Equality by Design: A Management Operating Model for Executive Leadership

Abstract

This research proposes a practical operating model for achieving executive-level gender equality by redesigning how leadership is produced—through governance, talent systems, meeting architecture, and work design—rather than relying on awareness programs alone. We diagnose failure modes in current practice (opaque criteria, network-driven assignments, weak sponsorship, and unpredictable collaboration norms) and translate them into levers via six design principles: clarity, comparability, contestability, proportionality of risk, predictability, and stewardship. Building on these principles, we introduce text-first managerial tools (decision rubrics, meeting compacts, sponsorship diaries, role design canvases, and narrative reviews) and a staged implementation roadmap (mobilize, build, scale, sustain, evolve) with ethical guardrails to avoid tokenism and “glass-cliff” appointments. The approach privileges qualitative evidence that travels across units, enabling credible change without heavy analytics infrastructure. The expected outcomes are improved decision quality and trust in forums, visible rotations into power roles, and durable equality as a property of the leadership system. This work contributes a unified framework, ready-to-use artifacts, and an evaluation approach grounded in process integrity—offering executives a coherent path from aspiration to operating discipline.