Localizing women's experiences in academia: multilevel factors at play in the Arab Middle East and North Africa

This article explores the localized experiences of women at work in higher education in the under-researched context of the Arab Middle East and North Africa. Our main research questions are: What is the current status of academic women between and across the countries of this region? How can human resources play a developmental role for women at work in academic institutions, as well as for the region in general? We adopt a two-part research method in this study. First, through a critical review of the literature, we develop a regionally relevant macrolevel hypothetical model to localize a gender perspective on women at work. Second, we engage in a focused empirical examination of publicly available university data to document the: (1) representation of women across ranks; and (2) specific content of pertinent human resource policies. On the basis of these data, we propose a more complete multilevel hypothetical model upon which we put forward a critical discussion and directions for future research on gender, human resource management and regional development more broadly.     

Gender and the commercialization of university science: academic founders of spinout companies

There is a great deal of interest in Europe and the USA on the commercialization of university science, particularly the creation of spinout companies from the science base. Despite considerable research on academic entrepreneurship, female entrepreneurship in general, and the causes of under-representation of female scientists in academic institutions, there has been little research on the influence of gender on academic entrepreneurship.

The study researches female founders of UK university spinout companies using information from the Internet on company founders of spinout companies from 20 leading universities. The proportion of female founders at 12% is very low. The paper explores reasons for this low representation through follow-up postal interviews of the 21 female founders identified, and a male control sample. Under-representation of female academic staff in science research is the dominant but not the only factor to explain low entrepreneurial rates amongst female scientists.

Owing to the low number of women in senior research positions in many leading science departments, few women had the chances to lead a spinout. This is a critical factor as much impetus for commercialization was initially inspired by external interest rather than internal evaluation of a commercial opportunity. External interest tended to target senior academics, which proportionally are mostly male. A majority of the women surveyed tended to be part of entrepreneurial teams involving senior male colleagues.

As a whole both male and female science entrepreneurs displayed similar motivations to entrepreneurship, but collectively as scientists differed appreciably from non academic entrepreneurs. Women science entrepreneurs also faced some additional problems in areas such as the conflict between work and home life and networks.     

Work–life balance in the EU and leave arrangements across welfare regimes

Work–life balance has been a central theme of the EU gender equality framework and has been promoted through both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ components. Although the EU concern in promoting work–life balance has been more to increase employment and economic productivity than to promote gender equality, all Member States have now established standards in accordance with the EU regulations. Statutory leave arrangements are a key component of work–life balance policies and they vary significantly across Member States with different welfare regime traditions. This study examines the transposition of EU Directives and the implications of the European Employment Strategy for leave arrangements across the UK, Denmark, France and Spain as exemplars of four welfare regimes.     

The status of academic women in the 1990s No longer outsiders, but not yet equals

This paper reexamines the status of women in the academic labor market relative to men to determine how much progress has been made in achieving equity. Two questions will be addressed here: (1) do men and women have equal access to faculty employment in higher education, and (2) are they equally successful with regard to traditional career goals and compensation? Analyses are conducted on the educational attainment of women, their representation among faculty, their time allocation and research productivity, and their success in academia as represented by their rank attainment and earnings. While the results show that women have made considerable strides in entering the academic labor market, there is still an unexplained gap between men and women in terms of their earnings and career progression.     

Applied econometrics rankings: 1989–1995

This paper ranks academic institutions by publication activity in applied econometrics over the period 1989–1995. Fourteen leading international journals that publish applied econometrics articles are used to provide the database. The rankings are based on standardized page counts of articles published in these journals over the stated period. A ‘Hall of Fame’ is developed listing the top 100 individual producers of applied econometrics in the fourteen journals considered. To control for quality differences among the applied journals, separate rankings are provided both for institutions and for individuals according to econometrics publications by journal. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sustainable development disclosure: Environmental,social, and governance reporting and gender diversity in the audit committee

This paper analyzes the link between female representation on audit committees (ACs) and specific information attributes of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosures. We also examine whether the role of women is moderated by the busyness and intensity of the committee. Our results reveal a positive association between gender diversity in the AC and the quality of voluntary ESG reporting, which results in greater comprehensiveness and relevance. These findings extend the academic debate concerning the role of female directors on sustainability policies. Moreover, given the importance of ESG information in capital markets and its potential benefits for firms, this evidence may help regulators and owners to implement adequate corporate governance mechanisms. In addition, the busyness of the AC negatively moderates the influence of female AC members. Therefore, we highlight the need to consider the context in which women work in order to understand their influence on sustainability reporting.     

