10.20381/ruor-11324
Russell, Roberta J.
Experiencing and exercising power: A study of men and women middle managers in education and public administration.
Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
1993
Education, Administration.
Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
2009-03-23
2009-03-23
1993
1993
Thesis
Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-08, Section: A, page: 2240.
9780315897212
http://hdl.handle.net/10393/6534
This study focused on the early career socialization experiences of men and women who currently hold middle management positions with the federal government or with school systems to determine how those experiences influence their use of power. The theoretical and conceptual framework for the study emerged from the sociology of Georg Simmel (Simmel, 1902, 1950, 1984; Levine, 1971) and the concepts of tokenism (Kanter, 1977a); organizational socialization (Ortiz, 1982; Pfeffer, 1982); and organizational and individual power (Kanter, 1977a). An underlying assumption of this study was that gender is less a predictor of style of power use, the exercise of power, than early career socialization experiences, the experiencing of organizational power. That is, those to whom the organization extends more opportunities to learn about and develop within the organization early in their careers will be better equipped to exercise power as managers than those who receive few such experiences. A second assumption was that gender will act as an intervening variable, influencing the organization's decision making as to who should receive these opportunities and who should be denied them. The methodology used involved semi-structured interviews with men and women middle managers. Focus groups and elite interviews were used before interviewing to validate the literature review and the interview guide, and focus groups were used again following the analysis of interview data to validate the interpretations made. A number of managers who had been interviewed participated in the final set of focus groups. The framework which guided this study incorporated related literature on gender, tokenism, organizational socialization, and power. The product of the literature review was a socialization-to-power framework. The following five research questions guided this study: (I) Do the early career patterns of female middle managers differ from those of male middle managers in terms of the range and number of organization initiated opportunities provided them for power-related socialization? (II) (a) Do female middle managers perceive more barriers to their advancement to senior levels of management than do their male peers? (b) Do female and male middle managers perceive different barriers to advancement? (III) Do female and male middle managers view power differently? (IV) Do female and male middle managers identify the same people in their organizations as being powerful? (V) Do female and male middle managers exercise power differently? (Abstract shortened by UMI.)