Perceptions of and about women as managers: investigating job involvement, self‐esteem and attitudes

Purpose – To investigate specific barriers that might be hindering Maltese women from achieving a managerial position.Design/methodology/approach – This study is based on research by Cromie. Barriers are classified into two main categories; internal and external barriers. Job‐involvement and work‐based self‐esteem are considered to be internal barriers, whereas attitudes towards women in management are considered to be external barriers. The total population was 200, consisting of male and female middle managers, female and male employees and B. Commerce students.Findings – Results indicate no differences between job involvement and work‐based self‐esteem of male and female managers. On the other hand, both male employees and students seem to hold more stereotypical attitudes towards women in management than their female counterparts.Research limitations/implications – One of the basic limitations of this study was the sample size since small samples make it difficult to generalize. Further research may f...

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