Creating Women's Networks - (Jossey-Bass Business & Management) by Catalyst (Paperback)

About the Book

It's no longer "the good old boys club". Here lessons from such corporate leaders as Baxter Healthcare, NYNEX, Raychem, Eastman Kodak, and Levi Strauss show businesses how to bolster the bottom line by cultivating the talents and loyalty of women through powerful networks.

Book Synopsis

Discover a dynamic new force in leadership development. This remarkable guide shows companies exactly how they can better retain and increase leadership talent through the establishment of women's networks--networks that link specific female employee concerns and larger organizational goals in ways that bolster the bottom line. Based on the cutting-edge research of Catalyst--America's foremost nonprofit dedicated to the advancement of women in business--this guide explains why women's networks are valuable. It shows how companies large and small have leveraged women's networks to their advantage. And it provides a detailed framework readers can follow to create a network within their organization. Charged with first-person success stories, it will prove invaluable to executives and managers concerned with decreasing turnover, increasing employee satisfaction, and optimizing the leadership potential of their entire work force.

From the Back Cover

If your company doesn't have a women's network, it should. Such networks have proven invaluable to women looking to get ahead at work and to companies looking to enlist, retain, and advance the most talented people possible. But exactly how can you go about starting a women's network or improving one already in existence?
Working with women's networks from all regions and industries for fifteen years, Catalyst has become the nation's premier clearinghouse for information and advice on the subject. And with this book, Catalyst makes its much-sought-after expertise available to people everywhere.
Here, individuals will find step-by-step, hands-on instructions for creating a network of their own and for increasing the success of networks already in place. Companies will discover what women's networks are all about, how they improve the working environment, and how they contribute to the bottom line.
Women with front-line network experience lend their voices to this work and serve as your guides. Relating their own personal experiences and insights, they provide a living, breathing sense of what networks are like in action. Their stories follow the life cycle of a typical network from gestation to adulthood, even to termination once its mission is accomplished, providing best practices for every stage of development. The illuminating questions, useful checklists, and summaries of key points and common pitfalls that accompany every chapter enhance learning and help ensure your success.
In all kinds of companies of all sizes, women's networks have had an enormous impact on company culture and policy. They are an ideal way to build the relationships, skills, and knowledge that allow their members an equitable shot at the top and their companies the benefits of a head start in the race for talent.

Review Quotes

"Many successful networks learn the hard way. This book contains the secrets for growing a network and creating and managing a powerful advisory relationship with your company. And you'll avoid the pitfalls along the way. I wish I'd had this book when we started our network!" (Sue Burke, president, Women's Forum of Kodak Employees)

"Starting a networking group can be relatively easy; however, sustaining the positive momentum that such a group generates is a very complex and difficult problem. Catalyst has provided us with a wonderful resource for starting a group and meeting its longer-term challenges as well." (Mona Lau, managing director, globalization and diversity, Banker's Trust)

About the Author

CATALYST is a nationally recognized nonprofit organization whose research and advisory services are aimed at maximizing opportunities for women in management and executive positions. Its staff is frequently quoted in major media, including The New York Times, Business Week, the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, and most other business publications. Catalyst is headquartered in New York City.