Ambitious Academics Advancing in their Careers: Does a feminine organizational culture and FSSB predict ambition and intention to leave of academics one year later?

Abstract

Women in top positions of academia are underrepresented, which contributes to gender inequality and a loss of new perspectives and talent in the workforce. This second wave of a two-wave longitudinal study (one year in between measurements) aims to identify processes that stimulate the career advancement of (female) academics over time. It is hypothesized that a feminine organizational culture and Family Supportive Supervisor Behaviour (FSSB) play an essential role in the ambitions and intentions to leave of academics, by stimulating academics’ work engagement and work life balance. In order to examine this, an online follow-up questionnaire was sent to assistant professors at a large Dutch university. A matching procedure based on unique codes matched data of two waves to one particular participant (N = 205), enabling longitudinal statistical analyses. Results indicate a causal pathway wherein FSSB causes general ambition one year later through increased work engagement. Furthermore, results indicate a causal pathway wherein a feminine organizational culture or FSSB cause the ambition to become a full professor, through increased work life balance. Unexpectedly, while examining whether the effects of these processes are stronger for women, the current data do not reveal any significant gender differences. Implications of these findings and recommendations for future research are further discussed.