Analyzing the Glass Ceiling Effect and Leadership Responses in Facebook

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Analysing the Glass Ceiling Effect and Leadership Responses in Facebook
Glass-Ceiling Effect in Facebook – Current Gender-Based Leadership Challenge
In recent times, the Facebook Corporation (Facebook) experienced criticisms for the employment practices and work culture. The company is accused of practicing gender discrimination and creating a glass-ceiling effect for minorities, particularly women in leadership roles (Gravier). In simpler terms, Facebook has a glass ceiling in the corporate culture, preventing women and minorities from securing organic growth based on the efforts made towards the long-term objectives. By definition, the glass ceiling effect is an invisible or passive approach to limit growth opportunities for women and minorities (Northouse, 619-620). Companies avoid rationalizing equal employment opportunities (EEO) or promoting women for C-Suite roles (Sud and Amanesh). According to Alobiad et al., the glass ceiling effect comes into play once companies resist promoting women due to gender stereotyping, issues related to work-life balancing, and limited training policies that fit women for participation (Northouse 177). Facebook is no different from practicing discriminatory policies against women in current events, resulting in a glass ceiling culture.
According to Gravier, Facebook is a global giant with 3 billion active users. The company is among the pioneers to offer digitalized solutions worldwide. Regardless of a diversified customer base and international market reach, the internal corporate culture lacks diversity. The recent controversy attracted negative responses towards the employer branding of Facebook internationally. The company is accused of handpicking roles for women and other minorities in the talent base, which violates the EEO policy. Statistically, Facebook increased women participation by 0.06% in three years until FY2019, which is inorganic in terms of EEO (Gravier). Facebook is experiencing a diversity crisis in the leadership structure due to work culture's immense glass ceiling effect.
Circumstances of Glass-Ceiling at Facebook
The leadership practices at Facebook are the source for increasing the glass ceiling effect within the culture. Dwoskin reported a recent allegation posed by an African American manager at Facebook. The manager claimed that Facebook is biased towards female employees, particularly from a minority racial background. The company claims EEO prospects, but the leaders maintain distant relationships with employees for avoiding response towards gender discriminatory practices (Dwoskin). The observation states that Facebook has limited leader-member exchange (LMX) while ensuring EEO in the work culture. LMX creates a dyadic relationship within the organization, ensures interdependency, and reduce attrition rates in the long run (Northouse 240). The recent allegation made by the African American manager indicates that leaders in Facebook are not maintaining a transparent relationship with employees, mainly while promoting talent on fairgrounds. As a result, the company has a diversity crisis, and the glass-ceiling effect is becoming more evident in the work culture.
Secondly, the mechanisms defined for the business model have limited checks on identifying gender-based discrimination. According to Kerpen, Facebook does not restrict advertisers from exhibiting gender biases and related stereotyping in job posts. Applying restrictions would limit the participation of advertisers on the platform, resulting in financial or profitability loss for the company. The Global Witness feature deployed by Facebook educates the advertisers to practice EEO in job posts. However, the current practices directed the company to violate its policy by the internal leaders (Kerpen). The observation suggests that Facebook practices information power, one of the six biases identified in classroom learning, while managing the business model (Northouse 665). The prevailing circumstances are contributing significantly to embed the glass-ceiling effect in the leadership practices and work culture of Facebook.
Importance of Leadership to Address Glass-Ceiling – Individual or Group?
Individual or group leadership are the two critical forms to address the glass ceiling effect in an organization. Women in corporate roles could use an individual leadership approach to address the gender discriminatory practices and break the glass ceiling within the professional and ethical boundaries. Women could use a participatory approach on individual grounds to overcome the barrier (Northouse 20). Maxine Williams, the Chief Diversity Officer (CDO) at Facebook, used the participatory leadership approach to address the growing challenge within the work culture. According to Northouse, participative leaders consult the employees, exchange opinions, and make collective decisions to benefit the group (Northouse 209-210). Williams exhibited similar leadership traits by collecting feedback from employees about the discriminatory practices towards women before injecting courage to speak up (Gravier). Williams used a participatory leadership approach in her individual role for directing the organization towards a positive change.
Nonetheless, individual leadership is a single dimension approach to address the crisis within an organization. Individual leadership could identify the need for change. However, agents work in a group to ensure consistency and synergy in leading a change (Northouse, 42). Leadership groups should increase interpersonal exchanges between the hierarchical structures within the organization for mitigating stereotypes and promote diversity at organizational levels (Northouse 333). Precisely, overcoming challenges like the glass ceiling effect is not confined to individual leadership. Organizations require collective leadership simultaneously to initiate and implement a positive change in the cultural practices for mitigating gender discriminatory practices.
Addressing the Challenge
Facebook addressed the challenge through a strategic approach, engaging internal leaders directly to initiate and implement the change. The company announced the Facebook Resource Group Program (FRGP) in FY2019, following the criticisms and accusations circulated in the employer market worldwide. As claimed by the CDO, The FRGP focused on the following agendas to mitigate the glass ceiling effect from the corporate culture (Williams):
* Managing Inclusion
* Managing Gender-Based and Racial-Based Biases
* Creating Ally...