CASE 15.1 The \"Glass Ceiling Lisa Weber never doubted that she would be a partn
ID: 344523 • Letter: C
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CASE 15.1 The "Glass Ceiling Lisa Weber never doubted that she would be a partner in her Wall Street firm. A graduate of a prestigious business school with a doctorate in economics, she had taught briefly at a major university. She was the first woman hired as a market analyst in her well-regarded firm. Within two years, she has become one of four senior portfolio managers reporting directly to a senior partner. Her dlients give her the highest commenda- tions for her outstanding performance; over the past two years, she has brought in the largest number of new accounts to the firm. Despite the admiration of her colleagues and their seeming acceptance of her, there is a disturbing, if flattering, aspect to her job. Most of her peers and some of the partners visit her office during the day to discuss in private her opinions on market performance and financial projections. She enjoys these private sessions but is dismayed that at the weekly staff meetings the CEO, Michael Breyer, usually says something like, "OK, let's get started and bring Lisa up to date on some of the trouble spots." None of her peers or the partners mention that Lisa knows as much as they do about what's going on in the firm. She never protests this slight to her competence and knowledge of firm business, nor does she mention the almost-daily private meetings where her advice is sought. As the only woman on the executive level, she prefers to be considered a team player and one of the boys. In the past year, one of her peers has been promoted to partner, although Lisa's performance clearly surpassed his, as measured by the success of her accounts and the amount of new business she brought to the firm. Having heard no mention of partnership for herself, she approached her boss, one of the partners, and asked about the path to a partnership. He replied, "You're doing great, Lisa, but professors do not partners make. What happens if you are a partner and you make a huge mistake? How would you take it? And what about our dients? There's never been a female partner in the 103 years of our firm. Shortly thereafter, another woman, Pamela Tobias, was hired as a mar- keting analyst. Once, when the CEO saw Lisa and Pamela together, he called out to the men, "Hey, guys, two women in one room. That's scary.Explanation / Answer
CASE STUDY: THE “GLASS CEILING”
ANSWER- Lisa faced Glass Ceiling which is an advancement barrier within a hierarchy that prevents women or minorities from obtaining upper level positions. It is 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, sex, religious affiliation. Lisa hit a glass ceiling at work, because her male peer was promoted to partner, although Lisa showed better performance than him. On asking her boss, he replied that Professors don’t make partners and that there has never been a female partner in 103 years of firm.
ANSWER- The top executives should have made efforts to reduce gender biasness. Equal pay and promotions should be ensured. Hiring women is important, companies need to go beyond talent acquisition and make sure that top performing employees, regardless of their gender, can climb the ranks of the corporate ladder. It is also important that women are included in corporate governance. This will not only improve public image but also provide a more holistic view of consumer needs, improve employee and customer satisfaction and increase profit margins.
It is also imperative that recruitment, selection and development should be based upon competency model. Competency based recruitments is a process of recruitment based on the ability of candidates to produce anecdotes about their professional experience which can be used as evidence that the candidate has a given competency. This process is fairer in such a way that the recruiter has little discretion to favour one candidate over another.
ANSWER- The following would have benefitted Lisa and Pamela:
When women feel more engaged in their career, they are usually more satisfied, which makes them more inclined to stay.
ANSWER- The organization could have done the following things-
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