Inequality between women and men in top management positions is still a current reality where women are underrepresented. Gender discrimination against women in managerial positions violates the Sustainable Development Goal of gender equality. Gender discrimination affects women but also has negative consequences for employee output. Our aim is analyzing how the role of gender moderates the relationship between gender barriers to managerial positions and performance, mediated by organizational justice and commitment, and whether this relationship is stronger in women than in men. This study was carried out with 1278 employees (45.2% women and 54.8% men) of a Spanish financial group consisting of three different organizations. We performed a moderated mediation path analysis with Mplus. Results show that some gender barriers are associated with lower perceptions of organizational justice, which in turn are associated with lower organizational commitment, thus reducing performance. Moreover, this relationship is significant in men and women for work–family balance and barriers to accessing influential networks, but for unfair HR policies and practices, it is only significant in women. Removing gender barriers and unfairness perceptions is the goal that will contribute to organizational sustainability from the gender perspective.

Despite recent advancements in promoting women to managerial roles, women face several barriers that diminish their chances of attaining managerial positions. These barriers include obstacles related to work-life balance, biased HR practices, difficulties accessing influential networks, being subjected to excessive scrutiny, and the need to demonstrate their contributions more than men. Additionally, a male-oriented organizational culture further exacerbates these barriers. However, transformational leadership could reduce gender barriers. Moreover, leader-member gender congruity can further alleviate these perceived obstacles. Female supervisors are better positioned to assess female employees’ performance, empathize with their needs, offer invaluable support, and advocate for gender-equitable HR practices. This study delves into the direct impact of transformational leadership and leader-member gender congruity and their interactive effects on the perceived promotion barriers. The sample consists of 579 women from three Spanish financial organizations with different positions at work, ranging from executive managers to bank officers. A path analysis model was tested with Mplus, linking perceived barriers to women’s promotion with transformational leadership. Transformational leadership perceptions diminish women’s perceptions of organizational culture-related barriers hindering women’s promotion. Leader-member gender congruity reduces their perceptions of barriers related to unequal performance appraisal and unfair HR practices. Furthermore, there was an unexpected interaction effect: perceived transformational leadership reduces women employees’ perceptions regarding barriers to managerial positions when they have male supervisors. However, this effect was not observed when supervisors were female. Thus, the impact of women transformational leaders on reducing the barriers to women’s promotion is not dependent on their transformational perceived behaviors. These outcomes highlight the role of perceived transformational leadership in mitigating women’s promotion difficulties and emphasize the relevance of female supervision in reducing women’s perceptions of barriers to management promotion.

People Management in organizations has evolved over the last 150 years in response to the numerous events that have occurred in the environment. During this period, the systemic effects of successive industrial revolutions have been altering the way organizations respond to the need to manage their HR. From this historical perspective, the current moment is presented as a challenge for the profession given the speed and depth of changes compared to previous times. This paper analyzes four scenarios to which organizations and workers must adapt, the six main HRM models, as well as the main trends and topics of interest for ongoing research. After the study of these three elements, an original proposal is developed within the configurational tradition, connecting them according to competitive effectiveness perspective. Next, various guidelines and implications are developed aimed at stimulating reflection in both academic and professional spheres, resulting in the improvement of the quality of decisions, something particularly relevant in a competitive context that often heavily penalizes mistakes. La gestión de las personas en las organizaciones ha evolucionado durante los últimos 150 años al albur de los numerosos eventos acontecidos en el entorno. En este periodo, los efectos sistémicos de las sucesivas revoluciones industriales fueron modificando la manera en la que las organizaciones daban respuesta a la necesidad de gestionar a sus recursos humanos (RR. HH). Desde esta perspectiva histórica, el momento actual se presenta como un desafío para la profesión dada la velocidad y profundidad de los cambios respecto a otros momentos anteriores. En este trabajo se analizan cuatro escenarios a los que organizaciones y trabajadores y trabajadoras deben adaptarse, los seis principales modelos de RR. HH. así como las principales tendencias y temas de interés para la investigación. Tras el estudio de estos tres elementos se elabora una propuesta original enmarcada en la tradición configuracional en la que se conectan de acuerdo con un criterio de efectividad competitiva. A continuación, se desarrollan diversas directrices e implicaciones orientadas a estimular una reflexión en los ámbitos académico y profesional que redunde en la mejora de la calidad de las decisiones, algo especialmente relevante en un contexto competitivo que suele penalizar intensamente los errores.

Slovenská akadémia vied vykonáva špičkový základný výskum, dlhodobý strategický a aplikovaný výskum a vývoj a poskytuje prístup k vedeckej infraštruktúre.