Getting Together to Get Ahead: The Impact of Social Structure on Women's Networking

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of socio-structural variables (i.e. perceptions of permeability, stability and legitimacy of intergroup relations) on the extent to which professional women perceive a women's network as a collective strategy for status enhancement. A survey among network members (n 5 166) suggests that the extent to which women support and consider a network to benefit women as a collective is dependent on perceptions of whether individual mobility is possible (permeability of group boundaries) and beliefs that organizational conditions will improve for women in the future (stability of conditions for women). Specifically, the network is less likely to be perceived as a collective vehicle for change when individual advancement is possible (because intergroup boundaries are perceived as permeable) and status improvement in the future is unlikely. However, regardless of beliefs about the future, when female participants perceive that many barriers to individual advancement exist (due to the impermeability of intergroup boundaries), the network is considered in more collective terms presumably because the only way to challenge the status quo is through a collective effort. The practical implications for organizations that wish to or have established a women's network are discussed.

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“…The null effects of legitimacy and stability are surprising given that previous work has found that legitimacy Hersby et al, 2011) and stability (Hersby et al, 2009) influence women's engagement in collective enhancement strategies. These unexpected null effects may have been at least partially due to our methodology.…”

“…Though finding no impact of legitimacy appraisals, Hersby, Ryan, and Jetten (2009) found an interactive effect of status stability and permeability on women's support for a women's network initiative. Women supported the initiative more when they evaluated group status relations in the organisation as being unstable and permeable (versus stable and permeable) suggesting that when group advancement is possible individual mobility attempts are negated.…”

“…However, the findings reported in Chapter 6 warrant replication before these conclusions can be drawn, particularly because past research has found that legitimacy (Jetten, Schmitt, Branscombe, Garza, & Mewse, 2011;Hersby, Jetten, Ryan, & Schmitt, 2011) and stability (Hersby, Ryan, & Jetten, 2009) influence women's engagement in collective enhancement strategies. The inconsistencies in results observed between the current and prior analyses may be partly due to methodology.…”

“…In prior studies that have reported significant effects of legitimacy, this has been manipulated by presenting participants with feedback from female employees who thought it was (un)fair that women were denied the same opportunities as men Hersby et al, 2011). In contrast, a field study examining the influence of sociostructural variables on women's support for a women's network found no effects of legitimacy (Hersby et al, 2009). This may have been because, similar to the manipulations used in our study, women's perceptions of legitimacy were assessed using items which tapped participants' perceptions of objective differences between men and women (e.g.…”

“…In a field study among female employees at a global engineering company, Hersby, Ryan, and Jetten (2009) regardless of perceptions of stability, perhaps because women believed that social change was only possible through collective action. However, they found no impact of legitimacy appraisals.…”