This applied dissertation was a quantitative, data-mining analysis to determine the effects of mentoring on career advancement after employees participated in a 1-year formal leadership mentoring program. The company in this study developed a formal leadership mentoring program as part of its talent development and succession planning strategy. Company leaders selected mentoring participants from an internal pool of diverse high-potential leaders to participate in the leadership mentoring program. This study implemented a quantitative, data-mining research method technique to analyze the company’s data on the formal leadership mentoring program from a monitored system. The purpose of data mining was to review and analyze career-progression results of women and people of color to see if employees were advancing in careers as all other mentoring participants who participated in the 2009 and 2010 mentoring program classes. Quantitative data-mining results showed that, in 2009 and 2010, the total population was 105. Mentees who were women and people of color represented 79% of employees who remained at the company. In addition, 13 women of color were promoted at the study company after attending the leadership mentoring program. Company leaders selected mentoring participants from an internal pool of diverse high-potential leaders to include Black-African Americans, Asians, Hispanics-Latinos, and Whites. This data-mining study provided valuable to mentoring, career advancement, and succession planning for the leadership that could provide confirmation for the need to offer formal mentoring programs to increase the numbers of women and people of color in middle- and senior-level management positions.

Kvinnligt karriäravancemang i allmänhet, och kvinnors problem att nå organisatoriska toppositioner i synnerhet, är ett ämne som länge varit föremål för diskussion. Åsikterna om hur snedfördelningen ska åtgärdas går isär och har lett till heta debatter. Inte minst förslaget om lagstadgad kvotering i svenska styrelser har rört upp känslor och debatterats intensivt. Stiftelsen AllBright la 2013 fram en rapport som visade på att det finns fler med namnet Johan i svenska styrelser än det finns kvinnor. Detta uppmärksammades stort i flertalet media. Med grund i dessa diskussioner väcktes intresset att undersöka fenomenet kvinnligt karriäravancemang ur en ny synvinkel. Finns det andra medel för att lyfta upp fler kvinnor till de högsta nivåerna än kvotering? Efter funderingar och efterforskningar identifierade vi två fenomen som vi ansåg kunde ha denna potential; nätverket och mentorskapet. Syftet med studien är således att skapa förståelse för hur förekomsten av nätverk och mentorskap inverkar på kvinnors karriäravancemang. Då delar av studiens fokusområde undersökts i tidigare studier har en abduktiv ansats tillämpats. Teorierna institutionell teori, legitimitetsteori samt signaling theory har därmed fungerat som fundament för att finna mönster och tendenser som skulle kunna förklara nätverkets och mentorskapets premisser. Som ett led i studiens önskan om att skapa förståelse för fenomenet, har en kvalitativ undersökning genomförts. Det empiriska materialet har samlats in via semistrukturerade intervjuer och i en revisionsbaserad kontext, med fokus på kvinnliga delägare. Detta då dessa kvinnor nått branschens högsta skikt och därmed torde sitta inne med värdefulla tankar om kvinnligt avancemang, med grund i egna erfarenheter. Slutsatsen av denna studie är att nätverk och mentorskap, som isolerade fenomen, så väl som i en symbiotisk relation, har element som kan inverkar främjande på kvinnligt karriäravancemang. Nätverket kan vara en plats för adepten att hitta en passande mentor. Mentorskapet kan i sin tur ge adepten de redskap som krävs för att bygga upp värdefulla och karriärmässigt gynnsamma kontaktnät. Att göra kvinnor uppmärksamma på detta och uppmuntra en användning av fenomenet i ett uttalat karriärfrämjande syfte, torde kunna vara en bra grund för kvinnligt avancemang. / Female career advancement in general and women’s issues to achieve organizational top position in particular, is a subject that has been under discussion for a long time. Opinions on how the imbalance should be corrected differ greatly and have led to heated debates. Not least, the proposal for a legal quota in Swedish boards has stirred up emotions. In 2013, a foundation named AllBright published a report that showed that there are more people with the name Johan in Swedish boards than there are women. This received great attention in most media. Based on this discussion aroused our interest to investigate the phenomenon of female career advancement from a new perspective. Are there other means to lift more women to the highest position than quotas? After thought and research, we identified two phenomena that we felt could have this potential; network and mentorship. The purpose of the study is thus to create an understanding of how the presence of networking and mentoring impact on women’s career advancement. Certain parts of the focus area have been examined in previous studies, why an abdicative approach has been applied. The theories, institutional theory, legitimacy theory and signaling theory has therefore acted as the foundation for finding patterns and trends that would explain the network and mentoring premises. As part of the study's desire to create an understanding of the phenomenon, a qualitative study was conducted. The empirical data were collected through semi-structured interviews in an audit-based context. The hierarchical structure was considered to clarify the advancement patterns. Furthermore, the focus was exclusively on the female partner. This is because these women achieved the industry's highest layer and thus should be in possession of valuable thoughts on women's advancement, arising out of personal experience. The conclusion of this study is that networking and mentoring, as isolated phenomena, as well as in a mutually symbiotic relationship, has elements that can affect promotion of women's career advancement. The network can be a place for the mentee to find a mentor. Mentoring can in turn give the adept the tools needed to build valuable and career-wise favorable contacts. Making women aware of this and encourage the use of the phenomenon in a clear career promotion, could be a good basis for female advancement.

