The Identity Continuum of Ten Women on Top Management Teams

• In Event: Research Studies on Female Executive Leadership

Short Description

Turbulence in the healthcare industry has created new demands for innovation among top management teams. Headlines suggest gender diverse leadership is a solution, but little is known about the experience of women in this context. This presentation will address that gap by exploring the experiences of ten women leaders on healthcare TMTs.

Detailed Abstract

Turbulence in the healthcare industry has created new demands for innovation, especially among Top Management Teams (TMTs). These teams are charged with both setting strategic direction and the resolution of competing demands for the organization’s time, talent, and dollars (Smith, 2014; Talke et al., 2010). The composition of a TMT appears to mediate its success at balancing these conflicting demands (Dezsö & Ross, 2012; Opstrup & Villadsen, 2015; Umans, 2013) and thus their ability to thrive in an increasingly turbulent environment.

While evidence suggests that heterogeneity may enhance the critical TMT function of generating new ideas, it may also hamper the implementation of those ideas (Alexiev, Jansen, Van den Bosch, & Volberda, 2010; Ndofor, Simon, & He, 2015; Tsui, Egan, & O’Reilly, 1992). Though multiple dimensions of diversity have been explored to better understand the impact of TMT heterogeneity, the paucity of women on TMTs (Noland, Moran, & Kotschwar, 2016) means we know little about gender diversity, particularly from the perspective of those few women on TMTs. Gender is a mediator of particular interest, both because of the widespread attention it is receiving in the trade press as a potential driver of profits (Dishman, 2015), and because those pressures are likely to result in changes in TMT gender balance (Zarya, 2016).

This presentation addresses that gap by exploring the experience of ten women who are one of a distinct minority on a U.S. healthcare TMT. The healthcare context provides a particularly valuable lens given the unprecedented turbulence the industry is experiencing as a result of healthcare reform uncertainty. In addition to context as a potential mediator of women’s experience on TMTs (Parola, Ellis, & Golden, 2015), minority status may also influence women’s contributions to the extent that social categorization impairs their sense of identity (Desivilya & Palgi, 2014; Ellemers et al., 2012).

Each of the TMT women in the study highlighted in this presentation are one of only one or two women on their respective TMT. Interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) provided an effective lens for exploring both this momentous life experiences and the impact on personal and social identity (Smith, Flowers, & Larkin, 2009).

Despite the potential for faultlines from the gender homogeneity of TMTs (Van Knippenberg, Dawson, West, & Homan, 2011)), the presentation will show how each participant felt both included on their TMT and supported by social identification with their TMT peers. The presentation will discuss the identity continuum the participants experienced, as well as the most common facilitators of TMT inclusiveness. In the aggregate, these results suggest that heterogeneity problems predicted in the literature are not inevitable. In particular, steps to create an inclusive TMT culture and to build the sense of empowerment women on the TMT have may mitigate the projected downsides of adding women to the TMT.

Participants

• Corbette Doyle, Vanderbilt University

• Tova Olson Sanders, Northeastern University