Many professionals work for global organizations, which requires connecting with other professionals all around the globe.  “Across sectors and geographical locations, global competencies are a workplace necessity, especially as small businesses and enterprises expand globally” (Duus & Cooray, 2014, p. 244).  Those who are accustomed to this type of work environment know that distance is frequently prohibitive to meeting face-to-face, therefore meetings are predominantly virtual, taking place at various times of the day due to time zone differences.  These folks have a leg up on other professionals that have not had to adapt to a virtual business environment and are now doing so thanks to COVID.

Global competencies include “the ability to work collaboratively with teams of people from a range of cultures and backgrounds, excellent communication skills, and the ability to embrace multiple perspectives” (Duus & Cooray, 2014, p. 244).  To be effective with geographically distributed teams, or during COVID, there are seven important actions to consider, helping teams “cope with important differences in interpersonal communication styles, preferred approaches to organizational control and authority relations, and work-related knowledge and problem-solving approaches” (Cramton & Hinds, 2014, p. 1056).

• First, send out an agenda or a pre-meeting plan which calls out the timing of meeting stages as well as the specific participants (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014).  By doing this, all participants (from diverse cultures and environments) will be better prepared to follow along and stay engaged.
• Second, be sure to ask for feedback from all participants, particularly those who are more reserved or quiet, as the latter might be afraid to speak up without being asked (Moran et al., 2014).
• Third, make it clear to all participants who is actually participating.  This can be accomplished by calling people by their names when asking questions, or by ensuring that the participant roster is visible when using platforms such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams.
• Forth, work hard to build a shared vision together with all participants.  Set goals that are clear and make the team’s progress known.  Whenever possible, it is best to first meet face-to-face to establish a vision and a set of goals, but when that is not an option, spend time getting to know the individual participants as you would if meeting for a cup of coffee.
• Fifth, set rules of conduct related to email communication.  Determine the reasonable amount of time in which a reply should be received (and have the group adhere to it), establish guidelines around the recipients of communication (as not all members need to be copied on every email), and be sure to read all communication one last time to consider the recipients’ perspective, especially as cultural diversity comes into play (Moran et al., 2014).
• Sixth, assign roles within the team or group to predetermine “who will be responsible for what decisions, and how will differences in opinion be resolved” (Moran et al., 2014, p. 276).   As it is harder to reach an agreement when distance is involved, acknowledge this in advance and make plans before a disagree occurs.
• Finally, accommodate others who are in different time zones, switching from late-night to very early morning meeting times.  Such empathetic gestures “go a long way with those who usually suffer the most with time-zone differences” (Moran et al., 2014, p. 276).

For those of us who do not work for a global organization (yet), consider this change to a virtual work environment as a challenge to expand your use of technology, utilizing the incredible advances that have been made in computer graphics and software.  And don’t forget to expand your knowledge of different cultures, as research shows that diverse virtual agents are being designed to appeal to collectivist societies as well as individualistic societies based on the location of the human participant (Mascarenhas, Degens, Paiva, Prada, Hofstede, Beulens & Aylett, 2015).  If the bar has been raised to that level for virtual or automated computer agents, than as leaders, we must step up our [virtual] game!

 

References:

Cramton, C. D., & Hinds, P. J. (2014). An embedded model of cultural adaptation in global teams. Organization Science (Providence, R.I.), 25(4), 1056-1081. doi:10.1287/orsc.2013.0885

Duus, R., & Cooray, M. (2014). Together we innovate: Cross-cultural teamwork through virtual platforms. Journal of Marketing Education, 36(3), 244-257. doi:10.1177/0273475314535783

Mascarenhas, S., Degens, N., Paiva, A., Prada, R., Hofstede, G. J., Beulens, A., & Aylett, R. (2015). Modeling culture in intelligent virtual agents. Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, 30(5), 931-962. doi:10.1007/s10458-015-9312-6

Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing cultural differences (9^th ed.). NY: Routledge.

For most women, barriers and impediments often create obstacles in the pursuit of success and power in the workplace (Muchinsky & Culbertson, 2016).  Yet, in this era of global business, organizational success is critically dependent on “collaboration with others and building strong relationships,” both male and female (Muchinsky & Culbertson, 2016, p. 419).  It’s time to break down the barriers and change the scarcity of females in high level positions.  In this post, I will examine a major impediment, the work and family balance that many women face, and I’ll demonstrate my view that a professional career and motherhood can coexist together, supported by personal experience as well as scholarly research.

Balancing work and family has been a long-standing challenge for women, and an increasing challenge for men, as parenting responsibilities are becoming more nebulous.  In our society, work-family balance, that is “the degree to which an individual is able to simultaneously balance the temporal, emotional, and behavioral demands of both paid work and family responsibilities,” is not principally supported by the United States government as it is in other countries (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014, p. 153).  Sweden, for example, has policies that provide subsidized childcare programs and required parental leave which, for starters, would reduce a professional’s concern about competition, as many professionals in Western societies are afraid to take time off for vacation, let alone months for maternity (or paternity) leave (Moran et al., 2014).  In the United States, the responsibility of aiding workers with work-family balance is the responsibility of individual employers and unfortunately, employers often feel that “it is not their responsibility but the families” to find that balance, financially or otherwise (Moran et al., 2014, p. 155).  In 1993, the United States established the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) which allows both men and women to take time away from work to care for a loved one without the risk of job loss (Moran et al., 2014).  Though FMLA has significant benefits, it does not help in creating a balance, it creates a decision, a one-versus-the-other choice.

