Gender diversity in leadership succession: Preparing for the future

Abstract

The development of gender diversity in leadership positions is a critical need for many companies as they develop strategies for how they will compete in the future. In this article, we test hypotheses about diverse leadership succession, using survey and archival data. Survey data were collected from executives and managers who responded to questions about their succession planning, successors, and the context of diversity in their work environments. Results indicate that the nomination of women as successors was positively associated with more favorable diversity climates for women. Furthermore, we found that the nomination of female successors was positively associated with the performance of incumbent managers who nominated them as their successors. We also found that the performance of incumbent managers moderated the relationship between diversity climate and the nomination of female successors. Lower‐performing incumbents were less likely than higher‐performing incumbents to nominate women as successors when the diversity climate was unfavorable. When the diversity climate was favorable, lower performers were more likely and higher performers were equally likely to nominate women as successors. We found no differences in the degree of objectivity in incumbents' descriptions of the strengths of female successors versus their male counterparts or in the degree of subjectivity in their developmental needs. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Disentangling the Fairness & Discrimination and Synergy Perspectives on Diversity Climate

“…In the first of these, Virick and Greer (2012) examined the relationship between perceptions of positive diversity climate for women and the likelihood that job incumbents nominate female successors. They found that, among male incumbents, female successors were more likely to be nominated when incumbents perceived the diversity climate for women to be favorable.…”

Individualization and Marketization of Responsibility for Gender Equality: The Case of Female Managers in China

“…Conversely, the discussion on organizations’ role in promoting gender equality and diversity is now well developed in the Western context (Alvesson & Billing, ). Accordingly, sophisticated diversity programs designed to enhance inclusion of women are in the HR repertoire of many multinational organizations (Virick & Greer, ). Thus, there may be a scope for interorganizational and intercultural sharing of good practices in this field.…”

The Impact of Diversity Climate for Women on Female Employees’ Intentions to Stay: A Cross-Cultural Study on South Korea and Norway

“…Defined as "collective perceptions of the extent to which an organization is viewed as having fair employee policies and integrates underrepresented individuals into the work environments" [6], diversity climate can shape the effects of diversity on various organizational performance. For example, a supportive diversity climate is known to reduce in-group bias and social categorization processes, thereby mitigating the negative influence of diversity on performance [8].…”

“…Based on previous research on diversity climate for women [6] [17], two scenarios were developed. Each scenario was written as if it described a fictitious company's working environment.…”

“…Substantial research has shown the importance of attracting and retaining women in the workplace in delivering strong performance at the organizational level, building a strong economy at the national level, and remaining competitive internationally [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]. Responding to this demand of the times, more and more women are working outside of the home.…”