Female Project Managers Research Articles

Language and gender in a US reality TV show: An analysis of leadership discourse in single-sex interactions

This paper examines issues relating to language, gender and leadership in the debut season of the reality TV show The Apprentice (USA). In particular, it looks at the ways in which two male and two female project managers ‘do leadership’ through discourse in single-sex interactions. The analysis shows that these project managers display leadership styles which are by and large in accordance with the gendered norms and expectations. It is found that while their leadership styles are not evaluated entirely positively, the male managers receive both positive and negative comments for using predominantly masculine speech styles and the female managers who ‘do leadership’ by employing a largely feminine discourse style are perceived negatively. It is also argued that the singlesex contexts of interactions can be seen as being constructed intentionally in the TV show in order to capture the gender-stereotypical speech styles of ‘doing leadership’.

Obstacles to the career progression of professional female project managers (PFPMs) in the Ghanaian construction industry

PurposeThere are significantly fewer women than men in managerial positions, mainly project management. This problem is noticeable in the construction and engineering sectors, traditionally male-dominated industries with leadership much dependent on masculine qualities. This study examines the obstacles to the career progression of professional female project managers (PFPMs) in the Ghanaian construction industry.Design/methodology/approachTwenty potential obstacles to women's career progression in the construction industry were identified from a comprehensive review of the literature. A questionnaire was prepared and administered among eighty project managers who work in large construction firms in Ghana. Data obtained were analysed using one sample t-test, Kendall's concordance test, Chi-square test and exploratory factor analysis.FindingsThe findings suggest the significance of all the twenty factors as potential obstacles to the career progression of PFPMs. The exploratory factor analysis identified five underlying grouped obstacles: “leadership and human capital related issues”, “issues related to discrimination of all forms”, “career aspiration and planning issues”, “female related role conflicts”, and “recruitment and selection issues”.Research limitations/implicationsThe subjective nature of the views of the respondents could influence the evaluation of the obstacles. With this study only exploring the dimensions underlying the significant obstacles, future studies could examine the interrelationships between the various obstacles and move on to determine their impacts on the career progression of professional female PMs as well.Practical implicationsHaving an in-depth understanding of these obstacles, stakeholders and other industry practitioners in Ghana could make informed decisions on measures to put in place to address some of these critical issues to raise the standard of professional female PMs in the construction industry. Policymakers and gender advocates in Ghana could also take up some of the critical obstacles identified and provide suitable strategies to educate and create the needed awareness of the industry on those obstacles. Practically, the findings from this study can be valuable for informing decision-making at different management levels in the construction industry.Originality/valueWith country-specific (Ghana) obstacles identified, the findings significantly contribute to the literature on the career advancement of females in the construction sector.

A Study of Project Management Processes for Sustainable and Successful Projects in Software Industry: Expectations vs Perceptions of Managers

Project Management Processes (PMPs) are essential to avoid project failures due to the complexity and nature of projects in the software industry, particularly in emerging economies. The software industry is growing rapidly in Pakistan with an increasing number of local, regional and international clients. The project managers who are familiar with PMPs are therefore needed for the proper implementation of these processes, which will lead to sustainable and successful software projects. However, very limited studies have analyzed the expectations and perceptions of the project managers of these PMPs. In order to fill this gap, therefore, this study examined the role of PMPs in the sustainable development and success of software projects by documenting the expectations and perceptions of managers. A structured questionnaire is designed to collect data from 143 participants working in software houses. SPSS is used for the processing and analysis of data using selected statistical tools. The results show a clear difference in expectations and perceptions for PMPs, which means that project managers are of a less rational, sentimental and emotional nature. The findings of this study also show that the male segment is dominant in the software industry which may be due to of Pakistan’s specific social and cultural environment. There is however no significant difference between expectations and perceptions of both male and female project managers for PMPs. The findings of this study will help researchers, practitioners, academics and other stakeholders in the software industry.

