Beyond gender: reconceptualizing understandings of work–life balance and the extreme work model for 21st-century high-potential top earners

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to broaden an understanding of women's perceptions regarding advancement potential/barriers to success in upper echelon corporate roles in the S&P 500 in connection with understanding 21st-century family dynamics, rather than addressing gender in isolation.Design/methodology/approachData collection in this study is based on semi-structured phone interviews with 13 women who have been identified by organizational leadership in an S&P 500 company as having high advancement potential. The results are evaluated using interpretive phenomenological analysis.FindingsParticipants' responses support existing research showing that women feel more responsible than their male counterparts for subordinating their career prospects to those of their male partners. Further, participants express that work–life and work–family balance constitute problematic barriers to advancement and often lead them to “choose” to slow-track career advancement and to avoid advancement opportunities. This choice narrative propagates women's perceptions that barriers to advancement are self-imposed. Participants viewed the extreme work model as inevitable in upper-echelon corporate roles, signaling the need for an increased understanding of how a broad definition of familial roles and work culture – rather than gendered issues in isolation – affect advancement opportunities in a 21st-century workforce.Practical implicationsCurrent organizational diversity initiatives have focused too myopically on gender. For organizations to create a more inclusive model for success at the upper echelons, it is essential to broaden organizational initiatives to address 21st-century employees rather than gendered programs. Organizations can endeavor to implement more effective models that enable two partners in a home with dependent children to advance, and all employees, even top leaders, to balance current definitions of work–life in several ways discussed.Originality/valueThe findings of this study are significant, in that they move toward addressing a gap in knowledge concerning women's perspectives on the changing family paradigm, extreme work culture and an expanded understanding of work–life balance. This reconceptualization can help mitigate gendered research and organizational programs that reinforce entrenched binaries, and instead enable organizations to implement more effective initiatives to improve advancement opportunities.

Women Perceive Barriers to Corporate Advancement as Self-imposed

“…While such perspectives are useful, it is also important to avoid the creation of a false dichotomy and to consider the broken pipeline of women's advancement in Corporate America in a holistic manner that accounts for the complexity of the situation in relation to the presence of a well-entrenched extreme commitment "24/7" (Hewlett & Luce, 2007, p. 54) work culture (DeSimone, 2020;Hewlett & Luce, 2007;Thornton, 2016). For example, the understanding of motherhood as a pull variable runs contrary to the notion that the extreme work model forces this choice thereby rendering it a push variable.…”

“…Indeed, although women represent 57% of the overall workforce and approximately 46% of management, they are underrepresented in the upper echelons of organizations with women representing approximately 15% of Fortune 500 executive officers, 11% of corporate top earners, 21% in board seats, and only 5.2% in the role of CEO (Catalyst, 2017). In addition to this issue-which clearly constitutes a broken pipeline in terms of women's advancement to the executive level, top earner positions-many women report feeling that, given the prevalence of an extreme work culture and institutional advancement initiatives, any barriers they face are self-imposed (DeSimone, 2020;Harris, 2017;Hewlett & Luce, 2007;Thornton, 2016). Harris (2017) andSandler (2014) studies confirmed that negative self-limiting ideologies prevent women from appreciating their full professional advancement potential.…”

“…(Burke & Major, 2014;Heilman, 2012;D Hentschel, Heilman, & Peus, 2019;Matsa & Miller, 2013). Scholars contend that male-dominated work culture and the extreme work model at the executive level plays a major role in creating a lack of fit feeling for women who then see their lack of advancement as selfimposed (Burke & Major, 2014;DeSimone, 2020, Ezzedeen, Budworth & Baker, 2015Heilman, 2012;Hewlett & Luce, 2007).…”