Breaking the Glass Ceiling in Corporate America - Research Paper Example

Breaking the Glass Ceiling In Corporate America Individuals can see past the world above them, if glass ceilings exist. This is because glass is clear; such that individuals under this ceiling take long to realize that a barrier exists that prevents them from reaching high levels. It is only through trying to pass that barrier that individuals realize that the glass ceiling is prohibiting them from passing through. Even before the Wall Street Journal took note of this matter in March 1986, women knew about the existence of glass ceilings in the corporate America and in all levels of the workforce (Morrison, 1986). The media coined the term; glass ceiling to explain what takes place when women are deprived of the opportunity to lead in Corporate Companies. A lot of women and minority men that are qualified are often deprived of jobs at the top level in Corporate America. Instead of this being referred to as sexism, xenophobia or racism it is referred to as the glass ceiling. Glass ceiling is an expression that explains the false plateau, past which minorities and women are deprived of the opportunity to proceed to higher levels in corporate America of executive management. This practice of denying minorities and women the opportunity to lead in Fortune companies has become a routine despite the impressive performance of the minorities. This glass ceiling hindrance toward women is basically a form of sex discrimination that the law is clearly against. Glass ceiling hindrances subsist at every level in an organization, and influence individuals in various companies at different levels. Although, CEOs and CFOs are more and more recognizing the need of a work force with diverse individuals, especially at the level of management, hindrance of the glass ceiling continue to disallow minorities and women the chance to compete for and seize high level executive position in the private sector (Castro, 1997). In America, an African American, Barrack Obama is the Chief Executive of the nation, while the one heading the State Department is Hilary Clinton, a woman. Despite these statistics, glass ceiling still exist. Interestingly, Hispanics, Blacks and American Indians represent around 30% of the population in America; but, only 3% hold management positions that are at the top. Also, in Fortune 500 companies only 15 women are present in leadership positions. Black CEOs are even fewer in number, while Hispanics and Blacks constitute 5 to 10% of a renowned law firm’s associates of first year. They also account for only 2% of such firms as partners (Gilgoff 2009). A lot of employers are working to alter these statistics. They are working together with retirement specialists of minority groups who offer help in improving minority professionals to hold leadership positions. Also, prominent business schools are doing the same by including more minorities in leadership positions. A lot more employers in the private and public sectors are coming up with internal strategies to get minorities into senior positions. Within four years, the number of companies that apply to be in the annual magazine, Diversity Inc. ‘Top 50 Companies for Diversity’ column has tripled to over 400. This magazine requires that the minority groups are represented; in order, for a company to be considered in the rankings. Also, a lot of companies have come to the realization that minority representation is necessary for any profit making organization. This means that companies working to narrow the gap of minority leaders are not doing so as an act of social justice; rather, they want to improve their rankings (Gilgoff, 2009). It is a challenge to any company to try and maintain a workforce that is diverse. A report compiled recently by the Korn/Ferry International recruiting firm established that U.S. companies are losing $64 billion annually by replacing employees that they lose due to diversity management failing. Also, shortage of leaders in minority groups is presenting great challenges. Minority employees are against working in companies that top jobs seen to be off limits (Gilgoff, 2009). A long time minority recruiting company PepsiCo, is of the opinion that recruiting Indra Nooyi as their CEO in 2006, who is a woman born in India has been beneficial in drawing minority talent. This; according to Paul Marchland, who is the Vice President of the company, shows the seriousness of the organization and acts as an encouragement to minority groups that they can also be part of leadership. PepsiCo program on diversity and inclusion train minorities in management at the middle level so that they can join top management positions. This has contributed to a 12% increase in women and minorities in top positions since 2001 (Gilgoff, 2009). Employers that strive to include minorities in top jobs find that process to be extremely slow. Experts on the minority leadership gap that have carried out various studies attribute this to open racism and sexism, and not employer biases that are unconscious or ingrained habits and networks. Report of Korn/Ferry established that 34% of those minority individuals who leave their do so because of issues related with diversity. Those individuals report that they would have continued working if their employers had acknowledged