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CHAPTER 7 • IMPLEMENTING STRATEGIES: MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS ISSUES 241

include consideration for the fact that a good home life contributes immensely to a good
work life.
The work/family issue is no longer just a women’s issue. Some specific measures that
firms are taking to address this issue are providing spouse relocation assistance as an
employee benefit; providing company resources for family recreational and educational
use; establishing employee country clubs, such as those at IBM and Bethlehem Steel; and
creating family/work interaction opportunities. A study by Joseph Pleck of Wheaton
College found that in companies that do not offer paternity leave for fathers as a benefit,
most men take short, informal paternity leaves anyway by combining vacation time and
sick days.
Some organizations have developed family days, when family members are invited
into the workplace, taken on plant or office tours, dined by management, and given a
chance to see exactly what other family members do each day. Family days are inexpensive
and increase the employee’s pride in working for the organization. Flexible working hours
during the week are another human resource response to the need for individuals to bal-
ance work life and home life. The work/family topic is being made part of the agenda at
meetings and thus is being discussed in many organizations.
Only 2.6 percent of Fortune 500 firms have a woman CEO. However, recent studies
have found that companies with more female executives and directors outperform other
firms. 24 Judy Rosener at the University of California, Irvine, says, “Brain scans prove that
men and women think differently, so companies with a mix of male and female executives
will outperform competitors that rely on leadership of a single sex.” It is not that women
are better than men, Rosener says. It is the mix of thinking styles that is key to manage-
ment effectiveness.
During the first week of 2009, Ellen Kullman replaced Chad Holliday as CEO of
DuPont, which brought to 13 the number of female CEOs running the 500 largest
public firms in the United States. Thirteen is a record number, but only one more than
the total for the prior year. Lynn Elsenhans became CEO of Sunoco in 2008. In 2008,
two Fortune 500 women CEOs departed: Meg Whitman at eBay and Paula Reynolds at
Safeco.
USA Today tracks the performance of women CEOs versus male CEOs, and their
research shows virtually no difference in the two groups. 25 The year 2008 saw the
S&P 500 stocks fall 38.5 percent, its worst year since 1937. The stock of firms that
year with women CEOs fell 42.7 percent, but some firms run by women CEOs did
much better, such as Kraft Foods, down only 18 percent under Irene Rosenfeld. Two
firms doing great under woman CEOs are Avon under Andrea Jung and Reynolds
American under Susan Ivey. Those stocks are up 65.4 percent and 20.8 percent,
respectively, since those women became CEO. Table 7-15 gives the 13 Fortune 500
Women CEOs in 2009.

TABLE 7-15 Fortune 500 Women CEOs in 2009
CEO Company Fortune 500 Rank
Angela Braly WellPoint 33
Patricia Woertz Archer Daniels Midland 52
Lynn Elsenhans Sunoco 56
Indra Nooyi PepsiCo 59
Irene Rosenfeld Kraft Foods 63
Carol Meyrowitz TJX 132
Mary Sammons Rite Aid 142
Anne Mulcahy Xerox 144
Brenda Barnes Sara Lee 203
Andrea Jung Avon Products 265
Susan Ivey Reynolds American 290
Christina Gold Western Union 473