In today’s globalised business environment, females are underrepresented in expatriate positions. The lower numbers of females in international assignments results from the glass-ceiling that is established within the organisational culture of MNCs. What happens however, when the organisational culture is renowned for diversity, a strong ethical code of conduct and operates in a female-focused industry? We have therefore decided to investigate: “How does the organisational culture of Alpha cosmetics affect the job satisfaction of female expatriates?” and “What are the challenges related to female expatriation?” The study will attempt to answer the research questions by exploring the themes of organisational culture, job satisfaction and female expatriation. A qualitative research method involving semi-structured interviews, with ten female expatriates working for Alpha Cosmetics, was conducted.  Based on our results, Alpha Cosmetics possesses a clan culture which is commonly associated with high levels of job satisfaction. That appears to be the case in the beginning, however, the dark side of the culture surfaces when the expatriate glass-ceiling is identified in the organisation. This ceiling makes females self-initiate their expatriation without receiving any of the organisational benefits accompanied with traditional expatriation. This situation signifies the negative impact of the organisational culture on the job satisfaction of female expatriates.

Women entrepreneurs are emerging in the national economy as important players, yet gender bias and stereotypes still exist in organizations that prevent firms from taking advantage of women'€™s potential as leaders in entrepreneurial ventures. At the same time, traditional leadership models are lacking in diversity and unanswered questions remain regarding the role of gender in entrepreneurial leadership and enterprise sustainability. The purpose of this qualitative study, which used an exploratory, multiple-case research design, was to gain insight into the leadership practices of women entrepreneurial leaders and the implications of these practices for enterprise longevity 5 years after their business'€™s start-up phase. This study is framed by, first, the concept of the entrepreneurial leader and, second the intersectionality of gender and entrepreneurial leadership. Semistructured interviews with 9 participants, observational field notes, and archival data provided data regarding the leadership experiences of women entrepreneurs and enterprise longevity of women-led firms. Identifiable themes emerged through thematic analysis of the textual data and cross-case synthesis analysis. A total of 7 conceptual categories that enclose a total of 12 themes were identified. The conceptual categories are (a) gender, (b) entrepreneurial leadership, (c) market, (d) money, (e) management skills, (f) macro environment, and (g) meso environment. Findings from this study may serve as a catalyst for social change by challenging the status quo in existing formal work structures and promoting diversity in the workplace, opening new avenues for business growth and building bridges of communication between the business world and society.

