Our new CIO started this week. At our meet and greet, we heard about the new CIO’s background, career progression, family life, and expectations. So what’s the big deal and how does it pertain to diversity? The interesting thread that ties this event and this blog together is the fact that in a very male dominated industry of information technology our new CIO, Sheryl Bunton, is a woman and a finalist in Eventa CIO’s (2014) Top 10 Breakaway Leader Award list.
What’s the Big Deal?
As noted in lesson three of Penn State’s OLEAD 410 course (2015), Dr. Redmond highlights that diversity is in general differences but specifically differences between people inside a group (p. 2). In IT, diversity in the highest level groups is rare as men tend to dominate the field. Harrison, Price, and Bell (1998) further unpack diversity into two levels that impact people; deep and surface level. In this case, surface level is what we see such as race, gender, or height as a few examples. Many females are first judged using surface level diversity filters then have to rise through these stereotypes to then pass through deep level views held by other such as women’s traditional roles in the workplace. In a male dominated industry such as information technology, this can be an extremely difficult set of hurdles to overcome. Obviously these barriers lend themselves to the glass ceiling effect described by Moran, Abramson, and Moran (2014) as barriers that prevent women from entering into higher levels of organizations such as senior management (p. 146) which is why the hiring of Mrs. Bunton is a big deal.
The reason her gender is important in this case is diversity in the workplace is no more evident than in C-level leadership positions. Meyerson and Fletcher (2000) clearly point this out noting, “Women at the highest levels of business are still rare. They comprise only ten percent of senior managers in Fortune 500 companies; less than four percent of the uppermost ranks of CEO, president, vice president, and COO; and less than three percent of top corporate earners.”
Are Times Changing?
Our company is moving in the right direction as are several others. A Pew Research Center study (2015) backs this up noting that the tide is changing and more women are rising into the highest levels of leadership, but the trend is troublingly slow. Twenty years ago, there were no female CEOs in Fortune 500 companies however as of the writing of the Pew article (2015), a meager 5.2 percent of all Fortune 500 listed CEOs were women. Progress is good, but progress at a much faster pace would be better.
How Can We Help?
The trend of diversification and integration will continue, and as leaders we can help promote ideas and create environments where intolerance is not acceptable and old paradigms are dispelled. Our evangelism and leadership is the first step, but we see clearly that diversity will pay off on its own and speak louder than anything we can say as Zenzer and Folkman (2012) note, “at every level, more women were rated by their peers, their bosses, their direct reports, and their other associates as better overall leaders than their male counterparts — and the higher the level, the wider that gap grows”. Moran et all (2014) reinforce this point by contending that companies will have competitive advantages by diversifying the workforce and including women in their ranks (p. 143). For our wives, daughters, nieces, ourselves, our companies, and our culture, we can and should promote openness, tolerance, and diversity in our actions and our words.
“At every level, more women were rated by their peers, their bosses, their direct reports, and their other associates as better overall leaders than their male counterparts.”
Zenzer and Folkman (2012)
References:
Catalyst. (April 3, 2015) Women CEOs of the S&P 500. Retrieved from http://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/women-ceos-sp-500
Eventa. (2014) Top 10 Leaders. Retrieved from http://www.evanta.com/cio/summits/global/page/4025
ExecRank. (2014) ExecRank Top CIOs 2014. Retrieved from http://www.execrank.com/2014-rankings/2014-top-chief-information-officer/
Harrison, D. A., Price, K. H., & Bell, M. P. (1998). Beyond relational demography: Time and the effects of surface- and deep-level diversity on work group cohesion. Academy of Management Journal, 41, 96–107.
Meyerson, D. E., & Fletcher, J K. (2000). A Modest Manifesto for Shattering the Glass Ceiling. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2000/01/a-modest-manifesto-for-shattering-the-glass-ceiling
Moran, R.T., Abramson, N.R. and Moran, S.V. (2014) Managing Cultural Differences. Routledge, New York.
Pew Research Center. (January 14, 2015) Women and Leadership. Retrieved from http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2015/01/14/chapter-1-women-in-leadership/
The Pennsylvania State University. (2015) Lesson 03: Diversity .Pg 2. Retrieved from https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/fa15/olead410/001/content/03_lesson/02_page.html
Zenger, J., Folkman, J. (2012). Are Women Better Leaders than Men? Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2012/03/a-study-in-leadership-women-do/
aek5366 says
Females are still new to the leadership positions in industries, but are on the uprising line. According to BLS 27.9 percent of total employed in chief executive position were females in year 2015.
References:
BLS. Employed persons by detailed occupation, sex, race, and Hispanic or Latino ethnicity. (2016). Bls.gov. Retrieved 10 September 2016, from http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat11.htm