Joyce L. Grahn, David X. Swenson and Ryan O’Leary
Identifies the contrasts and similarities between the American Indian and Anglo American style of leadership. Finds the results show differing values in areas of communication…
Abstract
Identifies the contrasts and similarities between the American Indian and Anglo American style of leadership. Finds the results show differing values in areas of communication, strategic initiative, technology, decision‐making, and vision. Discusses the implications for enhancing American Indian/Anglo American relationships in light of these differences.
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This paper aims to show why public acclaim is not always a guarantee for healthy profits. A low-cost forerunner, Laker Airlines, also discovered this same fact to its fatal cost…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to show why public acclaim is not always a guarantee for healthy profits. A low-cost forerunner, Laker Airlines, also discovered this same fact to its fatal cost. A company needs to understand its true value proposition and ensure that customers are willing to pay for it. Ryanair was adored by the public when it began its low-cost flights from Dublin to London in 1986. That love nearly drove it to bankruptcy. Today, despite its poor image, it is one of the most successful and profitable companies in the industry.
Design/methodology/approach
The article analysis of the changing fortunes of Ryanair from its launch to its near bankruptcy in 1991 and then its revival of fortunes. It draws a parallel with Laker Airlines and the low-cost transatlantic Skytrain. Adulated by the public, the company folded in 1982. It is supplemented with research the airline industry and low-cost business models.
Findings
The article shows why companies should not fall into the trap of believing that a good public image will be the necessary condition for maintaining a sustainable competitive advantage. They need to fully understand the value proposition and what a customer is willing to buy.
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Jennifer Griffith, Mary Fran T. Malone and Christine M. Shea
Bystander intervention mitigates the negative impact of bias incidents in the workplace. However, intervention tends to be viewed as binary: intervention occurred or it did not…
Abstract
Purpose
Bystander intervention mitigates the negative impact of bias incidents in the workplace. However, intervention tends to be viewed as binary: intervention occurred or it did not. Consequently, research has focused on conditions under which witnesses of bias incidents choose to intervene, and less is known about how witnesses may intervene. This paper elucidates the intervention behavior choices available to witnesses of bias incidents and develops a bystander intervention behavior (BIB) scale.
Design/methodology/approach
To develop the scale, the authors used the three-phased act frequency methodology. In phase I, the authors surveyed faculty who had both witnessed a bias incident and seen someone intervene to address it. The authors asked these faculties to list the observed bystander intervention behaviors they had personally observed. In Phase II, different survey respondents and subject matter experts assessed the prototypicality of each of the behaviors in relation to the concept of bystander intervention. In phase III, the authors tested the validity and reliability of the resulting 18-item scale and assessed the ability of bystander intervention behavior to mitigate the negative impact of bias incidents on the academic workplace.
Findings
The BIB scale consists of two theoretically derived, empirically validated and reliable dimensions; it can be used as a summary score to evaluate the extent to which colleagues intervene indirectly and directly when a bias incident occurs in the academic workplace.
Originality/value
This scale is valuable in advancing efforts to mitigate the negative effect of bias in the workplace and training colleagues to intervene in various ways when bias occurs.
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This article is based on a study of the experiences of women chief executives in British local government. Our emphasis will be on our experiences of carrying out the study, and…
Abstract
This article is based on a study of the experiences of women chief executives in British local government. Our emphasis will be on our experiences of carrying out the study, and, in particular, on encountering and working with the political aspects of our research. Following a brief outline of our main findings, we review some of the dangers of “doing research” on women. We continue by describing our first encounters with the politics of gender research – the voices of discouragement that questioned the need for the research. We then outline our attempts to understand more about how our relations with each other as a pair of researchers enabled us to surface the political properties of our research. The article discusses the role of reflexivity in maintaining awareness of researcher bias, and how this might affect our analysis of the experiences of women in the system being studied. Next, we discuss how action researchers inevitably become part of a political system that is characterised by different actors holding different aspirations for research outcomes, and argue that collaborative forms of research are necessary if one is to listen to the range of voices that stakeholders represent. We tackle the question about how researchers may “let go” of research of this kind given their political attachments to the topic. Finally, we conclude that spelling out the dilemmas inherent in research of this kind is more likely to achieve results that are well grounded in the political and organisational realities of participants’ experiences.
