Introduction
In every organization, strategic staffing process is vital as it helps an organization in identifying and addressing the staffing implications of their respective business strategies and plans. Over the past decade, the issue of promotion barriers in the workplace has been a critical one. Although considerable effort has been put to promote equality in the workplace, gender inequalities remains a major issue in many organizations.
In strategic staffing, breaking the glass ceiling has been the main concern in human resource management. Although many organizations have been promoting equity in their practices, there still remain obstacles for some groups of employees to occupy upper posts in an organization.
As a result, many qualities and performing employees have been denied upper positions despite of the fact that they have the necessary qualifications for such positions. This has also denied organizations the chance to benefit from the expertise of such individuals. Employees’ productivity has also decreased as a result of lack of motivation.
Problem Statement
Over the recent past, there have been a growing number of women entering into the workforce occupying various positions. For instance, a significant number of women have entered into careers in professions where they occupy various positions.
Despite the fact that the ratio of the women I workforce is becoming increasingly big, the issue of gender inequality remains a problem that requires an urgent solution. It is important to mark that unsettled, the given issue poses a great threat to the women employment, because women will be discouraged, which may affect their performance in their duties.
Employees’ motivation plays a significant role in determining the productivity levels. By practicing gender discrimination in the work place, women employees will be discouraged and consequently perform poorly in their responsibilities.
This has threatened the performance of many organizations both in the long and short run. It is also important to mention that discrimination in the workplace is also often based on racial differences. For instance, a white supervisor may discriminate against the black people, basing his/her judgments on the widespread stereotype concerning the black workers’ performance.
Both kinds of discrimination have posed a major threat in the modern business and management sphere. The practice has denied employees a chance to advance in career, which results in the stagnation of their skills.
Gender Discrimination in Job Promotion
As already noted, the issue of gender equality has been one of the major concerns in many organizations despite the increasing number of female employees joining the work force. A number of people have carried out studies on this issue.
Over the past years, women have been facing a number of barriers which have blocked them from rising in certain levels in various organizations (David, 1998). Although some women have managed to break the glass barriers, they have not managed to access more senior positions in their respective corporations.
The majority of women have made all the efforts in an effort to achieve their goals only to find a glass wall preventing them from reaching their goals (Gluck, 2011). The presence of the invisible yet quite tangible obstacle has significantly affected the women’s performance.
According to the resent research, most women lose their morale after failing to realize their dream. In other words, women are kept from advancing to higher positions just because they belong to a different gender, which is, no doubt, the most outrageous.
The barriers depicted above may exist at different levels in an organization. For instance, it may be a general manager level. In many organizations, there is no woman in a senior management position. However, more women are now determined to break the glass ceiling in the contemporary world.
However, it is important to keep in mind that they will obviously encounter recurrent barriers even after overcoming the prejudice concerning women in the workplace and the most widespread kinds of discrimination in the workplace.
The major obstacle concerns the fact that women have been continuously facing is the barriers of stereotype and traditions that are based on prejudice, which, in its turn, has diminished women’s ability to occupy top positions in an organization.
In many organizations, supervisors have applied the existing notions about the abilities and roles of women to the process of making promotion decisions (Gluck, 2011), which has significantly undermined women’s efforts to advance their career. For instance, a male supervisor may discharge a qualified and experienced female fire fighter employee under the pretext that men perform better in such positions.
According to Bradstreet (2005), gender inequality is a critical issue in every organization because it negatively affects the company growth, economic prosperity, business development and recruitment processes. The gender issue has adversely affected the performance of a number of workers in many organizations.
Due to gender discrimination in the workplace, a considerable amount of organizations have missed the opportunity to utilize the talents of many women employees for the company’s benefit, which has to some extent undermined the performance of organizations.
It is worth mentioning, though, that in some places, women have control over a significant amount of wealth. For instance, 43 percent of Americans earning income above $500,000 are women (Bradstreet, 2005). It is necessary to add that women also have a significant role in making purchasing decisions.
Therefore, denying women a chance to advance in their career poses a major threat to the economic performance of an organization.
