Female Leadership Brings Strong Performance

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MP Guru
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Last week, Xerox made history when it announced that CEO Anne Mulcahy will be succeeded by Ursula M. Burns when Mulcahy steps down in July.

The occasion marked the first time that a female CEO of a Fortune 500 company has passed the position to another female. Currently, there are 12 female CEOs in the Fortune 500.

The transition, which has been carefully orchestrated, represents a textbook leadership succession plan as well as an important benchmark for women in corporate leadership. However, as important — if not more so from a performance standpoint — will be the number of women holding senior management positions. (Indeed, Mulcahy will remain as chairman on the board.)

Research from Professor David Gaddis Ross indicates that having a higher percentage of women in senior management positions equates to better firm performance. From a recent article in Ideas at Work about Ross’s research:

To investigate the connection between women senior managers and firm performance, Ross and Dezsö examined such performance metrics as the market-to-book ratio, return on assets, return on equity and annual sales growth from 1992 to 2006 for the largest 1,500 U.S. firms. The researchers analyzed the relationship between these measures and the percentage of women in senior management positions up to, but not including, the CEO level. Separately, they studied these performance measures in firms that had female CEOs.

Their findings showed that having a higher percentage of women in senior management positions up to the CEO level — in most cases, just having a single female — is positively associated with better firm performance. For companies with a female CEO, however, the association with firm performance is neutral or negative. This suggests that female senior managers do add value to their firms but that whatever special qualities female managers may have are neutralized by the unique attributes of the CEO position.

In news closer to home, another technology company led by a female CEO was recently profiled in Alumni News. Read a Q&A with Rebecca Masisak ’90, co-CEO of TechSoup Global.

Photo courtesy of Xerox



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