counterparts in composition and characteristics of their relationships with network members.
Abstract: Despite voluminous research indicating that women and minorities have limited access to or are excluded from organizational networks, two central questions remain unanswered: (a) In what specific ways, if any, do the interaction networks of men and women and whites and racial minorities differ? and (b) What mechanisms produce those differences? The central thesis of the article is that the organizational context in which interaction networks are embedded produces unique constraints on women and racial minorities, causing their networks to differ from those of their white male counterparts in composition and characteristics of their relationships with network members. Organizational context is hypothesized to affect personal networks directly, as well as through its impact on individuals' strategies for managing constraints. A theoretical perspective that views women and minorities as active agents who make strategic choices among structurally limited alternatives is offered.
1,539 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a job description and applicants' attributes were examined as moderators of the backlash effect, the negative evaluation of agentic women for violating prescriptions of feminine niceness (Rudman, 1998).
Abstract: In an experiment, job description and applicants' attributes were examined as moderators of the backlash effect, the negative evaluation of agentic women for violating prescriptions of feminine niceness (Rudman, 1998). Rutgers University students made hiring decisions for a masculine or “feminized” managerial job. Applicants were presented as either agentic or androgynous. Replicating Rudman and Glick (1999), a feminized job description promoted hiring discrimination against an agentic female because she was perceived as insufficiently nice. Unique to the present research, this perception was related to participants' possession of an implicit (but not explicit) agency-communality stereotype. By contrast, androgynous female applicants were not discriminated against. The findings suggest that the prescription for female niceness is an implicit belief that penalizes women unless they temper their agency with niceness.
1,496 citations
Cites background from "Ways Women Lead"
...…trend toward “feminization” of management, as corporations recognize the value of an inclusive, participatory approach to leadership (Offerman & Gowing, 1990; Peters, 1988; Rosener, 1990), would be a positive development for women, allowing them to be seen as a better fit for managerial positions....
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TL;DR: This article argued that women have some advantages in typical leadership style but suffer some disadvantages from prejudicial evaluations of their competence as leaders, especially in masculine organizational contexts, and pointed out that women are more likely than men to lead in a style that is effective under contemporary conditions.
Abstract: Journalists and authors of trade books increasingly assert a female advantage in leadership, whereby women are more likely than men to lead in a style that is effective under contemporary conditions. Contrasting our analysis of these claims with Vecchio's [Leadersh. Q. 13 (2002) 643] analysis, we show that women have some advantages in typical leadership style but suffer some disadvantages from prejudicial evaluations of their competence as leaders, especially in masculine organizational contexts. Nonetheless, more women are rising into leadership roles at all levels, including elite executive roles. We suggest reasons for this rise and argue that organizations can capture the symbols of progressive social change and modernity by appointments of women in key positions.
1,283 citations
Cites background from "Ways Women Lead"
...Popular writing typically has relied on qualitative analyses or on surveys or interviews with select groups of women leaders (e.g., Helgesen, 1990; Rosener, 1990, 1995)....
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TL;DR: The authors examines many explanations for why women have not risen to the top, including lack of line experience, inadequate career opportunities, gender differences in linguistic styles and socialization, gender-based stereotypes, the old boy network at the top and tokenism.
Abstract: Although the number of women in middle management has grown quite rapidly in the last two decades, the number of female CEOs in large corporations remains extremely low. This article examines many explanations for why women have not risen to the top, including lack of line experience, inadequate career opportunities, gender differences in linguistic styles and socialization, gender-based stereotypes, the old boy network at the top, and tokenism. Alternative explanations are also presented and analyzed, such as differences between female leadership styles and the type of leadership style expected at the top of organizations, feminist explanations for the underrepresentation of women in top management positions, and the possibility that the most talented women in business often avoid corporate life in favor of entrepreneurial careers.
912 citations