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Running head: HOW TO CULTIVATE MORE FEMALE LEADERS BY MINYOUNG MOON

How to Cultivate More Female Leaders by Implementing Customized Career Development

Strategies at Every Stage

Minyoung Moon

EHRD 625 Organization Development

College of Education and Human Development

Texas A&M University

1HOW TO CULTIVATE MORE FEMALE LEADERS BY MINYOUNG MOON

Abstract

The increase of females in the workforce will keep growing, and the importance of

developing more female leaders will also be expanding in organizations. There are sufficient

current studies about women’s career development, but they are general and on a surface level.

No study addresses specific strategies that are effectively applicable to women at each career

level in organizations. Since there is rising interest of having more female leaders at industries,

applying different strategies at every stage for women is now imperative. That being said, one of

the key methods will involve training women employees with proper emphasis on developing

job skills while considering the individual’s needs and values. It is a responsibility for

organizations to provide such services for retaining more female employees and future female

leaders. Hence, this paper explores the practical guidelines to cultivate more female leaders by

developing customized career development plans at every stage- namely, entry, mid-managerial,

and senior executive level.

Keywords: Female leadership, female career development, gender equality, gender

diversity, female employment, leadership style, women’s work choice


Introduction/Background of the Research

In today’s business world, organizations keep changing to keep up with the times and

trends to sustain competition. As business stress more diversity perspectives at work, gender

diversity is regarded as one of the major areas that contribute positive changes. The 2010

McKinsey Women Matter global survey on gender diversity highlighted the relationship between

having female leaders and companies’ financial performances. According to McKinsey’s

research, companies with a higher proportion of women in their executive committees achieve

better financial performances (Desvaux, Devillard, & Sultan, 2010). Indeed, many current

researchers address the benefits of organization due to gender diversity in executive levels. Thus,

it is important to note that having more female executive leaders may influence organizational

success.

In the same vein, over the last decade many studies have shown the benefits of having

female leaders (Phillips & Imhoff, 1997). Also, current organizations have been emphasizing the

importance of gender diversity, and there are various scholarly results to intensify female

strengths (Bass & Avolio, 1994). Despite such efforts, there is still a scarcity of women in the

senior management and executive ranks (Furst & Reeves, 2008). The literature has neither

applicable theories nor research on women’s career development. (Forrest & Mikolaitis, 1986;

Powell & Mainiero, 1992). Moreover, nearly all research and theories of vocational development

have been undertaken with men as the subject (Matthews, 1972). This shows that although there

are many studies lauding the benefits of female leaders at corporations, existing research has not

examined efficient methods to cultivate female leaders at each stage over their career. This lack

of knowledge limits our understanding of the appropriate tools or methods to emphasize career

development for women in corporations.


Since gender diversity in the top management of corporations remains a foremost

concern, organizations may invest in many programs for gender equality, and the importance of

retaining females in the workforce has increasingly been highlighted (Adler & Izraeli, 1994).

To increase the number of female leaders, it will be necessary to study how to develop them

from the beginning of their careers to the senior levels. According to Beeson and Valerio

(2012), customized development plans will help future leaders both cultivate and display

necessary skills to senior management. Therefore, this study will suggest how to cultivate more

female leaders by applying customized development plans at every stage - namely, entry level,

mid managerial level, and senior executive level. Human Resource Development (HRD)

practitioners should understand the importance of gender inclusion and apply these strategies to

create more gender diversity in the real world.

Given a growing concern for the need of gender diversity at work, it will be helpful to

examine proper career development plans that consider women’s life cycles. Scholars have

acknowledged that studies for women have not sufficiently conducted yet. Much of women’s

career behavior has previously been interpreted using a male perspective (Gallos, 1989). Also,

Matthews (1972) points out that men’s life cycles are not the same as women’s. Since there is

no study about proper guidelines for women at every stage, this study will provide practical

recommendations to develop female leaders more efficiently for the sake of both individual and

organizational effectiveness.

This study is composed of six parts: introduction, problems identified, purpose, major

findings, discussion of findings, and conclusions & implications for research and practice. First,

this research will review the current status of female leaders in U.S corporations. Second, a

problem that drives the purpose of this study will be identified. Third, major findings will be


addressed in detail with discussion based on the reviews of the previous research. Last but not

least, the implications for this research will be followed with a conclusion that this study

suggests.

