 Group of employees targeted by glass ceiling and why

Glass ceiling being a sort of impenetrable yet invisible barrier, is a term that has been used to
refer to discrimination against women, from rising to higher level ranks in corporations.
However, it is now also recognised that it is an unfair practice aimed at minorities too on the
basis of their race.
Women and minorities being the two groups that are targeted, society has come up with a bunch
of justifications to explain why it is how it is but the point to ponder upon is that glass ceiling
being unethical in the first place can’t be proven right with any sort of justification.
When it comes to women, they are often stereotyped in taking the lead role in raising children,
cooking, cleaning, running errands and preparing dinner. People or organizations to be specific
like to take this as an excuse to women not valuing their work or not being committed to their
job even if they actually might be putting their best effort thus being unworthy of a promotion.
The whole reason is more psychological as when talking about gender bias it is basically the
tendency to prefer one gender over the other without even giving the other party the opportunity
to show what they are capable of.
Discrimination on the basis of people’s race or looks (transgender) is also followed by act of
looking down upon and considering the employees incapable of doing their work.
 How Employees and managers deal with Glass Ceiling:
In order to tackle glass ceiling, it’s important to understand the concept of the “sticky floor” and
this stickiness alludes to them being stuck at the bottom of their career ladder while the males of
the organization have the opportunity to progress more freely. Given below are two main
perspective on how employees and managers deal with glass ceiling.
a. Employee’s perspective
 Recognising that it exists and develop awareness:
In many organizations glass ceiling is kind of disguised as a culture or tradition, so the
first thing an employee that is targeted by it needs to do is recognise that the problem
exists. Certain signs that can help with that include phrases like “that’s just how things
work around here” used to justify it, there might be less diversity at the top level
management, illogical pay gaps, no given opportunities to progress in the organization.
After acknowledging its existence it’s important to learn more about it, regarding how it
 affects people. This knowledge will help us identify the opportunities to promote change
in the organization.
 practicing patience along with assertiveness
It is important for the employee in this situation to use the frustration, depression and
anger directed towards this injustice as a catalyst for action.
 Defining goals and creating an action plan
With recognition comes the drive to change and evolve and for that clear goals need to be
set. These goals should incorporate what is it that the employee aims to achieve. Then
comes the process of developing an action plan that would focus on how exactly that
employee can work towards making those goals a reality.
 Creating one’s own opportunities
Glass ceiling being unethical in the first place has already deprived that employee from
the opportunities they deserve to progress but in this case it is up to the employees to
create their own opportunities.
 Strengthen one’s network
To aim towards reaching a higher position in an organization, the professional
connections and relationships that an employee forms play a huge role. This not only
allows the employee to gain support from the peers but also provides them with the
opportunity to learn from the people in the management level positions or other roles that
they aspire to reach thus providing them with a better insight and direction. Given below
are three ways with which an employee can do so.
 There should be a willingness to offer assistance and take on extra tasks to express
one’s enthusiasm towards the job.
 People are more likely to help those are helpful so in this case connecting with
people is important, as it shows that the employee is a valuable resource.
 Sharing ones knowledge can help in expanding ones reach and it also shows how
much experience you have.
 Seeking out mentors who can supports ones’ goals.
  Volunteering for higher level projects:
Standing out can get one out of the mould of his/her current position as it can
demonstrate that the employee is volunteering for high level projects
 Being one’s own advocate:
In order to break down this invisible barrier, one should consider becoming one’s own
advocate. Some ways to do that are mentioned below:
 Creating a positive reputation by working hard, maintaining a positive attitude,
adopting team player mentality and staying dedicated to one’s position.
 Highlighting one’s strengths is another way to go for it. It’s important to recognise
what skills and talents a person possesses and talk about them too so that people
are aware about them too. Using facts and figures to demonstrate what an asset one
person is to the team or organization can also improve the person’s reputation.
 Employees should be willing to adapt and look for opportunities to grow and
develop which would help them evolve into an even more efficient and valuable
members of the organization as the employee would then be able to make changes
when there is room for innovation and improvement.
 Company’s perspective
When it comes to a problem as big as glass ceiling, the role of the manager himself to dismantle
glass ceiling is very critical. Given below are a few strategies that can be used for encouraging
organizational change.
 It’s important to open dialog about the problem, this might lead to some difficult
conversations along with some honest introspection from the senior leaders that the
manager will have to interact with regarding the problem as they will be questioned
about their thoughts on the subject or whether if they have ever sabotaged someone’s
progression in the organization or their options on how not giving women would affect
the performance of the organization.
 Opening conversations can lead to a backslash but it can be countered by discussing
and stressing on the fact that there is nothing bad about “change” and giving
opportunities to those who deserve them regardless of their gender, race or any other
factor.
  The manager should encourage the organization to recognise and challenge
unconscious gender bias as it’s possible that when someone from the top level
management is considering to promote one of the two people he/she might have in his
team, and ends up making a decision which would be based on unconscious bias.
 Another necessary step that could be taken would be reviewing the recruitment and
promotion practices as these are the areas where glass ceiling is most commonly
imposed. It can be considered to making the application and screening processing blind
in order to reduce unconscious bias when hiring or promoting employees. According to
studies it increases chances of women getting the job or promotion by 25-46 percent.
 The manager can also support different teams by mentoring, conducting skill
assessments, encouraging innovation.

