It seems harsh — and totally unrelated — but skipping golf with coworkers and higher-ups might leave you finding very little corporate advancement. An article in the latest issue of Fortune discusses how the simple act at not playing golf can cost an employee a promotion, a raise or a spot on one of the top deals. Fortune pinpoints how not playing golf can have the largest impact on women. This comes the same day a study was published by the American Association of University Women Educational Foundation that found women earn only 80% what men earn from the first year out of college to at least 10 years down the road. The reasons for the unequality were cited as many, but the Fortune golf article could offer a little incite:

In a 2004 survey of 1,000 women golfers, 73% said that the game had helped them develop important business relationships, and over half said that being able to talk knowledgeably about golf had contributed to their success, according to the poll by Golf for Women magazine.

Another study, by nonprofit research group Catalyst, found that, among 705 women managers at Fortune 1,000 companies, 41% said that not participating in informal social networks held them back at work, and the informal networking activity they mentioned most was…well, you can guess.

One organization — founded by a women executive — provides golf lessons for the corporate mover. Strelmark is a Washington D.C. based business consulting firm, that offers golf workshops. Interesting to say the least.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 23rd, 2007 at 9:21 am and is filed under Golf Talk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.