Beyond Gender-Inclusive Policies: Organizational Culture, Work–Life Balance, and Leadership Development as Conversion Mechanisms for Women’s Career Advancement in Indian Multinational Corporations

Abstract

Gender-inclusive policies have been seen spreading in Multinationals Companies (MNCs) functioning in India and still the growth of women from entry and middle level in the companies to senior leadership is not uniform across the board. This conceptual review will provide an understanding of why formal policy adoption is not enough. The paper combines gendered-organization theory, role congruity theory, conservation of resources theory, social exchange theory, and the institutional-duality perspective on MNC subsidiaries to create a Policy–Culture–Resource–Advancement framework. An enacted inclusive culture is the mechanism that makes formal policies usable, credible, and enhance career, it argues. Culture creates two complementary pathways: one is a pathway of work–life, where flexibility is offered without penalty, preserving time, energy and career life; and one is a pathway of leadership-development, where development means having access to sponsorship, stretch assignments, and succession. These effects are mediated by managerial accountability, headquarters–subsidiary alignment, care infrastructure and intersecting identities. There are ten propositions which are open for empirical testing. It makes a contribution by differentiating between policy availability and enactment, flexibility access and penalty-free use, mentoring and sponsorship, and retention and advancement, and provides for outcome-oriented indicators for organizations and researchers.