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Aims to critique solidarity behaviour as a means of advancing women in management; questions the queen bee concept and raises negative relations between women.
Abstract
Purpose
Aims to critique solidarity behaviour as a means of advancing women in management; questions the queen bee concept and raises negative relations between women.
Design/methodology/approach
Conceptual paper which critiques extant research and approaches to advancing women in management identifying alternative perspectives.
Findings
Assumptions of solidarity behaviour set expectations of senior women which cannot be fulfilled. Continued use of the unproblematized queen bee label, without acknowledgement of the embedded gendered context for women in senior management, perpetuates a “blame the woman” perspective as a “one‐woman responsibility”. Emerging from the gendered nature of organization, female misogyny may be a means of exploring negative relations between women to challenge existing gendered organizations which sustain the status quo.
Research limitations/implications
Mediates recommendations of senior women as mentors and role models, whilst blaming them for being more male than men, by calling for action to challenge and change the gendered social order which impacts on women in management. Empirical research is required.
Originality/value
Considers the impact of negative relations between women to highlight how the gendered social order encourages and exacerbates differences between women; challenges assumptions of solidarity behaviour and problematizes the queen bee label.
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Since Schein’s evocative and enduring metaphor "think manager – think male" there has been a stream of literature discussing gender difference in managerial style. The newer…
Abstract
Since Schein’s evocative and enduring metaphor "think manager – think male" there has been a stream of literature discussing gender difference in managerial style. The newer literature about managerial competence, however, remains largely silent about gender, regardless of whether managerial competence is contextualised in an organizational or a human resources perspective. This is true even of edited collections where gender tokenism is generally evident. The study uses a rarely‐researched sample, female manufacturers in small and medium manufacturing enterprises, to explore gender and managerial competence and to test Marshall’s suggestion that the next wave of theorizing may well strengthen an “androgynous” manager model. The findings show a pattern of both similarity and difference in the managerial competence of male and female manufacturers in technology uptake and tentative support for the androgynous manager model.
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Fabio Fonti, Massimo Maoret and Robert Whitbred
We extend the literature on network perception by introducing a novel view of how this perception is structured. We propose the concept of Cognitive Aggregated Social Structures…
Abstract
We extend the literature on network perception by introducing a novel view of how this perception is structured. We propose the concept of Cognitive Aggregated Social Structures (CASS) as a framework to capture perceptions of opaque networks – that is, networks where relations are difficult to observe due to their features, their members, and the characteristics of the environment in which they operate. We argue that actors simplify their perception of opaque network structures via “chunking,” that is, by cognitively representing network ties as between categories of actors rather than between specific network members. We test the validity of the CASS construct and its predictive power by showing how these representations affect actors’ perceptions of relevant network outcomes. Using data from a major inter-organizational technology consortium, we show that perceived density among “chunks” in the knowledge transfer network is positively related to perceived consortium performance. Finally, we discuss the implications of our findings for the strategic management literature, highlighting potential contributions to strategic formulation and implementation, category emergence, industry evolution, and cognitive barriers to entry.
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Rachelle Cortis and Vincent Cassar
To investigate specific barriers that might be hindering Maltese women from achieving a managerial position.
Abstract
Purpose
To investigate specific barriers that might be hindering Maltese women from achieving a managerial position.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is based on research by Cromie. Barriers are classified into two main categories; internal and external barriers. Job‐involvement and work‐based self‐esteem are considered to be internal barriers, whereas attitudes towards women in management are considered to be external barriers. The total population was 200, consisting of male and female middle managers, female and male employees and B. Commerce students.
