This article examines the job crafting strategies senior academic women use to progress in their careers. The study was exploratory and inductive and used in-depth interviews to gather data from 43 senior academic women in Australia, the United Kingdom, and Malaysia. Data were analyzed using thematic content analysis in combination with reflective…

This study sets out to argue for the interplay between structure and agency to create a deeper understanding of careers. Using Bourdieu's Theory of Practice as an integrative framework for career theory, this study sets out to answer two questions: (1) does the concept of a Holistic Career Framework add value to the career debate by placing…

Engineering is a large and diverse sector which is vital for the UK economy. It represents a considerable proportion of the UK workforce, with 18% of the UK working population based in engineering and at least 15% of the working population in every region in jobs that relate to the sector. Engineering also has a relatively strong reputation for…

This study contributes theoretically and empirically to our understanding of students' transition from work placement to the graduate labour market, by exploring earning differentials due to heterogeneous job transitions. We developed a theoretical framework that underpins the relationships between work placement, job transition and graduate…

An evaluation of extant research reveals a significant blind spot around investigating the enrolment decision-making of Indian international students in the STEM fields. This study qualitatively explores the motivations of Indian international students to pursue a STEM Master's program in an industrialised country. To elicit pertinent information,…

A significant gender imbalance remains at executive management level within higher education despite a number of initiatives to increase the number of women in the leadership pipeline and ensure they are better prepared for these roles. This article presents findings from a recent study on the appointment of deputy and pro vice-chancellors in…

This article confirms the reliability of a protean and boundaryless career attitudes scale, tested in a pilot study. Additionally, it summarises the results of this study into the career attitudes of professional staff in Australian and UK universities. A mixed methods approach was taken using a survey consisting of both closed questions on a…

As part of a larger study, professional staff from two universities, Australian and British, were asked how they entered into a higher education career and what factors kept them in that career. Many participants reported that they found themselves in professional services almost by accident, or by a fortunate combination of circumstances.…

Higher education is a key sector for the United Kingdom contributing over £70 billion of output. It functions in an increasingly complex operating, regulatory, and legislative environment that has led to an increased need for effective nonacademic business managers. This study evaluates the benefits of a specialist master of business…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to consider the under-representation of women in computing, information technology (IT) and information systems in most Western countries. This under-representation can only be detrimental to society. Design/methodology/approach: The authors discuss recently published studies on the under-representation of…

Much has been written about the glass ceiling and pay differentials in higher and further education (HE, FE) for women academics (McTavish and Miller 2009, Rees 2007) but very little about discrepancies for women "professional managers" within UK higher education. Professional managers as a term needs to be defined as universities call…

Interviews with 10 women administrators in a British metropolitan district council revealed the glass ceiling to be a complex phenomenon reaching beyond the employment sphere. Their career progression was hindered by lack of career counseling, family-work conflicts, lack of management development for women, and particularly a managerial culture…

For 288 public sector employees in Britain, advancement prospects were positively related to three career-enhancing strategies: expertise development, self-nomination, and networking. Motivation was positively related to expertise development and self-nomination. Work orientation was positively related to expertise development and networking. (SK)

Repertory grid interviews with male and female managers in four organizations identified expectations of management characteristics and behavior. In three of the four, women faced serious difficulties with career paths. Organizational culture appeared to be gendered in that deep-seated assumptions constrained women's careers. (SK)

A study of 130 male and 91 female managers found that more younger women than men were in senior roles. Younger women achieved seniority faster than women over 35. However, once younger women have broken the glass ceiling at lower levels, they encounter new barriers at higher levels. (SK)