The INSEAD Gender Diversity Initiative brings together a diverse group of INSEAD faculty and researchers from all business disciplines to investigate a range of topics relating to gender diversity in organisations.

We also work with external stakeholders, whether corporate, public-sector or non-profit organisations, to encourage further high-impact research into gender diversity and thus influence business throughout the world.

With the resources, intellectual energy and support represented by the Initiative, research into gender diversity is a strong growth area at INSEAD.

Our main areas of focus are:

• Women and leadership
• Diversity and organisational performance
• Career and talent management
• Women and entrepreneurship
• Women and economic development

INSEAD is able to take a uniquely multicultural approach to the study of women as leaders. This also puts us in a strong position to identify and explore skills and attributes that are independent of culture. Some examples of ongoing and completed research are as follows.

Case Studies

• Vivienne Cox at BP Alternative Energy by Professor Herminia Ibarra and Mark Hunter, INSEAD 2007.

see also recent Leadercast.

• World Class Heroes for Russia: Olga Sloutsker and World Class Fitness Chain by Elizabeth Florent-Treacy, Professor Manfred F. R. Kets De Vries and Konstantin Korotov, INSEAD 2004.

• Frontstep A: High-tech Start-up and Survival in a New ''Time of Troubles'' by Konstantin Korotov, Elizabeth Florent-Treacy, Manfred Kets de Vries, INSEAD 2002.

• Frontstep B: High-tech Start-up and Survival in a New ''Time of Troubles'' by Konstantin Korotov, Elizabeth Florent-Treacy, Manfred Kets de Vries, INSEAD 2002.

Books/ Book Chapters

• Lifting the corporate barriers to women, by Professor Herminia Ibarra and James Pickford from the book Mastering people management: your single-source guide to becoming a master of people management (published by Financial Times, Prentice Hall, 2003).

Articles

• Learning to Negotiate with a Female Touch by Professor Horacio Falcao,  World Business no. 2, May 2006.

Work in progress

• Under the direction of Professor Manfred F. R. Kets De Vries a major research project on Women and Leadership in the Middle East, currently underway at the INSEAD Global Leadership Initiative and the school’s new centre in Abu Dhabi.

All the evidence indicates that greater gender diversity in organisations leads to improved performance. However, further research is required to understand what exactly companies can do in order to benefit from increased female representation. Some examples of recent INSEAD publications are as follows.

Case studies

• Alice in Wonderland? A different Approach to Organisational change (part A and B) by Hélène Gorter-Van Gorp, Elizabeth Florent-Treacy and Manfred Kets de Vries,

INSEAD 1999

Books/ Book Chapters

• Handbook of Research in International Human Resource Management

Ingmar Björkman and Guenter Stahl, January 01, 2007.

Working papers

• Unraveling the Diversity-Performance Link in Multicultural Teams: Meta-analysis of Studies on the Impact of Cultural Diversity in Teams by Professor Guenter Stahl, INSEAD 2007.

Individual women need support in managing their careers and defining their professional identities. Similarly, companies need support in managing female talent. Examples of recent INSEAD research designed to help individuals, organisations – or both – are as follows.

Case studies

• Katelyn Neilson MBA
  Gianpiero Petriglieri and Jennifer Petriglieri, INSEAD 2006.

Books/ Book Chapters

• Our Many Possible Selves: What Do We Want?
  Herminia Ibarra, Chapter of the book : "Enlightened Power: How Women are Transforming the Practice of Leadership", Jossey-Bass, April 2005.
  
• Working Identity, Herminia Ibarra, Harvard Business School Press, January 2003.

Working papers

• An Investigation of Individual Differences in Expected Utility Violations from the Dual Process Perspective
  Kanchan Mukherjee, INSEAD 2008.

• Leadership Development During Midlife: A Turning Point in Career Advancement, Herminia Ibarra and Laura Guillén Ramo, INSEAD 2008.

• Identity-Based Leader Development, Herminia Ibarra and Laura Guillén Ramo, INSEAD 2008.
  
• Identity Work and Play, Herminia Ibarra and Jennifer Petriglieri, INSEAD 2008.

• Impossible selves: image strategies and identity threat in professional women's career transitions
  Herminia Ibarra and Jennifer Petriglieri, INSEAD 2007.

• Identity Transitions: Possible Selves, Liminality and the Dynamics of Voluntary Career Change, Herminia Ibarra, INSEAD 2007.

• Our many possible selves: re-working our identities to reinvent our careers
  Herminia Ibarra, INSEAD 2004.

Articles

• Women and Money: Are men or women better at investing?

Lily Fang, INSEAD KNOWLEDGE, April/May 2008.

• Men and Women of the Corporation and the Change Masters: Practical theories for changing times by Herminia Ibarra, Academy of Management Executive V 18 n°2, January 2004.

• From Positive Affect to Creativity: The Surprising Role of Surprise,

Allan Filipowicz, The Creativity Research Journal, January 01, 2006.

Work in progress

• Organizational and professional identification: their interaction and the impact of relationships (in collaboration with CATALYST)

This study focuses on the impact of men’s and women’s network of relationships on their identification with their organization and profession.

• GELI: Gender differences in self-evaluations and observer evaluations of executives: A comparison and integration of three theories
  Leadership research has often documented and discussed gender differences in evaluations of leaders. In this study we compare leadership evaluations of 2,816 male and female executives, using as instrument the Global Leadership Executive Inventory - a 360 degrees feedback instrument assessing behaviour on 10 leadership dimensions

INSEAD is currently pursuing two main lines of research within this vast and rich area of study: women leading social innovation and the role of women in family business. Recent publications include the following.

Case Studies

• Kashf Foundation - A Pakistani Microfinance Organization Gears Up For Dramatic Growth (part A) by Mahmood Mahboob and Melanie Hui, 2007 INSEAD.

Working Papers

• Les femmes et l'entreprise familiale : rôles et évolution
  Christine Blondel, INSEAD 2005.