Case Study Evaluation – Unit 8 Learning Activity 1

Responses to Case Study #1 – “The Glass Ceiling”

Refer to P. G. Northouse, Leadership:  Theory and Practice (7th ed.), pp. 412, 413.

In the case study Lisa encountered a number of advancement barriers:

a. She was devalued in a typically male leadership role and although informally sought out for her knowledge, she wasn’t formally or publicly recognized for her knowledge by her peers
b. There was an implied prejudice that her promotion would negatively affect the public perception of the company (“there has never been a female partner in 103 years”)
c. There were only male raters assessing the performance, potentially negatively affecting the evaluation
d. There is an assumption by the CEO that she doesn’t know what is happening globally within the firm and has to be brought up to speed
e. She would not promote herself initially using the justification that she just wanted to be a team player, and “one of the boys”. There is a possibility that she was making this decision due to gender bias or the perceived threat of social disincentives
f. There is a prejudice that she won’t be able to handle it as a woman leader if she makes a mistake, and that she is not agentic enough
g. Though not explicit it appears that the CEO is engaging in homosocial reproduction specifically continuing to recruit and retain all male partners.
h. Although not explicit there is the potential that Lisa is experiencing pressure to represent her gender in a male dominated work environment

There are a number of steps that the CEO and executive leadership could have taken to retain Lisa:

a. Acknowledged and recognized her knowledge and expertise
b. Done an individualized evaluation with peer input when assessing her performance
c. Developed a promotion policy based on set standards including the success of accounts, the number of new accounts, customer satisfaction
d. The CEO could learn to refrain from making derogatory and sexist comments (Eg. “two women in one room, that’s scary”)
e. She should have been made a partner prior to her colleague if her performance indicated that she deserved to be a partner
f. If her performance didn’t warrant a promotion to partner this should have been constructively communicated to her, and she the CEO could have offered to provide training and coaching so she could be successful in this pursuit eventually

A number of organizational policies and opportunities could be developed to help women in this work setting:

a. Policy for promotion to partner based on objectives and standard criteria
b. Policy of non-acceptance of gender biased comments
c. Policy that supported mentorship and training available to all employees independent of gender
d. Education of clients if reluctance to have a female partner truly exists
e. Education of the staff that there does not need to be gender bias

Some ways the organization could raise gender consciousness are as follows:

a. Mandatory education sessions that include case studies
b. Have CEO spend time in a gender inclusionary work setting so that he is able to learn to role model
c. A review of policies to determine if there are gender biases inherent in the organizational documentation
d. Public recognition of all employees that are meeting or exceeding performance expectations so that it is evident that performance of genders are equitable
e. Adopt or develop a monitoring tool so that progress or setbacks are identified and acted on