Glass Ceiling: An Introduction And Strategies To Resolve It

Female Participation in Organizational Activities

Discuss about the Prevailing Activities Of Glass Ceiling

The purpose of this essay is to provide a brief introduction of the prevailing activities of glass ceiling present in the professional environment. Although in the current scenario, females are moving with a faster speed and earning a reputed position in the professional world but despite of all these success, some orthodox thinking and activities detract them from their growth process. The below mentioned essay provides information about the female participation in organizational activities, issue of glass ceiling and possible strategies and measures to resolve it. Further, more details about the essay are discussed below:

Diversity in organization is one of the major beneficial factors that help a business in growing. This aspect helps the organization in employee people with different minds and capabilities that help them in exceling the external environment. So, concerning this aspect the female participation in the professional world has increased as women are trying to become independent and the companies are also welcoming more women employment than men. The gender gap in the external environment has started depleting as women stand shoulder to shoulder to men while working at workplace. It should be noted that by the 2000s the gap between women and men was narrowed to 7.0 percent that is a good remark to note as by the time of 1950s, men were the higher section of the society who owned the professional market as their contribution was two-third at the workplace.

The new and upcoming generation is more confident and wants to become independent by working with men present in the society (Dagher, Chen, & Thomas, 2015). Apart from the will of the female to work in the society, the companies and the human resource management” href=”https://#”>human resource management teams present in environment provides better working place and opportunities to women to come and work under favorable working conditions. Further, it should be noted that the organizations have started understanding the need of diversity at workplace as it helps them in initiating sustainable competitive advantage in the target market. Resulting to which they are focusing more on female employment in their organization (Hellerstein, Kutzbach, & Neumark, 2015.

Also, the governments of different communities are bring forward the issue of female rights in the society due to which they are encouraging the women present in the society to work in business environment and gain output from their caliber. It should be noted that women are more focused as compared to men at workplace and they are loyal for their organization as well, this aspect gives advantage to the organization to hire more women at workplace and gain satisfaction in the market. From the last decade, the trend has appeared that the organization where there is unequal ratio of men and women at workplace, then that organization is regarded as inefficient organization(Sahoo, & Lenka, 2016). The reputation of the company decrease in the market if there is less women employees employed at workplace. So, the human resource management of the company focused on promoting women employment at workplace. Also, it should be noted that large number of women are coming forward to perform tough jobs in the environment.

Diversity in Organizations

There is no industry left where there are fewer women employees and it is also projected that the gender inequality gap will decrease more efficiently by the year 2024 (that is upto 5.6 percent) (Toossi, & Morisi, 2017). Concerning to this effect the governments of various countries are developing laws to support the employment of women at workplace. The quiet revolution was a major change in the 19^th century when most of the women started working in organizations. At that time, most of the women entered in the professional world because of necessity. But then it became a trend that gave birth to the era of independent female worker. Thus, in this way the number of female workers were subsequently increased from past two decades (Jeong, & Harrison, 2017).

Apart from having such unstoppable success in the environment, women in the society are still facing such issues in the professional world. The biggest problem under this case is the problem of glass ceiling. It refers to an invisible barrier that prevents women from attaining promotion to high positions in an organization. Although employment of women is promoted but sadly they are not being promoted in the organizations despite of working efficiently in the society. Even after living in the 21^st century women are suffering from this problem that they are not being promoted in a corporation (Glass, & Cook, 2016). If a man and woman stand on the same position and the company is going to promote an employee, then they will promote the male staff of their company leaving the female staff on the same designation. This activity creates disappointment among women due to which they decrease their working capacity and subsequently leave their jobs as well. On finding that there is no scope of growth for them in the organization, they are left with no other option than permanently leaving the job. Women in the society are considered as less competent to handle stress as compared to men due to which they are not given the chance to reach on the higher level and are left with on the same designation. The glass ceiling impacts badly on women as it makes them les motivate to work effectively and also reduces their towards work(Ezzedeen, Budworth, & Baker, 2015). A person is fully motivated to work only when they are continuously provided monetary or non-monetary incentives and promotions are the biggest motivation factor among employees in the organization.  So, if the women are not being promoted to the higher level even after working hard then they loses the willingness to work.

Women Employment and Gender Pay Gap

Further, it should be noted that it is not a justification that a female is not promoted because she is a female or she has other responsibilities to fulfill apart from working. The human resource team in the corporate world has attained this thinking that female staff present in the environment has to take care of their family along with their job, so they won’t be able to successfully fulfill their responsibilities if they are being promoted to higher level. On the other hand, they believe that men have only one obligation in the society that is to earn money so they will totally focus on their job only. This mentality of people stagnate the growth of women in the society (Davis, & Maldonado, 2015).