Findings
Results indicate no differences between job involvement and work‐based self‐esteem of male and female managers. On the other hand, both male employees and students seem to hold more stereotypical attitudes towards women in management than their female counterparts.
Research limitations/implications
One of the basic limitations of this study was the sample size since small samples make it difficult to generalize. Further research may focus on two main areas. First, it would be useful to have qualitative research on the work experiences of female managers to further investigate the various factors that have helped and hindered women thorough their career advancement. Secondly, research on corporate climate can be helpful in identifying organizational practices that might be blocking female career prospects. Finally, a study considering how attitudes can be reshaped through the educational system and through the use of the media can also help to reduce gender stereotypes.
Practical implications
This study indicates that women often have to face several attitudinal barriers, which in turn may explain the lack of female participation in managerial occupations. A change in organizational policies can help women to overcome these barriers.
Originality/value
This paper confirms that, as in several countries, Maltese women are facing several barriers, which are hindering their career prospects. It also highlights the important role of organizations in reducing workplace barriers.
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Using an alternative lens to challenge assumptions of solidarity behaviour and the queen bee label, the paper aims to analyse empirical data to explore negative relations between…
Abstract
Purpose
Using an alternative lens to challenge assumptions of solidarity behaviour and the queen bee label, the paper aims to analyse empirical data to explore negative relations between women in management and surface processes of female misogyny.
Design/methodology/approach
Feminist standpoint epistemology; qualitative semi‐structured interviews; subjective narrative data from senior women and women academics of management in two UK organisations.
Findings
Assumptions of solidarity behaviour are largely absent in the research and the queen bee label impacts pejoratively on women in management, perpetuating a “blame the woman” perspective. Senior women do recognise barriers facing women in management but they do not want to lead on the “women in management mantle.” This does not make them queen bees; the women recognise becoming “male” in order to “fit” senior management and acknowledge the impact of their gendered context. From this context, processes of female misogyny between women in management fragment notions of solidarity; highlight contradictory places women take in relation to other women and challenge women as “natural allies.”
Research limitations/implications
Future research should engage women at all levels in management in consciousness‐raising to the impact women have on other women. Organizational interventions are required to explicitly surface how the gender order exacerbates differences between them to maintain the gendered status quo.
Originality/value
Empirical paper using an alternative lens to problematize solidarity behaviour and queen bee, surfaces female misogyny between women in management and highlights how the gendered social order encourages and exacerbate differences between women.
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Deborah A. O’Neil, Margaret E. Brooks and Margaret M. Hopkins
The purpose of this paper is to better understand women’s working relationships and career support behaviors, by investigating expectations women have of other women regarding…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to better understand women’s working relationships and career support behaviors, by investigating expectations women have of other women regarding senior women’s roles in (and motivations for) helping junior women succeed, and junior women’s engagement in their own career advancement behaviors.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors surveyed self- and other-reports of senior women’s engagement in career assistance behaviors on behalf of junior women colleagues, and junior women’s engagement in their own career advancement behaviors. One sample of respondents indicated to what extent they believed senior women did engage in career assistance toward junior women, and to what extent they believed junior women did engage in career advancement. Another sample indicated to what extent they believed senior women should engage in career assistance, and to what extent they believed junior women should engage in their own career advancement.
Findings
Results suggest a disconnect between the expectations and perceptions junior and senior women have of each other. Junior women expect senior women to engage in career assistance behaviors to a greater degree than they believe senior women are engaging in such behaviors, and junior women think they are doing more to advance their careers than senior women are expecting them to do. The authors examine individual and organizational implications of these unmet expectations and perception mismatches.
Originality/value
Women-to-women working relationships are under-studied, and typically viewed in either/or terms – good or bad. The findings provide a more nuanced understanding of women’s perceptions and expectations and offer suggestions for how women can influence female career advancement.