Category Archives: *Journal of Business Research

Why Women Make the Team…but Leave

1

Topic: Diversity, Turnover
Publication: Journal of Business Research (NOV 2009)
Article: What causes turnover among women on top management teams?
Authors: H.A. Krishnan
Reviewed By: Benjamin Granger

Although women are underrepresented in upper management, the gender diversity of Top Management Teams (TMTs) is steadily increasing. In fact, research suggests that the increased representation of women on TMTs has a positive impact on organizational performance. However, research has also shown that women on TMTs turnover at a much higher rate than men.

Recently, Krishnan (2009) collected turnover and demographic data from 304 Fortune 1000 companies during the year 1998. Women occupied only 14% of the TMT positions in the sample. Krishnan also found that the three year turnover rate for women on TMTs was 33% while the turnover rate for men was 19%, confirming that women on TMTs turnover at a higher rate.

Interestingly, the average age gap between men and women on TMTs predicted turnover for women.  Krishnan argues that this represents the relative power of women on the TMT and concluded that when men are older and have more power than women, women on the TMT are more likely to quit. Also, women in legal, marketing, and operations careers had considerably higher turnover (50%) than those in HR and communications (8%).

The overall sales growth of the industry was also a predictor of turnover among women on TMTs (more sales, lower turnover): Krishnan suggests that the sales growth of the industry represents the availability of resources in the work environment, such that industries with better sales offer more resources to employees.

Not surprisingly, Krishnan concluded that there are many different reasons why women on TMTs turnover, including the relative power of the women on the team and the state of the industry. Importantly, we must also acknowledge the fact that women on TMTs turnover at a higher rate than do men. This is problematic for both women and organizations since female representation on TMTs appears to favorably impact organizational performance. The next logical step then, is to find out how to keep women on the TMT!

Krishnan, H.A. (2009). What causes turnover among women on top management teams?  Journal of Business Research, 62, 1181-1186.

Lead to inspire creativity and innovation. Gandhi did it – how hard can it be?

Reply

Topic: Creativity, Leadership
Publication: Journal of Business Research (APR 2009)
Article: Transformational leadership, creativity, and organizational innovation
Authors: L. Gumusluolu, A.Llseve
Reviewed by: Lit Digger

Although Gandhi had passed away before the idea of transformational leadership was academically introduced by Burns in 1978, Gandhi’s life and work exemplified transformational leadership.  Transformational leaders:

·      Demonstrate charisma
·   Build relationships with their followers
·   Express a vision for the future
·   Inspire and encourage their followers to reach big-picture goals
·   Intellectually stimulate their followers. 

Such leaders enable followers to achieve what might otherwise be viewed as impossible.  Gandhi effectively did all of these things.

If Gandhi was leading your company today, is it likely that he could also inspire creativity and innovation?  Yes . . . simply by using his same transformational leadership style.

Gumusluoglu and Ilsev (2009) recently conducted the first study that examined multiple organizational levels while evaluating transformational leadership’s effect on employee creativity.  Their sample included employees within numerous small Turkish organizations specializing in software development.

Gumusluoglu and Ilsev supported the link between transformational leadership and individual-level creativity.  Transformational leaders build their employees’ self-confidence, enable employees to identify with their company’s vision, and encourage their employees to think in new ways. 

Importantly, the authors found that psychological empowerment plays a role in this relationship.  When employees feel psychologically empowered by their transformational leader, they also exhibit a greater sense of autonomy that naturally leads to creative thought. 

On the flip side, Gumusluoglu and Ilsev found that transformational leadership is less likely to result in employee creativity when it does not involve the psychological empowerment of followers.

Findings also supported the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational-level innovation.  Interestingly, the innovation measure captured the organization’s innovative activity as well as the returns the organization saw from those innovations.  How thoughtful to include money in this outcome measure.

So, what’s the take-away?  If you’re leading a company that relies on creativity and innovation for bottom-line profit, perhaps you should consider adopting a transformational leadership style.  If you empower your employees, this will encourage them to make calls on their own and think outside of the box.  We can’t ALL be Gandhis, of course, but we CAN learn from his example to inspire others in new ways.

Gumusluoglu, L., Ilsev, A. (2009). Transformational leadership, creativity, and

organizational innovation. Journal of Business Research, 62, 461-473.

If you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours – unless your hands are covered in thorns.

Reply

Topic: Change Management, Job Attitudes, Organizational Performance
Publication: Journal of Business Research
Article:  
Exploring civic virtue and turnover intention
during organizational changes .    
Blogger: LitDigger

I'll scratch your back If you buy me
a coffee, I’ll tell you what I know. 
If you cover my shift, I’ll cover yours next week.  If you buy me dinner, in turn I will .
. . never mind, you get the picture. 
Reciprocity is a critical element to any social relationship.  The same holds true for
employee-employer relationships. 
Employees hold certain expectations regarding how their organizations
will treat them and what they will gain in return for their time and
energy.  These employee expectations
are referred to in the literature as the psychological
contract. 

So what
happens when my psychological contract is BREACHED because my company is
merging with another?  BAM!  The children’s daycare I rely on
everyday has suddenly disappeared. 
Of course, this is just one example . . . but when companies are in the
midst of organizational change, anything
can happen.  A job position’s perks
and conveniences may be overcome by the realities of change within a company,
and all of a sudden an employee may find that this may not be the job he/she
originally signed up for.

Bellou (2008)
used employees in Greece to examine organizational changes in light of mergers
& acquisitions (M&A) by looking at how breached psychological contracts
may affect employees’ turnover intentions and civic virtue.  We all know what turnover intentions
are: employees wanting to “get the heck out” of their organization.  Civic virtue is extra-role behavior
performed by employees for the good of their organization.  For those of you who are not familiar
with Organ’s (1988) five dimensions of organizational citizenship behavior, civic virtue is one of those
dimensions.  Bellou (2008) offers
some examples of civic virtue, including: active governing or monitoring the
environment for opportunities and threats.

Continue reading →