Gender in Management最新文献

Purpose

The European Union (EU) has recently adopted gender quotas for corporate boards (CBQ), anticipating ripple effects on women’s careers in the companies concerned, as well as throughout the economy. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether CBQ has spurred ripple effects and discuss mechanisms hindering or facilitating women’s occupancy of top executive positions.

Design/methodology/approach

Norway was the first country in the world to introduce CBQ in 2003, with full effect from 2008. The policy requires company boards to be composed of 40% of each gender. Drawing on original data mapping boards and executive committees in Norway’s 200 largest companies, the authors analyze the association between CBQ and the gender composition of executive management almost 15 years after the full implementation. The data include both companies covered by the CBQ and large companies not covered.

Findings

The investigation does not find a positive association between CBQ and more women in executive positions. Thus, the ripple effect hypothesis of CBQ is not supported. CBQ may have contributed to an increased awareness of gender imbalances, yet these findings indicate that to achieve more gender balance in executive positions, scholars and practitioners may need to focus more on gendered conditions and processes in organizations and society throughout executive careers than on the gender composition of boards.

Originality/value

This paper provides empirical analyses of original data 15 years after the implementation of CBQ. The authors further contribute to scholarly debate by identifying and discussing possible mechanisms that explain how requiring more women on corporate boards may – or may not – have ripple effects on executive management.

Purpose

Situated in the context of India, where women’s representation on corporate boards remains low, this study aims to explore whether and how tokenism impacts the behaviours of female directors.

Design/methodology/approach

The boardroom experiences and perceptions of 14 women directors are explored through semi-structured interviews and analysed using an inductive and interpretive process. Also, to get a counter perspective and avoid the social desirability bias from the women participants’ responses, 16 men directors are interviewed.

Findings

The study finds that, as gender minorities, women directors' visibility on boards can create performance pressures on these women. To counter gender-based prejudices, women directors consciously alter their behaviours and project both male and female traits consistent with the director role. By doing so, women directors overcome tokenistic stereotypes and are accepted as part of the director in-group, irrespective of their numeric representation on the board.

Practical implications

The research has implications for governments attempting to increase women’s board presence through affirmative actions and for firms aiming to improve the gender diversity of their board composition.

Originality/value

These findings present an alternative perspective on women directors’ board behaviour by exploring the applicability of Western trends on tokenism and critical mass in the context of India, adding to the vast body of literature concerned with minorities on corporate boards.

Purpose

Remote work has been intensifying in organizations, and the recent pandemic forced an immediate increase in it, ignoring its effect on the family. The purpose of this study was to analyze the work and personal-family life balance of Colombian workers during the lockdown and the effects on post-pandemic times.

Design/methodology/approach

Quantitative correlational study with a non-probabilistic sample of 1,069 participants: 349 (32.64%) men and 720 (67.35%) women.

Findings

A total of 44.8% of the participants reported that their work interfered with their personal life; 61.6% reported that their work exceeded their habitual time; 72.2% felt comfortable with the remote work; and women perceived more affectation, as did participants with children. No interaction was present between these variables. There are more interruptions for workers with children younger than 12 years.

Practical implications

There is satisfaction with remote work. However, there are difficulties regarding work-personal life balance that must be addressed to improve quality of life, with an emphasis on women and workers with children, especially younger children.

Social implications

This study provides empirical evidence for the foundation of public and organizational policies aimed at managing remote work and the work-personal life balance to reduce the risk of loss of female labor force and effects on the quality of life of workers.

Originality/value

Studies on the work-personal life balance with Latin American samples are scarce. This research contributes to the literature about satisfaction with working from home modality and the work-personal life balance during COVID-19 confinement, with a look at the differences by gender and the evaluation of the family conditions of Colombian workers, contributing to a regional perspective.

Purpose

Drawing on legitimacy and upper-echelon theory, this paper aims to investigate the moderating role of corporate governance in the relationship between corporate social performance (CSP) and board gender diversity (BGD).

Design/methodology/approach

Using Morgan Stanley Capital International measures of social and governance performance, the authors use 2,950 firm-year observations from US companies for the years 2016–2020 to show that good performance on social issues drives BGD.

Findings

The panel data model indicates that the relationship between CSP and BGD is strengthened when firms display robust corporate governance.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the extant literature through empirical consideration of CSP as a predictor of BGD, a relationship that has rarely been examined. It further highlights the significant role of corporate governance in ensuring that women have access to corporate boards. Discussion and findings highlight that social performance and governance may significantly contribute to the diversity of socially cognizant boards.

Purpose

This study aims to explore the career transition process of women professionals when they return to the workplace after a break and re-integrate with their career aspirations.

Design/methodology/approach

This research used a qualitative approach with semi-structured interviews for data collection. All 20 women participants have returned to their careers after a break.

Findings

The data analysis reveals women’s career transition and re-integration process into the workplace after a career break. Supervisory support, work–life balance practices, role models, coworker support and career success emerged as factors enabling successful transition. The employing organisations’ diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) hiring strategy emerged as an important mechanism for re-entry.

Originality/value

Although previous research has studied women professionals returning after a break, the “transition process” that enables re-entry is missing.

