INTRODUCTION:

Traditionally, the concept of glass ceiling was applied to women and minorities. It was quite tough for them to rise high in the corporate ladder and reach high positions in the management, irrespective of their qualification and experience. The success parameters of women in the corporate world seem to be misleading. Increasingly, women are falling into the trap of "glass ceiling." Ann Morrison describes the problem of the glass ceiling as a barrier which is delicate and transparent, yet so strong that it prevents women from moving up the corporate hierarchy. On the corporate ladder, women could see the high-level positions, but they are kept away from reaching those top most positions" i.e. kept away from breaking the glass ceiling (Boulevard and Arlington, 2014).

Today, the scene has changed; we could see many women and people from minorities in powerful positions. Recently, it is in headlines everywhere about women celebrating the success as CEOs or in higher positions at Facebook, IBM, General Motors and with other corporate giants (Shaheen, 2016). However, the glass ceiling is still prominent and needs to be managed properly.

UNDERSTANDING THE CONCEPT:

A glass ceiling is a metaphor used to represent an invisible barrier that hinders the growth of women or minorities from rising beyond a certain level in the hierarchy. Merriam Webster’s Learner’s Dictionary defines it as an unfair system or set of attitudes that prevents some people (such as women or people of a certain race) from getting the most powerful jobs.

Business dictionary defines it as an invisible but real barrier through which the next stage or level of advancement can be seen, but cannot be reached by a section of qualified and deserving employees. Such barriers exist due to implicit prejudice on the basis of age, ethnicity, political or religious affiliation, or gender. Although generally illegal, such practices are prevalent in most countries.

According to Morrison and her colleagues, the glass ceiling is not simply a barrier for an individual, based on the person's inability to handle a higher-level job, it rather applies to women as a group kept away from advancing higher as they are women (Boulevard and Arlington, 2014).

The United States Federal Glass Ceiling Commission (1995) defines the glass ceiling as the unseen, yet unbreakable barrier that keeps away minorities and women from rising to the upper levels of the corporate ladder, irrespective of their qualifications or achievements.

The glass ceiling metaphor has often been referred as an invisible barrier (glass) through which women can see high level positions but cannot reach them (ceiling) (Fritscher, 2007). These barriers prevent large number of women and people from minorities to obtain and secure the most powerful, prestigious, and highest-grossing jobs in the workforce (Ramos, 2016).

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE:

The concept of the glass ceiling was initially introduced at the National Press Club in July 1979. It was introduced in the conference of the Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press, which was led by Katherine Lawrence of Hewlett-Packard (The Glass-ceiling Index for Women, 2016).

The term was later used in March 1984 by Gay Bryant, former editor of Working Woman magazine. Bryant reported that women have reached a certain point which could be referred as the glass ceiling. Women have reached the top of middle management and then they are stopped to reach the higher level. Some of them get into own business or get engaged into raising families. In 1984, the term was used by Bryant in a chapter of the book-“The Working Woman Report: Succeeding in Business in the 1980s”. In the same book, Basia Hellwig also used the same term in another chapter.

According to Allyson (2015), the term was used in a widely cited article titled: "The Glass Ceiling: why women can't seem to break the invisible barrier that blocks them from the top jobs" in the Wall Street Journal in March 1986. The article was written by Carol Hymowitz and Timothy D. Schellhardt. Hymowitz and Schellhardt opined on glass ceiling as something that is not discussed in the business manual or even not discussed at business meetings. It was initially introduced as an invisible, hidden, and unspoken phenomenon that existed to keep executive level leadership positions in the hands of males.

In 1991, Congress created the Glass Ceiling Commission, which constituted of 21 member Presidential Commission, chaired by Secretary of Labour Robert Reich. It was created to study the barriers to the advancement of minorities and women within corporate hierarchies (the problem here was referred as the glass ceiling), and also to issue a report on its findings and conclusions, and to make recommendations on ways to remove the glass ceiling. The extensive research was conducted by the commission including, surveys, public hearings and interviews, and reported findings in 1995. The report with the title-"Good for Business", put forth workable guidelines and solutions for removing these barriers. The goal of the commission was to suggest recommendations on how to break through the glass ceiling, specifically in the world of business. The report issued 12 recommendations to meet and manage the challenges of work force diversity at the work place.

According to Wolfe (2016), the number of women running FORTUNE 500 companies in 2000 was 3, which increased to 15 by 2009 including Indra Nooyi (PepsiCo) and Andrea Jung (Avon Products.) According to the data provided by Catalyst- knowldege Centre (2014), number of women CEOs as per the Fortune Lists has been increasing from 2012–2014, but ironically decreased women's work force participation rate from 52.4% to 49.6% between 1995 and 2015 globally. However, it was seen that countries like Australia have increased the work force participation of women over 27% since 1978. Furthermore, only 19.2% of SandP 500 Board Seats were taken by women in 2014, of whom 80.2% were considered white.

The Economist (2016) updated their glass-ceiling index, presenting data on higher education, work-force participation, pay, child-care costs, maternity rights, business-school applications and representation in senior jobs. The aim of presenting data was to highlight the areas where women have better chances of equal treatment at work. It presents that where parental leaves are prevalent, mothers return to the workplace, rate of female employment is higher and the earning gap between men and women is lower. Each country’s score was presented against ten common performance indicators. The Nordic countries- Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland, stood on the top position. In these countries, percentage of men and women is same in the work force. Hungary stood at fifth rank, having the lowest gender wage gap of 3.8%. At the bottom of the ranking were Japan, Turkey and South Korea, where men are more likely than women to have degrees, to be in the workplace and to hold senior positions, with wide pay gap.