Still, there is no doubt that the issue of women discrimination in the workplace remains a problem that demands urgent solution. Unlike the other problems that arise in the company, it involves both the aspect of human rights and the company’s ethics, which means that the issue is rather complex.
According to the most recent researches, discrimination against women in the workplace can take various shapes and have the most versatile consequences, yet in every single case, certain measures could have been undertaken to prevent the humiliating situation from occurring.
It is essential to ark, though, that discrimination at work can take different shapes, changing from the most subtle forms to the most severe cases of hardened prejudice. As Dipboye & Colella (2005) explains, there are cases of subtle and covert sexism which are to be differentiated:
Subtle seism is less obvious than blatant sexual discrimination because most individuals have internalized it as “normal” or “acceptable” behavior, which can be seen as well meaning, unintentional, and nonmalicious. Covert sexism, in contrast, is purposeful and often maliciously motivated as well as hidden (168).
Hence, it can be assumed that sexism takes place in the course of the relationships between men and women in their workplace quite often, which poses considerable threat to women’s position at work and their careers. In addition, the issue concerns the infringement of women’s rights, which means that the problem touches upon not only social, but also economical, financial and even legal aspects of work.
Though one might argue that gender discrimination affects not only the women’s career, but also have negative effect on men’s promotion and work efficiency, one can still claim that in most cases, the victims of discrimination at work are women. According to the research conducted by Williams (2010), women suffer from unfair and unlawful treatment in most cases:
The other two cases were filed by both men and women. About half (25 of 44, or 56.8%) of these cases allege sex discrimination. Of these 25 sex discrimination cases, women filed 21, men filed 1, and one case was filed by women and men jointly.
Notably, success rate for men and women are comparable. Only 14 of the total 44 cases (32%) in this category saw plaintiff success, whereas 8 of 25 (23%) discrimination cases were successful; 7 of 21 (33,3%) female plaintiffs and 1 of 3 (3,3%) male plaintiffs were successful. (p. 141)
Hence, it cannot be denied that women suffer from workplace discrimination to a considerably larger extent than men, and that there must be something done to prevent the discrimination from happening. Changing certain company rules and strategies, one can achieve certain success.
However, at present the situation concerning women discrimination in the workplace seems rather deplorable. Advocating women’s rights, one can improve the existing state of affairs.
Causes of Gender Discrimination in the Work Place
One of the most despicable and yet topical issues of the modern business world, gender discrimination has certain grounds to base on. Therefore, it is essential to consider the fundament of the phenomenon to provide the necessary means for the problem solution.
Speaking of the origins of discrimination in the workplace and the tradition to consider women’s efforts less significant than those made by men, one must mention a number of factors that contributed to the current situation. When observing each of the elements separately, one can come to certain conclusion concerning the discrimination issues and offer the ways to eliminate it completely.
Deadened by the obnoxious attitude of the male colleagues, women fail to reach the top in their working career and are doomed to taking the lower positions until they finally get the chance to find their own niche in their work.
No matter how vulgar and dubious that may sound, sexual harassment and sex discrimination still remains an integral part of the modern companies, and is one of the basic reasons for women to fight the notorious glass walls rising right in front of them.
Even though the reasons for the maltreatment of women in their working places may differ and depends on a variety of factors, both inner and outer, one of the most obvious causes for women to be underestimated and harassed at their work is determined by the relationships on the interpersonal level:, according to what Crosby (2007) says: “Two general types of causes are important.
Primary causes of discrimination begin at the interpersonal level of individuals in the workplace and involve people’s expectancies and in-group networking (p. 189). Hence, one of the key reasons for women’s discrimination in the workplace is the result of the relationships between the women and the male colleagues, which can be defined as the result of the inability to build strong and trustworthy business relationships.
It is important to point out that in the given case, a lot depends on the women themselves and on their ability to create strong relationships based on mutual trust and cooperation with the male colleagues.
However, the role of men in the given aspect is not to be denied, either, since the latter are supposed to offer their mite to creating business relations with the women. Hence, to certain extent, much depends on people’s prejudice and their determination to work fruitfully.