Problems identified

Despite the importance of retaining female leaders, only twenty one women hold Fortune

500 CEO positions, accounting for 4.2 percent of all Fortune 500 CEOs. Only 16.6 percent

positions in Fortune 500 companies are held by women. Considering the number of women with

a higher education is almost double that of men, this statistic in corporate leadership positions is

depressing. Furthermore, it is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore gender diversity at work.

McKinsey’s study (2012) contends that many companies now recruit their equal numbers of men

and women, but women are still underrepresented as they move higher up in the organization

(Devillard, Graven, Lawson, Paradise, & Sultan, 2012). The lack of female leaders might have

been caused by various internal and external factors. However, cultivating more female leaders is

now an increasingly important area in the HRD field.

According to Elsaid and Ursel (2011), if there are more women on the board, there are

likely to be more female CEOs in an organization, regardless of whether they are from inside or

outside the firm. In order to have more female leaders in an organization, it will be essential to

study why women quit their jobs and possible solutions to prevent these incidents. Although a

majority of leaders recognize the impact of gender diversity on business performance, this belief

does not translate into actions. In fact, gender diversity is not considered to be a high priority for

companies’ strategic agendas, and the implementation of dedicated programs remains limited

(Desvaux et al., 2010).


Allowing that each employee is experiencing different life stages within their career, it

will be important to come up with the best customized plan to effectively enhance their career

development. Not only are these employees experiencing different career stages, but they also

have different coping mechanisms and learning styles that must be managed in order for

employees to reach their full career potential (Werner & DeSimone, 2012). Thus, HRD

professionals must zone in on the key components that will help enhance employee relationships

within an organization.

Employees whose needs are met within the workplace are less likely to leave. This helps

decrease employee turnover rate and will benefit organizations that invest time, money and

energy in the career development of their employees (Westerman & Yamamura, 2007).

Since each employee has different expectations and values, it is important for organizations to

understand the career outlook of their employees. Having employees create a career plan will

provide them with achievable goals and simultaneously gives the organizations a better

understanding of employee expectations. Also, this will help the organization introduce more

programs and opportunities for career development (Werner & DeSimone, 2012).

The first serious discussions and analyses of career development needs emerged in the

1950s (Hausmann, Tyson, & Zahidi, 2012). This approach recognized that individual careers

change throughout one's working life and that different stages are marked by different needs,

concerns, commitments, aspirations, and interests. That being said, there has been an increasing

interest in career development in organizations; however, only limited endeavors have been

made (Jepsen & Choudhuri, 2001; Savickas, 2001, 2002b; Vondracek, 1998, 2001; Vondracek &

Hartung, 2002). Specifically, research on occupational behavior focusing on women’s career

development has been scarce (Huang & Sverke, 2007). Surprisingly, no previous research has


surveyed the methods of educating women at career stages. The research to date has tended to

focus on men and instills male perspectives into women’s career development. Therefore, much

published research on this issue cannot be specifically applicable for females.

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of female employees’

perceptions at work and the organizational commitment to retain more female leaders in an

organization. The overarching research topic is: “how to cultivate more female leaders by

emphasizing different strategies at every stage” This is further refined into three major areas for

women at work in North America: entry level, mid managerial level, and senior executive level.

According to T+D Magazine, Noble (2012) wrote, “If managers do not become adept at

coaching their employees, it is unlikely that they will be able to achieve sustainable long-term

positive results for themselves or their organizations” (p. 32). This is precisely why the managers

within an organization need to practice appropriate career development. Not utilizing this

practice will result in an even further drop in employee engagement. Women in the corporations

suffer from lack of career development. In general, women’s main role has been nurturing their

family and child care. Passivity has been acceptable, even admirable, as a female trait, and it has

been quite possible for women to flow along from one period of her life to another never really

planning her own future (Matthews, 1972). This will affect their work behaviors, job

engagements, and their life satisfaction in the long run.

Another study advocates that women’s job transitions involve not only family dynamics,

but also employment processes. These processes are shaped by their own work experience and

resources accumulated over their lifetimes as well as the opportunities and rewards derived from


their current employment (Taniguchi & Rosenfeld, 2002). Therefore, a well-developed career

development with an effective organizational support will encourage more women to come to the

workforce. Moreover, existing research has identified that multinational firms are seeking to

promote more women into senior management as global competition challenges them to

maximize the effectiveness of firms’ human resources (Adler & Izraelie, 1994). However, far too

little attention has been paid to women’s career development. In order to sustain competitiveness

in the global era, there will be constant discussions on how to effectively cultivate female

leaders.