Background: Studies that have been made in male-dominated organisations shows that only few women have succeeded in advancing to the higher positions in all businesses. Statistics shows that merely 4 % of the managers in all building companies are female. The manager role has earlier always been classified as most suitable for men resulting in barriers for women who strive for management positions. This problem is now very renowned and is called the glass ceiling. To improve the current situation, both the organization's structure and culture, have to be modernized for more women to succeed and get the courage to get into the industry. More women in the construction industry would enrich many companies and widely expand its competence. Purpose: The thesis of this paper is to provide an understanding of how the factors structure, culture, family, networking and leadership contributes to the few female managers in the production part of the construction industry. We are going to explore how women managers, based on their own experiences, believe that these barriers can be reduced. Delivery: To fulfill our purpose we have chosen to do a qualitative study with a deductive approach. We have conducted four interviews with female managers or previous female managers at different construction companies. Results: We have established that both women themselves and the companies can increase women's chances to advance in the construction industry. Women can more easily reach a management position in the construction industry by adapting to the male culture, achieving a balance between family and work and gain networking contacts. Companies in the construction industry can increase the proportion of female managers by focusing on recruitment, organizational structure, work climate, mentoring, and by taking into account the woman's family. We also found that it is important to keep the women who already work in the industry to attract more women to enter there. It is important to have female role models in companies that can guide and be good examples for new employees. Increasing the proportion of women in the construction industry requires that the interest in structural engineering is increasing in young girls. By this there will be more female applicants for structural engineering courses in the university. To reduce problems and create opportunities for women to work in the construction industry more women would be able to advance in the business. It also would lead to the glass ceiling becoming much thinner and that it could be broken completely in the future. / Bakgrund: Studier genomförda på mansdominerade företag visar att det finns ytterst få kvinnor som lyckats avancera till de högre positionerna inom samtliga företag. Statistik visar att endast 4 % av cheferna i alla byggföretag i Sverige är kvinnor. Chefskapet har tidigare alltid klassats som mest lämpligt för män vilket har lett till att kvinnor som strävar efter chefspositioner hindras från att ta sig upp i hierarkin. Detta problem är idag mycket omtalat och kallas för glastaket. För att förbättra dagens situation måste både organisationens struktur och kultur moderniseras för att fler kvinnor ska lyckas och våga ta sig in i branschen. Fler kvinnor i byggbranschen skulle berika många företag och i stor utsträckning utöka dess kompetens. Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att skapa en förståelse kring hur faktorerna struktur, kultur, familjesituation, nätverk samt ledarskap bidrar till fåtalet kvinnliga chefer i den producerande delen av byggbranschen. Vi ska även undersöka hur kvinnliga chefer, utifrån egna erfarenheter, anser att dessa hinder kan reduceras. Genomförande: För att uppfylla vårt syfte har vi valt att göra en kvalitativ studie med en deduktiv ansats. Vi har genomfört fyra stycken besöksintervjuer, tre med kvinnliga chefer och en med en tidigare chef på fyra olika byggföretag. Resultat: Vi har konstaterat att både kvinnor själva och företagen kan öka kvinnors chans att avancera inom byggbranschen. Kvinnor kan lättare nå en chefsposition i byggbranschen genom att anpassa sig till den manliga kulturen, uppnå balans mellan familj och arbete och skaffa nätverkskontakter. Företagen i byggbranschen kan öka andelen kvinnliga chefer genom att fokusera på rekrytering, organisationsstruktur, arbetsklimat, mentorskap och genom att ta hänsyn till kvinnans familjesituation. Vi har även kommit fram till att det är viktigt att behålla de kvinnor som redan finns i branschen idag för att intressera fler kvinnor att söka sig dit. Det är viktigt att det finns kvinnliga förebilder i företagen som kan vägleda och vara goda exempel för nyanställda. För att öka andelen kvinnor i byggbranschen krävs det att intresset för byggteknik ökar hos unga tjejer för att sedan få fler kvinnliga sökande till byggtekniska utbildningar. Att reducera problemen och skapa möjligheter för kvinnor att arbeta i byggbranschen skulle göra att fler kvinnor kan avancera inom företagen. Detta skulle även leda till att glastaket blir betydligt tunnare och i framtiden skulle kunna brytas helt.

This study considered how being Latina, and all the variables inherent in gender and ethnicity intersect when a Latina is a public school district superintendent in Texas; specifically, how a Latina superintendent effectuates meaningful and productive superintendent-board relations. The study employed a phenomenological approach, and utilized semi-structured interviews, collection of artifacts, researcher observations, and a board of education member survey. Through the interpretivist paradigm, elements of gender role theory permeated the study. The notion of the glass ceiling as a barrier that women seeking executive level positions, such as the superintendency, emerged from the discourse of the study. Findings suggest that where professional skills, knowledge, and abilities are concerned there is no gender difference; however, the ability for women to be equally considered for executive level positions, such as the superintendency, suggests that disparity in practice continues to exist. Women are challenged to be equally considered for the superintendency. While women carry a presumably different challenge to balance work and family, the findings suggest that those who have attained the superintendency were able to thrive amidst this challenge. The study also suggests that the three Latina superintendent study participants’ practices in developing and maintaining effective superintendent-board relations sustained prior research in this regard. Where superintendents are strategic and purposeful in their efforts to develop and maintain effective superintendent-board relations, they thrive. In contrast, where superintendents are not strategic and purposeful in their efforts to develop and maintain effective superintendent-board relations, the superintendent’s tenure is abbreviated. / text

