[Special Feature: Confronting the Gender Gap] What Kind of Workplace Allows Working Mothers to Thrive? Diversity and Workplace Management from the Perspective of Human Resource Development

2020/04/06

As a management scholar, I research "organizations" such as private companies and government agencies, as well as the "human resources" who work there. I earned my degree at a graduate school of management (Keio Business School), and business schools that provide management education for practitioners often receive consultations regarding human resource education in various organizational settings. Consequently, alongside my research and teaching, I began working on human resource development for leaders and managers in corporate and administrative sectors. I primarily teach management using the case method, but 99% of the students are male. When I asked the human resources departments that requested the training, the most common response was, "Female employees do not have a high awareness of promotion or training; in particular, they lose their motivation as if they have become different people after giving birth."

However, in 2014, while I was on childcare leave after giving birth to my daughter, a woman in corporate sales who was also on leave consulted me. She said, "Since giving birth to my first child and facing time constraints, my sales performance has suddenly improved. Work has become interesting, so I want to use this second childcare leave to study business. But I can't go to business school with a child, so what should I do?" Encountering women whose motivation increased after childbirth or who had a desire to learn during childcare leave was an eye-opening experience for me. Although I was half-skeptical, I developed teaching materials based on my past experience in manager training and my specialized knowledge. I held a study group for those on childcare leave called "Ikukyu (Childcare Leave) Petit MBA" in a single apartment room, and there were many more applicants than I had anticipated. Currently, I provide learning opportunities through a company I co-founded called Work Shift Institute, and the total number of participants has exceeded 8,000.

As I continued this "Ikukyu Petit MBA," various insights regarding human resource development for women accumulated. From the perspective of someone who had previously provided education mainly targeting male managers, there were many surprising findings, such as expressions to stimulate women's motivation to learn, teaching methods that make it easier for women to feel a sense of learning, and methods for operating learning communities. I also realized that the reason women lose motivation after returning from childcare leave is not so much a direct result of childbirth, but rather the influence of workplace factors that make balancing work and childcare difficult, and the resulting inability to have a career outlook.

As a result of seeing these facts and advancing my understanding of female learners, I came to believe that "women do have the motivation to learn and work, but it is not being drawn out because companies have not prepared the workplace environment or learning opportunities."

Regarding how to perceive diversity, the categorization by Harrison and Klein (2007) *1 is helpful (Figure 1).

1. Disparity: A perspective focusing on inequality in organizations and society, such as gender gaps.

2. Separation: A perspective focusing on differences in values within a workplace or group, such as levels of motivation or commitment.

3. Variety: A perspective focusing on the distribution of knowledge, skills, and abilities.

Viewing the history of women's advancement from these perspectives results in the following. First, from the perspective of "disparity," it was necessary to eliminate the inequality where opportunities for advancement in business were limited simply because one was a woman. It can be said that equal opportunity measures for men and women, represented by the Equal Employment Opportunity Act (enacted in 1985), were carried out from this perspective. As a result, employment opportunities for women were secured, but at the same time, women were required to handle a workload equivalent to that of men who left housework and childcare to their stay-at-home wives. Women were forced to choose between "career or family," and about 60% left their jobs upon the birth of their first child *2. Most of those who left once either remained stay-at-home mothers or re-entered the workforce in non-regular employment.

Subsequently, as measures to reduce the number of people leaving work due to childbirth, the Child Care and Family Care Leave Act (enacted in 1991) and shortened working hour systems were established. By creating an environment where it was easier to continue employment, the number of people leaving due to childbirth dropped to about 50%, but the next challenge faced was the phenomenon where women continued to work but did not (or could not) thrive. In one survey, the percentage of people who responded that they did not wish to be promoted in their current workplace was 19.6% for men, compared to 58.0% for women *3. More than half of women do not try to utilize opportunities even when they exist.

However, it is a bit premature to attribute the cause of this to "women's low motivation." Looking at the "reasons for not wanting promotion" in the same survey, the most common response among women was "it would become difficult to balance work and family" (36.5%), showing that they do not feel like taking on professional responsibilities without support measures for balancing housework and childcare (Figure 2). Here, we can glimpse the influence of the gap in values regarding social roles for men and women—that is, the diversity of "separation"—on workplace organizations.

