Characteristics of successful women managers and professionals in local government: a national survey

Abstract

Describes a survey of international City/County Management Association female members in professional, mid‐level management, and upperlevel management positions to determine the factors they see as important to their career success. The questionnaire contained measures of three models (human capital, socio‐psychological, systemic) which are cited as explanatory of the success achieved by women. The majority of women, regardless of position in the organization, attribute their success to variables that are within their purview. These include self‐confidence, education, intelligence, competence on the job, hard work, and motivation. Assistance from others such as mentors was seen as important but not a significant factor in career advancement. Measures representing distribution of power and distribution of opportunity (systemic model indicators) were not viewed as being as important to career success as measures representing the human capital and socio‐psychological models. The absence of a perceived importance of measures of the systemic model suggests that the socialization and education of women needs to stress the importance of these indicators in an overall strategy to achieve career goals.

Being and Becoming a Leader: Arabian Gulf Women Managers’ Perspectives

“…Thus, with the aim of facilitating the development of fairer employment, this paper addressed the career barriers of Arab women managers by linking several macro-level factors (most notably, the gendered national legislative systems and the intersection between Isalm, Urf and patriarchy), with organizational-level factors (e.g., governance system and HR policies and practices), and micro-level factors (e.g., women mangers' perceived traits). The findings of the present research validated the findings of Karam and Afioni (2013), Keeton (1996), Budworth and Man (2010), Metcalf (2011), the WB (2014) and UNDP (2013). Consistent with previous research findings is the analogy revealed by the present findings between the Arab women managers' challenges inside their organizations (i.e., at the mezzo level) and those facing them outside the organization (i.e., at the macro level).…”

“…Further, the literature (e.g., Broadbridge & Hearn, 2008;Broadbridge & Simposon, 2011) suggests that the majority of women, regardless of their organizational level, attribute success primarily to factors within their purview (e.g., merit and effort), followed by the socio-psychological factors, (Keeton, 1996). In this respect, Broadbridge, (2008), Broadbridge and Hearn, (2008), and Budworth and Mann, (2010) explained that a good track record (professional portfolio and hard work) may enable women to partially overcome the negative consequences of gender related socio-psychological and systematic factors (e.g., negative gender stereotypes in male gender-typed positions).…”

Race, Gender, and Government Contracting: Different Explanations or New Prospects for Theory?

“…Second, women who rise to leadership positions in male‐dominated organizations are inclined to preserve the organizational culture that is perceived to have served them well and allowed them to thrive in the organization (Gibson and Cordova ). Third, when the share of leadership positions held by women is few, women in those positions are likely to see other women as competitors for scarce resources and exhibit a reluctance to train, mentor, and support women below them in the hierarchy (Keeton ).…”

“…women as competitors for scarce resources and exhibit a reluctance to train, mentor, and support women below them in the hierarchy (Keeton 1996).…”

“…A burgeoning body of empirical research indicates that women in positions of authority tend to endorse gender stereotypes and express negative attitudes toward female co-workers (e.g., Ellemers et al 2004;Garcia-Retamero and López-Zafra 2006) and that they also avoid nurturing, mentoring, or promoting female subordinates (Blau and DeVaro 2007;Chiu and Ng 2001;Keeton 1996). Th e term "queen bee syndrome" has been coined to describe this phenomenon (Staines, Tavris, and Jayaratne 1974).…”