Diversity Perspectives in European Management 9781846634956, 9781846634949

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05/06/2007

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ISSN 0964-9425

Volume 22 Number 4 2007

Women in Management Review Diversity perspectives in European management Guest Editors: Beverly D. Metcalfe and Sandra Fielden

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Women in Management Review

ISSN 0964-9425 Volume 22 Number 4 2007

Diversity perspectives in European management Guest Editors Beverly D. Metcalfe and Sandra Fielden

Access this journal online _________________________

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Editorial advisory board __________________________

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Guest editorial ___________________________________

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Developing culturally diverse organizations: a participative and empowerment-based method Aulikki Sippola ________________________________________________

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Managing diversity in academic organizations: a challenge to organizational culture

´Iris Barbosa and Carlos Cabral-Cardoso ____________________________

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A comparative analysis of the use of work-life balance practices in Europe: do practices enhance females’ career advancement? Caroline Straub________________________________________________

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Female part-time workers’ experiences of occupational mobility in the UK service industry Jennifer Tomlinson _____________________________________________

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CONTENTS

CONTENTS

Gender, language and the workplace: an exploratory study

continued

Fiona Sheridan ________________________________________________

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News ____________________________________________

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EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD

Professor Beverly Alimo-Metcalfe Professor of Leadership Studies, University of Leeds and Chief Executive of Real World Group, Leeds, UK

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Dr Ariane Berthoin Antal Program Director, Organizational Learning, Science Center Berlin (WZB) Germany Dr Mary Barrett Deputy Director, Graduate School of Management, Griffith University, Australia Dr Adelina Broadbridge Senior Lecturer, Institute for Retail Studies, University of Stirling, UK Professor Ronald J. Burke Schulich School of Business, York University, Ontario, Canada Professor Norma Carr-Ruffino Professor of Management, Department of Management, San Francisco State University, USA Professor Cary L. Cooper, CBE Lancaster University Management School, Lancaster University, UK Professor Marilyn Davidson Professor of Managerial Psychology, Manchester Business School, The University of Manchester, UK Dr Andrew Gale Senior Lecturer in Project Management, Department of Civil & Construction Engineering, The University of Manchester, UK Val Hammond Non-Executive Chair of Board of Trustees, Roffey Park Institute, UK Dr Hilary Harris Director of CReME, Cranfield University, UK Dr Wendy Hirsh Associate Fellow, Institute of Employment Studies, UK Dr Viki Holton Ashridge Business School, UK Dr Charles Jackson Visiting Professor, Kingston Business School, UK Professor Elin Kvande Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway

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Professor Suzan Lewis Professor of Organisational Psychology, Middlesex University Business School, London, UK Dr Sonia Liff Senior Lecturer, Warwick Business School, The University of Warwick, UK Professor Carol McKeen School of Business, Queens University, Canada Su Maddock Director, North West Change Centre, Manchester Business School, The University of Manchester, UK Professor Judi Marshall Professor in Organizational Behaviour, School of Management, University of Bath, UK Dr Mark Neal Head of Department and Associate Professor, Department of Management, College of Commerce and Economics, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman Professor Jeannette Oppedisano Department of Management, Southern Connecticut State University, USA Professor Cristina Reis Professor Auxiliar Convidado, FEUC/Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal Professor Virginia Schein Professor of Management, Department of Management, Gettysburg College, USA Professor Leonie V. Still Professorial Fellow, Graduate School of Management, University of Western Australia, Australia Dr Cheryl J. Travers Lecturer in Organization Behaviour and Human Resource Management, The Business School, Loughborough University, UK Professor Tricia Vilkinas Foundation Professor of Management: Director, Strategic Partnerships, University of South Australia, Australia Professor Susan Vinnicombe, OBE Professor of Organisational Behaviour & Diversity Management, Cranfield School of Management, UK Professor Fiona Wilson Professor of Organisational Behaviour, University of Glasgow Business School, UK

Guest editorial Gender, and gendered and racialized power relations are major defining features of most organizations and managements. Diversity and difference however, is culturally and socially constituted and needs to be explored within specific socio-political and geographic regions. Understanding the dynamics of diversity can assist management scholars and practioners in creating and sustaining competitive management behaviours and attitudes that are inclusive, not exclusive. Diversity initiatives are particularly relevant to an understanding of European management initiatives on account of the new enlarged Europe and Europe’s relations and networks with the international economy. The economics and politics of transition, and the implications for management systems and structures are important features that need to be critically evaluated as Europe moves towards greater democratization and liberalization. There is also a need to consider how developments in European feminism(s) and diversity agendas are translated and communicated to the global community. This special issue has been developed from the Gender, Diversity and Management track of the European Management Conference that was held in Oslo 2006. These papers were selected because they encapsulated the ethos of the track and highlight some of the key issues in the understanding of diversity and the implications for organisations in developing and implementing diversity initiatives. Diversity management emerged as an autonomous research domain in the 1990s following practioners growing interest in how to manage an increasing diverse demographic workforce (Nkomo and Cox, 1996). These managerial origins have influenced the first generation of diversity studies as scholars have sought to explore the effects of socio-demographic characteristics on work processes or on discriminatory practices such as the glass ceiling, wage differentials, occupational segregation and exclusion from informal networks (for example, Ibarra, 1995). These studies have largely been instrumentally driven and primarily focused on advocating the business case for diversity. There have also been frameworks designed to reveal how diversity is broadly managed ranging from resistance, discrimination and fairness, access and legitimacy and learning and effectiveness. In line with business case models the more advanced approaches tend to treat employees as strategic asset in organizations as well as aligning diversity values with the organizations mission and business strategy. Influenced by gender mainstreaming philosophies in EU institution policy making and increased migration of immigrants across European borders, European scholars have begun to question these business case strategies and approaches, particularly the assumptions about the nature of diversity and how diversity should be managed (Walby, 2007). Within organisation studies especially, particular attention has sought to show how socio-demographic categories under investigation, such as race, ethnicity or gender represent a fixed essence. Relatedly, this perspective in marginalising differences of specific categories, such as women, pays little attention to individual or within group variation. Increasingly scholars stress the fluidity of diverse identities in

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organizations and of the importance of social and organizational contexts and how they shape and the dynamics of managing of diversity. Dominant discourses in specific socio-political and geographic regions are also noted as influencing the formation of diversity themes and meanings. The papers in this special edition encapsulate the need to unravel diversity organization demographics in more critical ways. Following Janssens and Zanoni (2005) the papers stress that while diversity can incorporate within group characteristics, diversity is also embedded in existing power structures and relations, and in societal conceptualisations of diversity values and priorities, rendering diversity management processes and practices as highly variable in the European terrain. The first paper by Aulikki Sippola investigates how multiculturalism is developed and promoted through empowerment and participatory organisation development approaches. Based on case study analysis of 15 Finnish organizations over a two year period the paper highlights the value of a “culture bridge method” to help transform organization values about diversity and inclusion. The organizations had previously participated in a three year long EU community initiative programme aiming to promote the tolerance and multi-cultural values in response to the increasing number of immigrant workers in Finland. The findings suggest that the participatory method can be an important diversity development tool for policy makers and practioners. The second paper by Iris Barbosa and Carlos Cabral-Cardosa examines how higher education systems in Portugal are responding to the challenges of an increasingly diverse academic workforce, and how academic cultural values are changing. As with all educational institutions the Bologna declaration has advocated the recognition of being able to teach, research and train without facing discrimination. That said, while diversity in Academia is a serious subject of study in the UK Barbosa and Cadosa stress that in most European countries diversity issues are largely under researched. In their study of 45 academics via in depth semi-structured interviews they reveal that the academic organization culture is characterised by preference for Portuguese national’s inclusion in decision-making processes and in senior university appointments, thereby marginalising other ethnic groups and limiting opportunities. They suggest that sameness rather than difference is the key (anti) diversity organising process (Liff, 1999; Marginson, 2000) and argue that this needs to change if the university is going to attract and retain talented individuals. While they note their results cannot be generalised to other institutions they argue that replications of this study in other European universities is a valuable research project in order to shed light on how the Bologna agreement is shaping diversity transformations or not. The paper by Caroline Straub investigates the work-life balance policies in fourteen European countries, exploring whether or not these policies actually enhance the career prospects of women in senior management positions. The findings are positive in that at an overall European level companies seem to be committed to work-life initiatives which eliminate the structural barriers to women’s advancement in the workplace. However, earlier studies have shown that the implementation of policies and practices does not guarantee people making use of them (Allen, 2001). One of the main inhibitors to this is organisational culture and Caroline concludes that European companies still

need to review their organisational cultures is there are to make such initiative truly successful. Jennifer Tomlinson’s paper examines the experiences of female part-time workers in the UK who work in the service industry, particularly their work satisfaction, access to occupational mobility and career progression in the hotel and catering sector. The research is significant since it was conducted following the EU Part Time Workers Directive which was intended to provide regulatory safeguards and employment protection for part-timers especially in terms of career and development opportunities (Walby, 2007). Jennifer’s study found that PT work experiences were shaped by the occupational context, the structuring of part time and full time jobs and the degree to which the legislation was being adapted or rejected in policy and practice. Drawing on Weber’s concept of closure which refers to open and closed relations/opportunities in organizations, Jennifer highlights how this model is useful in explain stratification of workplaces and job structures. Overall she found that for many who worked part time their were limited and different expectations about their commitment and performance, as well as many of them feeling as though they were closed off from certain entitlements regarding career paths and development opportunities. Given that the PT work is set to increase over the next decade there are clear challenges for diversity policy makers since part-time social demographic intersects with other forms of difference and inequality (Walby, 2007). The final paper by Fiona Sheridan examines the construction of gendered communications in organizations and the implication for women and men’s careers and professional identity in a UK professional organization. Her key focus is on conversation of men and women in leadership roles. Contributing to the expansive gender and communication literature Fiona highlights how speech patterns by men and women are different and that they are differently reacted to in organizations. What she terms the “conversations rituals” of men and women are often misunderstood and misinterpreted and impacts an individuals sense of self-worth, confidence, acceptability and authority in organizations settings. Significantly her research differs from previous communication research as it reveals that female speech patterns which tend to be collaborative and facilitative in style are appropriate to expected leadership behaviours in today’s modern organizations. Specifically she shows how listening, attentiveness enhance morale and productivity in work settings reflect highly valued leadership behaviours. Beverly D. Metcalfe University of Hull Business School, UK, and Sandra L. Fielden Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, UK

References Allen, T.D. (2001), “Family-supportive work environments: the role of organisational perspectives”, Journal of Vocational Behavior, p. 58. Ibarra, H. (1995), “Race, opportunity and social circles in managerial networks”, Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 38 No. 3, pp. 673-703. Janssens, M. and Zanoni, P. (2005), “Many diversities for many services: theorising diversity (management) in service companies”, Human Relations, Vol. 58 No. 3, pp. 311-41.

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Liff, S. (1999), “Diversity and equal opportunities: room for a compromise?”, Human Resource Management Journal, Vol. 9 No. 1, pp. 65-75. Marginson, S. (2000), “Rethinking academic work in the global arena”, Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, Vol. 22 No. 1, pp. 23-35. Nkomo, S. and Cox, T. (1996), “Diverse identities in organizations”, in Clegg, S.R., Hardy, C. and Nord, W.R. (Eds), Handbook of Organization Studies, Sage, London. Walby, S. (2007), Gender (In)Equality and the Future of Work, Equal Opportunities Commission, Manchester.

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/0964-9425.htm

Developing culturally diverse organizations: a participative and empowerment-based method Aulikki Sippola

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Department of Management, University of Vaasa, Vaasa, Finland Abstract Purpose – This study aims to investigate the promotion of workplace multiculturalism via the use of a participative and empowerment-based diversity training and development method. Design/methodology/approach – A two-year long qualitative, multiple case-study amongst 15 Finnish organizations was conducted by means of the focus group method. Altogether 20 group interviews were held with so-called “working culture bridge groups” consisting of different stakeholders and their four coordinators to explore the approaches, modes of action, achievements and explanatory factors that contributed to the development of working cultures towards multiculturalism. Findings – The development method was directed more at individual than organizational level change processes. More specifically, the attitudes of the majority were perceived as the main problem and the goal was to influence them by enhancing their knowledge and awareness of multicultural issues. The effectiveness of the method was recognized to depend on the clarity of set goals, adequate resources, systemic development work at both the individual and organizational level as well as on the commitment of management. Research limitations/implications – Despite being conducted in one country with low cultural diversity, an empowerment-based method proved to be useful in directing the creation of inclusive working organizations. Practical implications – The method helps in planning the content and delivery of different diversity training and development approaches. Originality/value – The paper offers a powerful tool and an innovative way for practitioners to align both organisational and diversity goals to meet individual needs, to identify inequalities and to increase the effectiveness of diversity initiatives. Keywords Multicultural management, Empowerment, Training, Finland Paper type Research paper

Introduction The cultural and ethnic-based demographics of workplaces are changing as labour markets become more diverse, even in traditionally homogeneous countries such as Finland. Managing diversity can be seen as a strategic response to these changes and focuses on the utilization of the entire workforce (Thornhill et al., 2000). Moral, legal and economic performance factors are, according to Cox (1993), the types of organizational goals that can be achieved by managing diversity. The purpose of diversity development initiatives depend therefore on their objectives, namely increasing awareness, understanding and valuing each other, empowering managers, as well as learning more about the benefits and challenges of diversity (Cassell, 2001). However, the main motivation has often been found to be derived from operational business needs, such as to improve productivity, competitiveness or customer relations (Bendick et al., 2001; Noon and Ogbonna, 2001; Wentling and Palma-Rivas, 1998).

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It is widely acknowledged that the effective management of diversity implies changes in mindsets, attitudes, behaviors, organizational practices, structure and culture as well as in regulations, procedures and power relations (Kirton and Greene, 2005; Lorbiecki, 2001; Litvin, 2002; Dass and Parker, 1999; Kandola and Fullerton, 1998; Tayeb, 1996; Kossek and Lobel, 1996). That is why investing diversity is seen as cultural transformation; to adapt and change organizations, not only individuals (Maxwell et al., 2001). Individual- and organizational-level development approaches have been suggested to arise from the increase in information and the changes of attitudes and behaviours towards organizational change (Wrench, 2001; Bendick et al., 2001). These approaches can also be identified in diversity management paradigms, which range from resistance to learning within supportive working environments (Dass and Parker, 1999; Thomas and Ely, 1996). In creating an inclusive culture, partnership with employees (Gagnon and Cornelius, 2002) and empowering development methods are suggested to be useful, particularly in bringing about cultural change (Ulrich, 1997). On these grounds, long-term project-based employee involvement in promoting workplace multiculturalism can be viewed as a new empowerment-based method for organizational development (OD). However, its applicability and effectiveness is only scarcely reported in existing research. The aim of this study is, therefore to fill this gap in our understanding by investigating how workplace multiculturalism is developed and promoted through a method that allows for the participation of the organizational members. More specifically, it is explored: . how development goals are set; . what training and development methods are applied; and . what the outcomes and their explanatory factors are. The paper contributes to the literature by applying established frameworks of diversity training and development methods and managing diversity to uncover their relationships in promoting workplace multiculturalism. A two-year long qualitative, multiple case-study amongst 15 Finnish organizations was conducted in order to investigate the approaches, activities and achievements of the so-called “working culture bridge groups”. In the following sections, the function and objectives of various diversity training and development approaches are first examined. Their application in different diversity management paradigms and the effectiveness of training and development are then discussed. After presenting the results of the study, the paper concludes with a discussion of the implications. The function and objectives of diversity training and development Diversity is a plural term consisting of different perceptions and understandings in different organizations without any unitary meaning (Cassell, 2001; Omanovic, 2002). They derive from the traditions, culture, history and persons who created the values and perceptions of insiders and outsiders, as well as the systems supporting this view (Cox, 1993). Workplace diversity can be connected to the composition of a workforce as a collective and all-inclusive mixture of employee differences and similarities (Thomas, 1995), being either visible or invisible (Moore, 1999). When attention is paid to only demographic factors (age, gender, race, ethnic background), employees are considered as members of different identity groups (Thomas and Ely, 1996) collectively

sharing norms, values and traditions (Cox, 1993). This study focuses on training and development activities relating to cultural diversity issues. According to studies in EU countries and in the USA (Bendick et al., 1998, 2001; Wrench, 1997, 2001) the evolution of diversity training and development, as well as the improvement of the employment opportunities of minorities, have advanced in sequential phases regarding their type and object. Approaches to training that correspond with four different change strategies are offered by Wrench (1997, 2001) in the form of providing information, impacting attitudes, behaviours or organization and targeted at minority, majority or both in a broader organizational and societal context. In the first phase of development, the assumption is that correct information can lead to changes in majority behaviour. General information about immigration, immigrants’ employability and different cultures is provided by public authorities to the majority in order to promote understanding, increase cultural awareness and knowledge of issues relating to racism in forms of printed material, lectures and videos. Organizations offer information training mainly to immigrants and minorities covering language, working and cultural habits allowing the practice of their own habits related to religion and culture. In the second phase, cultural awareness training is delivered to minorities to understand majority culture and issues linked to racism awareness are offered to the majority. The aim is to change majority members’ racist attitudes and prevent discriminative behaviours, which are considered to be their own problems and therefore their responsibility to remove and eliminate them. Via group discussions, exercises, role plays and inviting immigrant representatives, cultural awareness and sensitivity seek to be enhanced and attitudes changed, for example, by increasing people’s understanding about how to work with persons from other cultures (Wrench, 1997, 2001). It has been noticed that discrimination is not reduced by only changing attitudes, especially if prejudices, harassment and racist behaviour are not recognized. The third phase, equalities training, therefore targets appropriate behaviour of the majority, basing it on the obligations of equality legislation and the prohibition to discriminate. Fair recruiting and selection are particularly emphasized. Also positive actions (translated job advertisements, minority media, images of minority, mentoring, extra training) can be applied to increase equality and the number of minorities in relation to the surrounding community. The fourth development phase aims at broader organizational changes by means anti-racism training through consciously increasing majority self-awareness and changing both their attitudes and behaviours. The goal is actively to combat racism and discrimination, which are considered to be the main problem of the organization, not only (white) individuals’ self-awareness. Diversity training is offered when organizations aim to manage diversity and utilize it in business, emphasizing fair treatment, valuing individual differences and the prevention of costs of discriminative actions. Training is often targeted to managers, which could via cultural auditing, recognize the barriers and “institutional racism” in promoting equal opportunities and thereby affect organizational practices and culture. Because the goal in managing diversity is to create a culture over the long-term which supports heterogeneity, and in which minorities are not assimilated, training can include elements of all of the above mentioned training types (Wrench, 1997, 2001). How these various modes of training and development are manifested in different diversity management paradigms is discussed next.

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Training and development in diversity management paradigms The various approaches to managing diversity in organizations have been divided into four paradigms: resistance, discrimination-and-fairness, access-and-legitimacy and learning-and-effectiveness (Dass and Parker, 1999; Thomas and Ely, 1996). They comprise explicitly different perceptions about diversity, of its importance as well as the internal and external forces influencing its management, ranging from reactive to proactive (Dass and Parker, 1999). Sippola (2005) has identified that strategic and operational HRM, including training and development, also manifests itself in these paradigms from reactive to proactive. The content of these paradigms along with different training and development approaches is now turned to. In the resistance paradigm organizations concentrate on enhancing organizational effectiveness and productivity by maintaining demographic and cultural homogeneity and the status quo (Omanovic, 2002; Dass and Parker, 1999; Cox, 1993). It represents a strategically reactive management approach, which fosters assimilation and regards diversity as a non-issue (Dass and Parker, 1999; Moore, 1999). Accordingly, training is ignored (Moore, 1999) or it is offered to minorities and focuses on delivering information mainly during the induction process on workplace norms and values in order that the individual can adapt to the existing working culture and habits (Sippola, 2005; Omanovic, 2002; Wrench, 2001; Ford and Fisher, 1996). Habits relating to religion and culture can be permitted and cultural awareness can be increased for the majority (Wrench, 1997, 2001). Discrimination-and-fairness paradigm organizations can also be described as being strategically reactive, because their management is based on the enhancement of sameness instead of diversity on the grounds of equality legislation and obligatory initiatives (Dass and Parker, 1999; Thomas and Ely, 1996). It is argued that organizations formally support and develop equality in their policies and statements (Kirton and Greene, 2005). Diversity is considered as a cost and assimilation and segregation are prevailing (Dass and Parker, 1996). Especially, in recruiting, equal treatment and positive actions can be emphasized to avoid discrimination (Wrench, 2001; Moore, 1999). That is why some proactivity is noticed by increasing and assessing the numbers of minority groups (Kandola and Fullerton, 1998; Thomas and Ely, 1996), however, minority members are adapted as above to the dominant culture via information delivery and skills training (Sippola, 2005; Ford and Fisher, 1996). If offered, the development and training activities of the majority can include the increase of knowledge, cultural awareness and legislative equality issues which aim to change their behaviours (Wrench, 2001). The access-and-legitimacy paradigm organizations attune to diversity as a business case (Noon and Ogbonna, 2001), which can offer access to a new customer base (Thomas and Ely, 1996). Managing diversity is utilizing and maximizing the individual potential by paying attention to effectively manage and value differences and by creating a culture and atmosphere of respect as a responsible employer (Maxwell et al., 2001; Cassell, 2001; DeNisi and Griffin, 2001; Deresky, 2000). The aim is the strategic use of employees as a source of competitive success adding value to the organization (Cunnigham and James, 2001; Ulrich, 1997), which can also be stated in a diversity policy (Kirton and Greene, 2005). In spite of the proactive management and strategic HRM approaches, the HR function often stays operationally reactive without changes (Sippola, 2005). For instance, training is mainly targeted at changing majority attitudes and behaviours (Bendick et al., 2001;

Wrench, 2001), to increase communication and interaction (Wiethoff, 2004) as well as mutual understanding to avoid possible conflicts (DeNisi and Griffin, 2001; Deresky, 2000). However, it is argued if diversity training is a loosely integrated intervention, it can have short-term influence, and even contradict its own goals despite its good intentions (Easley, 2001; Moore, 1999; Nemetz and Christensen, 1996), and increase the reproduction of stereotypes (Prasad and Prasad, 2002). The learning-and-effectiveness paradigm organizations connect diversity to work and employee perspectives, and proactively manage it aiming at fundamental changes in thinking, structure, tasks and environment (Dass and Parker, 1999; Thomas and Ely, 1996). Also non-bureaucratic and egalitarian culture is seen to contribute to performance, empowerment and encouraging openness and diversity (Thomas and Ely, 1996). The target is towards viewing employees as strategic assets; irreplaceable, valuable and as an investment (Ely and Thomas, 2001; Cornelius et al., 2001, Dass and Parker, 1999) linking the management of diversity to the organization’s mission, vision and business strategy (Kirton and Greene, 2005; DeNisi and Griffin, 2001; Kossek and Lobel, 1996; Tayeb, 1996; Wilson, 1996). Therefore, this paradigm supports multiculturalism, elimination and minimization of the institutional bias within HRM and commitment to systemic, structural and informal integration of equality and diversity (Cornelius et al., 2001; Dass and Parker, 1996, 1999; Cox, 1993) by means of a strategically and operationally proactive HR function (Sippola, 2005). Consequently, the changes cover all relevant training and development activities (Moore, 1999; Wentling and Palma-Rivas, 1998). At the individual level, for example, diversity training in particular, aims to offer awareness, competency and skills training for all (Moore, 1999). Additionally, participation is seen to foster a fair, inclusive and enabling culture as well as the creation of proactive structures, strategies and practices (Cornelius and Bassett-Jones, 2002; Gagnon and Cornelius, 2002). On these grounds a holistic and a more systematic approach to training and development is seen to contribute both to individual (minority, majority) and broader organization level changes (Bendick et al., 2001; Wrench, 2001; Ford and Fisher, 1996). As noted in different diversity paradigms the way in which diversity is approached, perceived and developed varies. Furthermore, the function and objectives of training and development activities correspond with the aims of the paradigms confirming their application both as individual and organizational level change strategies (Wrench, 2001). The factors that can impact the effectiveness of diversity training and development are now discussed. Effectiveness of diversity training and development Although training on diversity issues has become popular and is widely used (Jayne and Dipboye, 2004; Wentling and Palma-Rivas, 1998), its effectiveness has been criticized for many reasons suggesting that, on average, it has a neutral or marginal positive effect (Von Bergen et al., 2002; Bendick et al., 2001). It is also argued that training interventions concentrate more on changing attitudes and behaviours (Jackson and Joshi, 2001; Ford and Fisher, 1996) than on addressing the need to conform to organizational systems, cultures and performance goals (Bendick et al., 2001). Moreover, the rationale for the training is often unclear (Bagshaw, 2004). If the training’s objective is focused on individual-level development activities alone, it is argued to be unable to change culture, power relations, structures, systems or

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processes (Litvin, 2002; Easley, 2001; Jackson and Joshi, 2001; Moore, 1999). It is therefore suggested that training can become more effective when it represents a more comprehensive and systemic approach to OD, towards changing workplace climate and culture and when coupled with changes in corporate HR policies, systems and practices to foster fairness issues (Cropanzano et al., 2004; Jackson et al., 2003; Bendick et al., 2001; Easley, 2001). It should also be targeted to all members and levels of the organization (Omanovic, 2002; Bendick et al., 2001; Ford and Fisher, 1996). However, opinions about whether it should be compulsory do vary (Jackson et al., 2003; Linnehan and Konrad, 1999; Wentling and Palma-Rivas, 1998). Other components relating to the effects of training and development initiatives are, for example, the qualifications and characteristics of the providers, their sufficient managerial, academic, professional and personal skills and experience (Kossek et al., 2006; Wrench, 2001; Bendick et al., 2001; Wentling and Palma-Rivas, 1998). Training content, i.e. tailoring designs and delivery methods, are influential (Bendick et al., 2001; Von Bergen et al., 2002) as well as the state of readiness towards diversity (Diamante and Giglio, 1994). External trainers have been found primarily to aim to change behaviours by increasing knowledge and attitude training (cultural awareness, stereotyping, interaction, recognizing discriminative behaviours, benefits of diversity) using written and video material and lectures and/or instructional methods for active learning (group exercises, role playing, discussions) (Von Bergen et al., 2002; Bendick et al., 2001). Secondly, their training has been aimed to promote organizational change and therefore has been considered not to be used as an isolated event, but as a part of a broader change process (Bendick et al., 2001). In developing successful diversity programs the setting of goals with feedback and evaluation on its progress is said to guide and energize participants towards fully achieving them if they are realistic and based on careful assessment (Jayne and Dipboye, 2004). The major goals of effective training have been recognized to be to increase organizational or personal effectiveness, which can be reached by linking it to business needs and objectives along with long-term assessment and revision (Wentling and Palma-Rivas, 1998). That is why commitment, strategic support and involvement of top management and long-term resources are crucial for fundamental changes in addressing, for example, discriminatory practices (Kirton and Greene, 2005; Jayne and Dipboye, 2004; Bendick et al., 2001; Cox, 2002; Nkomo and Kossek, 2000; Wentling and Palma-Rivas, 1998). When using internal resources for training and building its content, collaboration and involvement of the “user” is said to contribute to its dynamics (Wiethoff, 2004; Easley, 2001) and credibility through increasing management’s commitment (Diamante and Giglio, 1994) as well as participants’ motivation to learn (Dass and Parker, 1999). It has also been noticed that traditional diversity and equality initiatives fail because they are mostly top-down, planned and employer-driven, presenting issues that are considered significant by the employer and not by the employees (Richards, 2001). Top-down driven culture change initiatives including training, rewarding and increasing communication to shape employee behaviour have also been found challenging, if used as isolated events (Ulrich, 1997). It is, therefore, suggested that participative methods and open dialogue can elicit a change in viewpoints and promote changes in the existing culture (Easley, 2001; Nemetz and Christensen, 1996).

