Breaking the glass ceiling: opportunity for the organization

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to decipher the benefits of breaking the glass ceiling in the organization, providing strategies to overcome it, and discussing the benefits availed by the organization in bringing more participation from women in middle and senior level management.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper critically analyses the literature on women’s contribution to the organization’s success, their barriers to their advancement to corporate hierarchy, and breaking the glass ceiling, supported by appropriate theories.

Findings

Gender diversity initiatives are perquisite for an organization ' s success and performance because presence of more women in the organization increases firm’s productivity. It is because more participation of female employees offers organizations a wide range of resources, ideas, skills, and energy to the business, providing a competitive edge against the competitors.

Research limitations/implications

With understanding the benefits of gender diversity initiatives, an organization will emphasize more on the development of female employees personally and professionally. This, in turn, will help organizations in terms of productivity.

Originality/value

Originality and value with understanding the benefits of gender diversity initiatives in an organization can focus more on growth and development aspects of female employees by breaking the glass ceiling and recognizing their competencies, qualifications, and achievement. This will lead to more participation of women in every echelon of management, resulting in firm performance.

Citation

Sahoo, D.K. and Lenka, U. (2016), "Breaking the glass ceiling: opportunity for the organization", Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 48 No. 6, pp. 311-319. https://doi.org/10.1108/ICT-02-2015-0017