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Article Excerpt
I. INTRODUCTION
In interviews with top women executives, the Wall Street Journal discussed their paths to the top and the importance of mentoring in getting there. The response of Michelle Coleman Mayes was typical. She stressed the importance of having many mentors at different points in one's career, and mentoring others. The question, and positive responses of the executives, indicates the acceptance of the idea that mentoring is important, if not crucial in helping women and minorities reach the top ranks in organizations. (1)
For at least two decades, social research has confirmed what many have learned through experience: mentoring and networking may help executive women reach the highest positions of leadership within their organizations. (2) This article reviews the extant literature addressing the ways in which mentoring and networking, both formal and informal, may help female executives achieve the highest levels of organizational leadership in business organizations, both national and international. In particular, the article aims to identify those gaps of knowledge that, if bridged, would help companies better understand how to use mentoring and networking to develop women as leaders in multinational and multicultural business environments. The paper further seeks to identify the legal issues suggested by the mentoring and networking literature.
This article reviews and assesses the literature on mentoring and networking from several different academic fields, including law, social psychology, sociology, and economics. The objective of this article is to identify features of successful programs with an eye toward focusing on the issues presented in a cross-cultural context. Part I begins with the relevance of globalization to gender in top leadership. Part II describes the barriers women face on the road to top leadership, and suggests that a better understanding of mentoring and networking holds value as a possible pathway around these barriers. Part III identifies the extant theories of how and toward what end mentoring and networking function, examines the evidence supporting and refuting these theories, and provides examples of various business practices that reflect them. In conclusion, the available literature suggests that although mentoring and networking experiences are not gender neutral, they are important pathways for women to obtain positions of organizational leadership. Further research about mentoring and networking in the context of cross-cultural issues and multinational corporations is still very much needed.
II. THE IMPACT OF GLOBALIZATION ON GENDER IN TOP LEADERSHIP
The contextual reality of a globalized knowledge economy requires special mention. Globalization almost certainly affects gender equality in the workplace. A substantial body of work relates political and economic globalization and gender participation in the workforce; (3) the relationships between economic development and gender equity in the workforce; (4) and relationships between gender equity and firm performance. (5)
For example, it is reasonable to expect the globalization of international commerce, trade, and communication, all other things being equal, to reduce barriers to women achieving top managerial positions. The mechanism connecting globalization to equality may be that the opportunity cost of deselecting for women in a globalized economy is greater than in more balkanized economic regimes, where firms are protected from competitors that achieve efficiency through the full utilization of the market for human capital. (6) Indeed, there is good reason to conclude that full inclusion of women in top management improves profitability. In a United States study of 353 Fortune 500 companies in eleven industrial sectors over a four year period, Catalyst, Inc. found a robust correlation between gender diversity and profitability.
[C]ompanies with the highest representation of women on their top management teams experienced better financial performance than the group of companies with the lowest women's representation. This finding holds for both financial measures analyzed: Return on Equity (ROI), which is 35.1 percent higher, and Total Return to Shareholders (TRS), which is 34.0 percent higher.... In four out of the five industries analyzed, the group of companies with the highest women's representation on their top management teams experienced a higher TRS than the group of companies with the lowest women's representation. (7)
In addition, the competitive behavior of multinational firms that utilize women in managerial positions may help break down local barriers based on traditional notions of women's roles by hiring local women and also by serving as a role model that stimulates change in the role of women. (8)
At the same time, globalization may affect women in top management positions differently than it affects men or than it affects women in lower management or non managerial positions. For example, because of traditional gender roles, the demands of doing business somewhere in the world at all times along with the need to be available for both short term and long term deployment abroad can affect women's allocation of personal and career interests. Long term deployment far from home often poses difficulties for two-career couples that must find suitable opportunities for trailing members of the pair, who are more commonly women. (9)
The relationships among gender, economic development, and the reduction of global poverty also require special mention as contextual realities. Economists and demographers observe a positive correlation between a nation's economic development and women's participation in the paid work force. It follows that with economic development comes the need for better understanding of how women participate in the workforce, not only generally, but also in positions of top leadership. In her economic history of women and work in the United States, Claudia Goldin concluded that "economic progress over the long run has generated a move to economic equality." (10) She argues that over the course of American history, one finds a relationship between women in the paid work force and economic development. (11) The pattern is U-shaped, with highest and lowest levels of development associated with high levels of participation. In this model, Goldin identifies the United States presently in the rising portion of the U. (12) Furthermore, she attributes the rising slope of the U to the entry of large numbers of married women into the workplace. (13)
Extensive work at the World Bank on the relationship between economic development and gender equality (14) found greater gender equality critical to a nation's economic growth and to the reduction of poverty (15) because inequality lowers the productive allocation of labor and contributes to a lower quality of life for both men and women. (16) Other links between gender inequality and poverty include several critical ideas. First, females are likely to be more productive than--or, at least as productive--as males if they have access to the inputs of human capital formation that are necessary to form productive workers. (17) Second, females are more likely than males to devote resources to educating their children and improving human capital rather than to divert them to other uses. (18) Third, females engaged in paid work tend to produce fewer offspring than females not so engaged, and this lowered fertility rate positively affects the success and environmental sustainability of a nation's and region's economy, at least up to a point. (19) Other scholars find that, despite laws, customs, and social norms that impede or prevent the operation of free labor markets, economic development brings an increase in women's educational opportunities in most societies. (20) The linking mechanism is that the opportunity cost to educated women of bearing and rearing children increases as women move into the workforce, (21) and therefore fertility rates decline and economic well-being increases.
