OLEAD 410: Leadership in a Global Context

Cultural Leadership blog

The Gender pay gap in Italy

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Cutillo and Centra (2017) describe Italy as having “one of the lowest unadjusted gender pay gaps in Europe” because of the extremely low employment rates of women. As noted in the image below, Italy is third on the list which compares every European country in comparison of the differences between the average gross hourly earnings of both genders. According to the Eurostat image in 2017, Italy weighed in at having a 5% difference.This blog post will go over the factors than weigh in the gender wage gap in Italy.

In Italy, women hold a large role in the household as being the main caregiver to the children (Cutillo & Centra, 2017). However, Cutillo and Centra (2017) infer that the only place where “ women’s paid work hours are reduced when children are born” is in Italy, meanwhile the “men’s paid work hours increase.” In contrast to other countries, there is no discrepancy in pay due to family composition. A cultural factor that is due to the great division of gender roles is the accessibility of childcare services (Cutillo & Centra, 2017). This can greatly affect a woman because she will not be able to efficiently perform her work hours due to inconsistent availability of these services and may even leave the workforce because of it. Modifications to certain positions and the greater development of more childcare services can help increase women in the field.

Secondly, another debated reason as to why the gender pay gap exists is due to over education. When compared to unemployed counterparts, overeducated individuals may appear more committed and may possess more motivation toward the job to employers (Carolina, Luisa, & Töpfer, 2018). Amongst overeducated individuals, there is a common denominator that there are more women workers who are overeducated than males (Carolina et al., 2018). The reason that some are accepting jobs for which they are overqualified for is because they rather not be unemployed (Carolina et al., 2018). Authors suggest that in Italy the gender pay gap may be due to overeducation because of a reduction in earnings for women at 7.3 %, when compared to properly educated individuals with a wage reduction of 3.5%.

On the other hand, recent research has shown that there is some progress being made toward women professionals and physicians being more accepted in the workplace (Gaiaschi, 2019; Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014). However women wages are still not even comparable to their male counterparts (Moran et al., 2014). Within the gender wage gap in Italy, it should be noted what the difference in occupational choices are between men and women. In Italy, a study conducted from Cutillo and Centra (2014) found that in female-dominated jobs, there is a large unexplainable component where women are rewarded fewer times than men, which is “four times higher among paid workers in female-dominated jobs than among those in male-dominated or gender-neutral jobs.” Each gender is driven by different professional paths such as for males the pay grade may show a large importance, where as for women the employment benefits or job security might have a varied importance (Cutillo & Centra, 2014). The author’s study helped them to see a consistency in preferences from their respondents, where they believe more jobs are overcrowding women because of their needs or preferences. Another explanation may be due to the fact that more Italian women are not as willing to negotiate wages as much as Italian males (Del Bono & Vuri, 2011). Del Bono and Vuri (2011) also believe that there is a gender difference in job motives amongst men and women, where women may want to advance in their position because of the family formation.

Overall this blog post has discussed a variety of reasons as to why the gender pay gap in Italy is not up to par to Italian males. Women have more difficulty in the job market due to differences in job motives, an inconsistency in childcare services in Italy, possibly due to women not negotiating their wages as much as males, and for a variety of more reasons. While it is difficult to pinpoint the exact reason as to why exactly there are low employment rates in Italy, this blog post acts as a way to find that reason ‘why’. Since the gender pay gaps in Italy are amongst the lowest in Europe, there needs to be more steps to improvement in the help of modifying more jobs and improving the availability of childcare services for women.

 

References

Carolina, C., Luisa, R., & Töpfer, M. (2018). Overeducation and the gender pay gap in Italy. International Journal of Manpower, 39(5), 710-730. doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/10.1108/IJM-12-2016-0235

Cutillo, A., & Centra, M. (2017). Gender-based occupational choices and family responsibilities: The gender wage gap in Italy. Feminist Economics, 23(4), 1-31. doi:10.1080/13545701.2017.1285041

Del Bono, E., & Vuri, D. (2011). Job mobility and the gender wage gap in Italy. Labour Economics, 18(1), 130-142. doi:10.1016/j.labeco.2010.06.002

Gaiaschi, C. (2019). Same job, different rewards: The gender pay gap among physicians in Italy. Gender, Work & Organization, 26(1). doi:10.1111/gwao.12351

Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences (9th ed.). Oxford: Routledge.