Let’s consider for a moment the women who choose to grow their career and grow their family. These women face a juggling act, needing to possess [admirable] skills required to efficiently plan and execute the daily tasks of work and family, with competencies in prioritizing, multitasking, and decision-making (Moran et al., 2014).  Unfortunately, when cultural norms still promote traditional models of “parenthood,” work related prejudice and stigmas will run amuck (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014, p. 153).  Gender differences in leadership is cultural (Muchinsky & Culbertson, 2016).  For example, the agentic or male gender role is viewed as “competent, aggressive, independent, decisive and forceful,” whereas the communal or female gender role is “to be kind, concerned, and sympathetic to the needs of others” (Muchinsky & Culbertson, 2016, p. 419).  As a professional woman and a single mother of two children, I say women can – and should – develop quality traits from both gender roles, not just those that have been imposed upon us.

I’ll be the first one to have a heart-to-heart with my child or my team member, but I’m also known for being decisive in my home and at my office – after all, time is a luxury when you have two jobs to do.  I’ve also learned to titrate my work ambitions with the needs of my children at certain stages of their development, and I’ve made the existence of both work and home cohesive, as they are clearly interdependent in my life.  I believe in the Chinese perspective that “work is seen as having a long-term benefit for the family” (Moran et al., 2014, p. 154).

Getting to this point in my life hasn’t come without help.  Having a mentor or sponsor is crucial in a woman’s pursuit to be successful at work and at home.  Mentorship is related to “both objective career outcomes, including advancement into management positions, and subjective career outcomes, such as career satisfaction” (Hideg & Shen, 2019, p. 290).  Look around your organization and identify people that you admire (with similar circumstances), that seem to be further down the path than you are.  Try asking them how they managed the demands of work and family in order to get to this point in their career.  You might remind them of their younger-self and your inquiry might also remind them of the great progress they’ve made (just like you will).  Without a doubt, my employer has served as my mentor and we have a very complimentary relationship.  She is 20 years my senior and has raised four children while working full-time; her guidance and direction has been priceless, and without her support, I would not be where I’m at today.

This dual role of mother and professional takes dedication and quite a bit of grit.  As the employee, you’ll benefit by learning that you’re more competent than you know, and that you’re able to take on unexpected challenges.  Your employer will benefit by gaining your loyalty for accommodating your family life, they will retain your talent by being understanding of the times that home demands are heavier than work ones, and they’ll have a happy employee which will lead to better work outcomes.  I’ve realized that real happiness comes from the things that people are passionate about, not the things they do because they’re expected to do them.  I am driven to be successful, but I am passionate about being a good mom.

I challenge all of my fellow moms to seek advancement opportunities, leaving any self-limiting behavior by the wayside (Sartore & Cunningham, 2007, p. 259).  There appears to be “no empirical basis for the disproportionately small representation of women in top leadership jobs in the United States,” so break through that glass ceiling and join the predominantly male leaders of our global society (Muchinsky & Culbertson, 2016, p. 419).   The world – and your children who will learn from your example – will thank you!

References:

Elias, E. (2018). Lessons learned from women in leadership positions: How working women can survive and thrive. Work (Reading, Mass.), 59(2), 175-181. doi:10.3233/WOR-172675

Hideg, I., & Shen, W. (2019). Why still so few? A theoretical model of the role of benevolent sexism and career support in the continued underrepresentation of women in leadership positions. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 26(3), 287-303. doi:10.1177/1548051819849006

Maürtin-Cairncross, A. (2014). Feeling ‘Pushed’ but ‘Clinging on’: Juxtaposing the perceived barriers and support strategies used by women in leadership positions in south african universities. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 5(8) doi:10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n8p558

Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing cultural differences (9^th ed.). NY: Routledge.

Muchinsky, P.M. & Culbertson, S.S. (2016). Psychology applied to work: An introduction to industrial and organizational psychology (11th ed.). Summerfield, NC: Hypergraphic Press.

O’Brien, D. J., & Wegren, S. K. (2015). The underrepresentation of women in leadership positions in rural russia: The underrepresentation of women. Rural Sociology, 80(1), 86-107. doi:10.1111/ruso.12053

Sartore, M. L., & Cunningham, G. B. (2007). Explaining the under-representation of women in leadership positions of sport organizations: A symbolic interactionist perspective. Quest (National Association for Kinesiology in Higher Education), 59(2), 244-265. doi:10.1080/00336297.2007.10483551

I’ll admit that I missed the mark on thoroughly describing differences within and differences between for a recent assignment.  I didn’t look deep enough, and I wasn’t sensitive enough to the small nuances that can make a big difference in understanding who people are and why people behave the way they do.  There is a noteworthy difference in individual characteristics from those of group generalizations, and this topic is not only significant to our success as professionals, but it’s personal to people as it recognizes each of us for our uniqueness.

