ROSABETH MOSS KANTER
Men and Women of the Corporation, Chaps 1-3, 6

CHAPTER 1 --, Men and Women of the Corporation: The Population

Large organizations not only dominate economics and political life, they also control most of the jobs. The possibilities people experience in work then , are often limited by the job structure made available by the design of large organizations. The experiences of men and women are very different in large organizations, where sex-polarization and sex-segregation are facts of life.

Women are stuck in the lower echelons of American corporations. They populate organizations, but hey rarely run them. Women are to clerical forces what men are to management, in almost the same proportions. Managerial and clerical jobs, then , are the major sex-segregated, white-collar occupations brought into being by the development of the large corporation and its administrative apparatus. A sex-linked ethos became identified with each of these occupational groupings. Ideologies surrounding the pursuit of these occupations and justifying their position in the organization came to define both the labor pool from which the occupations drew and the ideal images of the attributes of the people in the pool.

The large corporation began to emerge as an organizational form between 1890-1910. There was both interoganizational and functional consolidation as an increasing number of tasks were brought together under a single corporate administration. Management and its accompanying culture had to invented, and managers sought legitimacy through professionalization. The managerial viewpoint emphasized rationality and efficiency. A 'masculine ethic' can be identified as part of the early image of managers. his masculine ethic elevates the traits assumed to belong to some men to necessities for effective management: tough-mindedness, analytic thinking abilities, and the ability to place personal feelings aside for the purpose of task accomplishment. When women later tried to enter management positions, the 'masculine ethic' was invoked as an exclusionary principle.

Yet, while management was being defined as a 'masculine' pursuit, routine office chores were being 'feminized.' Women did not always dominate the clerical labor force, this development was brought about by the same forces which gave sped the growth of the large organizations. The rise in the employment of women in clerical positions was dramatic, and it corresponded to a large decrease in 'household occupations' which had traditionally employed women - servants, dress makers, etc. Around this time, the role of women in the corporation was being defined, and the secretarial image took shape. The organization of office work was also developing in tandem with increased implementation of office machines and the expansion of the office. Secretarial work was divided into two kinds: marriage-like and factory-like. Beyond basics like typing, the actual content of a secretary's role was defined by a relationship to a specific boss. Though they are not employed by the corporation, another group of women, the wives of the traditionally male management, may find their lives bound up with the corporation, particularly those wives who are not otherwise employed in paid work.

CHAPTER 2 -- Industrial Supply Corporation: The Setting

Kanter conducted this study in a conglomerate firm which developed out of a number of smaller companies employing new technologies which later diversified. It had an honest, if stodgy reputation. Indsco employed 50,000 employees in the 1970s, 16% women and 9% minorities. Its corporate headquarters were in a modern office building in a large urban center. The surroundings were luxurious.

Kanter carefully describes certain physical space uses which distinguished management from the clerical forces. There was a split dining room, with a serve yourself cafeteria, and a separate waitressed dining room. In offices and work spaces, there were few signs of private occupancy. Secretaries were most likely to decorate their work space and display private objects, The opposite was true of managers. In fact, it as often true that the higher the status of an executive, the less cluttered his desk was his desk, with either personal or work-related items. Discreet bulletin boards served as office information centers. Offices on higher floors and corner offices corresponded to increased social prestige.

The great divide in company personnel terms was the exempt/nonexempt distinction. 'Nonexempts' were the workers paid weekly and covered by wage-and -hour laws. In the office and administration side of Indsco, nonexempts were almost all women. 'Exempts' were on annual salary; they were managers, the professionals, and the sales and technical workers. They were still practically all men. Exempt jobs were rated for salary purposes and graded on a 24 point scale which corresponded to title hierarchy. The number of people got thinner and thinner, of course, as one ascended the hierarchy. The number of women above grade 10 anywhere in the corporation was a single digit number. Differences between exempts and nonexempts existed in terms of both dress and behavior, and they also coincided largely with male/female differences. The differences were often seen as differences between the professional and the unprofessional. Exempt employees were also treated much better and more personally; they received more attention from the corporation. The same environment which existed in the downtown office was observed in a corporate suburban outpost.

