RESUMO
Introduction: Although work is a significant source of meaning for most people, the role of senior executive generates different meaning and well-being complexities than those experienced or faced by general employees. This study explored how meaning and anti-meaning components affect senior executives' experiences of meaning in life and well-being. The findings enabled devising a pathway to enhance senior executives' net experiences of meaning in life and well-being. Methods: A cross-sectional, semi-structured interview study design was used to gather rich qualitative data. Eight participants from southern and eastern Africa, who had held the position of chief executive officer or managing director for at least five years, were interviewed. Results: The findings demonstrated that senior executives' work roles provide a significant source of meaning. However, the roles are accompanied by unavoidable anti-meanings, which are likely to generate additional anti-meanings if not tempered sufficiently, thus reducing the net meaning experienced. Discussion: From the findings, a practical pathway was devised to assist top executives to deal with the bipolar relationship between meaning and anti-meaning. Consulting and counseling practitioners can utilize the pathway to guide, support, and counsel senior executives towards improved meaning, temper anti-meaning and improve well-being.
RESUMO
Today, many women work in occupational roles that had once been dominated by men (e.g., senior business executives). However, expectations on senior executives to be agentic (e.g., assertive, dominant) may conflict with prescriptive stereotypes about women to be communal (e.g., helpful, warm). According to this double-bind dilemma, female senior executives get criticized for lacking either agency or communion as both dimensions can be perceived as posing a tradeoff. We hypothesize that female senior executives report higher levels of agency and lower levels of communion than women in a more neutral role (e.g., lecturers) due to the perceived requirements of these occupational roles. In Study 1, N = 212 students rated adjectives on their desirability for men vs. women in Chinese society. They rated agentic characteristics as more desirable for men and communal characteristics as more desirable for women. Studies 2 and 3 used this material. Study 2 randomly assigned N = 207 female students to the role of a senior executive vs. lecturer. Study 3 was conducted with N = 202 female role occupants (96 senior executives, 106 lecturers). As expected, female senior executives reported higher levels of agency and lower levels of communion than female lecturers in both studies. Some women may be particularly aware of the above-mentioned double-bind dilemma and may be more worried about the potential backlash than others. They may attempt to reconcile occupational demands (i.e., higher agency, lower communion) with prescriptive gender stereotypes (i.e., lower agency, higher communion). We, therefore, explored whether fear of backlash attenuates the effect of the type of role of women (senior executives vs. lecturers) on agency and communion. Indeed, we found that senior executives who were particularly worried about backlash reported almost as much communion as lecturers did. In contrast, senior executives consistently reported higher levels of agency than lecturers regardless of their fear of backlash. The present study documents prescriptive gender stereotypes in China, how women differ as a function of their occupational roles, and how fear of backlash may motivate female senior executives to reconcile having high levels of both agency and communion.
RESUMO
O presente estudo buscou apresentar e discutir a vida de alto executivo na perspectiva dos dispositivos que a sustentam. Para tanto, empreendeu-se uma pesquisa exploratória qualitativa que contou com a participação de altos executivos de empresas de médio/grande porte localizadas no Brasil. Alcançados por meio da análise de conteúdo das entrevistas individuais realizadas com 26 participantes, os resultados dizem da vida vivida e da vida encenada de alto executivo. Condizentes com os ditames organizacionais, o dom, a bajulação e a glamourização dizem respeito, respectivamente, aos dispositivos de engajamento, sedução e captura de modo a sustentarem a vida de alto executivo.
The current study aimed to present and discuss the life of the senior executive on the perspective of the dispositives that sustain it. In order to do so, an exploratory qualitative approach was adopted with the participation of senior executives from big and medium size companies located in brazil. Reached by the content analysis of individual interviews conducted with 26 participants, the results tell us about the lived and the staged life of the enior executive. Aligned with the organizational dictates, the gift, the flattering, the glamourization tell about, respectively, the dispositves of engaging, seduction and capture mode to sustain the life of the top executives.
El presente estudio buscó presentar y discutir la vida de los altos ejecutivos en la perspectiva de los dispositivos que la sostienen. Para ello, se emprendió una investigación exploratoria cualitativa que contó con la participación de los altos ejecutivos de empresas de mediano y gran porte ubicadas en Brasil. Alcanzados por medio del análisis de contenido de las entrevistas individuales realizadas con 26 participantes, los resultados hablan sobre la vida vivida y de la vida escenada de los altos ejecutivos. Con los dictámenes organizacionales, el don, la adulación y la glamourización, se refieren respectivamente a los dispositivos de compromiso, seducción y captura para sostener la vida de los altos ejecutivos.
