CERES :: Browsing by Author "Sealy, Ruth"

Browsing by Author "Sealy, Ruth"

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Open Access
Accidental activists: headhunters as marginal diversity actors in institutional change towards more women on boards
(Wiley, 2016-05-06) Doldor, Elena; Sealy, Ruth; Vinnicombe, Susan
We present a qualitative study that examines the role of headhunters as actors in a broader institutional change process aiming to increase gender diversity on corporate boards. We draw on institutional and diversity management theories to conceptualise their change agency in the broader field of women on boards. We describe their role as ‘accidental activists’ and theorise two micro-processes that define their change agency in this field: voluntaristic framing of intentionality and role redefinition by drawing on competing logics. This conceptualisation does not match the heroic image of the institutional entrepreneur driving institutional change, or that of the tempered radical championing diversity, but rather casts light into a marginal and previously neglected change role. We demonstrate the opportunistic and precarious nature of this role with regard to both institutional change and diversity management and discuss its possibilities and perils.
Open Access
Banking on a level playing field : the role of social capital in the promotion process to MD in a major investment bank : is it different for women?
(Cranfield University, 2013-09) Pryce, Patricia; Vinnicombe, Susan; Sealy, Ruth
This thesis analyses individual experiences of the promotion process to Managing Director within a global bank to identify the contribution made by social capital. Using Nahapiet and Ghoshal’s (1998) three-dimension framework as the theoretical lens, the thesis extends social capital research beyond its largely quantitative focus on network analysis (structural dimension) to understand more clearly the relative importance and impact of the relational and cognitive dimensions. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 34 men and women in an investment bank and a template-based analysis of their accounts was made. The findings make visible, the invisible mechanisms which enable or constrain the creation, development and use of social capital and, therefore, its contribution to securing the position of Managing Director. The findings highlight the need to consider the importance of agency, relationship level and gender in this context. The study makes three key contributions. First, it extends Nahapiet and Ghoshal’s (1998) theory of social capital, in the context of career progression, by demonstrating how each social capital dimension is operationalized and interdependent. Second, the research explicitly demonstrates the crucial role social capital plays in an executive-level promotion process, thereby revealing a complex and multi-layered system. Third, the study extends our knowledge of the gendered nature of senior-level career progression by identifying the particular barriers women face, compared to men, in their efficacious use of social capital for promotion in a global bank.
Open Access
Boardroom Balance
(2010-03-01T00:00:00Z) Sealy, Ruth; Vinnicombe, Susan
Open Access
Changing perceptions of meritocracy in senior women's careers
(Emerald Group Publishing, 2010-01-01T00:00:00Z) Sealy, Ruth
Purpose – The aim of this paper is to explore how an elite group of senior women in banking represent and describe their understanding and experience of the role of meritocracy, within the context of their own career. Design/methodology/approach – Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 33 senior female directors from six global investment banks. Template analysis was used in the qualitative analysis of the coding. Findings – The paper found that the women's adherence to the notion of meritocracy diminished over time, as merit appeared to be less defined by human capital (ability and experience) and more by social capital (seen as political behaviour). The paper also reveals how the concept is construed on two levels: first, on a symbolic level, demonstrating how the organization defines and rewards success; second, on a personal level, how it affects the individual's cognitions, emotions and self-belief. Originality/value – This paper contributes to the small literature on the concept of meritocracy in the management field, with an emphasis on the experiences of successful female directors in global investment banks.