Addressing the Stress of Work and Elder Caregiving of the Graying Workforce: The Moderating Effects of Financial Strain on the Relationship Between Work‐Caregiving Conflict and Psychological Well‐Being

Human resource policies and practices must consider the issues associated with an aging workforce, and, more specifically, the stress experienced by those involved in caring for elders. This study examined such stress by studying the relationship between work–elder caregiving conflict and well‐being, as well as the role of perceived financial need in moderating that relationship. The sample included 583 women who worked full‐time and had significant elder caregiving responsibilities. The analysis showed that work interfering with caregiving (WIC) was significantly associated with both positive and negative affect, but caregiving interfering with work (CIW) was not significantly associated with either. Perceived financial need decreased older women's psychological well‐being and moderated the relationship between work–elder caregiving conflict and psychological well‐being such that the negative effect of WIC was stronger for older women with higher perceived financial need, while CIW decreased the well‐being of older women with lower perceived financial need but not for those with higher need. The results stress the importance of considering elder care as a source of work‐family conflict when managing the aging workforce as well as suggest a way to attenuate the negative effect of work‐family conflict by managing the perception of financial resources and needs of the employees. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

‘Repeat commercializers,’ the ‘habitual entrepreneurs’ of university–industry technology transfer

Among academic faculty, is there a class of ‘repeat commercializers’ who account for a disproportionate share of commercialized technologies arising from university research? In a survey of 172 engineering, mathematics, and science faculty members from a major Canadian university, we found evidence that a class of repeat commercializers does exist. Further, we found that the 12% of the faculty who are repeat commercializers account for 80% of the commercialized innovations. Interviews with repeat commercializers in the same faculties at the same university suggest that repeat commercializers parallel habitual entrepreneurs in that they have the ability to commercialize (i.e. the ability to generate and identify commercializable inventions and the ability to acquire resources for the commercialization of their inventions) and the aspiration to do so (i.e. commercialization-friendly attitudes). Since repeat commercializers account for such a large percentage of commercialization activity, it is important that programs and policies associated with technology transfer address the needs of this subpopulation of the faculty.     

Women's attitudes towards trade unions in the UK: a consideration of the distinction between full‐ and part‐time workers

This article considers the attitudes and experiences of female full‐ and part‐time workers towards trade unions. Expanding upon previous research it suggests that while the attitudes of full‐ and part‐time workers towards trade unions are similar, experiences of trade unions are not: they depend upon the employment context and work history. A life course perspective is advanced, which examines women's employment contexts and transitions between full‐ and part‐time work in order to further explain female part‐timers’ lower likelihood of unionising.     

Wage differentials across firms: an application of multilevel modelling

Multilevel modelling techniques are applied to a dataset that matches firms and workers, to pinpoint and explain contrasts among company wage policies. Results indicate that wage differences across firms are statistically significant, affecting every parameter of the pay policy (returns to schooling, tenure, experience, the penalty imposed on newly hired workers and on women). Gross labour productivity, average schooling in the firm, firm size and economic sector are relevant forces shaping the contrast between employers' pay policies. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

PROBLEMS OF PUBLIC HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE USA: CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES

High costs and low graduation rates characteristic of 21^st‐century US public higher education stem from the bout of rent‐seeking attributable to the post‐Sputnik explosion in research spending and the consequent crusade to enrol new students, with diminishing concern for academic aptitude. New policies that tighten admission standards, encourage earlier graduation and enhance financial aid for the truly needy would constructively address these problems, as would incentives for faculty members to curtail outside consulting.     

