Human Resource Management and the Glass Ceiling

Glass ceiling is a concept that was first used in 1986 by two Wall Street Journal reporters to describe the artificial barriers that impeded women from advancing to top leadership & managerial positions in organizations. The development of positive strategies to address this situation and ultimately increase the number of women in executive managerial positions can be informed by the wealth of international policies and strategies on barrier to women's career advancement. This book investigates the effect of human resource management systems on glass ceiling using Ghana as a case study. Data collection involves the use of secondary and primary sources from stratified randomly sampled financial institutions. SPSS is used for the analysis of data. The research reveals that real obstacles remain and these are often rooted and nurtured by organisational polices, culture and human resource strategies. While these barriers do not restrict the career of all women that they impact on, a significant number is evident from the poor representation of women at top executive levels. It recommends some useful strategies for shattering the glass ceiling as a guide to governments and organizations.