BREAKING THE GLASS CEILING:

Breaking the glass ceiling is a matter of great concern for all as it is related to the economic priority of the nation, thus cannot be ignored. It is an economic imperative driven by recent challenges in three areas that are fundamental to business success: (1) changes in the demographics of the work force; (2) changes in the demographics of national consumer markets; and (3) the rapid globalization of the market place (The Federal Glass Ceiling Commission, U.S. Department of Labour, 1995) Unfortunately, no guaranteed strategies are available that would help an individual to break through the glass ceiling. Women or others in minorities need to prove them self twice as much as their male colleagues. Take on extra projects of high value, strengthen bonding with the supervisor, document all achievements and present them essentially as and when required. Become a part of the managerial network, even if you find it difficult to be there. In short, prove that you are not only highly qualified, but that you are one of them. (Fritscher, 2007).

Gender equality and participation of work force are the key factors to lead women higher up the on the corporate ladder. There can be other factors like the quality and availability of maternity and paternity benefits, flexible hours and the right to return to work, which act as key drivers for getting women on board and keeping them there. Empowering women by increasing the percentage of girls' schooling, increasing their number in the work force are the biggest drivers of sustained improvement in terms of the progression of women (Ellyatt, 2015).

Many talented people struggle hard to move higher in the ladder and break through the glass ceiling. Women face trouble in making the leap as it is prominent from the fact that while women hold over half of the professional jobs in the U.S., they constitute only 34% of middle managers, 14% of executive officers, and a mere 4% of CEOs (Blalock, 2013).

Many women time to time inquire about whether there exists an invisible barrier (or glass ceiling) on the top of the corporate ladder that hinders successful women from achieving the highest positions. According to an article in the Harvard Business Review by Alice H. Eagly and Linda L. Carli, there is no such barrier, however, presence of so many obstacles along the way often hold women back from making an upward movement (Quast, 2011).

There is a growing awareness in the last few years regarding the value of women at the workplace, for their impact on organizational bottom line, and the contribution made by them to the economy at large. The support of policy makers and industry leaders is required to facilitate their way towards the influential positions. A seven step formula which talks about unleashing their ambition, knowing their value, taking their own path, developing willingness to rock the boat, advocating themselves with the willingness to stand and being courageous could help them out (Warrell, 2013).

Breaking through the glass ceiling requires certain steps to be followed. Core competencies are the common skills and attributes of every company at upper level, which are closely knitted with the culture and vision of the organization. Understand these core competencies, define your target, set goals to achieve them and give direction to your own career in close association with the needs of the organization. Build relationship with people working in your organization. Have an experienced mentor for breaking through the glass ceiling. Develop required skills and network of people so that you get associated with top management potential. To do this, you need to build a reputation as the kind of person who best fits into the requirements of top management. Finally, watch the discriminatory behavior by management and learn to handle it (Mind Tools, Editorial team).

If women want to break through the glass ceiling, they have to think over and then make a move. They have to give up the myth of multi-tasking. Our brain does not conduct its activities simultaneously, rather it works sequentially. When we think we are multi-tasking, we are actually struggling between different tasks at a time. This strategy is okay for lower level admin tasks, but is inefficient and even harmful at the higher-level. It actually costs extra time and poor results, thus channelize it into creative problem-solving approach that distinguishes a top executive from the middle ones (Daly, 2011).

To better understand the issues, research study was conducted by sociologists Erin Cech (Rice University) and Mary Blair-Loy (University of California San Diego) to examine the factors affecting perception of women on the glass ceiling. Women who most likely encounter with powerful barriers due to their work and family circumstances (long hours, being the family bread earner, having small children) could understand the impact of structural factors on their own and other women’s success. In other words, these women are more likely to observe the glass ceiling. On the other side, the successful women are more likely to believe that success is the outcome of their sincere efforts. In other words, these women do not see the glass ceiling. Women at the top, especially women in male-dominated areas, often overcame substantial barriers to get where they are today. To succeed, they had to push beyond structural barriers. This success strategy can include ignoring the barriers and focusing on individual efforts (Alison, 2012).

CONCLUSION:

Women can accept situation and keep happy by seeing things in front of them that they dream about and not able to achieve or they may break the glass with strong purpose and determination. They could break through the glass by identifying the key competencies within their organizations and set objectives to align their competencies with that of top management. Finding an experienced mentor, building reputation along with a network of relationships and above all knowing their own rights within the organization would help them out. We are progressing, but we need do better in this front. The glass ceiling in business is not only holding back women, but also depriving our economy from vast human capital, tremendous source of creativity and innovation. Warren Buffett has rightly said that one reason for his extraordinary success is that he was competing with only half of the world. It's time to fully unleash the other half.

REFERENCES:

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Received on 24.11.2017 Modified on 10.12.2017

Asian Journal of Management. 2018; 9(1): 08-11.

DOI: 10.5958/2321-5763.2018.00002.1