Cosmopolitan Culture as Elite Distinction among African Business Professionals in Johannesburg

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 571-590 ◽  
Author(s):  
France Bourgouin
Keyword(s):  
Senior Management ◽  
The Self ◽  
African Origin ◽  
Business Professionals ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
African Identity ◽  
Social Distinction ◽  
Management Positions ◽  
Successful Business ◽  
New Inequalities

AbstractThis article unpacks the practices of cosmopolitan elite distinction among a group of successful business professionals of African origin, who were employed in middle and senior management positions in Johannesburg during the height of the “bull market” in 2004. It considers the self-identification of these professionals as cosmopolitan in light of our theoretical understanding of social distinction. Building on Veblen, Bourdieu, and Goffman, this article shows how these business professionals claiming to belong to a cosmopolitan community enacted these hierarchies through everyday distinctions in place, leisure and dress. The article concludes that while cosmopolitanism is an escape from local African identity, appeals to a cosmopolitan community transform and reconfigure society through the inscription of new inequalities and particularities.

Bookkeeper-Controller-CFO: The Rise of the Chief Financial and Chief Accounting Officer

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Doron ◽  
C. Richard Baker ◽  
Kiren Dosanjh Zucker
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Governance ◽  
Corporate Finance ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Legal Liability ◽  
Senior Management ◽  
Chief Financial Officers ◽  
Management Positions ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACT This paper traces the evolution of the chief accounting and chief financial officers from minor figures in corporate governance for most of the 20th century to senior management positions by the late 1970s. The paper begins with the testimony before Congress of Arthur Tucker during the debates over the legislation that would become the 1933 Securities Act. Tucker's testimony resulted in the controller or chief accounting officer being included among those persons specifically listed as potentially liable for fraudulent statements or omissions under Section 11 of the Act. The impact of Tucker's efforts, the evolution of the legal liability of financial and accounting officers over the next several decades, the increasing complexity of corporate finance and financial reporting that led to the establishment of the CFO as a position second only to the CEO, and the place of the accounting officer among senior management, are analyzed in the subsequent sections.

Quality 4.0 conceptualisation and theoretical understanding: a global exploratory qualitative study

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiju Antony ◽  
Olivia McDermott ◽  
Michael Sony
Keyword(s):  
Critical Success Factors ◽  
Success Factors ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Senior Management ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Motivating Factors ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Critical Success ◽  
Management Professionals

PurposeQuality 4.0 has a unique potential to create a competitive advantage for organisations by improving customer experience and enhancing profitability. The purpose of this study is to examine Quality 4.0, the9; benefits, motivating factors, critical success factors and the skills required by quality professionals in the successful implementation of Quality 4.0. The study also investigates the organisational readiness factors9 and challenges that need to be addressed before Quality 4.0 adoption and assess their importance.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative interview approach was utilised by interviewing a panel of senior management, engineering and continuous improvement (CI); professionals working in leading companies in Asia, Europe and America who are currently deploying Quality 4.0.FindingsThis study provides a theoretical base for the Quality 4.0 body of knowledge in terms of an organisation’s adoption and overcoming implementation challenges and providing examples of Quality 4.0 application. Organisations can use this study to understand what Quality 4.0 means to industry, the benefits and motivating factors for implementing, the Critical Success Factors, challenges, the organisational readiness factors and the role of leadership in a Quality 4.0 deployment. In addition, the study looks at the skills required by future Quality 4.0 professionals in terms of hard skills, soft skills and a curriculum for educating future quality management professionals. The respondents cited that predictive analytics, sensors and tracking, and electronic feedback loops are the most critical technologies for driving Quality 4.0.Research limitations/implicationsOne of the limitations of this research was that as this area is a nascent area the researchers were limited in their literature review. The second limitation was that the study was based on 12 interviews. A more comprehensive longitudinal study would yield more data so that better and robust conclusions can be derived from the study.Originality/valueThis is the first empirical study on Quality 4.0, which captures the viewpoints of senior management professionals on a full range of topics related to Quality 4.0 motivation for deployment, implementation and readiness for its adoption.

