Harvard Business Review have just emailed me the story that is being run by most major French publications about how women on management teams have fared better than men in the current financial crisis.
Elle, Le Monde and many other publications have presented CERAM Professor Michel Ferrary’s research, which shows that companies with more women on their management teams have done better. I thought it particularly interesting in light of the debate about Helen Zille’s decision to pick an all-male team for her provincial cabinet.
Professor Ferrary’s research paper “When Gender Diversity Protects Stock Prices from the Crash” examines the relationship between women in leadership positions and the drop in share price since the beginning of the year.
Put simply, less women equals a greater drop in share price and likewise the more men the greater the drop in value. Professor Ferrary examined companies in the CAC40 and found that “firms with a highly feminised management like LVMH (56% female managers), Sanofi (44.8%) have gone down less than the CAC40. While stocks of more male-managed firms like Alcatel-Lucent (8.68% women), Renault (21.77% women) have fallen more than the CAC40”.
Contrary to the research, Zille believes her team can deliver. In her letter to the Argus she has chosen to attack the ANC only in areas where the DA is strong, women at party leadership level. She has not as yet addressed the diversity issue in her team.
Ferrary’s research says: “Several gender studies have pointed out that women behave and manage in a different way to men. They tend to avoid risk and to focus more on a long-term perspective. A larger proportion of female managers balances the risk-taking behaviour of their male colleagues.”
This points to diversity being the key to managing risk. The only question which remains in my mind is whether public service delivery is somehow different to managing a business.
You are comparing pharmaceuticals with telecoms companies – dodgy statistics from the private sector in one European country is hardly fit for judging public sector governance in South Africa!
Management diversity is key, but ultimately the person in charge makes the decisions.
Can you provide a better link to the research? One that you havent quoted all good bits from. Perhaps one that will define “Management position” so we can see if her appointments really are contrary to research or whether you inferences from half described Statisitics are incorrect.
kthxbai
There are a couple of significant problems with the post.
1. There’s no reason to believe that the linked research represents a conclusive finding that women manage risk better. Risk avoidance and risk management are two entirely separate issues. If anything, it is generally true that firms which do take risks are rewarded financially, over time.
2. You do allude to the other obvious point at the end of your post – what would make anyone suppose that what is true for the financial world would remain true in the world of politics?
So, when you write, “This points to diversity being the key to managing risk,” you’re simply incorrect. The study indicates that those French firms which have a higher percentage of female managers have, in general, weathered the economic downturn better than others.
It’s impossible to suggest that they have done so *because* they have more female managers. That’s purely conjecture, from one statistical phenomenon at one moment in time, on the part of the researcher. Conjecture is not fact.
Dale
Let’s look at the sectors these companies operate in:
LVMH – Luxury Goods
Sanofi – Pharmaceuticals
Alcatel-Lucent – Electronics & Communications
Renault – Motor Vehicles
How can you compare companies from such diverse sectors? Sanofi for instance operates in a sector that has not been as hard hit as Renault’s. Maybe you should take a look at Citroen’s level of gender equality and then do a comparison with Renault. It seems that the study does not compare apples with apples.
I do however (without any proof whatsoever) believe that if woman ran the economies of the world there would be less volatility in the markets.
But then the good times would not be that good.
Hahahah what has research got to do with anyones decisions in this country or for that matter the rest of the world, my goodness we are an emotional planet not an analytical one. Market sentiment and all that.
the answer is simple: zille trusts no women of colour for leadership position in the province.
in fact, she would rather have an all white men cabinet, and let black people protest for recognition. she wouldnt spend a day or two scouting for a competent woman of colour in her own party, despite the fact that (overwhelmingly) they’ve voted for her.
devide n rule approach, that’s precisely what she has adopted. i see no different between her & mugabe.
she has taken that province 35 years backwards. such a sham
Not only is Zille’s decision contrary to the compelling research that you point to, it also flies in the face of all reason and logic.
Globally profitable, highly competitive companies all over the world have realized the value of diversity in the workplace to foster innovation. Nowadays diversity is HR101 at all leading companies and institutions.
The recent economic crisis is living proof of how these old boy networks can bring down entire economies. Just look at Iceland’s predicament!
