Term paper of MPOB

Role of female employees in organization culture

Role of Female Employees in Organizational CultureWe the industrialist of India is also living in the same world of dynamic business environment. That consists of economic, political, social, cultural and demographic environment etc. but here with this paper I want to throw some light on the very special segment in socio-cultural environment that too is not away from the latest trends and changes in the global business environment. Today we talk about empowerment especially for the women of India. This paper basically deals with the existing nature and content of this issue within Indian organizations. The initial reluctance of employers to give jobs to women seems to be a thing of the past. Today they handle both "hard" and "soft" jobs now in areas such as accounting, hospitality, banking, insurance, airways etc at the same time they are also being preferred for these jobs. As far as the culture of any business organization is concerned it plays a very pivot role in the development of the overall organization in itself and in the eyes of customers and different stakeholders. Culture could be defined as a way of living that consists of set of values, beliefs and attitude. To govern these things accordingly in the organization they have different set of rules to be followed. This could be possible with help of developing different policies, say discipline, recruitment, or other. Here it is necessary to highlight that most important is to respect the constitution of our country. So moving forward to this every organization is continuously collecting the idea and the success of different tools for the same. The latest or more important one here is to highlight the recruitment of female employees in the organization. This mantra was not so supported in the earlier time but as the research conveys it is now adopted by most of the organization in India itself. Female employees today constitute a major share of the workforce. In India alone, over 400 million are employed in various streams due to combination of factors like: Women emancipation, growing economic needs greater equality of sexes, increased literacy rate etc. But still there are still some conservative problems in rural areas for not supporting the education to women in India. Here we are confident enough that we can very well overcome by this problem in the nearby years. In some organization the ratio of male and female employees is around 60:40. They are now that much not interested to keep the old male employees rather moving for the selection of female candidates. And here our country's system of empowering women is becoming very helpful. Major effect of this issue is in the area of discipline among the employees within the office premises. We can very well understand that having only male employees in the organization lead to unsocial discussion and abusive language. But with the recruitment of female employees may help in this area and the people keep themselves in more mannered and polished behavior.

Illuminating the glass ceiling: the role of organizational culture preferences.The proportion of women participating in the labour force has increased dramatically in recent decades, which has resulted in a rapid increase in the number of women in management positions. Nevertheless, women are still underrepresented in management positions all over the world, and this is especially so for senior management positions (see Powell, 1999; United Nations Development Report, 1997). This phenomenon of women's careers being stuck at middle management levels is well documented and has been referred to as the `glass ceiling' effect. The `glass ceiling' effect has attracted considerable attention from social scientists, feminists, and currently also from managers, who consider this skewed balance in senior positions as an undesirable state of affairs. In the literature on the glass ceiling, many explanations have been offered and various possible determinants have been investigated, including institutional barriers, male managers' stereotypical expectations and attitudes, women's lack of self-confidence, or the effects of family responsibilities. Recent research and theorizing has drawn attention to the masculine organizational culture as a likely explanation for the persistence of the glass ceiling phenomenon. Although a male-dominated culture has for a long time been referred to in the discourse on institutional barriers for women's careers, it is only recently that the characteristics and consequences of organizational culture have been systematically described and investigated (see Maier, 1999, for an excellent overview). The central conclusion drawn from this literature is that organizations are based on norms and beliefs, which are more frequently adhered to by men than by women. Thus, masculine cultures, or masculine substructures, consist of hidden assumptions, tacit norms and organizational practices that promote forms of communication, views of self, approaches to conflict, images of leadership, organizational values, definitions of success and of good management, which are stereotypically masculine (Maier, 1999; Marshall, 1984, 1993; Powell, 1999; Sheppard, 1989). In a large number of studies, the contents of the masculine and feminine characteristics of cultures have been explored (see Hofstede, 1998). This masculinity/femininity dimension has been shown to be similar to other dimensions that have been described by various authors in the area of organizational psychology, such as poweroriented cultures versus people-oriented cultures (Williams, Dobson, & Walters, 1989), power and achievement cultures versus support and role cultures (Schein, 1997), or rational goal cultures versus human relations cultures (Quinn, 1988). The masculine dimension can be summarized as the promotion of independence, autonomy, hierarchical relations, competition, task-orientation, and the establishment of status and authority; whereas

