Study: Women CFOs Get Better Bank Loans

Victor1558 (CC BY 2.0)

As Bloomberg recently reported, female chief financial officers (CFOs) are on the rise at a time when other top executive positions remain elusive. As more women step into this crucial role, the burgeoning research on the “gender effect” has revealed intriguing implications, including findings in a new study from the Journal of Accounting, Auditing & Finance, which reveals that firms with female CFOs enjoy better bank loan contracts:

Based on recent empirical work showing that female CFOs report more conservative and high-quality accounting numbers, and are more likely to reduce the risk level of the firm, we hypothesize that as inside lenders, banks should recognize the benefits of female CFOs in reducing information risk ex ante and default risk ex post, and reward borrowers with female CFOs with more favorable loan contract terms.

Our empirical results support our hypotheses. We find that, in our sample, firms with female CFOs, on average, enjoy about 14 basis points lower bank loan prices than firms with male CFOs. In addition, loans given to female-CFO-led companies have 3.8-monthlonger maturities and are 8% less likely to be required to provide collateral when compared with loans given to male-CFO-led companies.

Click here to continue reading “The Impact of CFO Gender on Bank Loan Contracting,” published by Bill Francis of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Iftekhar Hasan of Fordham University, and Qiang Wu of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the January 2013 issue of the Journal of Accounting, Auditing & Finance — and don’t forget to sign up for e-alerts to stay on top of the latest finance-related research.

It’s International Women’s Day

Poster for Women’s Day,
March 8, 1914
via Wikipedia

It is International Women’s Day today, observed since the early 1900s to inspire women and celebrate their achievements. To commemorate the day, events are taking place worldwide, from small to large scale. The 2013 official theme, “The Gender Agenda: Gaining Momentum,” and the UN theme, “A Promise is a Promise: Time for Action to End Violence against Women,” touch on the wide scope of issues under consideration at this time.

In support of International Women’s Day (#IWD2013), SAGE is pleased to open access to key articles on gender and the workplace through April 30:

• “Fatherhood and Managerial Style: How a Male CEO’s Children Affect the Wages of His Employees” published in Administrative Science Quarterly by Michael S. Dahl, Cristian L. Dezső and David Gaddis Ross
• “The Gender-Mediated Impact of a Career Development Intervention” published in Australian Journal of Career Development  by Diana V.W. Cassie and Charles P. Chen
• “Gender perceptions of work-life balance: Management implications for full-time employees in Australia” published in Australian Journal of Management by Yuka Fujimoto, Fara Azmat and Charmine Hartel
• “The Global Compact and Gender Inequality: A Work in Progress” published in Business & Society by Maureen A. Kilgour
•  “The romance of working together: Benefits of gender diversity on group performance in China” published in Human Relations by Yan Zhang and LiWen Hou
•  “Gender identities and practices: Interpreting women entrepreneurs’ narratives” published in International Small Business Journal by María-Cristina Díaz García and Friederike Welter
• “Something of Collaborative Manufacture: The Construction of Race and Gender Identities in Organizations” published in The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science by Erica Gabrielle Foldy
• “Using Power to Influence Outcomes: Does Gender Matter?” published in Journal of Management Education by Mary Shapiro, Cynthia Ingols and Stacy Blake-Beard
• “Benevolent Sexism at Work: Gender Differences in the Distribution of Challenging Developmental Experiences” published in Journal of Management by Eden B. King, Whitney Botsford, Michelle R. Hebel, Stephanie Kazama, Jeremy F. Dawson and Andrew Perkins
• “Is the ‘F’-word still dirty? A past, present and future of/for feminist and gender studies in Organization” published in Organization by Nancy Harding, Jackie Ford and Marianna Fotaki
• “The subordination of the Feminine: Developing a Critical Feminist Approach to the Psychoanalysis of Organizations” published in Organization Studies by Sheena J. Vachhani

For a more complete listing of SAGE offerings on gender, we are currently running a free online trial to SAGE Sociology and Gender Studies journals through March 31. Click to access.

Race, Gender, and Communication in the Workplace

amboo who? (cc)

Whether a manager is black or white, male or female, the stereotypes that persist in today’s workplace can affect perceptions of managerial communication and undermine a leader’s effectiveness, according to an article recently published in SAGE Open:

Previous research has documented that gender and racial stereotypes affect beliefs about communication style. This study sought to investigate whether these stereotypes would be replicated in a sample of White working adults and whether participants thought that a social skills training program that is usually targeted at women would have an impact on managerial targets’ speech. Results indicated that racial stereotypes were more salient than gender stereotypes, with participants viewing White managers’ speech as more socially appropriate and less emotional, but also as more dominant and articulate than Black managers’ speech. Participants also perceived female managers’ speech as more emotional than male managers’. After training, participants thought that men’s and White managers’ speech would become more emotional, despite the fact that this training has been targeted specifically at female managers. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of examining race and gender in evaluating managerial communication.

