The purpose of this study is to investigate the nature and degree of occupational gender segregation across the functional fields in South Africa and to determine if existing “supply-side” explanations serve to explain the phenomenon through an attitudinal survey of the females in the sample. The UNISA first year MBL students were requested to complete the survey during their August Centre Visit at the SBL Sasol auditorium in Midrand. The survey consists of two sections. Section A determined the gender of the sample element and subsequently their functional field of occupation, which enabled the calculation of the Karmel and MacLachlan Index per functional field. The Finance, General Management, Information Technology, Operations and Production and Procurement, Buying and Logistics fields showed high levels of integration, while the Marketing, Sales and Customer Service field showed low levels of segregation in favour of women. Human Resources was strongly female dominant, while Research and Development was strongly male dominant. The “Other” field showed the highest level of segregation in favour of women. Section B contains the attitudinal Likert scale questions to measure the extent to which the various supply-side explanations determine the women’s career decisions. There seem to be certain explanation types, such as Exchange Utility and Reward, which serve as strong selection criteria and other factors that play a lesser role, such as Teaching Styles and Self-Image. Based on the averages the Occupational Sex-Typing, Self-Efficacy and Parental Influence explanations showed no agreement from any of the sample elements. / Graduate School of Business Leadership / MBL

The purpose of this study is to investigate the nature and degree of occupational gender segregation across the functional fields in South Africa and to determine if existing “supply-side” explanations serve to explain the phenomenon through an attitudinal survey of the females in the sample. The UNISA first year MBL students were requested to complete the survey during their August Centre Visit at the SBL Sasol auditorium in Midrand. The survey consists of two sections. Section A determined the gender of the sample element and subsequently their functional field of occupation, which enabled the calculation of the Karmel and MacLachlan Index per functional field. The Finance, General Management, Information Technology, Operations and Production and Procurement, Buying and Logistics fields showed high levels of integration, while the Marketing, Sales and Customer Service field showed low levels of segregation in favour of women. Human Resources was strongly female dominant, while Research and Development was strongly male dominant. The “Other” field showed the highest level of segregation in favour of women. Section B contains the attitudinal Likert scale questions to measure the extent to which the various supply-side explanations determine the women’s career decisions. There seem to be certain explanation types, such as Exchange Utility and Reward, which serve as strong selection criteria and other factors that play a lesser role, such as Teaching Styles and Self-Image. Based on the averages the Occupational Sex-Typing, Self-Efficacy and Parental Influence explanations showed no agreement from any of the sample elements. / Graduate School of Business Leadership / MBL

D. Litt et Phil.

Both practitioners and scholars have shown interest in initiatives that reduce bias and promote inclusion. Diversity ideologies—or beliefs and practices regarding how to approach group differences in diverse settings—have been studied as one set of strategies to promote racial equality, and argued to be effective for other intergroup relations, as well; however, little work has examined diversity ideologies in the context of gender, giving a limited understanding of their potential to improve gender relations. The present research compares the influence of two competing and commonly used ideologies—awareness and blindness—on race and gender relations. Awareness approaches recommend acknowledging and celebrating intergroup differences, whereas blindness approaches advocate for reducing and ignoring category membership. In contrast to research suggesting that race awareness is more effective at reducing racial bias than race blindness, I show that the opposite is true for gender. I theorize that awareness and blindness ideologies act upon unique types of race and gender differences in ways that preserve power for the dominant group, either exposing their opportunity-limiting nature (for race) or reifying their biological functionality (for gender). Using system justification theory, I show that diversity ideologies act upon distinct system-justifying rationales, where race awareness exposes differences in opportunities and experience, lessening denial of inequality, and thereby diminishing support for the status quo. In contrast, gender awareness highlights gender roles and their biological underpinnings, legitimizing gender differences in occupational segregation, and increasing support for the status quo (Studies 1–4). Additionally, I show that diversity ideologies have implications for unique forms of opportunity outcomes for women and racial minorities. For race, by increasing recognition of societal inequities, awareness leads Whites to show more support for policies that combat systemic inequality (i.e., affirmative action). For gender, by increasing biological attributions, awareness makes men more likely to stereotype in ways that limit women’s potential for success (Study 4). Finally, supporting my theory about the importance of the types of differences highlighted through awareness, I show that shifting the focus of differences toward external (opportunity, experience) ones leverages the benefits of awareness for both race and gender, providing a practical solution to improving race and gender equality (Studies 5–7). I conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for improving intergroup relations.

