Category: Unit 8

In Case Study 15.1 “The Glass Ceiling”, Lisa Weber, a top level portfolio manager is held back from promotion despite her exemplary work.  The firm that she is working in is plagued by many cultural obstructions blocking her pathway to success.  Some of these cultural obstructions appear to be part of the firm’s historical culture. The CEO states that they have never in their long history had a female partner.  Some of the obstructions come straight from the CEO himself.  In his corporate world, he does not have a perspective to allow into partnership someone who has been a professor nor will he allow a woman to advance further.  These multiple prejudices keep him from fostering an inclusive culture in his organization.

The hostile atmosphere created by the firm’s history and directly from the CEO filters down throughout the senior partnership and to Lisa herself.   When the CEO is not present, she has regular meetings with her peers where she is valued by them. This behaviour has the potential to become collaborative rather than competitive in nature and perhaps bare even more fruit for the firm.  In the presence of the CEO and his ridicule of her, her peers will not stand up for her, and neither will she.  To be seen as one of the boys, Lisa herself is influenced by the negative culture of the firm.

Lisa has brought in more clients than any of her peers, she rose rapidly through the corporate structure of the firm, her clients praise her for outstanding performance , even all of her peers look to her for guidance and direction because of her competence, yet her CEO does not see her.  He appears to be blind to her success because she is a token woman (Nugent, Pollack and Travis, 2016). As soon as there are ripples with her and it is predictable that she will likely move on, the next token woman is brought in to be a senior portfolio manager and replace her (Northouse 2016).

I am intrigued by how the story ends.  Lisa moves on to start her own firm.   I wonder if her negative experience with gender discrimination would influence her own company positively or negatively.  I also wonder what mechanisms she will put in place or what culture she will establish that will allow for her employees to rise to their full potential within her new organization.

References

Northouse, P. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice (7th eds). Los Angeles: Sage Publications.

Nugent, J., Pollack, A. & D. Travis, (2016). The Day to day experiences of workplace inclusion and exclusion. Retrieved from http://www.catalyst.org/system/files/the_day_to_day_experiences_of_workplace_inclusion_and_exclusion.pdf

I have been reflecting on the women who have held leadership positions around me while I have grown up and entered into a leadership position myself.  These women have had a meaningful professional voice and one that I have valued for its shared wisdom, professionalism and authority.    As a backdrop, Kim Campbell was Prime Minister of Canada as I was entering my final year of high school and while I have no idea what the political issues were, I recall that there was a sense that having a female Prime Minister was exciting and positive for Canada.  The education faculty at University had strong female professors who were inspiring.  One of my practicum principals was female as was the principal where I was first hired. Both of these women were no nonsense, straightforward people both of whom I learned significant lessons from.  As I continued into education I encountered female school leaders in many schools around me and I was encouraged, challenged and motivated by their voices as I developed professionally in education.

In my workplace we have approximately 25 staff, 5 men and 20 women.  Three of the men are teachers, one is a custodian and I am the fifth.  The 20 female staff are lead teachers, administrative assistants, financial managers, learning support teachers, custodians and a librarian.  Our School Board consists of 10 people, 4 women and 6 men.  As I consider our school as a place where women belong and are given recognition, I feel that our culture is inclusive.  I interviewed two of our female staff members, a teacher and an educational assistant this week.  They feel that as women their voices are valued and respected and that there is opportunity to take leadership roles or pursue any opportunity within the school.  To broaden our conversation around inclusivity, we discussed the culture of our employees.  I was curious to know if they felt a divide between teaching staff and support staff.  They both agreed that their voices are seen as those of a team and valued equally.  This was good for me to hear as I specifically refer to all of our employees as staff and do not like to distinguish a hierarchy based on position.

If inclusion (Nugent, Pollack and Travis, 2016) is an area where I should specifically be paying attention to anywhere, it is perhaps around age.  Much of my staff is 40+ and there are occasionally light hearted comments made about the patterns of behaviour of younger staff members.  While there is nothing of concern in this observation, it is good to be aware of from a perspective of inclusion.

Nugent, J. S., Pollack, A., & Travis, D. J. (2016). The day-to-day experiences of workplace inclusion and exclusion. Retrieved November 2018, from https://www.catalyst.org/system/files/the_day_to_day_experiences_of_workplace_inclusion_and_exclusion.pdf