Furthermore, glass ceiling is an unethical activity that should be prohibited by organizations in the corporate world. The companies should collectively follow strategies and measures to improve the proper flow of work in an organization. The companies should promote and recruit the talented human resource, irrespective of their gender, caste, creed, sex, ratio etc. (Goldin, 2014). This will help them to enhance their activities in the market as well. The companies should promote people in the environment according to their skills and talent, they should promote the person who works better and has the ability to handle the organization in crucial times. This will increase the satisfaction level of the employees as they will see that the organization is giving the chance to the person who is working will in the company (Cook, & Glass, 2014). Also, the HR team of the company should provide feedback to all the employees so that the female staff does not feel that they are not promoted because of their gender. Further, the companies should reassess the job requirements for the senior leadership team. Glass ceiling occur when the company are not hiring women for higher positions, so the company should levy some of their policies so that women can also apply for high designation is the environment. Like experience requirement of 10 years is not mandatory is 5-7 years’ experience is also fit for the job. In this way the women will become eligible to apply and get recruited on higher position in an organization (Hekman, Johnson, Foo, & Yang, 2017). The company should also expand their applicant pool so as to create a diversified workplace environment and grow effectively.

The Issue of Glass Ceiling

The management should also try to contact the employees (specifically women) who left the job because of biased environmental conditions and ask them to return if they provide them dignified position. Also, all the employees should be given equal level of opportunities so that they can work effectively in similar working conditions and outshine their performance. The employees present at same posts should be given equal opportunities in the corporate environment to grow. The companies should also minimize the gender pay gap so as to retain the female employees in the environment (Mihaila, 2016). The employees should also have the right to audit their payroll; this will provide the advantage to the female staff to look for the pay that the company is giving to the male staff at same position. These will keep the female staff focused and provide them opportunities to grow in better working conditions.

Thus, in the limelight of above mentioned events, it should be noted that gender equality at workplace is an important aspects that the companies should adhere. This process will provide benefits to them along with the female staff in the society. Although the ratio of female employment is growing but the effect is glass ceiling is hampering their growth. So, the corporate world should apply the above mentioned strategies for advancement of females in organization.  

References

Cook, A., & Glass, C. (2014). Above the glass ceiling: When are women and racial/ethnic minorities promoted to CEO?. Strategic Management Journal, 35(7), 1080-1089.

Dagher, R. K., Chen, J., & Thomas, S. B. (2015). Gender differences in mental health outcomes before, during, and after the Great Recession. PloS one, 10(5), e0124103.

Davis, D. R., & Maldonado, C. (2015). Shattering the glass ceiling: The leadership development of African American women in higher education. Advancing Women in Leadership, 35, 48.

Ezzedeen, S. R., Budworth, M. H., & Baker, S. D. (2015). The glass ceiling and executive careers: Still an issue for pre-career women. Journal of Career Development, 42(5), 355-369.

Glass, C., & Cook, A. (2016). Leading at the top: Understanding women’s challenges above the glass ceiling. The Leadership Quarterly, 27(1), 51-63.

Goldin, C. (2014). A pollution theory of discrimination: male and female differences in occupations and earnings. In Human capital in history: The American record (pp. 313-348). University of Chicago Press.

Hekman, D. R., Johnson, S. K., Foo, M. D., & Yang, W. (2017). Does diversity-valuing behavior result in diminished performance ratings for non-white and female leaders?. Academy of Management Journal, 60(2), 771-797.

Hellerstein, J. K., Kutzbach, M. J., & Neumark, D. (2015). Labor market networks and recovery from mass layoffs before, during, and after the great recession.

Jeong, S. H., & Harrison, D. A. (2017). Glass Breaking, Strategy Making, and Value Creating: Meta-Analytic Outcomes of Women as CEOs and TMT members. Academy of Management Journal, 60(4), 1219-1252.

Mihaila, R. (2016). Female labor force participation and gender wage discrimination. Journal of Research in Gender Studies, 6(1), 262.

Sahoo, D. K., & Lenka, U. (2016). Breaking the glass ceiling: opportunity for the organization. Industrial and Commercial Training, 48(6), 311-319.

Toossi, M., & Morisi, T. L. (2017). BLS Spotlight on Statistics: Women in the Workforce Before, During, and after the Great Recession.