Isabel Metz

Women’s career advancement: The relative contribution of human and social capital

This study assessed if human capital is more related to women’s advancement to low levels (i. e., supervisory and junior management) and if social capital is more related to their advancement to high levels (i. e., middle and senior management) in Australian banks. The results do not support differential prediction hypotheses. Overall, human capital explained most of women’s advancement at all levels in Australian banks. The contribution of social capital to that explanation was, generally, negligible. The study also included qualitative data. The qualitative results appeared to support the view that social capital is more important to women’s advancement to high managerial levels than to low managerial levels. Of particular concern is that the women reported gender discrimination as the most frequent barrier to their advancement at all managerial levels. Implications for banks and for women’s career management are discussed.

The gender diversity–performance relationship in services and manufacturing organizations

Empirical findings on the link between gender diversity and performance have been inconsistent. This paper presents three competing predictions of the organizational gender diversity–performance relationship: a positive linear prediction derived from the resource-based view of the firm, a negative linear prediction derived from self-categorization and social identity theories, and an inverted U-shaped curvilinear prediction derived from the integration of the resource-based view of the firm with self-categorization and social identity theories. This paper also proposes a moderating effect of industry type (services vs. manufacturing) on the gender diversity–performance relationship. The predictions were tested in publicly listed Australian organizations using archival quantitative data with a longitudinal research design. The results show partial support for the positive linear and inverted U-shaped curvilinear predictions as well as for the proposed moderating effect of industry type. The curvilinear relationship indicates that different proportions of organizational gender diversity have different effects on organizational performance, which may be attributed to different dynamics as suggested by the resource-based view and self-categorization and social identity theories. The results help reconcile the inconsistent findings of past research that focused on the linear gender diversity–performance relationship. The findings also show that industry context can strengthen or weaken the effects of organizational gender diversity on performance.

Advancing the careers of women with children

Purpose – This study aims to assess whether differences exist in the barriers reported by, and in the person‐ and situation‐centred factors related to the managerial advancement of, women with and without children. The study also seeks to examine whether having children influences womens advancement, by affecting person‐situation factors such as training and development or work hours.Design/methodology/approach – A confidential, voluntary survey was mailed to 1,183 female staff who held from non‐manager to executive positions in the banking industry. The response rate was 65.23 per cent or 848 respondents, of whom 209 (24.6 per cent) had children and 639 (75.4 per cent) did not.Findings – The survey results indicate that, although the links and barriers to the advancement of mothers and non‐mothers are similar, important differences exist. Specifically, internal networks are negatively related to the advancement of women with children, but unrelated to the advancement of women without children. In additi...

Irreconcilable differences? Strategic human resource management and employee well-being

The transition from ‘personnel’ to ‘human resource management’ took place in Australia in the latter part of the twentieth century. The change in nomenclature reflects a change in the nature of the work: from an employee-centred role to a management-centred role. In this paper we examine the relationship between these two roles, with a particular emphasis on their compatibility. Using interview data we find that HR managers devote considerable time to employee-centred activities. HR managers philosophically reconcile these activities with their responsibilities as a strategic partner by identifying the benefits of their employee-centred efforts for management. HR managers do, however, experience some operational challenges when they attempt to be a strategic partner and simultaneously promote employee well-being.

Do personality traits indirectly affect women's advancement?

This study first assesses if womens personality traits of ambition, masculinity, and adaptability are indirectly related to their managerial advancement through training and development and work hours (the mediators). It then examines if personality traits (the moderators) influence the way in which women use training and development and work hours. A confidential, voluntary survey was mailed to 1,346 women working in banks. The results provide evidence that masculinity and adaptability are related to womens advancement through training and development (the mediator). The results also indicate that personality traits can function as moderators, by showing that ambition weakens the positive effect of training and development on womens managerial advancement, and that masculinity and adaptability strengthen the relationship between work hours and managerial advancement. Implications for women and banks are discussed.

Individual, interpersonal, and organisational links to women’s advancement in management in banks

Despite banking being a female‐dominated industry, women are still under‐represented in management and senior management. Thus, the present study examined the relative importance of individual, interpersonal, and organisational variables for women’s advancement in management in banking in Australia. Data gathered via a survey of 848 women in banking were used in the analyses. The results indicate that women’s advancement is principally linked to some individual factors. In particular, training and development and years of work experience were most important to advancement, followed by work hours, occupation type, company changes, education, and career opportunities. In addition, although marital status and children were unrelated to women’s managerial advancement, the help they had with dependents and house responsibilities was related. Practical implications for banks and for women are discussed.

An update of gender diversity in editorial boards: a longitudinal study of management journals

Purpose – This study aims to update knowledge of womens representation on the boards of scholarly management journals with a longitudinal analysis of the same over two decades.Design/methodology/approach – This study extends the work of Metz and Harzing on womens representation in the editorial boards of 57 management journals from 1989 to 2004 by focusing on the development of gender diversity in editorial board membership over time. The authors first add another time period (2005‐2009) to Metz and Harzings data. They then add empirical richness by conducting a more fine‐grained analysis of womens representation at the various editorial board levels over time. In addition, this study analyses the development of female editorial board memberships over time for five management fields, journals of four different ranks, and two geographic regions. As a result, this study examines womens representation in the editorial boards of 57 management journals over a period of 20 years (from 1989 to 2009).Finding...

Women leave work because of family responsibilities: Fact or fiction?

The perception that women leave work because of their family responsibilities often underpins the differential treatment of women and men in organisations. Thus, the present study examines the reas...

Of journal editors and editorial boards: Who are the trailblazers in increasing editorial board gender equality? !

Female academics continue to be under-represented on the editorial boards of many, but not all, management journals. This variability is intriguing, because it is reasonable to assume that the size of the pool of female faculty available and willing to serve on editorial boards is similar for all management journals. Thus, we focus on the characteristics of the journal editors to explain this variability; journal editors or editors-in-chief are the most influential people in the selection of editorial board members. We draw on social identity and homosocial reproduction theories, and on the gender and careers literature to examine the relationship between an editor’s academic performance, professional age and gender, and editorial board gender equality. We collected longitudinal data at five points in time, using five-year intervals, from 52 management journals. To account for the nested structure of the data, a 3-level multilevel model was estimated. Overall, we found that the prospects of board membership improve for women when editors are high performing, professionally young, or female. We discuss these findings and their implications for management journals with low, stagnant, or declining representation of women in their boards.

The interactive effects of leader–member exchange, gender and spouse's gender role orientation on work interference with family conflict

Based on social support and gender role theories, we examined the direct and interactive effects of leader–member exchange, gender and spouses gender role orientation on work–family conflict. Survey data were collected from matched dyads from 185 dual-earner couples in Sri Lanka. The results show that leader–member exchange is negatively related to work interference with family. There is also support for crossover effects among couples such that individuals with spouses who have a traditional gender role orientation experience greater work interference with family conflict. Finally, there is a three-way interaction such that a spouses gender role orientation moderates the relationship between leader–member exchange and work interference with family conflict differently for men and women.