Sally Garratt - Women Managing for the Millennium

This trend has continued to the point where girls in all types of school have been outperforming the boys at GCSE and are now beginning to do so at A level, too. In the spring of 1996, the Chief Inspector of Schools described the under-achieving of boys as one of the most disturbing problems facing the education system. Schools are now having to turn their attention to raising the standards of boys’ work, but understand that they will have to tackle the problem in a fresh way – taking into account the specific needs and culture of boys’ groups, whilst maintaining girls’ progress – thereby allowing the two groups to work together naturally and to the benefit of both.

We are reminded that this is undoubtedly a period of dramatic change, time and time again, through the reactions of the media, the presence of ever-successful management gurus and the constant demand for training courses. The result of this turbulence is that the majority of us have experienced the consequences, either stimulating or depressing, of those changes and, if we have not been affected directly, we know someone who has.

The shape and structures of organizations are altering rapidly as we move towards the twenty-first century. This may manifest itself in the transformation from public to corporatized or privatized companies, from strict hierarchies to flatter structures, or from centralized to de-centralized businesses.

As this trend continues, organizations increasingly have to look at new ways of working; of how to react continuously to the turbulence around them, internally and externally, and, above all, how to learn from all these experiences.

Directors, senior managers and executives are facing difficult questions and dilemmas about the best way to meet these challenges. This is especially true as employees are beginning to reel from the effects of too much change and are instead looking forward to a period of consolidation where new ways of working and operating are given a chance to succeed.

Organizations suffer when their workforce begins to feel jaded and worn down by continuous upheaval. It becomes difficult to judge the relative success or failure of different initiatives if they have not been subjected to rigorous benchmarking before more changes occur, if they are not given time to work, or if insufficient thought to their introduction means they are not properly implemented.

Newspapers, journals, TV and radio, and the professional associations which deal primarily with the management and direction of organizations are looking carefully at how the art of managing will evolve over the next few years. Management Development to the Millennium (1996), published by the Institute of Management, says that ‘he (The Boss) is just as likely to be a she, because female ways of managing will be more appropriate in the millennium’.

One of the key features of change already in place is the implosion of middle management, which indicates that the emphasis of the managerial role is being altered. Many traditional roles, such as personnel, administration and accounting, have been devolved to line managers who consequently find that their jobs now include extra tasks for which they may be ill-equipped. The combination of an increased sphere of responsibility and often only a superficial knowledge of their new tasks can result in feelings of professional anxiety and insecurity unless they adapt their management style from coercing and telling to co-operating and encouraging . This is where women will come into their own.

Yet, at a time when women are increasingly seen to be treated on an equal footing with their male counterparts, there are rumblings of discontent among the ranks of women managers about the world of work within which they are expected to operate. Many successful women managers are beginning to realize that achieving high corporate status is not as rewarding as they anticipated and they are baulking at the idea of giving up their entire lives to an organization.

In 1997, it was reported in the press on both sides of the Atlantic that the President and Chief Executive of PepsiCo, Brenda Barnes, had decided to stand down from her highly prestigious job in order to spend time watching her sons play football. She is only one of a series of established and successful career women who have decided that they cannot, or do not want to, ‘have it all’ – the concept championed by Nicola Horlick, the City financier who claims that women can combine a high-flying career with a strong marriage and successful motherhood.

The question, as far as many women are concerned, is not ‘ can we have it all?’ but ‘do we want to have it all?’

What has caused this transitional stage? Why should women be discontented just as they are beginning to achieve what they have been aiming for over so many years? And, if this trend continues, where will it leave women’s position within the workplace?

But, while it is true that many women managers are fighting a daily battle for recognition and equality of opportunity at work, it is also clear that others are increasingly able to grow and develop. Progress is being made as attitudes, together with company structures, change in women’s favour. We have, at least, moved away from the situation which existed up until the late 1950s and early 1960s when guides for graduates clearly indicated which companies did not employ females. Men are becoming more family conscious. Women have mentioned the increasing number of male bosses who, with families of their own, are more sympathetic to their female colleagues’ attempts to achieve a tenable balance between work, home and leisure. I hope this book gives heart and shows what is possible. Perhaps for those who are unable to change the status quo of where they work now, merely knowing that more enlightened people and organizations do exist will be encouragement enough for those who are unhappy with their current situation to look for jobs elsewhere. This, and the need to re-educate and re-train men, is now seen as urgent if equality of opportunities is to become a reality.

As the attitudes of society and employers towards childcare provision and parenting also develop and improve, more choices will be open to employees to begin to achieve the desired balance of home, leisure and work that is one of the major causes of stress among women today. Susan Hay, a leading provider of workplace nurseries, has seen many changes over the past ten years and suggests that women have become more successful at making their jobs work for them. ‘I suppose the fact is that people who are in work do work very hard. They have become more valuable and companies want to keep them. You get the feeling that there is not nearly as much deadwood as there was, so the people who are in work are in a strong position to make sense of their working lives and, provided they can demonstrate that the employer is gaining rather than losing from an arrangement, they do at least receive a warm hearing. The facts are that women are becoming more tenacious and there is a change in approach by HR people. I think these two trends have come together quite well.’

Part and parcel of an important drive towards building an effective workforce – with the consequent positive effect on the bottom line – is an initiative launched in October 1991 to advance the causes of women at work, Opportunity 2000. This campaign, chaired by Lady Howe, has one clear objective: to increase the quality and quantity of women’s employment opportunities in both private and public sector organizations. There are currently 293 members representing over 25% of the UK workforce. As an example of what the campaign has achieved, listed below are some figures relating to women at work, taken from the 1994/95 review of members’ progress: