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Introduction
The Report by Equal Opportunities Commission UK, after a study of the number of women in top executive positions has observed that for women to take the position of directors of FTSE 100 companies, just in the same number as men directors, it may take about 60 years. The report has also revealed several other interesting forecasts, the essence of which is the proportion of women in the top jobs in UK as well as their representation in the UK parliament is abysmally poor. Gender diversity, glass ceiling phenomenon and other economical and biological reasons normally deter women climbing the corporate ladder.
However, the effectiveness of the contribution by women in the organizational decision making, and the level of emotional intelligence of women may be cited as some of the factors that enhance the role played by women in the corporate and political arena. This paper attempts to detail the role of women being minorities in business management. While the paper also discusses reasons for the poor presence of women in the top slots, it also tries to analyze the barriers for women making up the senior executive positions.
Reasons for Less Women Present in Top Executive Positions
While the women represent a major talent pool, often it is found the proportion of women reaching the Boardrooms of companies is very less. The reasons for lesser women occupying the top positions may be summarized as:
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Increasing cost of child care has put more restrictions on women in continuing their career and reaching top positions. According to a research conducted by PricewaterhouseCooper reported by Jill Treanor (2007) the cost of typical nursery place in England has risen 27percent in the past five years. However there is an argument that those in top executive positions would have the affordability to take such high cost of the day care centers. But the point here is that only when women reach the top positions they can afford to have that luxury. Usually they quit even before they reach the positions because of the high cost of taking care of children and various other factors.
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The increasing desire in women to become entrepreneurs which gives them the advantage of the time management according to their own convenience also deters them to pursue their employment. Thus lack of flexibility in timings may be another reason for the lower proportion of women occupying the top position.
Jill Treanor (2007) comments that according to PricewaterhouseCoopers research the increasing cost of childcare and a new found entrepreneurial streak in women may be among the factors for a 40 percent fall in women holding senior management positions.
People with high professional educational levels are promoted more easily in various corporate set ups. Usually the ratios of women that have the necessary qualifications are much less than men. Eironline report says that Microcensus 2004, the survey from German Federal Statistical Office indicates while 12 percent men with a university qualification occupied the senior positions, it was only 3 percent for the women in the year 2004. According to Michael Laft the slow pace of change is also due to the educational choices as well as other cultural and political factors that determine the course of the movement of women in the organizational hierarchy.
Role of women and Organisational Performance
According to APA online women are more prone to take the role of transformational leaders. In this role they serve as role models guiding and directing their subordinates develop their skills. They also motivate them to be more dedicated and creative in their performance.
The management style of women, which is more mentoring and coaching are well received by those professions where the female dominance is more. Similarly the Command and control style of men is often welcome by male dominated professions. Thus the effectiveness of the management skills of women affects the organizational performance depending on the gender domination in the organization. However it is not possible that all workplaces are equal and hence in some organizations the women in top management positions fare well and in some others they do not. It is also possible that women with masculine management style may prove to be successful in any organization.
It has been observed that while men and women are equally effective in managing organizations in certain settings, the mentoring style of women is more favorably received by employees in female-dominated positions, while command and control style is more authentic in male dominated professions. Studies have found out that therefore women are more effective leaders in female-dominated organizational settings.
Based on a study conducted by Eagly and Johnson (1990) on the lab studies women seemed to possess interpersonal qualities and more democratic while men were more autocratic. However in practice women are found to be more democratic providing more opportunities for subordinates to participate in decision making process. In contrast men were found to be more autocratic in demanding performance from the subordinates. A meta analysis conducted in 2003 revealed that women appeared to make favorable decisions in the matter of rewarding good performers than men. This implies that women possess a transactional leadership quality.
Barriers for Women Reaching the Top Positions
According to a study conducted on women in eight countries including the US and Australia by Accenture, a consulting firm, 70 percent of women and 57 percent of men believe that an invisible barrier which may be termed as the glass ceiling prevents women from getting ahead with their progress in reaching the top managerial jobs.
One of the glass ceiling effect that may be attributed for the women not making the top management positions may be the nature of women is such that they choose the style of life that allows them to spend more time with their families. They are not prepared to put in longer hours of work as men do; the reasons for that may be anything from natural or the socializing habits of women. As quoted by Hannah Clark (2006) Melinda Wolfe the head of global leadership and diversity says They want to feel satisfied and good about their work, but also want to feel satisfied about other things in their life. Perhaps this is an important factor which acts as a barrier in allowing the women reaching top positions.
However it appears that the glass ceiling doesnt have any effect on the efforts being put in by women in their work and the resultant job satisfaction to them.
The existence of pay gaps between men and women executives may be considered as another barrier which prevents women consider putting more efforts to get to the top positions, otherwise being occupied mostly by men. An article in The Economist (2005) opines that the glass-ceiling phenomenon is shwoing its effect rather continuously in strage ways. It says while the while most of the top cporporate positions are occupied by men , the few women who reached there are also not compensated adequately and are often less than the that of the men they join there.
Organizational Values for Diversity
Traditionally the men were considered breadwinners and the role of the women was predominantly to support the efforts of men. From the organizational point of view also traditionally orgnaisational men were regarded as workaholic and putting more efforts than what their salaries demand. Obviously this didnt allow men to take part in the other household responsibilities which fell on women. But this scenario found its changes soon.
With the recruitment of more number of women for junior and middle level positions, the issue of gender diversity has become an issue. Coates (1997) says With the steady rise in single parent families, evidence of the greater inherent intelligence and the better communication skills of women, there has been a surge in womens employment and the grades they achieve once there.
He further adds that though women have improved their positions, still they are not in a position to reach the top positions. In some organizations, the values held by the organizations, about the diversity may affect women being placed in top positions. Such organizations may be still under the stigma of the superiority of organizational men than women. Thus the corporate culture also plays a crucial role in developing women managers.