femininity is described as the promotion of a relational self, maintaining balance in life activities, participation, and collaboration within the organization (see Maier, 1999). Because the large majority of senior managers and directors are male, and because men are assumed to adhere more to masculine values than to feminine values, it has often been argued that management (sub)cultures are still likely to be dominated by masculine norms and values. These masculine cultures would form one of the core elements of the glass ceiling. To date, most research on the glass ceiling has focused on mechanisms of exclusion and selection as the dynamics through which organizational culture forms a barrier for women's careers. It has been argued that women are silenced and banned from the dominant male culture by selection processes that are biased against women. Indeed, there is considerable empirical evidence that exclusion mechanisms such as gender schemes, gender stereotypes, or prejudiced attitudes all play an important role and influence judgments and evaluations of women unfavourably. However, women are not mere victims of the dominant culture. They are not only actively opposed and discriminated against, but they are also agents of their own careers. They have their own motives, desires and preferences to work in a particular culture, and they therefore feel more or less attracted towards specific organizational cultures. Self-selection, in terms of motives, preferences, or self-views that influence career decisions, may affect women's careers as much as the selection by others. Several authors have emphasized the importance of self-selection. Schneider (1987), for example, has argued that employees find work environments differently attractive as a function of the congruence between the characteristics of that environment and their own characteristics. A large body of research supports this idea by showing that people feel attracted to those organizations and jobs that are congruent with their own preferences. A recent study by Kulik (2000), for instance, showed that women were more likely to reject masculine-typed jobs. Moreover, person-organization fit research has shown that a sufficient match between people's preferences and supplies offered by the job and the organizational environment is important for job satisfaction, commitment and well-being. Similarly, research on self-stereotyping has shown that individuals tend to perceive other groups as homogeneous, based on societal stereotypes and their own experiences with members of the other group. Moreover, they are likely to perceive themselves as prototypical of their own group (self-stereotyping). Thus, women may differentiate their own characteristics (i.e. the characteristics of women) from those that they attribute to the group of managers (dominated by men), and therefore assume a mismatch between themselves and members of the management level. This self-stereotyping may affect women's `possible selves', that is, women's ideas about what they might become, which in turn may guide their career choices. In sum, self-selection processes are likely to play a role in career development and may explain women's relative absence in higher management functions. The basic question that guides the present research is what men and women find attractive or off-putting in an organizational culture and how these culture preferences affect managerial ambitions. First of all, we investigated women's and men's own culture preferences with regard to their work environment. Culture preferences are partly based on earlier experiences and personality characteristics. People who consider themselves very ambitious, for example, will probably favour a competitive environment; in contrast with people who see themselves as less ambitious. Because men and women are socialized in different roles, and as a consequence develop different gendered identities, we assume that men and women will differ in their organizational culture preferences. It seems likely that men will adhere more strongly to a competitive and achievement-oriented culture than women will. However, culture preferences are also rooted in one's specific role in the organization, and the culture preferences that are associated with specific role requirements may override these gender differences. For example, there is