Since, a culture change concerns changing an organization’s identity by influencing the shared mindset of the individuals (Brockbank, 1999; Ulrich, 1997; Thornhill et al., 2000) and by changing organizational processes and practices (work, communication, decision-making/authority, human resource flow), a bottom-up development approach is seen as useful in finding the desired new mindset and quickly translating it into specific, new employee behaviours from their points of view (Ulrich, 1997). These views support the application of empowering development methods, when aiming towards cultural changes, and more specifically when creating an inclusive organization, an enabling working environment and in HRM system design as considered crucial in the learning-and-effectiveness paradigm in order to learn from diversity. In those change efforts, partnership with stakeholder groups (employees, employee representatives, trade unions) and incorporation of their perspectives have been seen as useful (Simmons, 2004; Easley, 2001; Cornelius and Bassett-Jones, 2002; Cornelius et al., 2001; Cox, 2002) for instance in identifying problems, in increasing understanding and getting new ideas, initiatives and experiences (Simmons, 1995). Ulrich (1997) goes on to argue that a holistic approach to change combines not only top-down and bottom-up approaches, but also side-to-side initiatives such as process engineering. A participative and empowerment-based development method, on these grounds, would therefore appear to be a potentially effective tool for training and developing an organization to support cultural diversity. For its successful application it is suggested that the goals and modes of action need careful attention in order to increase the method’s potential as its effectiveness is influenced by multiple factors (Figure 1). This study applies the typology of Wrench (2001) and its various training modes in exploring and analyzing the approaches, activities and achievements of the so-called “working culture bridge groups” which aimed to change organizational working cultures towards multiculturalism.

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Methodology The study adopts a qualitative research approach as a means to investigate the phenomenon in the real life context and reveals its complexity with the help of rich and holistic data, which also offers access to the data as a longitudinal process Learning-and-effectiveness paradigm

Goals Modes of action Outcomes Effectiveness Factors

Resistance paradigm

Access-and-legitimacy paradigm

Discrimination-and-fairness paradigm

Working culture bridge group method

Figure 1. A participative and empowerment-based development method

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(Miles and Huberman, 1994; Denzin and Lincoln, 1994). A qualitative case study approach is suggested to be beneficial in gaining intrinsic understanding and insights into a given phenomenon as a process (Stake, 1994; Merriam, 1998). A multiple-case study design therefore has been selected since it is more compelling and allows the exploration and description of phenomena through its similarities or contrasts (Yin, 1994). The study was conducted among so-called “working culture bridge groups” within 15 Finnish organizations in the capital area of Finland. The organizations had participated in a three-year long (2002-2005) project (ETMO), which belonged to the EU’s Community Initiative Programme (EQUAL) aiming to promote tolerance and multiculturalism in working communities and to increase the employability of immigrants. The organizations comprised both private and public entities, and differed from each other in terms of experience as recruiters of a foreign workforce, in their field of activity and industry, as well as in their stage of internationalization. All of the organizations had consciously increased their foreign-based workforce (maximum 15 per cent) in preparation for labour shortages and were keen to promote multicultural issues. During the two-year research period two organizations changed ownership causing large-scale layoffs. The aim of the development groups was to find new, suitable modes of action and means for acting in a multicultural working community and to support the goals of the whole project. The members of the groups comprised representatives of the employer, employees and trade unions including persons of immigrant background. The groups also had coordinators, provided by the project, as external coaches. The members of the groups made one excursion during the study period to Austria or Ireland. The starting point for the groups’ work was a survey conducted by the project organization and a seminar based on its results. The data was collected by means of the focus group method, supplemented by documentary analysis. The four coordinators were interviewed as a group five times during the two year period. The 15 working culture bridge groups were interviewed in one round at the end of the project in Spring 2005. The documents analyzed consisted of the diaries of coordinators, records of meetings of the groups, personal and client magazines and seminar material produced during the study period. The focus group method is useful, as it provides data and insights into participants’ opinions and experiences through group interaction giving the access to otherwise not easily obtained data (Morgan, 1997). The topics discussed in each of the group interviews were the following: . the goals of the development work; . the development methods; and . the achieved outcomes. The interviews lasted between 60 and 90 minutes. For validity reasons the data was collected from multiple perspectives and using parallel sources (Yin, 1994). For reliability reasons the group interviews were taped, transcribed verbatim and analyzed along the key themes using textual analysis software. Direct quotations are used throughout to increase reliability (Silverman, 2001). The findings of the study are presented next thematically and the results are summarized in table form.

Institutional and cultural context of Finland The Finnish context with regard to workforce diversity is challenging, because some issues have been dealt with very effectively in the modern democracy and society, for example, the legislative foundation (Act on Equality between Women and Men, 1986; the Equality Act, 2004) for overall equality in all fields of life along with respect for individual freedoms (Lewis, 1992). Indeed, strong unionization is characteristic of all Nordic welfare states. Since, almost 900,000 employees (from a total of five million) will exit the Finnish labour market within the next 15 years (Tiainen, 2003), an increasingly foreign-based workforce has been deemed inevitable (Forsander, 2002). The country and its people have been criticized for their narrow-mindedness, racism and weak self-esteem, which has resulted in hidden or negative attitudes to “different” people (Torvi and Kiljunen, 2005; Makkonen, 2003; Hannula, 1997). These perceptions are based on historical developments as throughout the centuries the country and its population have been in between the “threat” from the east (Russia) and the “modernity” from the west (Sweden), defending and preserving its strong national identity, homogeneity and self-conscious (Torvi and Kiljunen, 2005; Anttonen, 1998). As a consequence, Finnish people are said to be pragmatic, rational, technically oriented, reserved, modest, arrogant, but also courageous and persistent (Mikluha, 1996; Lewis, 1992). For these reasons, amongst others, the issues of diversity and equality are more complex, and partly explain their historical status as a non-issue in Finnish working life.

The approaches of a participative and empowerment-based development method Setting the goals Most of the working culture bridge groups set the goals for their development work in the beginning of the project. Some groups started by firstly trying to define the problems. Others were not able to set goals and so the goals emerged during the project period. The goals were based on two kinds of approaches, either general/specific development work or solving a certain problem. Two of the groups used both approaches. General and more extensive development approaches consisted of aims to improve working climate, to promote the acceptance of multiculturalism and to prepare the organization for possible future problems and challenges. The drivers behind the general approaches included aims to decrease the turnover of immigrants, to increase their numbers, to create discussion, to remove barriers for immigrants and to activate employees. Two groups considered their organizations to be more attractive and competitive or better equipped for the changing demographics in terms of accepting multiculturalism. Only three organizations made a clear linkage to business objectives in conjunction with their development work and considered the handling of multiculturalism issues important for their future operations. Two organizations conducted an internal study to immigrants in order to better target their development work. The following sets of quotations describe the goal setting phase of general development work. A member of one group described their unclear aims: In the beginning we did not have any real goal. We were looking for those development areas, which we would like to handle. But it was not defined where we want to end up.

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One group explained how it used the background study and seminars to direct its work:

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A group with clearer development goals expressed them as follows: “We had clear objectives that it (the project) would bring Finns and foreigners closer. That acceptance would not be a big barrier in us working together.” Another group illustrated their goals and desires: “Well, we did have a clear goal to integrate these immigrants better into our working community.” More specific goals that were developed in five of the organizations included the development of induction material and processes which take immigrants into consideration as illustrated in one group:

Although this issue as a whole was slightly unclear at the beginning, they (study and seminars) helped to plan our activities. And we then decided that increasing knowledge and improving the climate are important issues for us. However, in the beginning we had not found any problems with immigrants or vice versa.

When this project came, a feeling arose that with its help the position of immigrant employees could be improved. That maybe we could even bring more immigrants into this unit, or at least establish permanent posts for some of those who are already here. Induction therefore became a long-term target.

Another group considered that by developing induction processes, the capabilities of immigrants could be quickly utilized, and the individual experiences of a responsive and considerate working community would also increase motivation: We have believed for a long time that if an outsider (an immigrant) feels that she/he is taken into consideration in induction and that possible differences are seen as valuable, it will certainly benefit all parties. So the focus therefore fell quite naturally and easily on the induction.

The problem-based development approaches covered specific problems to be solved. Amongst such were finding solutions to the negative attitudes towards immigrants or to develop extensively their employment and working conditions and to improve practical work-related issues. The latter goals were linked to business objectives and the future need to increase communication and understanding of the multi-level challenges during the entire employment cycle: Our target was that an immigrant can actually be employed by us, that it is easy for her/him to come to work for us. In fact, that target has already been achieved to a certain extent. An immigrant can be recruited through the normal process. The ice has been broken and each supervisor knows that again one day an immigrant will come to work for us.

The findings relating to goal setting revealed that the main targets were in almost all of the cases to increase the acceptance of multiculturalism and improve the working climate. Additionally, a few of the groups focused on changing induction processes and material. The goals can be said to cover issues which aim to improve immigrant working conditions and, more precisely, they focused on the need to handle multicultural issues, to increase knowledge, to facilitate attitudinal changes of the majority and to stimulate cultural changes (Wrench, 2001). Modes of action During the two years the groups worked mainly with similar modes of actions and methods. The development work was completed and processed in group meetings, which were mostly held regularly. The groups discussed in general terms about multiculturalism

and diversity issues, displayed artefacts and offered information and material on the project and on the groups’ work to the members of the organization. Information covered issues such as “multiculturalism at work” or more specific themes, for example, different cultures. In addition, formal and informal meetings were organized in a few of groups, in which immigrants could speak about their everyday problems and the majority could discuss multiculturalism issues in the working context. The groups used various media to deliver information, and often described it as active communication. The communication channels included personnel/client magazines, the intranet, information boards, and separate brochures. In addition, stories and interviews of immigrants were included in company magazines. The groups also organized internal training activities mainly sponsored and planned by the project organization. Almost half of the groups organized one-day educational events aimed at a part or the whole of the organization, in which multiculturalism, interaction skills, intercultural communication issues or general information on immigrants and working life challenges were discussed. Some groups criticized that they were inefficient in relation to their content and short time period suggesting more participative training. Also language courses, leisure time activities, “theme-evenings” and football games were held. Public media and local radio were also utilized to inform stakeholder groups of the project and the groups’ work. The project produced its own magazine, and its coordinators provided the groups with general information or material made by the project, informed of educational events and offered assistance. The importance of information and the utilization of magazines in delivering it were expressed in one organization: Information is the keyword in this task. It helps people to think more broadly. And it also helps when people in different groups, whether they are immigrants or otherwise, if he/she wonders why they need to adapt to immigrants. That their voice can be heard. We promote this (cultural) diversity and create articles, interviews. They (immigrants) are included in activities and we listen to them in all matters (. . .). In other words, they are members of our organization like anyone else, and that is the starting point, which must be made conscious.

Another group also described the significance of information: It was very clear for us from the beginning that information is the big output that can be generally carried out. And in my mind we have largely succeeded in it. Everyone certainly knows this project and its theme; some, hopefully, even deeper. On the other hand, we also had a vision inside the group that if we could at least communicate the theme to people, then that is already something. That is a start.

The content of training events was illustrated in one group: We have utilized the resources of the project organization and their experts a couple of times. They have been related to how interaction really is an important factor in creating the climate in the working community. On the other hand, at the same time figures from the Finnish labour market and other general information have been presented.

One group described their activities after the interaction training: We have talked a lot (after the training). How much new knowledge everybody learned, such things that he/she did not know before, and after that openness has increased. These conversations have not been conducted only once, but many times (. . .).

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The modes of action applied in improving the working climate and promoting the acceptance of multiculturalism were by delivering information and organizing interaction training to the members of the organization. The specific (modification of induction) or problem-based development groups concentrated additionally on their tasks within the group. These applied development methods have been recognized in earlier studies to be used when aiming at individual (attitudes, behaviours) and organizational level changes (Wrench, 2001). Outcomes of the development work The findings regarding the outcomes of the groups revealed that the groups in most cases were satisfied with their work. A common feature was that in spite of the chosen development approach the goals of the development work were said to have been reached or problems successfully resolved. All groups viewed their overall success and achievements as being the increased knowledge and awareness of multiculturalism, diversity and immigrants mainly via active communication. The outcomes of the development work were expressed as changes in the working climate and in their own employees and clients. The climate was found to have become more open, tolerant and receptive to multiculturalism after the project in almost all of the organizations. The groups considered such a result as a visible change illustrating it in the following ways: It is difficult; difficult to say something really concrete that the project has brought. But the general impression is that this certainly has promoted a kind of open discussion and has promoted an improved climate. This positive image, however, is from the whole project.

Another group expressed their climate change: The climate is more open and able, simply that we know we are different. It really is a huge change even just to know the legislation that relates to these immigration and foreigner affairs.

Almost every group mentioned that prejudices were deemed to have decreased at least to some extent and in general, reactions, communication and attitudes to co-workers were considered to be more equal. This was stated in one group: Well, we aimed to affect attitudes and in my mind we have done it by discussing and opening up the attitudes of people. For instance, what they depend on, what they are and what the prejudices are.

Another group found changes in the clients’ attitudes: “Our clients no longer require, if we have an open position (. . .), that they want a Finn. This is in my mind a decisive, positive attitude change.” In one organization, which had not stated any problems, the group members saw, that their overall preparedness had increased and it had been transferred to everyday practices in spite of no written action plan having been made: We are in a good situation. If we encounter problems we have a ready made plan to resolve such situations. It is a pity that it (the project) ended halfway through. But the final outcome in my mind is good, that we have six persons here who mediate.

Also those groups with specific targets to develop and prepare induction material (plans, guides, handbooks) or to modify its processes, said that they had succeeded in

reaching their goals. One group had worked with clothing, which was seen to support the working conditions of a diverse workforce: The work clothes were designed so that it suits everyone in spite of different religious backgrounds without pressuring or emphasizing any certain religious group. Trousers and/or a long skirt is a part of the work uniform.

Throughout the project period the commitment of the groups was considered as being mainly good and, with only few exceptions, group members were motivated and enthusiastic. However, partly due to workload, lack of time or external factors (e.g. buy-outs and lay-offs) involvement was not always active. In addition, the commitment of management and their attitudes towards the development work varied from full support to a lack of it. As a consequence, the low commitment decreased groups’ motivation, slowed down their work, and affected the outcomes. The importance of the commitment of management was expressed in one group as follows: In my mind if a project is started, it should begin by turning to the top human resource management. And it is (then) required that the CEO and the other top management are involved. When it originates from upper levels, then it works. We have it now, because we (the group) ourselves have started from that (basis) and it has worked out that way in our organization.

A changed climate was considered to last due to increased knowledge. However, in order to increase the effectiveness of the development work and the permanency of the changes, one group stressed again the management’s role: “If this project is directed towards us from the top, that these kinds of things need to be taken into consideration, then it will also be realized in practice.” Another group stated: To really make some progress, it (multiculturalism) requires that the real decision-makers are involved. Even in the final seminar they were all missing, which in my mind was very stupid. Especially, since many years and so much money has been spent on this kind of endeavor.

Some groups conducted check-ups of HRM practices’ relevance and ensured that they also suited immigrants. In some cases co-workers weak interest in participation in organized activities (e.g. in evening events) were said to depend on unclear objectives of the project’s work and for whom it was meant. However, it was also suggested as meaning that things were working fine: “Passiveness also means a kind of satisfaction. If I think of the immigrant people that I know from various countries, they are very well adapted to Finland.” Skepticism regarding the changing of existing modes of action was compared to the low status of the group: The group may have an influence on changing attitudes. But I cannot imagine that it would possess a status that would see it present top management with subjects, opinions or demands to think about; that it would have very much power. I do not doubt that the group would not be listened to, but after all this is not that type of organization.

As a whole, the project was considered to have developed working communities very much or to some extent towards multiculturalism, a more open working climate was created and prejudices were decreased. The results of the study are summarized in Table I showing the goals of the development work, the modes of action, the achieved outcomes and the effectiveness factors.

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B. Specific Modification of induction processes Production of induction material C. Problem-based Reducing negative attitudes towards immigrants Employment challenges (as a whole)

Modified induction processes, new material Other outcomes as in A As in A

As in A

Increased knowledge and awareness of multiculturalism, diversity and immigrants Perceived climate changes towards openness and tolerance Perceived attitude changes of employees and clients

Outcomes

Multiculturalism elements added to induction

Delivery of information, communication: multiculturalism issues, working with immigrants, employment issues for immigrants Interaction training

A. General Improvement of working climate Promoting the acceptance of multiculturalism Preparing organizations for the future

Table I. Summary of research findings Modes of action

Goal setting partly clear Mainly adequate resources and motivation Information provision most important and main activity Systematic development work produced successful outcomes Management commitment considered very important Feedback from management and professional guidance lacking

Effectiveness factors

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Discussion and conclusions The empowering development approach is suggested to be an effective means in changing culture and in creating an inclusive working environment (Ulrich, 1997; Simmons, 1995). The findings of the culture bridge group method revealed that the setting of the goals for the development work was found to be either easy or unclear despite of the fixed goals of the whole project. This suggests evidence of the unclear rationale for training and development (Bagshaw, 2004) which can postpone the active commencement of development activities. The general targets were to improve working climate and to promote the acceptance of multiculturalism. The specific targets concerned the modification of induction, and the problem-based targets concerned the negative attitudes towards immigrants and challenges of their employment as a whole. None of the groups mentioned a need to create or modify the equality/diversity strategy or policy or a need for structural changes (Cropanzano et al., 2004; Jackson et al., 2003). The groups applied similar training and development approaches, the main methods being the provision of information on the project and on multiculturalism issues as individual level change strategies (Wrench, 2001). Some of the groups recognized a need to offer more comprehensive training and to increase interaction skills (Wiethoff, 2004). Most of the groups then organized one day awareness, interaction and intercultural communication training to all or some of the personnel (Bendick et al., 2001; Wrench, 2001). Almost every group found the ready-made package training too intensive as to its contents and therefore, inefficient, which supports earlier evidence that short-term and non-tailored training is not able to influence attitudes or behaviour, not to mention structures, culture or power relations (Von Bergen et al., 2002; Litvin, 2002; Easley, 2001; Moore, 1999). The organizational level strategies (Wrench, 2001; DeNisi and Griffin, 2001) covered modifications of induction processes and material in terms of additions of a “multicultural part” to better suit immigrants. Other major changes were not conducted within HRM as they we stated to be “in order”. Interestingly, inequality or discriminating practices were not mentioned to exist, which are said to be the reasons for practical and fundamental changes when managing diversity effectively (Kirton and Greene, 2005; Jayne and Dipboye, 2004; Bendick et al., 2001; Cox, 1993). The groups were mainly satisfied with their work and achievements stating that visible and concrete outcomes were recognized. Such were organizational and working climate changes towards more openness, tolerance and receptiveness to multiculturalism due to decreased prejudices, increased knowledge and awareness. The groups which developed general employment conditions and induction process cited success in their work as well. These findings offer evidence, that active and more systemic training and development efforts can contribute to both individual (minority, majority) and broader organizational level changes (Bendick et al., 2001; Wrench, 2001; Moore, 1999). The groups also recognized some reasons why they had not succeeded as they wished. Criticism was aimed at the lack of support and commitment from the management side, the lack of time and authority, coordinators’ incompetence in offering consultancy assistance or outside pressures. That is why feedback from the groups included suggestions of co-operation with management, involving all members of the organization, as well as long-term and a more planned development approach with clearer targets. All these findings concerning realistic goals, evaluation, commitment

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and professional guidance are stated in earlier research to be the reasons for failures or reduced effectiveness in training and developing organizations successfully towards diversity (Kirton and Greene, 2005; Bagshaw, 2004; Jayne and Dipboye, 2004; Bendick et al., 2001; Wentling and Palma-Rivas, 1998; Kossek et al., 2006). Additionally, the motivation might also have been influenced by the limited knowledge and competence of the theme, since any extensive or basic knowledge was not offered beforehand or during the process on the broader context of managing diversity, OD or culture change. As noticed, the way in which multiculturalism and diversity were approached, perceived and developed varied slightly (Dass and Parker, 1999; Thomas and Ely, 1996). Because the groups did not mention having covered questions of better utilizing diversity or learning from it, or that the anti-discrimination legislation launched during the study period had impacted the development activities, can reflect the state of readiness of the groups or the organizations towards multiculturalism and diversity issues (Diamante and Giglio, 1994). Signs of the modest importance, low pressures or unawareness of handling them from the point of view of management could be, for example, some groups’ frustration, slow advancement or the lack of management’s active involvement and commitment. Indeed, as there were barely any discussions of existing discriminative practices, barriers or inequalities within organizations, the study findings altogether can indicate that promotion of multiculturalism was in most Finnish organizations approached as from the perspective of reactive diversity management paradigms (resistance, discrimination-and-fairness) which only increase the numbers of immigrants and adapt them (Dass and Parker, 1999; Thomas and Ely, 1996). This was found, i.e. that the development work was conducted as an isolated intervention in most of the cases without linkage to the business strategy (DeNisi and Griffin, 2001; Kossek and Lobel, 1996; Tayeb, 1996; Wilson, 1996). However, a few organizations also offered evidence or some signs of the need to address managing diversity issues more comprehensively. Features of more proactive diversity management paradigms (access-and-legitimacy, learning-and-effectiveness) were found in those three organizations that emphasized business goals in their development work and stressed organizational level changes in addition to attitudinal and behaviour changes, i.e. in fair employment conditions and induction processes in a more planned and systemic way (Bendick et al., 2001; Dass and Parker, 1999). In summary, the study supports the earlier research that the benefit of a participative and empowerment-based method is in identifying and solving problems, obtaining new ideas and initiatives (Ulrich, 1997; Simmons, 1995). The findings revealed that developing an organization and its working culture in a Finnish context towards tolerance and multiculturalism with a culture bridge group method, training and development was in spite of its potential approached more as an individual than organizational level change process (Bendick et al., 2001; Wrench, 2001). Especially, the attitudes of the majority were perceived as the main problem in improving the climate and in enhancing immigrants’ working conditions (Wrench, 2001). That is why, the main target and focus were in increasing general information and awareness about multiculturalism in order to enhance knowledge, common understanding and change attitudes. However, the changing of organizational processes and practises, in this case induction, are evidences or signs of their recognized importance in a cultural change (Bendick et al., 2001; Easley, 2001).

Implications The study has increased knowledge and offered insights into a participative and empowerment-based diversity development method. An empowering method can be a powerful tool, when its use is supervised and systemic. The participants will need management’s support, commitment and guidance for desired outcomes. Uncertainty in the decision-making seems to decrease its effectiveness in promoting diversity issues. Therefore, clear objectives for diversity in the organization and its meaning could form a solid base for development work. It would help the developers to focus their efforts in relation to the weight that is given to diversity and multiculturalism issues. Also the increase in professional skills, in OD or professional assistance would increase the effectiveness of the method. The method can be used as a means to develop an organization towards inclusiveness and in identifying barriers to it. It can help in discovering not only direct, but also indirect and structural discrimination in organizational structures and practices (e.g. in recruitment, selection, rewarding, advancement, training opportunities). It can also assist practitioners in achieving the benefits of different training types and guide in more effectively planning the content and delivery of developing diversity and equality issues. The limitation of the study is that it is conducted among organizations in one country, which are in the early stages of workforce diversification. Further, empirical research is suggested to elaborate the method’s effectiveness in recognizing the need for organizational change(s) and in their implementation. References Anttonen, P. (1998), “Monikulttuurisuus ja suomalainen identiteetti” (Multiculturalism and Finnish Identity), in Pitka¨nen, P. (Ed.), Na¨ko¨kulmia monikulttuuriseen Suomeen, Edita, Helsinki, pp. 52-67. Bagshaw, M. (2004), “Is diversity divisive? A positive training approach”, Industrial & Commercial Training, Vol. 36 No. 4, pp. 153-7. Bendick, M., Egan, M. and Lofhjelm, S. (1998), The Documentation and Evaluation of Anti-Discrimination Training in the States, International Labour Organization, Geneva. Bendick, M., Egan, M. and Lofhjelm, S. (2001), “Workforce diversity training: from anti-discrimination compliance to organizational development”, Human Resource Planning, Vol. 24 No. 2, pp. 10-25. Brochbank, W. (1999), “If were really strategically proactive: present and future directions in HR’s contribution to competitive advantage”, Human Resource Management, Vol. 38 No. 4, pp. 337-52. Cassell, C. (2001), “Managing diversity”, in Redman, T. and Wilkinson, A. (Eds), Contemporary Human Resource Management, Pearson Education, Harlow, pp. 404-31. Cornelius, N. and Bassett-Jones, N. (2002), “Final comments”, in Cornelius, N. (Ed.), Building Workplace Equality: Ethics, Diversity and Inclusion, Thomson, Cornwall, pp. 325-33. Cornelius, N., Gooch, L. and Todd, S. (2001), “Managing difference fairly: an integrated ‘partnership’ approach”, in Noon, M. and Ogbonna, E. (Eds), Equality, Diversity and Disadvantage in Employment, Palgrave, Basingstoke. Cox, T. (1993), Cultural Diversity in Organizations. Theory, Research and Practice, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, San Francisco, CA. Cox, T. (2002), “Taking diversity to the next level”, Executive Excellence, Vol. 19 No. 4, p. 19.

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Cropanzano, R., Chrobot-Mason, D., Rupp, D.E. and Prehar, C.A. (2004), “Accountability for corporate injustice”, Human Resource Management Review, Vol. 14 No. 1, pp. 107-33.

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Cunnigham, I. and James, P. (2001), “Managing diversity and disability legislation: catalysts for eradicating discrimination in the workplace?”, in Noon, M. and Ogbonna, E. (Eds), Equality, Diversity and Disadvantage in Employment, Palgrave, Basingstoke, pp. 103-17.

