Gender differences in work experiences and work outcomes among Turkish managers and professionals: Continuing signs of progress?

Gender differences in workexperiences and work outcomesamong Turkish managers and

professionalsContinuing signs of progress?

Ronald J. BurkeYork University, Toronto, Canada

Mustafa KoyuncuNevsehir University, Nevsehir, Turkey

Parbudyal SinghYork University, Toronto, Canada

Nihat AlayogluIstanbul Ticaret University, Istanbul, Turkey, and

Kadife KoyuncuNevsehir University, Nevsehir, Turkey

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore gender differences in the work and careerexperiences and psychological health of women and men in managerial and professional jobs in Turkey.

Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected for 94 men and 48 women in managerial andprofessional jobs in Turkey. Comparisons of women and men using one-way ANOVA providedconsiderable support for the hypotheses.

Findings – Women and men were found to differ on many personal demographic and work situationcharacteristics: women were younger, less likely to be married or have children, were at lowerorganizational levels, worked fewer hours and earned less income. Women and men had similar levels ofeducation, however. Women and men were similar on almost all work outcomes (e.g. job satisfaction,work engagement, intent to quit) and indicators of psychological health (e.g. exhaustion, lifesatisfaction). However, men worked significantly more hours than did women.

Originality/value – The research extends previous work by scholars using a sample from Turkey.It is not often that research of this nature utilizes samples from countries outside of North America,Europe and Australasia. Furthermore, unlike some published research, this study uses manyinstruments/measures, all with excellent psychometric properties.

Keywords Turkey, Managers, Gender, Career development, Gender discrimination, Working hours,Quality of working life

Paper type Research paper

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at

www.emeraldinsight.com/1754-2413.htm

This research was supported in part by York University, Nevsehir University, Istanbul TicaretUniversity and a research grant from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council ofCanada. The authors acknowledge the participation of the organizations and the respondents.

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Gender in Management: AnInternational Journal

Vol. 27 No. 1, 2012pp. 23-35

q Emerald Group Publishing Limited1754-2413

DOI 10.1108/17542411211199255

There are signs that managerial and professional women are continuing to makeprogress in preparing themselves for careers in various fields, gaining the necessaryexperiences that contribute to career success and progress, and moving into moreresponsible positions in public, nonprofit and private sector organizations, especiallyin the developed world (Collins, 2009; Davidson and Burke, 2011; Powell, 2011;Barreto et al., 2009). There is evidence that women are now earning more money andacquiring considerable purchasing power (Silverstein and Sayre, 2009; Wittenberg-Coxand Maitland, 2008). Also, women bring considerable benefits to their professional andmanagerial jobs such as different perspectives and experiences while demonstratingleadership skills as successfully as men do (Eagly and Carli, 2007). There has beensome evidence that companies with more women in top management positions makeless risky decisions which protect them in times of economic challenges, that womenare less greedy than men, less likely to engage in theft, fraud and corruption, are lessnarcissistic and show less hubris, again protecting the organization from fa ilure anda poor reputation (Davidson and Burke, 2011).

But women continue to face challenges and barriers that make it more difficult forthem to pursue satisfying careers particularly in large organizations (Eagly andCarli, 2007; Maineiro and Sullivan, 2006; Ragins et al., 1998). Some of these challengesand obstacles include subtle and not-so-subtle bias and discrimination, the old boys’network, difficulty in getting organizational sponsors, shouldering more than theirshare of home and family responsibilities, difficulties in obtaining internationalassignments, and the long work hours cultures (Barreto et al., 2009; Broadbridge, 2008;Morrison et al., 1992; Powell, 2011; Hewlett and Luce, 2006; Burke and Mattis, 2005;Burke and Nelson, 2002). These challenges and barriers are reflected in women “optingout” of large organizations to pursue careers in entrepreneurship and small-sizedenterprises (Mainiero and Sullivan, 2006), taking time out from their careers to havechildren and be home to take care of them (Powell, 2011; Burke and Mattis, 2005; Burkeand Nelson, 2002) or working on part-time or reduced work load arrangements(Lee et al., 2002). Some women legitimately prefer to stay at home and raise theirfamilies than pursue careers in organizations though they may not have encounteredchallenges and barriers. While the foregoing observations, borne out of empiricalresearch, have been reported in the more advanced economies, there is little relatedresearch on those that are newly industrialized, such as Turkey. In fact, there has beenlittle scholarly work on this issue outside of North America, Europe and Australasia.