Similarly the demographic balances in the organizations, in terms of the proportion of the number of women employees and the number of women employees who are in the decision making positions may also affect the progress of the women.
Biological Factors
The major hindrance for women trying to move to top positions lie in their biological conditions coupled with other social factors. The women are always confronted with the the dilemma of dividing time, not only on a daily basis, but also over a life-time, between work and family is a key gender issue. It often forces women to make difficult career and family choices. (ILO 1998) It is often the case that at the crucial point in their lives, women have both of their responsibilities demanding their time equally; one most significant is the career development and the other rearing children or caring for aged family members.
Mostly women at that stage are forced to kill their career ambitions, as they can not look for any one else to shoulder the family responsibility. Pregnancy and Child Birth often play crucial role in womens career path making them stay away from the work which deters organizations offering responsible positions for women.
Emotional Intelligence and Womens Career
Usually the capabilities of women in multi-tasking, team-building and communicating that are essential to run the modern day business efficiently are greater than those of men. The Economist (2005) quotes that Maria Wisniewska, the head of a Polish Bank says the links between the rational and emotional parts of the brain are greater in women than in men. If so, and if leadership is about making links between emotion and intelligence, then maybe women are better at it than men. Thus emotional intelligence of women is a peculiar advantage avilable exclusively to women to tackle complex buiness situations.
Impact of Glass Ceiling
The term glass ceiling was coined by Wall Street Journal about 25 years ago. The term is used to refer transparent but real barriers, based on discriminatory attitudes or organizational bias, that impede or prevent qualified individuals, including (but not limited to) women, racial and ethnic minorities, and disabled persons, from advancing into management positions. (Gibelman, 2000) The study of Gibelman revealed that there exists a glass ceiling which results in disproportionate representation of men in management in preference to women particularly in top management level. More than that, it is the men who earn more than women at all levels of organization.
According to the Federal Glass Ceiling Commission Report for the year 2005 only 8% of the senior executives of Fortune 1000 firms comprise of women. However women constitute at least 47% workforce in the United States. It appears that highly educated and experienced women often face hurdles to reach top positions in large corporations. They have been clustered in bottom layers of management in a disproportionate manner in lowest paying organizations.
There are different reasons contributing to the lesser presence of women in the top echelons of management which range from preconceptions among employed women, aversion on the part of the employers towards the risk of hiring women and improper planning of career and employment by women. Studies have revealed that only less than 1% of the CEOs feel that women possess high potential to contribute to the growth of the organizations.
When an organization decides to exclude women with suitable qualification and experience from top management slots, the company is sure to find it unable to compete effectively in a diversified market place. Moreover the company is likely to lose an extraordinary amount of talent, creativity and productivity available with women. Most of the women leaving their positions are doing so to find more lucrative self employment opportunities since they are often neglected from being considered for top positions.
This makes large corporations lose valuable executive materials. It becomes important that the management should attach top priority to recognize and appreciate gender differences and make use of the potential of women leaders effectively. On their part women must also carefully plan their career and employment by defining their goals and priorities. They must also improve their creditability by taking up challenging assignments that are more visible and going to the knowledge of top management. (Mauricio Velasquez)
Conclusion
Irrespective of whatever reasons or barriers that affect women climbing to the key executive positions there are two important causes that put forth the case for employing women executives till the board level:.
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With the advent of globalization varied customers, employees and suppliers interact with the growing stream of business organizations. This leads to changes in demographic equations of employees. Therefore it becomes important on the part of the successful business organizations to expand their traditional executive composition to include those who can adapt themselves to the diversity of the global market place. Inherently women possess the quality of a different style of management than most men. That is why Catalyst Study (2005) says We believe that companies that recruit, develop, and advance women in an effort to diversify their leadership make better decisions, produce better products, and retain several key business advantages over more homogeneous companies
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Yet another factor that needs consideration is that with the increase in their business activities, business houses and corporations are always in search of efficient key personnel to run their shows. While a vast potential efficiency is going waste in the women workforce, the organizations should take advantage of this talent pool. This diversity as aforesaid will definitely improve the performance of the organization, as women are more capable of handling any type of situation than men especially when problems need a third and different angle, in which the shrewdness of women counts.
Thus neither the question of the management diversities nor the ethical considerations should come into the role that women could play effectively and efficiently as top corporate leaders. Given a chance for the reasons cited above, women will outsmart the so called organisational men easily.
References
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1. APA Online When the Boss is a Woman. Web.
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2. Catalyst (2005) 2005 Catalyst Census of Women Corporate Officers and Top Earners of the Fortune 500. Web.
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3. Coates, G. (1997) Organisation Man Women and Organisational CultureSociological Research Online, vol. 2, no. 3. Web.
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4. Eagly, A. H. and Johnson, B. T. (1990). Gender and leadership style: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 108, 233-256.
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5. Eironline Few Women in Management Positions. Web.
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6. Gibelman, M. The Nonprofit Sector and Gender Discrimination. Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 2000, 10 (3) 251-269.
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7. Hanna Clark Are Women Happy Under the Glass Ceiling Article in Forbes. Web.
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8. ILO (1998) Note on the Proceedings: Sectoral Activities Programme Tripartite Meeting on Breaking through the Glass Ceiling: Women in Management International Labour Office Geneva.
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9. Jill Treanor Women Quit Before Hitting Glass Ceiling The Guardian 2007.
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10. Mauricio Velasquez Shattering the Glass Ceiling A Strategy for Survival. Web.
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11. Michael Laft The Invisible Wall. Web.
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12. The Ecnomist (2005) The Conundrum of the Glass Ceiling Article on Women in Buisness The Economist.
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