Phyllis Tharenou | Kathryn Welds, PhD | Curated Research + Commentary

Olivia Mandy O’Neill

If you work in an organization, you tacitly agreed to participate in a Workplace Tournament for advancement, according to (Olivia) Mandy O’Neill of Wharton and Charles O’Reilly of Stanford.
They contend that careers are a series of tournaments in which employees with for promotion to higher organisational levels.

Charles O’Reilly

The prevalence of implicit workplace contests was validated in O’Reilly’s study of executive pay with University of Edinburgh’s Brian G M Main and James Wade, of Emory University.

Brian G.M. Main

Participants with highest incomes four years after MBA graduation in O’Neill and O’Reilly’s study said they preferred “masculine” organizational culture.
This preference was stronger for high-earning women than for men.

Eight years after graduation, men’s salaries were significantly higher than women’s.
During this period, many women MBA graduates took time off or reduced the number of hours work to care for relatives, reducing the average number of hours worked.

One non-MBA mother whose income did not suffer from taking time off for family responsibilities is Marissa Mayer, former CEO of Yahoo.
In 2012, she took two weeks for parental leave, and her total compensation for the year was USD $36.6 Million.

Phyllis Tharenou

Women in organisational hierarchies dominated by men less frequently progressed to management roles even though they may earn more than women in other organisations, according to Phyllis Tharenou of Flinders University.

Employees with managerial aspirations and masculine preferences were more likely to advance in management roles, she found.
These effects were offset by “career encouragement” such as mentoring and structured career development programs.

Denise Conroy

With Denise Conroy of Queensland Technology University, Tharenou studied more than 600 female managers and 600 male managers across six organizational levels.
Women’s and men’s advancement was most closely correlated with workplace development opportunities and organizational structure.
Structural, policy and program changes can increase the number of women in top leadership roles.

Women tend to excel in explicit workplace contests, such as in public sector jobs, yet women in other sectors can improve opportunities for advancement by:

Recognizing that advancement is a tournament,
Competing strategically,
Communicating interest in advancement,
Seeking employment in organizations with formal career advancement programs, mentoring, and development training,
Seeking employment in organizations that support flexible work practices and use technology to enable employees to work “anytime, anywhere,”
Gaining experience in “masculine” organizations,
Identifying social support inside organizations,
Seeking and cultivating advocates and sponsors.
*How do you manage workplace “tournaments” for career advancement?

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Herminia Ibarra

Men received 15% more promotions than women, according to a Catalyst Benchmarking Survey.

Similar numbers of “high potential” women and men were selected for lateral moves to other parts of the business.
However, men but not women, received promotions after the career-developing lateral moves.

Nancy M. Carter

Women’s developmental lateral moves were substitutes for actual career advancement, suggested INSEAD’s Hermina Ibarra with Nancy M. Carter and Christine Silva of Catalyst.
Similarly, women receive social accounts – or explanations – as substitutes for salary increases.

Virginia Valian

Hunter College’s Virginia Valian suggested that implicit bias may explain men’s performance is consistently overrated while women’s accomplishments are underrated by coworkers, bosses and themselves, .
Resulting discrepancies in opportunity accrue over time to create large gaps in advancement, she asserted.

In addition, women are typically evaluated in relation to a “masculine” standard of leadership, reported Catalyst’s earlier research.
Three consequences of this rating standard undermine leadership and advancement opportunities:

Extreme Perceptions, in which women are attributed behavioral excesses, such as “toughness” or “niceness,”
High Competence Threshold, when women leaders are held to higher standards and receive lower and fewer rewards than men,
Competent but Disliked, when women may be perceived either as “competent” or “likeable” but not both.

Phyllis Tharenou

Family structure can accelerate or slow career progress in unexpected ways.
Both “post traditional” mothers who have employed spouses, and “traditional” fathers whose wives are engaged in childcare only, more rapidly advanced in private sector careers than women and men with other family configurations, reported Phyllis Tharenou of Flinders University.
Somewhat surprisingly, non-parent women and men, and unmarried fathers advanced more slowly in their careers.

Employment disruption, such as maternity leave or layoff, did not impair career advancement for women and men, but the industry sector was associated with differing rates of career advancement.

Alice Eagly

In a separate analysis, Tharenou noted that the strongest predictors of advancing in management were managerial aspirations and masculinity.
Women were more likely to advance when they received career encouragement and when organizational hierarchies included both women and men.

To explain these career advancement rate discrepancies, University of Massachusetts’ Alice H. Eagly and Linda L. Carli of Wellesley suggested that women encounter a career labyrinth rather than a glass ceiling.

Linda Carli

Differences in career advancement rates may be narrowed by sponsorship rather than mentorship, argued Catalyst and Center for Talent Innovation.
Male advocates can support female sponsees by focusing attention on the challenges women face at work and can advocate for organizational processes and structures that normalize equivalent competence in women and men.

What type of “career encouragement” enable women to advance in careers at a rate similar to men?

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Kathryn Welds, PhD | Curated Research + Commentary

Consulting Organizational Psychologist | Change Consultant | Leadership+Career Master Coach | Coach Supervisor+Mentor Coach |

Tag Archives: Phyllis Tharenou

Career Advancement as Contest–Tournament: How to Win

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