EXPERT ADVISORY

Between 1989 and 2009, fewer than 100 women became CEOs of Fortune 500 companies.

University of Michigan researcher Aparna Joshi and her co-authors embarked on a deep dive a decade ago into every one of these rare events. While the barriers to women’s success in senior roles and the negative industry reactions to their ascension have been long documented, Joshi felt the traditional approaches and findings failed to provide knowledge useful for action.

Her research highlights the “recipes” for women’s post-succession success, and points organizations toward a clearer path forward.

On the latest episode of Business and Society, Joshi, professor of management and organizations at U-M’s Ross School of Business, discusses factors of success for women in senior leadership and ways of creating more supportive and thriving environments.

“Something to watch out for in my view is if your talent pipeline is leaky, you’re less likely to see women having that long-term tenure in your organization,” Joshi said. “If insiders are indeed the go-to pool for successful female CEOs, firms really need to do more to strengthen their internal pipeline for talent.”

Business & Society is co-produced by JT Godfrey of the Ross School of Business and Jeff Karoub of the Michigan News office. The audio engineer is Jonah Brockman and editorial production is provided by Mads Henke. Listen to all episodes of the podcast.