Margaret M. Hopkins

Do women's networks help advance women's careers?

Purpose – The use of womens networks is emerging as one method of advancing womens careers within organizations. However, the value of these networks has been questioned. The purpose of this study is to examine how potential differences in the perceptions of network members and the firms executive leadership about the purposes and anticipated outcomes of a womens network may impact womens career advancement.Design/methodology/approach – The authors interviewed 21 members of an intra‐firm womens network and six members of the executive leadership team of a global organization. To examine the qualitative data, they used a process of thematic analysis to discover prevalent themes in the transcribed interviews.Findings – Both members of the womens network and the executive leadership team placed responsibility for womens career advancement upon the individual; the firms male‐dominated culture and organizational constraints were not emphasized. While members of the womens network recognized how the n...

A Framework for Developing Women Leaders Applications to Executive Coaching

Informed by extant literature, we develop a framework of women’s leadership development that integrates the key factors affecting women’s leadership development (challenging organizational contexts, work–life integration and career/life-stage concerns) and the characteristics of women’s leadership presence. We define leadership presence as a combination of a woman’s unique voice, style of engagement, and positive contributions—composed of her self-confidence, self-efficacy, influence, and authenticity. We apply the framework to three composite executive coaching scenarios developed from our collective executive coaching experiences. The applications illustrate how a coach’s guiding questions, focused on appropriate combinations of key factors and leadership presence developmental needs, can effectively facilitate women’s leadership development. Practical implications for executive coaching practice as well as directions for future research are discussed.

Managing conflict with emotional intelligence: abilities that make a difference

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the critical relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) abilities and conflict management styles in the workplace. Design/methodology/approach – Totally, 126 participants completed a measure of EI and an assessment of conflict management styles. Regression analyses were then performed. Findings – Results of regression analyses indicate several significant relationships between EI abilities and participants’ conflict management styles. The EI abilities of problem solving, social responsibility, and impulse control were the most directly related to how participants managed conflict at the workplace. Research limitations/implications – Future research should attempt to replicate these findings in other samples. In addition, researchers should investigate other significant variables that explain people’s choices in conflict management styles. Practical implications – Implications of these findings suggest that for management development purposes, peo...

Distinguishing competencies of effective physician leaders

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to determine the particular competencies demonstrated by effective physician leaders. Changing organizational and environmental dynamics present unique challenges to leaders in the field of healthcare. An accelerated emphasis on increasing the quality of health care delivery, containing costs, and restructuring the delivery of health care itself are redefining the very nature of healthcare and the roles of physicians as leaders. Given this context, the authors propose to identify the essential competencies for twenty-first century physician leadership. Design/methodology/approach – In all, 53 critical incident interviews from 28 physicians identified as emerging leaders at the Cleveland Clinic, a top-rated US academic healthcare institution, were examined in two ways: an existing leadership competency model was applied to each critical incident and inductively derived themes were identified through thematic analysis of the incidents. Findings – The predominant distinguishing leadership competencies demonstrated by the physician leaders included: Empathy, Initiative, Emotional Self-Awareness and Organizational Awareness. Communicating deliberately, getting buy-in from colleagues, focussing on the mission of the organization and showing respect for others were also discovered through thematic analysis to be essential practices of these effective physician leaders. Over 90 percent of the critical incident stories dealt with colleague-to-colleague interactions. Research limitations/implications – The research was conducted in one academic healthcare organization, thus limiting the generalizability of the results. Additional research testing these results in a variety of healthcare institutions is warranted. Originality/value – This study identified specific competencies that distinguish effective physician leaders. These leaders actively sought to work with colleagues to obtain their input and consensus in order to enact organizational change and improve health care delivery in their institution. Importantly, their intentions were neither self-focussed nor self-promoting but strongly mission driven. The identification of physician leader competencies will assist incumbent and emerging physician leaders in their ability to be effective leaders, as well as inform the design of training and development programs for physicians.

The impact of gendered organizational systems on women's career advancement.

In this Perspective article we propose that in order to pave the way for women’s career advancement into the senior ranks of organizations, attention must be directed at the systemic norms and structures that drive the gendered nature of the workplace. A focus on individual level issues, i.e., women lacking confidence and women opting out, detracts from the work that must be done at the organizational level in order to dismantle the system of pervasive, structural disadvantage facing women seeking to advance to senior leadership positions.

Patterns and Paradoxes in Women’s Careers

Women have transformed the world of work and now comprise 40% of workers in the global economy (Carter & Silva, 2010). Accordingly, women’s careers and the impact of women in the workforce continues to be an important research topic.

Authentic leadership: application to women leaders

The purpose of this perspective article is to present the argument that authentic leadership is a gendered representation of leadership. We first provide a brief history of leadership theories and definitions of authentic leadership. We then critique authentic leadership and offer arguments to support the premise that authentic leadership is not gender-neutral and is especially challenging for women.

Leadership and organization development in health-care: lessons from the Cleveland Clinic.

Leaders in health-care today are faced with a wide array of complex issues. This chapter describes an innovative physician leadership development program at the Cleveland Clinic intended to enhance the leadership capacities of individuals and the organization. Propositions regarding the programs impact on organizational innovation, organizational commitment, social capital, and the human element of physician practice are offered for future examination.

Gender in the Management Education Classroom: A Collaborative Learning Journey.

In this article, the authors describe a classroom incident and their subsequent learnings about effectively managing issues of gender diversity in an MBA course titled “Women in Organizations.” The authors employ Kolb’s learning cycle as a framework for describing the incident (concrete experience), reflecting on and discussing what occurred (reflective observation), examining pertinent literature for possible explanations (abstract conceptualization ), and devising practical strategies to mitigate such incidents in the future (active experimentation). The study describes the collaborative learning journey in which the authors engaged as a team of instructors and researchers to make sense of this incident and refine their pedagogical practices. The article concludes by offering practical suggestions for improved pedagogy in management education settings, specifically fostering greater gender reflexivity in the classroom, and using functional subgrouping to encourage understanding and integration of differences.

The Value of Emotional Intelligence for High Performance Coaching

INTRODUCTION In their discussion of high performance coaching, Chan and Mallett specify the importance of recognizing feelings and emotions and taking appropriate action based on those emotions. The ability to perceive emotions, to understand emotions, to use emotions effectively, and to capably manage emotions are indispensable to effective coaches and all individuals in leadership roles. High performing leaders must be able to accurately appraise and express their own emotions along with demonstrating skills in reading and managing the emotions of others. This commentary highlights the central ability of self awareness and its significance to emotional intelligence.