The problem for women in the work market has been and is still being widely studied from different domains and fields, there is however still countless fissures linked to it. Even though the gender equality has comprehensively increased in recent decades, it is still apparent in high responsibility positions. This situation caught our attention and stimulated us to analyse the women’s condition within organizations. Scholars have developed different theories linked to organizations, but our complex and fast developing society has surpassed most of these classical theories, making them either partially or totally irrelevant. For instance standards such as hierarchical organizations, individualism and aggressiveness are no longer considered as the most efficient values. This work investigates the barriers that women have to overcome in order to break though leading positions, as well as the identification of female and male leadership and their stereotypes’ consequences. Accordingly, we intend to propose solutions and new approaches liable to help integrating more women in high profile positions. We are aspiring to create a new trend representing successful leadership that is no longer correlated to the male stereotype. The theoretical part engages in theories surrounding female gender leadership as well as gender related barriers, while the empirical method involves the conduction of semi structured interview with women in high management positions, with the aim of setting up a solid ground for analysis and discussion. Due to this fact, we believe that the woman is the future of the organization, therefore we firstly call for the implementation and the reinforcement of the female “role model” and secondly encourage companies to adopt and promote our new concept of “the ecological organization” in order to achieve a more flexible, balanced and sane organizational culture in a foreseeable future.

Successful leadership is the dream of all the students of leadership for which various elements including personality, skills, vision etc. are mentioned by various scholars and researchers, but what is interesting to acknowledge is that all these elements are a manifest of the moment that alter the identity of an ordinary person into a successful leader. These moments are known to be called crucible of leadership.Crucible has a strong connection to the leadership but the mystery of what shapes these crucibles is an ever going process of research and narration. The fascination with studying the recipe of crucible is built on the foundation of my own crucible of leadership that shaped my skills and vision. Considering that, I decided to explore the recipe of crucible for what is close to me and for which I have the most knowledge about, I was ascertain to produce an informative piece of document for the readers with good authenticity and reality in my work. For this purpose I chose to explore the recipe of crucible for Pakistani female leaders.In the crucible of leadership, one of the most important element that plays role is the antecedents of a life story that builds a way to crucible and successful leadership. Thus, my focus of this study was to explore and narrate such antecedents that are the prime source of crucible of leadership for successful Pakistani female leaders. In order to do so, I had to get deep knowledge of the personal life of Pakistani female leaders, which I did by studying their biographies and testimonial accounts building a theory of antecedents as recipe of crucible through the approach of grounded theory.My qualitative analysis and sound coding, suggested a theory that, the most essential antecedents that hasn’t change in generation for Pakistani female leadership are the family antecedents (education, gender equality and a strong belief on principles) and social antecedents (lack of social acceptance), participating highest in shaping the crucible. Whereas, religion is a supportive antecedent but is not significantly impacting the crucible of leadership, as is widely perceived in the world. Furthermore, I concluded my study with highlighting the factor of patriarchy and role expectancy as the major hindrance in the successful female leadership in Pakistan.

Sweden possess the forth place as the most gender equal country in the world (World Economic Forum, 2013). But when it comes to women in higher-level positions, Sweden ends up below the European mean (European Commission, Justice, 2011). How can this be? And more importantly, how can Sweden work to attain gender equality in higher-level positions in the future? Why this gap exists in Sweden and how to reduce it is in need of further investigation and research. The thesis aims to investigate why men keep dominating higher- level positions within organisations in Sweden. A focus has been put on municipalities and their extensive work for gender equality. The thesis will address the extensive work Swedish municipalities have done within gender equality and why they are relatively equal when it comes to gender equality in higher- level positions. Further on it will provide a general understanding of their successful work and how it can be useful in other organisations. Additionally, it will be investigated how this extensive gender equality work, with a primary focus on gender equality policies and plans, and other regulations can help women reach and keep the higher-level positions in an organisation. A qualitative research approach has been used for this research. The primary data was collected through in-depth semi- structured interviews with five Swedish municipalities. The data was later analysed through qualitative data analysis. In conclusion, the most successful factors to include when working towards a gender equal workplace and encouraging more females to aim for higher-level positions are extensive work with gender equality policies and plans, including changes in the recruitment process together with providing options of how to allocate your working hours. This to open up for equal opportunities, excluding gender based prejudices, for those individuals who have the right competence and are interested in possessing a higher-level position in an organisation.

