Equbusiness book VERSION 28SEPT2023 - Flipbook - Page 39
6.3 PERFORMANCE AND CAREERMANAGEMENT
Performance assessments are the first important obstacles women face in terms of performance management
in their workplaces. Manager9s unfair and biased evaluations are faced by women due to gender stereotypes.
Even sometimes clearly put goals can cause women to fail. A company that evaluates the total number of sales
for a year for a salesperson will result in giving low-performance evaluation grades to women who give birth or
take maternity leave for that year. So performance criteria can be reconsidered to avoid this type of unrealistic
comparison for men and women in the workforce.
Another important factor causing women not to be considered for top management positions is their low
presenteeism. Men are being more visibly dedicated to work and participating decision-making process in
organizations, causing them to be considered more for promotion opportunities (Nyberg, 2015). Visibility can
change from industry to industry but even in academic life, where women are highly qualified and self-confident,
Carter et al. (2018) study is showing that women in academic life ask fewer questions in seminars, appear less
frequently as first names in academic publishing, and receive fewer citations from other authors. While women
can be less visible due to family responsibilities, their presenteeism will be perceived as low (Martin-Pena, et al.,
2023).
Literature suggests that women may face challenges in receiving informal mentoring due to their exclusion from
the dominant culture and the fact that the current managers are mostly men will be a factor that makes it difficult
for them to receive informal mentoring (Burke and McKeen, 1990; Cox, 1993; Dreher and Cox, 1996; Hale, 1995).
It draws attention to the need to create formal mentoring services for women's career development (McDonald
and Hite, 1998). It should be noted that structures in which mentors and their protégés are formally assigned
within the scope of corporate human resources development plans may offer benefits, although not as much as
spontaneous close relationships men develop as mentor-protégé (Lewis and Fagenson, 1995; Ruderman, Ohlott,
and Kram, 1995).
It would not be inaccurate to suggest that women tend to derive greater benefits from organizational career
management programs compared to their male counterparts (Pazy, 1987). These programs serve as a formalized
platform for women to receive support, which they might typically obtain informally. As a result, such programs
facilitate career decisions that are more explicit and skill-based. Moreover, the formal provision of career
management support by organizations implies a tailored approach that takes into account women's multifaceted
responsibilities, both within and outside the workplace. This, in turn, is likely to enhance women's engagement
within the organization.
Career management literature started to highlight that the classical organizational systems expecting working
women to be
