Women's Success in Office Closely Linked to Corporate Performance

A survey conducted by the Japan Institute of Workers' Evolution in early 2003 showed that sales growth and corporate performance are closely related to the proportion of female workers in the company and changes in the number of female managers. Company performance was graded into five ranks and compared with competitors using a "comprehensive management evaluation index." The survey targeted 3,347 companies in Japan, including major companies listed on the top and second tiers of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, over-the-counter stocks, and both life and non-life insurers.

The survey found that full-time female workers accounted for 20.1 percent of the total number of employees, down by about 5 percent compared to five years earlier. On the other hand, the number of female managers showed an increase in one third or more of the companies.

It is interesting to note that the companies with a higher proportion of female workers had a larger increase in sales since the previous survey, and also had more positive self-assessment of their corporate performance as "good," or "slightly better" than their competitors in general. Also it was apparent that the increase or decrease in numbers of female managers had a close correlation to changes in sales and business conditions. Those companies that had significantly increased the number of female managers during the previous five years have nearly doubled their sales and more than doubled their operating profits. In contrast, a decline was evident in both sales and profits among companies that had either "reduced" or "slightly reduced" the number of female managers.

Furthermore, the companies that viewed their efforts to empower women in the workplace as being "progressive" clearly did well in sales growth and management performance. Also apparent was that business boomed among those firms that had expanded female employment and scope of work and promoted strategies to increase the number of female managers.



Posted: 2005/05/21 09:35:24 PM
Japanese version