Determinants Of Women Professional Employees' Aspiration Towards Management Position In Public Service Organizations Of Dire Dawa Administrations: Taking Desired Aspirations As A Mediating Variable

In the Ethiopian Public Sector, although the presence of women professionals considerably improved in the last two decades, women remained underrepresented in the management positions. In addition to external barriers that women face, their own aspiration that they have towards management positions also explain this underrepresentation. This study aims with the objectives of investigating the existing difference in aspiration towards management positions between men and women professionals and to analyze the determinants of management position aspirations in Public Service organizations of DDA. Both primary and secondary data were gathered to quench the objective of the study. Moreover, to address these objectives the survey study was conducted by distributing structured questionnaires to 358 randomly selected sample men and women professionals (however 288 replied) that were drawn from Public service organizations. As the study deals with latent variables, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was employed for analysis using SMART PLS-4. The Chi-square test (X2=66.122) showed there is a statistically significant (P=.000, P<0.05) desired aspiration difference between male and female respondents in the study area in which male employees have better desire towards management position than female counterparts. Moreover, there is also a statistically significant (X2=187.897; P=.000, P<0.05) enacted aspiration difference between male and female respondents in the study area in which male employees have better enacted towards management position than female employees. The results of the coefficient of determination shows that 67% of the variation in enacted aspiration of professional employees in public service organizations is due to desired aspiration, perceived advancement prospect, self management congruence and occupational commitment. Therefore, public service organizations should design special succession plan for women to build women’s capacity in a strategic manner.