Ironically, there is also an aspect where systems for continuing employment promote this gap in values. For example, when only women utilize childcare leave or shortened working hour systems, the value of gender-based division of labor—that "childcare is a woman's role"—is reinforced. In France and Sweden, where the average time men with children under six spend on housework is about three times that of Japan *4 and the ratio of female managers is high, it is easy to treat this purely as a matter of values. However, in Japan, the strong link between values and gender makes the issue complex, as the perspectives of "separation" and "disparity" are easily confused.

On the other hand, from a management perspective, what holds value for corporate organizations is the diversity of "variety." Especially in the current environment where consumer preferences are diversifying and the speed of technological innovation is fast, innovation is essential. It is said that to realize knowledge creation, the interior of an organization needs the same degree of diversity as the market (the principle of requisite variety). Even otherwise, working as a team requires human resources with various knowledge and skills. In our country with a declining birthrate, it is no longer possible to secure this diversity of knowledge and skills only with highly homogeneous human resources. To realize and utilize the diversity of "variety," managers and leaders in the field are required to have the skill to tolerate the diversity of "separation" and "disparity" and minimize negative conflicts.

Based on the above, if we look at the existence of working mothers, they can be described as human resources who possess the knowledge, skills, and experience (variety diversity) required by the workplace, but because they happen to be women (disparity diversity), their values regarding working hours (separation diversity) change upon childbirth. To leverage such human resources, it is desirable for executives and managers to control the negative aspects associated with "separation" and "disparity" and perform workplace management that effectively utilizes "variety."

Specifically, regarding the perspective of gender disparity, as mentioned earlier, many women are more susceptible than men to the effects of life events such as childbirth and childcare. Therefore, it is first necessary to consider gender inequality. In particular, it is necessary to create a workplace where childbirth and childcare do not affect one's career. It is necessary not only to expand support systems for balancing work and life, such as childcare leave and shortened hour systems, but also to provide them in a form that can be used regardless of gender.

If a state with little disparity can be created, the next approach should be the diversity of "separation." For example, it is necessary to minimize conflicts between members that arise from differences in values—such as wanting to leave on time to make time for private life, or wanting to work as long as possible for experience and income—rather than attributes like gender or the presence of children. To achieve this, it is necessary to assume diversity of values and to have evaluation criteria other than values. For example, in a workplace where the value "being in the workplace for a long time is good" is strong, conflicts may arise where people who want to leave early feel guilty or are criticized by those around them. However, in an organizational culture where "as long as results are produced, the time of leaving is left to individual judgment," and under a supervisor who leads by example, such conflicts will likely not occur.

By realizing such a workplace environment, the diversity of "variety" can be secured. However, to have them demonstrate variety diversity and contribute to the organization, incentives are needed that make each member want to utilize their knowledge and skills. This is a necessary perspective in normal organizational management as well, but especially from the perspective of diversity, it is important to create a situation where people can believe that regardless of diversity in disparity or separation, they can produce results if they work hard, and will receive appropriate evaluation if they produce results. A workplace where people are evaluated fairly if they produce results, regardless of their personal circumstances, can draw out contributions from diverse members. In other words, in a workplace that eliminates gender inequality, assumes diversity of values, and provides incentives to contribute to the organization, diversity can be converted into competitiveness. To achieve this, systems that can consider individual circumstances and management actions that set expectations and provide necessary support to effectively draw out the motivation to contribute are required.

Whether or not an individual's contribution can be drawn out depends on the workplace. However, depending on the individual's awareness, they may not be able to effectively utilize a favorable environment. Here, I will describe the mechanism by which the workplace environment affects the awareness of individual women.

Adult abilities are developed through work experience of appropriate difficulty (McCall et al. 1988, etc.) *5. So-called challenging work experiences lead to the development of a person's abilities, and through ability development, people gain confidence. Bandura (1977) *6 divides the structure of confidence into two parts: confidence that "I have the ability to act" (efficacy expectation) and confidence that "actions will be appropriately evaluated" (outcome expectation). When these two types of confidence are present, a person acts (Figure 3). There are four means for fostering efficacy expectations: performance accomplishments, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion, and physiological states (Bandura, 1995) *7. Women who have fostered efficacy expectations by gaining successful experiences, observing role models, or being encouraged by a trusted supervisor will accept more challenging tasks and develop their abilities.

