The Concept of the Glass Ceiling Effect - Dissertation Example

Since historical times, women and minorities have continued to lag behind in career advancement as their male counterparts take almost all management and chief executive jobs. Despite the fact that the population of women and men in the world do not vary much, this trend is not replicated at the workplace, where top echelons seem to be a preserve for men. The artificial barriers that are placed in the path of women and minorities so that they do not climb the corporate ladder are generally referred to as the glass ceiling effect.

This paper explores the concept of the glass ceiling effect with regards to its implications on employee attitude, pay gap, rewards, job satisfaction and performance. Importantly, the effects of the glass ceiling on the overall performance and operations of the business are explored. In the end, several recommendations have been outlined. Examples of these recommendations are training and education for improved skills, knowledge, competencies and potentials and awareness about and fighting for one’s values and rights.

The paper aims to advise policymakers, government and professional agencies, theorists, researchers and individual employees on the implications of the glass ceiling effect and how it may be addressed.

However, promotion discrimination ranks among the most widespread forms of discrimination at the workplace. Consequently, vulnerable and minority groups such as women, the disabled and minority ethnic and racial groups are largely underrepresented at the top echelons of employment (Tomaskovic-Devey, 2003).

This scenario prevails despite the huge strides made in the last three decades to reverse the trend in which women and people from minority races and ethnicities are discriminated against in job promotion (Lehmann & Lang, 2010). This apparently widespread discrimination calls for further researches into its causes, effects and the interventions by which it could be effectively, efficiently and permanently reversed (Francine & Kahn, 1996). It is for this reason that this research has been proposed and designed; to unearth the effects of inequality in promotion, otherwise referred to as ‘the glass ceiling effect’, on employee attitudes and business as a whole entity (Ghosh & Waldman, 2010).

Because of the social, economic, cultural and health implications of this discriminatory trend on businesses as well as individual employees, this paper covers the socioeconomic and cultural effects of the glass ceiling effect on individuals and businesses. The importance of this paper lies in the fact that it would be really effective if a business owner understood the detrimental effects of the glass ceiling not only on his or her workers but also on the business performance. Hence, from the highlighted effects, a business owner and manager would be best placed to implement strategies and practices that would promote fairness and equality not only in promotion but also in task assignment, job description, transfer, job evaluation and reward, among other human resource practices that could boost business performance and reputation (Alesina et al., 2013).