Corporate courses, trainings and development programs are seen as a method of investing on employees to build up their capabilities and merits that may help professionally in their work and groom them to be future leaders or at least to meet with their full potential in the organization. Do training courses, trainings and development programs really help employees to give more recognition and facilitate the upward career mobility regardless of race/ethnicity or gender? Often, they can see their way moving up to the top but somehow or rather there is something that keeps them away to get there.
Knowledge makes one sharp and sets you apart from the rest;—there’s no getting around it, but does it really help to break that glass ceiling so that all employee regardless of race/ethnicity and gender could spread out their wings and fly up that invisible corporate ladder? All employees should be treated fairly and equally on career advancements.
1. What is a glass ceiling
A glass ceiling is a term used to describe “the unseen, yet unbreakable barrier that keeps ethnic minorities and women from rising to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications or achievements” (Federal Glass Ceiling Commission, 1995). These barriers reflect “discrimination..a deep line of demarcation between those who proper and those left behind.” (Cotter, et al., 2001).
The concept of a glass ceiling first appeared in a presentation by two employees of Hewlett-Packard, Katherine Lawrence and Marianne Schreiber, in July 1979 at a Conference of the Women’s Institute for Freedom of the Press. The term gained wide attention in March 1986, when the Wall Street Journal published the article: “The Glass Ceiling: Why Women Can’t Seem to Break the Invisible Barrier that Blocks them from the Top Jobs.” by Carol Hymowitz and Timothy D. Schellhardt.
In theory, race or gender does not limits or prevents someone from being promoted , but they can see that the higher they are in the company, the more promotions, pay raises, and opportunities they should have. Instead of being able to achieve the same success as peers, those who encounter glass ceilings are stopped by invisible obstacles that prevent them from rising further. The glass ceiling if often unacknowledged but yet exists. It is not a tangible barrier that would be easily identified and however difficult to describe as it exists and persists in very subtle ways.
These barriers prevent large numbers of women and ethnic minorities from obtaining and securing the most powerful, prestigious, and highest-grossing jobs in the workforce. Moreover, this effect may make them feel they are not worthy to fill high-ranking positions or as if their bosses do not take them seriously or see them as potential candidates for advancement.
2. Existence
According to a report released by Deloitte, overall, women now hold 15 percent of seats worldwide with only 4 percent of CEO and chairing boards. In Singapore, women now take up only about 11 percent of board seats, compared to only 9 percent in 2015.
Even though that we can see a steady small increase in the numbers of women rising in higher management, women are still way underrepresented in higher management. The proportions of women in the managerial ranks, in particular, mid-lower to middle management has increased in almost all countries and women are demanding greater equality in the workplace. However women are still under-represented in higher management owing to the glass ceiling.
Ethnic/racial minorities have also for years faced these same invisible, subtle, yet very real institutional barriers to promotions into upper management positions. The belief that minority groups reach organizational plateaus consisting of artificial barriers that derail them from senior management opportunities has been alternately termed “the brick wall.” These barriers found in the structure of many organizations have often stymied the advancement of these minority groups in an organization.
A perceived lack of role models may further hamper the ambition of future business leaders from these groups. The most common attributors of the glass ceiling are gender stereotyping and subconscious discrimination. These two reasons are clear indicators of a very real glass ceiling that women and racial/ethnic minorities need to conquer.
3. Factors contributing to glass ceiling
David Cotter and colleagues defined four distinctive characteristics that must be met to conclude that a glass ceiling exists. A glass ceiling inequality represents:
- “A gender or racial difference that is not explained by other job-relevant characteristics of the employee.”
- “A gender or racial difference that is greater at higher levels of an outcome than at lower levels of an outcome.”
- “A gender or racial inequality in the chances of advancement into higher levels, not merely the proportions of each gender or race currently at those higher levels.”
- “A gender or racial inequality that increases over the course of a career.”
There can be other several factors that contribute to glass ceiling. However, this article will focus only on 2 main factors; gender and ethnicity.
3.1 Gender
Gender is an obvious basis for social categorization and gender stereotypes are the result. Research suggests that employers evaluate worker characteristics differently depending on the gender of the incumbent (Acker, 1990) (Reskin, 1988). For example, having a spouse or young children may signal stability in men but a potential work disruption in women (Rosenfeld, 1980). We rarely see women in big powerful position that is usually held by men with a specific expertise. This is a powerful factor that keeps woman from reaching their full potential no matter what kind of training, courses or expertise they have acquired. Women often stereotyped and perceived to be responsible of taking care of the family and children. Men are seen to be characterized to be independent, competitive, assertive and strong, while females are perceived to be caring, passive and emotional.