However, saying that only interpersonal communication matters in the given case would be amiss. According to what Crosby (2007) claims, there is another reason for sex discrimination in the workplace. Defined as the secondary causes, another set of factors that contributes to women’s maltreatment in the workplace is predetermined by the institutional level and depends on the company’s structure and the procedures that are common in the given entrepreneurship.
As Crosby (2007) marks, “Secondary causes of discrimination occur at the institutional level of the employment and involve organizational arrangements and procedures that have a discriminatory impact on the workers due to their sex” (p. 189).
It is also necessary to emphasize that workplace sex discrimination and its reasons can be observed from the economical point of view, which makes the situation look considerable different and a lot more complicated than expected.
Hence, one of the numerous reasons for the women to encounter the glass wall on their way to the career Olympus is the prejudice concerning the economical strategies and considerations, not the dislike towards women and female gender in general, but towards the specific set of qualities that women possess as well as the one that is apt only to men. Indeed, as Jacobsen emphasizes,
In race discrimination, interaction between the two groups is often limited both within and without the workplace; in contrast, the two sexes are generally no separated in private life. A male employee who discriminates against women in the workplace has a mother, is often married, and often has daughters (p. 265).
On the one hand, it is evident that the corporation rules are supposed to be followed precisely. Yet on the other hand, there is no doubt that some of the company’s norms and standards can turn rather offensive and even discriminatory for female employees.
Therefore, a number of misconceptions arise, which leads to the fact that women are being maltreated in a certain company. Since changing the company norm and regulations can turn rather problematic, the discrimination of women in the workplace continues without any solutions to be offered, which means that the issue demands urgent solutions.
Solutions
There can be no doubt that most of the modern companies are suffocating under the thick layer of clichés concerning the women employment and women in the workplace. Since the issue remains unsolved and the situation is becoming increasing threatening for women employees, the solution for the current state of affairs must be worked out.
It is worth mentioning that at present, a number of possible strategies for women to integrate into the working place without being discriminated exist, and most companies still tend to treat all employees equally, as Gregory (3003) says. Still, seeking the possible means to eliminate the obstacles of sex discrimination, one can name the following methods among the most obvious solutions for the given problem.
It must be admitted that there are several ways to tackle the given issue and solve the complexities so that further issues of the kind would not arise in future. However, it must be taken into consideration that no changes could be applied to the existing situation.
Hence, it is required to consider such further developments which might not involve any changes in the organizational structure of the company, its policy towards women and the corporate ethics concerning the treatment of women. Therefore, one of the plausible outcomes of the current situation can have the most dreadful effect on women employment in the next several years.
According to what the most authoritative sources say, if discrimination in the workplace continues and no preventive measures are applied to stop the discrimination from spreading all over the entire company and taking more dreadful shapes, women may fail to achieve their promotion and have an efficient use of their career chances; as a matter of fact, in case of progressive discrimination, the latter are reduced to zero, creating “less likelihood of promotion, lower pay, etc.,” as Crosby (2007, p. 171) says, which is also a strong reason for concern.
To avoid the complexities that will inevitably arise if no changes are applied to the company policy and the relationships between the employees, one has to work out a specific strategy which is bound to help defeat the discrimination against women in the corporation.
However, it is worth remembering that multiple objectives are to be achieved to reach the final goal and settle peace and harmony within the corporation. Following the strategies enumerated below, one can achieve tremendous success.
One of the most obvious and the less painstaking means to solve the complexities that arise in the given workplace, one can make the working groups more diverse, thus reducing the possibility of discrimination to zero, as Stroh & Neale (2001) advise.
Once introducing a number of versatile and diverse personalities into the work group, one can see that there will be very little chances for the working team to split into the superior and the oppressed.
However, one of the disadvantages of the chosen method is that in most companies, the working team has already been formed before the cases f discrimination occurred, and the further extension of the employees’ team seems quite unreasonable.
Yet it is necessary to admit that, among the passive means of discrimination fighting, this one is the most efficient, especially in the earliest stages of discrimination progress, as Stroh & Neale (2001) explain.
