A synopsis of the Paper Presented by the Winner of the 7th MMA Outstanding Woman Manager of the Year Award 2008 Competition

Globalisation is the fast changing the face of the society, business and the economy. In the past, people could survive without knowing too much about what might be happening outside their doors and outside their country. Today people cannot survive without knowing what is happening in the world.

The challenges of a global woman are much more. Her role in the global corporate world is slightly complex. She has to break the barriers that exist to survive. The barriers are perhaps much defined than ever.

India and Global Revolution
India is currently going through a Global Revolution. India is one of the topmost countries in the world which has a high women population in terms of absolute numbers. As per 2001 Census, there are about 496 million women in India constituting 48.3 percent of total population. In this context, the theme selected by MMA is very relevant.

Indian Women and their development
Development of women has been one of the top most agenda for the Indian Government since Independence and we must admit that our country has seen huge improvements in this area.

The working conditions of urban Indian women, is much better when compared to their counterparts in other parts of Asia. The urban Indian women is more educated, refined and culturally tuned to take on the global challenges as against their other Asian counterparts. Their ability to speak, write and understand foreign languages including English is a big asset and adds to their marketability.

The Indian society is fighting two battles parallely. The first being a dichotonomous society and the second being the Gender Inequality.

On the Gender Inequality, we can be very confident that we, in the Indian society are in the right track and will make significant progress in the next couple of years. I have got this optimism due to the fact, that more and more rural and semi urban women are coming out of their shell to educate themselves and make themselves corporate employable. Taking my organization as an example, I can see many women who are willing to relocate from their native places (small towns in interior Tamil Nadu) and take up the corporate job. It is very heartening to see that these women have complete support from their family in this endeavour. These young girls beam with confidence and take on their role very seriously from the day they join the organization.

In not so optimistic note, we can say that the Indian women inspite of all their success, face a daunting task ahead to reach the peak in the leadership and management areas. This is due to the fact that they are traditionally seen as home makers. Their primary responsibility is to take care of the family, children and the elders.

Coming back to the optimistic note, the various management studies reveal one interesting aspect - living in a boundary-less world comes very naturally to women. Contemporary Indian women are asserting their rights for individual autonomy, rights, freedom, cooperation, diversity etc.

Indian Women and Leadership Traits.
The role of women executives in global organizations are in the phase of transition around the globe, especially in India. Globalisation has a positive impact on the Indian women. In this growing economy, the government and the corporate world have realized the worth of the hitherto untapped potential of house wives. Such resources are available in abundance in India and are being well used of. It is a win win situation for both the women and corporate.

Studies reveal that irrespective of whether you are a man or woman, feminine leadership styles have shown to be the most effective interaction styles in global leadership, - relational, transformational, sensitive and attentive. As these traits are shown naturally by majority of the women, we feel that women have great opportunity in the global leadership scenario and that they have to grab the opportunities with both hands.

Barriers and their possible breakthrough solutions
Life is never ideal. It is a certainty that any optimistic opinion will have its own ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’. Women leadership is no different. There are definite barriers to their developmental efforts. Each woman must undergo certain pain aspects before they emerge successful. Prominent barriers are Gender inequality at senior management level, women’s values, women’s natural traits, their career choices, existing corporate culture and organization dynamics.

Women’s careers are often cyclical due to relocation for family reasons, periods of child and elder care. They are often unable to work additional hours and during week-ends in contrast to their male counter-parts. Women are unable to put work before family. Men don’t have such responsibilities in the male dominated society.

There is an invisible glass ceiling in many organizations around the senior positions. The women are unable to break the same many times. The corporate culture is presently male dominated as the top management is all men. (This culture is slowly changing). In such a culture, women have to expend a lot of energy on understanding and acting appropriately in their jobs without female models and social support.

Women and Technology
The boom in technology is the main reason for the global world. Technology has helped the world to shorten the physical distance between countries and has increased the interaction amongst the citizens of different countries. World has become a big global village. This technology boom has served as a boon to Indian women. Urban Indian women are very well educated with a good upbringing. They have a good knowledge of English and other foreign languages. Indian women are more comfortable in handling the computers and other machines. After all they have been handling the domestic machines for very many years without any formal training. They are very good in organizing their work. This has given India the unique advantage of exploiting this as a benefit. Many MNCs have opened up their processing centers, knowledge centers, and support centers across many cities in India. A large chunk of employees in such firms are women. Their performance track record has been extremely commendable. This has paved way for the women to develop an natural leadership in such fields. The significant impact due to technology has been useful to the women as they can now be part of virtual teams and need not physically be present in the office. Work from home option is very much possible due to technology. Telecommuting, Video conferencing and mobile are the latest cutting edge technology that has come in aid of women. They can now avoid travelling frequently also.

Women and Cross Cultural Differences
The immediate result of Globalisation is the cross cultural differences. Studies reveal that women are genetically well equipped to handle cultural differences.

Indian women are traditionally well equipped to adapt to cross cultures. In Indian house-holds most women after marriage live with their husband in the extended family. This benefit married women in corporate life since such challenges are also met in the new environment at work.

Resolving differences and reconciliation comes naturally to women. Bringing up kids at home is an apt example to this. A woman resolves the sibling quarrels very amicably and manages to bring harmony into the children. The same situation is very tough for a man to handle.

State of readiness of Indian women entrepreneurs.
The signals are very positive here. Indian women have the natural tendency to work very effectively amidst constraints. They have an inherent and automatic Business Continuity Program within their systems. This development has been possible due to the high expectations, the society has on women, especially the working women. They are required to do multi-tasking at all times and manage their family and work expectations simultaneously.
The management studies show that women’s style of functioning, which is essentially ‘interactive leadership’, involves several characteristics including encouraging participation from others, making inter-personal relations positive for the entire team or department, being able to share power and information with others, getting people passionate about their work and increasing people’s feeling of self worth.

Moving over to the next challenge,- a deep flaw in the feminine temperament that is easily admitted to even by women themselves, is that a successful woman seems to have few close friends and can be aggressive and even unforgiving towards other women. It is also a historical fact that very few women leaders in any walk of life have developed women successors.

Conclusion:
Women must know the value they add to the society and to the business. Women path to the top is a difficult road, but the path is certainly available. It is left to the individual woman to take up the path and progress. Women may often face problems in tuning their image to leadership. Aggressive male leaders are revered, while aggressive female ones are often scorned. But it is only a matter of time, when this situation will change and the society will take pride in having successful women amongst them.

The environment in India is now very conducive for the development of women. All the stakeholders in the society – Government, People, Corporate, and Non Governmental Organisations are joining hands to make it happen.

I wish and hope that we have many more Indira Gandhis, Hillary Clintons, Indira Nooyis amongst us who have shown the path of success.

To end this I would like to quote the words of a Chinese philosopher Lao-Tzu: A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.