The Promotion to Partner Process in a Professional Services Firm: How women are disadvantaged

The article adds to the limited work available by presenting findings from a behavioural process perspective through an empirical study with male and female management consultants in a professional services firm which indicates that the promotion to partner process is indeed sex biased. Two areas of disadvantage for women are identified: the presence of a self-managed career advancement process necessitating a proactive approach to demonstrating individual contribution; and the need to ‘fit’ a prevailing model of success within the firm which is a masculine model and is more problematic for women. The article calls for a differentiated treatment of the glass ceiling phenomenon, capable of capturing disadvantage accruing from societally based factors and sector-based factors. The implications of the findings for future research and professional service firms are discussed.

Biography: Dr Savita Kumra is a Senior Lecturer at Brunel Business School. Savita completed her doctorate at Cranfield School of Management where she is a Visiting Fellow in the Centre for Developing Women Business Leaders. Savita is also International Research Fellow in the Novak Druce Centre for Professional Services at the Said Business School, University of Oxford. Savita has held academic posts at Oxford Brookes and Keele Universities. Savita is co-track chair of the Gender in Management Track at the British Academy of Management Editorial Board member of Gender in Management: An International Journal. She is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Savita’s research interests focus on diversity, the gendered nature of the career development process in the professional services and the importance of developing and deploying key career enhancement strategies, e.g. impression management, and building and leveraging social capital. She has published in British Journal of Management, Gender, Work and Organization, Journal of Business Ethics and Gender in Management: An International Journal. She has recently published her first book, co-authored with Dr. Simonetta Manfredi ; ‘Equality and Diversity Management: Theory and Practice, published by Oxford University Press.

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