Collaboration within a business setting is important. Part of collaboration is providing constructive and useful feedback to your peers on projects they are working on. The feedback must be well thoug

Running Head: Overcoming the Glass Ceiling

1. Introduction

Women and their advancement in the workplace have always been a topic of conversation in modern times. Within the last several decades women have made great strides in the workplace such as having a larger share of women in the workforce and working to close the wage gap. While the number has increased of woman in the workforce, studies have shown that the number of women in high management levels have are still significantly low. In research for the Journal of Management Research, Fapohunda (2018) noted that in Fortune 500 companies, women make up a mere 10% of CEOs. So what challenges are women facing in order to get to these higher management positions that may be different from men? Does this mean the glass ceiling still is still looming over woman? Additionally, as written for Forbes magazine Burns (2017) advised that among 400 companies surveys in California, “25 firms with the highest percentage of women execs and board members, researchers found that median returns on assets and equity were at least 74% higher than among the overall group of companies surveyed. This leads to another question. Are women having more success leading a team then men?

While much research has been made on the glass ceiling for women there are still many questions to be answered. First, is the glass ceiling still in effect? Secondly are teams led by women more successful. This research will focus on contributing to the knowledge of and understanding of what the glass ceiling is and what steps companies are making to resolve this or how women are overcoming the obstacle and once overcome how successful are women. The results would hopefully provide knowledge and guidelines for other women trying to climb up the corporate ladder.

2. Methodology

For this research there would be two research methods used. The research would use a quantitative and qualitative method to get numerical information as well as in depth explanations. For quantitative methods a survey would be given. The survey would use a Likert scale with only 12 questions in order to maintain the respondent’s attention. The questions would be aimed to measure if there is any correlation between gender and management level as well as manager gender and performance. For qualitative methods, interviews would be conducted. Interviews are best for describing and gaining deeper insight into topics. For this research interviews would be given to women already in a management position. Several questions would be asked to gain insight into what these women did to get to the management position they have achieved as well as how the obstacles have shaped the women.

In terms of the survey, it would be conducted online as to allow to get fast results as well as reach as many respondents as possible. The survey would have 12 closed ended questions and would use a Likert scale. Six of the questions would focus on women breaking the glass ceiling and six questions would focus on the performance of a department after a woman is placed in a management position. The survey would follow a method similar to one conducted by D.W. Livingston, Katina Pollock, Milosh Raykov, (2016) in their article for Critical Sociology. The questions would be based not on the opinion of the respondent but as their experience in their career. Examples of the questions asked would be, In your experience how do you agree or disagree with the statement that a female led team is ran more efficiently than with a male. This would allow for the respondent to respond based on their experience. The survey would not have a limit as to how many people can answer the survey but would have a minimum of 10 respondents. The survey would be available for respondents to answer within one week.

For interviews the layout would be less structured. The interviews would be conducted in a public location as to not have the interviewee feel conflicted if taken at a job location as well as online. The interviews would follow a semi-structure form with approximately 6 questions that would be similar for all respondents but giving the respondent the ability to answer freely. Since the respondents would be from several industries following a semi structure form would allow for questions to fit every industry. According to an article by Guillaume Cecile (2008), there are certain strategies that a women takes in order to get to a management position therefore questions would be aimed to see if any strategies are similar in different industries. The participants would be selected based on their management level and there would be approximately 8 managers interviewed. The interviews would be no longer then 30 minutes and would be typed out as well as recorded with a cellphone.

In order to analyze data from the surveys missing data and outliers would be analyzed first. Any missing data would be assigned a neutral answer as to not sway the data one way or another. Any outliers would also be examined and if no other like answer would not be counted in. Additionally, the surveys would be input into an Excel file to make a scatter plot and find the correlation and p-value. For the survey analysis would be based on what answers managers gave that were similar to other managers. Managers can use this analysis to see if there are any common factors that someone in another industry can use to achieve success as well. Some insights that might be drawn is to dedicate equal time to career and personal life, always take as many trainings as possible, and never be intimidated to speak to anyone especially if you to network.

2. Future Research

Based on the research result we can find that women are still not advancing at the rate they should be given they make up such a huge part of the labor force. Future research could find what ways are more effective for a woman to move up the ranks. However, there is still research to be done to find if there are any industries that are doing better at hiring women managers. Additionally, what obstacles do women of color face as they face two obstacles at the same time. The significance of this future research would be extreme as companies could use it to help females reach new levels of management.