Purpose

Role congruity theory and gender stereotypes research suggests men are expected to engage in agentic behavior and women in communal behavior as leaders, and that role violation results in backlash. However, extant gender and leadership research does not directly measure expectations–behavior incongruence. Further, researchers have only considered one condition of role incongruence – display of counter-role behavior – and have not considered the outcomes of failing to exhibit role-congruent behavior. Additionally, few studies have examined outcomes for male leaders who violate gender role prescriptions. The present study aims to address these shortcomings by conducting a novel empirical test of role congruity theory.

Design/Methodology/approach

This experimental study used polynomial regression to assess how followers evaluated leaders under conditions of incongruence between follower expectations for men and women leaders’ behavior and leaders’ actual behavior (i.e. exceeded and unmet expectations). Respondents read a fictional scenario describing a new male or female supervisor, rated their expectations for the leader’s agentic and communal behavior, read manipulated vignettes describing the leader’s subsequent behavior, rated their perceptions of these behaviors, and evaluated the leader.

Findings

Followers expected higher levels of communal behavior from the female than the male supervisor, but no differences were found in expectations for agentic behavior. Regardless of whether expectations were exceeded or unmet, supervisor gender did not moderate the effects of agentic or communal behavior expectations–perceptions incongruence on leader evaluations in polynomial regression analyses (i.e. male and female supervisors were not evaluated differently when displaying counter-role behavior or failing to display role-congruent behavior).

Originality/value

In addition to providing a novel, direct test of role congruity theory, the study highlighted a double standard in gender role-congruent behavior expectations of men and women leaders. Results failed to support role congruity theory, which has implications for the future of theory in this domain.

Purpose

This study focuses on the work from home experiences of professional, middle and upper middle class married women with children in India during the COVID-19-induced lockdowns. This study aims to examine the experiences of changing nature of work and gendered realities of work–life balance for working mothers while working from home during the pandemic.

Design/methodology/approach

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight working mothers at three different time points during the lockdown in the city of Hyderabad in India.

Findings

A thematic analysis revealed changed work practices that required adapting, reinventing and reimagining new ways of working. This was time consuming albeit a satisfying experience for working mothers. At the same time, the blurring between home and work meant working mothers were operating without an off button.

Research limitations/implications

The findings show that the existing gender inequalities in sharing the domestic burden unravelled fast in the absence of support structures.

Originality/value

The authors give voice to the lived experiences of working mothers of managing both work and home and how they navigated challenges during the lockdown.

Purpose

This study aims to focus on understanding the work–family conflict of Indian women engineers through the lens of identity conflict.

Design/methodology/approach

Semi-structured interviews conducted with 20 Indian women engineers working in India and abroad of varying ages and work experience helped in understanding the types, sources and coping decisions about work–family conflicts experienced by them. Thematic analysis was conducted to analyse the qualitative data.

Findings

The findings reveal that as women engineers negotiate their “engineering” and “woman” identities, work–family conflict manifests as a battle of time and responsibilities, psychological strain and behaviour-based conflict. Furthermore, self-expectations and negative social sanctions play an important role in augmenting the experiences of these conflicts. The results also reveal how women re-strategize their career decisions to conciliate their conflicting identities.

Originality/value

This study furthers the literature on resolving work–family conflict by taking an identity perspective. Recommendations in literature such as work flexibility and part-time work, place the onus on women to increase their capacities to perform different roles better. Examining work–family conflict from an identity perspective allows us to look at the psychological processes underlying the challenges women face in balancing work and home in a male-dominated profession. These give insights into the need to go beyond accommodations in the workplace to redefine gender roles and relations for equal participation of women in the modern workforce.

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of political connections and gender diversity on the performance of Iberian companies as a singular market and considering Portugal and Spain separately.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors used panel data methodology, specifically GMM system estimation model by Arellano and Bond (1991) for the period from 2015 to 2020.

Findings

Results show that the performance of listed Iberian companies is influenced by political connections, by gender diversity and that gender diversity has a mitigating effect on the effects of political connections in each country. The mitigating effect of women is evident in both Portugal and Spain, as they are more cautious and principled, which is valued by short-term investors interested in an immediate investment. However, considering the Iberian Peninsula as a whole, the results indicate that – in the long term – women's political relationships can benefit performance through a better reputation and image, which can lead to better social and economic results in the long term.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is original and covers an important gap in the literature when considering political connections and women's impact on these connections as determinants of the performance of Iberian companies.

Purpose

This paper aims to explore the evolving needs of Indian men and their aspirations regarding work–life balance practices. The ultimate aim is to assess whether the available policies are helpful and to explore the various roadblocks in their implementation.

Design/methodology/approach

This study takes a qualitative approach and draws on the semi-structured interviews of Indian men (N = 19).

Findings

The analysis revealed an asymmetrical approach of organizations toward implementing employee benefit policies. The organizations remain plagued by the notion that “benefits policies” are needed only by women to carry out additional family responsibilities, whereas men remain aloof from such responsibilities, which takes its strength from the patriarchal roots of Indian society. This study reveals two major themes: lack of appreciation for gender egalitarianism arising among men at the work–family interface’ and the coping practices by men to address their ‘role strain arising due to work–family conflict. It is noted that there is a need to formulate policies and practices to cater to men’s evolving aspirations toward the family–work interface.

Originality/value

This study furthers the debate on inclusive policies for employees and examines the subsection of men for their evolving needs and aspirations. Although organizations live in the glory of having employee-friendly policies, they offer little help in advancing gender neutrality in the workplace. The inclusive policies shall also be helpful for females because it would increase the availability of their partners/spouses to share the family responsibilities.