However, women are structurally in a situation where it is difficult to obtain challenging work experiences. For example, direct experience may be lacking due to career interruptions for childbirth and childcare or constraints on working hours, and the actions of managers who consider it a risk to entrust tasks to such personnel. Indirect experience may be lacking due to the lack of opportunities to observe female managers. Furthermore, opportunities and support for development are more likely to be lacking than for men due to statistical discrimination—the result of rational judgment based on past data that "there is no point in training women because they quit"—or gender bias such as "it's a pity to entrust a girl with difficult tasks." Furthermore, because they harbor anxiety about sudden early departures or absences due to a child's illness (who gets a fever about 20 days a year on average), women themselves find it difficult to feel like actively taking on tasks and responsibilities. This is not a state of low motivation for work, but a state where efficacy expectations have decreased due to anxiety. However, to those around them, this may appear as a passive attitude of "no motivation" or "low awareness." Additionally, efficacy expectations are also likely to decrease when flexible working styles in terms of time and place are not permitted.

There is also the aspect of "outcome expectation," which is the belief that actions will lead to desirable results. If people think they will not receive appropriate evaluation even if they act, they will not feel like taking action. However, existing workplaces are environments based on the assumption of men with stay-at-home wives and are not suited to women who assume a balance with childcare. In particular, methods for work allocation, goal setting, and evaluation for employees with time constraints have not yet been established in many cases, and women raising children lose motivation thinking, "I won't be evaluated even if I work hard." This is precisely a problem of outcome expectation. Also, as pointed out by Munakata and Wakabayashi (1987) *8, women are exposed to a "double prejudice" where masculine behavior is evaluated in managerial leadership, whereas the evaluation of women who take strong, masculine leader actions is low. In a situation where female leaders receive low evaluations either way, the number of women aiming for those positions will inevitably decrease.

In this way, the workplace environment causes women's efficacy expectations and outcome expectations to decrease, creating a structure where motivation for work or promotion becomes low. Therefore, if we expect women to thrive, measures to increase efficacy expectations and outcome expectations are necessary. Specifically, while giving challenging tasks that lead to growth, it is necessary to provide organizational support to increase efficacy expectations, and to review evaluation methods and form a culture to increase outcome expectations.

It may have sounded as if I have been discussing only women while talking about diversity, but this is because women primarily embody the challenges of diversity in Japanese companies. In the coming era, this challenge will no longer be limited to women. For example, a survey I conducted targeting university juniors shows that 60% of both men and women want to balance childcare and work (Figure 4). In the future, workplaces that cannot recognize such diversity of values will likely fail to attract talent, regardless of gender.

As of February 2020, when I am writing this manuscript, Japan is greatly shaken by responses to the spread of COVID-19, including recommendations to cancel events, encouragement of remote work and staggered commuting, and requests for temporary closures of elementary and junior high schools. This series of events is having a significant impact on Japan's society and economy, but at the same time, it is exposing the crisis management and management judgment systems of various companies and local governments.

While many schools are scrambling to deal with closures, some educational institutions quickly switched to online classes to maintain learning opportunities for their students. While some companies have employees commuting on crowded trains, others are considering expanding the scope of remote work systems, flexible operation of leave systems, or allowing employees to bring their children to work. Organizations that can respond quickly to such emergencies likely had systems and cultures that tolerate such diversity in working styles fostered from the beginning. I believe that the essential significance of the need for "new working styles"—that is, the value brought by diversity in working styles—is the diversity of options for living in an uncertain future.

*1 Harrison, D. A. and Klein, K. J. (2007) What’s the Difference? Diversity Constructs as Separation, Variety, or Disparity in Organizations. The Academy of Management Review 32 (4), 1199-1228

*2 National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, "14th Basic Survey on Birth Trends"

*3 Emiko Takeishi (2014) "Corporate Initiatives to Increase Women's Motivation to Work" in Challenges of Work-Life Balance Support (University of Tokyo Press)

*4 Reference materials for the "2011 Survey on Time Use and Leisure Activities" by the Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications

*5 McCall, M.W. Jr., Lombardo, M.M. and Morrison, A.M. (1988) The Lessons of Experience: How Successful Executives Develop on the Job. New York: The Free Press

*6 Bandura, A. (1977) Self-efficacy: Toward a Unifying Theory of Behavioral Change. Psychological Review, Vol 84 (2), 191-215

*7 Bandura, A. (1995) Self-efficacy in Changing Societies, Cambridge University Press

*8 Hisako Munakata and Mitsuru Wakabayashi (1987) "Attitudes Toward Female Leaders: Double Prejudice" in Organizational Behavior Science, 2(1) 15-22