Highly Productive 21st Century Workforce: Tech-Savvy Women in-Charge

Highly Productive 21st Century Workforce: Tech-Savvy Women in-Charge

Sylvia Mupepi, Mambo Mupepi, Aslam Modak
Copyright: © 2017 |Pages: 17
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-1961-4.ch015
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Abstract

Some leadership behaviors are more frequently applied by women than men in the management of teams. These attributes have been proven successful in enhancing corporate performance and will be a key factor in meeting tomorrow's business challenges. Talent is unevenly distributed in diversified work environments and promoting women and gender leadership variety is of strategic importance in companies. Results from a recent study show an unprecedented amount of CEO turnover in 2015 and a growing tendency to look for new leadership outside the company. Nearly a quarter of the world companies replaced their CEOs during the same year and it is the highest turnover for the past two decades. Those new top executives were increasingly hired from elsewhere even during planned leadership changes. The data indicates that fewer women are the incoming list of top executives indicating that some of the old habits still linger in 21st century organizations. The organization development of effective capability deduces new viewpoints to advance the best talent for all time.
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Background

Research conducted at Harvard Business School by Robert Sutton in 2007 indicates that women can effectively adapt in new environments with no additional costs to settling in. Men on the other hand needed to bring the team they worked with in the last job to be functional. Perhaps the reason for this is anthropological going back to the old-boy network and old shoes being more comfortable than new ones. In Giddens (1984), relationships in the structure are viewed as important in the execution of strategy. Cadres with a proven track record in related jobs tend to be hand-picked for newer assignments. In Mupepi (2014), the division of labor characterizes an enterprise manned by specialists and those with similar aspirations. The enterprise can make more wealth in this structure. However, handsome profits can be real when costs are contained. The former team could prove costly, all things being equal.

Women in High-Tech Enterprises

The mission of the General Motors Company indicates that the top position has been occupied by a lady engineer, Mary Barra since 2014. Mary Barra is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of General Motors Company. Barra was elected Chairman of the GM Board of Directors on January 4, 2016, and has served as CEO of GM since January 15, 2014. This appointment was the first where a woman had been appointed to the top seat. It was deviation from the unexpected. Talent played a critical role in this selection. The Board unanimously elected Barra an electrical engineer by training and a daughter of one of the assembly line blue collar worker.

Under Barra’s leadership, GM is focused on strengthening its core business of building great cars, trucks and crossovers, while also working to lead the transformation of personal mobility through advanced technologies such as connectivity, electrification, autonomous driving and car sharing. Barra has also established a strategic direction based on putting the customer at the center of everything the company does, all around the world (General Motor Company, 2016).

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