EDU5LDI Essay: Gender Diversity in Leadership and Management

This essay critically reviews the literature on gender diversity within leadership and management, highlighting its significance and impact on organizational success. The introduction emphasizes that gender inclusion is a crucial choice for leaders, while the discussion section delves into the importance of gender diversity, the absence of gender equality, and strategies for implementation. The essay references numerous studies and perspectives, including the work of Blackmore (2006), Lakshmi and Shrivastav (2017), and Cook & Glass (2013), to argue for the benefits of a diverse workforce, including increased innovation and better financial performance. It also addresses the challenges of gender inequality, such as stereotyping and unequal representation, particularly in leadership positions. The essay further explores how organizations can promote gender diversity through effective policies, recruitment strategies, and a commitment from leaders to create a more inclusive workplace. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of addressing gender diversity in education to foster a more equitable environment.

LEADERSHIP DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION
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Addressing Gender Diversity in the field of Leadership and Management
Introduction
Gender diversity has turned out to be a reality, but gender inclusion is a choice, which
must be made done by the people holding positions in leadership. Blackmore (2006), in his
research, identified that diversity is the result of the feminism and anti-racism but has
recently privileged learning and leadership as an individual accomplishment rather than a
collective process. Addressing gender diversity has resulted in equal opportunities and social
justice in several Western democratic nations. It is significant for the leaders to be responsive
towards cultural, racial, gender and sexual diversity for ensuring that everyone gets equal
opportunity for growth and development. Addressing gender diversity is related to offering
equal opportunity to both males and females for their professional development. People from
different backgrounds and gender can come together for creating innovative ideas that would
encourage the growth and development of ideas. However, despite these strategies, several
companies are not benefitting as they are dominated by a single-sex. The technology industry
mostly employs the men while the nursing sector employs women. However, the range of the
customers served by them is more diverse than the people helping them. Thus, for better
serving the customers, it is crucial for maintaining gender diversity in the workplace.
The present essay explores the gender diversity in the management and the leadership
aspect. The first section of the article would discuss the importance of gender diversity. The
second part would shed light on the absence of gender equality and its effects on the
organisation. Finally, the essay gas investigated how gender diversity can be implemented
within the organisation in the leadership and management field for attaining success.
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Discussion
Lakshmi and Shrivastav (2017) commented that gender diversity is the selection of an
equal number of males and the females in the workplace and encouraging their fair treatment.
It also includes the assessment, recognition and promotion of several skills, resources and
probability of women and men in their diversity. Gender diversity is essential for any
business as it aids in hiring from a vast pool of talent. Diversity brings in with it a richness
and variety of experiences and perspectives that create benefits for the organisations and the
stakeholders. Deploying women in the leadership position give rise to creativity and
innovation and enable the board of members to take note of a large number of ideas and
possibilities. The organisation should be a place that encourages the growth and the
development of every people and so that they can work efficiently. Broadbridge & Simpson
(2011) mentioned that at the different levels of the organisations, employers and the
employees must interact with proper respect, effectiveness and confidences. Thus, true
diversity can be attained by employing collective individuals who can showcase a complex
blend of attributes, perspectives and behaviour and talents. Blackmore (2006) commented
that considering gender diversity, the femocrats in Australia created legislative for the gender
equity reform. This policy encouraged the growth of the women from the backward societies
in terms of education, health and welfare. The Aboriginal Australians were mostly benefited
from this policy as the government of the country also supported it.
Studies have made it evident that the organisations with an equal number of the males
and the females perform much better as compared to the male-dominated teams. The majority
of the organisations are indeed unable to focus on attaining a balanced workforce, especially
for the leadership and the management positions. Cook & Glass (2013) argued that gender
diversity does not mean 50-50 representation of the men and the women in the working
position, but it means that every organisation should have equal representations of both the
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genders. Gender diversity can be attained by an organisation when all the employees
irrespective of gender, age, and background can avail for similar rewards opportunities and
recognition. In several cases, gender inequality arises from the absence of commitment and
leadership from the executive in the organisation. Mindsets and attitude form significant
barer in the advancement of woman as males are perceived as an individual while the female
is considered being representatives of feminism.