 Impacts of glass ceiling on an org and employees.

Glass ceiling being a sort of phenomenon that keeps people from not only either getting certain
jobs but also from rising to senior-level positions in the organization. This not only has a
negative impact on the organization itself but also the mental health of the employees.
 Organizational commitment:
It is considered as an employee’s identification, emotional attachment and strong desire to
maintain membership towards the organization so for an organization to own such committed
employees would definitely have a positive impact on the organization’s performance. Glass
ceiling which is discrimination on the basis of gender has an unfavourable effect over the
organizational commitment of working women and minorities. Talking about women
specifically when organizations do not give proper career advancement opportunities, the
organization has to face a loss of competent, skilled, experienced and knowledgeable
professionals. When the employees are no longer committed because even though they are
putting their best effort, they still aren’t being given the opportunity to progress in their career
and forced to work in an environment which is highly dominated by gender bias and men
stereotypes, they wouldn’t want to put in effort. Thus compromising the performance of the
organization.
 Turnover intentions:
A turn over intention can be voluntary if the employee isn’t satisfied with the way the
organization handles things like promotion. The organization needs to realize the impact of this
as due to this the organization loses hardworking and competent employees because of biased
reasons. Another way to look at this would be how women sometimes take maternity leaves and
the management takes this act as poor job commitment and doesn’t promote them.
 Mental Health:
Glass ceiling can lead to serious mental health problems for the employees whom are targeted.
When the employee is giving their all for the organization’s performance but that organization
still doesn’t recognise their efforts by not letting them progress then it ends up in those
employees doubting their own abilities and they start to feel a sense of incapability about not
being good enough no matter how much effort they might be putting into their work. This can
lead to stress and affect the mental wellbeing and self-esteem of the employees which can also
turn into resentment for the organization. This is not only bad for the employee but also for the
organization as due to the resentment, they might start spreading bad word of mouth about the
company or consider working for another organization that would value their work.

 Case study perspective:

Google’s Case:
According to The New York Times, only one third of Google’s employees are women. Its CEO
Larry page even removed the already few noticeable female executives from his “inner circle”.
The head of people’s operations at Google has even tried to justify this by saying that Larry page
just happened to be focusing on the work that was led by male employees and considered the
work led by women to not be of much value to the company. The CEO even himself said that he
feels more conformable being around engineers “like himself” which actually translates to
engineering “men”. This clearly means he views women as incapable. Google even found its
recruitment process to be discriminatory with the help of its launched algorithms. The case
further talks about how the organization rather than addressing and acknowledging sexism, finds
it easier to just view men as “more competent”. However the company is taking steps to rectify
this situation as it found that women applicants go further if they are interviews by other women
for positions within the company. It is also offering information to women staff about how to ask
for promotions.

Conclusion