Open Access
An examination of senior Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic women and men’s identity work following episodes of identity salience at work
(2011-12) Atewologun, Adedoyin Olukemi; Vinnicombe, Susan; Sealy, Ruth
This study addresses methodological critiques of ethnicity research in organisations by combining intersectionality and identity work frameworks. Additionally, it extends intersectionality beyond its traditional focus on multiple disadvantage and demonstrates contextual sensitivity to ethnicity. Taking an individual constructivist stance, I examined ethnicity and its intersection with gender and seniority through an identity work lens. The research question was: How do senior black, Asian and minority ethnic women and men make meaning of episodes that raise the salience of their intersecting identities at work? The study investigated how 24 senior black, Asian and minority ethnic (BME) women and men constructed an understanding of their multiple-identified selves in response to affirming, contradictory or ambiguous identity-heightening work experiences. Respondents kept journals about episodes that raised the salience of their intersecting identities. Then, in interviews, they described the sense they made of the episodes and their responses to them. Following a template-based analysis of 101 accounts, a typology emerged of Accommodating, Refuting, Reconciling, Affirming and Exploratory identity work modes, describing senior BME individuals’ identity construction in response to identity-heightening episodes. I introduce ‘intersectional identity work’ to illustrate how individual (e.g. cognitive effort to reconcile a paradox), relational (e.g. a sense of responsibility and affinity for subordinate minority colleagues) and contextual (e.g. visibility resulting from demographic distribution in one’s immediate environment) factors influence intersecting senior, ethnic and gender constructions at work. Integrating intersectional and identity work perspectives to examine ethnicity demonstrates the dynamic interplay of multiple identity dimensions during meaning-making, the range of modes adopted and the intensity of effort expended by senior BME women and men during personal meaning-making. This approach makes a methodological contribution to ethnicity and intersectionality research. It also makes an empirical contribution to UK ethnicity and identity work research through the suggestive model of identity work modes and rich insight into senior BME individuals’ experiences at the juxtaposition of disadvantage and privilege.
Open Access
The Female FTSE Board Report 2009: Norway and Spain join our census to benchmark corporate boards
(2009-01-01T00:00:00Z) Sealy, Ruth; Vinnicombe, Susan; Doldor, Elena
2009 marks our eleventh annual report with a small incremental increase in the percentage of women on boards. Overall, there are 12.2% women directors on the FTSE 100 boards. There is a discouraging decline in the number of companies with female executive directors to 15 (from 16). Also disappointing is a decline in the number of boards with multiple women directors to 37 (from 39). In addition there is a decline in the overall number of companies with women on boards, and once again one in four companies have exclusively male boards.
Open Access
The Female FTSE Board Report 2010: Opening up the Appointment Process
(Cranfield University School of Management, 2010-12) Vinnicombe, Susan; Sealy, Ruth; Graham, Jacey; Doldor, Elena
2010 saw another year of barely perceptible change in the representation of women in leadership positions of UK PLC’s top 100 companies. The incremental increases include three additional women on FTSE 100 boards taking the total to 116; one additional female executive director (ED); four more companies with women on their boards; and two more companies with more than one woman on the board, returning to 2008 levels. Overall, the percentage of women on FTSE 100 boards is 12.5%, showing a three year plateau. The number of companies with no female directors has decreased to 21 and the number of companies with more than one woman on the board has returned to the 2008 figure of 39. Only 13% of new appointments went to women.
Open Access
The Female FTSE Board Report 2012: Milestone or Millstone?
(2012-03-13T00:00:00Z) Sealy, Ruth; Vinnicombe, Susan
2012 has seen a step change in the number of women appointed onto FTSE 100 companies following the publication of the Davies Report in February 2011. The number of women holding 163 FTSE 100 board seats is 141, an increase of 25 on the 2010 figures. There are now 20 female executive directorships and 143 female non‐executive directorships. Overall the percentage of board directors who are female is 15, an uplift of 2½ on what was a three year plateau. The number of companies with no women on the board has dropped to 11 and the number of companies with more than one woman on the board has increased to
Open Access
The Female FTSE Board Report 2013: False Dawn of Progress for Women on Boards?