Diversity in the workforce provides better access to resources that includes credit
sources, information and industry knowledge. Furthermore, the organisation can serve a wide
range of customer base with a diverse gender workforce. With an effective gender diversity
policy, the company can attract and recruit talented women. Companies cannot become
competitive in the global market by ignoring 50% of the potential workforce. Having a
diverse gender workforce and its proper management enables the organisation to undertake
fruitful decisions, attain financial success and create a significant competitive edge in the
market.
Unfortunately, genders diversity is still a significant mile stone to achieve. Several
studies have made it evident that genders diversity is positively related to the financial
performance of the company. But, the women representation in the companies is much less as
compared to that of men (Chin, 2013). Moreover, leadership positions are more occupied by
males as compared to females. For understanding this issue, Gender Forward Pioneer Index
investigated the Global Fortune 500 and the most renowned company list in the world. The
result showed the presence of 8600 executives in 36 countries but included only 11%
representation of women in the senior leadership position. None of the companies has an
equal or fair representation of both the genders.
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Moreover, 38% of the organisations have all-male leaders. The companies listed on
the Most Admired Company showed 17% female leadership which is almost double than the
other companies (8%). In 2016, the gender gap in Australia had increased with seniority, as
women represented only 5% CEO in 200 companies in Australia (Appendix 1) (Green,
Alhadeff, Akhmetova & Tracey, 2019).
There are several reasons offered by the scholars and the critics for the unequal
representation of the male and the female in the leadership and the management position. The
professor of Leadership and Learning, Herminia Ibarra, mentioned that men and women
network differently. Men network for growing opportunities while women prefer networking
with other women. Adams and Ferreira (2009) said that women in the leadership position
develop much stricter rules as they do not belong to 'Old Boys School'. The female directors
seem to be documenting improved attendance behaviour among the male directors that result
in enhanced performance of the organisation. However, it is quite common to see an unequal
representation of women in different positions in business organisations, particularly in the
male-dominated sectors. The females are much underrepresented in information technologies
because of the myth that females have limited understanding or interest in computer and
software.
The existence of the myth regarding career choice has also affected gender diversity
in the workplace. Engineers, Doctors, Lawyers and several technical positions were
considered to be appropriate for men. Females are confined only for clerical, nurses and
educational jobs. Until 1950, Harvard School of Law did not accept the admission of women
(Jones & Mansour, 2019). Furthermore, the women were not considered to be useful for
leadership and management position because of their inability to undertake effective
decisions. All these stereotyping of gender has led to the ineffective representation of the
women in the workplace. Thus, unequal representation of the gender in the educational career
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gives rise to gender issues in the workplace. Addressing diversity in education can help in
addressing diversity in the workplace. AhNee-Benham (2003) commented that women are
considered to be a significant source of leadership talent, and they are best suited to work
with people with whom they share a cultural and considerable bond. Several inspirational
stories of woman leadership exhibit the myth of stereotyping of woman. Thus, gender
diversity, although originated as a significant factor of feminism, today it is considered to be
a learning and leadership privileges for individual fulfilment instead of standard practice.
The leaders undertaking vital decisions highly influence the brand of an organisation.
Nijstad, Berger-Selman & De Dreu (2012) commented that brand reputation is strongly
associated with talent acquisition. However, gender disparity and fondness for male
employees often result in the improper acquisition of the talent within the corporations. When
women are recruited in the leadership position, the company earns a profit. As per the report
of McKinsey, organisation that is listed for maintaining high gender diversity were 21% more
efficient in performing financially well as compare to the other competitors (Green, Alhadeff,
Akhmetova & Tracey, 2019). Thus, diversity should be instilled in the culture of the
organisation so that it looks simple and natural and is not just imposed upon the management
of the organisation. Promoting gender diversity in the leadership and the management
position will improve the monitoring duty of the board of the organisation.
Gender diversity is turning out to be one of the most important factors of
consideration in corporate governance. The supporters of gender diversity claimed that it
improves the financial performance of the company on a long term basis. Ho, Li, Tam &
Zhang (2015) argued that attaining gender diversity in the workplace should begin from the
nascent stage. Thus, schools, teachers and educational leaders should focus on gender and
sexual diversity among their clients, students and community people. The education of the
women has improved as large numbers of females are pursuing a higher degree in studies, but
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still, their representation in the workplace is low. This is due to the ineffective recruitment
policies within the organisations. The women in the leadership position are always found to
be quite small as compared to the males. Several companies reported that they are highly
committed towards gender diversities, but no such progress can be seen in their actions.