Work–family conflict,family satisfaction and employee well‐being: a comparative study of Australian and Indian social workers

Work‐to‐family conflict and family‐to‐work conflict have been widely investigated as antecedents of well‐being in various employee groups. However, these studies have largely been performed in Western countries, and only a few studies have investigated the phenomenon using both Western and non‐Western samples. The present study contributes to the literature by investigating work–family conflict experiences of social workers in Australia and India. More specifically, it explores the impact of work‐to‐family conflict and family‐to‐work conflict on well‐being and the mediating role of family satisfaction in this relationship. Our findings reveal the direct negative effects of work‐to‐family conflict on well‐being and family satisfaction in both groups and of family‐to‐work conflict on well‐being of Indian social workers. There is evidence that family satisfaction mediates work–family conflict and well‐being relationships in both samples. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the findings for HRM policies in social service agencies of both countries.     

A Conversation with James O. Ramsay

Jim Ramsay was born on September 5, 1942, in Prince George, British Columbia. He pursued undergraduate studies at the University of Alberta, where he completed a BEd in 1964 with a major in English and a minor in mathematics. He then specialized in statistics and psychometry, earning a PhD in psychology from Princeton University in 1966. After holding a temporary lectureship in the Department of Psychology at University College London for one year, he joined the Department of Psychology at McGill University, where he rose through the academic ranks. He was chair of his department from 1986 to 1989 and spent sabbatical leaves in Cambridge, Grenoble, and Toulouse. He was named professor emeritus upon his retirement in 2007. Jim is the author of four influential books and over 100 peer‐reviewed articles in statistical and psychometric journals. He developed much of the statistical theory behind multidimensional scaling and is widely recognized as the founder of functional data analysis. Three of his papers were read to the Royal Statistical Society, and another won The Canadian Journal of Statistics 2000 Best Paper Award. The Statistical Society of Canada (SSC) awarded him a Gold Medal for research in 1998 and an honorary membership in 2012. Jim was president of the Psychometric Society in 1981–82 and president of the SSC in 2002–03. The following conversation took place at Jim's home in Ottawa, Ontario, on March 14 and April 4, 2012.     

Ranking journal quality by harmonic mean of ranks: an application to ISI statistics & probability

As the preponderance of journal rankings becomes increasingly more frequent and prominent in academic decision making, such rankings in broad discipline categories is taking on an increasingly important role. The paper focuses on the robustness of rankings of academic journal quality and research impact using the widely‐used Thomson Reuters ISI Web of Science citations database (ISI) for the Statistics & Probability category. The paper analyses 110 ISI international journals in Statistics & Probability using quantifiable research assessment measures (RAMs), and highlights the similarities and differences in various RAMs, which are based on alternative transformations of citations and influence. Alternative RAMs may be calculated annually or updated daily to determine when, where and how (frequently) published papers are cited (see Chang, McAleer and Oxley (2011a, b, c) , Chang, Maasoumi and McAleer (2012) ). The RAMs are grouped in four distinct classes that include impact factor, mean citations and non‐citations, journal policy, number of high quality papers, and journal influence and article influence. These classes include the most widely used RAMs, namely the classic 2‐year impact factor including journal self citations (2YIF), 2‐year impact factor excluding journal self citations (2YIF^*), 5‐year impact factor including journal self citations (5YIF), Eigenfactor (or Journal Influence), Article Influence, h‐index, PI‐BETA (Papers Ignored – By Even The Authors), 5YD2 (= 5YIF/2YIF) as a measure of citations longevity, and escalating self citations as a measure of increasing journal self citations. The paper highlights robust rankings based on the harmonic mean of the ranks of RAMs across the 4 classes. It is shown that focusing solely on the 2YIF of a journal, which partly answers the question as to when published papers are cited, to the exclusion of other informative RAMs, which answer where and how (frequently) published papers are cited, can lead to a distorted evaluation of journal quality, impact and influence relative to the more robust harmonic mean of the ranks.     

Homeworking: negotiating the psychological contract

This article explores the psychological contract of female clerical homeworkers who work from home full‐time and are employed at a local authority. Qualitative interviews were carried out with homeworkers and their supervisors. Temporal flexibility was desired by all the homeworkers in order to achieve a better work–life balance, and was deemed important by women without children as well as those with childcare responsibilities. Our findings highlight that homeworkers were able to negotiate their own idiosyncratic deals with line managers in order to attain their desired levels of temporal flexibility. However, the issue of flexibility remains ambiguous with some supervisory staff being more comfortable with the concept than others, leading to some homeworkers enjoying different levels of temporal flexibility than their co‐workers. Our findings suggest that employees perceive flexibility idiosyncratic deals of co‐workers as fair as long as they achieve their own personal levels of temporal flexibility. The potential implications for organisations are discussed.     

