Promotion to managerial positions and the relationship to work outcome preferences: perspectives of women and men in Israel

Women's participation in the workforce and in managerial positions, which has led to greater diversity, reconstructs professional perceptions and preferences. The purpose of this research is to examine “Work Outcome Preferences” among men and women according to organizational status and the impact of other demographic factors.

The Meaning of Work (MOW) questionnaire was filled by 1,161 men and women employees in organizations: 744 workers, 256 junior managers and 161 middle managers. To examine the hypotheses, authors conducted an analysis of variance (ANOVA) test and a linear regression analysis for women and men.

The gender differences regarding work outcomes preferences decreases with career promotion. Further, the higher the organizational status, the higher the need for interesting and satisfying work among both men and women. Among women, the higher the organizational status, the higher the need for status and prestige and for serving society and the lower the need for interpersonal contacts and income.

Better understanding of the preferred outcomes among women and men in the three organizational statuses and the impact of promotion and varied demographic variables can help in the planning of material and non-material reward systems and methods suitable to the different sub-groups.

As far as authors know, there is not a single study focusing on the differences between narrow career stages such as workers, junior and middle managers according to gender regarding work values/work outcome preferences.