IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/zbw/hkjalm/251929.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Career success factors of women engineers in leadership positions

Author

Listed:
  • Schmitt, Miriam

Abstract

Research questions: Which factors explain the career success of women engineers in leadership positions? Methods: This study conducted qualitative semi-structured interviews with women engineers in Germany who hold leadership positions in industry. The interview questions focused on these women's career paths into leadership positions, along with any conducive or impeding factors. The interview data was analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Results: The results show that the interdependence of the success factors on the individual and contextual levels contributes to women engineer's career advancement to leadership positions. These women are motivated by an intrinsic interest in technical tasks and career orientations towards responsibility, autonomy, and challenges. Their self-efficacy expectations help them to pursue their career interests, to cope with gender-specific barriers, and to adapt to the work environment. Furthermore, these women are focused on career goal setting and they apply career strategies such as proactive self-marketing and networking. On the contextual level, these women receive social support from their supervisors, colleagues, and husbands, which helps them to manage their careers and achieve leadership positions.

Suggested Citation

  • Schmitt, Miriam, 2020. "Career success factors of women engineers in leadership positions," Journal of Applied Leadership and Management, Hochschule Kempten - University of Applied Sciences, Professional School of Business & Technology, vol. 8, pages 115-133.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:hkjalm:251929
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/251929/1/1748271148.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shaista E. Khilji & Kelly Harper Pumroy, 2019. "We are strong and we are resilient: Career experiences of women engineers," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(7), pages 1032-1052, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Uma Jogulu & Esmé Franken, 2023. "The career resilience of senior women managers: A cross‐cultural perspective," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 280-300, January.
    2. Amondarain, Josune & Aldazabal, M. Edurne & Espinosa-Pike, Marcela, 2023. "Gender differences in the auditing stereotype and their influence on the intention to enter the profession," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C).
    3. Mariachiara Barzotto, 2024. "Educational (mis)match in the context of new manufacturing: A qualitative comparative analysis study in five European countries," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(2), pages 2116-2138, April.
    4. Rachel Ashworth & Sarah Maria Lysdal Krøtel & Anders R. Villadsen, 2023. "Right time to join? Organizational imprinting and women's careers in public service organizations," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(3), pages 773-792, May.
    5. Layla Branicki & Holly Birkett & Bridgette Sullivan‐Taylor, 2023. "Gender and resilience at work: A critical introduction," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 129-134, January.
    6. Dinara Tokbaeva & Leona Achtenhagen, 2023. "Career resilience of female professionals in the male‐dominated IT industry in Sweden: Toward a process perspective," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 223-262, January.
    7. Colette Fagan & Nina Teasdale, 2021. "Women Professors across STEMM and Non-STEMM Disciplines: Navigating Gendered Spaces and Playing the Academic Game," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 35(4), pages 774-792, August.
    8. Anna Grzelec, 2024. "Doing gender equality and undoing gender inequality—A practice theory perspective," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(3), pages 749-767, May.
    9. Francisco Valenzuela & Matías Sanfuentes & Alejandro Castillo, 2023. "Rescuing gender: An exploration of embodied resilience‐making in the Chilean miners' catastrophe," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 177-196, January.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:hkjalm:251929. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journal-alm.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.