Women project managers: the exploration of their job challenges and issue selling behaviors

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore women project managers as a group in order to generate new understanding about the present project context within which they work and to promote new research‐based ideas for optimizing their potential in business organizations. To this end, the paper explore their demographics and project characteristics, their project challenges and issue selling moves, and their perspectives on the advantages and disadvantages for women in this profession.Design/methodology/approachData were collected using quantitative and qualitative questionnaire items of 211 female project managers in North America.FindingsThe research results show significant associations among women project managers' career, age, cost of their projects, and their professional certifications. In addition, their challenges and issue‐selling moves produce six factors related to their influence of others. Lastly, the results reveal women's self‐described advantages and disadvantages in the project management profession showing that while women project managers do continue to experience marginalization from gender bias, they are leveraging particular job challenges and issue selling circumstances to their advantage in moving through gender bias.Research limitations/implicationsThe results of this study contribute to our knowledge of important real‐world challenges and career development opportunities for women managing contemporary projects. Several implications for future research that build on women's issue selling in project management are discussed. Suggestions for broadening the sample in future research are also included.Practical implicationsThis paper highlights several important ways in which business organizations can strengthen and optimize their women project managers, and offset second‐generation gender bias.Originality/valueThis is only the second study to consider the real‐world contextual factors of women's projects, and the first study to explore their perspective specifically in terms of their job challenges, issue selling, and self‐described disadvantages and advantages in managing projects. Business organizations are in a unique historical position to uplift their project management capacity and leadership talent through developing and promoting women project managers.

Force and Inertia: A Systematic Review of Women’s Leadership in Male-Dominated Organizational Cultures in the United States

“…This law states, "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction" (NASA, 2015), which holds the potential to help investigate the long-term impact of women's leadership in male-dominated organizational cultures and vice versa. This may be particularly timely as a regression of women leading in this context has been found in research (Bower & Hums, 2013;Henderson et al, 2013).…”

“…Women leading in Wall Street strategically utilized nurturing practices and language typically associated with women to make their clients feel safe, secure, and trusting of their work and management of stocks, whereas males often ignored similar practices in the competitive environment of the finance industry (Fisher, 2015). In project management, women's leadership was seen as being strategically feminine to create an asset of a personable context with more interpersonal rapport building to secure successful outcomes (Henderson et al, 2013). Lakshmi and Peter (2015) also discussed women's leadership as being strategic in influencing organizational cultures in team-oriented settings by using nurturing social skills and intuition to create consensus among subordinates for decisions, whereas male leaders were noted for establishing and reinforcing their decisions void of group consensus.…”

“…Women's leadership was depicted as inclusive, credited for introducing an alternative to the traditional masculine industry culture by improving the quality of beer production, while decreasing absenteeism, instances of sabotage, and negative employee relations (Spitz, 2010). Henderson et al (2013) found similar instances in project management teams where female leaders involved their superiors and subordinates alike in decision-making processes to establish commitment and deliver better execution of shared decisions. By sharing power, female project leaders shifted traditional hierarchical processes to reflect more cohesive, trusting team cultures.…”

“…In the literature reviewed, socialized and accepted norms in these contexts have seen novelty from women's leadership when facing less predictable organizational challenges. The unpredictability of project management, for instance, allowed female project leaders to explore creative ways to approach solutions and establish new ways to resolve difficult project issues and helped them to prove being worthy of leadership (Henderson et al, 2013). Henderson et al (2013) noted female leaders were inclined to stray from professional guidelines that have traditionally defined and limited the industry to universal approaches to work that remain unquestioned and taken for granted.…”

“…The unpredictability of project management, for instance, allowed female project leaders to explore creative ways to approach solutions and establish new ways to resolve difficult project issues and helped them to prove being worthy of leadership (Henderson et al, 2013). Henderson et al (2013) noted female leaders were inclined to stray from professional guidelines that have traditionally defined and limited the industry to universal approaches to work that remain unquestioned and taken for granted. In this sense, women's leadership is depicted as creative change via evolving methods to manage dynamic and complex technical tasks.…”