Glass Cliff Research Articles

Gender and Opposition Leadership in the Pacific Islands

Parliaments in the Pacific Islands are among the most male-dominated in the world. Yet despite the odds, there is a cohort of women who have been elected and won senior roles. This article adds to an emerging literature that examines the gendered pathways to political influence in the region by focusing on the hitherto overlooked role of the opposition leader. It uses a biographical approach to consider the pathways in and through this role by four women opposition leaders: Fiame Naomi Mata’afa (Samoa), Hilda Heine (Marshall Islands), Dame Carol Kidu (Papua New Guinea), and Ro Teimumu Kepa (Fiji). We parse out factors that explain the success of these leaders while also identifying barriers that have prevented their emergence in other Pacific states. We identify two main ways in which women politicians have used the position of leader of the opposition: first, the conventional understanding of the role as a path to power; and second, the less well-understood role of defending and protecting democratic norms and institutions. The latter can be interpreted as a version of the “glass cliff” phenomenon where women leaders assume key positions in times of crisis. Our findings thus highlight that while in the Pacific the role of leader of the opposition can be a path to power, the relatively few women leaders who have taken on this role have used it in diverse and varied ways.

Evaluating the likelihood of the glass cliff phenomenon for female ceos in college and universities

The glass cliff phenomenon (GCP) maintains that women are more likely to lead risky organizations than men. Quantitative measures of risk for assessing a possible GCP exist for leaders in the business sector, but no quantitative measures exist for college or university leadership. This article tests one variable of risk for college and university institutions, the financial responsibility composite score (FRCS), to see if it measures the GCP in college or university chief executive officer (CEO) hires. Using an ex post facto causal-comparative design, gender and FRCS in private American colleges and universities were analyzed using the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System data. Purposive sampling randomly paired institutions with female CEOs with similar institutions with male CEOs. Using the U.S. Department of Education’s FRCS database, the researcher reviewed patterns in FRCS before and after CEO hires over three studies. No statistically significant results were observed, demonstrating that there is no indication that female CEOs are hired into riskier colleges or universities when utilizing FRCS. Future studies should further investigate the GCP using alternative measures of risk.

Through a Glass Cliff Darkly

Abstract: After breaking through the glass ceiling, women often obtain precarious or risky leadership positions in crisis-ridden organizations ( the glass cliff; Ryan & Haslam, 2005 ). Due to women’s minority status, their appointment in a crisis can signal important changes to organizational stakeholders indicating the use of new strategies for overcoming the crisis (signaling theory; Spence, 1973 ). Our study examines whether the media visibility of organizations moderates these signaling effects in ways that either strengthen or weaken glass cliffs. We augmented the archival dataset used by Haslam et al. (2010 ) in which the glass cliff phenomenon was discovered by including data on the media coverage that the Financial Times Stock Exchange index 100 companies received between 2001 and 2005. Our analysis shows that glass cliffs were more pronounced in companies with low media visibility. This suggests that the media visibility of organizations can contribute to increased accountability regarding their personnel decisions in ways that expose women leaders to less discrimination.

Implementing pathways to anesthesiology: Promoting diversity, equity, inclusion, and success.

Implementing pathways to anesthesiology: Promoting diversity, equity, inclusion, and success.

Right time to join? Organizational imprinting and women's careers in public service organizations

AbstractWomen across the economy continue to encounter difficulties in progressing their careers as occupational segregation and precarious conditions symbolized by the “glass ceiling” and “glass cliff” indicate. Theories of imprint‐organization fit indicate that organizational munificence at the time of appointment may be an important influence on individual careers. Prosperous conditions at the time of hire might generate confidence and capability, whilst scarcity may prompt resourcefulness and resilience. While these effects have been examined in small private firms, they have been relatively unexplored in the context of public service organizations. Moreover, there has been little attention to the study of organizational munificence in the context of women's careers. Drawing on the Integrated Database for Labor Market Research in Denmark, this study evaluates the impact of organizational munificence at appointment on subsequent financial career benefits for women in Danish public services. Results indicate that resource scarcity at the time of appointment is related to enhanced career outcomes, and that the influence of conditions at the outset of a woman's career is more pronounced for women with lower levels of experience and education. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Examining strategic antecedents of the appointment of women to top management teams

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the organizational and environmental antecedents to the appointment of a woman to a non-CEO top management team (TMT) position.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a conditional fixed effects logistic regression model to analyze non-CEO TMT appointment data collected from the S&P 500 between 2008 and 2016.FindingsWomen were more likely to be appointed to non-CEO TMT positions when a firm was undergoing strategic change, had slack resources, and was in a less munificent environment.Originality/valueThis article contributes to the literature concerning the antecedents of the selection of women to executive leadership (e.g. the glass cliff) roles by examining organizational and environmental contexts at the non-CEO TMT unit of analysis.

