Women and Glass Ceiling in the Hospitality Industry

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Table of Contents

Outline of Topic
Research Methodology
Preparatory Work
Analysis
References

Outline of Topic

The purpose of this paper is to ascertain the incidence of glass ceiling in luxury a hotel in Dublin and the reasons for it. The main purpose was to ascertain the reasons for lack of representation of female managers at top management levels and the reasons for the same as understood by middle and top managers.

In 2010, the turnover of the hospitality industry in the UK was estimated to be £90 billion and employed 8 percent of UK’s total workforce . 63 percent of the total workforce in 2009 in the UK hospitality industry was women but the number of women dwindled at top and middle management level .

Therefore, the female representation at the top level is definitively disproportionate in the UK hospitality industry. The aim of the proposed paper is to understand the perception of employees regarding the presence of gender gap in hospitality industry and try to ascertain if the presence of a glass ceiling responsible for the lack of growth of women in the sector to top management level.

Therefore, the research question that is studied in the proposed paper is if glass ceiling imminent in hospitality industry and if it is the real barrier for growth of women to top management level? The main aim of this study is to determine if women in the hotel industry have a chance to rise to general manager or CEO positions. The objectives of this study therefore were:

To determine the presence of gender gap at top management level.
To determine the perception of presence of glass ceiling among employees in hospitality industry based on gender, age, and position in organizational hierarchy.
To determine the factors which hinder the advancement of women to key positions.
To determine the impacts of education and skills in the career advancement of women in the hotel industry.

The researched was conducted through interviews conducted of middle and top managers in a 5-star hotel in Dublin. The interview was conducted for 6 participants, 5 from middle management level and 1 from top management level. The interview analysis showed the difference in perspective on existence of glass ceiling in hotel industry and the reasons for it.

It was felt that interviewing middle managers could provide the real perception about glass ceiling as the phenomenon is believed to exist at levels from middle management upwards . The reason for this gender inequity in employment is said to be ‘glass ceiling’ i.e. an invisible barrier that stops women from reaching the top ranks of the hierarchy .

The paper aims to understand the personality traits in a woman that may facilitate or hinder in her promotions to top management level.

In this respect, the paper exclusively tried to understand the perception of glass ceiling among managers irrespective of sex, and the specific perception of female managers regarding the personality traits that help in promotion or non-promotion to top management level from their previous experiences.

This feminist perspective is important to understand the real perception of personality trait of women that may help or hinder their growth .

Research Methodology

The paper adopted a qualitative research methodology as opposed to the popular method of glass ceiling research i.e. quantitative survey method . Quantitative method of understanding the glass ceiling and gender inequity at workplace (especially hospitality industry) phenomenon has been employed by many researchers .

Research on the barriers of women’s development in organizations has been a well researched area management literature. Patriarchal organizational culture that lead to bias and gender stereotype is believed that the root cause of the barrier to women’s career growth within organizations.

Wrigley used in-depth interview and focus group study to ascertain the factors that perpetuate glass ceiling and found five factors – denial, patriarchal corporate culture, lack of gender component in competition within organizations, historical precedence, perceived gender stereotypes and socialization . Therefore, literature on gender gap and glass ceiling point out to the reasons for the lack of growth of women to higher management.

The participants chosen for the interview were mainly from middle and top management level as the perception of the glass ceiling develops during this stage . That is why previous research on glass ceiling had tried to gather perception of glass ceiling from top management level .

Further, understanding the perspective of women middle managers is important to gather their view of the presence of glass ceiling that they may have faced at various time of their career progression.

In this respect a previous study by Mooney and Ryan conducted a qualitative research in international hotels in Australia and New Zealand, using semi-structured interviews to ascertain the affect of gender, age, and time on the glass ceiling affect.

The barriers that the researchers found as propellers of glass ceiling are long working hour culture in the hotel industry, social networking, ease of geographical mobility of the employees, and recruitment practices.

The literature on the proposed topic is scant as there are not too many works done on glass ceiling in the hospitality industry. On reviewing the literature, it was observed that the there was ample literature on gender inequity at work place and the reasons for creation go glass ceiling but very few recent published scholarly papers were available for the hospitality industry.

There is a gap in the literature in analysing the reason behind glass ceiling in hospitality industry. The problem that is faced in collecting the relevant literature is in locating recent literature on glass ceiling in hospitality industry. Further there is a dearth of qualitative research in analysing glass ceiling phenomenon in the hospitality industry.

Preparatory Work

Methodology

The adopted research methodology is primarily qualitative in nature. Riley and Love suggests that research in hospitality and tourism must look beyond accumulation of mere numbers and deal into in-depth qualitative analysis. Qualitative research has gained acceptance as a methodological approach in many fields like education, management, sociology, consumer behaviour, etc.

Ethnographic study has been adopted into hospitality management research and that too to indentify the factors leading to glass ceiling by Adair and more recently by Mooney and Ryan . This paper adopted a qualitative research methodology for understanding glass ceiling and its underlying factors.

Data Collection

The data for the research was collected using semi-structured interviews with middle and top management level. The research was conducted in the five star hotels in Dublin. The participants in the research are managers from middle and top management level.

The semi-structured interview was formulated with 24 questions pertaining to three areas – industry related questions, perception of incidence of glass ceiling, and perception of personality trait affecting career growth. The participants were asked questions related to their awareness of glass ceiling in general and their perception as to why there are more male than female managers in the industry.