There was both a formal and informal company culture, reflected in language, rituals, and styles of communication. In the informal folk language of the corporation, people used a very colorful, graphic, highly pictorial language, in which abstract concepts were captured in concrete images (e.g. 'looking for a person to hang his hat on'). Concrete picture language reflected an avoidance of abstraction that was also reflected in the lack of introspection encouraged in interpersonal relations. For people in the exempt ranks of Indsco, at least, life was comparatively safe and secure as long as they made no major blunders. Difficult or controversial subjects of conversation were avoided. Anger and differences were difficult to express. Instead, the atmosphere was expected to exemplify collaboration, agreement, and consensus. there were few, if any rewards in fighting for something too hard or too openly. It was as though people did not want to have to think too closely about themselves or their situation.

This had direct efects on the men at Indsco and the growing presence of women in the exempt ranks. Many men at Indsco seemed more confused than hostile about the trickling in of women into the exempt ranks, but there were also those who were openly angry. the whole issue was raising organizational and personal self-consciousness, something that people at Indsco preferred to avoid.

Indsco is neither a good nor bad example. It is, rather, a case that is used to exemplify a type.

CHAPTER 3 -- Managers

Managers at Indsco had to look the part, there were strict, unwritten codes of dress and appearance. Social conformity was emphasized, which is not surprising. There is ample evidence from organizational studies that leaders in a variety of situations are likely to show preferences fro socially similar subordinates and help them get ahead. Because of the situation in which managers function, social similarity tends to be very important to them. The structure sets in motion forces leading to the replication of managers as the same kind of social individuals with similar outward appearances (read: conservative, white males). This closes managerial circles to 'outsiders' such as women and minorities.

This tendency towards reproduction can be understood better when one looks at the history of the corporation. In the beginning, uncertainty was very high. The reliance on similar types is especially high in times of uncertainty when managers much personally rely on someone who they do not know well; they will trust someone who exhibits known, trustable qualities, someone like them. Today, uncertainty is still high further up the corporate ladder because of vague job descriptions and intense pressures. These forces, compounded with needs for personal loyalty and trust, help perpetuate the social homogeneity of the corporation. However, the reduction of uncertainty, through implementation of computers and procedure, should open up the managerial ranks for traditional 'outsiders.' Kanter found that women in exempt positions tend to clustered in positions of least uncertainty, which corresponds to positions in 'expert' rather than decision-making roles.

Another factor which contributed to social homogeneity preferences was the emphasis on communicative tasks in management. Frequent communication requires common language and understandings, and the structure of managerial communication generated a desire for smooth, social relationships. This creates a preference for those people who are like oneself, predictable and known. There was a desired wish to avoid those people with whom communication was felt to be uncomfortable, those who were not immediately known and understood. Women were definitely in this category.

Uncertainty of evaluation and pressures for social conformity also worked to exclude women. Peer acceptance and social fit were qualities required for moving up the managerial ranks. Lastly, demands for loyalty to the corporation were high at the top. Managers put in more hours than other workers and work seeped over into other, typically considered, private areas of their life, such as leisure time or recreational activities. Any one with competing loyalties were considered slightly suspect. The ability of women to function under such circumstances was questioned because of their involvement with family and children. Having a family was seen as detracting from commitment to the corporation, but not having a husband and children was often perceived as a 'luring away' which was bound to happen in time. It was a double-edged sword for women in the corporation.

CHAPTER 6 -- Opportunity

It was hard for success to mean anything else but movement in a large hierarchy like Indsco. The incentives were all for mobility. There were upper limits on pay within a job classification, and, after a time, good performance could be rewarded only through promotion. Long service meant little if it was not accompanied by rising status and authority. This sometimes presented a problem to the corporation, because some jobs lost their meaning and became stepping stones on the path to upper management.

Sales was the prime example of this. For some people, moving around became an end in itself because it meant more exposure and visibility and the opportunity to build political alliances in the corporation. For managers, it was 'Be promoted or perish.' Thus, jobs and job categories were evaluated in terms of their advancement prospects, quite apart from job content or actual grade level or salary. This presented further problems for the corporation , because some jobs were vague in terms of their future advancement potential, and other jobs became known as dead ends. People were somewhat unwilling to fill these positions.

