Barriers for Women to Senior Management Positions

1.0 INTRODUCTION 1.1 BACK GROUND STUDY Although number of women in middle management has grown quite rapidly in the last two decades, the number of female Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) in large corporations remains extremely low around the world. Many explanation for why women has not risen as top, including lack of line experience, inadequate career opportunities, gender differences in linguistic style and socialization, gender based stereo types, etc.(Oakely,2004) The persisting gap has increased the focus on women access to, and participation in governance. It is now generally accepted that unless women constitute a critical Mass of at least one third of those in decision making, their mere presence make little difference to outcome of governance. Thus, there are attempts to achieve targets of one third of women in decision making, as well as efforts to remove institutional barriers to the effective participation of women, such as more family friendly work practices. A growing body of literature suggests that, where women are present in critical number and are able to participate effectively, the result is more socially responsive governance outcome. (Isaiah ll0, 2010) Although many of structural barriers that might impede women in their attempts to climb the corporate ladder have been removed through legislation to promote gender equality and to combat discrimination, there is no denying the reality that man continue to predominate in the upper tiers of management. The barriers that remains driven from combination of stereotypical attitudes and perceptions, which continue to

compartmentalize the people and leadership qualities by gender, and existing imbalance itself, which is self supporting and restricts access to female role models and mentors for the pipeline of potential women leaders. (Reding, 2010) The factors which determines womens participation of non participation at senior level management and decision making positions hinge on number of variables amongst
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Barriers for Women to Senior Management Positions

which are socialization by their access to social resources such as education, knowledge and their strength of purpose to achieve success. Their access to senior management positions is also affected by their dual role of domestically with all its constituent lack of social services and income generations. (Valerie, et al 2004) Women in any corner of world are assuming public, private and political offices in large numbers. Yet it is important to avoid assumption that the increase in women serving various positions in management system indicates corporate influence of women. There are many forces causing number of women officeholders to increase may not necessarily work also to bring women into actual decision making process once they are in office. (Darcy, Song, 2006) 1.2 Problem Statement As part of this study, the researcher wants to study the main prevalent factors associate with access of women to top management positions. Following are the major concerns linked with the access of women to secure senior management positions which researcher want to address in the study. a) What is percentage of women working at top level management in particular sector? b) What is level of involvement of women in decision making who are rendering their services at top level management? c) Is there any barrier for women to senior management positions? d) What are main barriers for women to senior management positions? e) How to overcome these barriers These are some questions that need to be addressed. However, depending on time and scope of the study, the researcher may add/alter some more questions within scope of the research.

Barriers for Women to Senior Management Positions

1.3 Research Objective The research objectives are given as follow. Find out the barriers facing by women to move towards senior management positions. Strength of women against men working in particular sector. Determine the percentage of women decision making serving at different senior management positions.

1.4 Benefits of Study The research will be beneficial for the Human Resources Managers in particular and for the society in general. The Human Resources Managers will know the exact number of women working in particular sector which help them to recruit feasible number of women from the job market. Similarly, the society will know the strength, decision making and involvement of women in corporate sector. This study will also be useful for the women as they will determine their involvement in decision making and other important factors.

1.5 scope of Research The scope of this study needs to be defined in following two horizons. 1.5.1 Geographical Scope The geographical scope of research is limited up to Habib Bank Limited (HBL) only. The bank is chosen for the purpose as HBL is largest Bank in Pakistan having more functional units and operational transactions throughout Pakistan. The study will be limited up to those branches of HBL which are situated in Karachi (Southern Region only). The study will cover head office and all regional branches located in southern region of Karachi. The purpose of selecting southern region of HBL is that researcher has access to this region which will be
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Barriers for Women to Senior Management Positions

helpful for collecting data from the sample. Depending upon the time constraints, the researcher will try to cover more and more branches of HBL for sampling and data collection.

1.5.2 Scope based on Data Collection The study will be focused on the primary data collection methods. However, secondary data will also be included in the study to make this research more valid and accurate. The primary data will be collected from the employees specially women who are working in HBL. The data will be collected from women (middle and top level management) working in HBL and top managers (men and women) who make policies about recruiting, selection and promotion of employees. 1.5.3Time Employees currently working in HBL will be subject of analysis in the study. The trends of recruitment, selection and promotion of women will be analyzed. The researcher will look forward for the data and trend records of back dated specially the dates when employees got promotions in order to find out the parameters of promotion of employees within HBL. In addition to that the involvement of women in decision making will also be analyzed though questionnaires and literature review.

2.0 Research Methodology Primarily, the research is qualitative in nature. However, quantitative analysis techniques like correlation will also be used to show the correlation between the responses collected from two samples.

Barriers for Women to Senior Management Positions

2.1 Sampling Method The sampling method will be probability sampling method i.e. based on Simple Random Method for selection of employees for data collection. Employees will be randomly selected as each and every employee must have chance to be selected.

2.2 Sample Size and Data Collection Methods The research will tentatively target on two main sample of following sizes.

Sample#1 20% population of high management personnel (Men and Women). At present the number of personnel in high management is approximately 22. The researcher will try to access to more number of high management personnel. However, minimum number will be 20% of the population.

Sample #2 10% population of women working in HBL (Middle Level Management). The number of employees working in southern region is more than 1000. The researcher will try to access to more women employees for their responses. However, the minimum number will be 10% of the population.

The data will be collected through close ended questionnaires from the both samples as researcher has found similar type of questionnaire techniques used in other related work by different authors. Correlation and regression methods are also used by different researchers to draw the conclusion. The variables like Decision Making Power, Educational Background, Confidence Level, Experience, Carrier opportunities for women etc. are used in different research studies by different researchers.

Barriers for Women to Senior Management Positions

In this study the interviews will also be conducted from the samples to make this research more valid and accurate.

2.3 Data Analysis Techniques The researcher will use Software like SPSS to find out the conclusion. The researcher will also use MS Excel program for data analysis and conclusion through graphics and other pictorial representations.

3.0 Research Limitations Within the valid scope of the research, following are limitations of the research. Sample size is limited to HBL which shows the size very small. As the population of bank employees is scattered therefore particular region (southern region) is selected for the study. The research is only limited to the data collection from employees and banks top level management situated in Karachi. Depending on availability of middle and top level management for interviews and data collections, the sample size may alter.

Barriers for Women to Senior Management Positions

2.1 Tentative Schedule Following is tentative schedule for the completion of research.

Tasks and Submissions Submission of Research Proposal

Dates 9th August, 2010

Discussion and Submission of Literature 25th August, 2010 Review Discussion Questionnaire Interviews, Primary Data Collection and 30th September, 2010 Literature (Discussion and Submission) Discussion on Analysis of Data Discussion Submission Discussion and Submission of Findings 5th November, 2010 and Conclusions Final Report Submission (Long and short 15th November, 2010 Report along with Soft Copy) of Analysis of Data 15th October, 2010 and 20th October, 2010 and Submission of 5th September, 2010