In this paper, we address this under-researched area in the literature by comparingwomen and men working in managerial and professional jobs in Turkey on severalvariables, including work outcomes, work motivation, and psychological well-being.In this respect, we build on previous research (Davidson and Burke, 2011;Vinnicombe et al., 2009; Burke and Mikkelsen, 2005; Eagly and Carli, 2007;Singh et al., 2004), using measures with sound psychometric properties. After a briefreview of the literature, we present the methods and results. The results are thendiscussed, as well as implications for research and practice.

An overview of the literatureWe do not conduct a detailed review of the theory and empirical research as this can befound elsewhere (Eagly and Carli, 2007; Powell, 2011; Powell et al., 2002). Nevertheless,to contextualize the study and allow for ease in understanding the research, we will

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briefly discuss pertinent empirical research and provide an overview of Turkey andrelated women’s issues.

Women still are under-represented in the ranks of senior management and oncorporate boards of directors (Broadbridge, 2010; Davidson and Burke, 2011;Vinnicombe et al., 2009). Furthermore, the pipeline does not promise significantimprovement. The percentage of MBA students that are women seems to have plateaued;women report less satisfying experiences in MBA programs than do men; and womencontinue to be underrepresented in science technology, engineering and mathematics(Burke and Mattis, 2007; Ceci and Williams, 2009).

But failing to fully utilize the talents of half the population is a luxury thatorganizations worldwide can no longer afford. While the current recession in manyparts of the world may be increasing the supply of labour temporarily, there will be alabor shortage in all developed countries over the next two decades as the populationages and the low birth rate in these countries fails to provide enough new workforceentrants (Financial Times, 2011). Furthermore, it has been estimated that about half theindividuals holding managerial jobs are falling short in their performance (Hogan andHogan, 2001) and most organizations feel that they are not doing a good job atdeveloping managerial talent (Rothstein and Burke, 2010). This will add to the current“war for talent” (Michaels et al., 2001).

We have been examining the experiences of women and men in managerial andprofessional jobs in a variety of sectors (e.g. healthcare, hospitality and tourism,manufacturing, universities) and in different countries (e.g. Canada, Australia, China,Egypt, Turkey, and Norway). In these studies, we have compared women and men onpersonal demographic and work situation characteristics, work outcomes, and indicators ofpsychological well-being (Burke and Mikkelsen, 2005; Burke and El-Kot, 2009; Burke et al.,2006, 2008b; Koyuncu et al., 2006; Burke et al., 2008c). A fairly consistent pattern of resultsemerged in these studies. First, women and men differed significantly and considerably onpersonal demographic and work situation characteristics. Women were younger, less likelyto be married, less likely to have children, were in lower level positions, earned less income,and worked fewer hours a week. Women, however, were as educated as men. Second, therewere few, if any, significant gender differences on work outcomes. Women and men weresimilarly job satisfied, had similar levels of intention to quit, organizational commitment,and were similarly work engaged. Third, women and men indicated generally similar levelsof psychological well-being. Women and men indicated similar levels of extra-worksatisfactions, work-family conflict, and overall life satisfaction. In some cases, womenreported higher levels of psychosomatic symptoms; a finding consistent with women’sgenerally greater reporting of such symptoms. Thus, even though these countries haddifferent cultural values, and culture has been shown to influence women’s work and careerexperiences (Burke, 2009), the findings were consistent across countries and cultures.

Our previous research results are similar to that reported by others. For instance, interms of work motivation and engagement/commitment, variables examined in thisstudy, the research suggests that women and men are not dissimilar. Research on themotivation of women in management positions has yielded profiles very similar tothose of male managers; that is, no significant differences have been found in the levelof motivation (Mason, 1995; Burke and Nelson, 2002). Powell (1988, p. 159) in a reviewof the literature on commitment found no clear relationship between sex/gender andcommitment:

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Rather than concluding that there are sex differences in commitment, it is more appropriate toconclude that the commitment of male and female managers is affected by the same set ofvariables. Variables such as family characteristics and sex role conflict could lead to sex differencein managerial commitment. Managers are more likely to have their level of commitmentinfluenced, however, by job circumstances and personal factors other than their1 sex.

Along similar lines, a meta-analysis reported no sex differences in organizationalcommitment, especially after controlling for organizational variables (Aven et al.,1993). More recent studies also suggest that men and women do not have significantlydifferent work attitudes (Goulet and Singh, 2002; Eagly and Carli, 2007; Powell, 2011).Thus, given our own research and that of other scholars, we do not expect significantdifferences in work outcomes by gender.

