Determining factors and alternatives for the career development of women executives: a multicriteria decision model

Significant societal shifts have altered the work-family dynamic, particularly impacting women. The "glass ceiling" phenomenon highlights the discriminatory barriers preventing women from reaching higher positions. While existing research explores obstacles and opportunities, it lacks analysis of causal relationships between factors and career alternatives. This study addresses this gap by investigating the determining factors in the careers of women executives and how these factors relate to their available career alternatives. The research question is: What are the determining factors in the career of women executives, and how do they relate to the alternatives available to women in their managerial careers? The study aims to provide an empirical analysis of these factors and their influence on career alternatives, enriching existing models and offering managerial implications for understanding and supporting women's career development.

The literature on women's career development in executive positions offers various classifications of determining factors. These are often categorized by social, organizational, and individual contexts, or as positive/negative and internal/external factors. Elacqua et al. (2009) distinguish between interpersonal and situational factors. This study uses a classification of personal, organizational, and social factors. Personal factors include family responsibility, education and development, and internal personality traits. Organizational factors comprise leadership styles, organizational culture, organizational support, and professional networks. Social factors include gender stereotypes and public policies. The literature lacks a definitive list of career development alternatives, so the study draws upon research on professional success and career paths to identify alternatives: internal promotion, external promotion, entrepreneurship, salary raises, and career abandonment. The study focuses on internal promotion, external promotion, and entrepreneurship, excluding the others due to their relative infrequency or lack of relevance to the central research question.

This study uses a multicriteria decision model (MCDM) to analyze the relationships between factors and career alternatives. The ELECTRE III method was chosen for its suitability for ranking problems and its ability to handle non-compensatory criteria, reflecting the complex and often conflicting nature of the factors considered. Data were collected through an online questionnaire completed by 236 Spanish women executives and supplemented by in-depth interviews with 25 women managers. The questionnaire assessed the respondents' ratings of three career choices (internal promotion, external promotion, entrepreneurship) and a fourth option ("other"), considering ten factors (personal, organizational, and social). Five scenarios representing different career priorities (professional development, job stability, family, family and professional development, equality) were used to generate different weighting of these factors. The ELECTRE III method then ranked the alternatives for each scenario. The median ratings from the questionnaire served as the performance matrix for the ELECTRE III analysis, and scenario-specific weights reflected the relative importance of factors in different career priorities. The software used was Diviz.

The study analyzed five scenarios representing different career priorities for women executives. In Scenario 1 (professional development), entrepreneurship was the preferred option, influenced by training and development and networking. Scenario 2 (job stability) favored "other" (family businesses, public employment) and entrepreneurship, due to organizational culture and support. Scenario 3 (family) prioritized "other" and entrepreneurship based on family responsibilities. Scenario 4 (family and professional development) showed a near tie between entrepreneurship, external promotion, "other", with family responsibilities, public policies, external support and personality playing key roles. In Scenario 5 (equality), external promotion, entrepreneurship, and "other" were favored due to leadership, gender stereotypes and public policies. Notably, internal promotion was consistently the least preferred option in all scenarios, even when all factors were weighted equally. Table 3 provides the median ratings of alternatives for each factor. Table 4 displays the weights of factors and the resulting rankings for each scenario. Table 5 summarizes the scenarios, factors and ELECTRE III results, allowing the testing of proposed hypotheses. The study confirmed hypotheses relating positive associations between family responsibility, public policies/work-life balance, external support and personality with entrepreneurship; and positive associations between leadership and external promotion; and a negative association between gender stereotypes and external promotion. However, hypotheses predicting positive relationships between internal promotion and training/development, organizational culture, organizational support, and social networks were not confirmed.

The findings challenge some established views in the literature. While the literature suggests positive relationships between internal promotion and factors like training and organizational support, this study reveals that women executives prioritize entrepreneurship or alternative paths ("other") when these factors are prominent. This suggests the existence of deeper systemic barriers within organizations that limit opportunities for internal advancement for women, including traditional organizational cultures, lack of transparency in promotion processes, presenteeism expectations, and gender bias. The study’s confirmation of the positive impact of leadership on external promotion highlights the increasing recognition of “soft skills” and feminine leadership styles in the modern workplace. However, the negative impact of gender stereotypes on external promotion reinforces the challenges women face in accessing executive positions. The preference for entrepreneurship across scenarios underscores women's desire for autonomy and control over their career development, particularly when faced with work-family conflicts and systemic gender biases. The importance of public policies and work-life balance for entrepreneurship underscores the need for broader societal support for women in leadership.

This study offers a significant contribution to the literature by empirically examining the complex interplay of factors and alternatives in women executives' career development. The multicriteria approach provides a nuanced understanding of women's preferences in different scenarios, highlighting the limitations of internal promotion pathways and the appeal of entrepreneurship as a more empowering alternative. Further research should explore spatial differences in these relationships, investigate the impact of glass ceiling effects on various outcomes, and develop more targeted interventions to promote gender equality in leadership.

The study is limited to a sample of Spanish women executives, potentially affecting generalizability to other contexts. The reliance on self-reported data introduces potential biases in the assessment of factors and alternatives. The study focused on a specific set of factors and alternatives, and other important factors could be included in future research. Finally, the scenarios presented might not fully capture the complexity of individual career choices.