Read the article, “Communication Stereotypes and Perceptions of Managers,” published in the SAGE Open October-December 2012 issue by Jessica H. Carlson of Western New England University and Mary Crawford of the University of Connecticut. To learn more about SAGE’s open access outlet for academic research, and to receive e-alerts about newly published articles, please click here.

Book Review: Sex and the Office

A detail from the cover of “Sex and the Office:
A History of Gender, Power, and Desire”

If you find it hard to believe that not so long ago, male employers advertised for “pretty blonde” secretaries and office “temptresses” made scandalous news headlines, just consider the Petraeus affair, which has seen Paula Broadwell labeled a femme fatale, a homewrecker, and all else in the media. It’s clear that we still have a long way to go to make sense of gender and sexuality in the workplace, and Julie Berebitsky’s book, “Sex and the Office: A History of Gender, Power, and Desire” (Yale University Press, 2012), reviewed by Raina Brands of the University of Cambridge in the latest issue of Administrative Science Quarterly, aims to do just that:

To many readers, the idea that women should be legally protected from unwanted sexual advances in the workplace will be taken for granted. Despite a large and burgeoning literature on sexual harassment, however, researchers have been relatively quiet on the role of sexuality in the workplace. Yet men’s and women’s sexual dependence on each other is thought to be the defining characteristic of gender relations, and contemporary theories of sexism and gender discrimination rarely leave sexual relations untouched. It seems a remarkable oversight, then, that the topic of sexuality is so absent from research on gender relations in the workplace.

This ambitious book aims to rectify this oversight by providing a historical context for the sexual culture of contemporary white-collar workplaces. The book’s account focuses on professional environments that are characterized by bureaucratic ideals that seek to remove sexuality from the workplace. Beginning at the end of the Victorian era, the book proceeds chronologically, detailing shifts in cultural, legislative, and societal characterizations of sex in the office, ending at the introduction of sexual harassment laws. Although primarily aimed at macro-oriented scholars, the book provides an illuminating read for any researcher in the domain of gender studies.

Click here to read the review, then head over to asq.sagepub.com for free access to two years of ASQ book reviews.

Does Fatherhood Make CEOs Less Generous?

conorwithonen (cc)

A new study in Administrative Science Quarterly finds that when male CEOs have children, their employees can be negatively affected by receiving lower wages. The authors explain that fatherhood can alter an executive’s value system and, thus, his managerial style–and the plot thickets where gender is involved:

We find that (a) a male CEO generally pays his employees less generously after fathering a child, (b) the birth of a daughter has a less negative influence on wages than does the birth of a son and has a positive influence if the daughter is the CEO’s first, and (c) the wages of female employees are less adversely affected than are those of male employees and positively affected by the CEO’s first child of either gender. We also find that male CEOs pay themselves more after fathering a child, especially after fathering a son. These results are consistent with a desire by the CEO to husband more resources for his family after fathering a child and the psychological priming of the CEO’s generosity after the birth of his first daughter and specifically toward women after the birth of his first child of either gender.

Read the article, “Fatherhood and Managerial Style: How a Male CEO’s Children Affect the Wages of His Employees” by Michael S. Dahl of Aalborg University, Cristian L. Dezso of the University of Maryland, and David Gaddis Ross of Columbia Business School, published in the OnlineFirst section of Administrative Science Quarterly.

Would you like to receive e-alerts about new articles like this one? Then click here!

Equal Rights Are Good For Business

infomatique (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Did you know that in the past 10 years, the percentage of Fortune 500 companies offering domestic partner benefits (DPB) to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees jumped from 34% to 60%? Not lost on them, surely, is the fact that there’s a legitimate business argument for offering equal rights to all employees, regardless of sexual orientation, and for fostering diverse workplaces. In the latest issue of Compensation & Benefits Review, Cynthia L. Cordes of the University of Miami educates us on “The Business Case for Offering Domestic Partner Benefits“:

The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender population represents a large, talented group of potential employees. The dilemma for many employers is how this population should be recognized or accommodated, if at all…

…Costs of offering DPB are offset by significant and meaningful tangible and intangible benefits. These encompass employer reputation and thus enhanced ability to compete effectively for talent and assorted individual and organizational outcomes attributable to these individuals.

