Glass Ceiling in Corporations

From UBC Wiki

Introduction

Glass ceiling refers to the exclusion of women from the top positions in management and their invisible barrier that resists them from reaching those top tier jobs because of them being women and not through the reflection of their skills, education, or experience. Evidently, women in management are able to advance within the corporate hierarchy up until they reach a certain point of advancement where they meet the glass ceiling which in return hinders or reduces the likelihood of reaching an executive position. This can be seen through the trend of the last 30 years having a substantial increase for women entering the low and mid-level management positions compared to the proportion of women attaining a top management position [1]. By engaging into management and corporation levels, this will further the visibility of the imbalance power distribution between men and women within the glass ceilings.

Imbalance of Opportunities

Systematic barriers such as dual labor markets for men and women confines the opportunities and powers for women, in perspective white men posses many key positions. With the shortage of women in power it only trims down to the bottom where many mentors and role models for women are unseen. Due to the lack of women within these organizations the constant discrimination only continues to uphold their opportunities into key management jobs. When opportunities arise for women it is to be seen that men would receive more attention towards training and development than women when advancing into top management [2]. It has been seen that when women outnumber men at a workforce it has helped women towards advancing into top management. This insists that the demographic does effect women's advancement into top management roles. However, women who do hold these high positions it is only in establishments with higher turnover and lower average management salaries [3]. Interestingly enough, it is in establishments with government contracts where the spread of lower management to top management is fairly equal designating the idea that the government keeps track and maintains a wide diversity [4].

Glass Ceiling Problems

In many cases the glass ceiling may only be seen as an inequality and discrimination problem, however, this can be easily broken down into many correlations towards negative productivity in all levels of an organization and the lack of diversity. Firstly, by having numerous amounts of lower-level female managers will conceive the belief that the opportunity of advancing into senior management level is almost impossible [5]. This will conclude the idea that hard work and perseverance will not benefit those who put in the work, having this will only start a culture of negative productivity when their motivation is at it's lowest. By not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, it will only create a shortage of endurance in the corporate ladder. With the lack of diversity among the upper management team will only lead up to a homogeneity panel of people in return directs decisions based upon those who view the same way and will cause poor and costly decisions [6]. According to resource dependency theory it is in the best interests of the firm to eliminate all barriers to maximize the supply of needed talent and resources [7]. By inhibiting women and having a gender-based barrier will only conflict with the company's objective of finding personal fits towards key management roles that would match the demographic characteristics of customer segments. The number of people who has the ability to uphold a senior management level position are turned down, the potential is not being maximized which in return will only tap a limited resource of people. Having the culture of glass ceiling within a work place will only create a disproportionate number of women opting out and compete for these roles. Withdrawing women out of the context for these positions will only promote negativity production levels but by taking employers competitive nature the overall quality of the workforce will only increase substantially. It is seen that the mean percentage of senior management positions held by women was 9.8 percent, 11 percent did not have any women in any senior management position and 22 percent had fewer than 5 percent who hold these key positions [8].

Here is a quick look about the number of female CEOs:

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Masculinity

Through the study it has been seen that possessing masculine culture preference substantially increases the chance of being appointed to a management position [9]. By referring to their masculine culture preference it reflects their higher levels of ambition and competitive level. Both men and women who comprised these competitive environments as their comfort zone and thrilled off competition were seen to occupy a management position. Although this may be the case, the number of female employee who appal to these masculine culture preferences are consequently lower than men [10]. For reasons stated above, women are willing to put less effort into promotions than men. In the mindset of women status and salary were not seen as an attraction, whereas family took priority. Which is a given that there will be work-home conflict creating the major barrier for a senior management position. It is seen that if there will be a toss between private life and work life, women would not sacrifice their private life.

References

  1. Dreher, G. F. (2003). Breaking the glass ceiling: The effects of sex ratios and work-life programs on female leadership at the top. Human Relations, 56(5), 541-562.
  2. Goodman, J. S., Fields, D. L., & Blum, T. C. (2003). Cracks in the Glass Ceiling In What Kinds of Organizations Do Women Make it to the Top?. Group & Organization Management, 28(4), 475-501.
  3. Goodman, J. S., Fields, D. L., & Blum, T. C. (2003). Cracks in the Glass Ceiling In What Kinds of Organizations Do Women Make it to the Top?. Group & Organization Management, 28(4), 475-501.
  4. Goodman, J. S., Fields, D. L., & Blum, T. C. (2003). Cracks in the Glass Ceiling In What Kinds of Organizations Do Women Make it to the Top?. Group & Organization Management, 28(4), 475-501.
  5. Dreher, G. F. (2003). Breaking the glass ceiling: The effects of sex ratios and work-life programs on female leadership at the top. Human Relations, 56(5), 541-562.
  6. Dreher, G. F. (2003). Breaking the glass ceiling: The effects of sex ratios and work-life programs on female leadership at the top. Human Relations, 56(5), 541-562.
  7. Dreher, G. F. (2003). Breaking the glass ceiling: The effects of sex ratios and work-life programs on female leadership at the top. Human Relations, 56(5), 541-562.
  8. Dreher, G. F. (2003). Breaking the glass ceiling: The effects of sex ratios and work-life programs on female leadership at the top. Human Relations, 56(5), 541-562.
  9. Vianen, A. E., & Fischer, A. H. (2002). Illuminating the glass ceiling: The role of organizational culture preferences. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 75(3), 315-337.
  10. Vianen, A. E., & Fischer, A. H. (2002). Illuminating the glass ceiling: The role of organizational culture preferences. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 75(3), 315-337.