Background to the Research

• This study profiled the orientation and attitudes to work of a grade cohort of women in junior management in a large public sector organization in Northern Ireland.
  

Research Approach

• Two hundred and twenty three subjects, each at the same junior management grade, comprised the sample. Specific personality dimensions included sex-role orientation, role conflict and self-esteem, and work attitudes explored were those relating primarily to career and promotion issues. The sample was contacted through via lists of employees by grade; the response rate achieved was 59%.
  

Main Findings

• Approximately half of all the junior managers were married, and of these around half had children. Nearly all half left school with some academic qualifications, while under 30% of the sample had some form of third level qualification. Women with no third level qualification tended to be single and to have long careers in the organisation. 83% of the sample had joined the organisation at its lowest rank and had progressed to their present grade, while those who joined at their present grade tended to have a greater number of qualifications.
• Three quarters of the sample had been in the organisation for at least 15 years, but only 30% had been in junior management for over four years.
• Two important findings emerged from the survey. First, a sizeable minority of females at junior levels of management were content with their lot and did not aspire to be promoted at work. Second, a majority of females at junior levels of management definitely wanted promotion of some form but at the same time were aware of the obstacles, both personal and organisational to their progress.
• While most of the sample felt that self-confidence was the most important factor influencing their promotion, the most powerful demographic factor to emerge was marital status, and the strongest psychological determinant of whether women wished to move ahead and realise their ambitions appeared to be sex-role orientation.
• Married women, and especially those with children, were generally the most confident in the sample and were more often sex-typed in the masculine direction. As a rule of thumb, married women seemed more positive and forward-looking as regards their work than single women, and particularly older single women, who argued that doubts about their ability, their lack of confidence, and their satisfaction with their present grade prevented them from seeking promotion.
• Married women who were deterred from seeking promotion were more likely to cite practical reasons that influenced them against seeking promotion, for example interference with family life and added responsibility, which would presumably require longer hours in the office or evening work at home that would not be feasible.
• In general, the most positive, ambitious and career-orientated were those who were sex-typed in the masculine direction. They were the most interested in promotion, cited practical ways in which the organisation could make them even more positive about seeking promotion, and achieved the highest scores on the self-esteem and self-worth scales.
• Women who were sex-typed in the feminine direction were often less motivated and interested in their careers. More frequently they mentioned personal deterrents to promotion, and tended to focus on internal attributes rather than to what could be changed in the organisation to encourage them and enhance their career prospects.
• Women of whatever sex-orientation however, argued that they required greater support from their managers, more information and more training opportunities so as to make them more positive about seeking promotion.
• A general feeling to emerge from the survey was that chance played too significant a role in career advancement. For example, it was fortune which determined whether a woman happened to work with a manager who offered support and encouraged her to go forward for promotion.