Glass Ceiling: Effects in the Labor Market and Modern Examples in Business (Essay Sample)

Glass Ceiling
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Glass Ceiling
In the contemporary world, several technological changes have driven elements such as globalization, which is a key force in transforming world economies. Some of the effects of globalization have been the changing paradigms and revolution of labor markets in developed and developing countries. Despite these positive and transformative changes, several institutions have been battling the glass ceiling. Some of them have even faced lawsuits whereby they end up paying hefty fines, thus imposing a negative effect on the financial performance. Glass ceiling is usually a metaphor that is used to describe the invisible barriers that inhibit some individuals, such as women and minority groups from gaining promotion to top managerial positions (corporate hierarchy) in a specific industry or within an organization. The restrictions are often undocumented, implying that the advancement of these individuals is based on implicit biases and certain norms that favor a certain group rather than corporate policies that have been defined (Adams & Funk, 2012).
Equality gaps usually vary across countries. Research studies have established that there are fewer women in top-level management positions in most corporate organizations than their male counterparts. This may have been propelled by the various cultural stances held by different groups regarding women's labor force participation (Domínguez et al., 2019). Most companies and other organizations in the US have been addressing the equality gap by establishing their focus on measures geared towards the increment of diversity in their institutions. In 1991, the Department of Labor in the United States founded the Glass Ceiling Commission in its response to the increasing concerns of the impediments and other forms of barriers that prevented the advancement of women and minorities (Dauti & Dauti, 2020). The commission was tasked with identifying existing barriers and investigating or offering recommendations to companies concerning the policies that they could adopt and therefore increase diversity, especially in the executive positions. Some of the findings included that some employers and employees held negative perceptions