The world has witnessed over the past decades of women have increasingly entered managerial and professional occupations. However, in these occupational categories, women have lower earnings, authority, and advancement potential in comparison with men. There is a few key reason to this;
- A perception that;
- Women will leave to go on maternity
- Men can do a better job
- Women has family commitment which restraint them from working long hours
- Assertiveness
- Men bargain harder
- Men are less afraid/are more assertive when asking for higher salaries
- Unconscious bias
- Many senior roles are male and therefore there could exist an unconscious bias towards their own gender
Another interesting suggestion is that male managers have also been made known as the ‘gatekeepers of the upper echelons of management’. Women would often being left out and having difficulty in accessing such informal networks is a major barrier to their progression to the most senior of positions. McCarthy & Burn (2013) stated that If women wish to be a part of this elite group of executives it has been said that they must be able to demonstrate their ability to deliver more than the initial job description which could include the availability to socialize out of hours, presenting a potential issue for their domestic commitments.
3.2 Race/Ethnicity
The context of labor market outcomes for ethnic minorities is another natural domain in which to consider glass ceilings. The glass ceiling is now understood to be an obstacle to racial/ethnic minorities as well. There has been many research conducted that suggest minorities are also victims to the glass ceiling. Generally we also use the phrase ‘glass ceiling’ to describe any process by which minorities are unable to access the highest paying jobs and best positions that might be suitable. Like women, minorities wait longer for promotions they do receive than is the case for dominating ethnicity.
In some organizations, the glass ceiling can be so obvious that when you look at the management team it consists mainly of the dominant racial group. In that kind of situation when a person from the racial minority group rises up to elite position, they are look up upon and hailed as to have brought pride to the group. Veerle Draulans (2003) suggests that the persons in leadership position who belongs to a minority group, are looked at as representing the whole of (stereotypes ascribed to) the minority group.
While open discrimination has become socially and/or legally unacceptable, subtle discrimination has emerged as a new and soft tool to maintain power imbalances in society and the workplace by posing invisible barriers to minorities. “Challenging such processes of soft power might be especially difficult, because they are tightly linked to the power structures in society. So, it is questionable whether organizations can ever be freed of discrimination without structural change.” (Van Laer & Janssens, 2011)
4. Leadership & People Management
Individuals who spend maximum part of their day contributing towards the success of an organization are its most crucial resource. Employees can either make or break an organization, truly making them an organization’s lifeline.
Employees are the most valuable resource in an organization. All organizations require human capital to function and accomplish their goals. Leadership and Human Resource Management (HRM) is involved and responsible in acquiring, motivating, cultivating, and retaining human capital. This also includes career planning and progression for the employees by training and development, compensation, etc. As important and often overlooked, the responsibility of leaders and HRM is to also ensure that, there are no threats of discrimination, segregation, inequalities and adopting a policy recognising merit and employee contribution, and condition for stability of employment with offering excellent growth opportunities to people who have the potential to rise.
4.1 Employee Motivation
Most employees are motivated to grow in the organization. It is only natural as time goes employees want more challenges, responsibilities, recognition and advancement. There are many academic studies and theories such as McClelland theory of needs, Herzberg’s two-factor, and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs that supports this. It is the duty of the management in every organization to provide a pathway for employees who have such desires. Grooming potential employees to be future leaders in the organisation is an important and sometimes even critical for the survival of the corporation. Managers have the responsibility to motivate, train and groom potential leaders. Many suggest that it should be necessary making it their Key Performance Indicator (KPI) for a succession planning. The leadership training for succession must be made openly and fairly to all. To ensure the best talent are spotted and motivated to go to the top, biasness and stereotyping must be stopped. Such behaviours only further hamper the ambition of future business leaders. High potential employees earn the opportunity for advancement without any segregation of ethnicity or gender. This also ensures the retention of the best talents in the organization.
