<p> This qualitative research study examined the role of the chief executive officer (CEO) in achieving an inclusive environment, specifically reviewing the messaging and actions of the CEO and how they impact executive women. Data were gathered from 15 executive women through interviews with predetermined, semi-structured questions. This study provides evidence that CEOs can create an inclusive environment by instilling an atmosphere of mutual respect, openly listening and valuing diverse perspectives, and encouraging healthy dialogue and debate. Internal competition, an imbalance of power, and perceived bias on the part of the CEO hindered participants from feeling like equal partners in the C-suite. Additional research studies using a larger sample size of female and male executives would be beneficial to determine if the preliminary findings hold true and to gain a comprehensive view of CEO behaviors from a diverse participant population.</p>

The purpose of this study was to examine the characteristics and behavior of women who are functioning in visible leadership roles in a nonprofit sector organization in order to document the effectiveness of their leadership as measured by the outcomes they achieve. The study population included thirty-eight women who were Executive Directors or Chief Executive Officers in Mental Health Associations (MHA's) in the United States. The study was intended to provide a better understanding of the leadership aspirations, styles and achievements of women who work within the context of an organization dedicated to social change for people with mental illnesses. The study was guided by the following research questions: (1) What were the influences in the lives of the women that led them to work for an organization focused on pursuing social justice for persons with mental illnesses (i.e., family background, education, history of mental illness in self or family, role models)? (2) What do participants see as the essential components of leadership? (3) How do the participants asses their own leadership outcomes in the context of their employment with the Mental Health Association? (4) What were the leadership behaviors and strategies used by the participants and to what extent did they use collective power to accomplish their organization's goals? The research was conducted as a descriptive case study utilizing qualitative methods including a participant profile. A particular emphasis was made to include leaders who are women of color and leaders who are consumers of mental health services in the study. The study found that study participants generally viewed leadership as nonhierarchical and often saw themselves as a catalyst or facilitator who enabled others to act collectively toward the accomplishment the mission and goals of the Mental Health Association. The study is a partial replication of a study developed by Helen Astin and Carole Leland in 1991 (Women of influence, women of vision. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass) which focused on understanding the dynamics of leadership used by female leaders in the women's movement of the 1970's and 1980's. This study supported the findings of Astin and Leland in their initial study.

<p> The nonprofit sector is the third largest employing industry in the United States and impacts almost 10% of the economy (Roeger, Blackwood, &amp; Pettijohn, 2012; Salamon, Sokolowski, &amp; Geller, 2012). Women comprise over 75% of the nonprofit workforce, yet men hold over 80% of leadership positions (Bronznick &amp; Goldenhar, 2009; McInnes, 2008). The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study was to examine the work-life balance practices of women leaders in nonprofit organizations and determine experiences impacting their life course. The ultimate goal was to gain insight from women leaders in nonprofit organizations to identify strategies for more women to advance into leadership roles. The researcher utilized a qualitative methodology with the life course theory developed by Giele (2008). </p><p> The research questions were: 1. What demographic factors, if any, are related to work-life balance issues for women leaders in nonprofit organizations? 2. How is the life course for women leaders in nonprofit organizations impacted, if at all, by experiences, identity, motivation, adaptive and relational style? 3. What strategies, if any, are women leaders in nonprofit organizations utilizing for work-life balance? </p><p> 20 women leaders in nonprofit organizations served as the study population. The women held positions of vice president or above or positions equivalent to vice president if the organization did not use such titles. Participants provided socio-demographic data and responses to 5 sets of questions regarding early adulthood, childhood and early adolescence, current adulthood, future adulthood and coping strategies. </p><p> The key findings and conclusions revealed challenges with work-life balance associated with diverse demographic factors. Experiences related to identity, relational style, drive and motivation and adaptive style influenced life courses and are anticipated to influence the future life courses of participants, specifically regarding decisions on educational attainment, partnerships, family, careers, and social involvement. Work-life balance strategies were discovered in 4 areas: self-care, partners, professional skills, and social support. </p><p> Overall, the research provided a composite of the participants as women leaders in nonprofit organizations, including their backgrounds and life stories. The research demonstrated that work-life balance continues to be an issue and an interest for women leaders in nonprofit organizations. </p>

