Scholarships chip away at glass ceiling

AUTHOR: Debra Maynard and Karen Barrett   DATE: 30.08.01   ISSUE 2, 2001

The morning begins with an exercise session conducted by a personal trainer. Breakfast follows, then it’s down to syndicate work tackling the problems of Amazon.com. The afternoon focuses on managing people for performance and competitive advantage, followed by a talk during dinner by Stephen Shedden, CEO of Shopfast.com.au, to discuss Internet retailing. The evening work gives participants an opportunity to compare an Australian e-tailing experience with an international business case. Just part of a typical day in the three-week residential schedule of the AGSM’s Senior Manager Development Program (SMDP).

“It’s an intensive format that meant I could really focus on the course and the team away from my family, although it was still difficult to leave my three young children,” says SMDP graduate Bronwyn Clere.

“I’d encourage other women to think about doing executive training in this way as it doesn’t compromise your family commitments except for that intense period,” says Clere.

{	Support for women in senior positions is still hard to come by in a lot of blue chip industries.

Program director for customer service at investment and financial services group, AXA Australia, Clere says: “One of the strengths of the program is that participants are carefully selected to bring different specialities to the group, and from that melting pot comes a wealth of knowledge across industries.”

According to Dr Sureka Goringe, Accelerated Development Program (ADP) scholarship winner and now chief operating officer of Redfern Polymer Optics: “Support for women in senior positions is still hard to come by in a lot of blue chip industries.” Goringe has a PhD in materials science and began her managerial career in the building industry.

“From a narrow perspective, for technologists I think the scholarships are important because there are so few women in the field. An incentive for women to participate in high-level executive development has merit because the culture in Australia is still not greatly supportive of women moving to senior management,” says Goringe.

“I’m using the course content and knowledge a lot now. Redfern Polymer Optics is a high-tech start-up [that develops polymer optics for telecommunications applications]. While there is a strong research and development program, my role as COO focuses on financial and strategic planning.

“A very rewarding and powerful part of the program was the learning that came not just from the course content, but from my peers in the group,” says Goringe.

Leanne Gordon, human resource manager for Perth-based AngloGold Australasia, says the scholarships probably helped the ADP to be a 50–50 split between men and women, which was not something most workplaces had at a senior executive level.

“Over time, it is one of those things that become unnecessary, although for some women the scholarships give them more confidence in asking for their company’s support to participate,” Gordon says.

Sharing knowledge
“I think the ADP is one of the great executive programs with its two residential modules complemented by group project work in-between. I now have a better sense of what good leadership means, and I am more conscious of my actions and the effects they have. I am much more aware of how I do things and change my behaviour implicitly for the better,” Gordon says.

Lisa Wilson, who was promoted to general manager of grower services at the Australian Wheat Board (AWB) shortly after completing the SMDP, says the program offered a great opportunity to take time out to consider her life and effectiveness.

“As senior managers, we need time away from work to reflect on where we are going and why. Sometimes we need to take our own HR inventory to understand ourselves better and how our peers see us,” she says.

“The AWB is focused on bringing in new ideas and helping to broaden senior managers’ skills, so there’s a strong commitment to encouraging participation among our senior ranks in this kind of executive development course.”

Wilson has been with the AWB for almost 10 years and during that time has seen a slow, yet steady, increase in the number of women in the agricultural industry. She completed a degree in agricultural science but has worked across disciplines – from public affairs and marketing to commodity trading. “Certainly early on in my career I found it hard to get ‘out of the box’.”

{	As senior managers, we need time away form work to reflect on where we are going and why.

PHOTO: Karen Mork

Broader skills
Wilson took her professional development into her own hands, began broadening her industry and community network, and looked to structured programs for self-development and to broaden her knowledge and skills.

“The challenge for executives taking the SMDP is to take what they have learnt and use it to operate more effectively. Any course needs to examine good process, to get the participants to think about structure and how they will stay focused on being more effective back in the workplace.

“On a personal level, the course opened my eyes to the usefulness of a business model and the fact that there is commonality across industries,”Wilson says.

The adage that you get out of executive education what you are prepared to put into it also rings true for Louise Archer, director of budget and strategy for the Commonwealth Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs in Canberra.

New networks
An ADP graduate, Archer valued the opportunity to network with like-minded managers and to hone some of her own management ideas.

“I’ve since applied my ADP project work which was about using modern technology to create virtual teams – to my own work practices, using videoconferencing much more instead of face-to-face meetings and allowing people to work off-site,” says Archer.

“I liked the residential format of the program because it is difficult to find the time to study part-time, and you also really get to know people in other organisations who might have a link to your own,” she says.

The intensive residential format of the ADP also encouraged Hamilton Island director of sales, Michelle Kenna, to participate: “It was time to stretch myself and doing full-time or part-time study just wasn’t an option as I travel so much.

“It was a fantastic opportunity – it enhanced my self-confidence being able to show my board and senior directors that I could apply for and win a scholarship,” says Kenna.

“Of particular value to me was the increased financial knowledge I gained and also the exposure to people and their experiences in diverse industries.

“I know that I communicate more fluently now with senior managers both in my own and other industries, and also with my staff.

“In my experience since completing the ADP it has made a difference having enhanced knowledge and skills that are valued [in the workplace],” says Kenna.