Cities and Climate Change Challenges: Institutions,Policy Style and Adaptation Capacity in Bogotá

While a growing awareness of climate change has marked the institutional agenda at the national level in Colombia, the capital city of Bogotá has not undertaken actions to include adaptation to climate change within its policies so far. Conceptualizing the central role of city‐level institutions in the successful realization of adaptation policies is a straightforward matter. This is not the case for actions and conditions that may foster adaptation capacity according to varying institutional and social geographies. Using secondary data and a selection of interviews with key stakeholders occupying leading planning roles in important departments of the local administration, this article explores why and how a framework based on incentives and obstacles should be complemented by recent developments in the analysis of policy implementation based on the differentiation between political and programmatic success and failure on the basis of existing local policy styles.     

The perceived fairness of work–life balance policies: A UK case study of solo‐living managers and professionals without children

The ability to reconcile work and private life is a matter relevant to all employees, though not all may seek “balance.” Research indicates that organisational work–life balance policies and flexible working arrangements often focus on the needs of working parents, with one potential outcome being “family‐friendly backlash,” or counterproductive work behaviour from those without caring responsibilities. This paper analyses data from 36 interviews with childless solo‐living managers and professionals, exploring perceptions of fairness in relation to these policies. In contrast to previous studies, despite recognising a strong family‐care orientation in employer provisions, perceptions of unfair treatment or injustice were not pronounced in most cases, and thus there was little evidence of backlash/counterproductive work behaviour. The paper uses and develops organisational justice theory to explain the findings, emphasising the importance of situating individual justice orientations within perceived organisational policy and wider regulatory contexts. It also emphasises the importance of evaluating fairness of work–life balance policies and flexible working arrangements in relation to other aspects of the employment relationship, notably opportunities for career development and progression.     

Part‐Time Work,Fixed‐Term Contracts,and the Returns to Experience

Using data from Spanish Social Security records, we investigate the returns to experience for female workers in different flexible work arrangements. Our model consists of four random‐effects equations simultaneously estimated using Markov Chain Monte Carlo techniques. We find a large negative wage effect of working part‐time (PT), which differs by motherhood status and contract type. We also find that working PT involves lower returns to experience than standard full‐time employment and thus a substantial negative wage effect accumulates over time for those employed PT. Finally, our simulations reveal that working PT also raises the probability of working under a fixed‐term contract.     

Feminisation of the medical profession: a strategic HRM dilemma? The effects of family‐friendly HR practices on female doctors' contracted working hours

Health‐care institutions face a strategic HR dilemma. They need to attract female doctors from a tight, feminised labour market by offering family‐friendly HR practices (e.g. part‐time employment), often based on collective labour agreements, while trying to contain their labour costs by employing as many full‐timers as possible. In this study, we investigate which family‐friendly arrangements serve health‐care institutions' HR strategies best in terms of retaining female doctors' working hours. Data collected in 2008 from 1,070 Dutch female doctors indicate that offering family‐friendly HR practices such as flexible working hours (in contrast to part‐time working) minimise the strategic HR dilemma, since it offers scope for improving the work–life balance without encouraging female doctors to work less hours. However, the effect of family‐friendly arrangements on working hours is dependent on the family‐friendly workforce philosophy: only with proper support for career goals do women using family‐friendly arrangements work more hours.     

Breaking through the glass ceiling. Simulating policies to close the gender gap in the Italian academia

As gender discrimination in academia is still far from being resolved, the recent debate focuses on the policies that can be adopted to increase gender balance in university systems. We construct a virtual academia—scaling down Italian academia in 2019—and simulate the evolution of its gender composition using an agent-based model that considers the complex nature of gender discrimination. Our findings show that, despite the rhetoric of meritocracy, a one-hundred-year period would not be enough to close the gender gap, even assuming that female researchers have the same scientific productivity as their male colleagues. To achieve more gender equality, universities should implement a set of policies that includes maternity bonuses in the evaluation of the CVs of female candidates for promotion, rules for a more gender balanced composition of the committees evaluating candidates for promotion, and gender quotas in promotions to full professorships. The gender gap in the Italian academia will close only when all these policies are introduced simultaneously.