How to make career advancement in Economics more inclusive

Men are overrepresented in senior academic positions in Economics (Teunissen and Hogendoorn, 2018). While gender inequality in ­academia is universal (Miller et al., 2015), it is especially pronounced in the Economics discipline (Leslie et al., 2015) and in the Netherlands in particular (Miller et al., 2015). In nearly four decades, only six women have ever made it into the ESB Economics Top 40. It is important to note that promoting gender equality is not just a matter of fairness; it is – as should be of interest to Economists – also a matter of ­efficiency. For instance, Hsieh et al. (2018) have argued that no less than a quarter of the economic growth in the US between 1960 and 2010 can be attributed to what they call “the improved allocation of talent” of members of underrepresented groups. For the Netherlands specifically, The McKinsey Global Institute recently calculated that greater gender parity in labor force participation, STEM fields, and senior positions, would add more than 100 billion euros to Dutch GDP (McKinsey, 2018). To shed light on this phenomenon and to present insight into possible interventions, we provide a conceptual and empirical analysis of the factors underlying gender differences in career advancement in Economics, drawing on the latest research in the behavioural sciences

Mapping Career Patterns in Research: A Sequence Analysis of Career Histories of ERC Applicants

Despite the need to map research careers, the empirical evidence on career patterns of researchers is limited. We also do not know whether career patterns of researchers can be considered conventional in terms of steady progress or international mobility, nor do we know if career patterns differ between men and women in research as is commonly assumed. We use sequence analysis to identify career patterns of researchers across positions and institutions, based on full career histories of applicants to the European Research Council frontier research grant schemes. We distinguish five career patterns for early and established men and women researchers. With multinomial logit analyses, we estimate the relative likelihood of researchers with certain characteristics in each pattern. We find grantees among all patterns, and limited evidence of gender differences. Our findings on career patterns in research inform further studies and policy making on career development, research funding, and gender equality

Engaging Gatekeepers, Optimizing Decision Making, and Mitigating Bias: Design Specifications for Systemic Diversity Interventions

In this contribution to the Journal of Applied Behavioral Science Special Issue on Understanding Diversity Dynamics in Systems: Social Equality as an Organization Change Issue, I develop and describe design specifications for systemic diversity interventions in upward mobility career systems, aimed at optimizing decision making through mitigating bias by engaging gatekeepers. These interventions address the paradox of meritocracy that underlies the surprising lack of diversity at the top of the career pyramid in these systems. I ground the design specifications in the limited empirical evidence on “what works” in systemic interventions. Specifically, I describe examples from interventions in academic settings, including a bias literacy program, participatory modeling, and participant observation. The design specifications, paired with inspirational examples of successful interventions, should assist diversity officers and consultants in designing and implementing interventions to promote the advancement to and representation of nondominant group members at the top of the organizational hierarchy

Mass career customization: A sustainable solution?

Career customization provides employees with different options to customize their careers enabling them to meet their personal needs, as well as delivering a sustainable solution to the mismatch between today’s workplace and today’s workforce (Valcour et al., 2007). Mass Ca-reer Customization (MCC) (Benko & Weisberg, 2007) is an innovative career intervention that allows employees to customize their career development along a multidirectional path to align it with their changing needs over the lifespan. MCC was developed in a professional service firm (PSF) in the US to meet the growing number of employee requests for more flexibility. MCC promises to create a satisfactory career experience for employees and to prevent attrition in the war for talent. As applied researchers, this article, allows us to share our insights on the implementa-tion of MCC in the subsidiary of the US firm in the Netherlands. We report on whether MCC is only window dressing, leading to stigmatization and career penalties when used, or whether it is genuinely beneficial for employees in different life stages. We also share lessons learned for the organization on this type of intervention and discuss practical recommendations for the conditions under which MCC can flourish in a PSF context as well as what we can learn for promoting sustainable careers in other organizational settings

Het voorspellen van salarisgroei met Assessment Center data: Een verkenning van de genderkloof

Hoofdstuk 5 in 'Bruggen tussen Wetenschap en Praktijk: LIBER AMICORUM voor Paul Jansen'. Bruggen tussen Wetenschap en Praktijk is het Liber Amicorum voor Paul Jansen, geschreven door zijn oud-promovendi, collegae en academische vrienden. In 13 hoofdstukken reflecteren zij op de belangrijkste thema's uit de academische loopbaan van Paul: loopbanen, diversiteit, performance management, leiderschap, ondernemerschap en assessments. Thema's waarnaar zij samen met Paul onderzoek doen of hebben gedaan en waarmee zij uiteraard een brug hebben geprobeerd te slaan tussen wetenschap en praktijk

D2.5 INSPIRE re-imagine workshop report: Imagining a gender equal future for R&I

<p>This document offers an overview of the "RE-IMAGINE Workshop." </p><p>On April 19, 2023, 28 gender equality and diversity experts and representatives from various umbrella organisations for research from Europe and beyond met for one day to Re-imagine an inclusive gender equal future in research and innovation. This interactive and participatory workshop was one of the first activities of the INSPIRE Centre of Excellence funded by Horizon Europe. </p><p>We started by making and then exchanging individual (re-)imaginations, subsequently creating a joint drawing (part 1) in subgroups. Next, we explored "markers of change" inspired by stories from participants (part2). Finally, we integrated these learnings into the shared imagination (part 3). The four re-imaginations and the facilitators' reflections on the subgroup processes are the focal point of this report and the highlight of our gallery visit.</p><p>This report is thus different from what you might expect, there are no conclusive arguments, complete scenarios or even roadmaps developed in it. What you will find and see is a carefully curated collection of doodles, impressions, visuals, reflections, and, most importantly, four very thoughtfully and thoroughly co-created re-imaginations by our experienced participants.</p><p>We, as the organisers, deliberately chose this approach, both with regards to the workshop and the report, as the experience showed that there are (at least) four re-imagined futures of inclusive gender equality. In doing so, we provide the room for the multiplicity and plurality of needs, wishes, challenges, and opportunities to be considered by and through INSPIRE as Centre of Excellence. We invite you to go through the report, to take the time to engage with the provided collection and to let yourself be surprised, challenged, and inspired by it as to which elements of the drawings as well as which change markers may be relevant when it comes to working towards inclusive gender equality in research and innovation.</p&gt

Career customization: Putting an organizational practice to facilitate sustainable careers to the test

Career customization has been suggested as a sustainable solution to the mismatch between traditional career models and the needs of today’s workforce. We examine career consequences of Mass Career Customization (MCC) in a Professional Service Firm (PSF). This customization allows employees to tailor their career development up or down on four dimensions (pace, workload, location / schedule, responsibility). Using a multiple wave research design in a firm setting, we explore the impact of customizing up or down on objective and subjective career outcomes by gender and parental status over time. While MCC has some positive outcomes (e.g. no loss of career satisfaction for fathers customizing down; increased performance evaluations for mothers customizing down), MCC also has negative career consequences that can be explained by flexibility stigma, especially for fathers who deviate from the ideal worker norm inherent in PSFs. Our findings inform the debate around the impact of organizational practices generally considered to facilitate sustainable careers. We give practical recommendations for the conditions under which career customization can flourish in a PSF context as well as lessons for promoting sustainable careers in other organizational settings