For the purpose of this study, this paper will examine the current issues and possible

solutions to have more female leaders based on a considerable amount of literature reviews.

Then, practical guidelines will be addressed for developing more female leaders using an HRD

aspect. This study will provide better understanding of women’s work choices and development

during their life cycles focusing on individual periods.

Major Findings

This section will provide the major findings of women’s work habits at different stages:

entry, mid-managerial, and senior executive levels, through multiple literature reviews. As

females in the workforce are a key construct of interest in this study, the target sample only

includes women with working experiences.

Previous studies have reported that women are lauded as having the right combination of

skills for leadership, yielding exemplary leadership styles and outstanding effectiveness

(Desvaus et al., 2010; Eagly & Van Engen 2003). On the other hand, there appears to be

widespread recognition that women often come in second to men in competitions to attain


leadership positions. Women are still portrayed as suffering certain disadvantages in access to

leadership positions as well as prejudice and resistance when they occupy these roles. Not having

enough reinforcement and awareness of gender equality in a firm influences the lack of female

leaders as well. When gender diversity is at the top of the strategic agenda, there will be more

actions taken and more women at the executive level (Desvaus et al., 2010). To resolve this

unfairness, it is highly recommended that organizations detect concrete problems and probable

solutions.

First, at the entry level, employees start to merge their knowledge and skills to adjust in

their organization. There will be a mixed feeling of excitement and anxiety to be in a new

environment. Viscusi (1980) mentioned that women are more likely to quit work than men due to

greater uncertainty regarding their appropriateness in such jobs. Besides, in his study, Viscusi

(1980) added that women workers quit twice as often as do men who have less than a year of

work. Based on this data, the connection exists between women’s job uncertainty and their

quitting. For entry level, it is also time for women to redefine their roles inside and out.

Researchers pointed out that they consider occupational choices, in terms of expectations of

home and family requirements (Davey, 1998; Eccles, 1987). This sudden role defining process

can be a burden for women, and all this uncertainty may cause women to be vulnerable at work.

Lalande, Crozier, & Davey (2000) found that relationships were important to women’s

careers in terms of how they chose their occupations, their self-knowledge development, and

career decisions. Women’s choices are largely dependent on their relationships with the people

who surround them whether they are family members or colleagues from work, and they are

influencing women’s choices in the professional world. Huang and Sverke (2007) stated that

women in lower-level occupations were more likely to experience downward mobility and


fluctuations. Moreover, the downfall is that younger women may have a weaker attachment to

the labor force because of family responsibilities (Meitzen, 1986). Hence, it has conclusively

been shown that women care about their relationships with family and others.

Second, at the mid-managerial level, women highly debate the choice of home versus

work. Stone (2007) in her book titled “Opting out?: Why women really quit careers and head

home?” contended that all women tend to quit their jobs once they become mothers. The mid-

managerial level is actually a main period that intensively develops a career in depth. Mid-

managerial level women are experienced, and they could excel their competencies further.

However, surveys such as that conducted by Taniguchi and Rosenfeld (2002) have shown that

having children influenced rates of leaving the workforce for all women. This supports the idea

that almost all women are affected by child bearing and rearing, which makes family events

greatly affect women’s decision making. Moreover, Neugarten (1968) found differences between

mature men and women. For men, there existed a close tie between the life line and the career

line whereas women’s cues were drawn heavily from the timing of events with the family. This

implies that many talented women may leave a company when they decide to have or nurture

children or take on other family commitments, meaning it is difficult for women to reconcile

work and home in reality.

Third, at the senior executive level, women tend to come back to the workforce and their

desire to work is higher than the ones who just graduated from the college. In fact, the survey

conducted by Meitzen (1986) shows that women at this level quit their job 30% less than when

they were 25 years old. At the senior executive level, women might have more time to focus on

their own lives, looking back at what they can do and contribute something to their family,


community, and society. It is also time for conducting efficient leadership to provide visions and

directions to employees.

In 1999, Avolio, Bass, & Jung conducted a meta-analysis of 45 studies of

transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership styles, which are the most used

measure of different leadership styles. This is called the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire

(MLQ). According to this study, they found that female leaders were more transformational than

male leaders and also engaged in more of the contingent reward behaviors that are a component

of transactional leadership. The same research has also established that all of the aspects of

leadership style on which women exceeded men related positively to leaders’ effectiveness,

whereas all of the aspects on which men exceeded women had negative or null relations to

effectiveness. This result supports the notion that women can be regarded better leaders than

men. However, little change has actually occurred in the most senior ranks, although there are

many women entering the workforce over the last two decades (Bass & Avolio, 1994).