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Noon, M. and Ogbonna, E. (2001), “Introduction: the key analytical themes”, in Noon, M. and Ogbonna, E. (Eds), Equality, Diversity and Disadvantage in Employment, Palgrave, Basingstoke, pp. 1-14. Omanovic, V. (2002), “Perspectives on diversity research”, in Leijon, S., Lillhannus, R. and Widell, G. (Eds), Reflecting Diversity. Viewpoints from Scandinavia, BAS, Kunga¨lv, pp. 21-39. Prasad, P. and Prasad, A. (2002), “Casting the native subject. Ethnographic practice and the (re)production of difference”, in Czarniawska, B. and Ho¨pfl, H. (Eds), Casting the Other. The Production and Maintenance of Inequalities in Work Organizations, Routledge, London, pp. 185-204. Richards, W. (2001), “Evaluating equal opportunities initiatives: the case for a ‘transformative’ agenda”, in Noon, M. and Ogbonna, E. (Eds), Equality, Diversity and Disadvantage in Employment, Palgrave, Hampshire, pp. 15-31. Silverman, D. (2001), Interpreting Qualitative Data. Methods for Analyzing Talk, Text and Interaction, 2nd ed., Sage, London. Simmons, J. (1995), “Building an inclusive organization”, Empowerment in Organizations, Vol. 3 No. 3, pp. 11-18. Simmons, J. (2004), “Managing in the post-managerialist era. Towards socially responsible corporate governance”, Management Decision, Vol. 42 Nos 3/4, pp. 601-11. Sippola, A. (2005), “Diversity management paradigms and HRM: implications of cultural diversity on strategic and operational HRM”, Proceedings of the Multidisciplinary Approaches to Learning Conference, Helsinki, Finland, 1-2 December. Stake, R.E. (1994), “Case studies”, in Denzin, N.K. and Lincoln, Y.S. (Eds), Handbook of Qualitative Research, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, pp. 236-47. Tayeb, M.H. (1996), The Management of a Multicultural Workforce, Wiley, Chichester. Thomas, R.R. Jr (1995), “A diversity framework”, in Chemers, M.M., Oskamp, S. and Costanzo, M.A. (Eds), Diversity in Organizations. New Perspectives for a Changing Workplace, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, pp. 245-63. Thomas, D.A. and Ely, R.J. (1996), “Making differences matter: a new paradigm for managing diversity”, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 74 No. 5, pp. 79-90. Thornhill, A., Lewis, P., Millmore, M. and Saunders, M. (2000), Managing Change. A Human Resource Strategy Approach, FT Prentice Hall, Harlow. Tiainen, P. (2003), Osaamisen ja ta¨ystyo¨llisyyden Suomi, Tyo¨voima 2020 loppuraportti. (Labour 2020), Tyo¨poliittinen tutkimus 245, Tyo¨ministerio¨ (Finnish Ministry of Labour). Torvi, K. and Kiljunen, P. (2005), Onnellisuuden vaikea yhta¨lo¨. EVAn kansallinen arvo ja asennetutkimus 2005, (Seeking Happiness: Are Finns Happy and Why? EVA’s/Finnish Business and Policy Forum 2005 National Value and Attitude Survey 2005), Yliopistopaino, Taloustieto. Ulrich, D. (1997), Human Resource Champions: The New Agenda for Adding Value and Delivering Results, Harvard Business School, Boston, MA. Von Bergen, C.W., Soper, B. and Foster, T. (2002), “Unintended negative effects of diversity management”, Public Personnel Management, Vol. 31 No. 2, pp. 239-51. Wentling, R.M. and Palma-Rivas, N. (1998), “Current status and future trends of diversity initiatives in the workplace: diversity experts’ perspective”, Human Resource Development Quarterly, Vol. 9 No. 3, pp. 235-53. Wiethoff, C. (2004), “Motivation to learn and diversity training: application of the theory of planned behaviour”, Human Resource Development Quarterly, Vol. 15 No. 3, pp. 263-78.

Wilson, T. (1996), Diversity at Work. The Business Case for Equity, Wiley, Toronto. Wrench, J. (1997), Compendium of Good Practice for the Prevention of Racism at the Workplace, Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg. Wrench, J. (2001), “Anti-discrimination training at the workplace in Europe: the application of an international typology”, in Essemyr, M. (Ed.), Diversity in Work Organisations, Arbetslivsinstitutet, Stockholm. Yin, R. (1994), Case Study Research. Design and Methods, 2nd ed., Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA. About the author Aulikki Sippola is a Researcher at the Academy of Finland and a PhD Student in the Department of Management at the University of Vaasa, Finland. The research areas cover equality and diversity management at work, development of culturally diverse workplaces and the human resource management (HRM) of a diverse workforce. She has published academic and practical articles, i.e. in the research series for the Ministry of Labour, Finland and in international journals. She consults and lecturers in equality and diversity management issues and has extensive experience in international business. Aulikki Sippola can be contacted at: [email protected]

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´Iris Barbosa and Carlos Cabral-Cardoso School of Economics and Management, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to look at the way higher-education institutions are responding to the challenges of an increasingly diverse academic force and the extent to which organizational culture welcomes and values diversity, thus allowing the university to benefit from talented people with diverse backgrounds. Design/methodology/approach – The study was conducted in a Portuguese university. Data were collected from 45 interviews with faculty members from different backgrounds and affiliations. Findings – The organization studied is failing to promote equal opportunities policies and to manage the increasingly diverse academic workforce. Behavioural pressures to conform and parochial and inward looking attitudes appear to prevail. Values-in-use and artefacts seem to reflect the assimilation ideals. National origin came out as the key diversity issue. The integration of foreign academics is left to the individuals concerned and little effort is made to accommodate and to take advantage of their unique contribution. Originality/value – The paper provides an in-depth account of subtle discriminatory mechanisms faced by non-native academics in a university that does not value diversity. Keywords Equal opportunities, Organizational culture, Universities, Portugal Paper type Research paper

Women in Management Review Vol. 22 No. 4, 2007 pp. 274-288 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0964-9425 DOI 10.1108/09649420710754237

Introduction Significant changes in society and in the markets are responsible for the growing workforce diversity. The globalization process compels organizations all over the world to deal with more international customers and suppliers (Cox and Blake, 1991; Milliken and Martins, 1996). Improvements in transportation and communication, and the change in lifestyles contribute to the growing mobility of people (Kossek and Lobel, 1996). The participation of social groups traditionally seen as minorities or disadvantaged groups in the workplace has increased in numbers, qualifications, and influence (Carr-Ruffino, 1996). Women, older people, individuals with disabilities, and people with different ethnic backgrounds, lifestyles, religious faiths, and sexual orientations, are becoming regular players in the labour market (Dass and Parker, 1996). In this context, managing the increasing workforce diversity has become a strategic issue that organizations aiming to achieve and/or maintain an international competitive advantage can no longer neglect. However, the view of diversity as an asset worth valuing (Cornelius et al., 2000) seems to contradict the traditional preference for strong organizational cultures that encourage uniformity in thinking patterns and behaviours (Granrose, 1997). Thus, considerable changes are required in the organizational culture if organizations are to attract and benefit from a diverse workforce. There is consistent evidence that demographic diversity is also raising in higher education. Student and staff exchange and cross border recruitment is increasing

(Marginson, 2000; Schapper and Mayson, 2004). The Erasmus, Socrates and other European funded exchange programs support learning, researching, and teaching opportunities for academics and students in different European cultural contexts (Corbett, 2003). The Bologna Declaration is another important step towards the creation of the “Europe of knowledge and higher education” promoting the employability and the mobility of everyone involved in education and research. Under the Bologna framework students will get the chance to pursue their studies or get their degrees at a different university or country from the one where they originally enrolled. For academics and administrative staff, the Bologna Declaration admitted “the recognition and valorisation of periods spent in European context researching, teaching, and training, without prejudicing their statutory rights” (European Ministers of Education, 1999). By 2010, when this process is expected to be fully implemented academic institutions will face new challenges derived from the increasingly diverse work environment. In order to attract, integrate, motivate, and develop the full potential of academic diversity, European universities must become more internationally oriented and have organizational cultures that truly values and creatively manages such human diversity. Diversity remains considerably under-researched in European higher education. To examine these issues, a study was conducted looking at the way a particular higher-education institution is responding to the challenges of diversity, and assessing the extent to which organizational culture is supporting diversity and allowing the organization to benefit from talented people with several cultural backgrounds. Conceptual framework The concepts of diversity, minorities, prejudice, and discrimination In the organizational context, diversity usually refers to the variety of human resources, customers and suppliers. Minorities refer to groups of people that in some features – like national origin, race, gender, physical condition, age, sexual orientation, religion, financial or social condition, lifestyle, education, or values – differ from the “pattern” (Kossek and Lobel, 1996; Milliken and Martins, 1996). Two types of groups coexist in the workplace: the organizational groups and the identity groups. Organizational groups result from aspects that are strictly related to the work (like the job or function, the hierarchical level, the department or section, the skills and abilities). On the other hand, the individuals’ cultural backgrounds define their identity groups. As pointed out by Brickson (2000), minorities belong to identity groups traditionally seen as disadvantaged groups in terms of power and opportunities. They become recurrent targets of organizational prejudice and discrimination in recruitment, selection, career opportunities, wages, and training (Kossek and Lobel, 1996). Prejudice is the tendency to view “different” people as inferior, less hard-working, less intelligent, and less skilful (Carr-Ruffino, 1996). It results from the ancestral belief that differences mean some human deficiency (Wentling and Palma-Rivas, 1998). The cognitive nature of prejudice makes it harder to deal with in organizations than discrimination (Cox, 1991). Discrimination occurs when decisions are made based on some of the employee’s features, like gender or ethnicity, in spite of their irrelevance to the accomplishment of the task. Broadly speaking, it refers to policies and practices that result in members of a subordinate group being treated differently in ways that disadvantage them (Carr-Ruffino, 1996). Prejudice and discrimination can result from

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individuals’ thoughts and attitudes “or be part of an institution’s policies and practices” (Carr-Ruffino, 1996, p. 92). They constitute strong barriers to the minorities’ access to work and career advancement, self-esteem, motivation, and productivity. Dealing with the difference at the workplace Different approaches to dealing with workforce diversity, prejudice, and discrimination have been suggested, ranging from the legalistic ones to the more pragmatic and managerial vision of valuing diversity. Originally brought up in the USA, equal opportunities policies were intended to guarantee equal opportunities for all in the workplace and to give to the victims of discrimination the legitimacy and the means to complain (Carrington et al., 2000). The emphasis was on legal requirements and penalties for non-compliance (Prasad and Mills, 1997). In the Portuguese context, the constitution states that nobody can be privileged, favoured, harmed, deprived of any right or discriminated against on the grounds of sex, race, language, national origin, religion, political or ideological convictions, education, financial situation, or social condition. These principles have been translated into ordinary law enforcing equal opportunities in the work context. Within this framework it is up to the workers to prove they have been discriminated against. According to Liff and Wajcman (1996), this approach underlines the “sameness” among the individuals from several identity groups. Liff (1999, p. 66) summarizes this perspective: The thinking is that discrimination occurs because social group characteristics, such as gender and ethnicity, are taken into account when they are irrelevant to the requirements of the job, and that equality consists of rejecting such criteria and ensuring instead that individuals are judged against each other only on job-relevant bases.

This approach has been criticized on the grounds that it does not take into account the initial disadvantages women and minorities have to deal with. In the case of women, they result from the traditional family roles and/or the different patterns of qualifications and work experiences (Liff and Wajcman, 1996). Under this perspective the organization is supposed to act as if all individuals were from the same race, gender and ethnical background, thus assuming that the diverse workforce does not influence the organizational culture and work practices (Thomas and Ely, 1996). This approach was strongly criticized for failing to preserve the different groups’ identities and to benefit from their unique contributions (Carr-Ruffino, 1996). Despite these weaknesses, Dickens (1999, p. 13) argues that anti-discriminatory legislation must be in place “because the market tends to produce discrimination, not equality”. Affirmative action is also an originally US legalistic approach based on the premise that organizations must reflect the social diversity of the community at large. Within this framework, the several social groups in society are supposed to be conveniently represented in the workplace, so that it begins to look like a “patchwork quilt” (Gilbert et al., 1999). In Europe in general, affirmative action has remained limited to a few specific cases and never made it to mainstream legislation. This approach has been criticized on several grounds, not least because it goes against the basic principles of meritocracy (Thomas, 1990). Its emphasis on quota hiring seems to imply the rejection of the more skilled candidates (Groschl and Doherty, 1999), and minorities tend to be stigmatized on the grounds that they did not get their job and promotions by their own merit (Gilbert et al., 1999). In sum, affirmative action fails to eradicate the deep roots of

prejudice and inequality and does little to enhance the full potential of minorities and to promote a multicultural environment (Groschl and Doherty, 1999). The management of diversity To overcome the drawbacks pointed out above, a new approach emerged during 1980s that became known as diversity management. According to Ivancevich and Gilbert (2000, p. 75), it “refers to the systematic and planned commitment by organizations to recruit, retain, reward, and promote a heterogeneous mix of employees”. This voluntary and strategic-oriented approach recognizes the worker’s individuality and believes in the benefits of diversity to the organization (Cornelius et al., 2000). It is not intended to guarantee the assimilation of minorities into a dominant culture, but to challenge the organization policies and practices so that everyone can succeed by being him or herself (Thomas, 1990). Under the diversity framework, the equality based on sameness is replaced by the equality based on difference (Liff and Wajcman, 1996). Diversity management also questions the traditional way to face equal opportunities at work: more than a legal or moral issue, diversity is now regarded as a business case (Thomas and Ely, 1996). Several contributions are expected from a diverse workforce (Cox and Blake, 1991; Thomas and Ely, 1996): . improvements in decision-making processes; . increased flexibility; . innovation and learning; and . market competitiveness. Organizations that follow this orientation will probably also reduce costs associated with turnover, absenteeism, stress, lawsuits related to discrimination, and low productivity of minority workers (Cox and Blake, 1991). The interaction of culturally diverse workers is not without problems, such as the increased turnover among individuals from the dominant group, decreased group integration, and communication barriers (Cox, 1991; Brickson, 2000; Milliken and Martins, 1996). In order to overcome these obstacles and to benefit from a diverse workforce, several authors argue that organizations must develop cultures that welcome, support and value diversity (Carr-Ruffino, 1996; Cox, 1991; Cox and Blake, 1991; Miller, 1998). Organizational culture and the management of diversity Since, it became prominent in the management field in 1980s, organizational culture is regarded as a powerful and original tool to understand and analyze the human behaviour in the workplace (Meek, 1992). Organizational culture can be defined as the set of taken-for-granted values, beliefs, practices, and norms that indicate to its members the appropriate behaviours in each specific circumstance (Louis, 1985; Schein, 1985). To be accepted in the workplace, newcomers are encouraged to adopt the current organizational values and artefacts (Louis, 1985; O’Reilly et al., 1991), whereas existing members tend “to distrust, fear, and dislike people with other ideas” (Trice and Beyer, 1993, p. 11). Organizations tend to attract and retain individuals from similar social and demographic backgrounds and to discriminate dissimilar ones in recruitment, selection, career development, and informal integration (Kossek and Lobel, 1996; O’Reilly et al., 1991).

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Organizational culture works as a mechanism of social control that promotes behavioural uniformity and the assimilation of the dominant values. Such demand originates high levels of stress in people from minority cultural backgrounds that want to preserve their identity (O’Reilly et al., 1991). Therefore, cultural barriers may prevent members from minority identity groups from developing their full potential (Miller, 1998). These barriers can be tangible like the stairs that limit the mobility of people in wheelchairs, or more subtle like the refusal to pay attention to someone’s suggestions and opinions because he or she is a member of a minority group (Miller, 1998). Strong cultures in particular demand workers to develop unilateral efforts to fit into the existing norms and values (Granrose, 1997). In academic settings, members of strong academic cultures share ideologies, values, and quality judgments, and those who seem to contradict these common cultural elements risk to be penalized (Becher, 1989). In contrast with strong cultures, in which individuals are expected to fit into the existing cultural practices and norms, a more inclusive organizational culture has been suggested in which values, practices, and policies are developed that welcome the characteristics and needs of employees from minority identity groups (Clair et al., 2005; Liff, 1999). For that purpose, Cox (1991) recommends a socialization process in which members of the dominant culture and members of the alternative cultures are invited to share some important values and norms while keeping their own cultural identity, hoping to facilitate both the full “structural integration” of minorities (the presence of minorities at all organization levels) and their integration in the informal networks. In the particular case of academic institutions, a culture that appreciates innovation, cooperation, teamwork, and mutual trust must be encouraged in order to promote and respect diversity (Creamer, 2004; Gersick et al., 2000; Hinings and Greenwood, 1996). In sum, an organizational culture that is sympathetic to diversity and promotes diversity is a key factor for the success of any diversity management strategy. Methodology Aims, research setting and procedure This study was conducted looking at the way a particular Portuguese academic institution is responding to the challenges of the growing diversity in higher education. The study examines whether organizational culture in this particular institution is supporting diversity and allowing the organization to benefit from talented people with several cultural backgrounds. The university was founded in the early 1970s and like most institutions in this part of the world is historically filled with a homogenous academic workforce. It currently employs over 1,000 faculty members from nearly all subject areas. Despite some increase in recent years in the number of foreign academics roughly 95 per cent of the faculty is still of native origin. Apart from sex, age, and nationality, no records are kept in the university files concerning other diversity dimensions. The qualitative methodology is normally considered the most appropriate to explore the dynamics of organizational culture (Hatch, 1993; Thomas, 1990; Wentling and Palma-Rivas, 1998). Overall, 45 in-depth interviews were conducted with faculty members from different backgrounds and affiliations. The number of interviews was not predetermined. The data collection ended when the saturation of information became visible. When selecting the interviewees, an attempt was made to have as much variety as possible in terms of their background. A total of 38 individuals were of native origin.

The remaining seven interviewees were foreigners from different nationalities: French (two individuals), and Chinese, German, the US, Russian, and Spanish (one each). Five individuals were junior members at the assistant level (three of them of foreign origin) and 40 had positions at the professorial level. Nearly all of them worked at this university for at least five years. During the interviews, it was found that only 2 out of 45 interviewees were non-white: one black and one Asian. In terms of religious background, 28 individuals claimed to be Catholic, and two others belonged to the Evangelical Church and to the Orthodox Church. Of them, 15 individuals present themselves as not interested in religious matters. All participants assumed to be heterosexuals. Among the interviewees no one lived with disability. The initial contact was made by e-mail and by conventional mail. Individuals chose the time and the location for the interviews (almost all interviews were conducted in their own offices). The interviews took from 30 to 75 minutes. All interviews were tape-recorded with the permission of the interviewees, transcribed verbatim, and content analyzed. Participants were asked to share their views on the cultural values, artefacts, and management practices of their departments, particularly with regard to diversity issues. Foreign nationals were also invited to describe their experience and process of joining and integrating in this institution. An open-ended format was adopted so that the individuals could express themselves freely, using their own words. The individuals’ line of thought was respected and specific questions were only raised when interviewees did not voluntarily address specific topics considered relevant. Examples of the topics raised during the interviews include: . Exposed values and values-in-use. . Decision-making procedures and major criteria in recruitment, selection and promotions processes. . Policies and practices in the socialization of newcomers. . Description of what is considered proper behaviour. . Reactions to whoever challenges the dominant values and practices. . Specific policies and measures addressing minorities and disadvantaged groups. . Benefits and problems associated with demographic diversity. Anecdotal evidence was often volunteered by the interviewees to illustrate a particular point they were making. The interviews were conducted in Portuguese but further explanations were sometimes given in English when the interviewees seemed less familiar with the Portuguese language. The content analysis of the interviews was conducted considering the following analytical categories: . “organizational culture” (reference to general values and values concerning issues of diversity, artefacts, formal and informal relationships, and HRM practices); . “managing diversity” (reference to policies and practices of recruitment, integration and career development of individuals from minority identity groups, organizational discriminatory policies and practices, costs and benefits associated with workers from minority identity groups); and

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.

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“foreign academics” (reference to the barriers experienced by foreign individuals in their recruitment process, integration and career development, perceptions and feelings in terms of expressing their views and assuming their identity in the work setting).

Findings In the analysis, an attempt was made to assess the extent to which the culture of this particular organization has incorporated the values of diversity and adopted the practices of diversity management. Bearing in mind, the limited representation of other minorities, national origin emerged as the key diversity issue in this organization. Values Individualism, selfishness, and competition were pointed out by the interviewees as values-in-use in the organization. Few individuals referred to collectivism, cooperation, and solidarity that the literature defines as values more suitable to an increasingly diverse workforce (Creamer, 2004; Chatman and Flynn, 2001; Hinings and Greenwood, 1996). It is not unusual in academic settings that individual academics decide to work alone rather than in teams, presuming that it is a safer way to develop a professional identity (Quinn et al., 1996). There seems to be little openness to what is “new” and “different” and a strong resistance to change appears to prevail unless change brings direct advantages to the individuals involved: People come here with several ideas. Newcomers tend to be very dynamic and willing to improve things in many areas, such as research, management, or teaching. But the machine is too heavy; there is no openness to change, to new approaches to do things (Spanish professor). There are always some negative points of view concerning innovation and change because these individuals fear the consequences in their security and welfare (Native professor).

An environment that resists the newness and the difference is unlikely to be receptive to individuals from minority cultural backgrounds with distinct ways of looking at life in general and the academic career in particular, thus failing to take advantage of the more significant benefits of a diverse workforce – new ideas and work practices, and innovative problem solving approaches (Cox and Blake, 1991). Structural conditions also seem unfavourable to diversity. Decentralization has been found more suitable to a heterogeneous workforce (Thomas and Ely, 1996), but decision-making procedures and communication processes seem to remain in this particular university, strongly controlled by organizational hierarchies. The free expression of ideas is sometimes referred to as naı¨ve and inappropriate behaviour. Interviewees often describe an authoritarian climate and an environment where retaliation and the abuse of power are not uncommon: In terms of expressing individual opinions at the school level or in the department meetings, there is no actual freedom. (. . .) I know cases of individuals that threatened others telling them to be careful because one of these days they could be sitting in their promotion committees. (. . .) That’s why in faculty meetings some individuals prefer to keep their opinions to themselves (. . .) Expressing a certain point of view can put individuals in serious trouble (Native professor).

Both native and foreign academics admit they suffered pressures to conform and to adopt values and behaviours more in line with the dominant cultural pattern. On the other hand, academics from distinct cultural backgrounds may have more difficulties understanding what is acceptable behaviour and whether and when to express their opinions. The following quote highlights this aspect:

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If someone behaves differently, people criticize it. (. . .) There was a [foreign] professor whose behaviour was somehow eccentric. At the city festivities she used to go to the street, jump into the stage and dance with her students. Those kinds of jokes aren’t very common here. And people used to comment: “That’s not a proper behaviour for a respectable professor” (Native professor).

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Artefacts Although there is no formal dress code and informal dressing rules are not particularly strict, a conservative attitude and pressures for behavioural conformity prevail. Piercings, visible tattoos, “strange” haircuts or other peculiar looks would not be socially accepted. In other words, there is some flexibility in the way faculty members present themselves, but only up to a (relatively limited) point. The use of language reflects the strong hierarchical relationships pointed out above. Some level of informality is apparent in daily interactions but the language normally reflects hierarchical differences. Academics from less formalized cultures or cultures with lower levels of power distance (Hofstede, 1991) seem to face some difficulties adjusting to this use of language: In Germany you don’t call a peer a “doctor” even when this person is a PhD. That’s considered ridiculous. But here, in Portugal, you call everybody “doctor” even if that’s not the case. That’s a practice that is very difficult to get used to (German assistant).

Despite legal provisions for access to public buildings for individuals with physical disabilities, some architectural barriers also remain that prevent the full access of staff and students with disabilities: This Institute isn’t adapted to people with wheelchairs. We don’t have an elevator. I’ve already seen students with disability that had to be carried upstairs [3rd floor] by their fellows.

Here again, there is little concern for the difference and for the benefits that a diverse workforce would bring to the organization. Formal and informal relationships Informal networks seem to be relatively stable and mainly developed around professional and, above all, personal affinities. It takes some time for a “stranger” to be accepted, which makes it harder for non-natives to develop informal relationships and to get access to mentors: I’ve already told my colleagues that I feel too lonely and that I would like to go out with them, to get closer to them. I used to ask if they would like to go to the cinema, to a pub, or elsewhere, but they didn’t answer me or they simply said they couldn’t. (. . .) They don’t understand the loneliness of someone who is far from their country and family (French assistant).

Some informal networks seem to develop around internal politics. Foreign academics normally show little formal power and tend to stay out of these networks. As a result,

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their structural and informal integration, and career opportunities are limited from the start (Gersick et al., 2000; Quinlan, 1999). Milliken and Martins (1996, p. 419) explained that: . . . people who feel less psychologically linked with other members of their group (. . .) may engage in a kind of self-censorship, whereby they hold themselves back from contributing their thoughts to the group.

The following quote from a foreign professor illustrates this point: I’m a member of the Board but I feel a bit lost there. I don’t really know anyone there and I really don’t catch what they discuss. If someone asks me to do a specific thing, it’s okay. Otherwise, I don’t want to get involved. I don’t understand how things work here (Chinese professor).

Several members of faculty reported difficulties in their integration processes. In most departments integration is dealt with informally. The success of such processes depends almost entirely on the newcomers’ own efforts, which represents an additional burden for individuals with no previous connections in the organization. As reported by non-native academics, little efforts are made to promote the integration of foreign individuals: The efforts they make to integrate foreign faculty are exactly the same they make with the native ones. (. . .) It’s quite hard to face a class with hundreds of students when you have just arrived and you aren’t familiar with the language, the values, or the rules of the Portuguese academic institutions (Spanish professor). There wasn’t anyone formally in charge of my socialization. (. . .) I’ve been working here for about three years and still there are a number of issues I don’t understand. The truth is there isn’t anyone that really explains things or, at least, some kind of guidebook with relevant information for foreign academics (French assistant).

The comment made by the Spanish professor is consistent with Liff and Wajcman’s (1996) argument that sometimes minorities are disadvantaged not because they are treated differently but because they are treated equally . . . If their particular needs are to be taken into account, different procedures rather than the same procedures should apply. Human resource management practices Selection decisions tend to favour familiar applicants in order to avoid the uncertainty associated with “unknown” or “different” candidates, thus leading to “homosocial reproduction” (Gilbert et al., 1999; Kossek and Lobel, 1996). Individuals with no former connections with the organization such as foreign applicants are likely to be discriminated against. On the other hand, there seems to be little concern for the consequences of inbreeding: There’s a great concern that the newcomer perfectly fits into the department environment. (. . .) We can determine if a person fits into our lines of research through the curriculum. But in terms of individual fit, it’s safer to recruit applicants that are already known. People who have studied or made research here have an advantage over the other candidates (Native professor).

Some interviewees admitted that their faculties prefer academics that appear to be “easy to deal with” and have “a normal looking” and share the organizational values.

In brief, the interviewees show that the “difference” is not valued and sometimes it is even avoided. These findings are consistent with cultures that show high levels of “uncertainty avoidance” (Hofstede, 1991, p. 109). In this case, “what is different is dangerous” and organizations prefer to stick to the candidates they already know. A native professor acknowledged this reluctance to accept diverse staff: “I must admit that conformity with the prevailing values and attitudes is a criterion when it comes to recruit academics”. Objective criteria such as research output are certainly taken into account in career advancement decisions. But quite often influence made through networks plays an important part and seems to prevail over individual merit when it comes to promotions. In this context, flattering the higher ranks, particularly those who determine career advancement decisions, becomes a common political tactic among academics: You must behave politically. That’s the fundamental factor, I guess. You’d better not annoy powerful people and flatter them once in a while. You have to be extremely prudent with your relationships. It is important to show work, of course. But the main criterion is the other, I guess (Native professor). There’s a lot of favouritism around here. There isn’t a culture that guarantees that professional merit is always rewarded. (. . .) People get promoted if they accept the way things are and if they blindly follow the ones who decide one’s career advancement. It’s the culture of obedience and subservience (Native professor).