Women in management in TurkeyTurkey has a population of about 75 million and serves as a bridge between Europeand Asia. Founded in 1923 with Mastafa Kemal Ataturk as President, Turkey is asecular Muslim country with a division of religion from the state. Turkey then has asomewhat unique culture. Ataturk was also ahead of his time in espousing equality forwomen. In 2011, the Turkish economy was relatively strong, growing at a rate secondonly to China and ahead of India’s economy; it is the sixth largest economy in Europe,and the 16th largest in the world.

Turkey has emerged as a model of a stable democracy in the Middle East inaddition to having a strong economy. A decade earlier, the Turkish economy faredbadly. In addition, the military removed governments that it did not like. The currentTurkish Government, fiscally conservative and supportive of business, is attemptingto strengthen Islamic values and this might hamper women’s advancement.

Two bodies of work best illustrate the status of women in management in Turkey.First, a recent United Nations Development Programme (2008) report compared thepercentage of women among managers, legislators and union officials in 13 countriesand showed that Turkey ranked last with only 7 percent of these positions being heldby women compared with 42 percent in the USA, 37 percent in Germany and 36 percentin Canada. Thus, Turkey still has a long way to go to achieve levels already beingobserved elsewhere. Second, Turkish scholars have undertaken reviews of the status ofwomen in management in Turkey as well (Kabasakal et al., 2011, 2004). Their findingsare similar to those found elsewhere. Women are paid less than men in all occupations.Women and men study different subjects in colleges and university with few women intechnical, scientific and business areas. Few women hold senior management jobs inthe private sector, with family having a limiting effect on women’s careers. Bothwomen and men held negative attitudes towards women managers. Few organizationsundertake initiatives to support the advancement of qualified women. On the positiveside, however, Turkey has in place legislation supporting women’s equality, andTurkey has a higher percentage of women in some high status professions such as law,pharmacy, dentistry, medicine and the professorate.

The present studyIn this study, we compare women and men working in managerial and professional jobsin Turkey on similar variables. The sample worked in a variety of jobs in private sectororganizations. Two general hypotheses were developed based on previous

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research findings. First, managerial and professional women and men would differsignificantly on personal demographic and work situation characteristics consistentwith previous results (Davidson and Burke, 2011; Vinnicombe et al., 2009). Second,managerial and professional women and men would indicate similar levels of work andpsychological well-being outcomes, again consistent with previous results (Burke andMikkelsen, 2005; Burke et al., 2006, 2008b, c; Eagly and Carli, 2007; Singh et al., 2004).

MethodsProceduresAll data were collected using anonymously completed questionnaires. The generalmanagers and human resource managers of a sample of 49 firms belonging to theIndependent Industrialists and Business Association (MUSIAD) were contacted. Allwere on the top 1,000 companies list of the Istanbul Chamber of Industry (ISO) in 2010.MUSIAD is a large organization with more than 3,000 members. These 49 firms werelocated in 17 different cities (most in Istanbul and Konya) and in ten sectors (most infood, beverage and tobacco and metals). Using convenience sampling techniques, thesemanagers were asked to distribute surveys to ten of their managers and professionals;we used this strategy so as to expand the sample size. HR and general managers weretargeted because they were perceived to be more open to responding to surveys onemployee attitudes and behaviors. A total of 17 firms declined to participate. A total of142 completed questionnaires were received, the vast majority via e-mail; thisrepresents a 28 percent response rate if we use all 49 firms (142 out of 490).

RespondentsDemographic and work situation characteristics of the sample are shown in Table I. Thesample was mostly male (66 percent), worked full-time (99 percent), were married(71 percent), had children (69 percent), were between 31 and 40 years of age (56 percent),had a Bachelor’s university degree(70 percent), earned over US$19,000 (38 percent), hassupervisory duties (79 percent), worked in middle management (39 percent), workedbetween 46 and 50 hours per week (42 percent), had five years of less of organizationaltenure (61 percent), and five years of less of job tenure (75 percent), and worked inorganizations having 100-1,000 employees (66 percent). The latter suggests that mostworked for medium-sized enterprises.

MeasuresPersonal and demographic and work situation characteristics were measured by singleitems (Table I). These included: gender, age, marital and parental status, work status,level of education, income, job and organizational tenure, and organizational size.The other measures, used frequently in previous research and with established soundpsychometric properties, are described below. As can be seen, all the measures hadexcellent reliabilities in this study (greater than 0.70).

