Gender differences in mentorship and career advancement in aviation leadership

.....status quo of business has been expressed as "an interconnected global village" having innumerable opportunities for everybody. But, as it happens, everybody doesn't enjoy equal opportunities and only those aware of how and where to look enjoy an advantage over others.

Hello and Good afternoon. I am Alice and I am delighted to join you today for this Annual Luncheon of American CEOs sponsored by the Wall Street Journal. I am in the twilight of a rewarding and influential career as the Pres. and CEO of, SeeItAll, a domestic airline.

SeeItAll, has a formal sponsorship program for women, and it is very successful, and the Airline business portfolio is reaping big dividends. In fact, I too have reaped benefits from this program as have other hard-working women in my firm. My career began as a flight attendant, and through hard-work, dedication, commitment and support from my top management and sponsors I have climbed to the top of my company's hierarchy.

Today, I want to highlight and credit the Sponsorship Program with my rise and accomplishment, and want to encourage everyone present here at the luncheon, to do the same.

The current knowledge economy is characterized by a dearth of qualified workers having superior analytical and communication abilities, a problem expected to exacerbate in the next decade (Benko & Weisberg, 2008, p. 5), necessitating companies' upgradation of workforce skills and employment of diverse personnel. Researchers have proven the positive effect of workforce diversity on company efficacy, bottom-line, grasp of consumer base and adaptability (Hamdani & Buckley, 2011, p. 43). Women-centric sponsorship initiatives facilitate their promotions on the basis of performance and ability, especially in mid-career where competition for promotions intensifies. But not all sponsorship programs can increase efficiency and promote fairness in the company and top management needs to be careful about their sponsorship program strategy.

Top-level managers must explicitly state their sponsorship initiative's aims, which should be aligned with organizational goals

Considering workplace pressures, all unimportant tasks and objectives which cause involved personnel to diverge from the key corporate mission will be underrated (Castleberry-Singleton, 2009, pp. 9-10). Thus, aspiring just and all-encompassing organizations should manage sponsorship as their key corporate aim. Individuals in such firms will determine means to resolve diversity issues, and seek and react to social identity signals revealing the importance of inclusion. Corporate managers must issue this message and support it with resources and commitments lending credibility to the message. Diversity will only grow into a component of corporate goals, identity and strategy if managers maintain that diversity via sponsorship equals more value to the company, its workforce, and clients. What's valued by managers will be valued by subordinates (Castleberry-Singleton, 2009, p. 10).

Integrate efforts and engage middle-level leaders directly.

Leadership approaches driving the sponsorship initiative and promoting the development of solid, fruitful personnel relations should: integrate, connect, and convey. They should integrate sponsorship into key organizational practices, forge relationships between diverse personnel and ensure open workforce communication (Castleberry-Singleton, 2009, p. 9).

Sponsors must acquire training on gender and leadership intricacies

One cannot overstress diversity's existence in the current international business scenario. Still, this doesn't warrant the assumption that sound sponsorship initiatives bring success. Without a comprehensive grasp of associated challenges, toying with the value-in-diversity concept is perilous and involves innumerable overt costs like litigation, poor morale, a bad reputation, workforce turnover, loss of social and political efficacy, and inefficient corporate resource utilization (Hamdani & Buckley, 2011, p. 39).

How are managers to offset the advantages and disadvantages of all-encompassing sponsorship initiatives and attain corporate aims like long-run profits and social and political goodwill? Corporate decision-makers must first understand and accept the intrinsic difficulties and relational challenges of diversity, followed by identifying organizational members capable of mitigating diversity-related challenges and the related sponsorship initiative. Line managers and HR personnel can guarantee successful sponsorship management through developing and executing policies and initiatives aimed at decreasing diversity's adverse impacts (Hamdani & Buckley, 2011, p. 39).

My firm, SeeItAll Airlines, which priorities sponsorship and diversity will definitely help other business develop a robust sponsorship and diversity initiative. Its "Sponsorship: the key to inclusive diversity" initiative assists firms in streamlining their strategies to accommodate just, all-encompassing HR practices. We also map out long-run sponsorship and diversity initiative promotion strategies. Our promotional efforts will definitely lay the groundwork for more firms to adopt this.

But to achieve this, we require the American business sector's dedication and support. In this respect, today's Wall Street Journal Forum makes a clear statement.

I thank you all for organizing this remarkable program, and gathering such a variety of illustrious speakers and prominent corporations. Thank you.

Bibliography

Benko, C., & Weisberg, A. (2008). The Nontraditional Is the New Traditional: Six Trends That Have Produced a New Workforce Imperative. In C. Benko, & A. Weisberg, Mass Career Customization: Aligning the Workplace with Today's Nontraditional Workforce. Boston: Harvard Business Press.

Castleberry-Singleton, C. (2009). From Bolted-on to Built-in: Diversity Management and Intergroup Leadership in US Corporations. In Crossing the Divide: Intergroup Leadership in a World of Difference. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation.

Hamdani, M. R., & Buckley, M. R. (2011). Diversity goals: Reframing the debate and enabling a fair evaluation. Business Horizons, 33-40.