Status evaluations of senior executive women leaders in Australian organisations: strategies and support mechanisms

This thesis is expected to make a major contribution to diversity management practices within Australia – and to the literature more broadly - by explicating what type of strategies and support mechanisms are required for women to excel in leadership positions. The thesis explores the status-imposed limitations on senior executive women’s agency in Australian workplaces through the lens of status characteristics theory (SCT). It adds to existing theory by employing an empirical lens of the actual workplace experiences of Australian women in leadership. This thesis suggests that women leaders are aware of status-imposed limitations on their agency and identify a range of successful behaviours to shorten the path of relevance and increase their power-prestige rankings. Findings suggest that status is as important as power and resources in perceptions of workplace competence. Perceptions through cultural assessments are made about women and these perceptions limit women leaders’ agency. Furthermore, this thesis provides significant empirical confirmation that personal and institutional support mechanisms significantly assist women leaders’ progression. The thesis extends current thinking and elevates status beliefs and characteristics to those of resources and power

Competent women, subliminal group hierarchies and executive leadership

Objective: We analysed the experiences of successful executive women leaders to ascertain how they attained appointments to roles as high as the C-suite and boardroom. Theoretical focus: Sociologists use ‘status characteristics theory’ (SCT) to explain the influence of status beliefs based on salient characteristics, such as gender, on the assessment of a person’s competency in group task situations (Berger et al. 1980). SCT suggests women can elevate their position from their stereotypically assigned place in the subliminal group hierarchy by shortening the path of relevance (Berger et al. 1980) between perceptions of their gender and their competence to perform a leadership role. Research question: What strategies do successful executive women use to overcome subliminal, gender-influenced assessments of their leadership competency? Method: In 2016, we interviewed 25 women who held positions within the executive suite and/or on the Board of Australian companies and government departments. A thematic analysis adhering to a ‘contextualist’ approach (Braun & Clarke, 2006) was applied to examine the participants’ responses. Major conclusions: The women demonstrated their competence via two overarching strategies: active demonstrations with associated internal dialogues. Under these two strategies sit four sets of mirror-imaged tactics: balanced career choices; outcome driven; image management; and leveraged relationships. Combined, these inputs reflect physical and mental manoeuvres women have used to achieve shortened paths of relevance, suggesting that they reconfigured the cognitive, stereotypical status assessment of being less competent than the men in the group, to being viewed as a person capable of an executive leadership role

Beetroot supplementation improves the physiological responses to incline walking

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00421-018-3843-xPurpose: We investigated the effects of an acute 24-h nitrate-rich beetroot juice supplement (BR) on the energy cost, exercise efficiency and blood pressure responses to intermittent walking at different gradients. Methods: In a double-blind, cross-over design, eight participants were provided with a total of 350 ml of nitrate-rich (~20.5 mmol nitrate) BR or placebo (PLA) across 24-h before completing intermittent walking at 3 km/h on treadmill at gradients of 1%, 5%, 10%, 15% and 20%. Results: Resting mean arterial pressure (MAP) was ~4.1% lower after BR (93 vs. 89 mmHg; P = 0.001), as well as during exercise (102 vs. 99 mmHg; P = 0.011) and recovery (97 vs. 94 mmHg; P = 0.001). Exercising (1227 vs. 1129 ml/min P < 0.001) and end-stage (1404 vs. 1249 ml/min; P = 0.002) oxygen uptake (O2) was lower in BR compared to PLA, which was accompanied by an average reduction in phase II ̇O2 amplitude (1067 vs. 940 ml/min; P = 0.025). Similarly, recovery O2 (509 vs. 458 ml/min; P = 0.001) was lower in BR. Whole-blood potassium concentration increased from pre-post exercise in PLA (4.1 ± 0.3 vs. 4.5 ± 0.3 mmol/L; P = 0.013) but not BR (4.1 ± 0.31 vs. 4.3 ± 0.2 mmol/L; P = 0.188). Conclusions: Energy cost of exercise, recovery of O2, MAP and blood markers were ameliorated after BR. Previously reported mechanisms explain these findings, which are more noticeable during less efficient walking at steep gradients (15-20%). These findings have practical implications for hill-walkers

How women executives survive the isolated echelons of the corporate ladder

Using status characteristics theory (SCT) as its premise, this chapter provides insights and advice to aspiring executives, drawn from the experiences of women who have achieved either executive-level positions or board memberships in Australia. This investigation reveals that the small number of women working at the executive level means that these women do not benefit from the male camaraderie found in highly active boys’ clubs. Consequently, in their relative solitude, they develop strategies and behaviours to contend with unpalatable issues of enigmatic organisational policies, excessive performance scrutiny, aggressive competition from other women, as well as both overt and unconscious discrimination. Limited research exists on the experience of Australian executive women leaders, although it is anticipated that their advice is ultimately relevant to women (and men) working at any level, in any type of organisation, worldwide

The effect of 1.5 T cardiac magnetic resonance on human circulating leucocytes

Aims: Investigators have proposed that cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) should have restrictions similar to those of ionizing imaging techniques. We aimed to investigate the acute effect of 1.5 T CMR on leucocyte DNA integrity, cell counts, and function in vitro, and in a large cohort of patients in vivo. Methods and results: In vitro study: peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were isolated from healthy volunteers, and histone H2AX phosphorylation (γ-H2AX) expression, leucocyte counts, and functional parameters were quantified using flow cytometry under the following conditions: (i) immediately following PBMC isolation, (ii) after standing on the benchside as a temperature and time control, (iii) after a standard CMR scan. In vivo study: blood samples were taken from 64 consecutive consenting patients immediately before and after a standard clinical scan. Samples were analysed for γ-H2AX expression and leucocyte counts. CMR was not associated with a significant change in γ-H2AX expression in vitro or in vivo, although there were significant inter-patient variations. In vitro cell integrity and function did not change with CMR. There was a significant reduction in circulating T cells in vivo following CMR. Conclusion: 1.5 T CMR was not associated with DNA damage in vitro or in vivo. Histone H2AX phosphorylation expression varied markedly between individuals; therefore, small studies using γ-H2AX as a marker of DNA damage should be interpreted with caution. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance was not associated with loss of leucocyte viability or function in vitro. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance was associated with a statistically significant reduction in viable leucocytes in vivo