Simmons College School of Management

The Distinguished Scholar Speaker Series highlights new, cutting-edge research relevant to CGO's work and mission. Each lecture combines discussions on theory and practice, offering opportunities to discuss the practical implications of recent findings and ways to apply them to our own situations.

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Thursday, May 3, 2012

"Identity Simultaneity and Power" with Heather R. Wishik and Martin N. Davidson

This month we continued our focus on "gender in all its complexity", exploring how multiple dimensions of social identity simultaneously intersect and interact with each other and to what effect.  The focus of this session was power. Every social identity carries a relative power position. Thus, we occupy multiple power positions simultaneously — some dominant and some subordinate — whether or not these are consciously acknowledged. Wishik and Davidson proposed that it is possible to navigate this complexity, moving from relatively dysfunctional manifestations of low or high power positions to more effective, conscious enactment and management of identity-related power. This highly interactive session engaged participants in exploring their power positions and developing strategies to address this aspect of the complexity of differences and identity.

Biographies  

Heather R. Wishik, JD, of Heather Wishik Consulting, is an independent scholar and global organization development consultant. She is the former Global Diversity and Inclusion Director at the TJX Companies, Inc. She co-authored with Carol Pierce the 1995 book "Sexual Orientation and Identity: Heterosexual, Lesbian Gay and Bisexual Journeys." 

Martin N. Davidson, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Leadership and Organizational Behavior at the Darden Graduate School of Business, University of Virginia. Davidson's 2011 book, partially co-authored with Wishik, is "The End of Diversity as We Know It:  Why Diversity Efforts Fail and How Leveraging Difference Can Succeed."

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Tuesday, April 3, 2012

"Voices of Change for Gender Equity in African Higher Education" Panel Presentation

The Center for Gender in Organizations (CGO) held a panel presentation with visiting partners from the Africa Universities Gender Resource Network (AUGERN). Panelists shared powerful stories of challenges and successes in leading organizational change for multi-faceted gender equity in five sub-Saharan African Universities over the past ten years with a particular emphasis upon the importance of gender mainstreaming as a change strategy.

Panel members awere the current partners in the Network:
• Irene Agunloye, University of Jos, Nigeria
• Catherine Kanabahita Guma, Makerere University, Uganda
• Rose Mwaipopo, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
• Funmi Soetan, Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria
• Wilhelmina Tete-Mensah, University of Education Winneba, Ghana
• Patricia Deyton, Simmons College

The panel was moderated by Prof. Lynda Moore of the Simmons School of Management.

History
The Center for Gender in Organizations (CGO) has provided five African universities assistance in organizational change management for gender equity since 2003 through four grants totaling $837,800 from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, in keeping with the Corporation's focus on improving access to higher education in sub-Saharan Africa. Through annual Network meetings, CGO has provided capacity building workshops on topics such as mentoring, negotiation, and strategic planning for women leaders to continue and deepen their efforts at institutional change. By documenting and disseminating the results of the gender equity work through a forthcoming book, AUGERN can collaborate with other African universities and secondary schools to effect institutional change.

Selected Achievements
• Formulation of university gender and sexual harassment policies
• Establishment of Gender Mainstreaming Directorates
• Scholarships to support female students' access to higher education
• Increased matriculation and graduation of female students
• Establishment of mentoring programs

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Thursday, February 9, 2012

"Simultaneity" with Evangelina Holvino, Ed.D.

"We need to bring all of ourselves to work" is a phrase we hear frequently in diversity and inclusion efforts.  Despite research supporting the assertion that the more resources  -- skills, life experience, tacit knowledge -- we bring to our work the better the outcomes for us and the organization, there are many reasons we leave parts of our multiple selves at home.  In CGO's on-going effort to explore the practical implications of the multiplicity of differences and identities, this seminar focused on one concept — simultaneity — that has great potential to deepen our understanding of how to bring all of our identities to positively impact our work.  In this seminar participants had the opportunity to work with the concept of simultaneity and understand its connection to other ways of representing the multiplicity of differences through a combination of presentation, individual reflection, and interactive discussion. A framework  through which we can examine specific processes that lead us and/or others to diminish aspects of our identity was developed. In addition, a set of skills to enhance, as opposed to diminish, bringing all of our "selves" to work was introduced.

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Thursday, December 8, 2011

"Who Am I Really?" Unpacking Multiple Identities Learning Circle with Lakshmi Ramarajan, Ph.D.