Characteristics of Negotiation Styles in Brazil

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Latin America has been coined as being “one of the hardest places in which to do business” with (How to, 2017). One difficult place to conduct commercial agreements and to develop trade with is Brazil (How to, 2017). One major advantage this country has is it’s diverse economy due to its large number of human and natural resources (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014). This involves the production of airplanes, orange juice, metals, automobiles, timber, shoes, and more (Moran et al., 2014). With businesses and economic opportunities constantly growing, Brazilians have developed a number of negotiation styles. There are many negotiation styles used in Brazil, however this article will give you an overview of the specific characteristics these negotiation styles have. A few characteristics to be mentioned are group over individual, relationship over task, and flexible over inflexible (Moran et al., 2014).

Moran et al. (2014) describe the group over individual characteristic as preferring the group over oneself in regard to sharing bonuses amongst other business situations. This type of personal preference for Brazilians shows just how much each one cares for individuals in their workplace since they are willing to negotiate for the team as a team player over their own preference. Brazilians have a very expressive communication style, which helps them to get their point across in the negotiation process (Moran et al., 2014). The authors also explain that friends are given preferential treatment because Brazilians have a traditional dominant value of community, loyalty, and generosity.

The second negotiation characteristic is relationship over task. Brazilians value friendship and relationships before even negotiating a task (Moran et al., 2014). The meaning behind this is because they do not believe a task can be completed with an impaired relationship. This is because there is a belief that “negotiations cannot be rushed”, since the development of personal relationships need an adequate amount of time before business deals and trust can be established (Moran et al., 2014). In regards to business deals, negotiations are more of an “open flow of information,” where the negotiation goal is to either build a relationship or a contract (Fang, Schaumburg, & Fjellström, 2017; Ghauri & Usunier, 2003).

Brazilians are also very adaptive, which leads up to the next characteristic being flexible over inflexible. Moran et al. (2014) infer that according to most Brazilians, they believe individuals lack intelligence and are considered to be unimaginative if an individual sticks to “following standard procedures”. This thought process is due to the fact that Brazilian laws, inflation rates, and exchange rates are consistently fluctuating. A few recent specific situations where this has happened are the lack of water supplies and periods of blackouts (Moran et al., 2014). Brazilians learned to adjust very quickly to change because of this and do not like to be inflexible with decisions, let alone negotiations.

All in all, it can be said that the Brazilian negotiation styles are very adaptive and can take quite a while when figuring out a business deal due to the fact that their relationships are grown and valued over time. Brazilians value ones trust and prefer to put their team over themselves because of their traditional dominant value of a sense of community and loyalty. Brazil’s natural and human resources are what makes the country so marketable. This is why there are a number of negotiating styles in Brazil to help in each particular circumstance involving business deals. In order to understand the Brazilian negotiation style, one has to thoroughly understand Brazil’s negotiating characteristics of putting one’s relationship over task, putting a group first over an individual, and how flexibility is valued more than inflexibility.

References

Fang, T., Schaumburg, J., & Fjellström, D. (2017). International business negotiations in brazil. The Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 32(4), 591-605. doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/10.1108/JBIM-11-2016-0257

Ghauri, P.N. & Usunier, J.C. (2003). International Business Negotiation (2nd ed.). Pergamon Publisher, Oxford.

How to do business in Brazil: Understanding a unique negotiating style from Latin America. (2017). Strategic Direction, 33(8), 36-38. doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/10.1108/SD-05-2017-0087

Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences (9th ed.). Oxford: Routledge.