strong empirical evidence that the manager's role is more associated with masculine-typed than with femininetyped values and characteristics: Managers are assumed to be rational, decisive, and ambitious, independent of their biological sex. This hypothesis is supported by various studies showing that male managers in the organization very much resemble female managers. In their meta-analysis of gender differences in leadership styles, for example, Eagly and Johnson (1990) found that there are only small differences between the management styles of male and female managers. These differences had even decreased to the extent that these cultures were more male-dominated, with women showing less concern about interpersonal relationships and general welfare. A similar pattern has been found with respect to the personality characteristics of female and male managers: Women who achieve senior management positions usually resemble men in their personality and behavior characteristics. Furthermore, female managers are more likely to be unmarried and childless than their male colleagues. This also implies that these women resemble men in that they do not have primary responsibilities for household or children. These findings suggest that managers will also have stronger preferences for a masculine-typed culture than employees in a non-managerial position have. Moreover, because masculine preferences can be seen as strongly associated with a management function, gender differences in culture preferences should decrease at managerial levels. Culture preferences are assumed to direct career choices in that they affect one's motives to pursue a career in higher management. Apart from having the right competencies, individuals need a strong motivation and interest in an upward career. If they lack this ambition or if they do not want to put extra effort into their career, the chance of being perceived as one of the potential managers in the organization is very small. Masculine culture preferences are especially assumed to affect employees' motives to advance in their careers.

Psychological Congruence: The Impact Of Organizational Context On Job Satisfaction And Retention Of Women In TechnologyThe Information Technology field has characteristics that make for a unique working environment. An organizational subculture has been recognized which can impact job satisfaction and turnover. The purpose of this article is to identify contextual elements that have a strong impact on job satisfaction and intentions to leave. Because organizational climate is often examined in conjunction with organizational culture, we will also attempt to identify those characteristics of climate that influence job satisfaction and intentions to leave. We also consider the moderating effect that gender schema may have on the relationship between organizational culture, job satisfaction, and intent to leave. Lastly, we offer propositions designed to inspire empirical research in these areas. Information Technology personnel wear many hats and carry many titles. It is not unusual to envision a programmer sitting at a keyboard when computer related jobs are discussed, but the category also encompasses positions of management and interaction with information users. Project managers, database administrators, network administrators, systems analysts, chief information technology officers, call center support staff, software engineers, and hardware

technicians are just samples of the titles and job descriptions that fall into this group of the specialized workforce under the IT heading. As highlighted in a special issue of Human Resource Management call for papers (11-29-04), Information Technology (IT) workers have unique characteristics thus having the potential for disparate effects of human resource policies. identified differences in motivation as well as other characteristics among Information Technology personnel. For example, IT managers in general have both lower social needs and higher growth needs than other managers. Strong occupational norms, and perhaps even a subculture, have formed for this group of professionals due to several factors. One of these factors is the extremely dynamic field itself in which Information Technology workers must function. The specialized up-to-date skills that must be developed have a very short life span. This requires employees to focus on professional development in addition to their daily work responsibilities, which can lead to an imbalance between work life and family life or outside activities. Stress can also be a factor. Many IT employees are on call 24/7, expected to work long hours and weekends. When problems arise with the organizations information systems or new projects approach implementation deadlines, IT personnel are summoned for unanticipated assignments. These factors, indicative of the professions culture, can lead to dissatisfaction with the job and ultimately lower productivity and/or increased turnover. Yet another aspect of the profession that can impact the IT working environment is the proportion of males and females in the field that hold radically differing gender schemas. Gender schemas refer to cognitive structures of organized prior knowledge regarding the role expectations of individuals based on biological sex. The IT field has traditionally been considered male and as with any profession that has been dominated by one gender, stereotyping occurs. The potential for unconscious bias in personnel selections for projects and promotions can contribute to stress and the loss of valuable qualified employees. Although current societal attitudes continue to identify men with technology, the growing area of computers and technology has certainly lured women away from traditional roles and career paths. Once in the field of IT, however, the women may not find the male culture of technology as attractive. In 1971, the female proportion of computer systems analysts and other specialists was only 9%. By 1990, this figure had jumped to 35%. But in 1993, a decline was noted in the proportion of females to 30% (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). In 1993, the National Science Foundation reported 255,000 women in the computer field; this figure decreased to 240,900 in 1995. A similar trend was found in the female share of computer and information science bachelors degrees. The female portion was 14% in 1971, increased to 37% in 1984, but declined to 28% in 1993. The number of women versus men in IT managerial positions is also unbalanced. Information Week provided a list of the 500 leading IT users in 1996. Women held the highest-ranking IT positions at about 7% of these organizations. Another indication of the scarceness of females in high ranking IT positions is the composition of membership in the Society for Information Management (SIM). This society is an organization of senior male and female IT executives. Of SIMs 2,700 members, only 195 were women (Wilde, 1997). The U.S. is not alone in its shortage of IT skills and decline in representation of women in this field. A study of the status of women in the IT industry in the United Kingdom suggests that even though the IT industry does not exclude women, it does little to promote them or to retain them. Trends such as these have raised