<p>The problem for women in the work market has been and is still being widely studied from different domains and fields, there is however still countless fissures linked to it. Even though the gender equality has comprehensively increased in recent decades, it is still apparent in high responsibility positions. This situation caught our attention and stimulated us to analyse the women’s condition within organizations.</p><p>Scholars have developed different theories linked to organizations, but our complex and fast developing society has surpassed most of these classical theories, making them either partially or totally irrelevant. For instance standards such as hierarchical organizations, individualism and aggressiveness are no longer considered as the most efficient values.</p><p>This work investigates the barriers that women have to overcome in order to break though leading positions, as well as the identification of female and male leadership and their stereotypes’ consequences. Accordingly, we intend to propose solutions and new approaches liable to help integrating more women in high profile positions. We are aspiring to create a new trend representing successful leadership that is no longer correlated to the male stereotype.</p><p>The theoretical part engages in theories surrounding female gender leadership as well as gender related barriers, while the empirical method involves the conduction of semi structured interview with women in high management positions, with the aim of setting up a solid ground for analysis and discussion. Due to this fact, we believe that the woman is the future of the organization, therefore we firstly call for the implementation and the reinforcement of the female “role model” and secondly encourage companies to adopt and promote our new concept of “the ecological organization” in order to achieve a more flexible, balanced and sane organizational culture in a foreseeable future.</p>

Are men and women equally likely to be perceived by people to possess similar requisite characteristics in comparable yet diverse occupations within management, leadership, and entrepreneurship? Because modern workplaces continue to be impacted by the persistence of varying perceptions of men and women about requisite attributes of successful people in several organizational roles, the concept of gender bias and occupational stereotypes has warranted the attention of theoreticians, scholars, and practitioners to a large extent (Koch, D’Mello, & Sackett, 2015; Kuwabara & Thébaud, 2017; Pinker, 2003; Pinker & Spelke, 2005). Although empirical evidence clearly indicates that gender inequalities in the workplace can have a significant effect on peoples’ perceptions about different characteristics of individuals in general and in specific organizational roles, there is a paucity of research examining these perceptions in a variety of leadership positions. Previous literature has investigated the gendered construction and re-construction of these professions but only to a limited extent (Gupta, Turban, Wasti, & Sikdar, 2009; Heilman, 2001, 2012; Heilman, Wallen, Fuchs, & Tamkins, 2004; Koenig, Eagly, Mitchell, & Ristikari, 2011; Kuwabara & Thébaud, 2017; Ryan, Haslam, Hersby, & Bongiorno, 2011; Schein, 1973, 1975, 2001). However, research in years past has not yet examined the full range of industry and entrepreneurial contexts that may create gender typecasting of roles. By extension, the current study focuses on how the gender-differentiated perceptions of men and women influenced the requisite characteristics of successful professional personnel in various managerial, leadership, and entrepreneurial positions. Specifically, given that these professions are influenced by gender-role expectations and stereotypes, this empirical investigation drew from role congruity theory of prejudice (Eagly & Karau, 2002) to examine the relative degree of perceived overlap between the traits associated with specific roles in management, leadership, and entrepreneurship with the traits commonly associated with men and women in general. Primary data were obtained from a diverse sample of 600 (12 x 50) working adults in the United States (N = 600, 300 women, 300 men) between the ages of 21 and 65. This was accomplished using an online survey designed via Qualtrics and administered through Amazon’s MTurk, from the lens of the classic think manager-think male (TMTM) research paradigm (Schein, 1973, 1975, 2001). The instrument used for data collection was the 92-item Schein Descriptive Index (SDI), which was used to describe sex role stereotypes and perceived requisite characteristics of twelve distinct target groups. The results of this study indicate that the perceived requisite traits of successful leaders and entrepreneurs are construed in predominantly masculine terms. These findings support and further inform the nature, existence, significance, and persistence of the “think manager-think male stereotype effect” (TMTM effect) and the “glass ceiling phenomenon” across a variety of managerial, leadership, and entrepreneurial roles, contexts, and industries. The TMTM effect was stronger among high tech entrepreneurs, CEOs, and entrepreneurs in general, whereas it was lessened for entrepreneurs in educational and health care roles, as well as for middle managers. Additionally, consistent with prior research, TMTM effects were generally either more likely to occur, or were stronger in magnitude among male raters than among female raters. These results largely support role congruity theory of gender differences in management and leadership that indicate incongruity of female gender stereotypes in general with stereotypes about high-status and prominent occupational roles in various organizations (Eagly & Karau, 2002). Specifically, the perceived trait overlap was noted to generally be stronger between men in general and successful leaders in various roles than that between women in general and successful leaders in various similar roles. The findings of the current study are expected to be valuable for those seeking to encourage opportunity regardless of candidate gender in management, entrepreneurship, and leadership, as well as for those promoting the role of women’s advancement in these professions. The study’s results have both theoretical and practical implications. Understanding these perceptions can have a significant impact on the gender biases prevalent in society, in organizations, and even across the specific entrepreneurial contexts and industries investigated within the current study. In today’s super-competitive business environment, firms must appreciate the importance of fostering equal opportunity, avoiding gender biases, and facilitating racial and ethnic diversity.

