Impressing for Success: A Gendered Analysis of a Key Social Capital Accumulation Strategy

Abstract

Social capital theory assesses the career benefits that accrue to individuals from the stock of relationships they have. Such benefits can be in the form of guidance and advice, access to key projects and assignments and help with setting up business deals. However, when assessing whether such career-enhancing resources are available equally to men and women, we find that gender impacts on the access to and accumulation of social capital. The article seeks to address two key research questions. The first is whether women are aware of the need to accumulate social capital to advance their careers and the second is whether they use impression management techniques in order to assist them in doing this. Findings are reported from a study in an international consulting firm with 19 female consultants. In respect of research question one the findings indicate that women in the sample are aware of the need to accumulate social capital to advance their careers; with particular emphasis being placed on the importance of gaining access to influential sponsors. In respect of research question two, the findings confirm that women in the sample do perceive the necessity to utilise impression management techniques to help them to accumulate social capital. This is done in a defensive way and is linked to ensuring that one is seen as ambitious, likable and available. It is argued that these are key organizational norms, and it is perceived that in order to accumulate social capital, women need to actively work to dispel the negative stereotypes that attach to them because of their gender. The article calls for greater recognition of the impact that masculine organizational cultures have on the career development of women, who not only have to perform at a high level but are also required to expend additional energy conforming to masculine organizational cultures they have had little say in creating.

Integrating Dark Humor and Compassion

“…This conclusion contradicts Goffman's original theorizing, which emphasized that all social interactions include dramaturgy and performances. And while Tseelon's (1992) critique was published twenty years ago, studies of impression management have either (1) focused exclusively on front region presentations of self, emphasizing how particular performances work to advantage some actors while sidestepping the issue of back region behaviors (Collett 2005;Greener 2007), or (2) implied that workers exhibit their true selves in the backstage and that their front stage activities include only performance (Huppatz 2010;Kumra and Vinnicombe 2010).…”

“…According to Tseelon (1992), impression management research following Goffman assumed that actors strategically manipulate their public displays to hide their true selves (see Bolino et al 2008;Durr and Wingfield 2011;Kumra and Vinnicombe 2010 for recent examples). By extension, this scholarship often concludes that the backstage is more "authentic" than the front stage (Chriss 1995).…”

25 Years On: Reflecting on the Past and Looking to the Future in Gender and Management Research

“…For example, many women in senior positions are scrutinized in a way that does not apply to men (Eagly and Carli, 2007;Eagly and Karau, 2002;O'Leary and Ickovics, 1992;Ryan and Haslam, 2005;Wajcman, 1998;Warning and Buchanan, 2009). Moreover women are expected to accommodate to masculine norms of management even though behaviours valued in men can be regarded as deficient in women (Heilman and Okimoto, 2007;Kumra and Vinnicombe, 2010;Mavin, 2009;Oakley, 2000). Individuals form expectations for the social roles of others based on the stereotypical and appropriate behaviours expected of women and men (Mavin, Bryans and Cunningham, 2010;Powell, Butterfield and Bartol, 2008).…”

Exploring metaphors of capitals and the framing of multiple capitals

“…Human capital encompasses knowledge and skills, education, physical ability or appearance, health and well-being; social capital encompasses the ability to develop social relationships and networks (Kwon and Adler, 2014). The ways in which human and social capitals are conceptualised, implemented and operationalised is often gendered in ways that disadvantage women (Adams and Harte, 1998;Broadbridge, 2010;Cook, et al, 2012;Grugulis and Stoyanova, 2012;Haynes, 2008;Haynes, 2012;Kumra and Vinnicombe, 2010). As noted earlier, exploring the notion of capital as a metaphor allows us to make visible this inequity in images of human and social capital and explore the relationship between them (Young, 2001;Llewellyn, 2003).…”