Career advancement not based on merit certainly penalizes the politically less skilled academics. Here again, individuals from minority identity groups who tend to be less familiar with the local mechanisms of political manoeuvring are disadvantaged (Thomas, 1990). As argued by Bajdo and Dickinson (2001), an inclusive workplace would require career advancement to be determined by performance rather than political connections. Equal opportunities and diversity management practices and policies Some members of minority identity groups were interviewed, including foreign individuals, Black and Asian individuals, and individuals from religious minorities. None of the interviewees assumed to be homosexual or bisexual, though some respondents suggested that it would be more “appropriate” to hide sexual orientation in this organization. No policy statement was issued with regard to the recruitment and promotion processes of individuals from social minorities. Most interviewees claimed to be aware of the advantages of working with people from different cultural backgrounds. Native individuals believed that their faculties welcome and value foreign academics in their ranks. Non-natives who felt that the university was not making use of their talents did not share such a view. They think that, in practice, native peers tend to show little interest in benefiting from their particular experiences and knowledge. A good example was provided by the way foreigners were disregarded and ignored in department meetings. A French academic working in the French department illustrates this attitude: Well, in the council meetings people speak Portuguese and in my first year here I didn’t know this language. (. . .) I didn’t understand anything they said. In this aspect, I was discriminated against because all of them teach French and work in a School of French. Then, why didn’t they speak French? (French assistant).

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Other foreign individuals related their perception of discriminatory mechanisms in career advancement with the lack of access to management positions. A German lecturer puts it very clearly: I think it’s very difficult to find foreign academics performing management tasks in this institution. Native peers don’t trust them enough [and] find it hard to identify with them.

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Some native interviewees also pointed out disadvantages associated with a diverse workforce. Communication and cultural barriers may arise when working with foreign colleagues; they argued admitting that these barriers lead to misunderstandings and improper behaviours that ultimately threaten organization stability. Prejudice towards non-whites and foreigners from particular nationalities were also pointed out, though individuals from religious minorities denied having experienced discrimination or prejudice in this organization: I think that some people consider that individuals from specific geographic origins don’t fit into the institution. There seems to be an ethnocentric belief that academics from Brazil, Africa or Asia aren’t as effective and talented as individuals from either Northern Europe or the US (Native assistant).

In sum, the organizational culture of this particular university does not seem to welcome and value a diversified workforce. Parochial and inward looking attitudes appear to prevail. Values and artefacts seem to reflect assimilation ideals while preserving explicit and implicit discriminatory mechanisms that prevent real equal opportunities. In an environment somewhat hostile to individuals from minority identity groups, it will not be easy to implement the proclaimed internationalization goals recommended by the Bologna Declaration, let alone to develop a culture of inclusion that values diversity. Discussion and conclusions The international and multicultural environment in which universities have to operate these days requires the management of an increasingly diverse workforce. In order to benefit from the potential of such diverse workforce, it is important to ensure that all individuals are making full use of their skills, knowledge, and work experiences. In that sense, an inclusive culture that values diversity and encourages the free debate of ideas would be a major asset (Thomas and Ely, 1996). The findings show that this particular university does not seem to promote real equal opportunities and does not benefit from the potential of an increasingly diverse workforce. The study was conducted in a Portuguese university that at least in numerical terms is increasingly “plural” given the growing number of faculty members from minority identity groups, most of them of foreign origin. However, their participation is clearly limited due to structural, political and cultural barriers that came out in the interviews. Some organizational values may reflect dimensions of Portuguese culture such as uncertainty avoidance and power distance (Hofstede, 1991). The prevalence of parochial attitudes and the importance of personal connections over individual merit criteria in recruitment and promotion decisions contribute to restrict the access, integration and career advancement of whoever might be regarded as “different” or “outsider”. In a time when the Bologna Declaration is promoting the mobility of faculty members and students in Europe, the development of a welcome environment for individuals from other nationalities is a critical element for the success of the

internationalization of higher-education institutions. In this particular case, failure to create a level playing field providing equal opportunities for all faculty members regardless of their racial or ethnic origin may jeopardize talented academics that do not fit into the dominant group. Minority groups remain easy targets for prejudice and for “institutional discrimination” argued Liff (1999), and “sameness” tends to prevail over “difference” (Liff and Wajcman, 1996). In other words, individuals from minority groups have to develop unilateral efforts to fit into the organization, while the organization does not seem to make any special effort to accommodate or to take advantage of those individuals. Additionally, institutional pressures to conform inhibit the free flow and debate of ideas that is expected in an academic institution, thus precluding the development of a creative and innovative environment. Organizations devoted to research were expected to be more receptive to newness and difference, though apparently that is not the case everywhere. Unless important changes take place, this organization will not be able to attract talented people from distinct cultural backgrounds who want to preserve their identity and keep their distinct perspectives, knowledge, and work experiences. While at the rhetorical level the benefits of a diversified workforce were acknowledged, little respect for diversity was detected in practice. No evidence was found of polices and practices designed to promote diversity and to benefit from the unique contribution of a heterogeneous workforce. A native professor summarizes the prevalent orientation towards minorities: There is no evidence that someone was excluded or avoided because that person belonged to one or another minority group. But the institution doesn’t develop efforts to value and to benefit from talented minorities. Well, I think that people tolerate minorities. I guess that’s the better description of what happens here. Minorities aren’t especially welcome, but their presence isn’t faced as a disaster. It’s like a rainy day: It’s boring but you must live with it (Native professor).

Recommendations, limitations and suggestions for future research The successful implementation of the Bologna Declaration does require considerable changes in organizational culture and a different attitude towards the difference. Some suggestions were made regarding the development of formal mentoring programs targeting social groups that are likely to be disadvantaged in informal mentoring activities and networks (Kram and Hall, 1996; Quinlan, 1999). Practical measures such as information about local idiosyncrasies, leisure events and language courses for non-native speakers could also help in the socialization process of newcomers. The need was also felt for some diversity training, raising awareness of stereotypes and prejudices in order to prevent subtle discriminatory mechanisms. More transparent and more professional styles of management would also contribute to limit the influence of political networks and parochial rainmakers. Raising accountability to the whole community is perhaps the decisive factor for changing the current state-of-affairs. The findings and conclusions drawn from this study cannot be generalized to other higher-education institutions, though similar findings would possibly be found in many other places. National origin emerged in this study as the critical diversity dimension, but it is believed that other methodologies rather than face-to-face

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interviews would more easily allow other visible and non-visible minority identity groups to voice their concerns in these matters. Replicate the study in other institutions and in other points in time would also allow to monitor and shed some more light on the transformations taking place in European higher-education as a result of the Bologna Declaration.

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Managing the Organizational Melting Pot: Dilemmas of Workplace Diversity, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, pp. 3-27. Quinlan, K.M. (1999), “Enhancing mentoring and networking of junior academic women: what, why, and how?”, Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, Vol. 21 No. 1, pp. 31-42. Quinn, R.E., O’Neill, R.M. and Debebe, G. (1996), “Confronting the tensions in an academic career”, Rhythms of Academic Life: Personal Accounts of Careers in Academia, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, pp. 421-7. Schapper, J.M. and Mayson, S.E. (2004), “Internationalisation of curricula: an alternative to the taylorisation of academic work”, Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, Vol. 26 No. 2, pp. 189-205. Schein, E.H. (1985), Organizational Culture and Leadership: A Dynamic View, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA. Thomas, R.R. (1990), “From affirmative action to affirming diversity”, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 68 No. 2, pp. 107-17. Thomas, D.A. and Ely, R.J. (1996), “Making differences matter: a new paradigm for managing diversity”, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 74 No. 5, pp. 79-90. Trice, H.M. and Beyer, J.M. (1993), The Cultures of Work Organizations, Prentice-Hall, London. Wentling, R.M. and Palma-Rivas, N. (1998), “Current status and future trends of diversity initiatives in the workplace: diversity experts’ perspective”, Human Resource Development Quarterly, Vol. 9 No. 3, pp. 235-53. About the authors ´Iris Barbosa is a Teaching Assistant at the School of Economics and Management at the University of Minho, in Braga, Portugal. In 2003 she completed her Master’s degree in Human Resource Management with a dissertation entitled “Organizational subcultures in the academic context in the perspective of the management of diversity: a case study”. She is currently attending a PhD program in the same institution. Her PhD thesis focuses on the rhetoric and practices of equal opportunities and diversity management in the Portuguese organizational context. She aims to confront the perspectives of different organizational actors with regard to these issues. E-mail: [email protected] Carlos Cabral-Cardoso is an Associate Professor of Management at the University of Minho, Portugal, where he is currently Director of the Management Research Unit and responsible for post-graduate studies in organizational behaviour and human resource management. He received his PhD from the University of Manchester. His current research interests include the role of the HR function, issues of equal opportunities and diversity, and ethical issues in management education. He has published in the Journal of Management Education, Journal of Business Ethics, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Leadership & Organization Development Journal, International Public Management Journal, Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, International Journal of Innovation Management, Career Development International, Women in Management Review, EBS Review, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management. Several other contributions were made to edited books and Portuguese journals. Carlos Cabral-Cardoso is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: [email protected]

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Use of work-life A comparative analysis of the use balance practices in Europe of work-life balance practices in Europe

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Caroline Straub Institute for Labor Studies, ESADE, Universitat Ramon Llull, Barcelona, Spain Abstract Purpose – The objectives of this study are: to identify and compare companies’ involvement with work-life balance practices and policies in 14 European countries, and to test whether these practices actually enhance the career advancement of women to senior management positions. Design/methodology/approach – A comparative descriptive analysis shows differences in work-life balance practices and policies and women’s participation in the workforce between countries. In order to test whether work-life balance practices and policies enhance the career advancement of women to senior management positions a multiple regression analysis is performed. Findings – There are certain differences in the provision of work-life balance practices and women’s participation in the labour force among European companies. A positive influence of work-life balance policies and practices on women’s career advancement into senior management positions was confirmed in only one case – the payment of an additional amount for maternity leave. All other practices were shown to have no significant impact or a significant negative relationship. Originality/value – An interesting issue is whether work-life balance practices and policies help remove the glass ceiling. There has been little research on the impact of work-life balance practices and policies on women’s career advancement. This study attempts to redress this dearth by examining the role of work-life balance practices and policies on women’s career advancement. Keywords Flexible working hours, Career development, Gender, Women workers, Europe Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction Women’s participation in the paid workforce is one of the most significant social changes of the last century. Women have made noteworthy advances in management, which used to be a largely male preserve (Powell, 1999, Helfat et al., 2006). Even so, women have not made inroads into the higher levels of corporate power (Davidson and Burke, 2000; McGregor, 2002; Vinnicombe, 2000). Studies in various countries such as Norway (Hoel, 2002), the USA (Catalyst, 2000, 2003, 2004), Canada, Australia and New Zealand (Burke and Mattis, 2000) and the UK (Singh and Vinnicombe, 2003) monitor the presence of women in executive positions and reveal that the lack of women at the top of large companies is a global phenomenon. Surveys indicate that gender is still a common barrier to women’s career advancement in many international contexts. It seems that their progression to the senior executive level is blocked by an invisible barrier – the so-called “glass ceiling” (Powell and Butterfield, 1994). Preparation of this manuscript was supported by the Fundacio´n Jesus Serra.

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Over the last decade, European companies have shown greater interest in removing the glass ceiling. Owing to increased public pressure and the realisation of the competitive advantage that may result from having women in management positions (Burke, 1994a, b, Cassell, 1997), companies have launched numerous work-life balance programmes to promote women’s career advancement. Companies with such programmes adopt practices such as flexitime, shorter working hours, job-sharing, tele-working, child care services and special maternity leave arrangements. Studies have shown that these practices increase employee satisfaction; work ethic and motivation (Friedman, 1992); reduce absenteeism and staff turnover rates (Galinsky and Stein, 1990); raise satisfaction with the balance between work and family (Ezra and Deckman, 1996); and diminish work-family conflict (Goff et al., 1990) and related stress (Johnson, 1995). A range of factors favour the presence of work-life balance initiatives in companies. It has been suggested that the size of the company is influential in determining companies’ involvement with work-life balance (Goodstein, 1994; Ingram and Simon, 1995; Osterman, 1995). Other factors affecting companies’ involvement include sector or industry pressure and a company’s level of dependence on female labour (Goodstein, 1994; Ingram and Simon, 1995). On a European level, corporate implementation of work-life balance practices may vary depending on the welfare state system, family formation policies, legislation and the gender ideologies found in each country (Riedmann, 2006). An interesting issue is whether these approaches help remove the glass ceiling. Some studies have examined barriers to women’s advancement (Oakley, 2000; Kottke and Agars, 2005) whereas there are only a few studies that looked at the impact of work-life balance practices on women’s concrete career advancement (Mattis, 2002). Thus, the objectives of this study are to: . identify and compare companies’ involvement with work-life balance practices and policies in 14 European countries; and . test whether these practices actually enhance the career advancement of women to senior management positions. 2. Theoretical background 2.1 A framework for dismantling the glass ceiling Companies may undertake various approaches to foster a gender-equitable workplace. Drawing on existing research on gender in the workplace, Kolb et al. (1998) developed a framework for understanding how companies promote gender equity and organisational change. According to Kolb et al. (1998), the way companies implement work-life balance policies and practices depends largely on underlying gender ideologies. Companies can be placed in one of four groups according to the strategies they adopt for fostering women’s career advancement. 2.1.1 Eliminate gender differences. The first group involves those companies that translate gender into biological sexes. These companies assume that success is dependent upon an individual’s own merit regardless of sex. The reason for women’s slow career advancement in comparison to men’s career advancement is due to the former not being socially trained to succeed in a male-dominated business. Such firms consider that women were brought up in a way that stopped them from learning the rules of business, which include highly masculine traits such as assertiveness, authority, autonomy, aggression, dominance and achievement. These companies therefore try to

eliminate gender differences so that women can compete as equals. They typically encourage women to learn to survive in a male-dominated environment by adopting more masculine attributes. Thus, HR departments offer executive development programmes to train women in assertive leadership and presentation and negotiation styles. Nevertheless, Kolb et al. (1998) believe that these programmes do little to change the underlying factors within organisations that create an uneven playing field for women. 2.1.2 Celebrate gender differences. The second group involves those companies that accept that there are differences between men and women. Early in childhood, different gender models are imposed on boys and girls. These gender roles ascribe different characteristics, values and behaviours to both sexes that can result in: different work styles (Helgesen, 1990, Powell, 1993, Rosener, 1990); ethical reasoning (Gilligan, 1982), communication/interaction styles (Stets and Burke, 1996; Robinson and Smith-Lovin, 1992; Tannen, 1995); and leadership behaviour (Rosener, 1990, 1995; Powell, 1993; Eagly and Johnson, 1990; Harriman, 1996). Women in these companies can be disadvantaged because their work styles are not valued in a male-dominated work environment (Meyerson and Fletcher, 2000). To overcome these disadvantages, these companies attempt to value the differences between men and women. They initiate cultural awareness and diversity training to foster tolerance and better understand the strengths of each gender. Furthermore, they demonstrate that using women’s skills and experiences yields competitive advantages for the business (Cassell, 1997). Consequently, this approach creates awareness and thus fosters more tolerant and flexible work contexts favouring women’s advancement. However, celebrating the differences between men and women can also reinforce gender stereotypes and, in the process, limit women’s progress (Kolb et al., 1998). 2.1.3 Remove gender-biased structures. The third group involves those companies that accept that there are social constructed differences between men and women. However, these companies tend to focus on eliminating structural barriers on women’s advancement. Companies adopting this approach realise that hiring, evaluation and promotion processes are highly biased against women. In order to overcome structural disadvantages, companies implement affirmative action measures, sexual harassment guidelines and fair gender-neutral selection and promotion procedures. Other organisations offer work family practices such as: flexitime; shorter working hours; job sharing; tele-working; child care services; and special maternity leave arrangements. According to Kolb et al. (1998) these structural and policy-based measures have contributed to improving women’s opportunities as demonstrated by the increasing number of women in management positions. Despite this, such programmes have little impact on the informal rules and practices governing workplace behaviour (Kolb et al., 1998). For example, selection processes can follow affirmative action policies but the final selection criteria can still be highly biased by underlying gender stereotypes. In fact, studies that examine the process of selecting executives show that a mayor reason for women’s under-representation lies in invisible gender stereotypes, which in turn discriminate against women (Kanter, 1977). In order to minimise risk in filling positions, male managers prefer to select other men who, they believe, are likely to make decisions similar to the decisions they themselves make (Kanter, 1977).

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2.1.4 Review organisational cultures. The fourth group involves those companies that assume that gender inequity is rooted in our cultural patterns and therefore is also in our organisational systems. In fact, scholars argue that understanding women’s under-representation in certain jobs requires work organisations to be studied and reviewed (Bielby and Baron, 1984; Baron et al., 1991). Studies have shown that levels of inequality in companies are affected by organisational demography and the degree to which personnel practices such as recruitment methods are formalised. Furthermore, as Reskin (2000) points out, inequality at work occurs through the decisions made by those people who run and work for companies. The sex composition of management effects women’s representation in management as it affects hiring, remuneration, evaluation, and promotion practices (Pfeffer, 1983, 1991). It is therefore important to analyse the demographic make-up of decision makers and how they design organisational policies and procedures. Heilman et al. (1995), Eagly et al. (1992) and Powell (1993) claim that as a result of male over-representation in management positions, organisational practices are highly male biased. Scholars argue that these male-biased practices are responsible for the different career opportunities for men and women at senior levels of management (Cockburn, 1991; Connell, 1987, 1995). Once organisational practices designed by men have become rooted in formal structures and informal traditions, they resist change (Baron, 1991). In the process, establishments and workers become accustomed to gender-based job segregation (Bielby and Baron, 1984; Carrington and Troske, 1994, 1998; Peterson and Morgan, 1995; Tomaskovic-Devey, 1993). For this reason, practices enhancing gender equality such as equal employment opportunity, corporate affirmative action programmes and work-family policies have often failed in the past (Bacchi, 1999). In an attempt to reverse this trend, companies try to build practices that are more robust and gender equitable. They offer work experience programmes that discriminate in women’s favour and also review their organisational cultures to try and make them less gender-biased. 2.2 Work-life balance practices and women’s career advancement Different gender roles are imposed on males and females from early childhood. These social gender roles ascribe different norms, characteristics, values and behaviours to both sexes. Girls are expected to reflect nurturing, caring and listening skills that are associated with the mothering role (Maddock and Parkin, 1993). Boys are expected to demonstrate authority, autonomy, aggression, dominance and achievement that are associated with the bread-winner’s role. As a result, although family responsibilities are now more balanced between men and women, women are still mainly responsible for caring for the children, the elderly, and carrying out household chores while men largely remain in charge of work matters (Fredriksen-Goldsen and Schlarlach, 2001; Cinamon and Rich, 2002). In fact, Plantenga and Hansen (1999) found that women in European countries on average spend about four times as much time as men on caring tasks. However, economic pressures also force women to form part of the work force. Many women are thus forced to juggle multiple family and work demands. While men deal with work matters, often at the cost of family life, women often have to deal with family issues, even when it interferes with their jobs (Pleck, 1977; Newell, 1993). In fact, scholars found that women tended to devote more hours to family activities than men

(Eby et al., 2005; Friedman and Greenhaus, 2000) but that hours devoted to work activities were identical for men and women. Accordingly, women often experience role overload. The total time and energy devoted to family and work are too great for women to perform both roles well or comfortably (Duxbury et al., 1994). Considering the implications of differences in work and family life, it is reasonable to assume that men and women have unequal career opportunities. In fact, scholars believe that a constraint for women in achieving management positions is the disproportionate responsibility they still bear for raising children and performing household tasks (Wirth, 1998). Indeed, a study on the views of Europeans reveals that European women give family responsibility as the main reason for less advancement in their careers (Eurobarometer 44.3, 1996). Given that women undergo pregnancy and childbirth, they cannot actively benefit from career progression policies which are designed to emphasise the period between the ages of 30 and 40. Moreover, traditional performance evaluations based on hours worked rather than on productivity put women with families at a big disadvantage (Kolb et al., 1998). Work-life balance practices and policies focus on removing gender-based structural barriers to women’s advancement. Practices such as flexitime, shorter working hours, job-sharing, tele-working, child care services and special maternity leave arrangements help women to reconcile family and work-life. Consequently, it can be assumed that work-life balance practices and policies designed to acknowledge and support the multiple demands of family and work should foster women’s career advancement. A recent study confirms that women are taking advantage of flexible work arrangements in order to meet their career goals and manage the complexity of their lives (Shapiro et al., 2007). Based on the above the following hypothesis is tested: H1. The extent to which companies offer work-life balance practices and policies is related to the percentage of women in senior management positions. 3. Research design 3.1 Sample In total 14 European countries took part in the survey study conducted in 2004 by Great Place to Work[1]. A questionnaire was sent to senior human resource managers asking them to indicate corporate practices and policies linked to human resources and work-life balance. The questionnaire was sent only to companies that had previously voluntarily taken part in a best companies or best workplace selection process. In total, 854 companies took part in the survey, from which 547 where nominated as the best companies to work for. This study analyses findings for the 547 companies listed as the best companies to work for in each European Country. Data were reviewed and cleaned up prior to analysis and 33 observations were found to include many missing or incomplete answers and were thus eliminated, reducing the sample to 514 companies. 3.2 Methods and procedures A comparative descriptive analysis was conducted to show differences in work-life balance practices and policies between countries. Women’s participation in the workforce of companies within each country and their hierarchical representation is demonstrated. In order to test the hypothesis, a multiple regression analysis was employed with the following independent and dependent variables.

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3.2.1 Dependent variable. The questionnaire asked the senior HR manager to indicate the number of management and executive positions held by men and women at their workplace in 2004. A percentage score was calculated for women executives in each company. 3.2.2 Independent variable. HR managers were asked to indicate whether their company offers the following practices and policies related to work-life balance: flexitime; paid sabbaticals; home/tele-working; job protected maternity and paternity leave arrangements above the statutory minimum; extra pay for maternity and paternity leave arrangements in addition to the statutory minimum; the appointment of someone to combat discrimination and promote diversity; and the promulgation of a code of conduct setting out the company’s commitment to combat discrimination of gender. 4. Results 4.1 Work-life balance practices and policies in European companies Results show that European companies implement numerous work-life balance practices in order to overcome structural disadvantages for women employees. On average, 74 per cent of the companies had implemented a code of conduct or policy combating discrimination on gender grounds, and 58 per cent of companies had appointed diversity managers to actively combat discrimination and to foster diversity. Companies prefer to offer work practices such as flexitime (95 per cent) and working from home (79 per cent). Regarding leaves of absence, 23 per cent of companies give their employees the opportunity to take a paid sabbatical. Relatively few companies place any emphasis on child care services (34 per cent), special maternity/paternity leave arrangements such as extra leave for mothers (15 per cent) and fathers (34 per cent), and extra pay for mothers (46 per cent) and fathers (48 per cent). Findings show that companies promulgate codes of conduct to combat discrimination (74 per cent). Nevertheless, they do little to actively implement these codes. On average, only 58 per cent of the companies appoint a diversity manager. The Netherlands ranks first for codes of conducts, followed closely by Sweden, Spain and Ireland. Spain ranks first for the appointment of diversity managers. Within the group of work benefits, flexitime is the most frequently offered benefit (95 per cent), followed by home working (79 per cent). Findings show that Dutch, Irish, Danish, Portuguese and Belgian companies in particular offer flexitime arrangements for their employees. Working from home is the second most frequently offered benefit (it comes first in the case of Irish, Belgian and Danish companies). Surprisingly, companies generally make very little contribution to childcare benefits over and above the statutory minimum such as those companies that pay part of childcare expenses, company nurseries, etc. (34 per cent). One explanation might be that many companies still consider the state responsible for the provision of childcare services. In fact, findings show that company contribution is low in countries where the state plays an active role as care provider, whereas company contribution is high in countries with little public childcare coverage. Findings for Germany, Austria and Ireland confirm this phenomenon. All three countries show relatively high company involvement in the provision of childcare benefits. In fact, in these countries the state has done little in the field of childcare provision. Because children are seen as the private responsibility of the

parents comprising a working father and a caring mother, the family shoulders the task alone. As a result, there is a lack of public, subsidised private childcare provision. Denmark, Finland, Belgium, France and Sweden are well-known for their relatively well-developed childcare provision. One might reasonably assume that companies make little contribution in countries with good state childcare provision. However, although this is for the case for the first four countries, it does not hold true for Sweden. Although the state is an active provider, company involvement is very high. It seems that Swedish companies have recognised that they also have an important role to play in the provision of childcare in order to overcome work family-related problems at work. Countries such as Spain, Italy, Portugal, the UK, Greece and The Netherlands also suggest that this assumption is false. Neither companies nor the state offer much in the way of childcare. This may be because the family plays an important role in providing care facilities in these countries. Neither the state nor the companies have changed their views of this underlying cultural assumption. In the case of special maternity leave arrangements (e.g. extra leave and pay above the statutory minimum), findings reveal that companies are generally more willing to pay an extra amount for maternity leave than to offer more time. Findings regarding paternity leave show that fostering increased participation by men in family care is a popular theme in European companies. This is particularly true of Swedish, Austrian, German and Irish companies, which promote job-protected paternity leave arrangements. In sum, countries can be classified into low, medium and high performers in the field of work-life balance practices. The low performers are Italy, Portugal and Belgium, the medium performers are Germany, Finland, Greece, Austria and France, and the high performers are Denmark, Ireland, the UK, The Netherlands, Spain and Sweden. The findings show that Denmark, Ireland and Sweden play a major role in the adoption of work-life balance practices and policies. These findings confirm earlier studies which found that Denmark and Sweden have highly-developed social services facilitating work and family life (Julkunen, 1992; Nordic Council of Ministers, 1994). 4.2 Women’s participation in the workforce in European companies On average, women in all countries hold 40 per cent of full-time jobs, 32 per cent of management positions and 20 per cent of executive positions. These findings follow similar studies, which indicate that women hold nearly half of all jobs. While women have increased their numbers in management positions, they have made only few inroads into senior executive positions (Davidson and Burke, 2000; McGregor, 2002; Vinnicombe, 2000; Singh and Vinnicombe, 2003; Catalyst, 2000, 2003, 2004; Stroh et al., 1992). The findings reveal: national differences for . women’s participation in the work force; and . the degree of vertical segregation by gender. Scholars consider various contextual factors are responsible for these national differences. They claim that the extent to which a country is committed to a welfare state system has implications for female and male role models and hence for the gender division of labour (Julkunen, 1992). They classify nations into countries with a conservative social structure (Germany, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Austria),

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the Mediterranean group of countries (Greece, Spain, Portugal, Southern Italy, Ireland), modern Nordic welfare states (Denmark, Finland, Sweden) and countries with a liberal social structure (UK). Crompton (1999) and Lewis (1992) derive distinct family and gender roles from these welfare state models. Accordingly, Southern and Western European countries are primary based on men as breadwinners and women as carers. Thus, women’s participation in the labour force should be low. Our findings confirm this assumption – women’s participation in the workforce is below average in these countries, with Germany and Italy ranking lowest in this respect. The traditional role model of women as homemakers seems to have lingered within these countries. However, findings for Spain and Portugal contradict this assumption, showing an above-average proportion of women in the workforce. An explanation for this phenomenon might be that the traditional family model in some Southern and Western European countries has been replaced by a dual earner/female part-time carer model. Given that men’s incomes are now insufficient to support a family may indicate that many women are now forced to work on a part-time basis (Gornick and Meyers, 2003). Women have little choice but to join the workforce in low-wage earning countries such as Spain and Portugal. In contrast, Nordic countries such as Finland, Sweden and Denmark have a high proportion of women in the workforce. A reason for this might lie in the fact that Nordic countries adopt a dual earner/carer or state carer model (Crompton, 1999). They do not build on the assumption that women act only as mothers. There are also policies in place to actively involve and encourage women to work in order to redress chronic labour shortages (Melkas and Anker, 1997). Furthermore, the combination of a strong public child care sector and policies that encourage fathers to take over the carer role might help women to take jobs. 4.3 Vertical segregation by gender in European companies Findings show that women have made great strides in the job market. Nevertheless, their increased employment has not reduced vertical gender segregation within organisational hierarchy. There is a strong tendency for men and women to be employed in different hierarchical positions. On average women, for all countries, hold 32 per cent of manager positions and only 20 per cent of executive positions. Countries ranking above the average for women managers are France, Austria, Spain, Sweden, UK, Ireland and Finland, whereas countries ranking below the average are Germany, Italy, Greece, The Netherlands, Denmark and Portugal. The proportion of executive positions filled by women is also above average in Finland, the UK, Ireland, France, Greece and Italy and below average for Portugal, Denmark, Spain, Austria, Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany. Nearly, all countries show normal differences between management positions and executive positions held by women. Except for Austria, UK, Ireland and Germany, there was a big gap between the percentage of female managers and female executives. In the case of Austria, women hold 39 per cent of manager positions but only 15 per cent of the executive positions. This might indicate a strong male-biased corporate culture hindering women’s advancement. Another explanation might be that well-educated women do not stay long enough in the pipeline to be selected for executive positions in these countries.

