Sonia Liff

Distorted Views Through the Glass Ceiling: The Construction of Women's Understandings of Promotion and Senior Management Positions

The article explores the issue of whether womens under-representation in senior management positions can be explained in part by the messages they are given about the promotion process and the requirements of senior jobs. Through interviews with over 50 male and female junior and senior managers in a UK high street bank, issues relating to the required personality and behaviour characteristics seen to be associated with success and with the long hours culture emerged as important. In many cases men and women identified the same issues but the significance of them for their own decision-making and the way others interpreted their behaviour varied — particularly in relation to the perceived incompatibility between active parenting and senior roles. The findings provide an account of the context in which women make career choices which highlights the limitations of analyses which see womens absence as the result either of procedural discrimination or womens primary orientation towards home and family. The findings also highlight the problems of treating commitments towards gender equality as an isolated issue and stress the importance of understanding responses to policies and ways of achieving change within the broader context of an analysis of the organizations culture.

Two routes to managing diversity: individual differences or social group characteristics

Should managing diversity be seen as an attack on, or a contribution to, attempts to achieve greater workplace equality? Reviews US practitioner literature and US and UK research on the operation of equal opportunities policies. Suggests that there are two distinct strands to managing diversity approaches: one focusing on individual differences, the other on social group characteristics. Assesses the consequences both of a policy focus on differences and an individual versus a group approach to identifying these. Argues that both managing diversity and equal opportunity approaches could provide useful lessons.

Changing Equality Cultures to Move Beyond ‘Women’s Problems’

Conventional equality measures have made a limited impact on women’s position in the workforce. This is not simply the result of measures being inadequately pursued. Instead, this paper argues, there is a more fundamental difficulty with the policy approach: that it focuses on women as having problems which need to be redressed rather than on changing organizations. As a result women are seen as inadequate and men become resentful of the ‘special treatment’ that follows. Changing these perceptions requires cultural change which cannot be achieved via conventional personnel-based equality initiatives. Many organizations are looking for new ways to present and pursue equality programmes such as a stress on providing a ‘business case’ or through a consideration of the value of workforce diversity. The paper assesses the ability of these initiatives to change the culture for equality. It argues that many organizations are merely pursuing a defensive approach which centres on language change and modified initiatives rather than new approaches to winning consent. In contrast it argues that culture change will only be achieved through a more pro-active approach. Various initiatives such as skills audits and training for men are discussed which indicate what can be done in practice.

Cybercafés: Debating the Meaning and Significance of Internet Access in a Café Environment

Cybercafés are relatively new phenomena, their birth often attributed to the opening of Cyberia in London in 1994. Tracing the growth of cybercafés accurately is problematic (as some contributors to this journal issue discuss) because there is no agreed definition, or shared view by owners or managers or a definitive list. Where lists exist their accuracy varies both in terms of coverage and keeping track of turnover in what is agreed to be a rapidly changing sector. However the current (March 2003) listing of 6189 cybercafés in 170 countries on http://www.cybercaptive.com, one of the main cybercafé search engines, suggests that the phenomenon is alive and well. Cybercafés exist in urban and rural locations, and central as well as peripheral areas worldwide. In the UK, out of the 53 percent of the adult population who had accessed the internet by October 2001, 10 percent had done so from an internet café or shop, the same proportion as those who had gained access from a library (Bowman, 2002). In other countries referred to in this issue (Norway, Finland and the US), cybercafés may not be as significant in terms of the proportion of the population using them, but they remain important for specific social groups in particular locations. This finding might seem surprising given the widespread growth in home internet access, at least in the developed world. However, as contributors to this collection argue, cybercafés are not the ‘last resort’ for access that would new media & society

Attitudes to women in management: an analysis of West Midlands businesses

Examines the attitudes of senior, predominantly male staff to women managers in a specific industrial setting ‐ namely the West Midlands region of the UK ‐ using data derived from the Price Waterhouse West Midlands Business Survey. The survey is unique in that it is focused on eliciting the opinions of the senior management level in companies. Finds women to be significantly under‐represented at the senior management level in West Midlands businesses. In a region which is characterized by heavy manufacturing industry, identifies differences in attitudes to women managers by the respondent’s industrial sector, size of company and by individual managers’ educational background. Concludes with a discussion of some of the policy implications of the findings.

Technology content and competitive advantage: strategic analysis in the steel processing and watch manufacturing sectors in the People's Republic of China

Two studies by Chinese researchers on technology strategy in industrial sectors in Tianjin in the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) are compared and assessed. One uses the UN ESCAP Technology Atlas framework for technology content assessment and applies it to the steel industry. The other uses Michael Porters framework for competitive strategy analysis and applies it to the watch manufacturing industry. The methods are contrasted in terms of their state–planning and market origins and their different degrees of focus on technology. The studies showed the applicability of both methods in the Chinese context, but also point to the need for modifications. It is concluded that with the dualistic character of economic reform in the PRC there is potential for a synthesis and adaptation of the two methods for application at the regional level.

Working in a corner shop: are employee relations changing in response to competitive pressures?

The rise of large out‐of‐town stores has received attention in terms of concern about the viability of town centres and local businesses and the environmental consequences of the increased car journeys generated by this change in shopping practices. This article explores whether the competitive pressures which small retailers are under have affected their employee relations. It is based on interviews with owner managers of butchers, greengrocers and newsagent shops in one location. Owner managers had different assessments of the nature of the competition they were facing and how they might continue to have a viable business. However, approaches to recruitment and selection and staff allocation seemed to have more to do with the limited labour market and the personal nature of the employment relationship than the approach taken to competition. Low wages, long hours and limited training remained the dominant features of both successful and unsuccessful businesses.

Local Communities: Relationships between ‘real’ and ‘virtual’ social capital

The paper explores forms of ‘real’ and ‘virtual’ social capital within a geographical area of the UK comprising 65 ‘communities’. Measures of real social capital based on formal community organisations were compared with web-activity relating to the same communities. Three main types of websites were identified: first a local government scheme which created ‘identikit’ websites for each of the places which could then be taken up by local people; second a similar scheme operated by a private company and covering the whole of the UK; and third independent, bottom up sites created by social entrepreneurs or community groups. Numbers and forms of organisations and websites, and levels and forms of community web-based participation were measured for each community at two points in 2004. The analysis suggests no strong correlation between these measures of real and virtual social capital. The analysis further suggests that providing a ready made website rarely results in the creation of a developed community site — although it may provide outlets for more limited information exchanges. However bottom up sites which reflect the heterogeneity of real communities are also rare. Interviews with participants suggest the need to understand more about the social networks, practices and organisational forms that sustain community engagement with community websites.