Syftet med kandidatuppsatsen är att undersöka hur kvinnliga och manliga chefer upplever möjligheten att kombinera föräldraskapet och chefskapet samt hur könsrelaterade mönster kan förstås i förhållande till föräldraledighet och karriäravancemang utifrån ett genusperspektiv. Resultaten visar på att chefer uppfattar svårigheter med att kombinera föräldraskap och chefskap genom den höga grad av tillgänglighet som krävs av chefskapet. Vidare fastställer resultatet att flertalet chefer som intervjuats ångrar omfånget av sin uttagna föräldraledighet och skulle vid ett nytt ställningstagande tagit ut en längre sammansatt period av föräldraledighet. Resultatet påvisar vidare att könsrelaterade mönster framkommer i form av hur föräldraledigheten tagits ut samt vilka förutsättningar män och kvinnor anses är nödvändiga för att kunna kombinera chefskapet och föräldraskapet. För att förklara de könsrelaterade skillnaderna används genusrelaterade teorier som ett teoretiskt verktyg. Studien genomförs med en kvalitativ forskning där tio semistrukturerade intervjuer representerar en jämn uppdelning av kvinnor och män då ett jämförande perspektiv genomförs i analysen av det empiriska materialet. På svenska stora företag vittnar tidigare forskning om att en ekonomisk aspekt är en av orsakerna till att arbetsgivare inte arbetar främjande för att underlätta föräldraledigheten. Genom detta kan resultatet av denna kandidatuppsats verka som ett komplement till den tidigare forskningen genom att denna studie har fokuserat på små och medelstora företag. Vidare kan uppsatsen användas som ett praktiskt underlag vilket beskriver de ekonomiska, etiska och strukturella överväganden som kan uppkomma vid situationer som rekrytering, kompetensförsörjning och organisatoriska besluttaganden i förhållande till föräldraledighet. / The essay aims to examine how male and female managers experience the possibilities to combine parenting with their manager positions; as well as examining how patterns between their relationships to parental leave and career advancement can be explained based on gender studies. The result presents that parents holding a manager level position are experiencing difficulties with combining this with parenting, especially based on the high level of accessibility required at such position. Furthermore, the results states that the majority of managers who were interviewed regret their scope of parental leave taken and, in the case of a new position, would have taken a longer subsequent period of parental leave. The results also presented that the gender related pattern is attendant in terms of how the parental leave has been utilized; and what prerequisites women and men are considered essential in order to be able to combine managerial advancement with parenting. Gender related theories has been used to analyze and explain the gender related differences. The study was conducted with a qualitative research where ten semi structured interviews were conducted. Both genders were equally represented in the interviews, as a comparative perspective was implemented in the analysis of the empirical material. Previous research on large Swedish corporations, has shown that the financial aspect is one of the underlying factors for why employers are not promoting to facilitate parental leave. The results presented in this essay, can operate as a complement to the previous research; since this study has focused on small and medium-sized companies. Furthermore, this thesis can be used as a practical basis, which describes the financial, ethical, and structural considerations that may arise during recruitment, provision of skills, and organizational decisions in relationship to parental leave.

