Leadership

PSYCH 485 blog

The Pipeline Isn’t Leaking, It’s Exploding.

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The Covid-19 pandemic brought something into stark focus that working mothers have known for generations: parenthood is often incompatible with professional work. March, 2020 saw the United States issue emergency orders that shuttered schools and childcare facilities and created a caregiving-while-working crisis for many professional parents.

The caregiving burden has traditionally fallen to working mothers, and with the Covid-19 crisis, one study noted that “twenty-six percent of women who became unemployed during the pandemic said it was due to lack of childcare” (Sasser Modestino et al, 2021, p.1). Economic data indicates that more than 2.3 million women left the workforce since the onset of Covid-19 (Sasser Modestino et al 2021), a number that leaves too many pipelines void of essential leadership talent. The United States has always had a caregiving crisis that unduly impacted working mothers, but Covid-19 laid bare how significantly this affects key working milestones, too. Northouse (2018) suggests that the former glass ceiling has turned into a glass labyrinth, a maze of sorts that if women can navigate with a hefty dose of luck (everything going well, every step of the way), they can achieve leadership positions at work. But, if research shows that we’re losing women in the development stages of leadership, then we have fewer women to navigate the labyrinth, fewer women who eventually succeed and far fewer women to mentor those who come next.

Research by Igielnik (2021) showed that mothers are more likely than fathers to reduce their work hours in response to childcare, fifty percent versus thirty percent. Working mothers are almost twice as likely to be regarded by their company as uncommitted to their work and/or to be passed over for a promotion as their male counterparts. This clearly demonstrates that there are real costs associated for women who are mothers at work. A fall 2020 survey by Catalyst echoed this trend: Catalyst (2020) asked working mothers if they needed to conceal their caregiving responsibilities from employers or colleagues and more than forty percent of survey participants agreed that they did so to appear more competent at work. Parents, both male and female respondents, reported that their parental roles are often perceived as a strike against them in corporate America and that the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated that belief. Northouse (2018) cites Eagly & Carli (2004) and Williams (2010) that counter this belief of women self-selecting out of upper-echelon roles (p. 406), however, the research here clearly disputes that, showing that women have selected out of the labyrinth in favor of the immense work disparity at home.

When we explore issues of gender and leadership, we need to figure out where there is opportunity to build a framework that eliminates barriers for working women, or close holes in a leaky pipeline (Northouse, 2018, p. 405). The most obvious solution to this would be universal childcare and paid parental leave that is meaningful for men and women. This national step would eliminate much of the gender-based disparity that prevents women from accessing the necessary career opportunities to advance, creating parity at a societal level and create more egalitarianism within the US culture, similar to that displayed in Nordic Europe countries (Northouse, 2018 p. 442). Businesses will not be able to build and sustain a diverse pipeline without significant buy-in from existing leadership, including creating high-value mentorship programs across all organizational levels (Northouse, 2018, p. 412). Absent significant effort and reform within societal constructs and individual businesses, including men becoming allies for working women, women will continue to bare the burden of navigating the labyrinth alone.

 

References

Igielnik, R. (2021, January 26). A rising share of working parents in the U.S. say it’s been difficult to handle child care during the pandemic. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/01/26/a-rising-share-of-working-parents-in-the-u-s-say-its-been-difficult-to-handle-child-care-during-the-pandemic/

Northouse, P. G. (2018) Leadership: Theory and practice (8th Edition). SAGE Publications, Inc. (US).

