GENDER ISSUES

Women in International Management



Women in International Management

Introduction

The importance of international assignments in management practices of organizations has double in its value as a sound method for the integration of international management and diversity in the work place, and its need has especially been harbored in the past few decades. However, the role of women has been seriously under-represented due to various reasons. Even in modern, developed nations, tradition dictates that women cannot tread with equal valor where their male counterparts have worked, and the gender issue has become a very loud debate in the recent years. The case study that I will be investigating is on Bestfoods, the consumer foods organization that was one of the first off the mark to utilize the globally changing trends with respect to international management and diversity and the role of women, and has led a fine example with its strategies.



Discussion

The international market was especially affected after the late 90's, the corporate environment taking a u-turn in terms of strategies towards international management and diversity in the workplace. The chairman of the corporation, Dick Shoemate, who was also at the time, the chief executive officer and president, rightfully understood and analyzed his decision of involving more women in his workforce, in order to avail its many advantages as part of an emerging trend in global markets. He placed a number of women in executive positions, thereby setting an example for other organizations at the time. He also instituted 2 women as Bestfoods board of directors. Not only this; Bestfoods has the highly respected title of being the first organization to hold a Women's Global Leadership Forum in 1998. This step towards helping empower women in their struggle to compete equally with men was a positive step towards gender equality in the workforce, and helped women in having an open forum in order to discuss the challenges faced by them in a corporate environment, for the ongoing success of their contribution. The corporate management undoubtedly became aware of the various challenges and the poor socio-economic status of women in the workplace, and strived to take the opportunity to become the first organization to tackle the difficulties faced by women, opening debate forums and applying strategies in the workplace. The Women's Global Leadership Forum was famously set in motion in order to develop the leadership skills of the women working with Bestfoods, as well as achieving global effectiveness through a network of such leaders. Another goal of this forum was to develop and encourages recommendations towards enhancing the global market's support of women in leading positions as well as their career progression in accordance with their success.

In preparing for this forum, some difficulties were expected and faced by the organizers, such as the initial reaction to opening a global forum and its implications on the internal work environments. The Corporate Strategy Council expressed concerns over negative reactions that may be generated by women over this forum however no such reactions were recorded as ...