questions and prompted gender research in the IT arena. Although the environment can have a positive or negative impact on all IT workers, there is reason to believe that females in the field more often leave the organization due to their negative experiences sometimes driven by the culture. In a study of women entering and exiting computer related occupations, Wright noted that women leave computer work more than men when controlling for differences in background, education, experience, specialty, and industry. In general, women can more easily enter IT fields and acquire salaries close to that of their male counterparts. However, pressures exerted by the culture found in these occupations results in them leaving the industry. Although aspects of culture are often referred to when describing the work environment and explaining behavior, there frequently lacks a clear distinction between organizational culture and climate. For some, there is no distinction and the terms are used interchangeably. For this article, we use explanations proposed by Svyantek and Bott (2002) that define organizational culture as a set of shared values and norms held by employees. These values and norms guide interactions with peers, management, and clients. Organizational climate, on the other hand, represents employees perceptions of organizational policies, practices and procedures that support creativity, innovation, safety or service. Climate might be considered a manifestation of culture (Schein, 1985, Schneider, 1990). Thus, the purpose of our article is to first identify characteristics of culture and climate that influence job satisfaction and intentions to leave of women in IT. We then consider the moderating effect that traditional and non-traditional gender schemas may have on the relationships just described (Figure 1). Finally, we offer propositions and suggestions for future research in this area.

Women's perceptions of organizational culture, work attitude and role modeling behaviors:According to the National Centre for Education Statistics, women in America currently occupy more than half the seats in the nation's college classrooms and earn more than half the MBAs (Gerald and Hussar, 2002). They comprise half the U.S. workforce and their numbers in traditionally male- dominated. Environments (such as manufacturing) are steadily growing. Yet they continue to be significantly underrepresented in the executive ranks of nearly every industry and enterprise in the nation. Only about ten percent of the senior

managers in Fortune 500 companies are women, with less than four percent holding

the "C-level" titles of CEO, CFO, and CO0. Among top corporate earners, women number less than three percent. Overall, women continue to earn less than males. Even after correcting for theories explaining these gaps--that women neglect to build their "human capital," that married women sacrifice their careers for their spouses', that women choose the "mommy track"--the fact remains, men still achieve greater extrinsic career success than women. What these researchers conclude is that organizations may create a climate in which subtle forms of discrimination still exist. Various speculations exist for why this might be. For example, in a recent survey of men and women executives from Fortune 1000 companies, more than 46 percent cited stereotypes about women's roles and abilities, a lack of role models, a lack of mentoring, and an inhospitable corporate culture as explanations career advancement inequity between men and women (Wellington et al., 2003). These factors appear to create a condition we call the opportunity gap: the phenomenon that bars women from advancing in their careers at the same rate as men. For women to advance, it is important for those few women at higher

ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURES AND WORK ATTITUDESThe survey of 1,000 corporate executives by Wellington et al. (2003) also revealed that inhospitable organizational cultures contribute to the opportunity gap between men and women in corporate America. Organizational culture represents the values, norms, and beliefs internalized by organizational members that shape the behaviors and attitudes that are rewarded (Schein, 1992). We suggest that an "inhospitable" culture is linked to the lack of role models and mentoring available to women indirectly through women's career satisfaction and organizational commitment. Because there are many common typologies and dimensions of organizational culture (a thorough review is beyond the scope of this study), we focused on two cultural dimensions that reflect our theoretical interest in examining the degree to which the organization equally values men and women (i.e., is more hospitable towards women): masculine and collectivistic.