This quantitative study conducted by two students at Umeå University, studies if there are gender differences when it comes to salary and top positions in the accounting and auditing industry in Sweden. Previous studies have found that these differences, or gaps can relate to the glass ceiling theory. This theory is considered a phenomenon and a metephor wherein women can see through the glass to those top levels of the career ladder, but are unable to reach them as there is a ceiling, a gap, to prevent that from happening. Sweden is one of the most gender balanced countries in the world, but despite that the wage equality for similar work in Sweden is 74%. Since women with children work more often than men part-time, this leads to a less positive career, wage development and a poor pension for women. We analyzed previous studies to understand that the glass ceiling theory involved not only salary but also position inequalities based on gender. This information was used to create surveys which we sent electronically (via email) to auditors and accountants all over Sweden. This thesis is based on analysis of the survey and annual reports from 2017. Our results show that there are differences between gender when it comes to wages throughout the career ladder. Men have higher wages than women in the same positions. This applies to both office-level and up to executive positions. Differences in salaries between men and women also apply to both authorized and approved auditors when men have the higher average salary. That is also the same among those who had other leadership positions and among those who had a support function. We could not show major differences in top positions between genders. Most positions are gender balanced, which means that they are between 40-60%, except for at the CEO and partner level which is mostly men and the accounting manager position which is represented only by women. Our results show that there is gender-based inequality in salary but not in position; therefore, the glass ceiling theory is not currently in effect. This is important research as it not only expands knowledge of glass ceiling theory but also into the accounting and auditing fields. It found areas for improvement for both theoretical and practical use. We finish the thesis by referring to recommendations for future studies, such as focusing on lower levels and more accounting economics, authorised consultants, etc. / <p>With consideration to logit regressions for the binary leader variable:Even though <em>Cotter's 4 criteria leader</em> and <em>Leader model 2</em> did not have the highest adjusted R² with ols regression, it is important to see that in a logit regression, which is a more appropriate regression type since the leader variable is binary, that gender was not significant. Therefore, the conclusions remain the same.</p>