Constructing a professional identity: how young female managers use role models

Abstract

Role models are often identified as important for aspiring managers as they seek insights into how to develop themselves in their careers. There are, however, still few female role models at the top of companies. This project explores how young careerminded women use role models. It draws on previous research into how professionals experimented with their identity projections to become partners in US professional service firms. In-depth interviews with ten young professional women revealed that they actively draw on role models from different domains. In some cases, the role models were personally known to the individual women, whilst in other cases, they were personally unknown to them. The women revealed that they preferred to use the learning from external role models rather than focus on individual women from the top of their own professions. This research adds richness to our understanding of young female managers' use of role models, and contributes up-todate empirical evidence in a field which has been somewhat neglected in recent years.

Stories of women at the top: narratives and counternarratives of women’s (non-)representation in executive leadership

“…The research also revealed that leaders should be tough and decisive; the image of a male hero leading his men to victory is supported by a plethora of metaphors from the sporting and military arenas. Although in theory (Baecker, 2014), the heroic leadership model centred on personality cult and charisma has been challenged, recent research (Rojo and Esteban, 2003: 245;Singh et al, 2006) suggests that it is still alive in the form of role models, in training materials and everyday organizational discourses (see Baxter, 2010: 26).…”

Who am I and what keeps me going? Profiling the distance learning student in higher education

“…And I though well, I am doing this course aren't I? (student group D) (2,4,6,8) These enhanced feelings of self-salience and efficacy, of study having permeated the identity at a deep integrative level and transformed notions of previous identities, forming a type of escape into a new persona, feature prominently in the literature on working identities (McAdams, 2006;Singh, et al, 2006). As study becomes increasingly integrated into the individual's identity, it becomes less likely that a student will give this up, or risk losing a valuable part of themselves.…”

“…They are also subject to hegemonic influences viewed from a critical realist perspective and which indicate the need for the researcher to "move beyond regularities, experiences and events and to study the underlying causal structures that provide ontological depth to identities" (Joseph, 2002;Bhaskar, 1989). To a certain extent, they are learned identities formed from a mix of personal biographies and interactions with communities within their personal and student lives (Lave et al, 1991b;Wenger, 1998), to be viewed as part of a trajectory of intersecting identities that revolve around culture, assumptions, socioeconomic background, gender, and language (Singh et al, 2006). In part they are modeled on others, yet are also uniquely individual (Edwards, 1996;Burke & Reitzes, 1991).…”

Instrumental client relationship development among top-ranking service professionals

“…However, such (more dominant) conduct may be perceived as role-crossing, or out-of-role behavior (Oakley, 2000;Singh & Vinnicombe, 2001), and may therefore be considered unfavorable (Hull & Umansky, 1997;Lehman, 1992). Nonetheless, such disadvantages might diminish over time (Singh, Vinnicombe, & James, 2006), as gradually increasing numbers of women are reaching topranking positions in professional services industries, leading to a more balanced distribution of female and male service professionals across the world.…”