Discussion of Findings

When it comes to the topic of female leadership, most of us will readily agree that it is

now unquestionably essential for the growth of organizations. It is common sense that if there are

more females at work, there will be more female leaders. Where this agreement usually ends is

on the question of handling gender diversity at work. Some are convinced that gender inclusion

is imperative, while others still maintain the double standards for women when it comes to

balance between family and work issues. Since this balance is one of the reasons for why women

quit their work, this section will provide more practical approaches from the organizations’

points of view to prevent this incident, as well as merits for having female leaders.


According to Metzen (1986), the most common reason for why women leave the market

is to raise a family and engage in other household work. Taking care of children and nurturing a

family has been generally a norm for women throughout history. Therefore, there is a term for

working women called the “double burden” syndrome- the combination of work and domestic

responsibilities- which means that it is difficult to reconcile between family and work (Desvaux

et al., 2010).

At the entry level, it is vital to set a clear occupational goal. There are several authors

who advocate that how well the career plans are established at an early stage influences how well

one fulfills the tasks in later stages (Jepsen & Dickson, 2003; Super, 1957). Based on the result

of the aforementioned studies, it will be beneficial to set long-term career advancements. Viscusi

(1980) mentions that women quit more than men at their early stages. Thus, development plans

for women should include long-term views that use their talents to maximize their success.

Inman (1998) suggests that women need to address strategies to strengthen the areas that are

essential to individual development once they discover their talents. When establishing career

plans, seeking female mentors whom they can look up to as role models and from whom they

can receive coaching will be helpful. This can be a women’s network at work that will be a

comfort for the women, as all can share their experiences with each other. Lalande, Crozier, &

Davey (2000) also claim that there is a close link between a woman’s relationships and her

career development, as these two influence each other. Building a strong relationship with other

women may affect her growth in the organization. Additionally, Albert (1996) emphasizes the

individual use of journaling to document one’s talents. A journal can serve as a map of the

learning process and self-definition. If women keep career journals from the early stages, it will

be an efficient method to foresee what they are good at and the areas that need improvements.


Therefore, in the early stages, it is recommended for women to establish long-term career goals

that consider one’s talent and have close relationships with both colleagues and upper levels.

At the mid-managerial level, there is still a constant battle between a woman’s roles as a

devoted mother at home and a talented manager at work. Farmer and Bohn (1970) studied the

effect of the conflict between home and career on the level of women’s vocational interests.

They concluded that women feel more vocational interest if they perceive less work at home.

This indicates that women feel obliged to pay more attention to home than work. However, in

another major study, Harmon(1970) has made an important contribution to the understanding of

career development in women. He claims that career-committed women do not report less

satisfaction from their homes, participate less in volunteer services, or have less accomplished

house chores than the non-committed women. Harmon (1970) added that the reasons for women

to become less committed to career are not circumstantial but motivational. This finding is

somewhat unexpected and suggests that organizations need to help women to be motivated at

work while highlighting their competencies and values. Most importantly, female individuals

should not feel burdened by their family responsibilities at work. In order to support women with

children at work, companies may adopt flexible working schedules and offer on-site childcare

services. It will also be helpful to make childcare arrangements among communities in the effort

to integrate work and family lives. To accelerate motivation, companies can offer workshops that

help women to envision their potentials as future leaders and successful employees for an

organization.

The mid-managerial period is the main period for training employees to be qualified for

the next executive level. The data reveals large gender disparities in the following areas:

operations, finance, accounting, secretary, legal, public relations, and human resources (Helfat,


Harris, and Wolfson, 2006). Men are much more heavily represented in the former two areas,

which are required background for CEOs in general. Women are more represented in public

relations and human resources. Oakley (2000) claims that managers need to have experience in

areas such as marketing and operations by the mid-level stage at the latest to be considered in the

pipeline for the top position. These studies produce results which corroborate that a CEO’s a

primary job is to make corporations profitable. Rotating jobs can be one of the methods that give

female managers the opportunity to oversee how each department functions. To cultivate more

females at the senior level, it will be essential to give them experience, particularly in marketing

and operation areas.