Using bridges made by others as scaffolding and establishing footings for those that follow: Indigenous women in the Academy

2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 243-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bronwyn Fredericks ◽  
Nereda White
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Senior Management ◽  
Indigenous Women ◽  
Aboriginal Woman ◽  
University Staff ◽  
Indigenous Australian ◽  
Aboriginal Women ◽  
Education Careers ◽  
Management Positions ◽  
Aboriginal Person

The first recorded Aboriginal person to graduate with an undergraduate qualification from any Australian university was Aboriginal woman Margaret Williams-Weir in 1959 ( Melbourne University, 2018 ). Williams-Weir graduated with a Diploma in Education. There have now been six decades of graduating Indigenous Australian women in the discipline of education, and many other disciplines. In this article, we explore Indigenous women’s presence in higher education through the narratives of our lives as Aboriginal women within education and the lives of other Indigenous women, noting their achievements and challenges. We acknowledge that while the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women participating in university study and becoming engaged in education as a discipline at undergraduate and postgraduate levels has increased, we are still significantly underrepresented. Similarly, while we have seen increases in Indigenous university staff within the education discipline, the employment of Indigenous academics has not reached parity with non-Indigenous academics levels and too few are employed in the professoriate and in senior management positions. We will show how we would not have been able to develop our education careers within higher education without the bridges built by those like Dr Williams-Weir and others who went before us. We will share how we have worked to establish the footings for those Indigenous women who will follow us and others. In this way, we work within the context that is for the now and the future.

scholarly journals Sponsorship and social identity in advancement of women leaders in South Africa

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (6) ◽  
pp. 466-498 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caren Brenda Scheepers ◽  
Anastasia Douman ◽  
Preya Moodley
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Career Development ◽  
Social Identity ◽  
Senior Management ◽  
Female Executives ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Management Positions ◽  
African Context ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
Executive Level

Purpose In South Africa, women in senior management positions experience social identity dilemmas, necessitating more research into this domain. While research has been conducted into coaching and mentoring of these women, limited scholarly attention has been paid to sponsorship. This paper aims to explore the social identity of women at senior management levels and sponsorship as a proposed mechanism to develop talented women. Design/methodology/approach This qualitative research included two studies using two sample groups, both of which included executive-level respondents in corporate organisations. One study focussed on sponsorship; here, the 29-strong sample included 14 male and 15 female executives, of whom 15 were White; 9 were African and 5 were Indian. The second study, consisting of only African, coloured and Indian (ACI) female executives (23 interviewees), focussed more broadly on their development path to the C-suite. Findings A common theme across the two studies was the inclination to give developmental support, in turn, once supported. There were prerequisites in this support-giving, however. For example, sponsors identified criteria that protégés had to meet. Despite evident gender inequality at senior management levels in South Africa, this paper reveals that in the Study 1 sample, gender and race were ostensibly irrelevant when choosing a sponsor or who to sponsor. A closer examination revealed a gender-based expectation, embedded in the South African context. Study 2 showed that ACI women above 50 years of age were more inclined to mentor others; even when they themselves were not mentored, some purposefully developed other ACI women. This paper thus suggests age as an important additional diversity dimension in relation to the career development of ACI women towards the C-suite. The findings have implications for the career development of individual ACI women and for organisations in reaching equality. Research limitations/implications Gender differences with regard to perceptions also revealed that male respondents perceived sponsorship more as task-based actions, whereas female respondents focussed on relational elements. The paper concludes with recommendations on how individual ACI women and organisations can proactively develop talented women. Originality/value The paper offers insight into the gendered expectations of sponsors and gendered perceptions around merit in identifying protégés worthy of sponsorship. ACI women’s social identity changed when they joined the C-suite to identify more with their roles as executives and became less associated with their original ACI women group.

scholarly journals Worn Shoes: Identity, Memory and Footwear

2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 128-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Hockey ◽  
Rachel Dilley ◽  
Victoria Robinson ◽  
Alexandra Sherlock
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Personal Transformation ◽  
The Self ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Ongoing Research ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
The North ◽  
The Way

This article raises questions about the role of footwear within contemporary processes of identity formation and presents ongoing research into perceptions, experiences and memories of shoes among men and women in the North of England. In a series of linked theoretical discussions it argues that a focus on women, fashion and shoe consumption as a feature of a modern, western ‘project of the self’ obscures a more revealing line of inquiry where footwear can be used to explore the way men and women live out their identities as fluid, embodied processes. In a bid to deepen theoretical understanding of such processes, it takes account of historical and contemporary representations of shoes as a symbolically efficacious vehicle for personal transformation, asking how the idea and experience of transformation informs everyday and life course experiences of transition, as individuals put on and take off particular pairs of shoes. In so doing, the article addresses the methodological and analytic challenges of accessing experience that is both fluid and embodied.