Cape Town used to be one of the most economically and socially diverse cities in the world! The poor are now marginalized as as the Cape has now become simply an enclave for rich, mainly white, privileged class. Why else with Margret Thatcher’s son feel so comfortable in Cape Town? Zille’s cabinet pick is a slap in the face of the supporters she garnered in her divisive campaign – reminiscent of the slash and burn politics practiced by the US Republican party.
Certainly bad news for the Western Cape and sounds the death knell for the DA as a political force in SA.
You have missed a couple of major points.
First being that, unlike the ANC, the LEADER of the team is a woman.
Also that there was no choice in the matter. Helen Zille had to choose her team from the regional list submitted to the IEC which only had 3 inexperienced women on it. Her senior women were all on the national list.
The mistake was not to ensure in advance that she had another senior woman on the regional list, but since there was not one, she could hardly choose her team on the basis of who had a clitoris and who a penis.
It is almost as if she did not initially expect to win the region outright, but only in coalition.
Mpshe illegally letting Zuma off the hook at the last minute, and the “Stop Zuma” campaign, gave her the edge and outright victory.The emergance of Cope also had a lot to do with it. But the lists had been submitted by then.
i’m starting to sound like a broken record here.
unlike within the anc, within the da, you can say “no” to the leader. in the anc, saying “no” can lead to, shall we say, punitive action, and as gwede mantashe loves to say, “it’s cold outside of the anc”.
furthermore, several of the potential “no” people said as much so they could be in the *national* parliament. well, gee, it sucks to be them, eh?
should helen yank people out of the national parliament and “redeploy” them to the western cape government?
i’d love to see how the anc and its main mouthpiece the youth league would spin that one.
watching the anc and da carry on sniping at each other is amusing — and it’s helping send the rand back to the basement where it belongs.
Women in senior executive positions behave like senior executives.
There are more women in certain industries like pharma (Sanofi) or liquor and luxury (LVMH) that are traditional hedge stocks in a recession, and more men in industries like car manufacture (Renault) or technology infrastructure (Alcatel-Lucent) that are more obviously and immediately affected by recession.
Correlation isn’t causality.
And women aren’t all angels and men demons. Put in the same position they actually behave remarkably similarly. And it will take smarter research than Ferrary’s startlingly shoddy attempt to tease out the subtle differences that do exist.
And another point:
The ANC Regional Cabinet for the Cape ALSO only had one woman.
So why is this OK for the ANC and not for the DA?
Whenever anyone says the words “research shows”, you know that what follows is a complete pile of garbage.
Helen made the best choices she could with the names she had available on the DA party lists…they ended up being all male (a fact which couldn’t have escaped her), but never the less these were her considered choices given the positions that needed filling and the list of candidates she had available to her. Drawing any conclusions beyond this is going to be speculative at best…spurious at worst.
Lyndall Beddy, your language is very distasteful. it lacks substance and betrays your inability to sew together a logical and well reasoned argument. I don’t how your crude comment was allowed to pass through. Our country is so racially polarised because of people of your ilk. Some people here, blinkered by their inability to reason beyond the colour bar,do not even attempt to hide their racial prejudices in their quest to justify and defend the indefensible. Let us think rationally and put the interests of South Africa first. None of the comments here even attempt to critique the findings and inferences from the research.You contribute nothing to what is supposed to be an intellectual discourse. The results of partisanship and blind loyalty will cripple this beautiful country of ours. Apply your mind before you churn out your racist poison. Up the level of your debate please!
@ Lyndall Beddy on May 15th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
You must have completed the line Beddy: “First being that, unlike the ANC, the LEADER of the team is a woman” who can’t hire other women!
“she could hardly choose her team on the basis of who had a clitoris and who a penis”: What a myopic view!! Of course, other factors are considered it is ONLY your argument and that of Zille that leads to the impression that gender is the (“only”) basis of the selection criteria!
Zille is intimidated by the presence of other women, hence sidelining them! She puts women in her team at critical situation, for instance she sent Botha to Skierlik because it was a very controversial and sensitive issue that affected a particular race! It was prior election therefore she feared blood-stains!
Anyway, there is NO democracy in DA, that is why people will say Zille and NOT talk about other leaders, while the ANC,President Zuma or President Mandela for that matter are merely leaders whom lead a democratic constituted organization!