Career priority and family priority. Career priority and family priority were eachmeasured by two items (a ¼ 0.82 and 0.93, respectively) developed by Lobel and Clair(1992). Items included “The most important things that happens to me involve mycareer”, and, “The most important things that happen to me involve my family.”

Job demands. Two job demands were considered. Work hours was measured bya single item “How many hours do you work in a typical week?”, and work intensity

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was measured by a 15-item scale (a ¼ 0.71) based on items proposed by Hewlett andLuce (2006) and Burke et al. (2010). The items included the intensity characteristics oftheir work, including: “an unpredictable flow of work”, “fast-paced work under tightdeadlines”, and “routinely receive work-related phone calls and e-mails at home.”

Work motivations. Two work motivations underlying one’s work investment wereexamined. Passion was measured by a 19-item scale (a ¼ 0.84) containing items fromseveral sources (Hadley, 2008; Perttula, 2009; Cardon et al., 2009). One item was “Mywork is a part of who I am.” Addiction was measured by a six-item scale (a ¼ 0.74)developed by Spence and Robbins (1992). One item was “I often feel that there’ssomething inside me that drives me to work hard.”

Work outcomes. Five work outcomes were assessed. Job satisfaction wasmeasured by a six-item scale (a ¼ 0.71) developed by Kofodimos (1993). One item

n % n %

Gender AgeMale 94 66.2 25 years or less 14 10.1Female 48 33.8 26-30 30 21.8Work status 31-35 40 29.0Full-time 138 98.6 36-40 38 27.3Part-time 2 1.4 41 or more 16 11.6Marital status Length of marriageSingle 41 29.1 Five years or less 36 33.6Married 100 70.9 Six to ten years 28 26.2Children 11-15 years 28 26.2Yes 92 68.7 16 or more years 15 14.0No 42 31.3 IncomeNumber of children US$ 7,000 or less 17 12.51 38 40.9 7,000-9,999 10 7.42 41 46.1 10,000-12,999 16 11.83 or more 14 1.0 13,000-15,999 22 16.2Education 16,000-18,999 20 14.7Elementary 2 1.4 US$ 19,000 or more 51 37.5High school 29 20.9 Supervisory dutiesBachelors 97 69.8 Yes 105 78.9Masters 10 7.2 No 28 21.1PhD 1 0.7 Organizational levelWork hours Non-management 34 24.840 hours or less 10 7.2 Lower management 29 21.241-45 29 21.1 Middle management 54 39.446-50 46 41.8 Senior management 20 14.651-55 22 16.0 Job tenure56-60 22 15.9 Two years or less 56 39.161 or more 11 8.0 Three to five years 49 35.5Organizational tenure Six to ten years 31 22.5Two years or less 37 26.4 11 or more years 4 2.9Three to five years 45 32.2 Organizational sizeSix to ten years 40 28.5 100 or less 28 20.911 years or more 18 12.9 101-500 48 35.8

501-1,000 41 30.61001 or more 17 12.7

Table I.Personal demographicand work situationcharacteristics of sample

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was “I feel challenged by my work”. Intent to quit was measured by a two-item scale(a ¼ 0.75) used previously by Burke (1991). An item was “Are you currently lookingfor a different job in a different organization?” (yes/no).

Three components of work engagement developed by Schaufeli et al. (2002) wereused. Vigor was measured by six items (a ¼ 0.84). One item was “At my work, I feelbursting with energy.” dedication was assessed by five items (a ¼ 0.89). An item was“My job inspires me.” absorption was measured by six items (a ¼ 0.68). One tem was“I am immersed in my work.”

Psychological well-being. Three aspects of psychological well-being were included.Exhaustion was measured by a nine-item scale (a ¼ 0.78), part of the Maslach BurnoutInventory (Maslach et al., 1996). One item was “I feel burned out from my work.”Psychosomatic symptoms were assessed by a 19-item scale (a ¼ 0.90) developed byQuinn and Shepard (1974). Respondents indicated how often each symptom happened tothem in the past year. Items included “cramps in my legs”, “poor appetite,” and “havingtrouble getting to sleep”. Finally, life satisfaction was assessed by a five-items scale(a ¼ 0.87) develop by Diener et al. (1985). An item was “I am satisfied with my life.”

Analysis strategyMale and female managers and professionals (94 and 48, respectively) were comparedon all study measures using one-way ANOVA; this allows for an assessment of meandifferences across males and females.