Women working in the Canadian Federal Public Service (CFPS) face complex issues and competing demands. However, despite challenges such as obtaining further education, managing home responsibilities, and dealing with workplace issues, some have also developed and managed successful careers. Problems highlighted within literature on career development for women relate to the nature of women’s lives with their many transitional points, in which personal and organizational factors inextricably intertwine. The purpose of this qualitative research study was to explore the career development and advancement of women towards and into entry executive level positions within the Canadian Federal Public Service (CFPS). Three research questions guided this inquiry: 1) How have personal factors influenced career development and advancement of women in the CFPS towards and into pre-executive and entry executive levels? 2) How have organizational factors influenced their career development and advancement? and 3) How have personal and organizational factors combined to influence their career development and advancement? This research was grounded in a social constructivist paradigm which guided the research both ontologically and epistemologically. Schwandt (1994) contends that “objective knowledge and truth is a result of perspective. Knowledge and truth are created, not discovered” (p. 125). The inquiry attempted, therefore, to understand women’s complex career development processes from a holistic perspective through their career life stories. Ten women at the pre-executive or entry executive level from various departments within the CFPS took part in the study. Data collection was carried out mainly through a series of three semi-structured interviews. The findings of the study describe how participants’ personal dispositions, formal education, and home lives (personal factors) influenced their career development and advancement. In addition, it was found that the organization’s culture of long hours, its support for learning, participants’ organizational networks, and superiors’ contributions (organizational factors) also influenced women’s careers. This study contributes to our understanding of women’s career development, thereby providing important insights for future research. The study may have implications for CFPS policymakers, career counsellors, universities responsible for educating future career counsellors, as well as for individual women themselves, and perhaps even men.

Women working in the Canadian Federal Public Service (CFPS) face complex issues and competing demands. However, despite challenges such as obtaining further education, managing home responsibilities, and dealing with workplace issues, some have also developed and managed successful careers. Problems highlighted within literature on career development for women relate to the nature of women’s lives with their many transitional points, in which personal and organizational factors inextricably intertwine. The purpose of this qualitative research study was to explore the career development and advancement of women towards and into entry executive level positions within the Canadian Federal Public Service (CFPS). Three research questions guided this inquiry: 1) How have personal factors influenced career development and advancement of women in the CFPS towards and into pre-executive and entry executive levels? 2) How have organizational factors influenced their career development and advancement? and 3) How have personal and organizational factors combined to influence their career development and advancement? This research was grounded in a social constructivist paradigm which guided the research both ontologically and epistemologically. Schwandt (1994) contends that “objective knowledge and truth is a result of perspective. Knowledge and truth are created, not discovered” (p. 125). The inquiry attempted, therefore, to understand women’s complex career development processes from a holistic perspective through their career life stories. Ten women at the pre-executive or entry executive level from various departments within the CFPS took part in the study. Data collection was carried out mainly through a series of three semi-structured interviews. The findings of the study describe how participants’ personal dispositions, formal education, and home lives (personal factors) influenced their career development and advancement. In addition, it was found that the organization’s culture of long hours, its support for learning, participants’ organizational networks, and superiors’ contributions (organizational factors) also influenced women’s careers. This study contributes to our understanding of women’s career development, thereby providing important insights for future research. The study may have implications for CFPS policymakers, career counsellors, universities responsible for educating future career counsellors, as well as for individual women themselves, and perhaps even men.

Syftet med studien var att undersöka om och hur löneform, möjlighet till avancemang samt företagets CSR-arbete påverkar potentiella arbetssökandes intentioner att söka en ledig tjänst. Studien genomfördes på studerande vid Högskolan i Gävle. 78 personer deltog i studien och genomfördes som enkätundersökning. Resultatet analyserades med multidimensionell skalning (MDS). Det analyserade resultatet visade på två dimensioner där samtliga tre faktorer tycks påverka attraktiviteten hos en arbetsgivare. Dock verkar möjlighet till avancemang och intern karriär vara den faktor som har störst inverkan på potentiella arbetssökandes intentioner att söka en ledig tjänst. Då alla tre faktorer kan ha påverkat attraktiviteten drog vi slutsatsen att alla tre faktorerna är viktiga när det kommer till att attrahera blivande medarbetare. / The purpose of the study was to examine if and how salary, career advancements and a company´s CSR activities influence potential jobseekers intentions when it comes to applying for a job. The study was conducted among students at the University of Gävle. 78 persons participated, and the study was conducted as a survey. Multidimensional scaling (MDS) was used to analyze the result. The result showed that all three factors may have had an influence over how attractive an employer was perceived by the potential jobseekers. However according to the result, career advancements seems to have had the greatest impact when it came to influence potential jobseekers intentions to apply for a job. Although all three factors may have proven to have influence on the attractiveness of the employer, therefor is our conclusion that all three factors are crucial when it comes to attracting future employees