their abilities (Moore, 1997). Mid career minorities and women can be denied top positions in jobs due to biases about who had the necessary qualifications to occupy such a position. Also, given that only a few minorities are in top level management, employers can find it difficult to assign such positions to them. Therefore, minorities often find themselves stuck in middle management even after rising ranks to reach there. Minorities facing the greatest challenge of glass ceiling are mothers who are working. This is because; the family responsibilities that they have place them at greater odds of landing senior posts as compared to their male counterparts. Also, their status creates a perception that they are not suited for senior positions. Additionally, women who take time off to raise their children before returning to work can find themselves way behind male peers (Feldman, 1997). Although many women as compared to men have earned a master’s and bachelor's and master's as of the 1980s and in modern times earn a third of all Masters in Business Administration, the gap in leadership with regards to gender has not narrowed much since then. Women maintain only 16% of corporate positions of officer and compose of about 6% of top positions at the Fortune 500 companies. This is according to an analysis done recently by Catalyst, which is a nonprofit group that is working to increase opportunities for women in business (Gilgoff, 2009). Companies that support diversity in the work force do not hold the opinion that promotion of women is exclusively a moral issue concerning equal pay and equal opportunity. They have been convinced of the importance of diversity in business. For a long period, research has proven that groups that are diverse are better at solving problems than the ones that are like-minded. The benefits of diversity are greater than this. Research done by Catalyst; which is an American organization, and whose objective is to increase the opportunities for women in business, found a positive correlation between financial performance, and women in top executive levels. This research was carried out between 1996 and 2000 and based on Fortune 500 companies (Gilgoff, 2009). Another factor responsible for the gap, is that companies dominated by male executives often promote males; despite, trend in management to apply strategies such as relationship building and collaboration that favor women to be in leadership positions. These same qualities play a part in preventing women from breaking the glass ceiling so as to occupy top jobs. Another hurdle is the persistent stereotyping of the capacity of women to lead. Every individual is biased unconsciously, and strong facts indicate that men are inclined against women inside companies. This was a fundamental point in the 1989 landmark case in America between Price Waterhouse and Hopkins. Price Waterhouse was sued by Ann Hopkins, their employee for not granting her a partnership. The Supreme Court ruled in Ann Hopkins favor. As a result, of the outcome of the case, this led to a lot of companies taking special measures to prevent against bias; for example, Deloitte Company is carefully in decisions with regard to promotion and pay by making sure it is not biased in selection (Feldman, 1997), Another challenge for women in breaking the glass is the lack or few role models to learn from. Top positions are occupied by a limited number of women. The Economist Group’s CEO, Helen Alexander’s opinion is that role models that can help someone achieve high status are either at school or in the family. Additionally, a lot of businesswomen that are successful attribute that success to a supportive father. (Moore, 1997).Another challenge has to do with organizations flattening. Recently, some management layers have become useless hence being promoted is much harder than it was years back. Therefore, the opportunities in top positions become fewer and re-entering the workforce at levels that are higher becomes impossible. This affects women since a number of them are forced to care for their young one’s hence taking time off from work. Also, many women leave work to cater for their elderly parents. Therefore, a lot of women prefer to be self employed due to the freedom that comes with it (Morrison, 1987). Skills such as relationship building and collaboration are advocated by programs such as Women Leadership Institute that emphasizes to offer training in such skills. Organizations that specialize in improving minority professionals to occupy leadership roles, their focus is mainly on soft skills development like communication and networking. Corporate partners in Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT), that include Target, Goldman Sachs, and Google have come up with a set of ways that minorities can make use to break the glass ceiling and reach the top. Also, roads map to one’s career and access to relationships that open doors for an individual. According to John Rice, who is the founder of MLT, such skills are not taught in a classroom, informal channels help to pass them. Sadly, the minority group has access that is limited to such channels (Castro, 1997). Apart from midcareer professionals’ mentoring, MLT has worked with over 30 prominent business schools, in which enrollment of minorities is around 8 %, to enlist