Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Technology (Discipline: Information Technology) in the Faculty of Informatics and Design at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology / Women in South Africa are under-represented in senior management positions in the Information technology (IT) sector — even with available incentives and directives to rectify the situation. The purpose of this research is to explore and understand the reasons for the imbalance in representation of women in senior management positions in the IT sector in South Africa. Seventeen women in middle to senior management positions from two of South Africa’s nine provinces — Western Cape and Gauteng — were interviewed for this study. The women were asked to relate their personal experiences and perceptions around organizational culture in IT environments and factors influencing their career advancements. A qualitative content analysis method was used to analyse the responses from the interviews. The findings of this study confirm the imbalanced representation of women in senior management positions. It was found that organizations are open and welcoming and provide opportunities to women, but women in the IT sector do not necessarily desire to advance to senior management positions. Factors such as the legacy in the IT industry where men held senior positions, career interruptions due to child bearing, and the absence of female mentor’s impact on the career advancement of women. The informal recruitment process for senior manager positions and the lack of emphasis on the need for women in IT when advertising senior management positions worsen the situation. Women lack self-confidence and are of the opinion that their skills set must be an exact match to the job requirements before applying for senior positions. Work life balance is not supported in the IT environment and no development programs aimed specifically at women are available. The paucity of women taking up technical careers — such as IT — limits the number of women available to develop and appoint in senior management positions. Guidelines for women to advance to senior positions and for companies to recruit and hire women are proposed. These guidelines will assist to correct the imbalance representation of women in senior management positions and promote IT as a career for women. A suggestion for future studies is to compare career advancement of women working in the software development environments, compared to women in the infrastructure and technical environments of IT, as well as those who have left the IT industry.

Problembakgrund: På ledande positioner inom företag består majoriteten av män, trots att flera studier påvisat att kvinnor har utmärkande egenskaper för ett ledarskap som passar i moderna företag. På grund av normer som lever kvar i samhället har kvinnor inte heller samma karriärmöjligheter som män. Inom svensk detaljhandel utgör kvinnor dock en större majoritet än män på de så kallade mellanchefspositionerna, jämfört med andra branscher. Därmed är det intressant att undersöka om medarbetares förväntningar på sin ledares beteende kan förklara orsakerna till den ojämna fördelningen mellan manliga och kvinnliga chefer. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att skapa förståelse för vilka förväntningar medarbetare har på ledare inom detaljhandeln samt om förväntningarna skiljer sig beroende på om ledaren är man eller kvinna. Detta för att kunna förstå vad det är som bidrar till att fler män än kvinnor finns på ledande positioner och om förväntningarna har någon koppling till de normer som finns om ledarskap. Metod: Studien baseras på en kvalitativ intervjustudie där data samlats in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med sju medarbetare inom olika butiker i svensk detaljhandel. Det empiriska dataunderlaget är uppdelat i två delar kopplat till forskningsfrågorna. Den första delen handlar om medarbetarnas förväntningar på sina ledare medan den andra delen behandlar förväntningar på män och kvinnor som ledare. Resultat: Analysen visar att medarbetare inom svensk detaljhandel förväntar sig ledare som är kommunikativa, relationsorienterade, delaktiga och uppmuntrar till utveckling, vilket överensstämmer med tidigare studier. Normer för hur män respektive kvinnor förväntas bete sig skiljer sig åt genom manliga och kvinnliga könsroller. Däremot har medarbetarna egna erfarenheter av chefer som motbevisar normerna och talar för att män och kvinnor inte beter sig på olika sett på grund av sitt kön. / Background and problem: At leading positions within companies the majority are men, although several studies have shown that women have distinctive qualities for leadership that suits modern businesses. However, due to norms that remain in society, women do not have the same career opportunities as men. However, in Swedish retail, women represent a larger majority than men in the so-called mid-range positions, compared with other industries. Thus, it is interesting to investigate whether employees expectations on the behaviour of their leaders can explain the causes of the uneven distribution between male and female executives. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to provide an understanding of the expectations of employees in the retail sector and whether the expectations differ depending on whether the manager is male or female. This in order to create a greater understanding about why there are more men having leader positions compared to women and if expectations has any connection to norms about leadership. Method: The study is based on qualitative interviews where data was collected through semi-structured interviews with seven employees in various stores in the Swedish retail sector. The empirical data is divided into two parts linked to the research questions. The first part is about employee expectations of his leader while the other part deals with expectations of men and women. Results: The analysis shows that employees in Swedish retail sector expect leaders who are communicative, relationship-oriented, involved and encourage development, which is consistent with previous studies. Norms for how men and women are expected to behave are different through the male and female gender roles. On the other hand, employees have their own experiences that counteract the norms and prove that men and women do not behave differently because of their gender.