There are two important trends in organizations today: 1) the increasing use of teams and 2) the increasing diversity in the workforce. The literature is in tune with these organizational trends, evidenced by a dramatic increase in research on team performance and the effects of diversity. However, there are still contradictory findings of the effects of team diversity on team processes and outcomes. To shed light on these inconsistencies, the cognitive construct of team mental model is introduced as a mediator of the relationship between team cognitive diversity and team performance. Team mental model is an emergent cognitive state that represents team members' organized understanding of their task environment (e.g., Klimoski&Mohammed, 1994) and has been shown to improve team performance (e.g., Edwards, Day, Arthur,&Bell, 2006; Mathieu, Heffner, Goodwin, Salas,&Cannon-Bowers, 2000). Specifically, with a sample of 94 student teams I investigated how team cognitive diversity affects team mental model similarity and accuracy, and through them, team performance. In addition, I examined team information processing mechanisms as moderators of the relationships between team cognitive diversity and team mental model similarity and accuracy. The results suggest that cognition at the team level plays an important role in the effective functioning of decision making teams. Specifically, the combination of team mental model similarity and accuracy predicts levels of team performance and information integration is an important moderator linking cognitive style diversity to task mental models, team processes, and team performance. The research model developed and tested seeks to advance understanding of the "black box" linking team diversity to team outcomes (Lawrence, 1997) and to provide guidance to managers leading cognitively diverse teams.

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Canberra, 2006. / Includes bibliography (p. 438-461)

D.Tech. Business Administration. Business School.

Diversity and conflict are often perceived as double-edged swords (Milliken & Martins, 1996; Jehn, 1995), in that increasing diversity and conflict may also harm implementation efficiency (i.e., speed, cost savings) and member satisfaction. The linkage between team outcomes and diversity and conflict has generally been found to be inconsistent in the literature (Williams & O Reilly, 1998; De Dreu & Weingart, 2003). Jackson, Joshi & Erhardt (2003) were the first to propose that the social context in which a team resides plays a critical role in influencing the outcomes of diversity and conflict. This thesis argues that the interactions between diversity, conflict and team innovation may be clearer if the research population consists of innovative performance driven IT project teams rather than arbitrary groups. / The research examines the effect of diversity and conflict in the tightly controlled context of IT service project teams in a Fortune 500 IT multinational in China (Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan) that operate with cross-functional, cross-national, cross-regional, cross-company (internal employee versus external client/contractor) and cross-demographic membership. The thesis investigates how the characteristics of the teams, the type of tasks the teams perform, and the research location influence the process. A three-part model hypothesizing the associations between the variables is proposed where diversity is separated into functional and demographic diversity and its effects on team outcomes in terms of innovation, efficiency and member satisfaction are investigated. Conflict is separated into two conditions; task or relationship, and is hypothesised as an intervening variable in this association while the adoption of cooperative goal and conflict management strategies by the teams is hypothesised as moderating the association. / The data presents details of a comprehensive field study into the effect of diversity and conflict on IT project teams in China. The unique nature of IT project teams in China has provided a rich testing ground which contributes to knowledge in the areas of diversity and conflict and highlights the following contributions: First, it has unravelled the crucial role of the project stage in affecting group processes and outcomes in project teams; second, it questions existing theory regarding the use of types of conflict as the mediators between diversity and outcomes; third, it extends the diversity literature by introducing new diversity variables, i.e., national, regional and company affiliations; fourth, it has tested some existing group theories on new group forms including short-term temporary, part-time membership, performance goal driven and virtual oriented IT project teams; fifth, it proposes a useful valid measurement of team performance by separating team innovation from team efficiency; sixth, it has tested some existing diversity and conflict theories in the Chinese context and lastly it has investigated the roles of cooperative goals and cooperative management styles in the conflict-outcome relationship. / Thesis (PhDBusinessandManagement)--University of South Australia, 2007.

Thesis (LLM)--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Toronto, 2005.