REFERENCE: http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/Politics/0,,2-7-12_2459400,00.html
We vote the ANC NOT Jacob Zuma!
The media will say Zuma, likening the ANC to this autocrat organizations around!
I don’t see the issue. Half of that cabinet comes from “previously disadvantaged groups”.
It is simply not true that it is an “all white male” cabinet.
Not that the truth matters…..
Lyndall makes a helluva point: The ANC’s WC cabinet, before being voted out, had only one woman MEC.
… as Groucho said, the ANC is giving Hypocrisy a bad name.
I still fail to see why Zille and co has to do “bean-counting” or have a “politically and gender correct” ratio of women to men and various races on her staff. The best person for the job and so what if there are no women. And if her staff were all women??
On a personal note I have always found women more conscientious in the workplace, and, having taught privately all my life, girls are more conscientious that boys, especially and embarrassingly so in China. But this does not always have to be the case. Let’s see how Zille’s service delivery pans out – that is what is crucial.
The research seems a little fuzzy to me. Interesting, but hardly anything to justify basing a cabinet on. If even Zapiro can give Zuma a chance, perhaps we should give Zille a chance too…
This is known as “data mining”.
You have posited a thesis, then appear to have trawled the Internet and other sources to find data that supports it.
Without seeing the detail of the reseach it is difficult to comment on the methodology, but I can guarantee that if one regressed other factors (business sector is the most obvious one)one could find similar correlations and colinearity.
Having said that, it is undoubtedly true – especially in a multi ethnic and multi cultural enviroment-that gender and racial diversity is less likely to produce “groupthink” and is likely to produce better governance and more in built checks and balances.
The DA’s unrepresentative Regional leadership is a result of bad planning – they never expected to gain an outright majority – and human nature – most of the experienced and talented DA women opted for the national assembly list where they had a better chance of being eleced – and having a job – than on the Regional list.
Zille effectively had no qualified women on the list from which to choose (they were all on the national assembly list).
I strongly believe that the best person for the job should be selected, and some of the people in the DA’s Regional leadership do indeed leave question marks.
However, there are no outright incomptents with a proven track record of abject failure, unlike in the ANC’s national and regional leadership.
Is this what it all comes down to – filling quotas and tallying the numbers?
Lebo
I attack both black and white racism – but mostly I attack fake history to indoctrinate the uneducated to vote for a political elite.
@ Siphiwo Siphiwo” i see no difference between her & mugabe”.
Whenever I say that about the DA I am met with xenophobic comments such as that I have Polish-communist mentality. Increasingly the DA is starting to look like ZANUPF. People are beglecting this worrying trend becuase most DA members are white but if you recall when Malema attended a meeting at UCT the DA “youth wing” started intimidating certain ANC members to the point that there was a need for better security. They were apparently making threatening remarks, banging on tables and causing all sorts of commotion. And these are University students!
It’s funny how Zille always evokes Mugabe’s name when she runs out of insults against black politicians. But it takes one Mugabe to know another and Zille sometimes sounds like BOB.Occupational hazzard? I think not.
Now SACP wants to amend the law for equity.
Frankly we moving 30 steps backwards and 5 forward. We already have droves of incompetent quota people. Why not appoint people on merit and qualification, it makes them easiar to fire when they screw-up.
And this Western Cape ruse is just the ANC trying to discret the DA, unfortunately they took the bait too easily.
I think we should have been beyond this by now.
Replying to the post: goverment and corporate sector have never been the same. The Board or the CEO don’t really have to be aligned to the right faction at Luthuli House or DA HQ.
“ Lyndall Beddy, your language is very distasteful. “
Assertion. False at that.
“ it lacks substance and betrays your inability to sew together a logical and well reasoned argument. “
Cliched and incorrect. Lyndall’s points have all the substance they need. The one that required explanation has one.
Further, nothing you say in this post has any substance.
“ I don’t how your crude comment was allowed to pass through. “
Clearly the moderators aren’t as prudish as you.
“ Our country is so racially polarised because of people of your ilk “
Cliched assertion.
“ Some people here, blinkered by their inability to reason beyond the colour bar,do not even attempt to hide their racial prejudices in their quest to justify and defend the indefensible. “
There is no reference to race in Lyndall’s posts. The topic of discussion is gender. The only references to race in the comments above your come from Siphiwo squared. What is indefensible in what he is trying to defend?