 

 

A.C. Moore: The End of an Era

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For artists, there are two staple competitive arts and crafts stores in the U.S. and Canada named Michaels and A.C. Moore. Most recently, A.C. Moore has been all over the news due to a massive crisis change. When taking their firm performance into account, it could be seen that A.C. Moore has struggled over the course of the last couple of years. This article will go over A.C Moore’s fate, the definition of crisis change, and what holds true to the future of the famous arts and crafts retailer.

A crisis change involves a companies plummeting performance due to poor competitive strategy, poor products, poor service, or a large “inconsistency between strategy and the company’s internal capabilities” (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014). When a company is in this position, the willingness to change is essential for continued growth. However, bankruptcy in the near future is an imminent threat of crisis change. In order to measure the firm performance of a company, there are a number of measures to look at. This includes the profit margins, customer satisfaction, sales results, management effectiveness, productivity, and fixed assets (Moran et al., 2014).

In 1985, A.C. Moore first opened in Moorestown, New Jersey (Unglesbee, 2019). This arts and crafts retailer grew to 145 stores with thousands of employees. Although A.C. Moore has had great success in the past, yet over the course of the last few years they have had a large decline. From 2008 to 2011, A.C. Moore had “lost over $25 million/year” (DiStegano, 2011). Every company handles crisis change in their own way, however the success rate is only about 50/50 (Moran et al., 2014). One way A.C. Moore tried to strategize during this time was by selling their arts and crafts chain in 2011 to another art-supply distributor named Sbar for about $41 million (DiStegano, 2011). This is seen as reactive change, which involves the acknowledgement that adjustments need to be made “before a crisis can develop” (Moran et al., 2014). At the time, A.C. Moore was very close to bankruptcy. The new CEO of A.C. Moore, Pepe Piperno, had plans to completely change the arts and crafts retailer by restructuring the company in a way that it never had been before. In an article for the Business News Daily, Pepe described how the new philosophy of A.C. Moore was based on quality customer experience with a large focus on philanthropy (Piperno, 2016). After Pepe took the reigns, the company fluctuated with sales for a number of years until 2019. The board of directors were looking for “strategic alternatives” (Equity Research, 2011). In August 2019, Pepe promoted his son, Anthony Piperno as CEO (Unglesbee, 2019). Shortly after, to the great surprise of the nation, A.C. Moore released a statement in November 2019 that they were closing all 145 stores at the beginning of 2020.Image result for closing ac moore  Image source

The opposing largely known arts and crafts store named Michaels prides itself in its title as the largest arts and crafts chain in the US (The Michaels companies announces, 2019). Michaels has largely expanded to over 1,270 stores across the nation. However even with a large amount of stores, the Chief Executive Officer of Michaels, named Mark Cosby, described how there was a decrease in wholesale revenue, net sales, payroll related costs, and in inventory reserves back in the 2019 third fiscal quarter (The Michaels companies announces, 2019). When comparing the 2018 third fiscal quarter results to the 2019 results, in 2018 the operating income was $137.2 million and in 2019 it was $76.0 million (The Michaels companies announces, 2019). The CEO saw the deficits across the board and started to acknowledge that the company needed to act quickly before things got worse. After A.C. Moore officially announced that they would be closing at the end of November, Michael’s had a reactive change by leasing 40 A.C. Moore locations for $58 million in agreement to change the name to Michaels (The Michaels companies announces, 2019). Image result for ac moore email   Image Source  Cosby believes this expansion and opportunity will enhance their financial performance. Additionally, Michaels is continually trying to promote growth in their company by appointing a brand new CEO named Ashley Buchanan last December 2019 (The Michaels companies appoints, 2019).

As an avid A.C. Moore consumer of the fine arts department for many years, I personally did not realize that the store was in such economic distress. The stores I visited were always fully stocked and clean. The employees were always helpful. The company frequently offered coupons, promotions, and weekly sales. It was truly a happy place to go and buy art supplies. When the store announced that they were closing, it came as such an utter shock to everyone who shopped there and to the employees themselves. To have the competitor take over was shocking because A.C. Moore always had better prices and better quality art materials than Michaels. Through A.C. Moore’s e-mail, Michaels proceeded to try an attract to move A.C. Moore customers to go into their stores. Though the friendly personal service from A.C. Moore will be gone, Michael’s non-art knowledgeable staff will not make their stores more attractive to consumers. Their higher prices and subquality art materials will most likely lead AC Moore’s ex-clientele to seek art supplies elsewhere.

