زنان و تعریف مرز گستری سازمان: راه برای مدیریت بالاتر؟ Women and inter-organizational boundary spanning: A way into upper management?

1. Introduction Following the question of whether organizations and occupations are gender-neutral or not, debate on access for women and men to managerial roles is a much-discussed but incomplete question in management literature (Acker, 1990, 1994; Lewis, 2014). From a classical feminism perspective, gender stereotypes are considered barriers for equal opportunities that affect women’ chances of rising in corporate executive hierarchies; as a result, women are excluded from opportunities related to managerial roles that are identified with ‘male’ characteristics (Schein, 2007). Most recently, post-feminism has moved the focus to the way women and feminine points of view are being included in contemporary organizations, giving value to the skills and leadership styles associated with feminine traits and raising the notion of feminine management (Kelan, 2008; Lewis, 2014). This discourse derives from a liberal feminism of ‘difference’ (in contrast to the original liberal feminism of (masculine) ‘sameness’), which considers the ways in which masculine and feminine traits in organizations can potentially complement each other (Calas, Smircich, & Bourne, 2007). As women have increasingly moved into managerial positions, vertical and horizontal segregation has been densely reported by the literature. Several reasons have been identified to occupational segregation in management jobs. Because jobs are thought to be gender typified based on requisites that are believed to be genderlinked (Heilman, 1983, 1995), different management styles have been identified with characteristics assigned to societal gender stereotypes1 (Calas & Smircich, 1993; Fletcher, 1994). The masculine norm has dominated much of the gendered management literature, which emphasizes the need for individuals to build amasculine identity to fitthe organizational requirements of control, competition, leadership, or success orientation. Therefore, female managers confront the existence of these stereotypes, which generate a conflict between social expectations of female gender roles and the traditional managerial role, which is stereotyped as masculine.