There are different ways in which diversities can be attained in an organisation: the
leaders and the management play a critical role in creating effective gender diversity
strategies. Lee, Lee, Seo & Choi (2015) commented that the improvement should begin from
the basics. The first action would be to set diversity goals and track the milestones. This
would include the development of effective policies and regulation in the recruitment strategy
so that an equal number of males and female are selected for the organisation. A research was
carried out on 8600 companies all around the world regarding gender diversities that proved
the significance of addressing gender equality for attaining improved financial performance.
However, the commitment of the organisation towards gender diversity is much lower. Only,
19% of the companies avoid bias training for recruiting the best employees irrespective of
gender (Jones & Mansour, 2019) unconsciously. Some organisation also provides significant
arguments for hiring a lesser number of females in the management and leadership position.
The most important reason which is put forward by most of the organisation is the
maintenance of work-life balance by the female employees. Stereotyping in this globalised
world makes the women still responsible for managing household chores and their children.
This reduces their concentration on work and often prevents them from contributing a
hundred per cent towards the organisation.
The shortage of global talent has grown more sensitive, and this has resulted in the
development of new ways of engaging and developing business leaders. This would help in
creating suitable and sustainable strategies for the future. Businesses are investing in the
development of the workforce, but very little importance is paid for addressing workforce
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gender diversity. A survey result showed that 86% of the women voted for effective gender
diversity policies, but the employers seem to be the least interest in the development of the
same. Recruitment and the retention of the women in the business organisation require the
implementation of the appropriate policies for maintaining a work-life balance. 30% of the
women mentioned that work-life balance is one of the prime factors for changing jobs
(Kebede, 2017). This creates significant challenges for employers to develop strategies for
upholding the interest of female employees.
Blackmore (2006) commented on the women diversity in leadership, which stands for
the equitable distribution of the women in the leadership position. Kebede (2017) opined
about the positive relationship between gender diversity and organisational performances.
The representation of the women in the management and the leadership position should be
useful for improving the financial performances, innovation, creativity and organising a
smooth communication system. The leadership position should be composed of both the
males and the females who are more contributing to the strategic direction of the company
and undertake decisions more effectively. The talent recruitment strategy should ensure
gender diversity but at the same time, should consider the ability of the women who are
recruited for the leadership and the management positions.
However, attaining gender diversity within the organisation is not easy and requires
the practical assessment of the management. The recruitment of women in the leadership
position enhances the financial performances of the company. Kaseram (2018) mentioned
that a gender diversified the workforce in an organisation act as a competitive differentiator
that improves the market share. Research has made it evident that management with a good
representation of women seems to perform better as compared to that of other companies
with a lower focus on gender diversity. The sales returns, share performance and stock price
growth increases with better talent acquisition strategies. Curtis, Schmidt & Struber (2012)
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commented that recruiting talented and qualified men and women in the workforce help in
creating a pool of talented people who can better serve the organisation. Women form a vital
section of the talented pool of candidates. When the management of the organisation values
genders diversities, it is more directed towards recruiting people who are sensitive to the
problems. An organisation with a good representation of women in the leadership panel is
more focused on hiring a balanced workforce that can better serve the organisation.
Hili & Affess (2012) commented that companies with useful genders diversities
enhance the brand reputation both directly and indirectly. The organisations with better
representation of the women in the management position are considered to be more
preferable for the customers and possess ethical value. Kyriakidou (2011) argued that women
managers are much stricter as compared to male managers as they monitor every activity and
are highly committed to work. Moreover, gender diversity policy can be directly linked with
corporate social responsibility strategies. El Ghoul, Guedhami, Kwok & Mishra (2011)
defined that Corporate Social Responsibility as an important factor in earning reputation by
delivering benefits to the community and the customers. With the improvement in the
reputation of the company, the market value of the organisation increases. Women in the
leadership position can result in better problem solving as the men and women seem to have
different perspective and ideas about a situation. The corporation that has a significant
representation of the women in the leadership position as well as in lower clerical position
can better understand the needs and the preferences of the clients. The product marketing and
the customer service of the organisation also improves. Management with more women
representation tends to focus on more effective communication strategies while interacting
with clients. This can enhance the understanding of the stakeholder about the company and
develop a relationship with them.
