Page 349 - leadership-experience-2008

CikguOnline
CikguOnline
330 PART 4: THE LEADER AS A RELATIONSHIP BUILDER

Glass ceiling The Glass Ceiling Another issue is the glass ceiling, an invisible barrier that
Glass ceiling
an invisible barrier that separates women and minorities from top leadership positions. They can look
an invisible barrier that
separates women and minorities
separates women and minorities
from top leadership positions up through the ceiling, but prevailing attitudes are invisible obstacles to their
from top leadership positions
own advancement. Research has also suggested the existence of “glass walls”
that serve as invisible barriers to important lateral movement within the orga-
nization. Glass walls bar experience in areas such as line supervision or general
management that would enable women and minorities to advance to senior-level
positions. 19
Although a few women and minorities have recently moved into highly vis-
ible top leadership positions, such as Kenneth Chenault at American Express or
Indra Nooyi at Pepsi-Co, most women and minorities are still clustered at the bot-
tom of the organizational hierarchy. Women, for instance, have made signifi cant
strides in recent years, but they still represent less than 16 percent of corporate

20
officers in America’s 500 largest companies. In 2006, only eight Fortune 500
companies had female CEOs. And both male and female African-Americans
and Hispanics continue to hold only a small percentage of all man-
Action Memo
agement positions in the United States. Leaders in other countries
21
are struggling with similar diversity issues. A report on executive
As a leader, you can fi ght ethnocentric
talent in the United Kingdom, for example, indicates that although
attitudes. You can create an environment

employees on the front lines “reflect the rich diversity of 21st cen-
in which people value diverse ways of
tury Britain,” the executive suite is overwhelmingly “white, male,
thinking, dressing, or behaving, and you can
able-bodied, and of a certain age—[with] a photo of their wife and
help break down the barriers of unequal
22
kids . . . on the desk.” Japanese companies, too, face mounting criti-
expectations, stereotypes, unequal pay,
cism about the scarcity of women in management positions. In Japan,
and the glass ceiling. You can close the
women make up 41 percent of the workforce but occupy less than
chance to succeed.
opportunity gap so minorities have an equal
23
3 percent of high-level management positions.
Many women and minorities feel that they are not evaluated by the
same standards as their male counterparts. For example, where having a
family is often considered a plus for a male executive, it can be perceived
as a hindrance for a woman who wants to reach the top. One term heard frequently
is the mommy track, which implies that a woman’s commitment to her children
limits her commitment to the company or her ability to handle the rigors of corpo-
rate leadership. Indeed, women leaders frequently do give up personal time, outside
24
friendships, or hobbies because they still do most of the child care and housework
in addition to their business responsibilities. Exhibit 11.1 shows the discrepancy
between high-achieving men and women in terms of the time they devote to
domestic duties, based on one survey.
Some women get off the fast track before they ever encounter the glass ceil-
ing, which has been referred to as the opt-out trend. In a survey of nearly 2,500

women and 653 men, 37 percent of highly qualified women report that they have
voluntarily left the workforce at some point in their careers, compared to only
25
24 percent of similarly qualifi ed men. Although some women voluntarily leave
the fast track, there are many who genuinely want to move up the corporate lad-
der but find their paths blocked. Fifty-five percent of executive women surveyed

26
by Catalyst said they aspire to senior leadership levels. In addition, a survey of
103 women voluntarily leaving executive jobs in Fortune 1000 companies found
that corporate culture was cited as the number one reason for leaving. The
27
greatest disadvantages of women leaders stem largely from prejudicial attitudes
and a heavily male-oriented corporate culture. Some years ago, when Procter &
28
Gamble asked the female executives it considered “regretted losses” (that is, high
performers the company wanted to retain) why they left their jobs, the most com-
mon answer was that they didn’t feel valued by the company. 29