Nina Toren

The temporal dimension of gender inequality in academia

This paper examines gender inequality in academic careers by applying Mertons concept of ‘socially expected durations’ (SEDs). Womens relatively slower advancement along the academic hierarchy has been traditionally attributed to their traits and constraints. The concept of SED shifts attention from the individual to the organizational level, and the actual and expected augmented durations between promotions for women are viewed as part of the structural arrangements of academic institutions and their culture. It is argued that because of the distinct characteristics of academic careers, time-in-rank is an important dimension distinguishing among otherwise very uniform occupational roles and career patterns. The implications of conceptualizing career discrepancies in terms of socially expected durations are discussed.

The nexus between family and work roles of academic women in Israel: Reality and representation

This study examines the relationships between family responsibilities and scientific and scholarly productivity of women in academia. It is commonly believed that faculty women are less productive than their male colleagues because of childbearing and other domestic duties. Though this assumption seems logical, it is not supported by evidence from a growing number of studies including the present. The family-career nexus of faculty women in Israel is examined on two levels: the actual—namely the association between number of children and rates of publications, and the perceptual—the ways in which faculty women perceive and describe the problem. The data show that the presence of children does not reduce research productivity, and that respondents accept their family obligations as matter of fact. The paper attempts to account for the main finding that women with more children do not publish less, but somewhat more than women without children or with one child, and also discusses several explanations that have been forwarded in other studies.

What Do Managers Like to Do? A Five-Country Study

Previous research on the nature of managerial work has defined managerial activities, assessed their importance, and examined the contribution of the activities to managerial success and effectiveness. Researchers have not examined preferences for managerial activities, however. This article describes a paper-and-pencil instrument designed to assess managerial activity preferences and provides evidence to support its reliability and validity. Participants in five countries responded to the instrument. Results indicated that substantial similarities exist between countries in the relative attractiveness of 10 managerial activities. The managerial activities receiving the highest ratings involved leading employees, networking, and innovating. Activities receiving the lowest ratings included controlling employees, doing desk work, and handling time pressures. Country differences were related to each country’s culture and business environment. Within each country, women and men showed a high level of agreement in their preferences, and the observed gender differences were related to shared conceptions of femininity and masculinity.

Women in academe: the Israeli case

Cites women in academic science as an interesting case study to examine the effects of gender on work and career attainment. Suggests that inequality should be less pronounced in this area than other occupations as physical strengths, technical skills or leadership are less necessary in this sphere. Presents the findings of a cross‐national survey comparing Israel with other countries which shows that life in academia in every nation is no less sexist than the world outside. Highlights a perception held by some that women do not possess the requisite characteristics and abilities to do creative and theoretical research.

The determinants of the potential effectiveness of government-supported industrial research institutes

Abstract This paper analyses the main factors which determine the effectiveness of government-supported industrial research institutes (GSIRIs). GSIRIs are viewed as a sub-system of a larger, more complex system that is composed of the industrial environment, the universities, and the government. The interactions between GSIRIs and each of the components of their environment are examined. The potential effectiveness of a GSIRI is largely affected by the relationship, or ‘distance’, between industrys level of sophistication in performing its R&D activities and the nature of the universitys applied research activities. The government influences this distance by affecting the supply of, and demand for, industrial R&D. Government usually intervenes by establishing specialized GSIRIs when the gap between industrys needs and the universitys supply of R&D services is great. The role of a GSIRI may decline over time if industry becomes more sophisticated and/or the university becomes more applied.

A cross‐national cross‐gender study of managerial task preferences and evaluation of work characteristics

Addresses the debate about gender‐based leadership/management styles by examining and comparing managerial task preferences and rating of work characteristics of women and men in management positions in the USA, Japan, Australia, Israel and Italy. The findings do not support the notion that women have a distinct leadership style, e.g. that they are more people‐oriented than men, or that they differ consistently in their evaluation of various job factors, such as extrinsic versus intrinsic components. However, country of origin has strong and pervasive effects on management style and orientation in these terms. Japanese managers are markedly different from those in other countries (they exhibit a so‐called “feminine” style), while the Americans and Israelis resemble each other. The findings sustain the argument that managerial style is not mainly determined by gender but rather by contextual factors, such as national culture, organization and occupation.