Female underrepresentation in project-based organizations exposes organizational isomorphism

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the structural career barriers in project-based construction and property development organizations in Australia, and explore how these affect women and their project careers. It applies the insights of the institutional theory to explain how the process of normative isomorphism continues to reproduce female underrepresentation in those organizations.Design/methodology/approachBased on an exploratory interpretive approach, this study consisted of 16 in-depth interviews with female project managers from the Australian construction and property industry.FindingsThe research shows that organizational practices may contribute to the ongoing female underrepresentation in the Australian construction and property development industries. The structural career barriers unique to project organizations include work practice, presenteeism, reliance on career self-management and the “filtering of personnel” in recruitment and promotion practices.Research limitations/implicationsThe results support the institutional theory as an explanation for the factors that influence women’s’ perceptions of their project management careers. Addressing inequity between men and women is perceived as an organizational choice.Practical implicationsTo achieve a substantive change in the numbers of women in project management, organizational leaders in male dominated industries such as construction and property development are encouraged to think strategically about how to overcome the access and opportunity that affect women’s career progress.Originality/valueDrawing on the institutional theory, this study explores how the process of normative isomorphism may reproduce female underrepresentation and gender segregation in traditional project-based organizations.

Competency model for female project managers in the construction industry: a case study in Malaysia

The limited number of female project managers within the Malaysia construction industry suggests the pressing need of information relating to their competency. Further, it is the realisation that their contribution is crucial for transforming Malaysia into a developed country by 2020. Against this background, this study seeks to put forward a model assessing the female project managers' competency level. This study qualitatively tests the proposed framework, which quantitatively constructed based on several competency models introduced in previous literature. From the female perspective, findings highlight the project managers' equal competency level of both genders. Within the context of the Malaysian construction industry, the competency model for female project managers is proposed.

Doing masculinities in construction project management

Purpose This study aims to examine how masculinities are (re)produced in project-based organizations. The authors first investigate the doing of masculinities in everyday work practices in construction project management. Second, the authors investigate whether there are opportunities to perceive, or do, gender differently in this specific context. Design/methodology/approach Data are elicited from a case study of construction project managers working on a infrastructure project. The project managers were interviewed through semi-structured informal interviews regarding their experiences of project work. The analysis was inspired by the competing discourses and practices of masculinity in organizations outlined by Collinson and Hearn (1994). Findings The results showed how multiple masculinities coexist and overlap in the project organization and in the everyday practices of project management. Both male and female project managers must adjust to these masculine discourses and act in accordance with a particular context. But the results also showed opportunities to challenge the masculine norms by doing gender differently. Practical implications The results of this study highlights opportunities for creating a more gender-equal work environment in the construction industry. The multiple ways of doing masculinity, by both men and women, highlights the possibilities to balance between doing it well and differently. Such knowledge can be used in policy and strategies for equal opportunities for men and women in organizations. Originality/value This study provides insights into the (re)production of multiple masculinities in construction project management. This study contributes to the criticism of the normative conceptions that have characterized the literature on project management. The authors add to the tradition of organization studies by arguing that the gender analysis of project management is important to increase understandings of how projects are managed and, in this case, how masculine discourses affect everyday work.

Gender Biases in Hiring Project Managers: Perceptions of Trust and Likeability

There have been numerous studies examining the effects of social role theory on negative stereotyping of female managers, including low perceived likeability and unwillingness by subordinates to trust them. These attributions are particularly relevant in the context of “male-dominated” jobs, such as technical disciplines like engineering and project management. We investigated the specific setting of project manager job candidate selection, a professional discipline that has historically been male-dominated, but one that has seen a large rise in female project managers over the past decade. We examined the perceptions of respondents to differences in male and female job candidates based on the critical personal/managerial characteristics of trust and likeability. Using a scenario-based survey questionnaire, we sampled 312 project management personnel and tested subjects’ reactions to two candidates for a project management position, employing identical descriptions and language while only changing the candidate's name: Susan or Stan. Our results suggested that, contrary to expectations, respondents’ perceptions of the female candidate, Susan, were significantly higher across both managerial dimensions of likeability and trust. Implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.