Sasser Modestino, A., Ladge, Swartz, & Lincoln. (2021, April 29). Childcare Is a Business Issue. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2021/04/childcare-is-a-business-issue

The Impact of Covid-19 on Working Parents (Report). (2021, June 17). Catalyst. https://www.catalyst.org/research/impact-covid-working-parents/

 

Diversity in Leadership and The Equal Rights Movement

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Diversity very obviously plays a role in leadership positions around the world, for many reasons. This lesson first focuses on gender in leadership and how women face many more barriers to leadership than men. Studies have shown that leaders that are women usually use participative or democratic styles and are viewed as less effective when they use these feminine styles. While men leaders usually use autocratic, or directive styles and women are still viewed as less effective if they use these styles as well. Even though female and male leaders do not show a difference in effectiveness, there is an overwhelming pattern where women are viewed negatively in leadership roles, specifically male dominated ones. There are a few explanations for this such as the pipeline theory or the lack of strong mentor relationships and self-confidence. There are many barriers that women face organizationally, such as higher standards of performance, inhospitable corporate culture, preference for gender similarity in promotion decisions, and lack of developmental opportunities. Interpersonal and personal barriers exist too that impact women leaders, one being the work-home conflict in which women are expected to stay home with their children to which they have negative implications from career gaps.

 

This week’s lesson about diversity in leadership, specifically regarding women, reminded me a lot of the Equal Rights Movement and the opportunities that women had to fight for for so long. A lot of the study results listed above come from the perpetuated views throughout history that women did not belong in workplace, but rather they were expected to take on the family caretaker role over their male spouses. Women like Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan worked tirelessly for years to get rid of this stigma as they wanted women to be able to have the same opportunities as men in the workplace. These leaders did so much to help society in America push towards change in values and beliefs so that women could start to have a voice in higher positions than they were able to before. The social dominance theory helps explain the values at the time and how women were put much lower on the social hierarchy than men. Women’s social dominance orientation was most likely much lower before the Equal Rights Amendment was passed as laws excluded them from opportunities for them to become leaders and pushed them to believe that they did not have a place higher up in the social hierarchy. While these women were fighting for the ERA, there was a lot of in group favoritism and out group derogation that affected their ability to pass the amendment, yet these women showed just how capable and effective they are and can be in leadership positions. While it is obvious that it is hard for society to change values and beliefs, the Equal Rights Movement is a good example of how persistence can help encourage change.

Hamel, R. (n.d.). Lesson 13: Leadership and Diversity, 2021.

LEADing Coffee one Café at a Time

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Marketing Manager Michelle Gass

Starbucks Marketing Manager Michelle Gass

We all love coffee, heck, I would even go as far to say most of it need coffee to get through our day. But as much as we love coffee, we all have our favorite kind, brand and coffee destination. According to Goudreau (2011) in Forbes’s magazine, Michelle Gass is considered the “secret weapon” of Starbucks coffee. Pioneering the coffee industry, Starbuck’s is leading the market along with Dunkin Donuts and McDonalds new, Mc Café. In response to the economic decline in 2008 and the competition from other coffee brands, for one of the first times Starbucks was at a major collapse in sales. In order to jump-start their astonishing halt in sales, Starbucks Chief Executive, Howard Schultz reached out to marketing manager Michelle Gass to turn things around (Goudreau, 2011).

The three-skill approach depends on three basic personal skills: technical, human and conceptual. According to Northouse (2013), conceptual skills “are the ability to work with ideas and concepts”; they are necessary to creating vision and strategic planning for organizations. Conceptual skills involve having vision in formulating new ideas for the business and “shaping the meaning of organizational and/or policy issues” (Northouse, 2013; 45). Looking back at the example of Michelle Gass’s work for Starbucks, in order to turn business around Michelle helped to “restructure the operation and reinvigorate 137,00 employees in 17,00 stores” (Goudreau, 2011). She filled a very special role for Starbucks with a “transformation agenda” and seven big moves to get Starbucks out of their slump.

Michelle was responsible for both decreasing costs, improving coffee quality and creating new revenue streams. She cut costs by decreasing spending by almost $600 million in costs and closing each café for three hours to save on operating costs (Goudreau, 2011). Michelle improved coffee quality by coining the term “ready brew” for Starbucks instant coffee. Starbucks did a wide array of advertising for their new brand with commercials, free coffee samples and special promotions to Starbucks loyal customers. In addition, Michelle created new revenue streams by buying out Seattle’s Best coffee and partnering with corporations such as Burger King, Subway, supermarkets and Delta Airways (Goudreau, 2011). A short ten months after Michelle Gass was brought into Starbucks, sales rose by 100 million.