Glass Cliff and Brexit: Theresa May’s legacy as Prime Minister

Following the 2016 British referendum, Theresa May was officially appointed as PM. She was classed as a weak PM, and her legacy was considered a huge failure in Brexit negotiations. Yet, few analyses focus on how she became a PM in such a challenging moment for UK-EU relations. This article explores the paths that lead May to this position, based on the glass cliff literature. Then, May’s brinkmanship strategy on Brexit is analysed in light of Complex Adaptive Systems’ approach to crises. We apply the CDE model to understand May’s response to the Brexit vote. Finally, the concept of men glass cushion will be introduced to explain May’s replacement by Boris Johnson. This work joins efforts to employ perspectives from other areas, such as administration and psychology, to understand women in leadership roles and to bring light to the study of gender in politics.

Falling Over the Glass Cliff? The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women Directors’ Board Turnover

Mounting evidence suggests that women have left the labor market at unprecedented rates during the COVID-19 pandemic. We seek to contribute to the ongoing debates on the gendered effects of the COVID-19 pandemic by exploring the labor market effects of gender in corporate leadership positions. While the challenges women face to rise above the glass ceiling are well-documented, factors determining their departure are less well understood. The global pandemic offers an opportunity to evaluate the effects of gendered expectations and diversity considerations during a crisis on the likelihood of women director turnover. Using a sample of 15,768 unique outside directors sitting at the boards of 4,249 public firms in 32 European countries between 2019 and 2020, we find that director turnover in general has significantly increased during the COVID-19 pandemic and women directors are as likely as men directors to leave their board positions during the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings also hold across different country-level contextual factors. Our findings suggest that beyond the glass ceiling women's behavior is more similar to their men counterparts than women in general. We discuss the implications of our findings for future research on corporate leadership positions and gender differences in the boardroom.

Is Women’s Leadership Really Associated with Fewer Covid-19 Deaths?

Recent research regarding the COVID-19 pandemic has claimed to find a relationship between the sex of a state governor and COVID-19 deaths in that state. Specifically, this research has reported that states with female governors have lower instances of COVID-19 deaths and that executive orders given by female governors have been more effective at reducing COVID-19 deaths than those given by male governors. Such findings have the potential to influence our understanding of the causes behind phenomenon such as the glass cliff, which address the disproportionate emergence of females in precarious leadership positions, as compared to the emergence of females in less precarious positions. We argue, however, that the theoretical implications of such findings are bound by limitations of the analyses from which they are derived. In response to a call for more consistent use of replication in the Journal of Applied Psychology, we conduct a series of direct and conceptual replications of this prior work, finding little evidence that a governor’s sex serves as a reliable predictor of COVID-19 deaths. Consequently, unlike prior research, we argue that insight gleaned through data from the COVID-19 pandemic has not provided reason for us to alter our understanding as to the causal factors that contribute to the emergence of the glass cliff.

Unpacking the Female Exceptionalism Effect in External Crisis Leadership

Recently, commentators in both academic literature and the popular press have highlighted the unique effectiveness of female leaders in attracting support during times of crisis. These observations about the relative success of female leaders contrast with extant work on gender and crisis leadership, which suggests that women are more likely to experience adverse outcomes when elevated to leadership positions in the midst of organizational crises (e.g., the glass cliff phenomenon). To reconcile this discrepancy, we theorize a “female exceptionalism effect” in crises that originate from external sources (e.g., wide-scale health and economic crises that originate beyond the control of any single organization) rather than internal (i.e., within-organization) sources. Drawing on national-level field data, we find that U.S. states led by women during an especially vivid and recent external crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, had better health behavior compliance from constituents (i.e., mask-wearing and vaccinations) and economic outcomes (i.e., employment rates) than states led by men (Study 1). Additionally, female leaders were significantly more likely to signal both their warmth and competence in linguistic analysis of press conference transcripts (Study 2). Finally, drawing on experimental data, we find that the advantage of female leaders in generating follower support is mediated by perceptions that women are warmer, more competent, and more suitable as leaders than men in external crises (Study 3). We discuss the implications of our findings for the crisis leadership literature, as they highlight a rare female advantage from societal double standards.

