ABSTRACT
The central concern of this chapter is to examine sponsorship theoretically in order to suggest ways in which it generates mechanisms for women's career advancement. It posits sponsorship as a routine nested within organizational and talent management routines. The chapter discusses the impact of gender, as intertwined with legitimacy, on sponsorship routines. Then, it considers the ways in which sponsorship routines can be disrupted in order to bring about change, before addressing the implications for contemporary organizations seeking to identify and support the advancement of talented women and men. Future conceptual and empirical research opportunities should examine gender, legitimacy, and sponsorship routines, as well as the notion of leadership development as "gendered routine" that ascribes legitimacy differently for women. The chapter suggests that embedded sponsorship routines align with, and offer opportunities to disrupt, existing talent management efforts in ways that expand opportunities for a wider segment of the high potential talent pool.