Chief Executive Howard Schultz described Michelle as “a courageous leader with a rare combination of business and interpersonal skills” (Goudreau, 2011). Whereas conceptual skills describe the ability to work with ideas and concepts, human skills describe the ability to work with people. In order to be a successful manager, Michelle Gass used both human and conceptual skills. She had to use her people skills to interact with consumers to discover what Starbucks was lacking and how to improve operations. She used her strong interpersonal skills to communicate with team members, management and subordinates to cut costs and improve coffee quality.  According to Northouse (2013) career experiences also have an impact on the characteristics and success of leaders. Career experiences can positively affect the individual characteristics and “can influence their knowledge and skills to solve complex problems” (Northouse, 2013; 54). Before becoming the secret weapon of Starbucks, Michelle Gass was recruited by Proctor & Gamble to perform product research. She spent a great deal of time with Proctor and Gamble gaining experience and knowledge within the marketing world before being hired as Starbucks Frappuccino marketing manager.
One of the outcomes of leadership is effective problem solving, with problem solving being the “keystone in the skills approach” (Northouse, 2013). I would say that Michelle’s transformation of Starbucks was both an effective way of solving their problems and also resulted in high company performance. Chief Officer Howard Shultz speaks extremely highly of Michelle, describing her as a successful and smart leader (Goudreau, 2011). Performance of Starbucks improved by 100 million in sales shortly after her being recruited to help. In all, it is leaders such as Michelle Gass that navigate companies to success and pull them out of the weeds with their unique visions, innovative ideas, background and interpersonal skills.

Reference

Goudreau, J. (2011).Starbucks Secret Weapon. Forbes Magaine, Forbes Women. Retrieved             from http://www.forbes.com/sites/jennagoudreau/2011/11/02/starbucks-secret-weapon-    michelle-gass/#28e60d4c2841

Northouse, Peter G. (Ed.). (2015). Leadership: Theory and Practice (7th Ed.).Thousand Oaks,     CA: Sage.

Breaking Leadership Stereotypes

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Stephanie Reynolds
PSYCH 485
Dr. Williams

In many areas of this course so far, the people behind the leadership roles have been categorized into males and females. It was mentioned in another blog post that women take care and men take charge. Boiled down to its essence, it means that men should be in charge in the workplace while women are only working to take care of their families. I find this perception offensive and demeaning not only to women but men as well.

Our textbook speaks of emotional intelligence and five main factors of leadership (Northouse, 2016). In this reading, while gender is mentioned in passing, it is not the focus of the actual definitions. In fact, the factors are extremely genderless and broad. It is us who associate particular traits, such as assertiveness with men and compassion with women, to a gender.

Are we as a society telling men that they are bad leaders because they care for the people they work for? Are we telling women they are bad leaders because they take a job where they are away from their families for lengthy periods of time?

Society is coming around more with the institution of laws and policies where either gender can take leave under the FMLA, although you will still find an exponentially larger proportion of women taking this leave over men.  A 2000 study by the Department of Labor found that 42.6 % of men “did not take leave because of a concern their job advancement may be hurt.” Another 31% “feared they would lose their jobs.” (Rossiter, 2009)

We as a society need to break the stereotypical thinking in the workplace. Each individual brings their own uniqueness, skills, and insight to the table. While I am speaking of gender in this post, the same things apply to race, ethnicity, sexual orientation/presentation and religion. We as a society need to stop living with the mindset of fixed gender roles and embrace what each individual has to contribute to society.

References:

Northouse, P. (2016) “Leadership: Theory and Practice.” Washington DC: Sage Publications. pp. 58-59.

Rossiter,  M. (Dec 2009) “FMLA: Is It Equally Beneficial to Today’s Dads?” Retrieved from https://www.legalzoom.com/articles/fmla-is-it-equally-beneficial-for-todays-dads

The Feminine Mystique of Servant Leadership

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On Easter Sunday, it seems appropriate to address the topic of servant leadership. Servant leadership, succinctly stated, is the act leading through serving followers (Northouse, 2013). The apparent contradiction has puzzled people for many years, stretching back to the days of Jesus who many consider the original proponent of servant leadership. Much as has been said about servant leadership as a function of religion (Snodgrass, 1993) (Sarros & Sendjay, 2002) (Joaquin, 2015), but some are considering servant leadership as a function of femininity.