Follow this link to read the full article in Compensation & Benefits Review, and this one to learn more about the journal. Do you want to receive the latest management research in your inbox? Click here to sign up for e-alerts!

Women and Work-Life Balance

bies (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Shortly after Marissa Mayer’s appointment this week as CEO of Yahoo, news of her pregnancy opened a new chapter in the work-life debate. Today, we offer context with perspectives on gender roles, women in leadership, and work-family balance. We hope you’ll find this selection interesting and useful.

Gary N. Powell of the University of Connecticut and Jeffrey H. Greenhaus of Drexel University published “Sex, Gender, and Decisions at the Family → Work Interface” in the July 2010 issue of the Journal of Management:

We explore whether sex differences in work-domain decisions can be explained by family-domain factors and whether the effect of family-domain factors on work decisions is different for women and men. We believe that answers to these questions can provide important insights into the role of sex in the interplay between family and work lives.

Athena Perrakis and Cynthia Martinez, both of the University of San Diego, published “In Pursuit of Sustainable Leadership: How Female Chairs With Children Negotiate Personal and Professional Roles” in the May 2012 issue of Advances in Developing Human Resources.

The lived experiences of the women in this study indicate complex tensions between personal and professional roles. Childcare and home responsibilities were the primary factors that complicated or derailed efforts to achieve work–life balance.

Frank L. Giancola, HR researcher and writer, published “Can the Work–Life Movement Regain Its Balance?” in the September/October 2011 issue of Compensation & Benefits Review. See also our five-part series on work-life balance.

The work–life discipline of human resources (HR) management has been in a period of transformation for the past decade. This fact may have eluded many people in the business world, since the key reasons behind the transformation and the new direction are not widely known outside work–life circles.

Are you interested in receiving email alerts whenever a new article or issue becomes available online? Then click here!

The Diversity Challenge: Part 2 of 5

InSapphoWeTrust (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Editor’s note: Today we’re continuing our series on diversity, targeting specific questions to invite discussion and exploration of related topics. If you have a question that you’d like to see addressed, add it in the comments below!

***

Part 2: Why do men outnumber women in academic leadership positions?

It’s been almost fifty years since gender discrimination in employment was outlawed in the U.S., but it’s been a lot longer since many of our nation’s patriarchal academic institutions were established.

Niki Murray, Marianne Tremaine, and Susan Fountaine, all of Massey University, published “Breaking Through the Glass Ceiling in the Ivory Tower: Using a Case Study to Gain New Understandings of Old Gender Issues” in the May 2012 issue of Advances in Developing Human Resources.

The abstract:

The Problem.

Universities are patriarchal institutions. More males reach upper levels of the academic hierarchy than females. The authors were concerned that their university had a marginally lower percentage of female professors than others in their country and used a survey and interviews to explore the facts behind the figures.

The Solution.

Statistics showed that though fewer females applied for promotion, proportionately more female applicants were successful. The authors researched what helped female professors and associate professors gain promotion and explored views on the spillover between work and family/community roles. Promotion enhancement factors included encouragement from department heads and senior colleagues. Family/community roles were seen to spillover positively to work, though work could negatively affect time for family and community involvement.

The Stakeholders.

These findings could encourage proactive mentoring of female academic staff by managers, and increase HR and HRD support for family-friendly policies and training programs.

To learn more about Advances in Developing Human Resources, please follow this link. To receive email alerts about newly published articles, click here.

Up next in the series: Which “minority” group is possibly the most underrepresented in the HRD diversity literature?

‘Where Are The Women’ In Leadership?

Rep. Carolyn Maloney made news this year with her forthright question about female representation at a Congressional committee hearing. Despite federal law prohibiting sex discrimination, women are still underrepresented in leadership.

A new study in SAGE Open zeroes in on leadership in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to investigate this issue, and offers solutions for decision makers to achieve greater gender equality.

Athena Yiamouyiannis of Ohio University and Barbara Osborne of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill published “Addressing Gender Inequities in Collegiate Sport: Examining Female Leadership Representation Within NCAA Sport Governance” on May 25, 2012 in SAGE Open. To access other recent articles, please click here.

