Gender Diversity in the University System: The impact on Performance
Publication type
conference paper
Publication date
2018
Author(s)
Trequattrini, Raffaele
Manfredi, Simone
Lardo, Alessandra
Cuozzo, Benedetta
Editor(s)
Azevedo, A.
Mesquita, A.
Publisher
Acad Conferences Ltd
Place of publication
Nr Reading
Language
English
View point(s)
Institutional
Geographical area
Abstract
This paper aims to understand whether the organizations characterized by the culture of diversity and inclusion are organizations that promote the creation of value. Starting from the hypothesis that gender capital, considered as gender diversity within a business reality embodying equity levels of representativeness of men and women, facilitates the transfer of interpersonal skills, relationships with stakeholders and company culture, our analysis aim to assess the impact of diversity in the universities context. In recent years, the Italian Academic sector has been characterized by a phase of strong changes that have had a material impact on how to work with all of the parties involved in the Universities' management. The incentive to review the Universities' organization arose from the need of improving the productivity, towards greater competition at a national level and taking in consideration foreign interlocutors, highlighting the attention to cultural heritage and innovation in the country. In order to control the performance, the Italian Ministry of Education, of University and Research (MIUR) has introduced methods for evaluating universities for the distribution of resources. In particular, this research conducted on Italian university system aims at investigating how gender diversity affects the achievement of positive results during the periodic valuation of the quality of the research (VQR) made by the MIUR. In this context, to assess the gender capital impact on Universities' outputs, we conduct an empirical analysis of VQR results related to the period between 2011 and 2014 and the gender diversity within a specific scientific disciplinary sector. This quantitative methodology allows us to understand if the culture of diversity is able to generate greater value within organizations. In particular, if women's skills can make a real difference to foster the competitive advantage of an organization. Moreover, this study contributes expanding the literature on gender studies and it offers a new perspective applied to the concept of gender capital. The outcomes of the application are related to a better understanding of the need to fill the cultural and social gaps that do not allow women to achieve the same opportunity of career and wage expectation of men.
Part of
Proceedings of the International Conference on Gender Research (icgr 2018)
ISSN
2516-2802
Pagination
448-454