The purpose of this study was to examine how the racial composition of a mentoring relationship influences three types of judgments made by individuals external to the relationship: (1) causal attributions formed to explain successful protégé performance; (2) evaluations of protégé career advancement potential; and (3) reward recommendations for the mentor and protégé. Additionally, the associations among causal attributions, evaluations of potential, and reward recommendations were investigated. A 2 (protégé race: white vs. black) x 2 (mentor race: white vs. black) factorial between-subjects design was used. Mentor and protégé races were manipulated within a written vignette. After reading the vignette, participants responded to items measuring their judgments about the mentor and protégé depicted in the vignette. The final sample consisted of 194 white, employed individuals. Overall, results did not support the hypothesized racial effects on the three types of judgments. However, support was found for the predicted associations among the different judgment types. Implications of these findings, as well as directions for future research, are discussed.

That minorities face a greater risk of career barriers is a problem that has been discussed and studied for a long time. A concept which is continuously used to describe the problems minoritoes face is the so-called glass ceiling effect. It describes how minorities are prevented to reach top positions in particular in an organization because of their gender, sexuality or ethnicity. As there are only about 2.5% of the accountants in Sweden that belongs to the ethnic minority, a interest was brough to our attention to investigate the ethnic minorities career advancement from a different perspective; How do auditors reason regarding career advancement in relation to ethnicity. The purpose of the study is to create a deeper understanding of how the auditors construct career advancement in relation to ethnicity. We have used theories about diversity, socialization, organizational culture, identity theory, intersectionality, social networking and mentoring to achieve the purpose of the study. The empirical data were collected through a qualitative approach in which semi-structured telephone interviews and questionnaires via email were conducted with 13 experienced accountants with a foreign background. The auditors were considered to have valuable experiences and perceptions of how their career advancement have worked out for them. This study has contributed to a deeper understanding of how auditors with foreign background in Sweden construct career advancement in relation to ethnicity. Since previous research has focused on minority structures in organizations and not how auditors constructs career advancement in relation to ethnicity, this study may be considered to have contributed to fill a research gap. The conclusion of this study is that the authorized public accountants have different opinions about how they design career advancement. A suggestion for further research is to investigate the phenomenon surrounding the accounting assistants’ perspectives that are of foreign origin. / Att minoriteter löper större risk att drabbas av karriärsbarriärer är ett problem som har diskuterats och studerats länge. Ett begrepp som kontinuerligt används för att beskriva minoriteternas karriärsproblem är den så kallade glastakeffekten. Begreppet beskriver hur minoriteter hindras att i synnerhet nå toppositioner i en organisation på grund av deras kön, sexualitet eller etnicitet. Då det endast är cirka 2,5 % av Sveriges auktoriserade revisorer som tillhör den etniska minoriteten väcktes intresset om att undersöka den etniska minoritetens karriärsavancemang ur ett annat perspektiv; hur resonerar revisorer kring deras karrärsavancemang i relation till deras etnicitet. Syftet med studien är att skapa en djupare förståelse kring hur revisorerna konstruerar karriärsavancemang i relation till etnicitet. Vi har i denna studie använt oss av teorier som behandlar mångfald, socialisation, organisationskultur, identitetsteori, intersektionalitet, socialt nätverk, och mentorskap för att kunna uppnå syftet med studien. Empirin har samlats in via en kvalitativ metod där semistrukturerade telefonintervjuer och frågeformulär via e-post genomförts med 13 erfarna auktoriserade revisorer med utländsk bakgrund. Revisorerna ansågs ha värdefulla erfarenheter och upplevelser kring hur karriärsavancemanget har sett ut för dem. Studien har bidragit till en djupare förståelse kring hur revisorer med utländsk bakgrund i Sverige konstruerar karriärsavancemang i relation till etnicitet. Då tidigare forskning fokuserat på minoritetsstrukturer i organisationer och inte hur en revisor konstruerar karriärsutveckling i relation till dennes etnicitet kan denna studie anses ha bidragit till att fylla en forskningslucka. Slutsatsen av denna studie är att de auktoriserade revisorerna har skilda meningar kring hur de konstruerar karriärsavancemang. Förslag till vidare forskning är att undersöka fenomenet kring redovisningsassistenters perspektiv som är av utländsk bakgrund.