When Are Minority Executives Fired? Examining Four Factors Using Sport Coaches and Survival Analysis

Society’s motivation to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities has directed attention towards many areas, including executive leadership. Prior studies examining the dismissal of minority executives offer equivocal findings – likely because prior research has not examined whether organizational and strategic factors have different effects on White and non-White executives’ dismissal. To address this, we develop a sample of college basketball coaches over 17 years as a proxy for executives and utilize Cox Proportional Hazard models to analyze the relationships of four factors with White and non-White coach dismissal. Our findings provide new insights regarding dismissal for executives of color. First, executives of color who lead organizations with less investment or weaker competitive peers are more likely to be dismissed than their White counterparts. Second, executives of color with little or no prestige developed during their tenure are more likely to be dismissed than White executives with similarly low levels of prestige. Lastly, strategic change is associated with a greater likelihood of executives of color being dismissed, but a decreased likelihood of dismissal for White executives. These findings provide further support for glass ceiling and glass cliff explanations of dismissal, but also suggest potential institutional explanations of minority executive dismissal.

The Diplomatic Glass Cliff: Women’s Representation and Diplomacy’s Decline

Summary For the first time in history, women in Australian diplomacy have equal or near-equal representation in leadership whilst the institution they represent is shrinking — in funding, footprint and status. Even if simply a natural shift in policy priorities, this diplomatic ‘glass cliff’ has specifically gendered effects. Indeed, ‘hard’ militaristic agencies — where funding and prestige flow — remain pockets of gender resistance in Australian international affairs. This article employs a combination of qualitative interview analysis as well as quantitative longitudinal data on gender representation and agency funding across four case agencies to argue that women are gaining positions of diplomatic leadership just as diplomacy’s relative power, influence and funding decreases. It contributes to women’s leadership research in finding that women’s increased opportunities in leadership are therefore constrained by the declining status or shrinking nature of the institution to which they are gaining access.

Shattering Glass Ceilings: Three Black Women Surgeons Ascend to Chairs of Departments of Surgery.

Shattering Glass Ceilings: Three Black Women Surgeons Ascend to Chairs of Departments of Surgery.

Beyond the Glass Cliff: A Scoping Review of the Influencing Factors of Glass Cliff

Glass ceiling syndrome is the exposure of women to some inequalities while climbing the career ladders. It is an invisible barrier above the women that prevents them from being promoted. Women who achieve to break the glass ceiling get the leadership positions but it is possible for them to face to a new adventure called glass cliff. Glass cliff is the appointment of women to more risky, problematic or unstable leadership positions compared to men. These deliberate promotions, which can cause loss of prestige and an image of failure, are generally not rejected as they are still an opportunity for women. The aim of this study is to reveal the influencing factors of glass cliff. Within the framework of this purpose, a scoping review was carried out. In this review, papers on glass cliff indexed in Web of Science and Scopus databases between 2000-2021 are examined. The results of the study revealed that there are five factors that are commonly referred in reviewed articles. These factors are; stereotypes of leadership and gender, company performance, need for change, leadership ability and leadership suitability.

Shine Bright Like a Diamond: When Signaling Creates Glass Cliffs for Female Executives

There is mixed support for the glass cliff hypothesis that firms will more likely appoint female candidates into top management positions when in crisis. We trace the inconsistent findings back to an underdeveloped theoretical link and deficient identification strategies. Using signaling theory, we suggest that crisis firms appoint female top managers to signal change to the market and argue that the effect is context-dependent. In a field study of 26,156 executive appointments in U.S. firms between 2000 and 2016, we exploit a regression discontinuity to test for the causal impact of firm crisis status on the likelihood of female top management appointments and for moderators of the effect. We find that crisis status leads to a significant increase in female top management appointments and that crisis (vs. noncrisis) firms are more likely to frame female appointments as change-related in press releases. Importantly, the presence of the glass cliff effect hinges on attributes of the signaler (absence of another female executive), signal (appointment type), and receiver (investor attention). The findings robustly evidence the glass cliff and our theoretical extensions.

