Critically assess weather the glass cieling still exists in the modern Essay

Critically assess weather the glass cieling still exists in the modern workplace - Essay Example The most appropriate pattern in this situation is the formation of glass ceiling within organizations that hinder the growth of specific group of individuals. First quoted by Gay Bryant, glass ceiling refers to the barrier faced by specific groups in an organization from moving up the management cadre. The United States Labour Secretary, Lynn Martin, defined ‘glass ceiling’ as ‘Those artificial barriers on attitudinal or organizational bias that prevent qualified individuals from advancing upward in their organization into management-level positions’ Bollinger and O’Neill, (2008) p.10. The following discussion critically assesses practices adopted by organizations to eliminate glass ceiling effect and attached implications. In spite of various diversity management practices, evidences indicate that organizations have not been successful in eliminating the glass ceiling at various levels. Reasons and implications of glass ceiling have been briefly disc ussed hereafter. Employee and labour relations studies as well as organizational behaviour reveal that various practices introduced to counter the glass ceiling have been quite effective in many ways. Glass ceiling effect is seen on different economic and organizational aspects. From an economy perspective, the number of female employees has significantly risen in many parts of the world in recent years. Also, organizations are consciously adopting various diversity management practices in order to enhance their performance and also abide by the human rights constitution (Mor-Barak, 2005; p.372). These practices are specific initiatives to bring about a balance in the labour economy. This need has arisen because of various reasons such as increase in number of immigrants into foreign countries; increase in amount of knowledge and technology-driven work; changing life styles; and, increasing costs of living driven by changing businesses and globalization. From an organizational viewp oint, organizations are hiring more women at various positions and are employing distinct diversity management practices to provide opportunity to people belonging to various races, ethnic and social groups. Yet, evidences through reports, researches, news articles etc indicate that women continue to face discrimination issues at workplace. Moreover, blocking the advancement of specific groups to move up to higher management positions will hinder organizational growth to a significant extent. Breaking the glass ceiling helps organizations to harness valuable talent possessed by, women in particular, and all people, in general, at lower levels that belong to diverse groups. Impact of glass ceiling is varied in different parts of the world. In some regions, the glass ceiling is very obvious and others it is discreet, but still exists. For instance, glass ceiling is more pronounced in single-culture dominated regions like the Islamic countries, South African nations and parts of Asia. In these countries, though constitutional rights are provided to minorities as well as women in terms of work and employee relations, yet discrimination and obstacles confront individuals because of sociocultural customs and practices. Its effect is lesser in the United States, European Union, parts of Asian and Australian regions. Most of these countries are multi-cultural, multi-social and pluralistic nations, which is the reason for subtlety of glass ceiling effect in

Global virtual sales team Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Global virtual sales team - Research Paper Example They are functioning to better comprehend the competencies that defines their global leadership strengths. Another challenge lies in the numerous strategies they are implementing. They are unsure which strategy would lead to successful outcomes in attempts to form global teams. Thus, it is a trial and error practice (Virtual teams, 2). The final challenge revolves around the issue of getting those in remote areas engaged. Most remote areas cannot enable the installation of technologies that global team’s use. Hence, people in the grassroots are constantly being left behind regarding virtual team recruitment and training. Accurate information from the rural areas has been rendered useless because it cannot be presented to the top management. The ultimate result is that investors besides some stakeholders cannot access the information. Recruitment and training of virtual teams can be done using online advertisement. One can be recruited when he or she clicks on the website. Ther eafter; they are trained on how to use virtual tools like teleconferencing or video tapes. With each member of the virtual team being in a position to use virtual tools, they can easily be managed by logging in and participation during virtual meetings. Enhancement in information technology eases data to easily avail in virtual teams. This step made it easy to train and educates virtual teams. For example, software for analytical presentation has made it easy for data to be easily availed (Sarah, 1). The software allows data to be presented instantly by using either the web or an intranet. This software also allows complex analyses to be calculated. This software is very useful during recruitment and training of people within the virtual team. Sales in virtual teams are achieved by the use of telemarketing. With a sales team that is effective, evaluating sales is made much easy. This is because the teams have experience on how to manage data related to sales despite their geographic al location. This is done with constant links with the top managers. When to hold virtual meetings among virtual team is an open issue. This is because it depends on the team characteristics. This includes the nature of sales and so on. Virtual meetings can be held at least once a month. However, if there is an urgent issue that needs to be addressed; the frequency increases... This is because there are a lot of uncertainties in the business environment which should be addressed as they arise (Marian, 2). Teleconferencing is one way in which virtual meetings can be held. Teleconferencing offers many advantages. One of them is that people participate regardless where one is. This means that travel expenses are not incurred. With efficient planning, virtual meetings have turned to be successful. The use of video feeds to conduct virtual meetings is also useful. All these methods of virtual meetings need a proper plan to ensure that all succeeds. The same skills that are used in non vi rtual meetings are applicable in virtual meetings. This also demonstrates that conducting virtual meetings is such a simple task. The first and most important step when leading a virtual team is to adequately equip them with the desired tools and skills. Thereafter, building interaction among the team members would be necessary. The rights skills are useful in creating balance between the social skills and technology interface... As a