ResultsPersonal demographic and work situation characteristicsTable II presents the comparisons of male and females on ten personal demographicand work situation characteristics. Significant differences were present ( p , 0.05 orgreater) on six of the ten variables. Male managers and professionals were older, morelikely to be married and be parents, were at higher organizational levels, were morelikely to have supervisory responsibilities, and earned greater incomes. The twogroups were similar on level of education, job and organizational tenure, and sizesof employing organizations. These results provided considerable support for our firstgeneral hypothesis.

Males FemalesX SD n X SD n p

Age 36.2 6.74 92 29.7 5.46 46 0.001Marital status 1.8 0.40 93 1.5 0.50 48 0.001Parental status 0.8 0.40 92 0.4 0.50 40 0.001Education 2.8 0.57 93 2.9 0.63 46 nsIncome 4.5 1.82 91 3.8 1.59 45 0.05Organizational level 2.7 0.92 92 1.9 1.01 45 0.001Supervisory duties 1.1 0.35 91 1.4 0.48 42 0.01Organizational tenure 6.0 4.99 94 5.0 4.72 46 nsJob tenure 4.2 3.61 94 3.4 2.83 44 nsOrganizational size 688.5 91 509.7 43 ns

Table II.Personal demographic

and work situationcharacteristics – gender

differences

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Outcome measuresTable III shows the comparisons of male and female managers and professionals on14 outcome measures. There was only one significant gender difference on thesemeasures: male managers and professionals worked significantly more hours than didfemale managers and professionals. Two differences approached statisticalsignificance; males tended to report higher levels of both work intensity andabsorption ( p , 0.10). These findings provide considerable support for our secondgeneral hypothesis. That is, men and women did not differ significantly in the workoutcomes and physiological health.

DiscussionThis investigation considered whether female and male managers and professionalsworking in Turkey reported similar personal demographic and work situationcharacteristics, work outcomes and levels of psychological health. It replicated similarwork carried out in a variety of countries, occupations and industrial sectors (Burke andMikkelsen, 2005; Burke and El-Kot, 2009; Burke et al., 2006, 2008b, c; Koyuncu et al.,2006). Based on this earlier work, two broad hypotheses were developed: women andmen would differ significantly on many personal demographic and work situationcharacteristics reflecting the more recent entrance of women into these jobs and societalvalues but women and men would indicate similar responses on both work outcomesand indicators of psychological health. Women would be as committed to their jobs aswould men, given their managerial and professional roles, and despite potentialchallenges and obstacles, be as satisfied and healthy working in these roles.

The results shown in Tables II and III were supportive of both broad hypotheses.Considerable gender differences were present on personal demographic and worksituation characteristics; women were younger, less likely to be married and have children,

Males FemalesX SD n X SD n p

Work outcomesJob satisfaction 10.8 2.81 94 10.6 3.19 47 nsVigor 9.9 3.44 94 10.0 4.37 47 nsDedication 8.2 3.33 94 8.3 3.92 47 nsAbsorption 14.3 5.05 94 12.6 5.18 48 0.10Intent to quit 3.6 0.75 94 3.7 0.64 47 nsWork demandsHours worked 53.1 7.98 92 47.6 10.13 46 0.001Work intensity 51.0 13.31 94 46.4 13.54 46 0.10Work motivationsPassion 70.2 11.46 94 67.6 15.15 48 nsAddiction 18.6 4.29 94 19.1 4.32 47 nsCareer priority and family priorityCareer priority 5.6 1.91 93 6.1 1.90 48 nsFamily priority 8.3 1.78 93 8.3 2.13 47 nsPsychological well-beingExhaustion 20.6 7.67 94 21.2 8.25 47 nsPsychosomatic symptoms 32.5 10.48 94 34.2 12.89 48 nsLife satisfaction 15.8 6.51 93 14.5 5.11 48 ns

Table III.Work and well-beingoutcomes – genderdifferences

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be at lower organizational levels, work fewer hours, and earn less income. Women were aseducated as their men colleagues, however. As predicted, women and men were verysimilar on both work outcomes and self-reports of psychological well-being.

It has been suggested that there are both objective and subjective indicators ofcareers success (Ng et al., 2005); objective indicators would involve organizational level,having supervisory responsibilities, and higher incomes, while subjective career successwould consist of job satisfaction and work engagement. The managerial andprofessional women in this sample, as was the case in several similar studies conductedin different jobs, sectors and countries, showed that women were subjectively assuccessful as men but objectively less successful. In an early study, Sturges (1999) foundimportant differences in males and females’ conceptions of career success. Women, morethan men, referred to career success in terms of internal motivational criteria, such asaccomplishment, achievement, and personal recognition. Men used their position in thehierarchy and compensation levels more as indicators of success. One can only speculateon whether subjective career success, for women, is the more important of the two.