Effects of Family-Related Factors on Female Project Managers’ Salaries in the Construction Industry in the United States

This study explores predictors of female project managers’ salary in the construction industry and analyzes the relationship between salaries and specific variables. Although prior research indicates a relationship does exist between certain variables and women’s salaries that research does not focus on the construction industry. This research sought to identify correlations between experience, age, marital status, motherhood, having children at home, and the number of children at home, and female project manager’s salaries in the construction industry. To our knowledge, this study represents the only research of its kind specific to women project managers in the U.S. construction industry. Utilizing a snowball sampling method, 206 survey responses were collected and analyzed through comprehensive descriptive and statistical analyses. A regression model was constructed to determine the predictive power of the variables studied. Fifty percent of the variability in female project manager’s salary can be accounted for by the model produced. The study’s sample showed that, being married and having children at home are negatively correlated with female project managers’ salaries. As would be expected, age and experience are also correlated and the correlation is strongly positive.

Women project managers: the exploration of their job challenges and issue selling behaviors

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore women project managers as a group in order to generate new understanding about the present project context within which they work and to promote new research‐based ideas for optimizing their potential in business organizations. To this end, the paper explore their demographics and project characteristics, their project challenges and issue selling moves, and their perspectives on the advantages and disadvantages for women in this profession.Design/methodology/approachData were collected using quantitative and qualitative questionnaire items of 211 female project managers in North America.FindingsThe research results show significant associations among women project managers' career, age, cost of their projects, and their professional certifications. In addition, their challenges and issue‐selling moves produce six factors related to their influence of others. Lastly, the results reveal women's self‐described advantages and disadvantages in the project management profession showing that while women project managers do continue to experience marginalization from gender bias, they are leveraging particular job challenges and issue selling circumstances to their advantage in moving through gender bias.Research limitations/implicationsThe results of this study contribute to our knowledge of important real‐world challenges and career development opportunities for women managing contemporary projects. Several implications for future research that build on women's issue selling in project management are discussed. Suggestions for broadening the sample in future research are also included.Practical implicationsThis paper highlights several important ways in which business organizations can strengthen and optimize their women project managers, and offset second‐generation gender bias.Originality/valueThis is only the second study to consider the real‐world contextual factors of women's projects, and the first study to explore their perspective specifically in terms of their job challenges, issue selling, and self‐described disadvantages and advantages in managing projects. Business organizations are in a unique historical position to uplift their project management capacity and leadership talent through developing and promoting women project managers.

Assessing the Capability of Women Construction Project Managers Based on Liberal Feminist Theory

Studies on the involvement and capability of women in the construction industry are rare in developing countries. Although a minority in the industry, women construction project managers have the same level of importance as men. In a construction organization, the position of a project manager is the most challenging task. This study aims to explore the capabilities of women construction project managers in the Malaysian construction industry in comparison with their male counterparts. Liberal feminist theory is applied as an underpinning theory to explain the concept of “equal capability of women.” This study adopts the mixed methods approach. It covers Grade 7 construction companies listed in the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) directory in Peninsular Malaysia. From a sample of 48 companies known to have women project managers, only 15 responses were received. Based on the responses, only five agreed to be interviewed. Descriptive analysis reveals that the employment of female project managers is based on merit, which is closely associated (in ranking) with their experience, skills, personal attributes, and level of education. Moreover, male and female project managers in the construction industry are assumed to possess equal capability. This study contributes to the extension of knowledge on the equal employment opportunity practiced in construction companies in Malaysia.