<p> This phenomenological feminist study aimed to describe the lived experiences of Black female faculty in leadership positions in higher education. Black female academic leaders find it challenging to celebrate their individual leader development, work effort and success independent of historical marginalization, Affirmative Action, stereotypes, and tokenism among other stigmas. The group of faculty that was interviewed consisted of two deans and one associate dean, two department chairs who were also full professors, four full professors, five associate professors, two assistant professors, two faculty specialists, and two long serving adjunct professors. The group responses were used as the data that was then coded and emerging patterns were categorized into themes. In response to the research questions and from the findings, using the recurrent themes of challenges, gender and racism, success, mentoring and coping strategies, three conclusions were drawn: exclusion and discounting cause stress levels to rise and also contribute to lowered self-confidence and increased self-doubt; in the long term, the definition of success evolves and becomes less about academic expectations and more about authenticity and personal values; and having a mentor in higher education contributes to better chances of being appointed to leadership positions. Recommendations to specific departments include rewarding and recognizing as part of faculty evaluation the extra service Black female faculty add to their heavy workloads as they serve and mentor Black and minority students.</p>

<p>The purpose of the present study is investigating whether gender identity (masculinity and femininity) has an effect on women?s career choices (STEM or non-STEM), and their person-environment fit, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions with their choices. One-hundred eight-two female employees recruited via Amazon?s Mechanical Turk and a snowball/network sampling strategy completed an online survey. The results supported that masculine females were more represented in STEM jobs. However, feminine females were not more represented in non-STEM jobs. Furthermore, results revealed that higher person environment fit resulted with higher job satisfaction and lower turnover intentions for female employees. However, there were no significant relationship between gender identity, and person-environment fit, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions. These results suggest that gender identity may affect female employees? career decisions, and their person-environment fit is important for their job satisfaction and turnover intentions.

An aging population in the United States, changes in family structure and the labor supply, and a rapidly increasing need for home-based care for the elderly are contributors to a crisis in the home health care industry. This crisis includes severe worker shortages and, for those who cannot pay for costly home health care themselves, an indeterminate quality of care provided to clients. Direct-care industry-focused research has shown that for nursing homes, ownership type can be linked to the quality of care provided to residents (Comondore et al., 2009; Eaton, 2000). Kruse, Freeman, and Blasi's research (2010) also links an organization's ownership, along with participatory decision making by employees, to increased firm performance. Home health care organizations operate under a variety of ownership structures and ownership may affect the productivity of caregivers. My research question in this exploratory study is "How does a home health care organization's ownership structure affect the quality of care that home health aides provide to clients?" Home health care businesses operate predominantly under government, for-profit and nonprofit ownership structures. A few worker cooperatives are also present in the industry. In this study of the latter three organization types, I examine how, in the context of various institutional pressures, these ownership structures and associated decision making processes affect organizational outcomes and influence quality of care. I investigate whether isomorphism (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983) in the industry may also influence organizational practices and the work environments across home health care organizations. In support of the primary research question, I explore the meaning of quality care. Using a case study framework, I collect in-depth data from company and publicly available documents, interviews, observation, and a survey administered to 628 home health aides. I use it in examining quality of care and other worker and organizational outcomes. My findings reveal that ownership and participatory decision making can be linked to lower levels of turnover, and higher levels of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and an exploratory construct of quality of care. These positive outcomes are more closely associated with the worker cooperative business than with the other forms of organization.

To counter threats to national security within an increasingly complex and unstable global arena, the Intelligence Community (IC) requires a highly skilled workforce with diversity at all organizational levels. African American women, a historically marginalized group within the IC, are underrepresented in the senior grades (senior executive, GS-15 and GS-14), which suggests inadequacies in creating and sustaining inclusive environments that provide opportunities for advancement to historically underrepresented populations. Given that the experience of inclusion of African American women civilian employees within the IC is unexplored in the literature, this basic qualitative study, informed by the theory of intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1991), a conceptual framework of inclusion (Jansen et al., 2014), and a model of inclusive organizations (Shore et al., 2018), explored how African American women civilian employees at a national intelligence agency describe the phenomenon and the experience of inclusion, and the meaning the participants assigned to inclusion in connection to their perception of opportunities for professional development. The nine African American women who participated in this study described inclusion as a multi-dimensional construct including a sense of belonging, the opportunity to participate, and being valued as a contributor. The participants explained that having opportunities for development was integral to the experience of inclusion, and that they experienced inclusion when supervisors supported their participation in opportunities for development. However, experiences of “not inclusion,” as opposed to inclusion, were predominant in the participants’ narratives. Stereotype threat emerged as playing a negative role in the experience of inclusion, suggesting an area for further research and indicating the need for organizational interventions to disrupt organizational cues of stereotypes. The participants’ perceptions of organizational change and their observations of senior leaders informed their views of the organization’s commitment to inclusion. The findings point to organizational initiatives to improve inclusion, such as enabling employees to inform themselves about and self-select for development opportunities and establishing and holding supervisors accountable for adhering to standards of inclusive leader behaviors.