Women’s leadership in the canton of Berne: how can concerns be raised before a decision is made?

In the canton of Berne, federal administration, public health, telecommunications and precision manufacturing all face different versions of the same question: what information reaches decision-makers before they make a choice? For the “Women’s Leadership” programme at SHR — Swiss Human Resources, the useful question is therefore how participants can raise a professional concern without bearing the entire interpersonal cost themselves.

What the literature establishes

Amy Edmondson (1999, Administrative Science Quarterly) defines psychological safety as a shared belief that a team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking. Her field study identifies an association between psychological safety and team learning behaviours, including discussing mistakes and seeking feedback. It provides a framework for understanding why having relevant information does not necessarily make it possible to voice it.

Openness is judged by the managerial response

James R. Detert and Ethan R. Burris (2007, Academy of Management Journal) link managerial openness to employees’ expression of constructive suggestions and examine the mediating role of psychological safety. Their work encourages a distinction between a formal invitation to speak and the perception that a contribution will genuinely be welcomed. In leadership training, preparing a well-supported objection is therefore no substitute for working on how it is received.

The premature conclusion

One might conclude that women simply need to learn to speak more assertively. These studies demonstrate neither a female deficit in speaking up nor the effectiveness of women-only training. A more cautious application combines practice in articulating concerns with a commitment from managers to provide an explicit response. (our executive and employee training programmes)

What the evidence and procedures cannot guarantee

These studies concern neither the canton of Berne nor women’s career trajectories specifically; they cannot quantify a local effect or a gender effect. In organisations operating under a public mandate, transparency requirements make traceability relevant, but recording an objection does not guarantee that it will be considered. Biel/Bienne’s bilingual context also suggests checking that concerns expressed in French or German are recorded without losing their meaning, rather than assuming that a language barrier exists.

A practical check in Berne

As a proposed exercise for the SHR programme, a participant could test a register of concerns about a digitalisation project in a public health department based in Berne: this is a hypothetical situation, not a client case. Before each decision, the register would record the concern, its professional rationale and the decision-maker’s reasoned response, subject to confidentiality requirements. Over a trial period defined in advance, the measure would be the proportion of recorded concerns receiving a reasoned response before the decision. This would check how objections are handled, without claiming to measure freedom to speak or gender equality on its own. To go further: explore the Women in Leadership training in Bern in the canton of Bern, or browse our executive and employee training programmes in Switzerland.

In pictures: Women in Leadership in Bern

• women in leadership
• Bern
• research
• training bern