The emphasis on advancement made opportunity very seductive. Those who were placed on 'fast tracks' were especially advantaged in company culture, because they moved up the corporate hierarchy faster than the norm, either because of outstanding performance, or because someone picked them as being 'officer material.' For these people, opportunity bred more of it. This also made individuals acutely aware of office politics. Those on the move invested themselves heavily in the work and put forth every extra effort. They were also fairly positive about Indsco and their work.

Those who not on the move were seen as 'stuck.' Kanter defines 'stuck' as a relative concept. In hierarchical systems, it has to do with how far one can go in relation to the total system, and how many advantages and benefits of the system one will be able to reap over time. It also has a temporal dimension, and those who cease movement in the corporation, will have a decreased chance of movement in the future. They become stuck, exposed to less opportunity and fewer perqs of the corporate world. The largest category of those who are stuck are those who had the least opportunity to begin with.

Most women clericals, supervisors of office workers, and some exempt staff, were in this situation. Among people in such low or blocked mobility jobs, peer and occupational culture was likely to develop around and support the generally lower levels of aspirations, concern with security and low-risk activities, and recognition through sociability that reflected adjustments to the stuck situation. The next set of the stuck were the ones who had lost out in the competition for the top slots. This is to be expected given the pyramidal nature of the corporation, not everyone can make it. The reactions of this group often reflects frustration and tinges of hostility. Such people could present a large problem to the organization because they were often high-level and well-paid. Their disaffection represented a real cost. The last, and smallest, group was stuck even though they had moved into jobs usually tied to opportunity - but they had come through the wrong path. They lacked either the experience, attitudes, knowledge or connections needed to advance them any further, and they were now too old or in too senior a position to go back and fill in the missing pieces. These people were often very frustrated, because their expectations of opportunity were at once aroused and squashed.

The three ways in which opportunity could be blocked confronted people with slightly different organizational situations. But many of the alternatives for responding were similar regardless of organizational level or job category. People who were stuck could respond with a number of forms of disengagement, substitute social recognition, and conservative resistance. Types of dead ends and their consequences:

Source of . . . . . . . . . . .Amount of . . . Common alternatives
opportunity. . . . . . . . . . . disaffection . . . .for recognition
blockage

low ceiling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . low . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . peers

competition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . high . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . outsiders
loser

wrong route to . . . . . . . . . . . moderate . . . . . . . . . . . .subordinates
opportunity

Disengagement - Writing off the organization or career as an issue of concern beyond strictly a source of pay. This could take the form of depressed aspirations, low commitment, or non-responsibility.

Substitute social recognition - When they are blocked from organizational recognition, people may substitute a variety of forms of social recognition, finding ways to look good in the eyes of at least some other people. It is the low opportunity people who seem to find their greatest satisfactions at work through connections with others. Those who are shut out of opportunity may also develop an anti-'success' peer group, with loyalty to the group superseding loyalty to the company. This was often the case for women and minorities, but it was often counter-productive to advancement of the group as a whole. 'Social professionals' are those who gain renown in the company for the best gossip or the most connections. Social professionals can focus outward, on work-related people outside of the company, or downward, on subordinates or junior personnel.

Conservative resistance - Some people coped by criticizing those who had made it and were above them in the hierarchy. They also resisted corporate excess demands. Criticism had to be safe and subtle.

Kanter concludes by arguing that opportunity structures shape behavior in such a way as to make it a self-fulfilling prophecy. This creates cycles of advantage and disadvantage. One place the cycles of advantage and disadvantage function clearly is in the relationship of individual mobility to peer-group culture. Low-mobility peer groups need to actively encourage the mobility of at least some of their members if those members are to first gain influence and then use it to help the group.

This analysis should thus lead to a reinpretation of familiar findings about sex differences in work behavior: that men are more ambitious, task-oriented and work-involved, and women care more about relationships at work. When women seem to be less motivated or committed, it is probably because they care less opportunity. The structure of opportunity reinforces typically 'male' and 'female' work patterns which in essence are neither male or female, but opportunity-related. Women with high opportunity look more like the stereotype of men in their orientations to work, and vice versa.