Department of Human Resource Management researchers Profs Jenny Hoobler and Stella Nkomo’s recent meta-analysis published in the Journal of Management is one of 10 of the most-read articles in that journal for 2018. The Journal of Management currently has the top journal impact factor (8.08) in the field of management. 

Profs Hoobler and Nkomo, along with their colleagues Dr Courtney Masterson of the University of San Francisco (USA) and Dr Eric Michel of Northern Illinois University (USA), meta-analysed all studies that have made the business case for women’s leadership – that is, the research testing the association between the number or percentage of women leaders in a firm and various measures of that firm’s financial performance. 

While the business case has been a popular way to argue for more women leaders, the authors found very little evidence of it. They then interrogated whether this popular stream of research should rather, in the future, be redirected. They conclude with a detailed research agenda for alternative ways to measure the influence of women leaders on firms, ways that better acknowledge advancements in gender and diversity scholarship.

Profs Stella Nkomo and Jenny Hoobler

Read more:

Journal of Management:  https://journals.sagepub.com/home/jom#

Link to article:  https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0149206316628643