Doing gender and leadership

This article examines the media representations of gender and leadership discourse in the debut season of the American reality TV show The Apprentice. By drawing upon the method of discourse analysis, I analyse the leadership styles that two male and two female project managers employ in ‘doing leadership’. The analysis shows that two of the managers display discourse styles of leadership which largely conform to traditional gendered expectations, and that two other managers employ a ‘mixed’ leadership style by making use of some discourse features that are indirectly indexed for the other gender. It is revealed that a masculine discourse style is still represented as the preferred, default way of doing leadership, and that the combination of discourse strategies which are stereotypically coded as masculine and feminine in ‘doing leadership’ is represented most favourably in the reality TV show. Based on the data analysis, it is also argued that female managers may be under more constraints in using ‘mixed’ gendered strategies and in violating stereotypically gendered speech norms when enacting leadership at work.

Managerial Competencies of Female and Male Construction Managers

Women hold relatively few project management positions in the construction industry. Most studies conclude that women’s exclusion from the industry is mostly due to the industry’s male-dominated culture, but no study ever attempted to find out whether women are excluded from project management positions in construction because they are deficient in managerial competencies. This study evaluates the managerial competencies of female project managers by administering a competency assessment test and comparing the results with the managerial competencies of male project managers. The management development questionnaire was used, where competency is defined by subjective comparison. All respondents occupied project management positions and were assessed in 20 different competencies. The study concluded that female project managers do not differ much from male project managers in terms of their managerial behaviors but perform better in “sensitivity,” “costumer focus,” and “authority and presence.”

Dancing in the white spaces: Exploring gendered assumptions in successful project managers’ discourse about their work

By design, bodies of knowledge capture and influence best working practices. Gendered assumptions based on masculine cognitive styles are predominant in the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge ( PMBOK) [PMI. Project Management Body of Knowledge. Project Management Institute 1996]. This study investigates the assumptions and cognitive styles embedded in successful project managers’ discussions of their working practices. Both male and female project managers exhibit sophisticated skill in balancing masculine and feminine cognitive styles and attribute their success to “dancing in the white spaces” between the lines laid out by the PMBOK. This raises important questions about the role of the PMBOK in training and certifying project managers.

Project Manager Leadership Behaviors and Frequency of Use by Female Project Managers

The purpose of this study was to determine the most important leadership and managerial behaviors for project managers as perceived by female project managers and to ascertain the frequency with which these behaviors are practiced by female project managers.A survey instrument of leadership behaviors was submitted to female project managers, representing a variety of industries, team types, and sizes. The respondents were asked to rate each behavior as to its importance for an effective project manager to exhibit and to indicate the frequency of use by female project managers.Even though much of the literature on effective leaders indicates the importance of transformational behaviors, the results of this study show that the respondents do not attach as much importance to transformational leadership behaviors as they do managerial skills and transactional leadership behaviors. They also use transactional leadership behaviors and managerial skills more frequently than transformational leadership behaviors.

FEMALE PROJECT MANAGERS? WORKPLACE PROBLEMS: A SURVEY

This paper examines the extent to which challenges in the workplace may cause women project managers to be in a significantly small minority. A survey of members of the Australian Institute of Project Management in Queensland is described. This compares the experiences and observations of both males and females on various issues related to technical and gender aspects in the project management workplace. The results show that, while female project managers experience many problems, male project managers also experience most of the same problems. Likewise, there are also few differences between the more experienced and less experienced, level of management and types of industries. The differences that do occur include discrimination against women in general, differences in project management styles and the support from other project managers.

The adaptive—innovative (A—I) cognitive styles of male and female project managers: Some implications for the management of change

This paper reports for the first time the results of a study of the adaptive–innovative cognitive style of the managers of change projects. The Kirton Adaption–Innovation Inventory (KAI) was completed by 133 such managers and the mean KAI score of 109.4 (SD = 14.0) indicates a preferred innovative approach to making decisions and solving problems when managing projects involving significant change. This result is consistent with those of other studies which have shown that activities which involve working across functional boundaries in organizations are generally undertaken by those with an innovative cognitive style (Foxall, 1990; Foxall & Hackett, 1994; Kirton, 1980, 1994). The implications of these results for change project managers are discussed in terms of the interpersonal problems which can arise when working with client managers who are likely to have a more adaptive cognitive style.