William T. Markham

Gender and Opportunity in the Federal Bureaucracy

This article tests Rosabeth Kanters hypotheses that (a) promotion opportunity in organizations is related to several adaptive attitudes and bahaviors, (b) women have less promotion opportunity, (c) women are more likely to display the adaptations, and (d) when opportunity is controlled these gender differences are eliminated, using data from 897 employees in six offices of a government agency. Low opportunity was moderately related to bitter dissatisfaction concerning the promotion system and weakly related as predicted to four of eight remaining measures of these adaptations. Although gender was strongly related to occupational level, the segregation of women in lower-level career ladders was accompanied by roghly equal promotion opportunities for both sexes within the career ladders in which they were concentrated. Gender was moderately related to desire for security and interpersonal support at work, but is was related only weakly to four of the remaining measures of adaptations and related to two of these in the reverse of the expected directions. The sources of these findings in the structure of bureaucratic labor markets and the implications of the results are discussed.

Sex stereotyping in children's toy advertisements

Forty-eight categories of toys were rated in terms of sex appropriateness by 48 students. A sample of 392 pictures of children with toys in 12 toy catalogs and 538 pictures of children with toys on toy packages in four retail stores was coded according to toy type and sex(es) of children shown. The rated sex stereotype of the toy category proved to be very strongly related to the sex(es) of the children shown with the toy in catalogs (r=.89) and on toy packages (r=.87). Toys rated as moderately sex typed by raters were just as strongly stereotyped in toy advertisements as those rated as strongly sex typed.

Employment status and the attitudes and behavior of higher status women volunteers, 1975 and 1992: A case study

This study examines the relationships between employment status and womens attitudes toward and participation in a higher status voluntary service organization. Data were gathered in 1975 and 1992 from a sample of chapters of the International Association of Women (a pseudonym). The 1992 sample included three percent who reported a racial or ethnic identification other than white. Drawing on several theoretical perspectives, we expected to find differences in the attitudes and level of participation of employed versus non-employed members that would have important effects on organizational functioning. However, few differences in the attitudes of members employed full time, part time, and not in the labor force were found in either 1975 or 1992. There were, however, differences in behavior. Employed members reported spending much less time on organizational activities and were less likely to assume leadership roles, but these differences diminished between 1975 and 1992 as employed women became numerically dominant in the organization, suggesting that the growing presence of employed women in IAW led to the development of informal norms and new policies about the amount of time members should devote to the organization and a corresponding loss in the total number of volunteer hours devoted to it.

Sex Differences in Support for Organizational Advancement

While women workers have often been thought to receive less support than men to advance in organizations, these sex differences have not been systematically explored. Using a sample of 486 male and 356 female employees of a large federal bureaucracy, this article examines differences between men and women in their reports of social support from four potential sources: male peers, female peers, male supervisors, and female supervisors. Our findings indicate that, in general, (1) employees receive the most support from coworkers of the same sex, but supervisors support their male and female subordinates about equally, (2) when other variables are held constant, female employees give equal support to their male and female coworkers, while men continue to favor male coworkers, (3) youth and high-level position increase the amount of support men receive from each other, but diminish or have no effect on the amount of support women receive from men, and (4) workers receive more support from opposite-sex colleagues when members of their sex constitute a relatively small proportion of the total group.

Working at Home: Experiences of Skilled White Collar Workers

Based on a comprehensive literature review and detailed semistructured interviews with skilled workers who work at home, this article explores six research areas: reasons for working at home, the creation and maintenance of home/work boundaries, problems of isolation, distractions and temptations facing at-home workers, workaholism, and gender differences. The results indicate that white collar workers usually choose to work at home to reduce work/family conflicts or because of factors in the external labor market. Problems of creating and maintaining home/work boundaries, isolation, distractions and temptations at home, and workaholism do exist, but there was evidence that they may have been exaggerated in previous writing about at-home work. A combination of gender and life course stage better predicts differences in the experiences of the interviewees than does gender alone.

Sex and Power in the Federal Bureaucracy A Comparative Analysis of Male and Female Supervisors

Questionnaire data from 152 female employees and 46 supervisors in a large federal bureaucracy are used to test Kanters hypothesis that sex differences in supervisory behavior result from sex differences in organizational power. Female subordinates of female supervisors, compared to female subordinates of male supervisors, report less job satisfaction and lower group morale and are more likely to describe their supervisors behavior as controlling and particularistic. However, when differences in organizational power (as measured by an index comprised of supervisors job status, the amount of voice they believe they have in their superiors decisions, and the amount of autonomy they feel they have with respect to their superior) are controlled, differences between male and female supervisors on all of these variables are significantly reduced. The results are interpreted as providing support for Kanters theory.

Measuring Self-Expression in Volunteer Organizations: A Theory-Based Questionnaire

This article introduces a measure of self-expression in volunteer organizations and examines its reliability and validity. Using a model derived from the work of Argyris and others, we examine how the fit between member predispositions and organizational rewards affects the attitudes and behaviors that influence organizational success. Ratings of the importance of predispositions toward volunteer participation and the extent to which members were able to express them were obtained from representative samples of members of a higher status womens volunteer organization in 1975 and again in 1992. Factor analysis of the importance ratings identified the same five dimensions at both times: community involvement, organizational efficiency and flexibility, sociability and affiliation, leadership and self-development, and status attainment and maintenance. An overall measure of each members expression of her predispositions was related to several organizationally relevant outcomes: satisfaction with membership, plans to remain in the organization, time spent on organization activities, and low interpersonal friction. The instrument is being used in a self-assessment packet by many chapters of the organization studied; other organizations have modified it successfully for their use.

Nonprofit Decision Making and Resource Allocation: The Importance of Membership Preferences, Community Needs, and Interorganizational Ties.

Data on 12 local chapters of a high status women’s community service organization and their communities are used to assess the relative impact of community needs, members’ perceptions and preferences, and interorganizational ties on decisions about how to allocate volunteers and funds among 17 community problem areas. Quantitative analysis indicates that the distribution of volunteer time and funds was unrelated to community needs as measured by objective indicators. Instead, members’ and leaders’ perceptions of the severity of community problems and their willingness to work in some problem areas more than others were the most important determinants of resource allocation. Qualitative evidence also suggests that members’ ties to other organizations played a role in the chapters’ decisions about project selection.

Leadership in Voluntary Associations: The Case of the “International Association of Women

Three models of leadership in voluntary associations have been proposed in the literature: democratic leadership, oligarchy, and leadership by default. Through an intensive case study of leadership structure, differences in the attitudes of members and leaders at three hierarchical levels, and differences between the attitudes and behaviors of aspirants and nonaspirants to leadership in a womens service association, this article examines the degree of fit between these models and a specific organization. Data is drawn from questionnaires, annual reports, and interviews. The results fail to conform to any of the existing models, suggesting instead a fourth model, leadership for self-development—in which leaders are motivated primarily by a desire to develop administrative and interpersonal skills.

Measuring Organizational Control: The Reliability and Validity of the Control Graph Approach

The reliability and validity of the control graph approach to measuring organizational control structure and individual perceptions of control are examined through a review of previous studies and new data from managers, supervisors, and employees in six offices of a government agency. The results suggest that the approach has significant problems with reliability when used to measure organizational structure and problems with validity as a measure of individual perceptions of control structure. A theoretical account of the diversity of control mechanisms operating in organizations is developed to help explain why these problems exist.