Organizational response to decline in the academic marketplace

In the last twenty-five years institutions of higher education and the academic market-place have undergone considerable change. A period of rapid growth and expansion was followed by a period of shrinking resources and decreasing growth. The effects of organizational decline on personnel management and on the formal structure of the academic hierarchy are examined in Israeli universities. The data show that in the non-growth period standards for faculty selection and advancement have not been formally altered, although actual practices have resulted in prolonged time periods between promotions and until tenure is obtained. The most salient change that has taken place is a continuous process of proliferation of the academic hierarchy by addition of new tracks and ranks to the main regular faculty track, and the increasing use of these positions particularly for new hires. This is consistent with other studies which found that organizational complexity may increase under conditions of decline. The effectiveness and functions of this process as an adaptive response to environmental scarcity are discussed.

A cross-cultural examination of scientists' perceived importance of work characteristics

Abstract This study examines the attitudes of scientists of different sociocultural backgrounds to a set of work characteristics. Two samples of scientists who have recently immigrated to Israel—from the USSR and the United States—are investigated. Drawing on the idea that science is not culture-free or context-independent, it is proposed that the two groups will differ in their valuation of certain job characteristics. Application of the Facet Approach and Smallest Space Analysis show a marked structural similarity between the Soviet and the American scientists in reference to all job factors investigated except one. Namely, the “opportunity to contribute to society” is perceived as a social activity and goal by the Russians, whereas American scientists view this aspect as part of the professional attributes of their work.

Scientists' Orientation Toward their Work: The Relative Effect of Socialization Versus Situation

THIS PAPER ADDRESSES itself to the controversy concerning the effect of values inculcated during the process of scientific training versus the situational context in which scientists perform their occupational role. No support is found for the argument that scientists abandon scientific norms and adopt organizational perspectives and goals once they leave the university. Log linear methods of analysis are applied to data obtained from a sample of Soviet and American immigrant scientists in Israel. The analysis shows that a full and extended scientific socialization (i.e. holding a Ph.D. degree) is a dominant determinant of scientists’ value orientations, overriding the influence of the institutional setting in which they do research. The methodological grounds for the contradiction between the conclusions of this and previous studies are discussed and an interpretation of the findings is suggested. A fundamental and long-standing controversy in sociology concerns the question of whether attitudes are shaped by a process of socialization in which shared normative motivations are internalized by individuals, or whether it is the objective conditions of life-situations which determine the nature of evaluations and interests. In the most general terms this is the well-known and still debated &dquo;values versus interests&dquo; dichotomy (for a recent discussion see Warner, 1978). On a more empirical level, this issue may be approached by examining the relative importance of acquired norms as compared with situational demands and by identifying the main factors associated with the intensity of these influences. In this paper we shall deal with one particular area pertaining to the general controversy delineated above; it concerns the effect of professional socialization as compared with the impact of organizational structure in which occupational roles are performed. More specifically, we examine the relative influence of the process of training for science and of work situations on scientists’ orientations. This question has been raised and investigated mostly by British sociologists challenging the &dquo;normative approach&dquo; in the sociology of science (for example, Mulkay, 1976; Barnes, 1971; Cotgrove and Box, 1970;

Return migration to Israel.

After surveying the historical and legal background of the return migration to Israel, the empirical investigation reported in this paper—based on a random sample of Israeli citizens who returned during 1970 from the U.S., Canada, and France—addressed itself to the subject of motivations to migrate. The analysis has shown that the attraction that Israel has for its citizens residing abroad is primarily associated with patriotic commitments and family ties, whereas forces pushing people from other countries play only a minor role in return migration to Israel. The Israeli Government plan of granting special economic benefits to returnees during 1968–1970 did not achieve its designated purpose.