Gender Perspective and the Temporal Aspect in Managerial Careers: Male and Female Views of Time

The purpose of this article is to describe the perception of time by men and women in managerial positions in business organizations (and the specific actions resulting from that perception). The differences and similarities in perceiving time by representatives of the two sexes were reconstructed on the basis of nearly fifty narrative interviews conducted within the framework of two projects: 'The Temporal Aspect of Managerial Careers' (concluded in 2005) and the ongoing 'Spatial Aspect of Managerial Careers'. In the context of the titular gender perspective, what is noteworthy is the vision of their careers that organizational actors' declare and realize, in that they perceive them, despite the contradictions resulting from the gender difference, as being planned and realized through persistence. Key categories describing this type of attitude are those of the 'self-made man' and 'self-made woman'. Differences in ways of realizing the ideal of the inner-directed manager, which are the effect of a culturally conditioned perception of the role that men and women 'should' fill, are also important. Analysis of the data collected was conducted on the basis of grounded theory methodology.