Employee motivation is a factor that causes an employee to pursue work tasks or goals. It is what causes the employee to act in a certain way. There are two primary theories of motivation that are often used by employers: extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation. One extrinsic motivation factor includes the chance one might have for advancement within the organization. This could also include the opportunity to learn a new skill or trade. When the possibility or opportunity for growth is hindered due to barriers such as the glass ceiling this could have a negative effect on the satisfaction the employee feels with their job and position. Extrinsic de-motivator such as glass ceiling must be eliminated from the organization. Talented employees are the driving force of all organizations and so it is essential that organizations strive to motivate and hold on to the best employees.
4.2 Corporate training and courses
Training is essential to the achievements of a business. Furthermore, corporation must take into account that there can be a better employee management through an efficient motivation, recognition and personal development planning system and must be standardized across all employees. Opportunities should be more open and fair without any segregation of ethnicity or gender. Corporations must emphasize the need of upgrading employee’s skills through corporate trainings and courses. The organization ought to encourage improvements and set the path for the personal skills development through training and potential, to stimulate employees to fulfill their tasks perfectly. In case of new employees, the organization must show support by investing in time and effort in training and development to groom the employee up.
5. Economic and Corporate Benefits
Breaking the glass ceiling is not just a matter of fair employment practices and merit based promotions, but an economic imperative that the glass ceiling be shattered. It matters to the bottom line for businesses and to the future economic stability of the country.
The glass ceiling is not only an egregious denial of social justice that affects the population, but a serious economic problem that takes a huge financial toll on businesses. Smart business and equity demands that the glass ceiling to be destroyed. This barrier prevented large numbers of citizens from fully participating in the society. The economy has undergone intense changes: Markets have become internationally integrated (globalization). The creation and distribution of information have supplanted the production of goods. The composition of the workforce has radically changed.
Empirical evidence from independent research has proven that companies that take the effort in hiring and promoting minorities and women are more profitable. A study of the Standard and Poors 500 by Covenant Investment Management found that businesses committed to promoting minority and women workers had an average annualized return on investment of 18.3 percent over a five-year period, compared with only 7.9 percent for those with the most shatter-proof glass ceilings. (Federal Glass Ceiling Commission, 1995)
Many business leaders now realized that if the organization treats their employee well, fair and just without any discrimination practices, mole and productivity will shoot up. These are key organizational values which set the culture from within that set the attitude and behavior of employees to drive the results.
Rapid changes are noticeably taking place in the demographics of national consumer markets and the labor force, and the rapid globalization of the marketplace. Business leaders understand that these conditions will affect the ability of their organization to survive and prosper. To add on, empirical evidence shows that consumers and communities also respond favorably to businesses with good employment practices.
In today’s world of increasingly diverse marketplace and international integration, corporations must be prepared to do business with customers, competitors and partners who are also increasingly diverse. Corporations that fully utilize diverse human resources at home will be better prepared for the challenges involved in managing even more diverse workforces in the emerging global economy.
As all the above suggests, fully utilizing the nation’s human capital would mean corporations will be doing a solid investment for themselves. It only makes sense for the glass ceiling to be eliminated as its existence keeps them from adapting to these conditions efficiently and effectively.
6. Conclusion
Unfortunately existence of glass ceiling is real, women and racial minority will have to work harder and climb more obstacles to reach upper management positions. While corporate training is useful, another possibility of getting through the glass ceiling is possibly to find a mentor. Whether it is man or women, one should find someone in upper management that believes in them and that they can connect with on a mentoring level. Additionally, women and racial minorities who are able to climb the corporate ladder beyond middle management must not overlook potentials in their groups and should offer their mentoring services. They must not be afraid of being accused of favouritism and stand up to do the right thing to choose someone from their own group, if that person qualify. This is not meant that they are supposed to exercise discrimination or segregation, mentorship and career advancement should be fair and open to all who deserve it. Women and racial minorities in the upper management should play a role model in eliminating the glass ceiling.
Hypothetically mentorship and corporate training can and should be a tool for women and racial minorities to advance and penetrate through the glass ceiling. It is the leadership and HRM’s role to keep motivating, cultivating, and retaining human capital which also includes career progression planning through corporate training, courses, compensation, and benefits. It is also extremely important to ensure there are no discrimination, employee segregation, and inequalities within the organization. Policies recognizing merit and employee contribution, and condition for stability of employment with offering excellent growth opportunities to people who have the potential to rise must be adopted to practice fairness and hence shattering any glass ceiling. Organizations that do not promote women and minorities from other ethnic groups and will suffer in this ever diversifying world and the rapid globalization of the marketplace.
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