Complaint! by Sara Ahmed

Reviewed by: Complaint! by Sara Ahmed Julia K. Gruber (bio) Complaint! by Sara Ahmed. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2021, 359 pp., $29.95 paperback. In its satirical look at contemporary academia, the Netflix show The Chair (2021) takes on sensitive subjects, such as sexism, ageism, white elitism, free speech, and cancel culture. In the context of this review, it is interesting to note that the series is built around several complaints. Sandra Oh plays the newly appointed, first female, Asian American chair of an English department in crisis. In an NPR interview about the series, real-life academic Dr. Nancy Wang Yuen describes this hiring practice as the "glass cliff phenomenon": "Women of color are elevated to positions of power in really volatile moments when businesses know, they're in crisis. But that kind of scenario essentially sets them up to fall off the glass cliff."1 In episode one, the new chair accompanies a colleague to her new office, "a subterranean shithole in the athletics building." "What's the [End Page 350] point of a Title IX office if we are not going to use it?", Oh's character asks, to which her colleague responds: "Our first female chair, already a troublemaker." It is obvious that, even though she is pleasantly surprised by her chair's display of solidarity, the seasoned white woman professor instantly perceives the younger Asian-American woman's intent to file a complaint about the substandard office space as causing trouble. While Oh's character still seems to believe that filing a grievance with the university will remedy the situation, the older white professor has been working in academia long enough to know that "beating one's breast"—the original meaning of the verb "to complain," which is derived from Vulgar Latin "complanger"—will most likely lead to more problems. In her latest book, Sara Ahmed examines the phenomenology of complaint. As in all her writings, Ahmed repurposes language and situations in a way that invites her readers to reevaluate the environments they live and work in. In Complaint!, Ahmed exposes what it means to complain at academic institutions, explores how those who complain are perceived and punished for complaining, and lastly, praises those for whom complaining means fighting for justice and change despite the crushing ramifications of speaking up. Complaint! is based on the author's own experience with filing a complaint, which resulted in what she called in Living a Feminist Life (2017) "a feminist snap." In 2016, Ahmed's disappointment in her institution's handling of students' complaints about sexual harassment led her to leave academia as an employed academic: "It [writing this book] has helped me come to terms with what happened, to pick up the pieces of a shattered academic career […], to make and to understand the connections between what happened to me and what happened to others" (275). In four parts and eight chapters, Ahmed discusses the institutional mechanics of complaint, its immanence, what happens behind closed doors, and the importance of complaint collectives. Here, the author practices what she preaches: feminist solidarity. Thus, part IV consists of not only one, but two conclusions. Before Ahmed reaches her own conclusion, she provides space for women to write about a collective they formed to complain about sexual harassment and bullying at their institution. In The Promise of Happiness (2010), Ahmed intervened in one of the most common assumptions of social life, i.e., that we all need to be happy. In Complaint!, she writes: "[…] To complain is how you would stop yourself from being happy, to stop others from being happy, too, complaining is a killjoy genre" (1). Ahmed's aim is to counteract the history of unheard complaints "by giving complaint a hearing, by giving room to complaint, by listening to complaint, by becoming a feminist ear, to give complaints somewhere to go" (3). The book is based on forty interviews and eighteen written statements conducted and received between June 2017 and January 2019 and contains what Ahmed learned about complaining in academia: "Learned is one of the most used words in this book for a reason" (275, emphasis in original), she writes. [End Page 351] The subjects...