Although Italy and Greece are traditionally based on the model of men as breadwinners and women as carers, they show high percentages of women executives. This may be explained by the fact that these countries lack well-educated employees. Therefore, well-qualified women are in high demand. In addition, these countries are known for their strong family structure and cheap domestic services, both of which lighten the burden of childcare and households tasks. This in turn may make it easier for women to spend more time on their jobs and strive harder for career success. Even though Germany, Austria and The Netherlands have high rates of women university graduates, they have the lowest share of women in executive positions. It seems that these countries still retain the traditional gender roles in which men are expected to be the breadwinners and women to be housewives. This suggest that stereotyping based on gender may be higher in these countries, affecting selection, performance evaluation, training procedures and overall corporate cultures. As a result, women are put in less strategic positions. Moreover, these countries are known for their lack of state support in child caring which can penalise women in their careers. In comparison to other European countries, Nordic countries such as Finland, Sweden and Denmark do not, contrary to expectations, posses significantly higher percentages of management and executive positions filled by women. Even though they serve as an example to other European countries in implementing gender equality policies, study findings do not show women to be much better represented in management and executive positions. Melkas and Anker (1997) consider gender-based occupational segregation in Nordic countries to be responsible for women’s low presence in management. According to them, women in Nordic countries normally work in typical female-dominated occupations, which lack the potential to promote them into higher management positions. Findings for France show a high percentage of women managers and a high percentage of women executives in companies. In fact, France ranks first for the proportion of women in executive positions (34 per cent). Hence, one might conclude that France’s strong public child care sector and its long school days seem to be extremely successful in promoting women’s career advancement. 4.4 Do work-life balance practices and policies enhance women’s progression into senior management? A multiple regression analysis was performed to verify the hypothesis. Based on a correlation analysis, two independent variables (paternity leave and childcare benefits) were excluded from the multiple regression analysis in advance. Some work-life balance practices clearly show significant results. These are additional pay for maternity and paternity leave, flexitime and the existence of a code of conduct. Nevertheless, the hypothesis was only confirmed for the offering of additional pay for maternity leave. All other practices are negatively related to the percentage of women in senior executive positions. 5. Discussion The first part of this study has shown that there are certain differences in the provision of work-life balance practices and women’s participation in the labour force among European companies. On an overall European level companies’ involvement with work-life balance initiatives seems to be quite high. Most of the companies are

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celebrating gender differences emphasizing cultural awareness and diversity training in order to foster increased tolerance. In an attempt to eliminate structural barriers on women’s advancement they launched work family practices such as: flexitime; shorter working hours; job sharing; tele-working; child care services; and special maternity leave arrangements. On the country level, involvement differs based on a countries gender equality policies, its welfare state system, family formation policies, a states support on public child care and gender ideologies. In terms of females participation in the work force findings reveal: . national differences for women’s participation in the work force; and . national differences for the degree of vertical segregation by gender. Various contextual factors are responsible for these national differences. Some countries are still following typical female and male role models whereas other countries, due to economical pressures in wage decline, challenge typical gender roles. In some countries it seems that strong gender stereotypes are still holding females back from senior management positions. In others, females are still working in typically female-dominated occupations, which lack the potential to promote women into higher management positions. The second part of this study attempted to analyse the influence of work-life balance policies and practices on women’s career advancement into senior management positions. Findings show that the hypothesis was confirmed in only one case – the payment of an additional amount for maternity leave. All other practices were shown to have no significant impact or a significant negative relationship. What do these findings tell us? First, of all, they raise doubts concerning the effectiveness of practices within these organisations given that they seem to do very little to advance women’s careers. What might be the reason for the ineffectiveness of such measures? Are they ineffective per se or because they are implemented in an organisational environment that discourages women from availing themselves of such practices? Earlier studies have shown that the implementation of policies and practices does not guarantee people make use of them (Allen, 2001). A reason might be that workplaces still inherit underlying work assumptions that are strongly male-biased (Lewis, 2001) and career advancement still follows a typical male career model (Mainiero and Sullivan, 2005). Consequently, women are afraid of using work-life balance practices because they fear they may lose credibility and be forced back into a purely mothering role (Schwartz, 1989) with all the negative career consequences (such as slow promotion and financial penalties) this entails (Swiss and Walker, 1993). Indeed, women executives pointed to an exclusionary corporate culture as the primary barrier to women’s advancement (Ragins et al., 1998; Schwartz, 1996; Kolb et al., 1998). Even though some studies have shown that women take advantage of work family initiatives (Burke, 2001; Shapiro et al., 2007), in practice initiatives often fail because organizations have not given enough attention to underlying social processes at work (Kottke and Agars, 2005). It seems hat the success of work family policies is dependent on how they are perceived by organizational members of both men and women (Kottke and Agars, 2005).

Hence, offering work family policies alone does not necessarily change informal social practices and traditional corporate values. In order to do so an increasing number of scholars point out the importance of moving beyond the formulation of policies to a change in the actual organizational culture (Blair-Loy and Wharton, 2002, Lewis, 1997, 2001, Thompson et al., 1999). The development of a family-friendly organizational culture which supports and values the integration of employees’ work and family lives becomes a necessity for reducing work family mismatch (Thompson et al., 2005). In order to create a work family friendly culture which fosters females career advancement, companies have to re examine the definition of the ideal worker, the definition of commitment, and challenging norms around when work gets done (Shapiro et al., 2007). New approaches for companies committed to the advancement and retention of women include: redesign of work and reward systems, making top management accountable for the advancement and turnover rates of women, and providing family friendly practices in a family friendly work environment (Mainiero and Sullivan, 2005). Crucial in this sense is the transition from typical male career models towards the acceptance of alternative career paths, including opportunities to “opt out” and “opt-back-in” after career interruption for all employees (Mainiero and Sullivan, 2005). 6. Conclusion There has been little research on the impact of work-life balance practices and policies on women’s career advancement. This study attempts to redress this dearth by examining the role of work-life balance practices on women’s career advancement. It reveals European companies’ efforts to enhance a gender-equitable workplace by implementing work-life balance programmes. However, it also shows that European companies still need to review their organisational cultures in order to make these practices a successful tool for advancing women’s careers. The findings must be interpreted in the light of the study’s limitations. First, one should bear in mind that the sample for this study is based on a best company competition where firms were asked to participate on a voluntary basis. The study analysed companies that were nominated as the best companies to work for in terms of work climate in each European country. Therefore, conclusions should only be drawn for similar types of companies. A consequence of this sampling procedure is small variances in the independent and dependent variable; only a certain kind of company was selected. Nevertheless, companies in the sample differ in company size and represent different sectors. A second limitation is the use of cross-sectional data, which limits the possibility of testing for causal linkages. The study did not assess when the practices were introduced and which women actually make use of them. This is essential if one is to correctly infer the role played by work-life balance practices in advancing women’s careers. Future research should overcome this limitation by applying a longitudinal design. Moreover, a wider sample should be used for hypothesis testing. In general, future research should not only measure work-life balance practices in drawing conclusions on women’s career advancement. The study demonstrates the need to paint a complete picture that includes underlying work assumptions, corporate values and work-life balance practices in order to detect their impact on women’s career advancement.

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Note 1. This study is based on standardized information extrapolated from the “Great Place to Workw-Europe” data bank. The Great Place to Workw Institute, Inc. has developed a methodology (standardized instruments and data collection procedures) over the years enabling the choice of “best companies to work for” in each country. The data bank includes information provided by employees and managers in hundreds of companies in 14 EU Member State, compiled during the period of 2003-2005. Permission on the use of data were obtained from the Institute for Labor Studies, ESADE.

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Thompson, C., Beauvais, L. and Lyness, K. (1999), “When work-family benefits are not enough: the influence of work-family culture on benefit utilization, organizational attachment, and work-family conflict”, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Vol. 54 No. 3. Thompson, C.A., Andreassi, J.K. and Prottas, D.J. (2005), “Work-family culture: key to reducing workforce – workplace mismatch”, in Bianchi, S.M., Casper, L. and Berkowitz King, R. (Eds), Work, Family, Health, and Well-Being, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ. Tomaskovic-Devey, D. (1993), Gender and Racial Inequality at Work, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. Vinnicombe, S. (2000), “The position of females in management in Europe”, in Davidson, M. and Burke, R. (Eds), Females in Management: Current Research Issues, Vol. 11, Sage, London, pp. 9-25. Wirth, L. (1998), “Women in management: closer to breaking the glass ceiling?”, International Labour Review, Vol. 137 No. 1. Further reading Singh, N. and Xhao, H. (2003), “Cultural adaptation on the web: a study of American companies’ domestic and Chinese websites”, Journal of Global Information Management, Vol. 11 No. 3, pp. 63-80. Williams, J.E. and Best, D.L. (1990), Sex and Psyche: Gender and Self Viewed Cross-Culturally, Sage, Newbury Park, CA. About the author Caroline Straub is currently a PhD candidate in the Institute for Labor Studies in ESADE, Universitat Ramon Llull. Her research interest focuses on women in top management teams and their influence on a companies work family culture. Caroline Straub can be contacted at: caroline. [email protected]

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Female part-time workers’ experiences of occupational mobility in the UK service industry Jennifer Tomlinson

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Work and Employment Relations Division, Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK Abstract Purpose – This purpose of this paper it to explore the extent to which female part-time workers experience occupational mobility in UK service sector firms, particularly promotional opportunities, since the implementation of the Part-time Workers’ Directive in 2000. Design/methodology/approach – The research adopts a qualitative methodology. In-depth interviews were carried out with 62 women and 12 of their managers in five case study workplaces in the service industry, so as to better understand individuals’ perceptions of part-time work and the processes that shape part-time working at an organisational level. Findings – The findings are not particularly encouraging in terms of female part-time workers’ perceptions of their opportunities for career progression in four of the five case studies. Distinctions were found between legislation, organisational policies and informal workplace practices. It is argued in this paper that each of these levels is important in understanding patterns of change and continuity in the use and structuring of part-time work. Originality/value – The originality of this paper lies in its use of occupational closure to explain the stratification of part-time workers and this paper has significance and value for debates surrounding the progression and career prospects of non-standard workers and diversity management more broadly. Keywords Part time workers, Gender, Job mobility, Women workers, Service industries, United Kingdom Paper type Research paper

Introduction Part-time workers’ opportunities and prospects are of sustained academic and practitioner interest following a number of high profile reports on the “penalties” associated with part-time jobs in the UK labour market (Manning and Petrongolo, 2004; Women and Work Commission, 2006). Currently, every fourth job is part-time and it is predicted that between 2002 and 2012 most of the jobs that will be created will be part-time and taken by women (ONS, 2004). The quality of these jobs is, therefore, becoming increasingly important especially for women and their career prospects but also for other workers who cannot, or do not want to, work long full-time hours. Recent research into the occupational location of female part-time workers is not encouraging. For example, pooled Labour Force Survey data reveal that only 3 percent of mothers employed part-time work as corporate managers. Instead they tend to cluster into four occupational categories: elementary administration and service occupations; sales and customer service occupations; caring and personal service occupations and administrative occupations (Tomlinson et al., 2005, p. 33).

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This paper examines the experiences of female part-timers’ who work in the service industry, particularly their work satisfaction, access to occupational mobility and career progression. In addition, managers’ perceptions of part-time workers’ commitment to work and promotional prospects are also investigated in the same organisations. The research took place following the implementation of the Part-time Workers’ Directive in July 2000 to examine the impact this legislation on part-timers’ employment. The analysis presented here suggests that rather than part-timers lacking in commitment to work and careers, informal processes of occupational closure (the result of organisational inflexibilities in the construction of career paths and managers’ perceptions of part-time workers) explain much of the low status of part-time work. Furthermore, these factors together can shape the perceived entitlement of part-time workers towards their own career development. Part-time workers’ commitment to work and job satisfaction Commentators appear to be divided over whether part-time workers lack career orientation and often large-scale quantitative studies reach seemingly paradoxical conclusions that women are satisfied with, or voluntarily choose, part-time work and thus working conditions that are inferior to those associated with full-time jobs. For example, 94 percent of mothers working part-time do so voluntarily according to Labour Force Survey data (ONS, 2003), which supports arguments such as Hakim’s (1996, 2000), on the surface at least, that women (particularly mothers) working part-time are choosing jobs that are characteristically less demanding. In contrast to, the proposition that female part-time workers are largely satisfied with, and have a preference for low skilled, undemanding part-time jobs, Gallie’s (1998) analysis of Eurobarometer data found that female part-timers were the most likely workers to be “not at all satisfied” with their variety of work and ability to “learn new things.” Likewise, Taylor’s (2002) dissemination of ESRC Future of Work research revealed deteriorating job satisfaction among women with children in terms of pay and job prospects, particularly for those working in low skilled part-time jobs. Indeed, other literature also suggests that women are not satisfied with the worst jobs, rather, and increasingly so, women are dissatisfied with poor quality part-time work, but they do not want the very long hours characteristic of UK full-time jobs (Fagan, 2001; Rubery et al., 1994). Adding to this debate, a number of recent publications highlight that women are often over-qualified for the work they do. They are under-utilized in the UK economy (Tomlinson et al., 2005) and are working below their potential (Grant et al., 2005). These women face a “part-time penalty” (Manning and Petrongolo, 2004) in terms of both prospects and wages. As such, it is difficult to imagine that female part-time workers are satisfied with such working conditions, though this is somewhat difficult to ascertain since the reports are largely based on quantitative data. This paper takes a different tact by presenting qualitative research that has taken place at an organisational level, which was designed to investigate the experiences of part-time workers and the processes that shape and structure the jobs that they are employed to do. Labour market stratification and theories of occupational closure While much literature has focused upon women’s work commitment and the impact of part-time work on women and mothers particularly, fewer contributions attempt to

explain the processes that structure part-time work. As such, it is timely to examine the processes that shape full- and part-time workers’ access to rewards and opportunities. By using classical sociological theory this paper aims to show how Weber’s concept of closure can be used in modern organisations with regards to the persistent marginalisation of part-timers. However, adapting closure to account for the implementation of recent equality legislation, it is argued that the marginalisation of part-time workers may be more adequately accounted for by inflexibilities in organisational structures and informal workplace practices which result in part-timer workers’ “status disqualification” from access to career paths. This has significant implications for gender, diversity and the selection of workers for advancement and promotion within UK organisations since the discussions in this paper suggests that the organisational status quo is not being adequately transformed to better integrate women and more specifically part-time workers into senior levels. Rather, management appears to remain the preserve of those who can demonstrate commitment by working long full-time hours – a dated “male model” of working (Lewis, 1997), which restricts the occupational mobility of the many (often female) workers who cannot conform to this restrictive, traditional working-time pattern. In articulating the processes that structure part-time work, analyses of open and closed relationships, or “closure” (Weber, 1968) are useful. Closed relationships take place as members of a particular group wish to reserve their privilege. In forming closed relationships, a method of “status disqualification” is necessary to establish for whom relationships are closed. Closed relationships, on the basis of status, are often mobilized to exclude certain individuals from gaining access to resources that enable them to compete for economic or material rewards: Stratification by status goes hand in hand with a monopolization of ideal and material goods or opportunities . . . material monopolies provide the most effective motives for the exclusiveness of a status group (1968, pp. 190-1).

One example Weber uses in explaining how class intersects with status in strategies of closure is occupation. Indeed, Weber (1968) suggests that skills, professions and qualifications have the capacity to be monopolistic and can act as mechanisms though which strategies of closure can be mobilised. Traditional analyses of closure have been associated with the conscious activities of organisations, professions, guilds and trade unions (Mann, 1992). However, now that equal opportunities legislation restricts the scope of formal and explicitly organised strategies of closure, say on the basis of gender, age, ethnicity or even employment contract, certain commentators have asked whether closure could be successfully mobilised informally and have found that they can (Rutherford, 1999). In line with such an approach, Bagguley (1991) argues for a distinction between “monological” and “dialogical” forms of organisational and patriarchal resources, which lead to strategies of gender-based closure. Monological forms occur where centralised decision-making and power are exercised through leadership. The activities of trade unions, guilds and professional associations are examples of monological forms of organisation, which in the past, closed off women’s access to certain professions (Witz, 1990, 1992), occupations and guilds (Walby, 1986). They were often codified into policies and recognised explicitly within the guild, union or organisation. Such practices are now, of course, unlawful.

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Alternatively, in dialogical forms of organisation, power is exercised through the actions of members and communication is achieved through normative and implicit claims. Bagguley (1991) argues that when institutions are formally committed to sex equality, “monological” resources cannot be drawn upon in processes of gender-based closure since they are unlawful and discriminatory. However, in such circumstances “dialogical” forms of closure can be mobilised, as these forms of closure are more subtle, implicit and operate at an informal level. Consequently, informal strategies of closure are often more enduring because they are difficult trace and locate in formal, organisational policies. As such, it is possible to draw distinctions between the formal policy articulated by organisations and informal practices which take place in the day-to-day running of organisations. For example, we might ask the extent to which the Part-time Workers’ Directive has made changes not just at a formal organisational level but additionally whether it has actually changed the day-to-day experiences of being a part-time worker. To what extent has policy translated into practice? Is there any slippage, and if so, to what extent? Recent organisational research has indicated that there are differences between what managers say they do at a formal level and what they really do in practice. Hoque and Noon (2004) demonstrate this in their research on equal opportunities policies (EOPs) in UK organisations using the WERS data set. They found compelling evidence of what they called an “empty shell hypothesis” whereby employers often only paid “lip service” to the EOPs they claimed to advocate. For example, from the WERS sample they found that while 58 percent of establishments had a formal gender EOP, of that 58 percent only 37 percent collected statistics on posts held by men and women. Additionally, 58 percent of establishments had a formal ethnicity EOP, though only 42 percent kept records with ethnic origin specified and 17 percent said they had a special procedure to encourage applications from ethnic minorities. In terms of disability, 56 percent of establishments had a policy, but just 37 percent with such a policy had made adjustments to workplaces and 21 percent had a policy to encourage applications from people with disabilities. Following these rather bleak findings, Hoque and Noon (2004, p. 496) concluded: While the evidence suggests a reasonable widespread take up of formal, written EO policies in Britain, there is also considerable evidence that many of those policies lack substance as they are not supported by the expected EO practices. While EO practices are more likely to be found in workplaces that have a formal policy, it remains the case that for 11 of the 13 EO practices analysed, less than half the workplaces with the relevant EO policy has adopted the corresponding supporting practice.

Other evidence of policies and legislation lacking substance is found elsewhere. Creegan et al.’s (2003, p. 620) research showed that there was an “implementation gap” in race equality legislation in a local authority case study, “where policies fall short of expectations in practice”. As such, a sharp distinction between rhetoric and reality remained. In this paper, similar questions will be posed of the Part-time Workers’ Directive. Implemented in July 2000, the directive makes the less preferential treatment of part-time workers unlawful. Part-time workers are now entitled to the same rates of pay and benefits as full-time workers, pro-rata, and furthermore, the directive specifies that employers must not treat part-time workers less favourably in access to training

and progression simply because they work part-time (DTI, 2002). However, when legislation takes a soft or suggestive approach, it is possible that organisational policy makers and individual managers will interpret requirements and recommendations in different ways. In this sense, it may be possible to pull out distinctions between legislation and interpretations of it in, first, organisational policy and second, in actual workplace practices. If slippage between legislation, organisational policy and practice do occur, what are the implications for female part-timers’ career trajectories? Do they continue to experience status disqualification in their attempts to gain access to rewards and opportunities within organisations? If this is the case it is likely too that their perceptions of their own entitlements are affected. Lewis and Smithson (2001) have argued that sense of entitlement to support for policies aimed at reconciling work and family life are shaped by the social context and the environment in which they are forged. For example, they argue, and show, that sense of entitlement to policies differs depending upon nation-state and government support for work-life balance policies. This concept can also be applied to an organisational context (Lewis, 1997) and other forms of policies, for example, and for the purposes of this paper, those regarding training and career development. If part-timers’ own views about their career development are shaped by the employment context, then managers’ and full-timers’ perceptions of part-time workers and discourses on working-time surely have the potential to affect part-timers’ sense of entitlement regarding opportunities for progression. As such, we might need to move beyond debates about preferences and attitudes to work to better understand the way organisations shape the career trajectories of part-timers and other “non-standard” employees. Sample and methods This paper reports on interviews with 62 mothers working at varying occupational grades in the service industry. About 28 worked full-time and 34 worked part-time. It is the experiences of the female part-time workers that are explored in depth in this paper. About 12 managers (one human resource manager and at least one senior line manager and/or general manager from each organisation) were also interviewed. The interviews took place between 2001 and 2002, between 18 months and two years after the implementation of the Part-time Workers’ Directive. Five case study organisations were accessed with a view to investigating variations in the construction of career paths and treatment of part-time workers. The organisations had similar occupational structures, and interviews took place with female employees working at five occupational grades: catering assistants; supervisors; assistant managers; managers and senior managers. Women in the organisations were given letters informing them about the research along with a reply form which they returned if they were willing to be interviewed. A socio-biographical approach was adopted (Rustin and Chamberlayne, 2002) through retrospective discussions of women’s work-histories, accounts of their work-life balance, career orientations. A semi-structured, in-depth, qualitative interview method was employed to investigate factors shaping women’s decisions about whether to work part-time or full-time over the life course and the subsequent implications for their employment prospects. As previously mentioned, this approach offers an alternative to quantitative analyses on the implications of working part-time

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for women’s experiences in the labour market (Blackwell, 2001; Manning and Petrongolo, 2004; Tomlinson et al., 2005). There were a number of different topics which were discussed in the interviews. Four are relevant here. First, women’s working-time preferences, career orientations and transitions through part-time work were mapped out and discussed. Second, human capital accumulation, education and training were discussed in relation to each held. Third, with reference to the quality of part-time work, all respondents were asked about characteristics they associated with part-time jobs, their experiences of part-time work (if they had worked part-time) and whether they thought part-time workers are treated equally compared to full-time workers in their current workplace. This enabled a link into a fourth section, which focused on government legislation, organisational policy and workplace practices, and the extent to which different respondents were aware of, or could recognise, change at these different levels. The first organisation, Retailco, was a catering unit within a national company. The company has coffee shops in many of its retail establishments and a large catering unit at its Head Quarters that caters for 6,000 staff onsite. The research took place in a northern retail outlet with a catering unit and at its HQ site. This was the only organisation that had a structured training scheme and ensured that part-time workers received training pro-rata in all aspects of training and development. This firm also had measures in place to integrate part-time work through retention strategies and a job share register. Part-timers worked had the opportunity to work a range of hours and a variety of shifts. The second organisation, Servico, was another private sector company, which provided catering in service stations throughout the country. This firm operated a restrictive use of part-time work. Often working between the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. part-time workers spent most of their time at work doing the same repetitive tasks at peak productivity times. There was no evidence that part-timers could progress and some women experienced occupational downgrading when they made transitions to part-time work. Those working at supervisory level within the organisations were all full-time and working rotating shift patterns, starting as early as 7 a.m. and finishing as late as 11 p.m., and often worked in excess of their contracted hours. The third organisation, Hotelco, was situated in a northern city centre and is one of an internationally recognised hotel group. Hotelco had a high influx of business customers through the week and families and holidaymakers at the weekend. There was little occupational mobility for part-time workers and a long hours culture was evident where full-time workers frequently worked in excess of their contracted working hours. Full-time workers were the only employees considered for promotion, and certain managers who were interviewed thought that part-time workers were “inflexible.” Similarly to Servico, Hotelco expected full-time workers who were interested in promotion to work a range of shift patterns which changed on a weekly basis. The fourth and fifth workplaces, Patrust and Staftrust were catering units in two separate hospitals. Patrust, was a patient services catering unit within a city centre hospital. Some of the respondents worked in the catering unit preparing the meals, while others worked at ward level regenerating and serving the food to patients. Part-time workers were employed to cover a range of shifts and in the past managers had been employed on a part-time basis. Employees here appeared to be aware of

certain organisational policies concerning work-life balance and managers, in the main, were supportive of employees’ requests for flexible working. Staftrust was a second hospital and the Trust’s largest catering site, offering services for staff and visitors. Rotating shift patterns at supervisory and assistant managerial occupational grades had long been established, and in contrast to employees at Patrust, few working at Staftrust, other than the managers, knew about work-life balance policies or changes in legislation regarding part-time workers and few were aware of work-life balance polices that were relevant to them. In both Patrust and Staftrust access to training was scarce for both full- and part-time workers, though worse for part-time workers especially when employed on weekend, evening and night-time shifts. Female part-timers’ experiences of part-time work and mobility The narratives of many women working part-time in this sample indicate that women working part-time are often dissatisfied with their quality of work and promotional prospects and realised that they are working below their potential. Accordingly, these women frequently voiced frustration with the quality of their part-time jobs and promotional prospects. One woman, who used to work as a qualified chef but was currently working part-time as a catering assistant explained her situation: M: They just didn’t do part-time vacancies, all there was, was a catering assistant, and I wanted to cook . . . I looked for a while, but in chefing it was either early mornings and late finished or split shifts, which I couldn’t do . . . I would have had to get her to the childminders for six. Part-time workers and people with children get penalised a lot in jobs. . . I’m bored, and I can’t move any further (Patrust, part-time catering assistant).

Another catering assistant, who had experience as a shift manager when she previously worked full-time, explained that she could not work rotating shifts, due to her child being pre-school age and lack of flexible childcare. She explained that she could not get promoted due to an unwritten (informal) practice at Servico, where according to her line manager (but in contrast to the Human Resource Manager), supervisors had to work both late and early shifts: J: No. I mean, when the unit manager’s job came up they wanted to know if I would apply for it and made it clear that they really wanted me to go for it and pretty much said they would give it to me, but I would have to go full-time. And I just can’t right now. So I can’t progress here unless I go full-time. I have only got a year and a half to wait before he goes to school. Interviewer: So you would have to be full-time to progress any further then? J: Yes definitely (Servico, part-time catering assistnant).

