Team up to rise up: Identifying and overcoming gendered career obstacles within Canadian investment firms.
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This dissertation presents mixed-methods research that studies the conundrum of why Canadian bank-owned investment firms are failing to grow their numbers of female Investment Advisors (IAs), and how structured teaming within investment management could potentially provide support for career progression, particularly amongst women. First, qualitative exploratory interviews were conducted within one of Canada’s “Big 5” Canadian bank-owned investment firms (n=39) to accomplish the following: 1) understand the elements of organizational culture and the IA role itself that caused roadblocks for women and the factors that deter women from pursuing the role of IA; and 2) understand directly from both men and women what elements, features, and environments help them overcome barriers, advance their careers, and be successful in the role of IA. Barriers fell into three themes: mentorship, career self-efficacy, and work/life conflict, while structured teaming within investment management appeared to alleviate many of the pain-points identified. The second quantitative study investigates teaming’s impact on career advancement. Three hypotheses were tested using linear regression to analyze the results of responses gathered through questionnaires (N=162) distributed within the same firm. The results of the survey show preliminary support for the theory that structured teaming within investment management positively impacts mentorship for both males and females, and positively impacts work/life conflict to a stronger degree for females when moderated by gender. The two studies, when combined, suggest that structured teaming within investment management can provide a rich environment for conversion factors that lead to higher capability of becoming an IA, thus providing better opportunity for career advancement. Providing better opportunity for advancement can help more women become successful IAs and increase their numbers in the field of investment management.