Although little research links the effect of globalization on access to top levels of organizational leadership, a pattern emerges in the research that does exist. Women achieve top levels of organizational leadership in many parts of the world, but the phenomenon of a career path for women--one in which significant numbers of women systematically acquire the social and cultural capital and experience to lead a substantial economic organization--is most likely a feature of the developed world. Undoubtedly, this generalization holds for males as well, even given that men's opportunities tend to be greater than women's across all cultures and economies. Globalization probably benefits both women and men in developing countries who seek upward mobility as managers. Yet, if Goldin's U-shaped curve holds, the benefit of globalization for women in developing countries is more likely to be captured by those who have the social capital, perhaps by virtue of birth into an educated or elite family. This social capital may provide these women with skills and qualities that make them attractive to global organizations as managers, and thereby enable them to participate in the world economy in ways in which women in their countries were previously excluded.
III. FINDING A PATH: MENTORING WOMEN AROUND THE BARRIERS
A. What We Know About Women Who Make It to the Top
Sociological research on gender and organizational leadership has delved into the mechanisms by which women achieve power and leadership at elite levels, both nationally and internationally. (22) Researchers have examined the relationship between career success and decisions about family responsibilities and work/life balance in the United States (23) and internationally; (24) the role of networks, social capital, and mentors; (25) the role of cultural capital, class, and socioeconomic status; (26) the role of cultural and social context in promoting or disrupting gender inequality and discrimination; (27) the course of career paths; (28) the role of values in achieving leadership; (29) and public and corporate policies affecting the rise of women in business and economic leadership. (30) In addition, major research undertakings and compilations of research by Vianello and Moore used sociological theories of elite groups, leadership, and gender to analyze how women and men acquire and exercise economic and political power in twenty-seven industrialized countries. (31)
In previous discussion of the above empirical works, the authors identified four tentative conclusions generally supported by that research:
1. women elites in both politics and business are more likely to come from a more privileged class background, have more highly educated relatives, and have mothers with higher social and economic status than men in comparable positions;
2. the gender disadvantages that women elites face--the cultural, social, familial, and organizational obstacles--manifest themselves primarily in the process of gaining access to an elite position, that is, the path to top leadership, rather than in performing the leadership position;
3. elite men and elite women differ in the life decisions they have made to manage both personal and career work; and
4. although women executives tend to have leadership styles that are more democratic, more inclined toward sharing power and communicating in non-competitive ways, those in higher levels of organizational authority exhibit the more "competitive, directive and risk leadership" associated with males. (32)
Thus it appears that both globally and nationally, women face clear differences from men in their path (33) to and in their exercise of, power (34) and leadership (35) to get to the top.
