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More Japanese women talent bound for overseas?

Global research on landscape of diversity

SHL, a leading global company providing talent measurement solutions, has released the SHL Talent Report 2012 that focuses on important talent management topics such as leadership, innovation and diversity across 205 countries.

What caught my eye while studying the report is the data on "the landscape of diversity", which shows Singapore being ranked 15th while Japan is 25th, in last position among the 25 major countries surveyed.

The "diversity landscape" reveals differences in gender and leadership potential worldwide. It examines whether there are any barriers preventing women from progressing to the boardroom.

Norway ranks 1st out of 25 with 42% of leadership roles held by women, followed by Thailand (39%), Italy (36%), Hong Kong (33%).

Taiwan ranks 8th (27%), Singapore 15th (23%) and Japan 25th (5%).

Compared to the global average of around three men to every one woman in leadership positions, the leadership diversity level in Singapore is almost equal to the average while Japan has only one woman to 20 men.

The findings also show that men in these roles are motivated by power and fear of failure, whereas women are motivated by a constructive working atmosphere and the receiving of recognition.

But the report found it evident that females are becoming increasingly demotivated as they progress in their careers.

Said Leong Kok Fann, Managing Director of SHL Singapore: "The C-suite culture will have to change if it is to attract aspiring female leaders. Moving away from an organisational culture framed by fear of failure to one founded on recognition for contribution and performance will be a stronger attraction for potential female leaders."

C-suite is a term used to collectively refer to a corporation's most important senior executives.

Coincidentally, there was a weekend discussion program relating to this topic on NHK TV channel recently.

The panelists in the discussion on work trends in Japan raised the issue that the chances for women taking leadership roles in Japan are much lower than in other developed countries.

One consequence of this trend would be an exodus of Japanese women executives overseas to seek jobs.