With more and more women gaining positions of leadership, trends seem to have emerged in the leadership styles exhibited by women. Normore and Trinidad found that women tend to be less authoritarian and more likely to encourage followers, to share power, to sacrifice self-interests for the greater good, and to value interpersonal skills as a form of power (2004, p. 579). Joyce Banda, the former leader of Malawi has claimed that in her experiences women are more likely to make use of the servant leadership style (2014).

It is important to consider why women may be likely to lead via servant leadership. One theory is that servant leadership is a logical extension of biological drives. This perspective considers women to be naturally empathetic, nurturing, and encouraging. As such, they display the same traits in leadership positions that served them in the maternal roles. A counter to this argument is that women tend to lead this way due to socialization. This perspective results in the same conclusion about what styles women are most likely to employ but it suggests women arrive at that choice to due external pressures to be sociable and accommodating. Still a third explanation exists that because women are harshly criticized for displaying traditionally masculine traits in the workplace, they are left with few choices if they seek to avoid disgruntled followers (Normore & Trinidad, 2004).

Regardless of why women use servant leadership, it would be difficult to deny the similarities between the aspects of servant leadership and traditional gender roles prescribed to women. With little thought, most of the ten characteristics of a servant leader can be understood as characteristics of femininity as well: listening, empathy, healing, persuasion, commitment to growth of people, and building community (Northouse, 2013). These are all thought of as being feminine traits. That does not mean the others traits do not mesh with concepts of femininity, but I believe that the selected traits fit with little explanation needed to justify the comparison.

There seems to be a legitimate relationship between servant leadership and traditionally feminine traits. Whether that means women are better at using servant leadership than men remains to be adequately addressed, but for now, I am content to recognize famous female role models of servant leadership such as CEOs Cheryl Bachelder of Popeye’s and Denise Morrison of Campell’s, as well as Carin Stutz, president of McAlister’s Deli (Dunn, 2015).

References

Banda, J. (2014). Investigating women’s journey into public life: Above the parapet. Retrieved from http://www.malawianwatchdog.com/2014/10/16/ex-malawi-pres-joyce-banda-delivers-public-lecture-at-london-school-of-economics-full-speech/

Dunn, L. (2015, April 4). Women in business q&a: Carin Stutz president, McAlister’s Deli. The Blog. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/laura-dunn/women-in-business-qa-cari_b_7003470.html

Joaquin, B. (2015, April 6). Servant leader or self-serving leader? Philstar: Lifestyle. Retrieved from http://www.philstar.com/business-life/2015/04/06/1440706/servant-leader-or-self-serving-leader

Normore, A. H., & Trinidad, C. (2005). Leadership and gender: A dangerous liaison? Leadership and organizational development journal Vol 26 (7). Retrieved from http://www4.csudh.edu/Assets/CSUDH-Sites/Library/civic-directory/docs/n-q/normore-anthony/leadership-and-gender.pdf

Northouse, P.G. (2013).  Leadership: Theory and Practice.  Los Angeles: Sage Publications.

Sarros, J. C., & Sendjaya, S. (2002). Servant leadership: Its origins, development, and application in organizations. Journal of leadership and organizational studies, Vol. 9 (2). Retrieved from http://www.lead.fju.edu.tw/teacher/Lucia/course/Servant%20Leadership/2002-09-Servant%20leadership%20%20It’s%20origin,%20development,%20and%20application%20in%20organizations.pdf

Snodgrass, K. R. (1993). Your slaves—An account of Jesus’ servant leadership in the New Testament. In J. R. Hawkinson & R. K. Johnstone (Eds.), Servant leadership (Vol. 1, pp. 17-19). Chicago: Covenant.

 

 

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