Rather than focusing on part-time workers’ lack of commitment to employment, it might be more appropriate to consider organisations’ structuring of full- and part-time jobs in explaining part-time workers’ inability to become occupationally mobile. For example, supervisory grades in four of the workplaces studied (Hotelco, Servico, Patrust and Staftrust), and middle managerial grades in two of the workplaces (Hotelco and Servico), were expected to work full-time rotating shift patterns, where employees had to work early and late shifts. This not only marginalised part-time workers’ opportunities for progression, but also some full-time mothers’ opportunities, who were unable to be flexible in their availability to work. For many women with

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children such working patterns were not feasible and these respondents understood that their access to career paths was compromised: C: . . . She [the manager] said to me, “oh you could be a supervisor.” But to be a supervisor you have to work full-time and you have to do silly shifts like three while, and you can’t do that single with a child (Servico, part-time catering assistant).

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Access to training opportunities and skill development varied considerably between full- and part-time workers in the five organisations. For example, at Retailco, part-time employees were very positive about their access to training. Some respondents felt that part-timers received more training pro-rata than their full-time equivalents and generally women who had experience of working full- and part-time at Retailco spoke encouragingly. One woman who took advantage of the job share scheme and returned to her supervisory post part-time after maternity and felt her status would not prove to be a barrier to her progression in the future: G: I don’t think I would need to go full-time. My manager treats me as she does the other woman, who is a full-timer. I think she would treat us equally in terms of progressing and I think she would certainly support me (Retailco part-time supervisor).

However, respondents working part-time at the other workplace voiced frustration about their access to training and skill development. At Hotelco, the restaurant manager commented that part-time workers could go on all training courses, but in contrast, several female part-time workers individually recalled that part-time workers were not allowed to go on certain courses specifically because of their part-time status. One part-time supervisor working weekends, who had managed to reduce her hours from full-time work following maternity, commented that she had not been able to get on a training course since she switched to part-time work: T: I have had so many struggles trying to get the same as a full-time supervisor. Interviewer: Like what? T: Like training and wages. . . I got “train a trainer” and that’s the last course that I have been on and that was four years ago . . . I was still full-time you see . . . They always say that there aren’t enough spaces, so they put the full-timers on first . . . I have wanted to do first aid for ages, but they say that because I only work weekends it is not worth it (Hotelco, part-time supervisor).

At Patrust and Staftrust employees said that most workers had little access to training facilities due to the large number of employees and the lack of training facilities to match the size of the workforce. Further, despite managers at Patrust and Staftrust claiming that training took place on both weekdays and at weekends to fit in with different shift patterns to ensure that all workers received equal access to training, women working weekends, evenings or nights, the majority of whom were part-time workers, reported very little access to training: M: Well I have been here five years and I haven’t had any training . . . They seem to forget about us on nights (Staftrust, part-time catering assistant).

Others signalled that in order to gain access to training and progression they would need to make a transition to full-time work and planned to work towards this:

Interviewer: I was wondering if part-timers could progress here? L: No . . . No I don’t think so, not here anyway. In a different work environment maybe, but not here.

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Interviewer: Is that part of the reason that you would like to go back to full-time work? L: Yes. That’s why, yes (Staftrust, part-timer).

Other than at Retailco, there was evidence of differential treatment in access to training and further, differences in the types of training full- and part-time workers received. Certainly this has implications for part-time workers’ accumulation of human capital both in absolute terms and relative to full-time workers’ accumulation. Part-time workers accurately recognised that without making a transition to full-time work access to training, skill development and the possibility of promotion was closed off. Managers’ diverse explanations for lack of part-time progression Retailco was the only organisation to have written policy in place at an organisational level to aid the occupational mobility of part-time workers through a “job share register scheme” which enabled the integration of part-time workers into more senior grades. Indeed, at Retailco there was very little slippage between the best practice recommendations outlined in the Part-time Workers’ Directive, the organisational policy and what actually happened in practice. Accordingly, part-timers there were most satisfied with their quality of work and most claimed that they received pro-rata training and opportunities for career development. When speaking to the managers within the other four organisations, however, it appeared very few spoke about legislation or organisational policy or any form of equality/diversity awareness. The only diversity seemed to be in their explanation for the lack of part-time occupational mobility and their varied perceptions of why organisational structures rarely tolerated the occupational mobility of part-time workers. For example, asked whether it was a formal policy to not allow part-time workers to become supervisors, the General Manager at Servico replied that it was not. It was simply his perception of how the workplace operated most efficiently: Supervisors are really the nuts and bolts of the operation. I think it would be very difficult to do that on a part-time basis. As the person who is hiring and firing across the site I would be resistant to allowing that to go on.

A unit manager echoed his sentiment: C: It is very difficult, obviously we couldn’t have a supervisor who just worked four hours a day over five days a week, however, some of them [part-time workers] do have supervisor potential. It just wouldn’t work with the shift pattern that we do . . . (Manager, Servico).

Within the four other organisations, when asked about the inflexibility of occupational structures, managers often stated that the shift patterns were in place prior to their employment and were standard procedure. They were established workplace practices that had often been passed down to them, rather than policies at an organisational level: C: I think a five-over-seven rotating shifts is, well, it can be quite useful for the supervisor structure.

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Interviewer: So do you think that would work for women with children trying to do a changing shift working five-over-seven? C: No I suppose, um, I suppose it could be seen as quite inflexible really . . . it’s just the way that the rotas have evolved over time (Patrust, male manager).

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Rather than there being formal organisational policies in place which closed off part-timers’ access to occupational mobility, managers often stated that career paths and senior grades were still constructed with the full-time worker assumed as the norm. The unquestioning acceptance and maintained use of traditional full-time career paths or “male model” of working (Lewis, 1997) clearly disqualified those working part-time. This in turn, maintained the “positional superiority” of full-time work (Tomlinson, 2006a). Managers at Retailco, and to a lesser extent the Trust Catering Manager who oversaw managerial teams at Patrust and Staftrust, recognised the importance of management retention; strategies of which included the accommodation of part-time work at more senior grades, particularly for women following maternity. However, other managers perceived part-time workers as lacking in commitment and career motivation and furthermore, these managers commented that, as part-time work was a choice women made, it was reasonable that part-time workers should not expect the same access to career paths as full-time workers. At Servico and Hotelco, where long-hours cultures were firmly entrenched and part-time workers often worked short hours, this was particularly the case. Asked whether part-time workers were interested in career development and promotion, certain managers reverted to stereotypical perceptions of part-time workers: S: I think people work part-time for a reason really. Either because they don’t want a career or to go further, or they have got children, or they are returning to work (Hotelco, Senior Manager). C: I think that if they were wanting to work and progress they would be wanting full-time (Servico, Unit Manager).

Often, because the option of working full-time was presented as a choice women could make, restricting part-timers’ promotional opportunities and access to training was not necessarily thought of as discriminatory. Managers often stated that if part-time workers were willing to increase their hours, they would be considered for promotion alongside full-time workers: T: She wouldn’t be part-time if she wanted to progress. If she wanted to get further in a career, then that option is there. Interviewer: Would she have to go full-time? T: Yes, being part-time really limits your scope, because you can’t go on training courses and that sort of thing . . . So you would basically need to be on a thirty-nine hour contract (Hotelco, male manager).

Issues of equal opportunities in the selection of employees for career development were rarely raised by managers themselves. Certainly the statement above is not in line with the Part-time Workers’ Directive, nor the Human Resource Manager’s comments on the organisation’s training policy. Furthermore, managers rarely proposed transforming

organisational structures to enable “non-standard” workers to compete equally with full-timers for better access to career opportunities and skill acquisition, despite some recognising the inequity in these practices: S: Everybody who is supervisory or anything like that is full-time.

Experiences of occupational mobility

Interviewer: So what do you think the main restrictions are for people progressing part-time? S: Yes, well it tends to be their inflexibility. I think people work part-time for a reason really. Either because they don’t want a career or to go further, or they have got children . . . Thinking about that, is it right? Probably not, but that is the way it is (Hotelco, senior manager).

Slippage between legislation, organisational policy and practice When asked about best practice recommendations regarding the promotion of part-time workers, which is set out in the PTWD, responses were rather mixed, perplexing, confused and appeared to show considerable slippage between the adoption of the legislation into organisational policy and its translation into actual organisational practice. This is demonstrated in the quote above on part-time working hours limiting the scope of employees to go on training courses and similar examples of slippage between what formal policies advocated and what managers said happened in practice. The lack of transparency in the selection of employees for career development, which has been documented elsewhere (Grimshaw et al., 2002; Tomlinson, 2006b), was evident here also in discussion about the working-time requirements and availability of management: Interviewer: If you are talking about your managers being more accountable, does this mean they necessarily have to be full-time? A: In my opinion yes. Certainly at managerial level . . . Interviewer: And you don’t think they can give that [accountability] part-time? A: Um, they are not sort of, er, I am going to sound like a non-preferential employer here, but they are not sort of on a leash, if you like. I can’t say . . . They have got to be available in every sense. They have to give it all (Servico, General Manager).

Speaking to human resource managers often established that line managers were often not acting on any formal organisational policy: J: It is definitely not a company policy. I think it is more to do with the structure of the units, like one manager for this and one for that, the managers are just full-time (Servico, Human Resource Manager).

Similar discrepancies between the organisational policies and workplace practices were evident elsewhere regarding access to work-life balance policies which might facilitate flexible working: Interviewer: What about job shares at senior grades, like management? E: We don’t job share, we just don’t. No, the opportunity has never arisen. . . Interviewer: I was talking to [the human resource manager] and she was saying there were opportunities for jobs shares and career breaks?

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E: Well it gets a bit fuzzy when you actually turn round and try to apply for one. They are frowned upon a bit (Manager, Staftrust).

What appears consistent in line managers’ interpretations of the reasons for part-time workers lack of promotion to more senior occupational grades is that they genuinely thought that their own managerial jobs could not successfully be carried on a part-time basis. In addition, these managers made it quite clear that they thought part-time workers often had “other commitments” and responsibilities that would detract from their ability to work well at managerial level. As one said: C: Really all the managers, you would find that on the whole, they are all full-time. Um most jobs and certainly this job that I do, it would be difficult to do it part-time. If you are manager you want to lead your department or area, and you would need to work with a like-minded person who wanted to work the same way (Patrust, male manager).

Certainly the responses in this section from managers, other than those at Retailco, also indicated that they wanted to recruit “like-minded,” “committed” individuals. In most cases, this reduces competition for managerial positions to a limited pool of eligible candidates, namely those working full-time and likewise acts as a mechanism through which part-time workers experience “status disqualification” from organisational career trajectories. Conclusion Perceptions of part-time workers and the experiences that part-time workers themselves reported were shaped by the occupational context: the structuring of fulland part-time jobs and the degree to which legislation was adopted or rejected in policy and practice. Together these factors influenced the use of part-time work and consequently part-time workers’ access to career paths and training resources. The maintenance of inflexible career paths and expectation that commitment can be accurately measure though working-long hours contributed to the marginalisation of part-time work and status disqualification of part-time workers from processes of selection for career development. It seemed that managers perceived that there were sound justifications for them to reinforce and maintain the organisational status quo. Through restricting part-time workers from accessing managerial grades, managers secured the recruitment of “like-minded,” “committed” individuals, and limited competition for senior grades to a smaller pool of eligible candidates, namely, full-time workers. Processes of disqualification occurred through informal workplace practices rather than codified policies within organisations. As such, continuity rather than change in the use of part-time work was apparent in four of the five organisations, despite recent legislation preventing the less preferential treatment of part-time workers. Classical sociological theory, particularly Weber’s concept of closure is certainly still useful in explaining stratification in the workplace, in this case the use of part-time work. However, it is important to make distinctions between formal and informal strategies of closure, with the latter having more resonance in contemporary organisations. Rather than focusing on part-timers’ lesser commitment to work and careers, this paper has sought to demonstrate that while female part-time workers have a preference for, and thus appear to choose, part-time hours, many women in the service sector organisations in this sample did not appear to be satisfied with the quality of part-time

work, variety of tasks or opportunities for progression. Female part-time workers often revealed a reluctant acceptance their lack of promotional prospects rather than a preference for low status, undemanding jobs for which they were often over-qualified for. Their resigned acceptance appeared to be formed and shaped by the organisational context and managers’ perceptions of them. As such, they were not simply a product of their own preferences and orientations to work. Certainly, the data presented here from the part-timers’ experiences resonates with Lewis (1997) and Lewis and Smithson’s (2001) work on sense of entitlement. Shifting the focus to an organisational context, it is possible to see how different expectations and senses of entitlements regarding training, career paths and opportunities for development are forged and often differentiated on the basis of full- and part-time status. In addition, this paper has sought to demonstrate that it is important to make conceptual distinctions between legislation, organisational policy and actual workplace practices in understanding patterns of continuity (rather than change) regarding the lack of integration of part-time work into more senior grades within organisations. The findings in this paper support the conclusions of Hoque and Noon (2004) and Creegan et al. (2003) that legislation is often not adequately transferred into policy and practice at the organisational level. This, of course, has implications for issues of diversity more broadly since this analysis suggests that those who cannot, or do not wish to adopt, a full-time work trajectory may remain at the margins of many service sector organisations. References Bagguley, P. (1991), “The patriarchal restructuring of gender segregation: a case study of the hotel and catering industry”, Sociology, Vol. 25, pp. 607-25. Blackwell, L. (2001), “Occupational sex segregation and part-time work in modern Britain”, Gender, Work and Organization, Vol. 8 No. 2, pp. 146-63. Creegan, C., Colgan, F., Charlesworth, R. and Robinson, G. (2003), “Race equality policies at work: employee perceptions of the ‘implementation gap’”, Work, Employment & Society, Vol. 17 No. 4, pp. 617-40. DTI (2002), Part-time Workers: The Law and Best Practice, HMSO, London. Fagan, C. (2001), “Time, money and the gender order: work orientations and working-time preferences in Britain”, Gender, Work and Organization, Vol. 8 No. 3, pp. 239-66. Gallie, D. (1998), Equal Opportunities for Men and Women in Europe? European Commission: Eurobarometer, OOPEC, Luxembourg. Grant, L., Yeandle, S. and Buckner, L. (2005), Working Below Potential: Women and Part-time Work, Equal Opportunities Commission, Manchester, available at: www.eoc.org.uk/ resarch Grimshaw, D., Beynon, H., Rubery, J. and Ward, K. (2002), “The restructuring of career paths in large service sector organizations: ‘delayering’, upskilling and polarisation”, The Sociological Review, Vol. 50 No. 1, pp. 89-116. Hakim, C. (1996), Key Issues In Women’s Work, Athlone, London. Hakim, C. (2000), Work-lifestyle Choices in the 21st Century: Preference Theory, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Hoque, K. and Noon, M. (2004), “Equal opportunities policy and practice in Britain: evaluating the ‘empty shell’ hypothesis”, Work, Employment & Society, Vol. 18 No. 3, pp. 481-506.

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Lewis, S. (1997), “Family friendly employment policies”, Gender, Work and Organization, Vol. 4 No. 1, pp. 13-23. Lewis, S. and Smithson, J. (2001), “Sense of entitlement to support for the reconciliation of employment and family life”, Human Relations, Vol. 54 No. 11, pp. 1455-81. Mann, K. (1992), The Making of an English “Underclass”?: The Social Divisions of Welfare and Labour, Open University Press, Milton Keynes. Manning, A. and Petrongolo, B. (2004), “The part-time pay penalty”, available at: http://cep.lse. ac.uk/pubs/download/dp0679.pdf ONS (2003), “Labour market spotlight; reasons given for working part-time for employees and self-employed”, Labour Market Trends, The Stationery Office, London, March, p. 116. ONS (2004), “Labour market projections from 2002 to 2012”, Labour Market Trends, The Stationery Office, London, April, p. 138. Rubery, J., Horrell, S. and Burchell, B. (1994), “Part-time work and gender inequality in the labour market”, in MacEwan Scott, A. (Ed.), Gender Segregation and Social Change, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Rustin, M. and Chamberlayne, P. (2002), “Introduction: from biography to social policy”, in Chamberlayne, P., Rustin, M. and Wengraf, T. (Eds), Biography and Social Exclusion in Europe, The Policy Press, Bristol. Rutherford, S.J. (1999), “Organisational cultures, patriarchal closure and women managers”, unpublished PhD, University of Bristol, Bristol. Taylor, R. (2002), Diversity in Britain’s Labour Market, ESRC, available at: www.esrc.ac.uk/ ESRCInfoCentre/Images/fow_publication_4_tcm6-6058.pdf Tomlinson, J. (2006a), “Part-time occupational mobility in the service industries; regulation, work commitment and occupational closure”, The Sociological Review, Vol. 54 No. 1, pp. 66-86. Tomlinson, J. (2006b), “Routes to part-time management in service sector organizations”, Gender, Work and Organization, Vol. 13 No. 6, pp. 585-605. Tomlinson, J., Olsen, W., Neff, D., Purdam, K. and Mehta, S. (2005), “Examining the potential for women returners’ to work in areas of high occupational gender segregation”, Report to the Department for Trade and Industry and the Women and Equality Unit. Walby, S. (1986), Patriarchy at Work, Blackwell, Oxford. Weber, M. (1968), Economy and Society,Vol. 1, Bedminster Press, New York, NY. Witz, A. (1990), “Patriarchy and professions: the gendered politics of occupational closure”, Sociology, Vol. 24 No. 4, pp. 675-90. Witz, A. (1992), Professions and Patriarchy, Routledge, London. Women and Work Commission (2006) in Prosser, M. (Ed.), Women and Work Commission: Shaping a Fairer Future, Department for Trade and Industry, London. About the author Jennifer Tomlinson is a Lecturer in Employment Relations in the Work and Employment Relations Division at the Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds. Her research interests sit within the area of gender, employment relations and inequality. In particular, her work focuses on themes such as gender, part-time work, working-time patterns, work-life balance and occupational gender segregation. Jennifer Tomlinson can be contacted at: [email protected] To purchase reprints of this article please e-mail: [email protected] Or visit our web site for further details: www.emeraldinsight.com/reprints

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Gender, language and the workplace: an exploratory study

Gender, language and the workplace

Fiona Sheridan Department of Management, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland

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Abstract Purpose – The study aims to examine the role that gendered talk plays in the workplace in both task and non-task related interactions. Design/methodology/approach – The research undertaken is a hybrid of qualitative and quantitative research using a single case study. The case study, comprising mixed gender and mixed status employees of an American multinational corporation, demonstrates similarities and differences between women’s and men’s speech patterns in this workplace setting. Through the recording and subsequent transcription of meetings that took place among the participants, a data archive was created, enabling analysis of the conversations to take place. Findings – The research findings imply that organisations may need to move away from cultures that favour particular talk related norms to ones that facilitate the integration and assimilation of different types of talk, recognising that women and men use language differently. Research limitations/implications – The speaking dimension of communication is very rich and can be understood at many different levels. Thus, by virtue of the nature of this undertaking along with the richness and the time and energy constraints within which it operated, it was impossible to broaden the scope of the inquiry any further. It is necessary to continue this research involving various other combinations of participants on a gender and a status dimension. Practical implications – This research uncovers the impact of gendered talk on decision making and leadership in the organisation. Originality/value – This paper offers valuable insights for practitioners in relation to the challenge faced by organisations in their need to achieve a more balanced representation of women and men in decision-making positions. Keywords Gender, Language, Workplace, Leadership Paper type Research paper

Introduction This research is a study of talk in organisational settings. It analyses differences between the ways in which men and women use language in real work settings. While such differences have already been identified and explored by several researchers (Case, 1994; Tannen, 1994; Boden, 1994; Fischer, 1964; et al.), this study aims to extend and explore the assertion that men and women talk differently at work. It explores the existence and extent of similarities and differences in male and female speech acts and patterns in a single case setting, and proposes that the analysis of such differences can contribute to an understanding of other sources of difference among men and women at work, not least their unequal career progression patterns. The literature suggests that the ritual nature of men’s and women’s conversations is such that they speak different languages that they assume are the same, using similar words to encode disparate experiences of self and social relationships (Boden and Zimmerman, 1991; Tannen, 1994; Case, 1994). Since, these languages share an overlapping vocabulary, they contain a propensity for systematic mistranslation, creating impasses,

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which impede communication and limit the potential for cooperation in decision making and advancement. To illustrate this, this research examines the workings of conversational style through in-depth analysis of a case study (Have, 1999): Interaction in the workplace is characterized by a unique constellation of constraints: an institutional structure in which individuals are hierarchically ranked; a history of greater male participation in most work settings, especially at the higher ranking levels; a still existing, though recently permeated pattern of participation along gender lines; periodic external evaluation in the form of raises, promotions, task assignments, and performance reviews; and a situation in which participants are required to interact regularly with others who are neither kin nor chosen affiliates (Kendall and Tannen, 1997, p. 81).

The workplace presents an opportunity to observe linguistic interaction between men and women in the context of the many constraints described by Kendall and Tannen (1997). While research to date has concentrated mostly on task related talk among professionals, this study examines the role that talk plays in the organisation in both task and non-task related interactions. Talk is at the heart of all organisations. Through it, the everyday business of organizations is accomplished (Boden, 1994).

People in organisations talk, and through talk, they achieve the work of organisations. When people come together in organisations to get things done, they talk. If talk is the lifeblood of all organisations (Boden, 1994), then, it both feeds into and is shaped by the structure of the organisation itself. The consequences of differences in linguistic activity between men and women in the workplace are enormous. Language plays a critical role in generating and propagating gendered identities and social patterns in interaction. For example, it has been asserted in previous research, that the basic uses of conversation by women are to establish and support intimacy; for men it is to establish status (Tannen, 1994). It has also been found that that men tend to interrupt more and are more resistant to asking questions (Tannen, 1994; Coates, 1996; Lackoff, 1990). These kinds of communication differences can lead to misunderstanding and frustrations between the sexes and may ultimately impact decision making. The lens through which this paper is being viewed is one that clearly accepts that women are at a disadvantage on entering organisations with a view to impending hierarchical advancement (Catalyst, 2000; ILO, 1997; IBEC, 2002). It clearly recognises that the existence of a glass ceiling is a reality for most women, in most professions, across most cultures (Catalyst, 2000). It also recognises that there is a difference between men’s and women’s roles at work; it is unquestionable that vertical and horizontal job segregation is a workplace phenomenon (Eagly and Johannesen-Schmidt, 2001). On a global basis, women have achieved higher levels of education than ever before and today represent 50 per cent of the global workforce. Yet their representation in management positions remains unacceptably slim, with only a minute proportion succeeding in breaking through the glass ceiling. The evident lack of significant progress in women obtaining managerial positions reflects the complexity of issues to be addressed in order to overcome labour market discrimination and to dismantle the glass ceiling. There is ample evidence in the literature to show that organisations typically cultivate speech patterns more in sync with men’s interaction patterns than women’s, ultimately impacting equal opportunities for promotion and advancement

through the organisational hierarchy between the genders (Case, 1994; Tannen, 1995; Boden, 1994; Coates, 1996). This study proposes that ways of speaking at work, as distinct to men and women, can be a significant contributory factor in causing and perpetuating this phenomenon. There are several other social, economic and political contributory factors, but the differences in speech patterns between men and women may be at least a very small piece of the jigsaw. This, in isolation, is what this study explores. The aim of this research, therefore, is to explore the role played by talk in the workplace. The paper contributes to the literature by building on earlier insightful research (Boden, 1994; Coates, 1996; Case, 1994; Tannen, 1995; Zimmerman and West, 1975; Maltz and Borker, 1982; Nadler and Nadler, 1987; Rosener, 1990) and applying established frameworks to uncover gendered speech patterns in order to analyse their significance in a workplace setting. An in-depth case study was carried out, where two incidences were compared and analysed. In the following sections, the prevailing findings with respect to issues that impact the similarities and differences between men’s and women’s conversational styles are presented. Their significance relating to methodological and paradigmatic choices are clarified and these are accompanied by an outline of the research methods used. After presenting the results of the case study, the paper concludes with a discussion of the key themes that emerged and implications for further research. Three broad questions were explored when reviewing the literature that was to inform the primary study. Those questions included: whether there is, in fact, a difference between male and female speech patterns; what the literature provides by way of evidence that these differences exist; and an explanation as to why these differences exist. The evidence strongly suggests that there are differences in the way that men and women talk (Case, 1994; Tannen, 1994; Coates, 1996). The next section briefly outlines the framework derived from the literature that sets out the categories of speech acts that underpin the differences between the genders (Tannen, 1994). This framework was used to analyse the case study data in the primary research. Talk time Stereotypes of how women and men talk, portray women as talking more than men (Coates, 1993). However, it is shown that men and boys talk more in mixed sex groups than women and girls (Fishman, 1978; Spender, 1980; Swann, 1989). The studies predominantly show that in a mixed sex conversation, the average amount of time for which a man will talk will be approximately twice as long as the average amount for which a woman will talk. Women may perceive men’s conversational dominance as an exercise of power. As a consequence, women who talk for more than one third of the available time may be regarded by others as talking too much. Taking turns, interruptions, overlaps Communicative competence involves knowledge of turn taking; when to speak or be silent; how to speak on each occasion; how to communicate and interpret meanings of respect, seriousness, humour, politeness or intimacy (Coates, 1993). It demonstrates complexity in the phenomena of turn-taking, floor-holding and interruption, and suggests that contexts play a crucial role in verbal interaction. Extant research in this area claims that men interrupt women more in mixed sex conversations than they interrupt other men and men interrupt far more than women interrupt other women.

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Women, particularly in single sex conversations, are more likely to overlap one another’s speech than men are. Studies show that overlapping differs from interruptions; two or more speakers can continue their lines of verbal communication without any apparent violation of their right to “talk-time”. The co-conversations that take place during simultaneous speech signal active involvement and support. This data is used to defend the premise that women highly value co-operation and collaboration in their conversations (Coates, 1993; James and Clarke, 1993). Conversational support The literature suggests that women’s conversational goals are far more about support and co-operation than are men’s. Stereotypical expectations for back channel, or listener responsiveness behaviours, have been commonly accepted to favour females in terms of frequency and quantity. That is, women are accepted generally as better listeners than men (Marche and Peterson, 1993). Back channel communications are small verbal cues such as repetitions of a speaker’s words, sentence completions, minimal responses such as mm hmm, uhuh, yeah, which convey the listener’s continuing attention to a conversation (Zimmerman and West, 1975; Maltz and Borker, 1982; Fishman, 1978; Coates, 1989; Jenkins and Cheshire, 1990; Case, 1994). The utilisation of back channel support by women with others is such that they have a very strong sense as to when it is appropriate. Thus, the speaker truly feels that they are being listened to. The lack of back channel support shown by men to women can create misunderstandings and confusion between the genders. Mitigated and aggravated forms Women are shown in the literature as using more hedges and epistemic modal forms than men. Hedges are linguistic forms which “dilute” an assertion; for example, sort of, like, I think, and kind of. Epistemic modal forms indicate what the speaker is really feeling towards their utterance. For example, should, could, would, may, might. These modal verbs can be used to show that you do not want to sound completely certain about something. Other words with a similar function are perhaps, really, maybe. The literature suggests that women exploit hedges and epistemic modal forms more than men. It is claimed that the reason for this is that women are less confident than men and feel nervous about asserting anything too strongly (Lackoff, 1990). Another explanation put forward has been that women prefer to avoid conflict and so use speech patterns which allow disagreement to take place without explicit confrontation (Nadler and Nadler, 1987) Conversational topics Linguistic variance between men and women takes place in the topics they choose to discuss. Women, it is said, select more personal type topics to discuss; their family, their emotions, and their friendships, not afraid to embed details in their speech in order to involve people in the events being described. Men, however, use more abstract communication, speaking in general terms (Kramarae and Treicher, 1983; Schaef, 1985). Unlike women, men tend to use linear speech, moving sequentially through points. Women use a personal, concrete style, allowing them to divulge details of experience, personal disclosures and anecdotes. Linear speech requires less intimacy and also reaffirms the conversational goal as being one of information exchange.