“ Let us think rationally and put the interests of South Africa first . “
Cliched, irrelevant non-statement.
“ None of the comments here even attempt to critique the findings and inferences from the research.”
There is nothing to critique. No research findings were published besides a couple of examples. A couple of comments have questioned the inference and asked for detail or a reference.
“ You contribute nothing to what is supposed to be an intellectual discourse. “
And your contribution is?
“ The results of partisanship and blind loyalty will cripple this beautiful
Continued from previous post
“ The results of partisanship and blind loyalty will cripple this beautiful country of ours. “
The only worthwhile sentence in your post. Remarkably generic.
“ Apply your mind before you churn out your racist poison. “
Where is any reference to race in Lyndall’s posts? Or are you now addressing Siphiwo Sqared?
“ Up the level of your debate please! “
You have managed to include one worthwhile but generic soundbite into a post filled with irrelevant, incorrect and clichéd assertions. You have accused someone of racism for posts that contain no reference to race. In doing so you contribute nothing to the topic.
Take your own advice.
Combined with that research, we need to also interrogate what exactly it means that Ms Zille found these men to be ‘the best fit’ and feels justified in opposing what she calls the ‘ANC narrative’ – what came first?
Besides the fact the she prides herself in being everything that the ANC is not, she is not able to see that going only for the ‘best fit’ without considering racial and gender parity, simply means that she entrenches male supremacy. It is no different to the way racial or economic supremacy functions. Those in position of privilege, if they are always put in charge based on ‘merit’ however obtained, will not do anything to have their superior and taken-for-granted status challenged. They will talk a good game and even learn how to toyi-toyi, but the proof of the pudding is in the implementation.
All it reveals is a lack of imagination and an extremely competitive spirit which makes her reign about the ‘anti ANC’ and not pro freedom for all. Despite all the rhetoric, when it comes right down to it, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely whether you are ANC or DA, male or female, have old money or new credit worthiness.
Supremacy and power in all its forms, will tenaciously tighten its grip even among those who consider themselves enlightened and progressive. Blind spots mixed in with power are the darndest of things
Dale, You are absolutely correct – diversity brings strength. Former UCT GSB head Prof Frank Horwitz made that exact point in a video we shot for our website – http://www.skills-universe.com/video/value-of-diversity-in-the
I think Zille probably agrees with Margaret Thatcher who said there is no such thing as society. A bit ironic when you consider that Zille’s husband is a professor Sociology from UCT!
Thatcher’s role as PM in the UK did nothing for the status of women in UK society and I don’t expect Zille will do much either.
Oh such selective comment. How about the truth. Every one of those females barring 5% reported to a male head.
I read the report as proof the a woman manager will get the best out of males underlings.
In any event the SACP has harped on about white women being given too much protection. What is the bet that they try change the equity laws in SA barring white women as it barrs white men.
Explain, exactly what is your point in the context of Godzilla?
@Peter L
Please at least look up the definition of “data mining” before you use it. Dale is not data mining. He merely gathers evidence to support his hypothesis. btw. You need to PURCHASE the Harvard Review to view the article.
“filling quotas and tallying the numbers”
Who’s quotas and what numbers are you talking about?
So what people…
1. The ANC never had a female leader.
2. The ANCYL never had a female leader.
3. Cosatu never had a female leader
4. The SACP never had a female leader.
5. MK never had a female leader.
6. The ANC has installed 4 presidents – Mandela, Mbeki, Motlanthe and Zuma. All male.
Is the ANC-Cosatu-SACP really justified here?
Would the cabinet really need to be that large if the ANC did not do some gender and racial balancing?
Well how about some relevant facts:
1. Harvard research journals are pretty gratuitous
2. The French experience is not comparable to SA; one is 1st world in outlook, the other 3rd
3. In party leadership positions in SA since 1994, many women (incongruously) have failed dismally, some to the extent of having committed genocide; mind you, they all belonged to the ANC so that might have all to do with it
4. Zille gave enough genuine reasons as to why there were no women (of quality) in her cabinet; e.g. she wanted Kachalia but couldn’t get her for now. Whom should she appoint; Lynne Browne?