(Cranfield University School of Management, 2013-04) Sealy, Ruth; Vinnicombe, Susan
The last year has seen extraordinary changes for women on boards. The number of women holding FTSE 100 board seats is 169 (holding 194 seats), an increase of 28 on the 2012 figures. The overall percentage of female-held board directorships is 17.3%, an uplift of 2.3% on last year’s figure. The number of FTSE 100 companies with all-male boards has dropped to seven and two thirds (67%) of the FTSE 100 have more than one woman on their board. In the first six months the pace of change was extremely encouraging. There was a sharp increase in the percentage of new appointments going to women on both FTSE 100 and 250 boards, peaking at 44% and 36% respectively. However, those high levels were short-lived and over the past six months they have dropped to 26% and 29% respectively, showing a considerable gap from the 33% required to reach Lord Davies’ target of 25% women on boards by 2015. That target for the FTSE 100 companies is still in sight but only if the rate of new appointments going to women regains momentum promptly and there is concern that complacency may be setting in, which the UK economy cannot afford.
Open Access
The Female FTSE Board Report 2015: Putting the UK Progress into a Global Perspective
(2015-03-25T00:00:00Z) Vinnicombe, Susan; Doldor, Elena; Sealy, Ruth; Pryce, Patricia; Turner, Caroline
This year we have seen significant progress on FTSE 100 boards. All-male boards have totally disappeared with Glencore, the last, appointing a woman to its board. The percentage of women on FTSE 100 boards is 23.5%, almost exactly where we predicted in last year's report. This puts us on track to hit the 25% target by the end of 2015. The percentage of women in executive directorships on FTSE 100 boards is at an all time high of 8.6% with 24 women holding such roles.
Open Access
Female FTSE Board Report 2016: Women on boards - taking stock of where we are
(2016-12-31) Sealy, Ruth; Doldor, Elena; Vinnicombe, Susan
Open Access
The Female FTSE Report 2007: A Year of Encouraging Progress
(2007-01-01T00:00:00Z) Sealy, Ruth; Singh, Val; Vinnicombe, Susan
In 2007, our ninth report, we see a continuing change in the balance of directorships in the FTSE 100 corporate boards. Both the number of executive directorships and total number of directorships are at their lowest levels for nine years. Meantime, the number of non-executive directorships is at its highest for nine years. Against this context we have seen several high water marks in women’s advancement onto these boards. There is an emerging polarisation between the cluster of 24 companies who are entirely male led and the newly growing cluster of 35 companies with multiple women directors. There are now 100 women occupying 123 directorships on FTSE 100 boards making up 11% of total directorships. Women constitute 20% of all new director appointments this year – the highest since Cranfield started monitoring the Female FTSE in 1999. Thirty women were appointed this year, of whom five had not previously held FTSE 100 directorships. More note worthy, there are now 122 women sitting on the FTSE 100 executive committees, an increase of 40% on 2006 and these women occupy a great variety of ro
Open Access
The importance of role models and demographic context for senior women's work identity development
(Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 2010-01-01T00:00:00Z) Sealy, Ruth; Singh, Val
The lack of senior female role models continues to be cited as a key barrier to women's career success. Yet there is little academic research into the gendered aspects of role modelling in organizations, or the utility of role models at a senior level. The paper starts with a review of papers examining the construction of role models in organizational settings. This leads to the inclusion of two related areas – organizational demographics as the contextual factor affecting the availability of role models and how they are perceived, and work identity formation as a possible key explanatory factor behind the link between the lack of senior female role models and the lack of career progression to top organizational levels. The literature looking at social theories of identity formation is then considered from a gender perspective. The key gaps identified are that while the behavioural value of role models has been well documented, a better understanding is needed of how gender and organizational demography influence the role modelling process. Importantly, the symbolic value and possibly other values of female role models in the identity construction of senior women require further in-depth investigation. Finally, this review calls for a more integrated approach to the study of role models and work identity formation, pulling together literatures on organizational demography, the cognitive construal of role models and their importance for successful work identity formation in senior women.
Open Access
Increasing diversity on public and private sector boards - Part 2 What is being done to improve diversity on boards and how effective is this?