Analyzing differences involves the examination of how people within a group differ among members (differences within) and also how one group of people differs from another group (differences between).  For example, language is a key factor in determining the meaning and success of communication; research shows that “language cannot be understood properly when analyzed devoid of its social underpinnings” (Gefen, Geri & Paravastu, 2007, p. 11).

Diversity speaks to the differences between individuals.  Differences within groups compare a vast array of differences for all individuals in a group, such as height, religious beliefs, gender, eye color, age, meal preferences, smoking preference, sexual preference, social status… name a variable and it will likely count as a difference (Pennsylvania State University, 2020, para. 6).  Differences are what make us unique, that is, our precise differences, but culture is what makes people similar.

Culture speaks to the “differences between groups in terms of trends or averages” (Pennsylvania State University, 2020, para. 7).  When it comes to communication under the lenses of differences between, “results also provide additional explanations why women sense more social presence in business e-mail than men do…cross-gender communications have cross-culture aspects to them” (Gefen & Straub, 1997, as cited by Gefen, Geri & Paravastu, 2007, p. 11).  Certain groups, collectively, do in fact behave differently.  “As sociolinguistics claim, men and women apply language, and communication in general, to such a differing social objectives that cross-gender communications can be sometimes best seen as nothing less than cross-cultural miscommunications among people with differing cultural backgrounds (Tannen,.1994, as cited by Gefen, Geri & Paravastu, 2007, p. 9).

Without considering differences, we’re likely to stereotype.  “The study of culture and the study of stereotyping are fundamentally and inherently linked, as culture is the vehicle through which stereotypic knowledge is transferred within a society and across generations” (Williams & Spencer‐Rodgers, 2010, p. 592).  Collectivist cultures, such as Asian cultures, may stereotype more readily as “a consequence of a greater emphasis on agentic, entitative social groups,” because of “the degree to which they predict prejudice and discrimination” (Williams & Spencer‐Rodgers, 2010, p. 599).  Interestingly, collectivist cultures are also more likely to “incorporate situational and contextual factors,” rather than form opinions based on perceived personality traits (Williams & Spencer‐Rodgers, 2010, p. 596).

People want to be accepted similar to how they conceive themselves, in both deep-level diversity (beliefs, values, attitudes) and surface-level diversity (hair color, weight) (Pennsylvania State University, 2020, para. 5). Without an understanding of differences, missteps will be problematic in a work environment and sweeping generalizations will be made.  “Perceived consensus about the attributes of the ingroup, as well as attributes of outgroups, serves to demarcate ingroup boundaries and facilitate interpersonal relations” (Williams & Spencer‐Rodgers, 2010, p. 592).

Leaders need to unify and recognize that the difference in the mean or averages between groups is not a representation of any individual, it’s simply a representation of a group (Pennsylvania State University, 2020, para. 5).  In general, recognizing differences within is most important, as these differences will always be greater than the differences between groups, even if the decision will affect a large group (Pennsylvania State University, 2020).  Let’s remember that one-size-fits-all strategies in organizations often fail, just as it does with raising children or buying clothing.

 

References:

Gefen, D., Geri, N., & Paravastu, N. (2007). Vive la différence: The cross-culture differences within us. International Journal of E-Collaboration, 3(3), 1-15. doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/10.4018/jec.2007070101

The Pennsylvania State University. (2020). Leadership Global Context: OLEAD 410, Lesson 1: Introduction to leadership in a global context. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2075490/modules/items/29697147

Treviño, L. K., & Nelson, K. A. (2107) Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do it right (7th ed.). Hoboken: Wiley.

Williams, M. J., & Spencer‐Rodgers, J. (2010), Culture and stereotyping processes: integration and new directions. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 4, 591-604. doi:10.1111/j.1751-9004.2010.00288.x

My name is Erica Monaghan and I’m in my second-to-last semester in my pursuit of a degree in Organizational Leadership.  After this semester, I’ll have two more courses to complete in the Spring.  I can’t tell you how exciting that is – to see the light at the end of the tunnel – because I left PSU when I was 20 years old with no degree, and now, almost 20 years later, I’m about to finish what I started long ago.  I’ve been working on completing my degree for three years while balancing a demanding full-time job and raising my two teenage girls alone.  If I could give one piece of advice to any of my younger classmates, DON’T QUIT!  Stick with it now because it is much harder to fit in later and you’ll feel the stigma of not having a degree in today’s society.  My dedication and hard work have influenced my kids as they both expect to put in the work to complete college after high school, and to my delight, my 15 year old is currently taking her third college class under a dual-enrollment program.  By the time she graduates high school, she’ll likely have one year of college under her belt.  On a side note, I live in the Lehigh Valley, I have a thing for horses and equestrian antiques, I thoroughly enjoy travel (when we don’t have a pandemic) and I love red wine!

I look forward to working with all of you this semester!

Best,
Erica