The abstract:

The purpose of this study was to examine issues related to female representation within the governance structure of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). A descriptive statistics approach through the lens of feminism was taken in collecting and analyzing data related to the gender representation of staff leadership positions within the NCAA national office and gender representation within the NCAA Division I, II, and III governance structure. This was coupled with a review of NCAA programming initiatives related to leadership opportunities. Although a number of strategies are being implemented by the NCAA to provide greater access and leadership opportunities for women (e.g., diversity initiatives, Senior Woman Administrator legislation, and guaranteed representation on committees), women continue to be underrepresented within NCAA governance substructures and upper leadership levels within the NCAA national office. In addition, nongender neutral sport governance policies still exist that impede the progress of achieving gender equality.

To learn more about SAGE Open, please follow this link.

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New JME Podcast: Women and Power

Keoni Cabral (CC BY 2.0)

We see them everywhere: signs that the old stereotypes about men, women and power remain ingrained in our culture. Where does this leave women today in terms of having and wielding power?

Mary Shapiro, Cynthia Ingols, and Stacy Blake-Beard, all of the Simmons School of Management, ask this question in their article, “Using Power to Influence Outcomes: Does Gender Matter?,” released in the October 2011 issue of the  Journal of Management Education (JME).

The authors evaluate sex-role stereotypes and examine the real-life experiences of women with “an exercise that can be used in MBA, executive education, and undergraduate classes, which enables students to explore power, gender dynamics, and the double bind both men and women may face.”

JME Associate Editor Kathy Lund Dean interviewed the authors, who discussed their findings and shared new insights on this important topic. Click here to download the podcast, and click here to subscribe on iTunes.

Stacy Blake-Beard is Associate Professor of Management at the Simmons College School of Management where she teaches organizational behavior.  Dr. Blake-Beard’s research focuses on the challenges and opportunities offered by mentoring relationships, with a focus on how these relationships may be changing as a result of increasing workforce diversity. Dr. Blake-Beard has published research on gender, diversity, and mentoring in several publications including Journal of Career Development, Academy of Management Executive, Academy of Management Learning and Education, the Psychology of Women Quarterly, Journal of Management Development, Journal of Business Ethics and The Diversity Factor. She has given seminars for and consulted with a number of organizations on issues of diversity, implementing formal mentoring programs, gender and leadership and team-building.

Cynthia Ingols School of Management (SOM), Simmons College, Boston, MA, directs the internship program for undergraduate and MBA students; teaches courses in Organizational Change and Career Strategies to MBA students; and directs Strategic Leadership for Women, an executive education program with a global reach. Her research on executive education programs has been published in Harvard Business Review, Organizational Dynamics, and Training. Her research work on innovative organizational structures and change was published in the Design Management Journal. She has published articles about careers in Journal of Career Development and Human Resource Development Quarterly. She co-authored two books on career management: Take Charge of Your Career (2005), and A Smart, Easy Guide to Interviewing (2003).

Kathy Lund Dean is professor of management at Idaho State University. She earned her Ph.D. in organizational behavior and ethics from Saint Louis University. For fifteen years she has been active in both the OBTS Teaching Society for Management Educators, where she served on the Board, and the Academy of Management. She’s a founder of the Academy’s Management, Spirituality and Religion (MSR) interest group and in 2010 she served as Program Coordinator for the OBTC Teaching Conference for Management Educators. She continues her engagement with the Journal of Management Education as both an author and as Associate Editor, now in her 10th year. Currently, she’s researching ethics and decision-making among entry-to-mid-level managers, how religious and spiritual disputes in the workplace get resolved, and student disengagement issues. As of July 2012, Kathy will serve as the Board of Trustees Distinguished Chair in Leadership and Ethics at Gustavus Adolphus College.

Mary Shapiro has served for more than 25 years as an Organization Behavior faculty at Simmons College, an executive trainer, and a consultant to public and private companies. She joined the Simmons MBA faculty in 1993, and teaches in their MBA, undergraduate and executive education programs.  Shapiro specializes in three areas: team building and leadership, influential communication across diverse stakeholders, and strategic career management.  She researches and publishes in the areas of women, their careers, their risk-taking, and their use of power.  She co-authored two books, Your Job Interview: An Easy, Smart Guide to Interview Success; and Take Charge of Your Career, which extend an understanding of interviewing and career strategies to include the nuances of gender and many dimensions of diversity.  She developed “The Communication Styles Diagnostic,” an online tool that has been used by thousands of managers to improve their effectiveness with individuals and teams.

To listen to the other podcasts in the Journal of Management Education collection, please follow this link. More information about the journal can be found here.

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