The influence of a university’s HRM practices on women academics’ progression to management positions

The aim of this article is to examine the effect of New Public Management (NPM) inspired universityhuman resource management (HRM) practices on gender segregation at universities. Drawing on gender and organisational theories, we conducted a case study of a managerial university in Lithuania drawing...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal for East European management studies 2022-01, Vol.27 (4), p.662-685
Main Authors: Leišytė, Liudvika, Pekşen, Sude, Tönnes, Lina
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic staff
Career advancement
Case studies
Colleges & universities
Employment
Gender
Gender equity
Gender segregation
Higher education
Human resource management
Human resources management
Literature reviews
Masculinity
New public management
Organization theory
Postcommunist societies
Public administration
Segregation
Stereotypes
Tokenism
Transformation
University professors
Women
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Summary:The aim of this article is to examine the effect of New Public Management (NPM) inspired universityhuman resource management (HRM) practices on gender segregation at universities. Drawing on gender and organisational theories, we conducted a case study of a managerial university in Lithuania drawing on analyses of policy documents, websites and senior academic staff survey data (n=142). We find vertical gender segregation in the management structures of the case study university, with women academics being more likely to experience career progression barriers than men. This study contributes to higher education, gender and management research in three important ways: (1) by providing empirical evidence of the persistence of gender segregation at a university, despite the transformation of university HRM practices, (2) by providing a more nuanced picture regarding gender and tokenism among university management, (3) by pointing out that despite the long tradition of women employment in the post-Soviet Central and Eastern European context, universities are still the bastions of the masculine culture and power, where women academics face a ‘glass ceiling’ to reach management positions. We discuss the practical implications for gender-balanced composition of higher education management at Lithuanian universities.
ISSN:0949-6181
1862-0019
DOI:10.5771/0949-6181-2022-4-662