(2009-11-01T00:00:00Z) Sealy, Ruth; Doldor, Elena; Vinnicombe, Susan
The project was commissioned by the Government Equalities Office in order to examine the issue of diversity on boards of directors in the private and public sectors.The project addresses two main questions: Why are there so few women and other under-represented groups on public and private sector boards? and What is being done in order to increase diversity on boards? The report is published in two parts: Part I considered the available evidence on diversity on boards. It examined academic and non-academic literature in the field, in the UK and internationally, and reviewed available evidence concerning the factors accounting for the absence of diversity on boards.This second part maps out current practices aimed at increasing board diversity. It is based on interviews with several international experts in the field, giving case studies of various initiatives in four country contexts (UK, Norway, Spain and the Netherlands). In drawing together the report’s conclusion, some recommendations are formulated for further action to increase board diversity in the U
Open Access
Increasing diversity on public and private sector boards, Part 1 - How diverse are boards and why?
(2009-10-01T00:00:00Z) Sealy, Ruth; Doldor, Elena; Vinnicombe, Susan
The Government Equalities Office (GEO) commissioned Cranfield School of Management to examine the issue of diversity on boards of directors in the private and public sectors.The project sought to addresses two main questions: Why are there so few women and other under-represented groups on public and private sector boards? and What is being done in order to increase diversity on boards? The report is published in two parts: Part I considers the available evidence on diversity on boards. It examines academic and non-academic literature in the field, in the UK and internationally, and reviews available evidence concerning the factors accounting for the absence of diversity on boards. Part II maps out current practices aimed at increasing board diversity based.The review of evidence reviewed revealed a persistent under-representation of groups such as women, ethnic minorities and disabled people on both public and private sector boards. However, most evidence in the UK and internationally focused on gender rather than other underrepresented groups.
Open Access
A Qualitative Examination of the Importance of Female Role Models in Investment Banks
(Cranfield University, 2009-01) Sealy, Ruth; Singh, Val
A number of practitioner surveys across a range of industries have cited the lack of senior female role models as a barrier to career progression. There is very little academic literature to explain this at a senior organizational level. An initial review of the extant role model literature led to the inclusion of two further related areas – organizational demographics, as a contextual factor affecting the availability of role models, and work identity development as a link between the lack of senior female role models and the lack of career progression. In seeking to answer the question of why and then how female role models are important for senior women, this study fills an identified gap in the comprehension of the concept of role models and their importance in the workplace. It addresses a need to understand both the key elements of the concept and the mechanism by which they come into play. The research uses qualitative methods, specifically in-depth semi-structured interviews. These were conducted with a senior group of 33 female directors from six global investment banks, in order to elicit their experiences of role models in demographically imbalanced work contexts. Analysis of interview data considered all three areas of role models, demographic context and work identity development. As the women forged their identities in the male-dominated context of global investment banks, what became clear was that who they are and have become was informed by the critical relationships they have had. Whilst clearly some of the women had found male role models with whom to develop these critical relationships, there were some identity issues, particular salient to women, which could not be addressed by men. Thus the findings demonstrated the utility of female role models. This thesis has a number of contributions to make on varying levels: On a conceptual level, this study adds to our understanding of the value of role models, particularly detailing the affective or symbolic value. It has added to the conceptualization of role models, detailing what were the core attributes of individuals chosen to be role models, who they were in relation to the women, how the women used them and why they were important. It has combined the three literature areas of role models, organizational demographics and work identity development in a way not previously done, and has shown empirically that they are related and explain each other. Organizational demographics affect the availability of role models. And it is suggested that the relatively new theory of relational identification is the mechanism that explicates how the presence of positive female role models is a key influence on women’s work identity development. It has clarified the value of role models in extreme gender demographic contexts, and how and why they are important to senior women’s professional development, thereby adding to the theory of role modelling. Practically, the study explains why women in surveys may have been citing the lack of female role models as such a prominent issue, and suggests what some of the issues are that organizations should pay heed to in trying to address this.