Purpose: The aim of this bachelor thesis is to explain how advancement factors affect men and woman to advance in their careers in the accounting profession.                                  Methodology: A positivist approaches and a deductive approach, with a quantitative method was used to obtain the results of the analysis.   Theoretical perspective: The theory describes the career stages, audit assistant, approved auditor, registered auditor, manager and partner. Their responsibilities and what it takes to get there is explained. Theory section also describes the different advancement factors from a gender perspective.   Empirical: The empirical material is based on a survey conducted in respondents who represent the five career stages. The collected data is then analyzed using statistical tests.   Conclusion: The analysis shows that the identified career advancement factors that limit and stimulates the male and female auditors’ career ladder. Some advancement factors limited female auditors’ career ladder more than a generation. / Syfte: Syftet med denna kandidatuppsats är att förklara hur avancemangsfaktorerna påverkar män och kvinnor att avancera på karriärstegen inom revisionsbranschen. Metod: Ett positivistiskt angreppsätt och en deduktiv ansats, med en kvantitativ metod har använts för att få fram resultatet till analysen. Teori: Teorin beskriver de olika karriärstegen, revisorsassistent, godkänd revisor, auktoriserad revisor, chef och partner. Deras arbetsuppgifter samt vad som krävs för att ta sig dit förklaras. Teoridelen beskriver också de olika avancemangsfaktorerna utifrån ett könsperspektiv. Empiri: Det empiriska materialet är baserat på en enkätundersökning utförd på respondenter som representerar de fem karriärstegen. Datainsamlingen har sedan analyserats med hjälp av statistiska tester. Resultat: Analysen visar att de identifierade avancemangsfaktorerna både begränsar och stimulerar manliga och kvinnliga revisors karriärstege. Somliga avancemangsfaktorer begränsade en kvinnlig revisors karriärstege mer än en mans.

Women working in the Canadian Federal Public Service (CFPS) face complex issues and competing demands. However, despite challenges such as obtaining further education, managing home responsibilities, and dealing with workplace issues, some have also developed and managed successful careers. Problems highlighted within literature on career development for women relate to the nature of women’s lives with their many transitional points, in which personal and organizational factors inextricably intertwine. The purpose of this qualitative research study was to explore the career development and advancement of women towards and into entry executive level positions within the Canadian Federal Public Service (CFPS). Three research questions guided this inquiry: 1) How have personal factors influenced career development and advancement of women in the CFPS towards and into pre-executive and entry executive levels? 2) How have organizational factors influenced their career development and advancement? and 3) How have personal and organizational factors combined to influence their career development and advancement? This research was grounded in a social constructivist paradigm which guided the research both ontologically and epistemologically. Schwandt (1994) contends that “objective knowledge and truth is a result of perspective. Knowledge and truth are created, not discovered” (p. 125). The inquiry attempted, therefore, to understand women’s complex career development processes from a holistic perspective through their career life stories. Ten women at the pre-executive or entry executive level from various departments within the CFPS took part in the study. Data collection was carried out mainly through a series of three semi-structured interviews. The findings of the study describe how participants’ personal dispositions, formal education, and home lives (personal factors) influenced their career development and advancement. In addition, it was found that the organization’s culture of long hours, its support for learning, participants’ organizational networks, and superiors’ contributions (organizational factors) also influenced women’s careers. This study contributes to our understanding of women’s career development, thereby providing important insights for future research. The study may have implications for CFPS policymakers, career counsellors, universities responsible for educating future career counsellors, as well as for individual women themselves, and perhaps even men.