Further they were asked questions related to their perception of the affect of glass ceiling and if culture, patriarchal organizational structure, etc. prevented women from climbing up the ladder. They also asked questions regarding their perception regarding the presence of inequality in the hospitality industry.

The study conducted 6 semi-structured interviews of managers from a 5 star hotel in Dublin. The interview was done of 1 Deputy Manager who is again a man, 3 middle managers who are men and 2 women middle managers.

The interviews were conducted using semi-structured interviews. the interview is divided into two parts – one pertaining to industry specific questions related to work hour, job requirements, environment, job expectations, etc. and the second part assess the personality of the interviewee based on five-factor personality test.

Semi-Structured Interview Questionnaire

The semi-structured interview questionnaire is provided in Appendix A. The questionnaire is divided into three parts. The first parts frames questions to ascertain industry related reasons for glass ceiling incidence. These questions include demographic questions like age, gender, rank, education, etc.

The other questions are related to the perception of the participants regarding the typical nature of the hospitality industry and their motivation and dissatisfaction to work in it. Further, this section tried to understand how the participant takes the stress of luxury hotel industry.

Few questions like their view on the stress level of the organization, number of working hours, its effect on their social life and a comparison of their social life with that of their friends working in other industries. These questions are specifically designed to understand the effect of the working hours on the participant’s psyche and their acceptability of the stress.

The second section asked questions pertaining to glass ceiling phenomenon. This section of the interview asked direct questions related to the perception of the participants of the incidence or presence of gender bias and glass ceiling in their organization or the industry. First the section tried to ascertain if the participant is aware of glass ceiling phenomenon.

This section also triggered participant’s response relating to their perception about the reasons that may have helped or hindered the growth of their career such as family, working hours, networking, etc. The questions were asked about the participant’s knowledge of female managers in hospitality industry.

It asked a few direct questions regarding gender bias in the organization like if they feel that there exists gender stereotyping or bias while decisions for promotions are taken, or if the participants believe are the reasons for fewer female managers at the top level.

This section of the questionnaire tried to ascertain the reasons for glass ceiling in the organization, if there is any. Further questions like if the participants had to make any compromise to get promotions in the organization are expected to trigger insightful response regarding glass ceiling in the organization.

The third section asked questions related to the personality of the participant. They are asked three of their good and bad personality traits according to their personal opinion. This will present the personality traits of the individual respondent and will also allowed us to ascertain the personality trait important for moving up in the ladder in the organization.

Further, questions like what personality trait the respondent had to forego to get promoted will show the personality traits that are not felt right for managerial positions at the top.

Another question directly asked the female managers as to what personality trait they feel can become a hindrance to their career growth in hospitality industry. These questions will illicit response that will help us to make a generic profile of personality traits of the top managers in the organization.

Analysis

The analysis of the paper was done using qualitative research technique. The data collected from the interview of the 6 managers were individually assessed and reported. Each assessment was analysed using the industry expectation and personality of the manager and its combined effect on creation of glass ceiling for the individual.

This provided a proper understanding as to what are the reasons for the glass ceiling in the industry – if it is personal or industry specific. The method of analysis was adopted such that qualitative research provided in-depth understanding of the reason behind the existence of glass ceiling and the factors that lead to it.

Quantitative questionnaire based research cannot be a proper tool to analyse the true meaning of the phenomenon as it is not a process, experiment, or an event, but rather a deeply rooted construct that is embedded in the culture and personality of the whole system .

References

Adair, C.K., 1999. Cracking the Glass Ceiling: Factors Influencing Women’s Attainment of Senior Executive Position. NA: Universal-Publishers.

Brownell, J. & Walsh, K., 2008. Women in Hospitality. In R.C. Wood & B. Brotherton, eds. The Sage handbook of hospitality management. London: SAGE Publications Ltd. pp.107-28.

Butterworth, M., 2011. ‘Glass ceiling’ in business still exists. Web.

Elacqua, T.C., Beehr, T.A., Hansen, C.P. & Webster, J., 2009. Managers’ Beliefs About The Glass Ceiling: Interpersonal And Organizational Factors. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 33, p.285–294.

Ford, E., 2009. Hospitality can be anything but hospitable if you are a woman. Web.

Maxwell, G.A., 1997. Hotel general management: views from above the glass ceiling. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 9(5/6), pp.230-35.

Meyerson, D.E. & Fletcher, J.K., 2000. A Modest Manifesto for Shattering the Glass Ceiling. Harvard Business Review, 78(1), pp.126-36.

Mooney, S. & Ryan, I., 2009. A woman’s place in hotel management: upstairs or downstairs? Gender in Management: An International Journal, 24(3), pp.195 – 210.

Oxford Economics, 2010. Economic contribution of UK hospitality industry. Web.

Pinar, M., McCuddy, M.K., Birkan, I. & Kozak, M., 2009. Gender Diversity in the Hospitality Industry: An Empirical Study in Turkey. In 18th Annual Conference of the. Valparaiso, IN, 2009. Global Awareness Society International.

Riley, R.W. & Love, L.L., 2000. The State of Qualitative Tourism Research. Annals of Tourism Research, 27(1), pp.164-87.

Tugores, M., 2008. Reconciling work and family from a gender perspective: an application to the Balearic hotel industry. Tourism Economics, 14(1), p.223–239.

Wrigley, B.J., 2002. Glass Ceiling? What Glass Ceiling? A Qualitative Study of How Women View the Glass Ceiling in Public Relations and Communications Management. Journal of Public Relation Research, 14(1), p.27–55.

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