CGO, with its focus on "gender in all its complexity" has long recognized that a single identity approach to understanding one's experience in organizations is inadequate.  This session -- designed to facilitate discussion between academics and practitioners -- helped us move beyond merely acknowledging the complexity of multiple identities to begin a deeper conversation about how to understand, enact and deploy the multiplicity of social identities and roles we experience simultaneously with gender: race, ethnicity, age, religion, etc.  Lakshmi Ramarajan presented an overview of research approaches to this issue, detailed her own findings on the consequences of multiple identities for individuals and organizations and offered the concept of intrapersonal networks as one way to advance our thinking in both research and practice.

Discussion:  Evangelina Holvino, Ed.D. engaged us in an interactive mind-mapping exercise, creating a rich visual representation of our collective wisdom on this topic to springboard to a lively discussion. 

Biography

Lakshmi Ramarajan is an Assistant Professor in the Organizational Behavior Unit at Harvard Business School. Her research examines the management and consequences of identities in organizations.

Lakshmi's research examines how people can work fruitfully across social divides, with a particular emphasis on identities, group boundaries and intergroup relations. Her research asks two broad questions related to bridging differences across multiple identities and group boundaries: 1) What are the effects of managing multiple identities on interpersonal and intergroup relations? and 2) How do organizational and intergroup boundaries influence individuals' multiple identities and intergroup relationships? In recent work she examines how individuals' manage their organizational, ethnic, religious and national identities, and how these identities interact to influence interpersonal problem solving and prosocial attitudes and behavior.

Lakshmi earned her B.A. (Honors) in International Relations from Wellesley College, her M.Sc. in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and her PhD in Management from The Wharton School of Business. She was awarded the State Farm Foundation Dissertation Proposal Award in 2008. She was a Post Doctoral Fellow at Harvard Business School from 2008 to 2010.

Prior to her academic career, Lakshmi worked in international development, managing conflict resolution programs in West Africa with a focus on gender and workforce development. 

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Friday, October 14, 2011

Women's Leadership Programs: What Works, What Doesn't? with Gelaye Debebe, Ph.D

Organizations often address gender gap issues by offering women-only leadership development programs for senior women. While participant evaluations and testimonies are often glowing, very few studies explain how and why women-only leadership programs can enable participants to experience transformational learning.   Professor Debebe drew on data from her study of an international leadership development program to offer a framework for understanding the learning process that takes place in successful women-only leadership programs. The framework highlights themes, processes and specific design elements, showing how an integration of key factors — rather than one factor — is necessary for transformational learning.

Professor Debebe also discussed the benefits and limitations of all-women's development programs and the organizational conditions needed to maximize their impact.  

Joyce K. Fletcher and Evangelina Holvino, Faculty Affiliates at CGO, joined Professor Debebe in an interactive discussion with participants on the implications of these findings for the future of women-only leadership development programs. 

Biography 
Gelaye Debebe is Assistant Professor of Organizational Sciences at the George Washington University and an Affiliate of the Center for Gender in Organizations at Simmons Graduate School of Management. She holds a BS in Government and Politics from the University of Maryland, an MS from the American University, and a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from the University of Michigan. Her research has examined issues related to learning in organizations in the context of women's leadership development and cross-cultural collaborations. Her published work has appeared in Research in Organizational Behavior, International Journal of Intercultural Relations, Human Resources Development International, Issues in Intercultural Communication and Development in Practice. She is also author of a forthcoming book entitled: Three Transformative Pathways to Leadership Effectiveness for Women.  

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Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Willful Blindness: A Conversation With Margeret Heffernan

  

The Center for Gender in Organizations (CGO), the School of Management (SOM), and the SOM Alumnae Association (SOMAA) hosted a book signing for Margaret Heffernan's Willful Blindness: Why We Ignore the Obvious at Our Peril. In a conversation with Ms. Heffernan moderated by Professor Patricia Deyton, Faculty Director of CGO, the concept of willful blindness and learn how to lead more aware lives at home and at work was explored.

Heffernan argued that the biggest threats and dangers we face are the ones we don't see-not because they're secret or invisible, but because we're willfully blind. A distinguished businesswoman and writer, she examined the phenomenon and traces its imprint in our private and working lives, and within governments and organizations, and asked: What makes us prefer ignorance? What are we so afraid of? Why do some people see more than others? And how can we change?

Biography
Margaret Heffernan is an entrepreneur, Chief Executive and author. Her professional experience includes time at BBC Radio, the trade association IPPA, and CMGI. Her previous publications include The Naked Truth: A Working Woman's Manifesto about Business and What Really Matters (2004) and Women on Top: How Female Entrepreneurs are Changing the Rules for Business Success (2007). She is Visiting Professor of Entrepreneurship at Simmons College in Boston and Executive in Residence at Babson College. She sits on the Council of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in the UK as well as one the boards of several private companies. Margaret blogs for the Huffington Post and BNET and writes for Fast Company, Real Business, MORE, and other magazines around the world.