 

Overall, as upsetting as it is to see A.C. Moore close, the lesson to be learned here is when a company is starting to decline into a crisis change, the best outcome is to react right away (Moran et al., 2014). The yearning to change and need to strategize the company in a way other that it currently is doing is a must. This is why it is so important to view reactive change as a vital sign to respond to. A.C. Moore saved itself from bankruptcy back in 2011 by selling to Sbar, however the economical changes Pepe and Anthony Piperno did, were not enough to save the company but instead lead it to its downfall.

 

References

DiStegano, J. N. (2011, October 4). Struggling AC Moore sold to suppliers Sbar’s for 41M. Retrieved from https://www.inquirer.com/philly/blogs/inq-phillydeals/Struggling-AC-Moore-sold-to-Sbars.html

Equity Research, Zacks . (2011, August 11). A.C. Moore continues to struggle. Retrieved from https://finance.yahoo.com/news/A-C-Moore-Continues-Struggle-zacks-2222076738.html

Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences (9th ed.). Oxford: Routledge.

Piperno, P. (2016, November 1). My Mission: Crafting a better world through a better corporate culture. Retrieved from https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/9532-ac-moore-corporate-culture.html

The Michaels companies announces third quarter 2019 results. (2019, December 5). Retrieved from https://apnews.com/Business%20Wire/e5638dc559684354a8cc5c601a14aa29

The Michaels companies appoints Ashley Buchanan as new CEO. (2019, December 27). Retrieved from https://investors.michaels.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/246/the-michaels-companies-appoints-ashley-buchanan-as-new-ceo

Unglesbee, B. (2019, August 1). A.C. Moore names its next CEO.Retrieved from https://www.retaildive.com/news/ac-moore-names-its-next-ceo/560006/

 

Are Leadership Roles Changing in the Workplace?

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The diversity challenge amongst female leadership roles is not a new concept. Not only are women misrepresented in leadership, but also in different areas of the media “…in shaping societal perceptions on the nature and appearance of leaders/leadership” (Cukier, Jackson, Elmi, Roach, & Cyr, 2016). The mindset is to move away from the idea of equal representation onto equitable representation in terms of inclusion (Cukier et al., 2016). This piece will give an overview of the different types of leadership categories, different statistics about women leadership, and the steps needed to increase women’s representation.

Moreover companies are aiming for a more equitable representation of both genders, which is why the UAW Retiree Medical Benefits Trust created a diversity initiative in the search of representing more minorities and women in corporate boards (Cain, 2020). Because of this, there has been “27 board policy changes calling for diverse searches,” as well as a great number of female directors have been appointed in 200 different boards (Cain, 2020). The CEO of the UAW Trust firmly states that board gender diversity will help in corporate decision-making. When comparing the statistics of female CEO representation, last year the Fortune 500 list reported a new record of there being the highest representation in years past of 33 female CEOs on the list (Zillman, 2019). As a way of increasing representation, the CEO of Goldman Sachs’ has publicly disclosed that the firm will not “take a company public unless it had at least one diverse board member” (Cain, 2020). It is projected that this will greatly add more members to the board by 2021.

To highlight, Millendo Therapeutics Inc, General Motors, and Taubman Centers Inc all have exceeded more than 50% of female leadership positions in their corporate boards (Cain, 2020). Although not every company is up to par with the gender parity, there are a number of companies such as Steelcase Inc., Kellogg Co., and Herman Miller Inc, who have met about 40% of the companies board representatives being female (Cain, 2020). In 2018, there were only 24 female CEOs on the Fortune 500 Companies list (Abadi, 2018). These companies range from Kohls, Land O’Lakes, Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, IBM, to Graybar Electric. Just let that number settle in for a second, 24 out of 500 companies with female CEOs.

