The career progression of women in state government agencies

摘要

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the impact of the utilization ofrnorganizational practices on the career progression of women to executive positions in state-levelrngovernment organizations in the USA.rnDesign/methodology/approach - The design included an online survey instrument sent to arnpurposive sample of 600 female administrative agency executives in 50 states. A standard multilinearrnregression model tests the predictive power of three composite explanatory utilization variables on therndependent variable, career progression of women to upper level management. The composite predictorrnvariables are: utilization of work/family practices; utilization of diversity practices; and utilization ofrnpromotional practices.rnFindings - Contrary to expectations, the relationship between career progression of women andrnfamily-friendly utilization does not appear to be statistically significant. However, the time it takesrnrespondents who utilized family-friendly practices in their organizations to reach upper-levelrnmanagement decreased by 0.037 years. And contrary to expectations, women who utilize promotionrnpractices are more likely to achieve executive-level status, even though it does not necessarily takernthem less time to do so.rnOriginality/value - This research is distinct from previous studies in that it considers thernrelationship between the utilization of practices and women's attainment of executive-level positions.