Open Access
Revealing Intersectional Dynamics in Organizations: Introducing 'Intersectional Identity Work'
(Wiley, 2015-04-24) Atewologun, Doyin; Sealy, Ruth; Vinnicombe, Susan
Little consensus exists regarding conducting intersectional studies. We introduce ‘intersectional identity work’ as an approach for examining individuals’ experiences at the nexus of multiple identities. Incorporating identity work as a theoretical and analytical framework, we use journals and interviews to examine identity-heightening episodes that trigger meaning-making of intersecting senior, gender and ethnic identities among British Asian and black women and men. Our analysis reveals how intersecting identities are leveraged in encounters with subordinates, superiors and clients. Intersectional locations provide resources and cues for claiming or restricting privileged and disadvantaged status in asymmetric power positions. Intersectional identity work expands and restricts identification at juxtaposed locations. It offers a prospect for elucidating intersectional dynamics present in a range of identity configurations and addresses critiques that individual-level intersectional analyses at intersections are mere narrative. We encourage further research that examines other socially salient identities using our approach to develop theory on how multiple identities play out in everyday experience.
Open Access
Standard Chartered Bank: Women on Corporate Boards in India 2010
(2010-09-17T00:00:00Z) Banerji, A.; Mahtani, S.; Sealy, Ruth; Vinnicombe, Susan
This first Standard Chartered Bank: Women on Corporate Boards in India 2010 report looks at the representation of women on the boards of India's leading companies on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE-100) . It ranks the companies in terms of the gender diversity of their boards, with those with the highest percentage of women on their boards appearing at the top. The report also examines the general topic of gender diversity on the boards of the BSE-100 by presenting the findings of interviews with 18 female directors of BSE-100 companies.
Open Access
The Female FTSE Board Report 2017: Women on Boards: Back on track?
(2017-03-31) Vinnicombe, Susan; Sealy, Ruth; Humbert, Anne Laure
This year we have seen the percentage of women on FTSE 100 boards rise to almost 28% (27.7%) after a year of stagnation. Over the past 12 months, turnover of board directors has been low (12.5%), but the proportion of new appointments going to women has hit the target of at least 1:3. This means that we could be within reach of 33% women on FTSE 100 boards by 2020 as long as the momentum is maintained. Progress continues also on the FTSE 250 which has risen to almost 23% (22.8%). Here there needs to be a greater push in order to meet the target of 33% by 2020. The percentage of women holding FTSE 100 non-executive (NED) positions is at an all-time high of 33.3%, but the percentage of women holding executive directorships remains low at just under 10%. This year six women hold chair positions and a further 14 hold Senior Independent Directorships on the FTSE 100.
Open Access
The Female FTSE Board Report 2018: Busy going nowhere with the female executive pipeline
(2018-03-31) Vinnicombe, Susan; Doldor, Elena; Sealy, Ruth
This year we see two different pictures emerging in terms of women’s representation on FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 corporate boards. Since October 2017 the percentage of women on FTSE 100 boards has increased from 27.7% to 29%, meaning that if the current pace continues it is possible to reach the targeted 33% by the end of 2020. In total 264 women hold 305 directorships on FTSE 100 boards. The percentage of female Non-Executive Director (NED) positions is at the all-time high of 35.4%, whilst the percentage of female executive positions has flatlined at 9.7%. On a positive note, seven women hold a Chair position and 18 hold Senior Independent Directorships. A further 85 women hold 95 Chair roles on the various committees across FTSE 100 boards. In contrast, the percentage of women on FTSE 250 boards has only increased marginally from 22.8% in October 2017 to 23.7%, the percentage of female executive directorships has dropped from 7.7% to 6.4% and the number of all male boards has increased to ten. These present challenging conditions for meeting the 33% target in 2020.