Annotated Bibliography Summary

Annotated Bibliography on: Women in Business and Management

COURSE: Management 6984:

Seminar in Business Ethics: Research and Pedagogy Professor

Richard Wokutch

Elham Asgari

Spring 2015

In this review it has been tried to get an overview on women's career in business and management. Reviewing the literature I decided to divide this area into seven categories and select articles in top journals and provide a summary for each of them. First, we review articles discussing "glass ceiling" in general and then we become more specific in areas like "women in board of directors" and "women as executives". Then we continue our review by focusing on "women in entrepreneurship", "women in leadership", "women and corporate social performance”

Unfortunately, female managers already face a "glass ceiling" that seems to prevent their promotion to upper-level corporate positions. Yet, these women may actually face a second pane a glass - the lack of expatriate assignments and international experience - that is keeping the corporate hierarchy. This "expatriate glass ceiling" creates dual ethical dilemmas: first, should women be expected to change their behavior due to gender issues, and if so, how? Second, do gender biases still exist in MNCs that are preventing women from relieving expatriate assignments, and if they do exist, how can these biases be reduced and eventually eliminated? Breaking the "expatriate glass ceiling" is the responsibility of both the female managers and the MNCs that need expatriates. In this paper, several strategies for breaking the expatriate glass ceiling are outlined Selmer and Leung (2003a) argued that" employers can no longer take the responsibility for managing the careers of their employees". It is concurred that women managers who desire expatriate assignments must be more proactive in managing their careers, but it is also emphasized the role that MNCs must play in breaking the barriers that still exist for women seeking expatriate assignments. MNCs must

The article addresses the following question: “does an increased number of women corporate boards result in a build-up of critical mass that substantially contributes to firm innovation?” In this article, the number of women directors (the size of the minority group) is used and by drawing on critical mass theory to identify the “different minorities of women directors”. It is expected that women directors contribute to firm organizational innovation when the critical mass of three women is reached. The aim is to test if “at least three women could constitute the desired critical mass by identifying different minorities of women directors”. The findings of the research indicates that attaining critical mass makes it possible to “enhance” the level of firm innovation. Moreover, the results show that the relationship between the “critical mass of women directors” and the level of firm innovation is mediated by “board strategic tasks” (Torchia, Calabro et al.