“A Strong Man Is Direct and a Direct Woman Is a Bitch”: Gendered Discourses and Their Influence on Employment Roles in Sport Organizations

2003 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 347-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sally Shaw ◽  
Larena Hoeber
Keyword(s):  
Sport Management ◽  
Senior Management ◽  
Sport Organizations ◽  
Commitment To Change ◽  
Gender Inequity ◽  
The Past ◽  
Management Positions ◽  
Management Roles ◽  
Forms Of Knowledge ◽  
Gendered Employment

Despite increasing numbers of women in senior sport management positions over the past 30 years, men still remain dominant in these roles, indicating a level of gender inequity within sport management. It is often assumed within sport organizations that women are well-matched for lower level management roles, whereas men are more suited to senior management roles. In order to understand perceptions held about women's and men's abilities related to sport management, it is necessary to understand and then analyze discourses, or dominant forms of knowledge, that influence various employment roles in sport organizations. After analyzing organizational documents and transcripts from interviews with 35 employees from three national sport organizations in England, it was found that senior management roles were heavily dominated by discourses of masculinity that are linked to men and are highly valued in sport organizations. In contrast, women and discourses of femininity are associated with employment roles that are undervalued within organizations. There is, however, the potential for resistance to these discourses on a number of levels and this is discussed with relation to one organization's commitment to change “taken for granted” assumptions about gendered employment roles in sport management.

scholarly journals The opaque gendered lens – barriers to recruitment and career development

2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Scholten ◽  
Hope Witmer
Keyword(s):  
Career Development ◽  
Management Practice ◽  
Senior Management ◽  
Gender Representation ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Recruitment Practices ◽  
Gendered Leadership ◽  
Management Positions ◽  
Global Companies

Purpose This paper aims to reveal gendered leadership constructs that hinder a competency-based view of leadership in Swedish-based global companies and the implications for leadership recruitment and development to top management positions. Design/methodology/approach The paper is based on qualitative semi-structured interviews, which have been analyzed using a gender analytic framework to identify how senior management, Human resource management and leadership trainees are discussing leadership and career development. Findings Three themes were identified as clouding the issue of gender-equal leadership practices thereby creating an opaque gendered lens of who is defined as eligible for leadership positions. The three themes were: symbols as gendered images, counting heads – preserving the existing system and illusive gender inclusion. Research limitations/implications Recruitment practices were identified as contributors to homosocial practices that perpetuate male-dominated leadership representation. However, specific recruitment practices were not fully explored. Practical implications The potential use of gender equality as a sustainable management practice for competitive organizations to recruit and develop talented people. Social implications To create resilient and gender-equal recruitment and leadership development practices. Originality/value This research offers an original perspective on gender representation at the senior management level in global companies by revealing gendered leadership constructs in the leadership recruitment and development process as antecedents to unequal gender representation in senior management positions.

Latinas cross the IT border: Understanding gender as a boundary object between information worlds

First Monday ◽  
2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen Burnett ◽  
Manimegalai M Subramaniam ◽  
Amelia Gibson
Keyword(s):  
Senior Management ◽  
Boundary Object ◽  
It Professionals ◽  
It Industry ◽  
Management Positions ◽  
Theory Of Information ◽  
Information Worlds ◽  
The Relationship

How do successful Latina IT professionals construct and reconstruct their conceptions of gender before, during, and after contact with the information world of the IT industry? We conducted semi-structured phone interviews with five Latinas who held senior management positions in IT firms in 2008 to explore their reasons for choosing and persisting in the workforce. Using the theory of information worlds as a framework for analysis of gender as a boundary object, this article reports four trends in the perceptions of these women dealing with the relationship between gender and success in IT.

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