Women’s conversations focus more on the development and maintenance of conversations and the relationships between the speakers through supportive listening. Giving orders: directness and indirectness Conversation style differences frequently lead to women being evaluated as less competent than men. Tannen (1994) describes how, when questioned about why more women were not hired or promoted, male managers used statements about women lacking confidence. One behaviour that may be seen by others as a lack of confidence may be the indirect way women give orders. Men and women often differ in the way they manage people and give orders. Several studies have shown that women tend to soften their demands and statements, whereas men tend to be more direct (Coates, 1989; Tannen, 1996; Spender, 1980; Case, 1994). Women often use tagged phrases like “don’t you think” following the presentation of an idea, “if you don’t mind” following a demand or “this may be a silly idea, but” preceding a suggestion. The important thing to remember is that tentative communication does not necessarily mean that the speaker actually feels tentative or is lacking in confidence. Similarly, more direct communication, as seen with some men and, some women too, does not necessarily mean that the person is arrogant, bossy or feels superior. Asking questions Like other linguistic forms, questions can carry out several functions at once. Questions can ask for information at the same time as inviting another speaker to expand a point. They can initiate a story or introduce a topic at the same time as bringing in another speaker. They may ask for information at the same time as disclaiming expertise. Asking questions means different things to men and women, and thus the complexity underpinning the significance of asking questions will be managed in different ways. According to Tannen (1994), the language of conversation is primarily a language of rapport for women: a way of establishing connections and negotiating relationships, and for men, talk is primarily a means to preserve independence and negotiate and maintain status in a hierarchical social order; a language of report. Humour Humour is displayed in different ways among men and women; in contrast to men’s style of teasing, women’s style is often displayed as self-mocking. Women may misinterpret men’s style of humour as being genuinely hostile, where men often mistake women’s styles as being self depreciating, thus rendering her unconfident and incompetent. Earlier studies predict that women, more than men, tend to use humour that is self-directed and interpreted as a personal put-down in face-to-face communication. Whereas men, more than women, tend to use humour that is outward directed, putting down others and teasing in face-to-face communication (Gilligan, 1982; Tannen, 1990). Complaining Tannen (1990) asserts that men are confused by the various ways in which women use conversation to be intimate with others. One of these ways she calls “troubles talk”. She claims that for women, talking about troubles is the essence of connection.

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It signifies and creates closeness. Men, however, may interpret troubles talk as a request for advice, and thus, may to respond with a solution. The impasse that occurs may result in a feeling of weakness by the female, where she may feel cut off and her problem diminished, and one of supportiveness by the male. Praise Giving praise is a conversational style used differently by men and women. Praise can disrupt communication if the intention of its enactment is not understood in a mixed gender setting. For example, if female managers are usually more willing to give praise and to preface constructive criticism with praise, there is a possibility that the male recipient of this message may focus on the preface (the praise) and disregard the criticism. Female employees, on the other hand, may feel frustrated because a male manager is slow to give praise as the opportunity arises. Dominance and difference theories were put forward as possible explanations as to why these differences might exist (Case, 1994; Maltz and Borker, 1982; Tannen, 1993). The dominance theory asserts that the difference in power between men and women is the main cause of discoursal variation. As is evident by global statistics, it is the case that men are much further hierarchically positioned in the workplace than women. The dominance assertion demonstrates that the ways in which men and women talk are reflective of this power distribution in the workplace and consequently, may reinforce those differences, making them appear “normal” (Case, 1994; Fishman, 1978; DeFrancisco, 1991). Difference theory attempts to explain the differentials between the speech patterns by asserting that men and women occupy two different speech communities. Difference theory responds to dominance theory by suggesting that rather than cast women as powerless victims and men as being undermining and demeaning to women through conversation styles for no particular reason, that women and men develop different styles of talking during their respective socialisations from early childhood (Maltz and Borker, 1982; Tannen, 1993; Case, 1994). A speech community describes distinct communities inhabited by men and women where communication goals are learned and understood, as are the strategies for enacting those goals and the means to interpret them (Labov, 1972; Case, 1994). Ultimately, men and women, it is proposed, have acquired, from childhood, different rules for communication that ultimately impact their behaviours in the workplace. Organisational culture is another reason for differences in the way men and women use language. The culture of the organisation serves to maintain the continuum of men in the upper managerial ranks, and women in the lower echelons in paid employment (Hofstede, 1991). As Kanter (1997) describes, men are more at ease with their organisational environs, since the male dye has long been cast, and the cultural norm created. Organisational culture as we know it, contributes to women being cut off from the informal networks or “old boys clubs” that have often been necessary for advancement within organisations in the past. Bates (1992), in her study, examines three categories of language which characterise the essence of large organisations: military language focuses on hierarchy and competition and conflict with the enemy, athletic language mixes images of war and teamwork and sexual language reinforces the notion of male domination and sexual control through the sharing of jokes among male speakers. These three categories of language contribute to the exclusion of women from conversations, as well as to the perpetuation of inappropriate

stereotyping in the workplace. Consider women managers who have broken the glass ceiling in medium sized, non traditional organisations. This group proves that women do not come from one mould. They have demonstrated that using the command and control style management, a style generally associated with men in large, traditional organisations, is no the only way to succeed (Rosener, 1997).

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Methodology The research is a hybrid study; a combined design, which involves a predominantly qualitative approach to data analysis complimented by less dominant quantitative orientation (to illustrate the frequencies and patterns of linguistic variance) (Cresswell, 1994; Glassner and Hertz, 1980; Jick, 1979). In this intrinsic case study (Denzin and Lincoln, 2000), a purposive sample model was employed, seeking two groups where the process of conversation was likely to occur. Rich and holistic data were gathered through audio recordings of two workplace conversations. The research, thus, is an in-depth study of spoken records of human experience, collected in a naturally occurring setting. The transcripts derived from the research are based on talk recorded during two mixed gender workplace meetings of people of varying degrees of seniority, and presented as two incidences of one case study, incorporating a face-to-face meeting and a telephone meeting. Producing the transcripts provided an accessible data archive which in turn provided a wide range of interactional episodes and allowed for emerging patterns to be detected through comparative analysis (Robrecht, 1995; Strauss and Corbin, 1990). The recordings took place in the participants’ habitual meeting venues, at the habitual times. The only unnatural feature of these meetings was the presence of a recording device. The sentence is not the highest unit of structure in the analysis of conversation of this research. Examination of only the differences in men’s and women’s syntax, morphology and pronunciation would result in a view of language too narrow for the purpose of this research. Restriction to sentence grammar would not be dealing adequately with the level of analysis required. So, for the purpose of this study, it was important to write down not just what was said, but how it was said. Given that this was an academic exercise it therefore, out of necessity, involved interpretation. However, careful attention was given to remaining as faithful as possible to the words spoken and the sequences that they formed. This study applies Tannen’s (1994) speech act framework, presented earlier, to exploring and analysing the speech acts that are uncovered in the case study. The first case study incident is a telephone meeting between Helen, director of her department, and her team of three females and one male, none of whom are at management level. Helen’s team is located in remote geographical locations. Thus, the team commits to partake in a formal telephone meeting on a weekly basis, where task and non-task related issues are discussed. The recording of one of these weekly telephone meetings provides evidence of both task and non-task related conversation between the five participants. The second incident is a face-to-face meeting between John, senior manager of his department, and two members of his team. John’s team is located on site. The team, consisting of 12 members overall, conducts meetings regularly, but few are at fixed times, given their proximity and ease with which a meeting can be called for at short notice. The data evolve from a conversation that took place during a meeting that had

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been called for a task related purpose, where John and two members, Jane and Mary, discuss the implementation of a new procedure. Findings The data were coded using the various linguistic strategies identified from the literature, including turn-taking, talk time, minimal responses, hedges, tag questions, questions, commands and directives, praise and compliments, complaints and humour. Table I presents a summary of the findings, where at a glance, proportions of the speech acts may be viewed and compared. The themes emerging from the data are shown in Figure 1, where comparisons between the two incidences of the case study are made, along with comparisons with the secondary data that was reviewed. Discussion of the findings is presented in the next section. How men and women interact with each other at work The data that emerged from the audio recordings of the two meetings shows a clear divide between male and female conversational dominance. The evidence from both conversations was quite different, where there was clear male dominance in one meeting, and clear female dominance in the other. This finding set the pattern for all other conversational contributions from the sexes – the linguistic strategies used in supporting and minimising status distinctions and those that are used to maintain asymmetrical alignments between the conversation participants. Research into how men and women interact with each other at work has tended to focus on the extent of involvement and dominance throughout the conversation. Examination of conversational involvement and dominance requires the evaluation of linguistic strategies referred to earlier in this paper. The frequency of occurrences of speech acts such as those constituting turn taking, talk time and conversational maintenance indicates the level of involvement and dominance of the participants, Case study results (percentage) Speech acts Turn taking

Talk time Minimal responses Hedges Tags Questions Commands and directives Table I. Summary of case study results

Praise and compliments Complaining Humour

Interruptions Pauses Delayed minimal responses Overlaps

Modal Facilitative Softening Asked by Answered by Direct Indirect

Incident 1 Male Female

Incident 2 Male Female

83 5 60 2 89.9 5 16 13 14 20 5 8 0 11 16 0 33

100 83 68 5 72 15 45 74 86 80 94 17 100 80 0 0 57

17 95 40 98 9.1 95 84 87 86 80 95 92 100 89 84 100 67

0 17 22 95 27 85 55 26 14 20 6 83 0 20 0 0 43

How Men and Women Interact with Each Other at Work Male and female verbosity Conversational maintenance performed through linguistic strategies Linguistic strategies used to maintain or diminish asymmetrical alignments

How Men and Women Enact Authority in Professional Positions Comparison of status of participants with organisational demographics Masculine workplace norms Poor representation of women at management level Cultural interpretations of linguistic variance between the sexes The relationship between stereotyping and gender and status

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How the Use of Men’s and Women’s Language Impacts their Evaluation of Each Other in the Workplace Predominance of male population in the organisation Reproduction and perpetuation of gender related expectations of male and female speech Implication on how men and women are evaluated

providing a data archive from which the comparisons required at this point of the study can be drawn. The literature indicates that men tend to interrupt more often, and for longer, and use language strategies that challenge, create, and maintain asymmetrical differences (that is, status differences). According to earlier studies, women tend to interrupt less and use language strategies that are more supportive and that minimise, rather than create and maintain, asymmetrical differences among the participants. On considering the phenomena of turn taking and talk time, and the language strategies that enable their occurrence as experienced in the case study, the data that emerged provides varying results, both challenging and supporting the literature. Where the telephone meeting, led by Helen, gave evidence of female verbosity far in excess of male participation, the face to face meeting, led by John, reflected a male participation rate far in excess of female involvement. This immediately presents a striking point. Men are the minority “group” in both episodes, yet the results of each incident regarding conversational dominance are quite different. The analysis of the turn taking strategies enacted in both meetings, supports the literature (Coates, 1993), with emergent data illustrating that in both incidences, men violate turns far more than the female participants through interruptions and inadequate or delayed responses. Interruptions are enacted only by males in both conversations, despite the extent of their talk time. Overall, it is clear from this case study that conversational maintenance is a female conversational prerogative. The use of overlaps and minimal responses by the female participants is indicative of their intent to support the upkeep of the conversation. The evidence in the frequency of the use of hedges, tags and questions is interesting. The female led telephone conversation provides a far higher usage of these speech

Figure 1. Outline of key themes associated with this study

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acts by women, where Harry foregoes many opportunities to give this type of conversational support. To this end, the primary data that emerged supports the literature (Marche and Peterson, 1993). However, the male led face-to-face meeting, shows a much more balanced use of hedges and questions, with a far higher use of tagged questions by John, than by his female team members. Notwithstanding the ratio of males to females in each conversation, by comparing the two incidences of the case study, conclusive patterns do emerge. Based on the types of strategies used in these styles, the style predominantly used by women in the case study is a facilitative, personal style, while the style used primarily by the men is a combination of facilitation and authority. While John and Harry use male linked workplace strategies of joking, military language, talk of competition and an appeal to objectivity rather than female linked displays of personal experience, they also show a degree of facilitation. While the female participants in Helen’s telephone meeting show no signs of using exclusionary language or talk of competition, they display their personal, collaborative style in a confident, powerful manner. Rather than dominating their conversation, Harry supports their conversation in a male-oriented fashion. The conversational goal of the female participants in John’s face-to-face is to support the conversation. Their conversational support comes across as powerless, where despite their possible topic expertise, they are not inclined to make the violation of turn taking required in order to get and then hold the floor. Although Harry contributes less to the telephone meeting, it seems that this is a choice. He illustrates this through his readiness to interrupt, compared with the females’ total lack of usage of this strategy. As John leads his face-to-face meeting, he interrupts on 36 occasions, compared with no female interruptions at all. Conclusions regarding interruptions cannot be drawn on the basis of frequency alone. The interruptions are used to display dominance, control, interest and caring. Where an interruption may be received as a hostile contravention of the conversational floor, the intent of the speaker may have been one of interest or caring. Status and connection are inextricably intertwined in the face-to-face meeting in particular. The linguistic strategies that the participants may feel that they instinctively understand, like interruption, and the turn taking mechanisms in general, may in fact be misinterpreted and misunderstood. However, tentative conclusions can be drawn from this case study about John and Helen as leaders, and thus how they interact with the men and women on their teams. John’s and Helen’s styles are quite different. While John’s style does not fully support evidence in the literature regarding men’s conversational styles (Tannen, 1994), it does to a degree. The frequency with which he seemingly violates turns, through interruptions and inadequate responses, along with his dominance of talk time throughout, suggests that he fits the mould of the male leader, a leader characteristic of this type of organisational culture. His style impacts both the frequency and nature of linguistic contribution from the female participants, making them appear powerless, rather than powerful co-contributors. John, despite the evidence in the literature (Nadler and Nadler, 1987), uses a high number of tagged questions, and hedges and hesitates frequently throughout. There are a number of possible explanations for this. The use of hedging and pauses and silences throughout the conversation may be for a strategic purpose. They may be used to emphasise the importance of the points that John is making, as well as being an attempt to ensure continued engagement from Mary and Jane. In response to John’s hedges,

hesitations and pauses, Mary and Jane continually assist him through their contribution of minimal responses throughout, far exceeding John’s practice of this linguistic device. John’s strategic use of traditionally female speech acts may be an attempt to appeal to his female audience. In doing this, John creates the opportunity to gain the support required for the duration of the meeting, with a view to securing their compliance in the actions required after the meeting, in the successful implementation of the new policy. Helen displays herself as being a female manager who has broken the glass ceiling in her department of the organisation, proving that effective leaders do not necessarily come from one mould, despite the organisational demographics of this particular company. She demonstrates from the outset, that using the command-and-control style of managing her team is not the only way to succeed notwithstanding their geographical remoteness. However, despite her conversational dominance, Helen sets the collaborative tone of the conversation from the outset, where it is evident to her team members that the conversation will be one with a task related purpose, yet will value the contribution that non task related talk makes to the successful operation of her team. This is evident from the prevalence of humour throughout, where 26 incidents of humour were initiated by the females and 13 by Harry. Laughter is prevalent throughout this conversation, whereas it does not occur once during the face-to-face meeting. The conversational maintenance function seen as typical of female conversational style in the literature is indeed evident throughout this incident. Harry is the joker of the group, adding humour at any opportunity throughout, and in this way, although atypical of supporting evidence, he plays his part in conversational upkeep. Where Helen is giving direction, and replying to the question put to her by Brigitte regarding the future security of the team, Harry does not contribute at any stage, either by adding humour, perhaps believing that this would be inappropriate, or by giving minimal responses as enacted by his female colleagues. Thus, although in the minority in this team, Harry seems to be confident enough to choose to contribute, or not. Helen’s team appears confident. Members appear unafraid to contribute, as illustrated by their use of humour, use of questions, and their audible contributions. John’s team, on the other hand, reflects an unconfident Mary and Jane, whose responses were barely audible on occasion. The latter concept is often supported in the literature (Case, 1994), but is supported in a sense that generalises all women’s linguistic behaviour as being typical of this in a workplace context, whereas, as we can see from Helen’s team meeting, this is not the case. The confidence displayed by the minority group (John and Harry) is indicative of the organisational culture of which they are a part. Where Helen is breaking new ground, John is not. Helen is thus extremely aware of the effort involved in doing this, and thus her resultant empathy and actions positively impact her team. John, however, whether wittingly or not, severely limits the number of contributory opportunities for his team, and perpetuates the mould already in place in this organisation. How men and women enact authority in professional positions Participants enact authority in their professional positions in different ways, linguistically. Comparing the status of the participants with the organisational demographics is important in analysing these conversations with a view to the

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manifestation of theoretical concepts (Garfinkel, 1967). This particular company is unarguably comprised of a predominantly male population, where in most cases the males are far in excess in their representation of senior positions. Thus, it is possible that the female participants have taken as a given, that the starting point in workplace norms in this company are masculine norms. In this event, stereotyping regarding gender and status in the company is likely to continue to occur. Much of the literature reviewed takes it as a given that workplace norms are masculine norms, owing to the historically greater participation of men these professions. The organisational demographics of the case study presented in this paper supports this assertion, showing a dominant male participation rate of three times that of women and a much greater representation at senior management and director level, where, averaging out across the five departments, there is an 18 per cent female representation at senior management level, and a 6 per cent representation at director level. Rosener (1997) explains that men’s discourse styles are institutionalised as being the better and the only way to talk; to speak with authority. This case study presents an organisation which comprises professions in which women have not traditionally been represented. Much of the research has focused on such organisations, and has thus addressed the question of whether women and men represent authority in these professions in ways similar to their male counterparts. The evidence in this case study suggests that Helen chooses not to represent authority in ways similar to John, a senior manager. Helen appears to enact a style of leadership which focuses on people skills, where she directs subordinates with an outward, rather than an inward focus. Her discourse management techniques are of a collaborative, interactional, direct nature, unlike John’s more traditional command and control type style. Helen mitigates her commands, using directive forms that minimise status distinctions between herself and her subordinates. She quickly delegates directive authority to Carol when she is called away unexpectedly. Carol falls into Helen’s role quite comfortably and with immediate approval from her team mates, continues the tradition set by their leader. Helen expends linguistic effort to minimise status differences between her and her subordinates. This strategy pervades her team, and is displayed by the level of powerfulness displayed through the linguistic activity of all team members. Helen exercises her authority by using language strategies that create a symmetrical alignment (that is, she downplays her authority). John uses strategies that appear to reinforce the status difference between himself and his subordinates. He uses language strategies that create and maintain an asymmetrical alignment, the alignment that is traditionally associated with authority. This strategy permeates his team, and is displayed in the level of powerlessness shown by his team members. How the use of men’s and women’s language impacts their evaluation of each other in the workplace There is evidence emerging from the data that both supports and denies findings in the literature. There is an assertion that the predominance of one sex in an organisation creates and maintains gender related expectations for how someone in that position should speak, or with what degree of verbosity they should speak (Lakoff, 1990). Therefore, women’s and men’s ways of speaking have implications regarding how men and women are evaluated in the workplace.

Research suggests that the predominance of one sex in institutional positions creates and maintains gender related expectations for how someone in that position should speak. This case study, comprising such a high male representation at all levels, is reproducing and perpetuating the gender ideologies and sociocultually-defined expectations reviewed earlier in the literature, for how women and men should speak and behave. While the telephone conversation presents a display of female leadership at director level, encompassing a powerful and confident display of collaborative conversation, it is important to bear in mind that Helen represents a small minority of six per cent and so is an atypical feature of the culture that permeates this organisation. Lakoff (1990) questions whether assertion is possible for women. The case study suggests that assertion is possible for women, but again, assertion showed by many women in this organisation appears to be an unlikely possibility, given the firmly established mail dominance already in place. The literature claims that assertive language is not evaluated in the same way when it is used by women and by men. It claims that women are perceived as more competent and knowledgeable when speaking assertively, but that they influenced men less and they were less liked by women (Eagly, 2004). The case study does not support this finding, as it illustrates that Helen is liked by her team, despite the assertiveness she shows throughout. Carol, in her new role as leader, speaks assertively and is liked by her team. Brigitte and Valerie throughout the conversation speak less, because they are not in control of the conversation, but through each speech act, demonstrate assertiveness. Harry, the only male participant in this conversation, shows his liking of his female team mates, notwithstanding their assertiveness, by contributing with humorous speech acts throughout. In contrast, the concept emerging form the face-to-face meeting is in support of the literature, where there is little display of assertiveness from either of the female participants. John does not seek to remedy this through linguistic choices he could have made. With 76 per cent of the management team male, the evidence suggests that the expectation of how managers should speak to subordinates is similar to expectations for how men should speak and interact, directly impacting how men and women’s use of language impacts on their evaluation of each other in the workplace. When a woman is placed in a position in which being assertive and forceful is necessary, she is faced with a paradox; she can be a good woman but a bad executive or professional, or vice versa. To do both is impossible (Lakoff, 1990, p. 206).

The studies suggest that women face a double bind regarding professionalism and femininity and that they must choose between being assertive or being likeable and feminine (Eagly, 2004; Eagly and Johannesen-Schmidt, 2001). One incident of our case study suggests otherwise. Kanter’s (1997) notion of tokenism describes the pattern in which members of underrepresented groups, such as women, in this case, will be subject to predictable forms of discrimination. This analogy rings true in an organisation such as this, where women are so underrepresented at management level. To summarise, the case study findings indicate that Helen’s successful non-traditional leadership style is well suited to the conditions of the same work environment as John’s. It supports the belief that there is strength in a diversity of leadership styles (Rosener, 1990). The case study findings suggest that rather than try

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to adapt speech patterns to the pre-established norm as set out by the organisational culture into which women enter, that women can capitalise on the strengths of some of the differences that emerge from their feminine heritage that are clearly suited to organisational realities. Conclusions and implications Through the evidence presented in the literature and in this research, it is clear that there is a need for more in depth research into the challenge faced by organisations in achieving a more balanced representation of women in decision-making positions. Why has the glass ceiling been so intractable? This research finds that a contributory factor is the gendered speech patterns that occur in the workplace; the automatic ways of speaking that affect the responses we get when we talk to others. This includes, how we interact linguistically as men and women in the organisation, how we use language to enact authority in professional positions, and how the use of men’s and women’s language impacts their evaluation of each other in the workplace. Although it is certain that some women lack confidence at work, it can be concluded from this research that women are often judged to be less confident than they really are because of their automatic ways of speaking (Tannen, 1994). The conversational rituals of men and women, if not understood and valued, may be misinterpreted and misunderstood for something that they were not in fact intended to represent at all. The logic of these rituals grows out of girls’ and boys’ socialisation where the seeds of their contrasting styles are sown in childhood (Case, 1994). Girls learn from their peers as well as from adults not to boast, and to downplay achievements in order to be liked. An example of this occurred in the case study, where Valerie, a female participant in the telephone meeting, on receipt of praise on the success of her assignment, quickly distances herself from this commendation and shifts it to her team collectively, thereby establishing and maintaining a solidarity with her colleagues, and downplaying her individual success. Translation of these acts into the workplace can result in misunderstanding, downplay of achievements and potential lack of promotion of women. This may be a factor in the under representation of women at senior management level today. Not all women and men talk in the ways that are common among, and expected of, their gender. Many men who talk in ways more common among women run into similar frustrations, feeling they are being passed over for promotions in favour of those who are better at drawing attention to their accomplishments. Many women talk at work in ways expected of men, but they often run into a different problem: they are seen as too aggressive, not feminine enough, trying to behave like a man (Eagly, 2004; Eagly and Johannesen-Schmidt, 2001). The literature and the case study provide evidence that leadership has typically been linked with masculine models of communications; dominance, assertiveness, independence, competitiveness and confidence, whereas prioritisations in female speech communities comprise respect, inclusiveness, collaboration, and co-operation and are often linked with subordinate roles rather than leadership (Eagly, 2004; Boden, 1994; Tannen, 1994; Case, 1994; Bates, 1992; Coates, 1989; Lakoff, 1975; Maltz and Borker, 1982; Zimmerman and West, 1975). The case study challenges many earlier studies to this end however, as this research shows that a woman’s speech is clearly seen to be compatible with leadership activity for today’s organisation. Women’s speech has been shown to embrace a personal, concrete style, which involves supportive listening,

sensitivity to other’s needs and mutual sharing of emotions and personal knowledge. These are styles compatible with affecting the management of change in an organisation: when response to change is needed, when coping with ambiguous situations, when problems require a long-range perspective and when a variety of values need to be understood. Listening is seen to be the prototypical female skill. A major management function is to detect potential problems and respond before they become major problems. Listening is very important here; making people feel that their ideas and beliefs are of value. As evident throughout the case study, women value listening as a way of making others feel comfortable, important and as a means of encouraging others to find their own voices and grow. The communication skills emitted from the females in the case study, such as supportiveness, attentiveness, and collaboration, enhance morale and productivity in work settings. Women use these skills, reflecting how their speech communities taught them to interact. Men engage in more unilateral, directional communication to exercise leadership, which is consistent with their learned view of talk as a way to assert self and achieve status. It is suggested that in order to build effective relationships between men and women laterally and with superiors and subordinates, men and women need to work in mixed gender groups as both a team member and a leader, to interpret work group values for men and women, to influence both interpersonally and in groups, to increase participation in decision-making capabilities and to work in flexible networks instead of hierarchical organisations where male norms are maintained and perpetuated. Men and women need to extend their linguistic styles of communication so that they can embrace the needs of the other if mutual empowerment is to be achieved. If organisations are to encourage and realise this advancement, empowering and co-operative models of leadership are crucial. They involve new ways of communicating. For organisations that truly embrace the spirit of equal opportunities, further research in this area would allow them to better support both women and men in advancing leadership as they find themselves in positions requiring abilities not emphasised in their earlier socialisation. A commitment to the organisational development of communication skills of both women and men would allow the organisation to better support women as well as men in the choices they make about occupational advancement. Both conversational styles make sense and are equally valid in themselves. However, it is the difference in styles that may cause problems in interaction. The organisational structure in place may render an already male-style interaction as the norm, making women, whose style is different, at a disadvantage, since they are not starting out on an equal level. References Bates, B. (1992), Communication and the Sexes, Waveland Press, Prospect Heights, IL. Boden, D. (1994), The Business of Talk: Organizations in Action, Polity Press, London. Boden, D. and Zimmerman, D. (1991), Talk and Social Structure: Studies in Ethnomethodology and Conversation, Polity Press, Cambridge. Case, S. (1994), “Gender differences in communications and behaviour in organisations”, in Davidson, M.J. and Burke, R.J. (Eds), Women in Management: Current Research Issues, Paul Chapman Publishing, London, pp. 144-63. Catalyst (2000), Census of Women Corporate Officers and Top Earners, Catalyst, New York, NY.