5. Now, when are you going to start hammering the ANC on why they still don’t have a female party leader or general secretary, why we don’t have a female president (with all due deference to almighty Zuma – I have also elevated the shower head from his head for the time being) or vice president? Then continue your line of questioning with COSATU, SACP and the heroic MK.
6. Once you have done so, you can call Zille’s line of thinking into question.
7. Finally, I personally believe this country will definitely be best served by female leaders, but not the ANC variety – their love of good cuisine is just too apparent. No, I’m talking of the likes of Ramphele, Zille, Taljaard and many other excellent SA women.
SarahH
Only the ruling party can ever have “Absolute Power”.
Which is why the opposition almost always, anywhere, attracts more ethical people – they can’t have been bribed with access to state resources and state tenders and state power like the ruling party can do.
Let’s add a little context here though. In order to benefit from diversity, diversity of experience and opinions must be not only tolerated but welcomed. That means that there will be debate about the best methods to take the business forward and/or the ‘diverse’ people in the management team must be senior enough to be able to take forward their agenda without interference.
So that leaves pretty much all the political parties out in the cold as either (a) they don’t have much diversity or (b) what diversity there is rarely in a position of true influence and is told what to do, oh, by the usual suspects.
Since there’s very limited autonomy further down the scale than the top layers of management in almost any place in SA that I’ve seen, that means that the people right at the top essentially need to be female if that’s what you’re looking for.
So you have to ask who reports to who. In management terms, who does Zille report to? And who does the MEC for health in the Western Cape, say, report to. Who does Nomvula Mokonyane report to and who does her MEC for health report to? Do they have to run through their decisions with another person or layer of management? And you can’t say ‘both of them report to the President’ – they don’t necessarily. Separation of powers indicates that provincial government is autonomous in certain spheres.
The fact that there are still articles on this issue is pathetic. And comments like “Sounds the death knell for the DA…” is laughable.
Mallencolly
Thanks.
If you add up the women in Cape Town Council, Cape Regional Council, and DA parliamentary MPs – you might find the DA proportion is higher than Zuma’s (which is less than Mbeki’s)
And Zuma went to a LOT of expensive trouble to get rid of Mbete and have his deputy a man and not a woman: female premiers, a loaded cabinet etc etc
@Lyndal, thanks for that insight. Does it mean that you agree with everything else in the previous mail which was about how power gets entrenched? Just a thought – which party is ruling in the Western Cape?
Ok, I’ll stop being facetious and just underline the fact that every single one of us have blind spots – it requires humility to have them pointed out. It requires that those who have been chosen to lead must not give excuses when they dump certain values NOR use those they are in competition with for power, as the scapegoat for every single thing. Its boring!
Its amazing how we continue to entertain this whole female quota nonsense. Its just misdirection for fighting the DA. SACP alliance lost at the polls, now they’re using any shred of hogwash to suffocate the DA out of power.
Seemingly we have the time to take up their baton and give this time in the media.
How about discussing the legalising of prostitution, favoured by the new Premier of Gauteng. I wonder what the pimps think of this.
This will be my post on my new blog, since amagama.com is being decommission by the M&G
This is really amazing. Talk about fiddling while Rome burns. All the ANC sycophants yap Goebbels-like about Zille’s selections, ignore fact, their own obvious shortcomings or what they criticised Leon for – criticisng without being constructive. Tell us who Zille should have appointed and why.
I appreciate that it is fashionable and all the rage to look at demographics and gender but I could only see to appoint by ability, ability and ability.
Mandrake
At first I was upset that Amagama was closing. Now I am relieved. I have been swomped with spam for months! And Amagama was always down anyhow! forget another blog. Think of Facebook or Youtube.
But it has been a terrible waste of a year!
Tebogo, Dave Harris and Siphiwo Siphiwo please comment on the fact that the outgoing ANC W.Cape cabinet only had one women and that this is ok but not for Zille’s – also Phillipa Lipinsky your non emotional non-racial comments would also be appreciated
Brent
There is a ridiculous knee-jerk acceptance that women are better leaders,managers,drivers and networkers than men.Personally I think gays are superior to both in all the above(not to mention fashion sense and cat fighting)
As no gay president, CEO, Bok prop have had the ovaries to come out, I’ll never be able to prove my claim,but then you cant disprove it,so can we rather talk about building some decent houses and schools?