There are several managerial and organizational implications of this study. Growthin the Turkish economy has opened up career opportunities for both women and men.Although there were signs of progress in our findings – good news as far as women wereconcerned – organizations still need to make efforts to support the career aspirations oftheir women managers and professionals. Fortunately, considerable knowledge hasaccumulated over the past two decades on best practices in this area (Catalyst, 1998).In addition, case studies of what has worked in various organizations are also available(Mattis, 2005, 2002; Foust-Cummings, 2008; Spinks and Tombari, 2002).

Furthermore, given that men and women did not report significantly different workoutcomes and attitudes, managers should not plan for stereotypical outcomes where menare portrayed as more committed, motivated, and so on. To help with women’s careers,organizational leaders should examine job-related and organizational level factors sothat they do not work as barriers to women’s advancement and commitment at work.In an early study, Kanter (1977) contended that there are several barriers that preventwomen’s full contribution to organizations, including a lack of power and opportunities,lack of mentors and sponsors, and a male-oriented, male-dominated corporate culture.Perceptions of women having less commitment to the organization can serve to reinforcethese barriers (Singh et al., 2004). To change perceptions, organizations should work ondismantling all barriers and simultaneously adopt progressive human resource practicesthat will help the organizational lives of both women and men. More specifically, severalauthors have documented the successful initiatives by leading organizations inadvancing women’s careers, including, among other factors, flexible work hours,gender-awareness training and child-care (Mattis, 2002; Eagly and Carli, 2007; Powell,2011). In fact, our own research, added to the extensive literature in this field, suggestsorganizational interventions that have helped women’s career advancement. Theseinclude top management support and commitment for the initiatives, mentoring,systematic career planning and development, pay and reward systems that strive forequality and equity, and becoming a model in the wider community of what can beaccomplished through commitment, resources and effort (Davidson and Burke, 2011;Eagly and Carli, 2007; Powell, 2011; Singh et al., 2004).

Some limitations of the research should be noted to put the findings into a broadercontext. First, all data were collected using self-report questionnaires raising the

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possibility of response set tendencies. Second, the sample may not be representative ofTurkish managers and professionals. For example, this sample was relatively youngand had relatively short job and organizational tenures. Also, convenience samplingrestricts the generalizability of the results. Third, the sample of female managers andprofessionals was relatively small (n ¼ 48).

In terms of research directions, it would be useful to include a larger sample of femalemanagers and professionals in future work. In addition, obtaining respondent’sperceptions of perceived bias, discrimination and challenges would add to ourunderstanding of women’s work experiences and satisfactions. Finally, it would beinformative to add “objective” measures of the performance of female and male mangersand professionals, to complement the more readily available self-reports of employees.

ConclusionTurkey, like most countries globally, has an over-representation of men in topmanagement (Kabasakal, et al., 2004, 2011). Furthermore, previous research on genderissues in Turkey suggests that while societal attitudes towards women were slightlypositive, men generally held negative attitudes towards women in management thandid women (Aycan, 2004). In fact, there is some evidence suggesting that men andwomen in Turkey see women as being home-makers, more suited for motherly andfamily roles (Kabasakal et al., 2004).

Nevertheless, there are several contextual factors that should provide potentialsupport for women’s advancement in the future. These include the presence of strongfamily networks that help with childcare, the need for qualified staff in the country’syoung corporations, and the presence of generally supportive family-friendlyorganizational cultures (Burke et al., 2008a). Our study found that female managersand professionals were younger and more likely to be single; the two groups weresimilar on level of education, job and organizational tenure, and worked in organizationsof similar sizes. Given the needs of the Turkish economy and the attributes of the womenmanagers and professionals, it would be hugely beneficial for Turkish organizations tofully tap into the available women’s talent.

The work outcome results of this study provide further support for an increased rolefor women in Turkish organizations. As Aycan (2004) found, the key obstacles towomen’s advancement were societal norms towards gender roles. Given our findingsthat men and women do not differ significantly on several crucial work outcomes –including commitment and motivation – and that they were not negatively affectedphysiologically by their work, it is hoped that societal and managerial perceptionswould change over time to accept more meaningful organizational roles for women.

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Corresponding authorParbudyal Singh can be contacted at: [email protected]

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