However, more decisive and serious steps can be taken as well in case the above-mentioned strategy proves not efficient enough. It is important to stress that in case of workplace discrimination and the threat of the glass walls, a lot depends on women themselves, which means that women have the force to change the current state of affairs.
Hence, one of the possible suggestions for the solution of the current problem is enhancing self-respect and the will to fight for their rights in women themselves.
According to Gregory (2003), such approach is the one that will most likely bring success and restore normal relationships within the working team: “Women have the power to eliminate sex discrimination in the workplace, and they must avail themselves of the resource at hand – the laws outlawing employment discrimination” (p. 22).
However, it is necessary to remember that fighting for their rights will involve bending every effort to proving their case, which, no doubt, will demand a lot of patience and strength; as Gregory (2003) claims, “Thus, a woman who elects to reinforce her right to work in an unbiased environment must be prepared for a battle; she must be prepared to participate in an extended period of intense and bitter litigation” (p. 22).
Therefore, it can be considered that a woman is supposed to take a stand that must be decisive and strong. It is only with the help of her own determination and the will to prove that she is right, a woman has the chance to win in this battle an break the glass walls.
It is worth noting that the two strategies of fighting with discrimination that have been described above can also be comprised to achieve greater efficiency, as Stroh & Neale (2001) stress.
However, since the latter strategy might be considered amiss by the women of a pacific temper and character, the former measures are supposed to have the greatest effect on the atmosphere in the workplace and help eliminate women discrimination for good.
Reflection
It goes without saying that the given study of the women discrimination in the workplace has had a tremendous impact on my personal, academic, and professional leadership and managerial development.
Introducing the world of modern business and women’s role in it, offering a plethora of facts concerning women discrimination and men’s reluctance to improve the current situation, the given paper was both a research in the sphere of sociology and a study on human nature.
It is rather curious to learn the various effects that the modern company strategy and the corporation policy has on the relationships between employees, as well as to learn the variety of reactions that gender discrimination causes among women.
Speaking of the personal leadership, the given study enhanced my intentions to clarify the situation as quickly as possible and be able to take the necessary steps, listening to both of the opponents. Learning the opponent’s viewpoint proves extremely important, which is why it is clear to me now that to take control of the situation, one has to take into account the arguments of each side.
Clarifying that any dorm of discrimination is humiliating and is not to take place in a civilized society, the given research has also inspired my new idea of academic leadership as the form of leadership which would not presuppose any sort of gender segregation and will be based on the idea of equality of men and women.
In the given situation, it is crucial to maintain balance and not to infringe men’s rights when fighting for women’s freedoms, which the given research also mentioned.
Eventually, my professional leadership strategy seems to have altered, for from this time on, it is clear to me what difficulties women encounter when starting working together with men and especially in the teams here men outnumber women.
The last, but not the least, my managerial development has also been enriched y a plethora of essential information concerning the ways gender discrimination can be prevented, traced and tackled with at workplace.
Forming a team where no discrimination takes place is one of the keys to the company success as well as the professional development of the employees. One of the scourges of the XXI century, gender discrimination against women is bound to be defeated with the methods depicted above.
Reference List
Bradstreet, A. (2005). Breaking the glass ceiling. American Bar Association, 35(1), 102.
Crosby, F. J. Stockdale, M. S., & Ropp, A. S. (2007). Sex discrimination in the workplace: Multidisciplinary perspectives. New York, NY: Wiley-Blackwell.
David, M. (1998). Negotiating the glass ceiling: Careers of senior women in the academic world. New York, NY: Routledge.
Dipdoye, R. L., & Colella, C. (2005). Discrimination at work: The psychological and organizational bases. New York, NY: Routledge.
Gluck, S. (2011). The effects of gender discrimination in the workplace. Web.
Gregory, R. F. (2003). Women and workplace discrimination: Overcoming barriers to gender equality. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Jacobsen, J. P. (2007). The economics of gender. New York, NY: Wiley-Blackwell.
Stroh, L. K., & Neale, M. (2001).Organizational behavior: A management challenge. New York, NY: Routledge.
Williams, C. (2010). Gender and sexuality in the workplace. Bradford, UK: Emerald Group Publishing.