At the senior executive level, these women are mostly well-experienced in their jobs and

generally in charge of making decisions in business and guiding followers to reach

organizational goals. Based on their past experiences and skills, they should reassess their

accomplishments of the past and lead employees. It is also possible for them to be able to build

bridges between generations by mentoring new followers. The downfall of being in a leadership

position is that professionals, those who have developed highly prestigious careers and made

upward career mobility, reported more stressful job perceptions, although they were indeed more

satisfied with the job itself (Huang & Sverke, 2007).

Aburdene and Naisbitt (1992) searched for examples of a new breed of manager for the

organizations of the future. They established that in the current diversified workforce, it is

necessary for leaders to have the ability to create a nourishing environment for personal growth.

To date, a large and growing body of literature has investigated the style of female leaders and

found that women are generally more caring about others compared to men. Bass and Avolio

(1994) contend that women managers, on average, tend to be more transformational and more


proactive in addressing problems. Also, the new generations of women managers are consensus

builders who encourage wider participation in decision-making and are more open with

colleagues (Bass & Avolio, 1994). Hence, if nurturing others and employee involvement are the

main qualities desired of leaders in the new era, women are likely to be seen as more effective

and qualified leaders. Companies should value this transformational leadership that women

bring, and encourage female employees to be future leaders who can elaborate all these aspects.

In addition, the successful woman can make a prime contribution to the counseling of

other women who are at earlier stages (Matthews, 1972). Because females value building

relationships more than men, forming a female counseling group can be a good way to initiate

coworker relationships among women. More female leaders should strive to be role models for

their female followers. By sharing their own stories, female leaders can build strong relationships

with other female colleagues and cultivate future female leaders. Also, the senior levels’ work

pressure can be eased by sharing different points of view with others in similar situations.

Therefore, high-achieving women should be encouraged to share their career challenges and

success stories, as well as their career development strategies with other women in the pipeline

of future leaders (Beeson & Valerio, 2012).

Conclusions & Implications for Research and Practice

This paper has given an account of and the reasons for the widespread stress about more

female leaders in the industries. The author aimed to understand women’s customized career

development needs based on their stage in the workforce. Although the emphasis of having more

female leaders at organizations is a rising issue, there were no studies addressing specific

development plans for women. This study provides some guidelines for industries based on an

understanding of women’s choices at work and what they need to be successful leaders.


The findings of this study have a number of important implications for future practice. At

the entry level, female employees tend to be more vulnerable and quit twice as much than men in

the first year. To prevent this, companies should focus on developing their long-term career plans

and have them to talk mentors. At the mid-managerial level, female managers deeply struggle

between being a mother at home and a manager at work. They feel torn between these two roles,

so companies should assist them by offering child care facilities or similar services. Also, this is

a time for strengthening and improving female employees’ skills specifically in profit related

areas, such as marketing, operation, and finance. At the senior executive level, female leaders are

presumed to be experienced and well-acknowledged in their field, so they could take a role as a

facilitator for women of younger generations. Taken together, these suggestions at each stage can

be applicable at work. There is, therefore, a definite need for a different career development to

cultivate more female leaders. Most importantly, at every phase, women can help other women

to understand themselves and the world of work (Matthews, 1972). Every HRD professional

should think about women’s life spans and consider how women evolve through every stage.

Besides, regardless of gender, all employees should be aware of the importance of gender

diversity in the workforce and cooperate to manage a diverse workforce.

Finally, a number of important limitations need to be considered. First, the most

important limitation lies in the fact that this study consisted of only literature reviews. More

empirical studies may be needed to make more generalized ideas. Although it is difficult to

generalize from the findings of this research due to the preliminary nature of the study, the

results do provide further understanding and additional support for women’s career development

and psychological development theory, and lend credibility to the value of particular career

development interventions for women. Second, it is data from the U.S., focusing on only U.S


corporations. The current research was not specifically designed to evaluate factors related to

other cultures. Future studies should consider using different research designs as well as cross-

cultural aspects. This lack of academic scrutiny leads to a variety of unanswered and unresolved

issues including what factors should be considered when other countries value different styles of

leadership other than transformational.

It is hoped that additional studies will build on and further develop knowledge in this area

so that there are more systematic tools to use for cultivating more female leaders in the future.

More information and stories on female leaders in the real world would help us to establish a

greater degree of accuracy on this matter. The presence of more women in leadership positions is

one of the positive indicators to stretch this research further.


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web viewconsidering the number of women with a higher education is almost double that of men, ......

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