Case 1: Madison, Jones and Conklin Yukl

Source: Yukl, G. (2013). Leadership in organizations (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Pp 160-161.

After graduating from a prestigious business school, Laura Kravitz accepted a job at Madison,
Jones and Conklin, a medium-sized firm that did accounting and consulting projects for
corporate clients. After a series of successful assignments working as a member of a project
team, Laura was promoted to a team manger position with broader responsibilities. Laura felt
confident about her qualifications. The other team managers seemed to respect her, and clients
were happy with the projects she managed. With this record of success, Laura hoped to
eventually become a partner in the company. However as the only woman manager in a male-
dominated company, she knew that there would be some obstacles to overcome.

Laura felt that some of the senior managers were very conservative and did not accept her as an
equal. In the quarterly planning meetings, these managers were often inattentive when she spoke
and seemed unreceptive to her suggestions for improvements. Several times she proposed an idea
what was ignored, and the same idea was later suggested by someone else who received credit
for it.

Laura did not have a mentor in the company to tell people about her skills and help her to
advance her career. Moreover, she did not feel accepted into the informal network of
relationships that provided opportunities to interact with senior managers. She did not like to
play golf and was not a member of the exclusive golf club to which many of the male managers
belonged. She was not invited to most of the social activities hosted by senior managers for
friends and select members of the company.

Laura also felt that the assignment of projects was biased. The high-profile projects were always
given to the male managers. When Laura asked her boss for more challenging projects she was
told that the older clients usually preferred to deal with men. Because she was not given the more
profitable accounts, her performance numbers did not look as good as the numbers for some of
the male managers. Two male managers who had joined the company around the same time she
was hired were promoted ahead of her.

Frustrated by the apparent glass ceiling at the company Laura asked to meet with the president to
talk about her career. The president was surprised to hear that Laura was unhappy about her
advancement I the company. He assured her that she was a valuable employee and should be
patient about a promotion. However after another year with little improvement in how she was
treated, Laura resigned from the company. With two friends from graduate school show also felt
unappreciated, she formed a new company and served as the CEO. In a relatively short time, the
company became highly successful.
Questions
1) Why did Laura not become partner at this law firm?
a. What limited her career progression?

2) What forms of gender discrimination did Laura experience?

a. Provide examples of gender discrimination
3) Which Stereotypical women in leadership image does Laura most reflect (i.e., Queen
Bee, Iron Maiden, Selfless Heroine)?
4) What could Laura have done to overcome the obstacles she encountered?
5) What could the president/company have done to create equal opportunity in this
company?
Questions:
1. What forms of gender discrimination did Laura
experience?

Laura experienced different behaviors that were related

to gender discrimination, such as:

• Managers were often inattentive when she spoke.

• Managers seemed unreceptive to her suggestions for
improvements.
• Laura’s proposals were ignored and later on someone
else received the credit for them.
• Laura was never assigned a mentor to help her
advance in her career.
• She did not feel accepted into the informal network of
relationships that provided opportunities to interact with
senior managers.
• She was not invited to most of the social activities
hosted by senior managers for friends and select
members of the company.
• Laura was never assigned a high-project because
those were always given to the male managers.
• When Laura asked her boss for more challenging
projects, she was told that the older clients usually
preferred to deal with men.
• Male co-workers who got hired at the same time as her
got promoted ahead of her.

2. What could Laura have done to overcome the

obstacles she encountered?

Even though she spoke to the president she did not

seem insist more. She should have called for a meeting
with more people and speak openly about how she felt
and make a point in saying that discrimination was an
ethical issue and say how interested she was in her
working place being an ethical place.

She could also have approached to the Human

Resources department to expose the situation and her
feelings and suggest them to implement an ethical
culture in the workplace. She should have made the
point that gender discrimination is a very old belief.

She should always show her confidence, task-oriented,

competitive, objective, decisive and assertive behaviors,
but also her supportive, team building, inclusiveness and
interpersonal skills proper of a woman.

3. What could the president have done to create equal

opportunity in this company?

He should have called for a meeting with all managers

to explain the current situation of the company as for
gender discrimination and foster an ethical working
culture. He should have followed-up her case and made
sure her case was progressing. He showed have showed
his supportive leadership by making her feel accepted,
valued and mentored or get her a personal mentor. He
should have given orders to her direct boss so he gave
her the challenging projects to her. He should have
given her the choice of belonging to the golfing country
club. He should have made sure that she got invited to
the social activities.