Managing gender diversity in top management teams

Abstract

This paper argues a case for challenging the customary emphasis on masculine values in top management teams (TMTs) as a means for making better use of gender diversity. We argue that conventional diversity management practices involve a narrow hegemonic masculine approach towards increasing women’s (and men’s) participation in employment. We suggest that TMTs benefit when learning to integrate skilled and talented women and men into a single, cohesive work culture that enhances teams’ performing capacities. While seeking to avoid an essentialist discourse, the paper builds on the theory of diversity and ‘difference’ (instead of ‘sameness’) to demonstrate the relationship between feminine values, team member diversity, communication skills and representation. Multiple contextual factors are also recognised as influential better identified through a social constructionist approach to team development.