Feature: Sarah Rutherford Business Executive | February 2012 | PAGE 9


leading organisations are doing more. They are changing their organisational cultures to make them more accommodating of women. The pyramid effect is where women leave organisations at a greater rate than men do. This leaves a large majority of men at the top, which is common in all industries, whether they employ large numbers of female graduates or not. Most people don’t give their workplace


Cultures are both beliefs and behaviours. They are dynamic, not static, and constantly changing


culture a thought – until they feel unhappy in it. Even then they may put their unhappiness down to a new boss, a merger of departments, or a change in ambience. Perhaps, at a push, an employee may say “I don’t like the culture”, or “the culture is too harsh” but organisational culture is rarely more specifically defined. A hostile culture has repeatedly been cited by senior women as a barrier to their progress in corporate life. The 2010 World Economic Forum Gender Gap Report (for which organisations from 30 countries took part) recorded that a masculine/patriarchal corporate culture was the second most cited barrier to women’s progress. But how can an organisation change its culture and change


this picture? The best approach is to understand the culture well. Why do women very often feel that they don’t fit in, or worse, feel excluded or marginalised? Much overt sex discrimination in the workplace has


disappeared, thanks to legislation as well as changing attitudes to women at work. However, the more intangible cultural barriers often go unchallenged; this is where the work for both internal and external change agents needs to be focused. Understanding organisational culture and its role in gender equality at work is crucial, particularly at the top of organisations. All groups of human beings create cultures around them; this is both conscious and unconscious. We do this to reduce the anxiety of being in what may otherwise be a random group, and also to create conditions in which we feel most comfortable and are most able to operate efficiently. All organisations and all parts of organisations have their own individual cultures. These may best be described as values, attitudes and beliefs, which are expressed in many ways – for example: through the architecture and layout of buildings and offices; through management styles and modes of communication; through humour; through working practices and reward systems. Cultures are both beliefs and behaviours. They are dynamic, not static, and constantly changing. It is the dominant group (either numerically


or the group with most power) that determines the overall culture of a wider group. In most societies men, as a whole, have more power than women; therefore men will have more influence in determining our cultures. Similarly in most organisations the dominant group has historically been male; the higher up the echelons of an organisation you climb, the more likely it is that


you will find yourself in a masculine culture. Language, humour, informal socialising, assumptions, the length and design of the working day will, on the whole, be more suited to men than to women. Apart from providing factory labour,


historically women have been excluded from the workplace. As a reminder of how recent women’s entry into the professions and managerial class is, women were only admitted on to the London stock exchange floor in 1973. Over the years organisations have been developed to suit the lives of men; until recently women have felt that


they have to adapt and fit in with the prevailing culture. In a recent survey of senior women managers, respondents cited “having to adapt to the prevailing style of management” as a key barrier to their progress. One very senior woman banker (who sits on a couple of FTSE 100 boards) said she still finds it hard to make herself heard at meetings where she is the only woman, and that her style is at odds with the overall style in the room. That women are not the same as men is now being recognised, but this does not mean that women’s styles will automatically be valued or rewarded. There is work to be done. Many leaders now recognise that changing and adapting their


DR SARAH RUTHERFORD, runs her own diversity consultancy company. She is a former financial journalist and was a non-executive director of an investment bank. She has published a number of articles and research reports on gender and organisational culture and speaks regularly on the subject.


workplace cultures is vital if women are to be more comfortable and take their place at the top of organisations. The difficulty is twofold. Most leaders fail to identify the less tangible (but excluding aspects) of their cultures that need to be changed. They see them instead to be gender neutral and the “norm” (like working long hours or using the dominant management style), not gender specific. Therefore these norms often go unchallenged, or have to be challenged by an outsider. The second difficulty is that men, as the dominant group, need to make the changes – but may not see it in their interests to do so. This is why changing cultures meets huge resistance, both spoken and unspoken. Increasingly, it is the pressure for more female representation in senior positions, that is used in persuading male leadership of the need for change. They can see the benefits to the bottom line and thus to themselves. The business case, in its simplest form, argues that women are a talent pool that is not being fully utilised by companies. Employers are increasingly finding that the best candidates at graduate level are women and, once recruited, it is important to keep them. This removes the politics from what can be a controversial issue. Every workplace culture will say something


about gender relations. Seeing organisational cultures through the lens of gender enables management to identify ways in which some women may be excluded or marginalised. This understanding can be used to enable leadership to implement the best culture change initiatives. Hard work, but worth it in the end – for both men and women.


Contact: sarah@rutherfordassociates.eu


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