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According to Coleman (2012), maintenance of diversity in leadership and
management position implies diversity of thought. Women view an approach differently,
which brings out the different perspective from that of men improving the decision-making
process. Women leaders are stricter, but they foster creativity and often emphasise on
bringing changes in the organisational structure for encouraging the nourishment of talents
and growth of employees from different background, age and gender. Virick & Greer (2012)
opined that women leaders introduce new concepts, offer training and focus more on the
research and development. As per the resource based theory, the management of any
organisation is responsible for gathering valuable resources that include both financial and
human to established smooth relation with the market (Kozlenkova, Samaha & Palmatier,
2014). This set of responsible management can be developed with an equal representation of
male and female in the management panel. Thus, gender diversity can result in improved
value creation for the company by utilising human capital as the strategic resource.
Foss (2010) commented that gender diversity enables the organisation to attain global
recognition. Gender diversity deals with offering acceptance and respect to both males and
females. Diversity in the management position is critical for improving organisation
performance through better employee management policies, communication strategies, strong
corporate governance and broader customer base. While the woman plays a crucial role in the
management position, their participation is hindered by the global challenges, personal issues,
cultural and perception gaps. Hence, it is high time for the management to address gender
diversity by offering equal opportunities to women based on their talent and capabilities.
The issue of gender diversity can be addressed in different countries by the
intervention by the government. The legislative bodies have introduced new laws and policies
that focus on making a compulsory representation of the woman on the board. As per the
report of Fortune 500, the management of the companies with a higher proportion of women
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has improved performance, higher operating profit and enhanced valuations (Foss, 2010). In
some countries, the approaches for diversity have begun from the education stage of the
students. For instance, the government of Australia has established diversity policies for
addressing gender issues in the Aboriginal Australian community. The schools for the
backward community have given particular emphasis on educating the girl child so that they
can earn their living in future (Blackmore, 2006). The new educational policies have acted as
anti-discriminatory laws encouraging the growth of both males and females in the Aboriginal
community.
The companies are investing in gender diversity with the effort to recruit an adequate
number of males and females based on their talents. Developing policies would create
challenges for the management and the response of the male and the female employees to
these are differences. The difference in perception towards change by males and females
create behavioural changes that can create challenges for the leaders to alter the cultural
aspect of the organisation. Hence, while developing diversity policies, the leaders have to be
careful about addressing the needs of both the genders.
The big companies in Australia can address the diversity issues by investing in
strategies for overcoming barriers in the advancement and retention of the women employees.
Hart & Dowell (2010) commented that CEOs could engage in recruiting and retaining
women along with identification and nurturing talents in the management position and
creating an environment in which all the employees are treated equally and valued. Coleman
(2012) commented that this requires a long-term investment that may take time to produce
results. It includes the formulation of non-written rules with strict norms and the assumptions
of how a leader looks like. It also includes shifting of the organisational culture that may
create behavioural changes among the employees. Presently, the companies in Australia have
better scope for focusing on nurturing talents, improving their ability through senior
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sponsorship and focusing more on the personal and the professional development of the
women for their senior roles.
The genders diversity in organisation can also be attained by emphasising on viability
and visibility of flexible work models. When the employees, especially, the women are
offered with flexible working hours they can better contribute towards the organisation. The
women have to perform their domestic responsibility for which they may fail to maintain any
specific period. Thus, flexibility can act as a significant pillar of successful genders diversity
strategies (Hart & Dowell, 2010). Organising part-time job both the male and female
employees scan enhance their contribution by improving the quality of the work. However,
employees in Australia are unaware of part-time jobs. Hence the creation of flexible working
environment can improve the genders diversity. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia is a
practical example of attaining success by employing flexible working structure. More than 52
thousand employees have worked on a flexible working structure that increased the customer
output by 20% (Green, Alhadeff, Akhmetova & Tracey, 2019).
The issue of gender diversity can be addressed by incorporating the same with the
renewed vigour, which is same as the business strategy. The execution of the diversity
policies can be attained through leadership commitment, entire organisation engagements and
test and learn mindset application (Virick & Greer, 2012). The commitments of the leaders
are essential for offering support to the lower level employees and encouraging the fair
representation of the male and the female employees in the management positions. In
Australia, 90% of the companies listed on ASX have undertaken steps for fulfilling the
objectives of gender diversity. The management should come into the vision and should offer
effective chances for females to be the leaders of the organisations (Jones & Mansour, 2019).
Thus, the journey towards diverse leadership and management structure would require
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