B. Obstacles and Challenges for Rising Women
The barriers women face in both the United States and the global corporate economy are legion. (36) They emanate both from within the organization and from social roles outside the organization, and related to family. Scholarly literature from several disciplines has identified specific barriers, or hurdles, for women desiring access to the highest level of leadership in organizations, and has suggested other possible factors in their achieving such leadership in the national and international arenas. (37)
1. Endogenous Barriers
Some barriers for women to top management appear to be endogenous to the business workplace. The term "glass ceiling," used to describe the host of invisible but very real barriers that limit women's rise to the top executive ranks of business organizations, is attributed to two Wall Street Journal reporters in 1986. (38) It began to appear more commonly in the academic literature shortly preceding (39) and following (40) the work of the United States Federal Glass Ceiling Commission in the early 1990s. (41) The concept has had staying power as a metaphorical construct around which organizational behavior scholars have created a robust body of literature. (42)
While explicit rules excluding women from executive roles in corporate America and western Europe have fallen through the influence of law and social pressure, the ceiling in much of the developing world, as well as in parts of the developed world, is better described as a glass darkly or "blatantly opaque." (43) In the United States and much of the developed world, the glass ceiling is attributable less to structural barriers and more to organizational and social barriers. (44) Explicit sexual discrimination continues to play a role in reducing women's access to high levels of management, especially for women of color. (45) The more usual forms of discrimination, however, are the subtle but clear cultural biases and gender stereotypes (46) in corporate decision-making, behavior, and job assignment. (47) Men and women tend to use different styles of leadership and power, and these differences reinforce the existing stereotypes. (48) For example, the nature of managerial competition in large organizations, often described as a "tournament" system, favors more traditionally male styles of leadership and perceives and rewards women who engage in that style differently than it perceives and rewards men. (49)
2. Exogenous Barriers
A substantial body of literature indicates that many of the barriers women face on the way to top leadership stem from factors beyond the structures and constraints of their organizations. (50) Rather, they stem from social, political, and cultural factors that mediate the gender role. These factors are not easily affected by the firm, but the firm may accommodate or adjust to these issues in order to have an efficient and productive workforce. In particular, women may have diminished access to the experiences that build social capital, (51) which in many organizations includes access to appropriate education. (52) Many jobs and career paths are segmented into those which are feminine and those which are masculine. (53) Women may also face cultural issues in foreign assignments that make it more difficult to manage the projects effectively. (54) Most particularly, women face the challenge of resolving the inevitable conflicts between traditional female and family roles and the role of managerial leadership. (55)
One aspect of these role conflicts is the problem of balancing time between the traditional familial role and the managerial role: the work-life balance. (56) Both male and female senior managers are subject to this conflict, but because women traditionally bear the heaviest load of family work in most cultures, men face fewer and different role incongruities and conflicts than women. Women must resolve these conflicts in several contexts: preserving the degrees of career and geographic mobility that the path to top leadership may require; (57) sorting priorities at different points in time between the careers in a dual-career family unit; (58) dealing with the consequences of career interruptions that are more common among female managers early in their careers than among male managers; (59) and managing childbirth and child-rearing, neither of which is a traditional male role. (60)
C. The Possible Roles of Mentoring and Networking
1. Mentoring
Having an effective mentor is one pathway around barriers women face along the path to top leadership, and the lack of mentoring may contribute to the disproportionate under-representation of women in top positions in business. A substantial body of research supports the notion that mentoring contributes greatly to career outcomes. (61) Kram's ground-breaking work in the field more than twenty years ago explicated the benefits of mentoring to organizations, to mentors, and to mentees. (62) Subsequent studies confirm this positive relationship. (63) The benefits of a good mentor to a mentee are well-known, including higher income, greater job satisfaction, and promotions. (64)
Furthermore, a mentor can buffer an individual from overt and covert forms of discrimination, lend legitimacy to a person or position, provide guidance and training in the political operation of the organization, and provide inside information on job-related functions. (65) A mentor may compensate for exclusion from organizational networks where such job-related information is usually found. Mentors can also provide reflected power by signaling that an individual has a powerful sponsor. Mentors can perhaps even increase self-confidence and facilitate achievement of career goals. (66)