3. Literature Review

Burns, J. (2017, September 22). The Results Are In: Women Are Great For Business, But Still Getting Pushed Out. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/janetwburns/2017/09/22/2016-proved-women-are-great-for-business-yet-still-being-pushed-out/#7ed2ef92188b

This article describes how women-led teams are having much success however the total number of women in management is still low. This article contains a lot of data received from surveys from several companies large and small and will help to strengthen the validity of thte paper. This will help reinforce my paper by showing that women are providing great results but still not being put into management positions.

Crampton Suzanne M. ,Mishra Jitendra M. , (1999). Women in Management . Public Personnel Management. 28 (), pp.87-106.

This article analyzes the amount of increase in female mangers. It discusses different issues that have come up since the increase in female mangers including myths tied to women in management. Additionally, it proposes ways to better respond to the talents and skills of everyone in the workforce. This would either correlate with the date retained from the survey or not.

Guillaume Cecile, Pochic Sophie, (2008). What Would You Sacrifice? Access to Top Management and the Work-life Balance. Gender, Work and Organization. 16 (), pp.

This article describes gathers data from major French companies to explore the difficulties females face in order to get management positions. It explores how women go through the process of glass ceiling. Additionally, it explores the strategies that women used compared to meant to gain these positions and what is given up in the personal lives of these managers. This will also aid in the responses from the interviews with women managers.

Fapohunda, T. M. (2018). The Glass Ceiling and Women’s Career Advancement. BVIMSR Journal of Management Research, 10(1), 21–30.

This research paper describes how more women have entered the workplace and there have been more opportunities for woman to advance however there are still low levels of women managers. This research concentrated on five hypothesis and uses surveys to question over 400 people. This research then looks at the significant effects of the glass ceiling. This will also aid in the results from our test.

Walker-Storberg, Julia and Qurran-Haber Paige, (2016). Theorizing Women & Leadership : New Insights & Contributions from Multiple Perspectives. 1st ed. : Information Age Publishing, Incorporated.

This book discusses how women lead in different ways and in different contexts. The chapters of this book are written by women from multiple positions and cultures. It also includes what different theories of women leadership. It also describes ways in which the women leadership theory can be evolved and advances.

Melero, Eduardo (2010, November 16) "Are workplaces with many women in management run differently?". Journal of Business Research. 

This article instead of describing the glass ceiling women have to go against researches how workplaces are ran differently from male to female. This article also looks at how employees react differently to male vs female mangers. This article is helpful as it also describes why employees might prefer either gender and how their own attitude would change.

D.W. Livingston, Katina Pollock, Milosh Raykov, (2016). Family Binds and Glass Ceilings: Women Managers’ Promotion Limits in a ‘Knowledge Economy’. Critical Sociology . 42 (), pp.145-165

This article analyzes trends regarding gender equity for women mangers in workplaces and examines the importance of factors related to promotion. The study is conducted by surveys which provide different information such as managerial levels, qualifications and divisions of pay between genders. The article also explores the glass ceiling and how it is still maintained.

ILO, (2015). Women in Business and Management. 1st ed. : International Labour Office.

This book explores the fact that while women are running a third of the world’s businesses only a small percentage or less of large companies are CEOS. This book explores obstacles women continue to face after many years. It also explores the polices that can used to retain talent. This article will relate strongly to my study because we can find that women are making progress there is still a lot more progress to be made. Additionally it would outline obstacles that women face such as the ability to even interview for higher positions.

Jodi S. Goodman, Dail L. Fields, Terry C. Blum, (2003). Family Binds and Glass Ceilings: Women Managers’ Promotion Limits in a ‘Knowledge Economy’. GROUP & ORGANIZATION MANAGEMENT. (), pp.475-501

This article investiages how companies vary from the companies that have women in top management positions compared to ones that do not. The study found that women are more likely to be in top management positions if lower level management positions are also occupied by females. The article also found multiple data information advising of management turnover and salary levels.

Hema A.Krishnan DaewooPark, (2005). A few good women—on top management teams. Journal of Business Research. 58 (), pp.1712-1720

This article explores the direct impact on representation of women on organizational performance. In the sample of this study the article found a positive relationship between the proportion of women on TMT and organizational performance. The article also looks at mangers from other nationalities. This article is relevant to the study because it not only mentions women of other nationalities but also finds there is a positive relationship between women in management and the performance of the company. This study focuses partly on how women provide higher results then men at certain levels.