When talking about the different leadership roles and board member positions, there are five leadership categories to keep in mind. This includes a community leader, social services leader, business leader, political leader, and the “other” category (Cukier et al., 2016). Researchers closely examined each category to determine the under-representation of women in leadership. The findings included 30.3 % was categorized as “other”, 25% for community leaders, 23.8% for business leaders, 18.2 % for social service leaders, and 18.8% for political leaders (Cukier et al., 2016). Not only are companies trying to work on this issue of underrepresentation, but also globally many countries are faced with the same gender diversity problem within their perspective regions. Quota threats were used as a tactic to gain women leadership in Norway. The outcome resulted in around 40 % women legislators (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014).

Moran et al. (2014) suggests that there are a number of issues companies still have when trying to incorporate women and diversity. They believe that the integration of women in “all levels of the corporate hierarchy” is needed as well as companies should be taking on more responsibilities to make this happen. Authors infer there is a number of steps companies must take when trying to increase women’s representation. This includes the development of campaigns, training opportunities for growth, and the increasing recruitment (Moran et al., 2014). The real question to ponder is “Are we really doing enough to help the underrepresentation of women leaders?” And is this the true reason why women are being selected to lead due to diversity? A number of studies have shown that the differences within both male leadership positions and female positions are much more similar behavior wise than most people think (Moran et al., 2014). While Adler (1997) suggests women are a symbol of change and unity that can help within global leadership, there are a lot of “firsts” happening within the women leadership positions across the world.

As per the future of women in leadership positions, the end goal as described by Moran et al. (2014) is gender equality, whether that is through equal advancement or equal job opportunity. While there are challenges with gaining this equitable representation, there have been a number of strides made around the globe. In the United States, there are specific laws such as equal opportunity and affirmative action laws, which “hold employers accountable for promoting women” (Moran et al., 2014). This will decrease the amount of gender lawsuits in organizations, where women are not seen as an equal opportunity employee. The present is changing and the future looks promising by the changes and laws that are being done now. If women do not stand up for themselves in the workplace, they will not be noticed. Leadership starts within. Women have proven over and over that they are just as capable as men to hold the reins of any company. The future of our daughters depends on their success.

 

References

 

Abadi, Mark. (2018, August 13). There are only 25 women CEOs in the Fortune 500. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/fortune-500-companies-women-ceos-2018-8

 

Adler, N. J. (1997). Global leadership: Women leaders. Management International Review, 37(1), 171-196. Retrieved from http://ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/docview/202691352?accountid=13158

 

Cain, C. (2020, January 26). Women make gains in push to break the glass ceiling, latest report shows. Retrieved from https://www.freep.com/story/money/business/columnists/carol-cain/2020/01/26/women-make-gains-push-break-glass-ceiling-report-shows/4568224002/

 

Cukier, W., Jackson, S., Elmi, M. A., Roach, E., & Cyr, D. (2016). Representing women? leadership roles and women in Canadian broadcast news. Gender in Management, 31(5), 374-395. doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/10.1108/GM-04-2015-0035

 

Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences (9th ed.). Oxford: Routledge.

 

Zillman, C. (2019, May 16). The Fortune 500 has more female CEOs than ever before. Retrieved from https://fortune.com/2019/05/16/fortune-500-female-ceos/

Introduction

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Hi class,

My name is Jessica K. I am Editor of the Pennsylvania State World Campus Psychology Club’s newsletter called Mind over Matters. Here, I encourage students of all majors to write about psychology-related topics. I was able to bring back the newsletter from a two-year hiatus. If you would like to read a previous issue, please click here. Also if you are interested in possibly becoming a writer, please email me separately. I have a great love for neuroscience, psychology, nature, writing, research, and anything art-related. When I am not working on the newsletter/ doing homework, you can catch me outdoors!  Good luck this semester. I look forward to working with all of you!

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