The appropriate leadership styles in times of crisis: a study of women in senior leadership positions in corporate South Africa

PurposeAs women increasingly take on leadership roles during these turbulent times, the differences in their leadership styles in comparison to males in similar positions will continue to attract attention as it has in the past. The aim of this paper is to explore appropriate leadership styles that women in senior leadership positions facing the glass cliff have at their disposal.Design/methodology/approachThis research method was qualitative. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews from a total of 17 participants in corporate South Africa; purposive and snowball sampling was used to select women in senior leadership positions.FindingsParticipants expressed overwhelming support for a transformational leadership style due to its characteristics; however, women leaders believe a style or combination of styles are used based on the situation at hand.Research limitations/implicationsUsing only qualitative research has limited the scope and applicability of this study significantly.Practical implicationsThe representation of women in senior leadership positions has increased over the years more especially in organisations where there is crisis, attention now is the difference in kind of leadership styles they use.Originality/valueVery few research studies have gone in-depth into the effectiveness of the leadership styles that were used by women in corporate South Africa. The study, therefore, presents a major implication indicating that to show positive results, women need to be able to identify an appropriate leadership style based on carefully reviewing their specific organisational situation.

“I am the Chair”: Women and Department Leadership in the Academy

The paucity of women in leadership roles in the academy has been the focus of the literature in higher education for several decades. The discussion has lamented how few women attain presidencies, chancellorships, or vice chancellor roles, that women of color experience even greater barriers to leadership attainment, and that women are likely to experience both a “glass ceiling” and a “glass cliff”. As a result, women often find themselves trapped in low-level managerial roles, unsupported when they do attain leadership positions, and underrepresented on powerful committees and in meaningful decision-making bodies. Drawing on data from a large study of the department chair, this qualitative study explores the experiences of twenty women who hold the position. Findings suggest that women department chairs continue to face ongoing gendered challenges to their leadership and that barriers to their success are still very much present in the academy. Coping with these challenges requires a balancing act within oneself, with others, and within the institution. Each challenge is then reflected in tensions that must be negotiated rather than resolved. Recommendations for structural and cultural changes are offered.

Is There a Glass Cliff in Local Government Management? Examining the Hiring and Departure of Women

AbstractWomen are underrepresented in public sector leadership positions, including municipal management. We examine one explanation that may contribute to gender inequity in the profession—a “glass cliff” phenomenon whereby councils are more likely to hire women as managers during difficult times, increasing the likelihood for women to fail in the position. Using original observational data on municipal managers in Florida, we test whether municipalities are more likely to hire women during times of fiscal stress and whether women are more likely than men to leave the position if municipal finances do not improve. Our results show that increasing budget deficits are associated with municipalities hiring women as managers. Post‐appointment, a lack of improvement in the deficit condition is associated with a higher probability of women, but not men, leaving the position. A glass cliff in municipal management could be one factor that hinders women from advancing within the field.Evidence for Practice Municipalities are more likely to hire women as managers when faced with increasing budget deficits. When deficit conditions fail to improve post‐appointment, women have a higher probability than men of leaving the position. The glass cliff may be one barrier to women's advancement in the field of municipal management, as a woman who faces a glass cliff may find it more difficult to reach top leadership positions again due to harm to her professional reputation. Objective evaluation metrics that benchmark the assessment of managers to the organizational condition and trends at the time of hire may be useful for scholars and practitioners alike in mitigating gender biases in municipal personnel decisions.

Applying a social-ecological systems lens to patterns of policy, operational change, and gender participation in a large Aotearoa New Zealand organisation

ABSTRACT The chronological development of a central government agency, the New Zealand Department of Conservation (DOC), in response to changes in government policy is examined against patterns of gender participation. We use interdisciplinary social-ecological systems theory to examine relationships between the DOC institutional system and its patterns of gender participation. Factors examined include external drivers and internal response mechanisms over time at individual, organisational and external scales. A thematic analysis of DOC’s online corporate literature is used to collect data regarding six organisational themes: leadership, finance, structure, strategy, legislation, and management. The thematic data, synthesised into a timeline, are then assessed against the corresponding political backdrop (1987–2019). DOC’s history is characterised by repeated disruption and these events are associated with different response patterns at different levels across the entire workforce. Gender equity gains within lower ranks are not mirrored at higher ranks and both glass ceiling and glass cliff patterns are evident. Prior to policy intervention, larger female representation rates are associated with smaller pay gaps in leadership ranks. Stratification within occupation types limits pay gains at lower ranks. Changes in the organisation’s core business affect male and female representation in the workforce differently.