Gwendolyn M. Combs

The Duality of Race and Gender for Managerial African American Women: Implications of Informal Social Networks on Career Advancement

Research suggests that women have progressed in equalizing their representation,status,and earning power as managers in organizations. These improvements may not reflect the career advancement of managerial African American women. African American women contend with the convergence of race and gender in improving their organizational standing and career advancement opportunities. The literature on workplace social networks indicates that informal more than formal socialization systems are salient in advancing careers. Due to the duality of race and gender, African American women in managerial and executive positions may be forced into out-group status in terms of informal social networks. Informal social networks for managerial African American women may be less accessible and may operate under different dimensions than for their African American male and White female and male counterparts. Critical examination of the effect of the interaction of race and gender on informal networks of managerial African American women in organizations is needed.

Meeting the Leadership Challenge of a Diverse and Pluralistic Workplace: Implications of Self-Efficacy for Diversity Training

Executive Summary Ways to maximize benefits of an increasingly diverse workforce and client base is a continuing concern for organizational leadership. The current processes for managing diversity continue to be necessary but are not sufficient to result in effective outcomes in 21st century organizational environments. Diversity training remains the primary method used to facilitate behavior change. However, existing diversity training is perceived to have failed, calling for a new diversity leadership focus to improve diversity performance. This paper proposes application of the research supporting the self-efficacy construct to build diversity self-efficacy and bridge the gap between diversity training and diversity performance.

Ethnic Identity and Job Attribute Preferences:The Role of Collectivism and Psychological Capital

The globalization of the workforce has resulted in the need to recruit talent from an increasingly diverse labor market. Understanding how ethnicity may drive individual preferences regarding two important types of job attributes is of value in knowing how to attract potential employees from different ethnic backgrounds. Using a sample of 380 college students from the Midwest and Southeastern region, the authors examined the relationship between ethnic identity, job attributes, collectivism/individualism, and psychological capital. Using structural equation modeling, they found that ethnical identity is more strongly related to the competence and growth aspect of job attribute preferences than status and independence. Next, they demonstrated that collectivism and psychological capital mediate the relationship between ethnic identity and the competence and growth aspect. These promising results suggest that organizational efforts to attract a diverse workforce may benefit from considering the aspects of work that would appeal to different ethnic groups.

The Paradox of Knowledge Creation in a High-Reliability Organization A Case Study

We employed an instrumental case study of a multisystem hydroelectric power producer, a high-reliability organization (HRO), to explore how new knowledge is created in a context in which errors may result in destruction, catastrophic consequences, and even loss of human life. The findings indicate that knowledge creation is multilevel, nested within three levels of paradox: paradox of knowing, paradox of practice, and paradox of organizing. The combination of the lack of opportunity for errors with the dynamism of the HRO context necessitates that individuals work through multiple paradoxes to generate and formalize new knowledge. The findings contribute to the literature on knowledge creation in context by explicating the work practices associated with issue recognition, resolution, and refinement, and the formalization of knowledge in failure-intolerant organizations.

Understanding Gender, Creativity, and Entrepreneurial Intentions.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the complex relationships between gender and entrepreneurial intentions. Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses a two study design where the second study is a constructive replication of the first study. The first study uses a cross-sectional design, while the second uses a design where data collection of variables were temporally separated. The analysis is conducted using Hayes (2014) process macro using 1,000 bootstrapped draws to understand the interaction between gender and creativity and the potential mediation involving life roles and goals. Findings – The empirical results are threefold. First, the results show that creativity has a direct and positive effect on entrepreneurial intentions. Second, gender did not have a direct effect on entrepreneurial intentions, and finally, gender showed an interaction with creativity such that in both the samples, creativity had a stronger relationship with intentions among women. Practical implications – ...

Workplace Discrimination and the Wellbeing of Minority Women: Overview, Prospects, and Implications

Research on employee wellbeing in the workplace has increased. However, the examination of workplace wellbeing for minority women has been particularly limited. In this chapter, we explore the relationship between discrimination and wellbeing paying particular attention to the impact of discrimination on the wellbeing of minority women. We borrow from the literatures regarding gender discrimination to illuminate the intersectionality of race and gender and its impact on the workplace wellbeing of minority women. In addition, we offer several examples to illustrate the impact of multiple forms of discrimination on minority women’s wellbeing and show that work disengagement is one of the most salient buffers minority women use to shield themselves from daily discrimination. Finally, we offer prescriptions for organizations and racial/ethnic minority women to ensure a productive work environment where minority women may thrive.