The role of women in the world of work, and the consequent impact it will have on corporate cultures, is at a crucial transitional point as we approach the Millennium. How organizations respond will determine to a large extent the future of business and the economic success of the nation.
The world of work is undergoing a significant transformation and is learning, through necessity, to manage that change. Organizations of all sizes are rethinking not only how they are structured but, above all, how they are run and what types of directing and managing styles are appropriate.
Growing recognition and acceptance that women bring different and unique talents to the workplace has resulted in women making remarkable headway in organizations during the latter years of this century. That awareness must now be taken a step further – by fully integrating men and women within corporate cultures – so that organizations may reap the benefit of the combination of both sexes’ abilities and qualities.
First, the statistics: all indicators point to significant changes in the future composition of the working population of the United Kingdom. Social Trends 27 – the 1997 edition of the annual survey of life in the UK published by the Office for National Statistics – reports that, by 2006, the number of full-time jobs is not expected to show any significant increase or decrease, but that the existing trend for more part-time and self-employed workers is likely to be reinforced.
It is anticipated that, by 2006, women will account for 46% of the entire workforce; and of the additional 1.4 million people expected in the workforce, 1 million will be women. The number of part-time workers is set to rise by 10% and those in self-employment by 25%. Traditionally, women are more likely to be in part-time work, but that trend, too, is changing. Between 1986 and 1996, the numbers of women in part-time work rose by 17% to 5.3 million, but the number of men doubled to 1.2 million. Social Trends 27 also reports that, in 1995, the UK had a higher proportion of people working from home than any other EU country, with 30% of males and 25% of females working at home for at least part of the year.
If these statistics are borne out, then the number of women within all spheres of the workplace will increase dramatically and the nature of organizations will undoubtedly change. As modern companies recognize the need to be people-oriented and family-friendly in order to move forward and succeed, they will need to build on the ‘feminine’ characteristics which complement the ‘masculine’ traits that have traditionally typified corporate cultures. The workplace would then not drive women away, but become much more attractive to them.
As society re-evaluates the way it conducts itself, and as businesses search for healthier ways of organizing themselves, the old ways are being called into question. Characteristics of traditional, male-dominated organizations – where women have been judged by masculine yardsticks – are no longer accepted as the norm. The competitive, controlling, hierarchical, dictatorial, critical approaches epitomized by the Army, the Church and the State, and practised by many business organizations, are being strongly challenged by supporters of the more intuitive feminine qualities of co-operation, facilitation, coaching and an ability to listen to and encourage other people.
Already, a great number of highly successful women have paved the way to a point where their influence is beginning to be felt and appreciated. Marjorie Scardino, Chairman of the Pearson Group, has become the first female chairman of a FT-SE 100 company. By example, such women have highlighted alternative approaches to the traditional managerial styles of the past, and are teaching organizations to react positively in their attitudes to employing women. In turn, organizations are accepting that women’s capabilities provide a useful, complementary and necessary foil to the skills and qualities of their male employees. This is why there is such a strong and determined move towards establishing equality of opportunity in the workplace.
In the aftermath of the publication of GCSE and A level results in 1994, there were several articles remarking on the fact that girls’ schools had ‘forged ahead’ in the league tables. In an article featured in The Times of 3 September 1994, a professor of education was quoted as saying ‘Ten years of equal opportunities has focused on raising the standards achieved by girls, and has proved brilliantly successful.’
This trend has continued to the point where girls in all types of school have been outperforming the boys at GCSE and are now beginning to do so at A level, too. In the spring of 1996, the Chief Inspector of Schools described the under-achieving of boys as one of the most disturbing problems facing the education system. Schools are now having to turn their attention to raising the standards of boys’ work, but understand that they will have to tackle the problem in a fresh way – taking into account the specific needs and culture of boys’ groups, whilst maintaining girls’ progress – thereby allowing the two groups to work together naturally and to the benefit of both.
We are reminded that this is undoubtedly a period of dramatic change, time and time again, through the reactions of the media, the presence of ever-successful management gurus and the constant demand for training courses. The result of this turbulence is that the majority of us have experienced the consequences, either stimulating or depressing, of those changes and, if we have not been affected directly, we know someone who has.
The shape and structures of organizations are altering rapidly as we move towards the twenty-first century. This may manifest itself in the transformation from public to corporatized or privatized companies, from strict hierarchies to flatter structures, or from centralized to de-centralized businesses.
As this trend continues, organizations increasingly have to look at new ways of working; of how to react continuously to the turbulence around them, internally and externally, and, above all, how to learn from all these experiences.
Directors, senior managers and executives are facing difficult questions and dilemmas about the best way to meet these challenges. This is especially true as employees are beginning to reel from the effects of too much change and are instead looking forward to a period of consolidation where new ways of working and operating are given a chance to succeed.
Organizations suffer when their workforce begins to feel jaded and worn down by continuous upheaval. It becomes difficult to judge the relative success or failure of different initiatives if they have not been subjected to rigorous benchmarking before more changes occur, if they are not given time to work, or if insufficient thought to their introduction means they are not properly implemented.
Newspapers, journals, TV and radio, and the professional associations which deal primarily with the management and direction of organizations are looking carefully at how the art of managing will evolve over the next few years. Management Development to the Millennium (1996), published by the Institute of Management, says that ‘he (The Boss) is just as likely to be a she, because female ways of managing will be more appropriate in the millennium’.
One of the key features of change already in place is the implosion of middle management, which indicates that the emphasis of the managerial role is being altered. Many traditional roles, such as personnel, administration and accounting, have been devolved to line managers who consequently find that their jobs now include extra tasks for which they may be ill-equipped. The combination of an increased sphere of responsibility and often only a superficial knowledge of their new tasks can result in feelings of professional anxiety and insecurity unless they adapt their management style from coercing and telling to co-operating and encouraging. This is where women will come into their own.