Masculine CultureThe masculine organizational culture dimension reflects the more traditional workplace-one created, maintained, and controlled by males since its inception. Masculinity captures the extent to which the organization values men more than women. It is associated with more stereotypical male traits, such as independence, internal competition, self-promotion, overt ambitiousness, decisiveness, aggressiveness, and the establishment of status and authority. This "code of conduct" in masculine cultures, while recognizable to males, can be completely alien to females and thus would be considered less hospitable towards women's careers. For example, an "old-boy network" excludes women from centres of influence and valuable sources of information, often trivializing or ignoring their contributions (Mann, 1995). Even women in senior roles in large corporations find themselves "on the outside looking in" when it comes to information sharing and access to the inner circle, where decisions are made (Delany, 2003). Women characterize such a culture as exclusionary and claim that upper management often lacks awareness of the barriers it creates to women's assimilation and advancement. While women can and do function in masculine cultures, it is not without a cost. Those who attempt to adopt male behaviours generally have not found it to lead to career success, nor did their experience help create a more hospitable setting for future generations of women. Women come to the workplace believing that they have equal opportunity with males with similar credentials. When they do not achieve at the same pace as their male counterparts, they become confused, believing they have done everything necessary to succeed (Singh et al., 2002). Some women attempt to emulate the male behaviors in the belief that it is necessary for career advancement, yet this may leave them feeling untrue to their own identity. Others, frustrated with barriers to advancement, leave to build their own business. These feelings that they cannot be themselves and there are too many barriers for advancement may lead to women being less committed to the organization and less

satisfied with their careers. Many other women reasonably conclude that they do not "fit" into their organizations; yet seeing little if any alternative, they opt to stay. Personorganization fit--that is, the compatibility between an individual's values and the organization's values--is critical to retaining committed employees (Chatman, 1991) and has been related to career satisfaction. Hypothesis 3: Women's perceptions of a masculine organizational culture will be negatively related to (a) career satisfaction and (b) organizational commitment.

ROLE-MODELING BEHAVIORS AND WORK ATTITUDESStudies have identified mentoring and organizational citizenship behaviours as important workplace behaviors associated with career advancement. Vincent and Seymour (1995) found that mentors' careers are enhanced because protgs offer work assistance and serve as sounding boards for ideas. In fact, 97 percent of mentors reported that being a mentor helped their own careers. Likewise, research on organizational citizenship (OCB), such as promoting the organization and helping coworkers improve work-group functioning, found that organizations reward OCB in terms of salary and promotion and overall performance evaluations. noted that mentoring and OCB are conceptually similar in that both represent extra-role behaviours not mandated by organizational roles but are nonetheless rewarded by organizations. Yet these are distinct constructs in that mentoring involves more depth and focuses on behaviors intended to develop junior colleagues, whereas organizational citizenship focuses on specific behaviors directed toward individuals that benefit the work group or organization as a whole.

Mentoring BehaviorsMentoring is a developmental relationship that occurs between senior and junior colleagues. Mentors provide both career and psychosocial development). Career mentoring includes sponsorship, exposure and visibility, coaching, protection, and

providing challenging assignments. Psychosocial mentoring includes role-modelling, acceptance and confirmation, counseling, and friendship. The majority of research on mentoring has focused on how the protg benefits from receipt of mentoring in terms of career advancement and work satisfaction. Research has also examined gender differences in receiving and benefiting from mentoring and concluded that both men and women equally receive mentoring but some career outcomes associated with mentoring depend on the gender composition of the dyad. While less studied, research has examined the benefits of being a mentor.

References And Bibliographies:www.zeroriskhr.com www.hrsurveys.com Text: management Practices and Organisational Behaviour Magazine 4Ps (Dec 2008)