How Job Sharing Can Lead to More Women Achieving Senior Leadership Roles in Higher Education: A UK Study

Abstract

This article explores the opportunity that job sharing offers as a way of encouraging more women into senior management roles in the higher education sector. There is a scarcity of female leadership representation in the higher education context, in particular a lack of female leadership pipeline. The article examines the underlying influences that limit the representation of women in leadership roles. To address these contextual limitations the process of job sharing is offered as a possible solution for harnessing the skills and talents of women in leadership positions in higher education and enabling the development of a leadership pipeline. To illustrate how such job sharing could occur the article provides a detailed vignette of a job share between two senior women leaders within a single UK university context and the positive impact this had on the organisation, the individuals and their leadership development. This article seeks to make a contribution by exploring how leadership job sharing can occur and sets out some recommendations for the adoption, negotiation and establishment of job share structures in the future.

Advancing women in healthcare leadership: A systematic review and meta-synthesis of multi-sector evidence on organisational interventions

“…Formal mentoring programs improved women's ability, skills and productivity, with women in junior and senior positions equally likely to become mentors [88]. Job sharing provided opportunity for women to enact leadership in part work, play to one another's strengths and shoulder complexity and responsibility together [75]. This created a key network connection and made leadership roles more tenable [75], and occupational socialisation and adjustment more achievable.…”

“…Job sharing provided opportunity for women to enact leadership in part work, play to one another's strengths and shoulder complexity and responsibility together [75]. This created a key network connection and made leadership roles more tenable [75], and occupational socialisation and adjustment more achievable. Network composition was related to promotions and network status (the extent individuals had network connections and held high-ranking jobs) [89À91].…”

Womens’ Career Progression in an Australian Regional University

“…There is a tension here between the woman’s “choices” and perceptions that accommodating these would impact negatively on the organization. However, while job-sharing and part-time roles are often not available or encouraged at higher levels in universities (see White, 2017 ), they can have a positive impact on the organisation in terms of productivity and communication, and on the women job-sharing and their leadership development, as Watton et al (2019) found.…”

The Work-Life Interface of Registered Dietitian Nutritionists in the United States

“…An example of how this has worked in clinical nutrition management is available, although now dated 26. Other more recent examples beyond dietetics exist citing the benefits to organizations and people 27–29…”

“…26 Other more recent examples beyond dietetics exist citing the benefits to organizations and people. [27][28][29] RDNs shared delaying personal life decisions due to their work-some postponed or opted out of marriage, others having children, and some limited their family size. This is consistent with studies exploring choices women make in other fields, 30,31 although male RDNs in this study also reported using this strategy.…”