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Performance Management
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Career Decisions of Indian Female Talent: Implications for Gender-sensitive Talent Management
(2020)
Purpose: Talent scarcity in emerging economies such as India poses challenges for companies,and limited labour market participation among well-educated women has been observed. The reasons that professionals decide not to pursue a further corporate career remain unclear. By investigating career decision making, this article aims to highlight (1) the contextual factors that impact those decisions, (2) individuals’ agency to handle them, and (3) the implications for talent management (TM).
Design/methodology/approach: Following a qualitative research design, computer-aided analysis was conducted on interviews with 24 internationally experienced Indian business professionals. A novel application of neo-institutionalism in the Indian context was combined with the family-relatedness of work decisions (FRWD) model.
Findings: Career decisions indicate that rebellion against Indian societal and family expectations is essential to following a career path, especially for women. TM as part of the current institutional framework serves as a legitimising façade veiling traditional practices that hinder females’ careers.
Research limitations: Interviewees adopted a retrospective perspective when describing their career decisions; therefore, different views might have existed at the moment of decision making.
Practical implications: Design and implementation of gender-sensitive TM adjusted to fit the specific Indian context can contribute to retaining female talent in companies and the labour market.
Originality/value: The importance of gender-sensitive TM can be concluded from an empirical study of the context-based career decision making of experienced business professionals from India. The synthesis of neo-institutionalism, the FRWD model and the research results provides assistance in mapping talent experiences and implications for overcoming the challenges of talent scarcity in India.
The paradox of Indian women’s declining presence in the labor market despite their
advancements in higher education leads to questions regarding how this “leaky pipeline” can be
patched and (partly) prevented. At the same time, female educational advancement in Western
countries, such as Germany, does not equate to significantly more females in leadership positions
or changes in gender role expectations. In both the Indian and German contextual setting, women
face hurdles in developing their career and the risk of lifelong dependency or poverty.
This paper clarifies the perspectives of young females on leadership careers and success
before they enter the labor market and uses the results from career research to show “blind spots”
that might lead to hurdles for their future careers. The second contribution of the paper is
envisioning future teaching that (1) prevents females from making decisions that might lead to
dependency and poverty while fulfilling organizational and societal gender role expectations and
(2) fosters organizational changes that facilitates female careers. The Paper also reflects on the
learning stages necessary for transforming theoretical knowledge into practical solutions and
promoting more equal opportunities in the labor market.