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Cresswell, J. (1994), Research Design; Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA. DeFrancisco, V. (1991), “The sounds of silence: how men silence women in marital relations”, Discourse and Society, Vol. 2, pp. 413-24. Denzin, N. and Lincoln, Y. (2000), Handbook of Qualitative Research, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA. Eagly, A.H. (2004), “Few women at the top: how role incongruity produces prejudice and the glass ceiling”, Leadership and Power: Identity Processes in Groups and Organizations, Sage, London, pp. 79-93. Eagly, A.H. and Johannesen-Schmidt, M.C. (2001), “The leadership styles of women and men”, Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 57, pp. 781-97. Fischer, J. (1964), “Social influences on the choice of a linguistic variant”, in Hymes, D. (Ed.), Language in Culture and Society, Harper International, New York, NY. Fishman, P. (1978), Interaction: The Work Women Do. Sociolinguistics: A Reader and Cousebook, St Martin Press, Inc., New York, NY. Garfinkel, H. (1967), “Passing and the managed achievement of sex status in an intersexed person part 1”, in Cliffs, E. (Ed.), Studies in Ethomethdology, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Gilligan, C. (1982), In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development, Harvard University Press, Cambridge. Glassner, B. and Hertz, R. (1980), Qualitative Sociology in Everyday Life, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA. Have, T.P. (1999), Doing Conversation Analysis, a Practical Guide, Sage, London. Hofstede, G. (1991), Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind, McGraw-Hill, London. IBEC (2002), Women in Management in Irish Business, Irish Business and Employers Confederation, Dublin. ILO (1997), Economically Active Population, 1950-2010, International Labour Organisation, Geneva, pp. 1-5. James, D. and Clarke, S. (1993), Women, Men, and Interruptions: A Critical Review, Gender and Conversational Interaction, Oxford University Press, New York, NY. Jenkins, N. and Cheshire, J. (1990), “Gender issues in the GCSE oral english examination. Part 1”, Language and Education, Vol. 4 No. 4, pp. 261-92. Jick, T. (1979), “Mixing qualitative and quantitative methods: triangulation in action”, Admin. Sc. Qtly., Vol. 24 No. 4, pp. 602-11. Kanter, R.M. (1997), Men and Women of the Corporation, BasicBooks, New York, NY. Kendall, S. and Tannen, D. (1997), “Gender and language in the workplace”, in Kotthoff, H. and Wodak, R. (Eds), Communicating Gender in Context, Benjamins, Amsterdam. Kramarae, C. and Treicher, P. (1983), A Feminist Dictionary, Pandora Press, London. Labov, W. (1972), Sociolinguistic Patterns, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, PA. Lakoff, R. (1990), Talking Power: The Politics of Language in Our Lives, Basic Books, New York, NY.

Maltz, D. and Borker, R. (1982), “A cultural approach to male-female miscommunication”, in Gumperz, J. (Ed.), Language and Social Identity, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 196-216. Marche, T. and Peterson, C. (1993), “The developmental and sex related use of interruption behaviour”, Human Communication Research, Vol. 19, pp. 388-408. Nadler, M. and Nadler, L. (1987), The Influence of Gender on Negotiation Success in Asymmetric Power Situation, University Press of America, Lanham, MD. Robrecht, L. (1995), “Grounded theory: evolving methods”, Qualitative Health Research, Vol. 5 No. 2. Rosener, J. (1990), “Ways women lead”, Harvard Business Review, November/December. Rosener, J. (1997), America’s Competitive Secret, Women Managers, Oxford University Press, Oxford, Paperback Fall. Schaef, A. (1985), Women’s Reality: An Emerging Female System in a White Male Society, Harper & Row, San Francisco, CA. Spender, D. (1980), Man Made Language, Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd., London. Strauss, A. and Corbin, J. (1990), Basics of Qualitative Research: Grounded Theory Procedures and Techniques, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA. Swann, J. (1989), “Talk control; an illustration from the classroom of problems in analysing male dominance in education”, in Coates, J. and Cameron, D. (Eds), Women in Their Speech Communities, Longman, London. Tannen, D. (1990), You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation, William Morrow/Ballantine, New York, NY. Tannen, D. (1993), Framing in Discourse, Oxford Press, New York, NY. Tannen, D. (1994), Talking from 9 to 5: How Women’s and Men’s Conversational Styles Affect Who Gets Heard, Who Gets Credit, and What Gets Done at Work, Oxford University Press, New York, NY. Tannen, D. (1995), “The power of talk: who gets heard and why”, Harvard Business Review, September/October. Tannen, D. (1996), Gender and Discourse, Oxford University Press, New York, NY. Zimmerman, D. and West, C. (1975), “Sex, roles, interruptions and silences in conversation”, in Thorre, B. and Henley, N. (Eds), Langugae and Sex: Difference and Dominance, Newbury House, Rowley, MA. Further reading Coates, J. and Cameron, D. (1988), Women in their Speech Communities: New Perspectives on Language and Sex, Longman, London. Curtin, C. et al. (1987), Gender in Irish Society, Galway University Press, Galway. Denzin, N. (1970), The Research Act, Aldine, Chicago, IL. Mills, S. (1997), Discourse; The New Critical Idiom, Routledge, New York, NY. O’Connor, P. (1998), Emerging Voices: Women in Contemporary Irish Society, Institute of Public Administration, Dublin. Poynton, C. (1985), Language and Gender: Making the Difference, Deakin University Press, Geelong. Tannen, D. (1984), Conversational Style: Analysing Talk Among Friends, Ablex, Norwood, NJ. Tannen, D. (1989), Talking Voices: Repetition, Dialogue and Imagery in Conversational Discourse, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

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About the author Fiona Sheridan (MBS (HRM), DBS, BA (French and Sociological and Political Studies), MCIPD) is a Lecturer in Management at the National University of Ireland, Galway. She has taught previously at the Galway Mayo Institute of Technology, the National College of Ireland and various other educational institutions. She lectures mainly in the areas of Human Resource Management and Organisational Behaviour. Her research interests include organisational behaviour developments and human resource management processes; more specifically, the psychology of gender and leadership and gender and communications in the workplace. She is currently writing her PhD thesis in the organisational behaviour field exploring specifically gender, leadership and language. Her papers at national and international conferences include the Irish Academy of Management and the European Academy of Management. She is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), the Irish Academy of Management (IAM), the European Academy of Management (EAM). Her research interests are human resource management processes; organisational behaviour developments; the psychology of gender; gender and communications; gender and leadership; leadership and role incongruity.

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Bookshelf Women and Entrepreneurship: Contemporary Classics Edited by Candida G. Brush, Nancy M. Carter, Elizabeth J. Gatewood, Patricia G. Greene and Myra M. Hart Edward Elgar 2006 640 pp. ISBN-13: 978 1 84542 259 2, ISBN-10: 1 84542 259 7 Keywords Women, Entrepreneurship, Gender Review DOI 10.1108/09649420710754273 Women’s entrepreneurship makes a significant contribution to economic and social development and is a major force for innovation and job creation. However, it is only relatively recently that awareness emerged that women’s entrepreneurship is a unique subset of entrepreneurship, deserving of dedicated focus in scholarly research. Given this late start there is only a relatively small and fragmented base of research on women’s entrepreneurship. This book is invaluable since it provides a cohesive overview of these different theoretical perspectives, empirical findings and methodologies that address women’s entrepreneurship. As the title indicates, the book includes a collection of contributions that have been of significance in shaping the field of women’s entrepreneurship. It is a volume in the Elgar reference collection – “The international library of entrepreneurship” series. The five editors are themselves leading scholars of women’s entrepreneurship and therefore eminently positioned to make an informed choice of the leading contributions to have shaped the field. However, their choice is not merely informed by their own intimate knowledge of the field. Their selection of the 30 articles followed a rigorous process which commenced with building a database of approximately 370 articles. At the first stage, they drew up a bibliography of 300 articles from the top entrepreneurship journals and other additional reputable sources. This resulted in an annotated bibliography which was published in 2003 by Entrepreneurship and Small Business Research Institute (ESBRI, Sweden). Also in 2003, the Diana Project team (comprising the editors who initiated the project in 1999 to further study the phenomenon of women entrepreneurs and the growth of their businesses in the USA), partnered with ESBRI to develop a shared research agenda together with an international community of scholars on women’s entrepreneurship. The Diana International Project was born. This reviewer is part of that research collaborative. The annotated bibliography review was further updated to include new articles published between 2002 and mid-2004. Each of the five members of the Diana Project then reviewed all the articles and selected the set that they considered to be important and influential. A preliminary list of approximately 50 articles was the outcome of this exercise. Then an iterative review of this list by each of the “Dianas” followed. It is clear, therefore, that the editors were extremely thorough in their assessment of contributions which would be deemed “classic” and appropriate for the volume.

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The book commences with a lucid editors’ introduction. It neatly explains the organization of the contributions into two sets of papers. The first set comprises the theoretical approaches to female entrepreneurship and a framework adapted from the Diana Project publications is presented to organize the second set of contributions. This useful framework captures the essential dimensions that emerged from the in-depth review of the literature, i.e. the first stage review of over 300 articles. It includes both the demand- and supply-sides of entrepreneurial domain. Sex is delineated as the defining variable that links with the other aspects explored – personal cognitions, human capital, social capital and financial capital, as well as the strategic choice of entrepreneurs. Since, environmental effects can be crucial as either facilitators or barriers to enterprise start-up and growth, they are also integrated into the framework. Importantly they can impact on the various factors of the entrepreneurial domain and on resource acquisition. The latter is portrayed as the link between providers in the resource domain, and the entrepreneurial domain. Gender also plays a role in business performance. Though performance is not an explicit concept in the framework, the volume includes articles focusing on business performance. Inclusion of these articles enables the exploration of entrepreneurial outcomes, in addition to entrepreneurial process and inputs. Papers are grouped to cover each of the core aspects of the framework as well as performance. Thus, a variety of classic contributions are organised along six themes: Part II – Human capital and cognition; Part III – Social capital; Part IV – Financial capital; Part V – Strategic choice; Part VI – Performance and Part VII – Environmental. Together they comprise the second set of papers, while the first set of papers sets the scene with the foremost contributions to theory. The editors provide a handy, concise overview of each of the 30 articles that make up the volume. Appropriately, the theory segment commences with a paper by early pioneer of women’s entrepreneurship research, Sue Birley. This 1989 article gave a firm boost to the slowly building momentum on the value of studying the similarities and differences between women and men and their businesses. From the 1980s onwards, a focus on understanding entrepreneurship as a gendered activity had become a clearly discernible theme. Within the literature there is growing awareness that women entrepreneurs are a distinct group and that it is important for them to be studied as a population, separate from men and their ventures. After the Birley article, the other five contributions that follow, provide further theoretical insights into women-owned businesses and extended the research agenda on sex, gender and entrepreneurship. Research and interest in issues of women’s entrepreneurship has come a long way since the earliest of the classic contributions included in this volume (in Part VII – Environmental). This 1976 article entitled “Entrepreneurship: a new female frontier” by Eleanor Brantley Schwartz, was a pioneering exposition that drew attention to structural environmental factors that can have different impacts on women and men entrepreneurs, even if individual level variables display few gendered differences. Despite the increasing interest from academics, the extant body of literature, however, remains small and “the reality is that . . . women’s entrepreneurship research is at the early childhood stage” (de Bruin et al., 2006, p. 590). Encouragingly, this body of literature is steadily growing. In the short time, from mid-2004 when the review of

articles for this volume ended, to the end of 2006 when this review was written, there has been quite a significant amount of new research published. For instance, there have been several journals publishing special issues on women’s entrepreneurship recently. These include: Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice (2 volumes), Venture Capital Journal (2 volumes), Entrepreneurial Behavior and Research, International Journal of Entrepreneurship & Innovation, International Journal of Small Business, and Female and Rural Entrepreneurship. It will not be long, therefore, before a second edition to cover new insights on women’s entrepreneurship will be needed. Until then, this collection should be the first stop for all those starting their research journey in the field as well as a handy companion for those further down the track. It is a valuable reference tool that provides easy access to the key articles on women’s entrepreneurship, all effectively organised along the lines of seven dominant strands of research. The volume will certainly be “a launching pad for future scholastic work” (p. xiv). Anne de Bruin Department of Commerce, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand Reference de Bruin, A., Brush, C. and Welter, F. (2006), “Introduction to the special issue: towards building cumulative knowledge on women’s entrepreneurship”, Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, Vol. 30 No. 5, pp. 585-93.

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News New Asian survey reveals that the Philippines has the highest number of female senior managers Women in Singapore are lagging behind their counterparts in neighboring Asian countries in holding senior management positions, while the Philippines emerged on top, according to a recent survey. New findings from the Grant Thornton International Business Report showed 97 percent of businesses in the Philippines have women in top managerial positions, with China the runner-up at 81 percent and Malaysia third at 85 percent. Singapore emerged seventh at 67 percent, behind fourth-place Hong Kong at 83 percent, Thailand at 81 percent, and Taiwan at 80 percent, according to the results published in The Business Times. Forty-two percent of businesses in East Asia, excluding China, have females in top managerial positions. Globally, more women are taking up such spots. Their participation grew from 19 to 22 percent since 2004. “In a typical Singapore family . . . very often it is the woman who makes the career sacrifice and takes a back seat,” said Grant Thornton managing partner, Kon Yin Tong. Eurofound celebrates International Women’s Day 2007: gender gap still wide for working women in the EU Despite advances in women’s employment in recent years, Europe’s labor markets and workplaces remain largely unequal. The gap in pay levels between men and women is still wide; few women make it to top management positions, and women in part-time jobs work more than men in full-time jobs. In the light of International Women’s Day on Thursday 8, March 2007, the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) is highlighting its recent research and work on women and equality issues. The amount of time that Europeans spend in paid work has consistently declined over the past 15 years, according to the recently published fourth European Working Conditions Survey. However, working women spend more time in unpaid work than do working men in all European countries, when weekly working hours are combined together with time spend commuting to and from work, caring for children and the elderly, and doing house work. Jorma Karppinen, Eurofound’s Director says: While our research shows that men work longer hours than women in paid employment in all countries, women in fact work more hours than men when paid and unpaid working hours are combined. Employment levels in Europe won’t increase unless we solve the issues of care for children and the elderly, address gender inequalities in domestic tasks and improve working time options that promote better work-life balance for both women and men.

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Recent research findings from Eurofound have also illustrated a positive trend of women moving into high management or decision-making positions in European workplaces. Over the past 15 years, the percentage of women superiors has risen from

20 percent in 1995, to 23 percent in 2000, to 25 percent in 2005. However, there are still substantial differences between countries. The highest proportions of women in supervisory and managerial positions are in the Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands as well as in the Eastern European countries, reaching nearly 40 percent in Finland and Estonia. In contrast, Southern European countries and some continental countries, have the lowest proportions – less than 20 percent in Germany and Italy. Women continue to be paid less than men, despite collective agreements and minimum wage legislation that is in principle gender-neutral. The gender pay gap is, however, smaller in the new EU member states than in the former EU15 countries. The difference between the gross hourly pay of men and women in the former EU15 and Norway, for example, was 18.1 percent in 2005, down from 20.4 percent in 2001. In the new member states, the difference in hourly pay is somewhat more equal and has remained broadly stable at around 17 percent over the period 2003-2005. In the European Union of 27 countries, the lowest hourly-wage pay gap is found in Malta (4 percent, i.e. where a woman on average earns 96 percent of a man’s salary). The widest gap is in Germany where the figure is 26 percent. All in all, there are still more women in the lower earning categories than men. Although the right to parental leave has been established in all EU member states, important differences continue to exist between countries with regard to policy provisions and take-up patterns. Just over half of Europe’s companies and public authorities with ten or more employees have had staff on parental leave in the previous three years. Not surprisingly, the take-up rates of parental leave are high in the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland and Sweden) where existing schemes are flexible and underwritten by high earnings replacement levels. In these countries, most women choose to benefit from parental leave and return to employment afterwards, with comprehensive childcare services and other reconciliation measures as support. Take-up rates are more moderate in France, The Netherlands and Spain where between one-third and two-thirds of mothers make use of their parental leave entitlement. Elsewhere, take-up rates of parental leave by mothers are much lower, including in five of the countries – Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Portugal and the UK – where parental leave is unpaid, but also in Belgium where a flat-rate payment is available. In Luxembourg and Austria, parental leave take-up is at best moderate. For further information, contact Ma˚ns Ma˚rtensson, e-mail: [email protected] Survey reveals disparity between personal and organisational definitions of success Research uncovers worrying gaps that suggest individuals believe they have different goals from their employers. Managers across the UK believe there is a discrepancy between how individuals and their organisations judge success. According to the results of surveys (which include research on “Managers Motivation” (October 2005) “Active Managers” (October 2006) and the annual Future Forecast Survey (December 2006)) conducted by the Chartered Management Institute, managers achieve personal success by making an impact at work and developing their colleagues, but think their organisations are more focussed on market leadership and profit margins. The findings taken from research projects conducted over the past 15 months, also show that the majority of individuals (60 percent) believe that “enjoying work” is crucial to success, yet only 6 percent believe that their employers share this view.

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Forty-eight percent of individuals claimed to judge success by the extent to which they develop their teams but felt that only 38 percent of organisations mark this as a priority. This raises concerns not only in view of the growing recognition of skills shortages in the UK, but also for the lack of communication within organisations. Just over one in four (28 percent) also believe that “achieving a flexible lifestyle” is the mark of professional success but think only 6 percent of their employers concur with this. The perception of differing opinions comes against a backdrop of individuals resolving to spend more time with friends and family this year (38 percent) and planning to change jobs (21 percent). Of 1,864 managers asked to identify the key factor that drives them to succeed, almost two-thirds (64 percent) spoke of having a “sense of purpose” in their work and one in five (19 percent) referred to “making a difference to society.” Only 11 percent sought status amongst colleagues and less than one in ten (8 percent) claimed that success should be judged by “public recognition.” The research highlights a worryingly large gap between how individuals define success and how they believe their employees measure achievement with market share and long-term growth thought to be of higher priority than employee welfare. Only 13 percent of managers are concerned with “ensuring the organisation is market leader” but 65 percent thought that their employers made this a priority. Similarly, just 16 percent of managers believe securing “sustainability” is important, but thought that 51 percent of their organisations perceive this as a priority. The findings also show that fewer than half (48 percent) believe they have actually achieved their true potential. However, it is clear that the UK’s managers are unhappy with this situation, with many taking action to ensure success. Thirty-four percent have planned to undertake development courses or further education during the next 12 months and 14 percent intend to improve their language skills to cope with increasing global business needs. Jo Causon, Director, marketing and corporate affairs at the Chartered Management Institute, says: Success clearly means different things to different people, but the disparity between the aims and objectives of the individual and how they view their company’s priorities reveals a need for better internal communication. She continues: Managers should voice professional needs so their definition of success is known while the organisation needs to create a clear understanding of its corporate objectives to ensure employees and future employees feel an alignment to the corporate culture.

Reacting to the findings, the Chartered Management Institute has created a series of freely downloadable resources to help individuals and organisations achieve success. Available at: www.managers.org.uk/active the resources offer guidance and diagnostic tools covering six key areas. These are: . delivering results; . making it happen by managing change; . meeting customer needs; . making an impact; . inspirational leadership; and . getting the (work-life) balance right.

Catalyst releases 2006 Census of Women in fortune 500 corporate officer and board positions Catalyst recently released its 2006 census of women corporate officers, top earners, and directors of the fortune 500, which reveals the persistent shortage of women in corporate leadership positions. From corporate officers to board directors, women are dramatically underrepresented at the highest levels of business, according to the study. The following is a summary of the study’s findings. Corporate officers and top earners. At the current rate of change, it could take women 47 years to reach parity with men as corporate officers of fortune 500 companies: . Down. Catalyst’s study found that women held just 15.6 percent of fortune 500 corporate officer positions, down from 16.4 percent in 2005. . Down. The number of companies with three or more women corporate officers decreased. . Stagnant. Women are still more than twice as likely to hold staff positions, whereas men hold roughly an equal percentage of line and staff positions. Line position experience is essential to advancement to the highest levels. . Up. Women in top-paying positions rose to 6.7 percent from 6.4 percent in 2005 board directors: at the current rate of change, it could take women 73 years to reach parity with men in the boardrooms of fortune 500 companies. . Stagnant. The study found that women held only 14.6 percent of all fortune 500 board seats compared to 14.7 percent in 2005. . Down. Women of color held only 3.1 percent of director positions in 2006, down from 3.4 percent in 2005. . Down. The number of companies with one or two women board directors decreased. In addition, more companies had no women board directors at all (of note: a greater number of companies had three or more women board directors). . Up. The percentage of women who chair nominating/governance and compensation board committees increased to 14.7 percent and 10.0 percent in 2006 from 14.2 percent and 9.0 percent, respectively, (of note: the number of women who chair audit committees showed a two percentage-point decline, from 10.2 percent in 2005 to 8.2 percent in 2006). Catalyst, a leading research and advisory organization working to build inclusive environments and expand opportunities for women at work, has monitored the progress of women in corporate leadership positions since 1995 and reports on trends in its annual census. Additional data, including appendices, is available upon request. The National Association for Female Executives announces its 2007 top companies As the National Association for Female Executives (NAFE) celebrates its 35th anniversary this year, women are scaling new heights: Angela F. Braly will take over as CEO of WellPoint this June, Indra Nooyi became CEO of PepsiCo in

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October, and TJX Companies appointed CEO Carol Meyrowitz in January. Can it be that we have reached a societal tipping point? Not so fast, says Betty Spence, PhD, the President of NAFE. Despite the unprecedented achievement of individual women, broad-based culture change is still a work in progress. At America’s largest companies, women comprise only 16 percent of corporate officers and 15 percent of board members. Currently, only ten of the 500 CEOs are women. But all companies are not created equal. NAFE’s annual top companies for female executives initiative names those in vanguard of changing the face of executive suites and boardrooms across the country. “NAFE applauds the innovative Top Companies for setting the gold standard,” said Dr Spence: With so many women ready for leadership across the country, we should see much higher representation of women in the offices and halls of power. A group needs to reach 20 percent of the whole of any organization for its voice to be heard, and we find that only at a small number of companies.

All of NAFE’s top companies demonstrate progressive ways to nurture women’s advancement to influential positions, yet even among the best, there are variations in efforts to promote and retain women at the top. In recognition of this, NAFE has distinguished the top ten companies and included five nonprofit innovators. The 2007 NAFE top companies for executive women are (in alphabetical order by category): The top ten (1) Aetna Inc., Hartford, CT (2) Allstate Insurance Company, Northbrook, IL (3) Colgate-Palmolive Company, New York, NY (4) Gannett Company Inc., McLean, VA (5) General Mills, Minneapolis, MN (6) IBM Corporation, Armonk, NY (7) Liz Claiborne Inc., New York, NY (8) Marriott International Inc., Washington, DC (9) Metlife Inc., Long Island City, NY (10) Patagonia Inc., Ventura, CA The best of the rest (1) American Electric Power (AEP), Columbus, OH (2) American Express Company, New York, NY (3) Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, New York, NY (4) Chubb & Son, a division of Federal Insurance Company, Warren, NJ (5) Federated Department Stores Inc., Cincinnati, OH (6) GAP Inc., San Francisco, CA

(7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) (14) (15) (16) (17) (18) (19) (20) (21) (22) (23) (24) (25) (26)

Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, CA Kraft Foods Inc., Northfield, IL Merck & Co Inc., Whitehouse Station, NJ Office Depot, Delray Beach, FL Pfizer Inc., New York, NY Principal Financial Group, Des Moines, IA Prudential Financial, Newark, NJ Rodale Inc., Emmaus, PA Sallie Mae, Reston, VA Texas Instruments Inc., Dallas, TX The New York Times Company, New York, NY The Procter & Gamble Company, Cincinnati, OH Wal-mart Stores Inc., Bentonville, AR Xerox Corporation, Stamford, CT The Top Nonprofits Baptist Health South Florida, Coral Gables, FL Bon Secours Richmond Health Service, Richmond, VA Inova Health System, Falls Church, VA Midmichigan Health, Midland, MI Virginia Commonwealth University Health System, Richmond, VA

What sets NAFE’s top companies apart? Recent decades have seen the increased promotion of women to top corporate support functions-such as human resources, legal, communications, and finance-at more and more companies, but these positions do not lead to the corner office. According to Spence: Profit-and-loss (P&L) experience-running operations, sales and other revenue-generation-is a re´sume´ essential for those hoping to lead in business, but women are significantly less likely than their male peers to have access to this experience.

At the most progressive companies, like IBM, Liz Claiborne and General Mills, targeted programs ensure women gain P&L experience, while also emphasizing compensation equity, manager accountability for the advancement of women, and stellar training programs. “NAFE honors companies that are promoting women and redefining the corporate landscape,” added Spence, “because they’re avatars in leveraging their valuable female talent-the competitive advantage of our nation.” European PWN publishes its 7th book in the Women@Work series, Mentoring – A Powerful Tool for Women on International Women’s Day The book explains what mentoring is all about, how it helps retain and develop female leadership talent and how to set up mentoring programmes. It contains details on some of the most innovative mentoring programmes across Europe.

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Corporations like ABN AMRO, Cisco and Mercer Delta use mentoring programmes to create more inclusive and better performing organizations. By opening mentoring opportunities to women from all levels – from junior to high potential – strong links are created changing the corporation’s DNA. Women’s networks in Paris, Amsterdam, Madrid, London, Geneva and Nice describe setting up mentoring programmes aimed at supporting each other in their career choices. Also included in the book is the groundbreaking FTSE 100 programme, in which 28 CEOs and presidents from the largest corporations in the UK act as mentors for women with board potential. “Mentoring gives a precious boost to a woman’s career. Mentoring programmes fill a gap for many women who don’t have access to an informal mentoring network” says Therese Torris, Editor and Co-author of the book. Mirella Visser, Vice President EuropeanPWN, and Co-author, adds: “Companies nowadays are actively looking for tools to retain and develop their female talent; the focus has shifted from the ‘why’ to the ‘how’. In-company mentoring should be at the top of their list!” The book is published with the financial support of Mexx, represented by Mieke Damen, Vice President Operations. Mieke Damen promotes women’s mentoring programs as a way to create corporate sustainable development and at the same time build competitive strength through capitalizing on female talent (see her interview on www.EuropeanPWN.net). The book is co-authored by 12 members of EuropeanPWN with first-hand mentoring experience. It presents all facets of mentoring and is prefaced by Marie-Claude Peyrache, President of EuropeanPWN-Paris. Women@Work No. 7: Mentoring – A Powerful Tool for Women can be ordered from the network site www.EuropeanPWN.net (or on the members platform for EuropeanPWN members), and from www.amazon.fr. Visit the web site for more information: www.EuropeanPWN.net