Creating women-friendly companies to foster executive leadership in women: A case study

Fortune 500 companies in the United States have mixed results about best business practices to have a company-wide women's initiative. While organizations are recruiting and hiring women, they experience difficulty in developing and retaining executive women and advancing them into ranks of senior management. Catalyst has just completed a 5-year study showing a link between the population of women executives in a company and its positive bottom-line performance. This research study will add to the literature by presenting new evidence on women's initiatives fostering executive leadership in women. This research utilized a multi-case study approach, using Atlas.ti to analyze data. The new results presented in this study will build upon conclusions in the previous literature while providing practical guidelines for businesses to build and create their own women-friendly companies through a women's initiative.