and train American Indians, Hispanics, and African-Americans for roles in leadership. Since the 1990s, a cottage industry that deals with recruitment of minorities who are talented and development organizations have come into being. This has helped mark a remarkable shift in the advancement from initiatives in the era of post civil rights that used the legal system to expand minority access to professional opportunities (Moore, 1997). A group known as Academy of Women Achievers consists of a number of women that meet and try to find ways to get rid of this glass ceiling. In 1997, senior executives around1300 met at the hotel referred as New York Sheraton for the Annual 23rd Salute to Women Achievers. They contributed over $1 million to assist the New York’s YWCA in their efforts of helping women in the workforce to break the glass ceiling. This Academy of Women Achievers was able to introduce 122 new members, as a result of the generous contributions of professional women executives across the country. Introduction into this Academy is an honor recognized nationally and conferred by the YWCA. It helps women that are senior to re-enter the workforce through programs that are executive. Such Programs; for example, Women and Management impart on women in several different levels (Castro, 1997). In certain companies, the drive towards a workforce that is diverse has been from their customers. Lou Gerstner, who is responsible for bringing diversity in IBM Company, is of the opinion that companies should be aware of their markets, which are multicultural and diverse, and inject a diverse workforce in these companies. According to Lisa Bondesio, head of Deloitte Company in Britain, diversity is the way in which individuals differentiate themselves in the marketplace. Surprisingly, there are companies that do not hid to their customers diversity; for example, Producers of pampers, Tampax and Max factor that is Procter and Gamble Company(P&G) was ranked among executive women’s top companies; yet, in its 16 member board only two are women and they are non-executives. Also, the 45 people listed as top corporate officials only three are women with the rest being men. Given that P&G is an extremely successful company due to their programmes in management that are admired widely, its shareholders may question whether it would improve further with the inclusion of women (Feldman 1997). A lot of companies have had a deep desire to expand their talent pool by their department of human-resources helping to recruit. Their greatest worry is about the population of the developed world that is ageing. On the other hand, specific companies have other reasons for recruiting a diverse workforce. For example, the prominent accounting firms had a seriously dented reputation due to the termination of Enron and its auditor Andersen Arthur which took place before they had an unmatched increase in business as a result of the additional duties that the Sarbanes-Oxley act imposed. Their popularity decreased largely with few graduates wanting to join this company. This period is when they needed a lot of graduates. As a result, they had to shift their efforts and recruit and promote women (Morrison, 1987). The business of management consultation, in which firms appear to pursue the career strategy of ‘an individual is either in or out’ aims at maintaining a lot of women in their companies. This strategy can rarely accommodate leave of maternity by women. Therefore, such an industry loses women who are twice as many as compared to men in their career ladder. A leading consulting firm, Booz Allen Hamilton is trying endlessly to change the composition of women partners which at the moment is between 1-2% of its partners (Moore, 1997) Despite the challenges in implementing diversity in the work place, some firms have become successful .For example; IBM Company currently has seven women among its forty top executives. Also, GE Company has 14% senior executives who are now women, although in the recent reshuffle of chief executives none of them was chosen. Also, the six new business departments of the firm have men as their leaders (Castro, 1997). In conclusion, it is clear that minorities such as women and people of color are still faced by the glass ceiling challenge. The proper avenue that minority groups can pursue is to respect the rights that aim to protect them. Also, to make use of education, and work harder than those individuals who discriminate against them. Additionally, they can come up with their own businesses whereby women that seek top positions are given that chance and not shunned away. They also need to use non-violent means to make their opinions count, and avoid initiating force. Individuals against the glass ceiling should know that glass has fragility, if the force is applied hard and long enough. References Castro, Ida L., Furchtgott-Roth, Diana. (1997). Should Women be Worried About the Glass Ceiling in the Workplace? Insight on the News. (13) 5 -24. Catalyst Census of Women Corporate Officers and Top Earners. (1996).Catalyst Corp. Feldman, Gayle. (1997). Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Women Have Had a Long Hard Struggle to Reach Their Current Status in the Industry. Publishers Weekly. (244) 31 -82. Gilgoff, Dan. (2009). Breaking The Glass Ceiling. US Politics. Read More