Title: Gender and Management: Cases from the Caribbean
Authors: Linda Claudia De Four & Gwendoline Williams
Reviewed by: Sheilah Garcia-Bisnott
GENDER and Management is perhaps the first of its kind. It is a collection of 21 case studies of women in management in the Caribbean, developed from actual interviews, and presented for students in management courses, for persons involved in management, and simply for the interested reader.
The stories are of women who have been successful and unsuccessful in shattering perceived or actual "glass ceilings", "glass doors', or otherwise coping to varying degrees with the challenges they face as managers at work. And the workplace embraces not only traditional business, but spreads into politics, academia, the military, small and large enterprises, the public service.
These case studies record achievements as well as frustrations, and although presented with some degree of bias, for example in their very selection, they stand up in their handling, to scrutiny in authenticity. Discriminatory practices are revealed in relation to personalities, sociological, conditions, workplace practices and styles of management. Many derive from the male dominance, even if indirectly; some from faults that might be traced to the individual, or to a range of conditions.
This spread is an important quality, as the text is a teaching tool - its obvious intention to guide student evaluation and response. To this end also, each case is followed by a number of questions - typically four or five - that challenge discussion and evaluation of the case. Questions require students to apply theoretical studies and good sense as they probe aspects of the problem, and suggest causes and solutions. In this way students are actively engaged in experiencing real workplace concerns; in conducting human resource development audits; in evaluating management structures and styles, exploring and presenting alternatives; in contending with personalities and developing strategies; in assessing problems from the standpoint of an informed professional (or aspiring professional).
Through all this emerges the major issue: management - principles, systems, styles, traditions. And the cases repeatedly raise questions (implied, if not stated) concerning not simply personalities but structures, practices, institutionalised attitudes including arbitrariness and unprofessional procedures which evidently breed and sustain discriminatory and other undesirable practices, whether deliberate or accidental.
Many cases hint at coping strategies - as in membership in professional associations, as in help received from support groups, (including family, friends, colleagues). These too provide useful teaching points as well as good gratuitous advice, but the underlying demand is for good management. To this end too the cases present different styles - by men as well as women - with varying results, including weaknesses in both gender groups, though there do appear to be indicators of greater success in participatory management than in the more authoritarian style, and the benefits of hard work are clear.
To help the student further, there are in some 40 pages toward the end of this text, a number of pointers to aid study. They are called "Teaching Notes" obviously intended for the tutor but clearly useful for the student as personal study guides. Notes are given to only a selection of cases, but the guidelines they provide are transferable. They help in the setting of learning objectives; they focus on key issues; they make suggestions on approaches for teaching (studying) the particular case. A conscientious student will work through those that focus on specific cases; then apply the technique to other cases, and so use these as useful learning and skills development tools.
Beyond this, Gender And Management is interesting reading, offered in the most lucid styles, with minimal editorial comment. Cases raise important issues involving an unusually wide range of Caribbean countries - places little known as well as those trodden by many (though readers will almost certainly find that in reading the cases they could be sitting in almost any Caribbean country). These cases speak particularly about women, but the challenges do not rest there; they extend into the corridors of work - to the would-be managers (students in management studies), to the de facto managers, to the interested. This text needs to be read, and used.
Publishers: Ian Randle & KIT