Researchers have worked with several definitions of mentoring. (67) The definitions may emphasize the conduct, content, and function of the relationship or they may emphasize its outcome. (68) Usually, they include the idea that two individuals are in a relationship at different levels of power, one more senior than the other in power, influence, position, experience, or maturity. (69) The senior member of the relationship attempts to advise the junior member about the environment, issues, and relationships he or she encounters or expects to encounter in the job or in the career. (70) In short, mentoring is a developmental relationship that may have a career-oriented function and a psychosocial function. (71) The former function may be characterized as helping the mentee "learn the ropes" (72) in order to enhance the mentee's effective functioning in the organization. The latter may be characterized as providing "counseling, friendship, acceptance and confirmation" (73) and other forms of psychosocial support, which enhances the mentee's "sense of competence, identity and work role effectiveness." (74) Thus, although some studies have found the link between mentoring and outcomes somewhat less robust for women than for men, (75) mentoring nonetheless is a promising source of guidance as women seek pathways around the barriers to their advancement and achievement. (76)
2. Networking
Networking is another way of obtaining guidance around barriers to top leadership. In fact, networking is widely regarded as essential to positive career outcomes. (77) Its definition is somewhat more fluid, but networking is conceptually distinct from mentoring. Networking may be thought of as a constellation of developmental relationships (78) that functions in various ways and contributes to positive career outcomes. It constitutes a part of the informal organizational system that is crucial for both men and women to advance through the organizational hierarchy. (79)
IJ. Hetty van Emmerik found that after one controls for having a mentor, the size and diversity of one's developmental network is positively related to career success. (80) Moreover, the size and diversity of the network appears to be more strongly correlated with the career satisfaction of women than of men. (81) This is evocative of earlier studies suggesting that women managers, independent of mentoring, benefit more than do men from general encouragement from superiors, (82) probably because such encouragement leads to training that leads to advancement. (83) It is also consistent with Adler and Izraeli's findings that worldwide, social networks contribute to the social capital necessary for advancement to top management (84) and moreover, that women's lack of social networks prevents them from rising to the top to a much greater extent than it does men. (85)
IV. MENTORING AND NETWORKING: THEORIES AND EVIDENCE
There is a consensus that mentoring and networking matter in the quest for top leadership. In order to make optimal use of mentoring and networking, however, companies and individuals need to know why and how they matter. This section explicates the theoretical underpinnings of the mentoring and networking literature; explains the efficacy, methodologies, and processes of mentoring and networking; identifies how networking and mentoring schemes differentially assist men and women; and explores why differences occur where they occur. As one would hope and expect, the literature presents a healthy debate about alternative theories and counter-theories in each of these areas. This Part concludes with examples of mentoring and networking practices in business.
A. The Efficacy of Mentoring and Networking: Theories
The literature advances several theories to explain and predict the efficacy of mentoring and networking. These theories include: (1) social and cultural capital theory; (2) socioeconomic class theory; (3) personality theory; (4) sociological theories of power; and (5) economic theory of human capital.
1. Social and Cultural Capital Theory
Much of the mentoring and networking literature refers to the sociological theories of enhanced social and cultural capital as the power basis for mentoring and networking. (86) Social capital "refers to the sum of the actual and potential resources embedded within, available through, and derived from the network of social relationships." (87) Social capital enhances access to mentors and networks, which connects individuals through trust, understanding, and mutual values, provides conduits for information, and makes it easier to attain both career and personal goals. (88) Social capital is also gained through networking, (89) by occupying one or more positions in a social network that provide access to developmental relationships, which may include mentors.
Social network research has produced significant insights. (90) Both the diversity (91) and the strength of the network relationships affect one's efficacy in creating social capital. Relationship strength refers to "the level of emotional affect, reciprocity, and frequency of communication." (92) Strong ties involve high emotional investment. Conversely, weak ties tend to lack emotional investment. Both mentors and networks can have varying degrees of emotional investment. Those that are relatively strong--that involve long-term, stable, and trusting relationships--provide psychosocial support that bolsters confidence and provide dependable sources of support when it is needed. (93)
Through these mechanisms, mentoring and networking help build the social capital associated with top managerial leadership. (94) In addition, the study of gender differences in networks holds promise for understanding what kinds of networks are most beneficial for women and minorities. (95)
Cultural capital, as a sociological paradigm, (96) is related to but conceptually different from social capital. It includes such elements as natural aptitude and the learned habits of an individual; the use of cultural goods such as art, books, reference tools, and the Internet; and institutional certification of knowledge that can be converted into economic capital through labor markets. (97) An understanding of the significance of cultural capital in accessing positions of power is attributed to the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. Building on his work, others have explored the extent to which cultural capital is itself gendered in the sense that in a given culture access to acquiring salient cultural capital is commonly and...
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