What’s the point in even trying? Women’s perception of glass ceiling drains hope

ABSTRACT

In this study, we focus on glass ceiling perceptions, characterized by women’s subjective feelings about their ability to move upward in their organization. Drawing on social information processing and hope theory, we propose that glass ceiling perceptions decrease women’s citizenship behaviors and increase their turnover intentions by draining their hope in the workplace. Moreover, we suggest that the strength of the association between glass ceiling perceptions, drained hope in the workplace, and these two outcomes is conditional upon women’s perceptions of their work–family conflict. Using a two-study design, we tested our hypothesized relationships. We found a mediating effect of drained hope in the workplace between glass ceiling perceptions and (a) turnover intention and (b) organizational citizenship behaviors. This effect is significant when work–family conflict is high. Finally, we discuss the implications of our findings regarding the tensions that women experience with simultaneously managing their careers and conflict in the family.

KEYWORDS:

• Glass ceiling perceptions
• drained hope
• work–family conflict
• OCBs
• turnover intention

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data described in this article are openly available in the Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/ksd9j.

Open Scholarship

This article has earned the Center for Open Science badges for Open Data and Open Materials through Open Practices Disclosure. The data and materials are openly accessible at https://osf.io/ksd9j.

Notes

1. The data described in this article are openly available in the Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/ksd9j.

2. For both Study 1 and Study 2, we performed a a-priori power analysis using G*Power (Faul et al., 2009) to determine our minimum sample size. Although a power of .80 (Cohen, 1988) is typically used, we opted for a minimum power of .95 as it is more desirable (Lakens, 2013). We also opted for an effect size of .15 as this was the default in G*Power and we assumed this would be the smallest effect size that would be of interest to researchers. For both studies, results showed that a minimum of 89 participants was required for a power of .95 using an alpha level of .05. Our final sample consisted of 154 participants in Study 1, and 129 in Study 2, surpassing the minimum required number of participants. Thus, we felt confident our studies contained an adequate sample size.

3. We used Dawson’s (2014) Excel-file (http://www.jeremydawson.com/slopes.htm) to plot the moderation effects.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Bahareh Javadizadeh

Dr. Bahareh Javadizadeh is an assistant professor of management at the Scott College of Business at Indiana State University. She specializes in Human Resource Management and Organizational Behavior. Her research explores glass ceiling perceptions among women and minorities as well as social identity in the workplace. Alongside her research, Bahareh has taught several courses within Human Capital Management, Organizational Behavior, and Teamwork areas.

John Ross

Dr. John Ross is an author, professor, keynote speaker and corporate trainer. He started his career as a seventh grade history and English teacher in Mesa, Arizona. From there he worked as a producer of musical events and then as a project lead at one of the world's leading manufacturers before becoming at Indiana University's southeast campus. His experience with teams includes researching, creating, building, coaching, and leading successful teams in a wide variety of fields for more than a decade. His research in extraordinary teams and unity has since expanded into hope, knowledge acquisition, and retention. He earned his PhD in management from New Mexico State.

Marcus A. Valenzuela

Dr. Marcus A. Valenzuela is an Associate Professor of Management in the Rinker School of Business at Palm Beach Atlantic University. His research interests lie within the fields of organizational behavior and human resource management with a focus on acculturation, immigrants, and other international and minority workers.

Terry R. Adler

Dr. Terry R. Adler is a retired Professor of Strategy in the College of Business at New Mexico State University (NMSU). He received his Ph.D. in Strategic Management from the University of Cincinnati in 1996. Dr. Adler is widely published in the top academic business journals on such topics as strategic leadership, trust, distrust, and project management. He served as Department Head in two different colleges at New Mexico State University and was named the Donald C. Roush Professor of the Year at NMSU twice. Dr. Adler serves as a coach and mentor to many NMSU students, both current and alumni, marking him as one of NMSU most recognizable assets. Dr. Adler has also consulted with over 80 global organizations, made over 500 corporate presentations, and served as an external reviewer for university accreditation purposes.

Bingqing Wu

Dr. Bahareh Wu is an Assistant Professor of Management (SHRM Certified Professional) in the Business Department at University of Wisconsin-Parkside. She earned her master’s degree in Labor and Employment Relations from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and her doctoral degree in Human Resource Management and Organizational Behavior at the University of Illinois, Chicago. She was also a Chicago Metropolitan Exchange Scholar at Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Her primary areas of research interest include leadership, ambivalence, and creativity.