ETHICAL BEHAVIOR

'The core challenges of managing ethical behavior in the workplace today?'

'The core challenges of managing ethical behavior in the workplace today?'

Introduction

Traditionally, the vast majority of top leadership positions in both the USA and throughout the world have been held by males rather than females (Stelter, 2002). Even though there is an increasing number of women who enter the workforce and an increasing number of managerial positions, women's access to leadership positions remains limited (Black and Rothman, 1998; Eagly et al., 2003; Oakley, 2000; Ridgeway, 2001; Stelter, 2002).

For example, of the Fortune 1000 companies documented in 2003, only 17 are led by women CEOs (Catalyst, 2003a). This corresponds to less than 2 percent of women serving as CEOs. Women Board Directors hold only 13.6 percent of Fortune 500 board seats (Catalyst, 2003b). As stated by the president of Catalyst (2003b), an organization for the advancement of women in business, this number does not adequately reflect the influence of women in managerial and leadership positions.

Explanations for this phenomenon are varying. Among them is the assumption that women lack appropriate education and work experience (Carli and Eagly, 2001). However, numbers provided by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (2004) show that of the executive, administrative, and managerial positions held in 2002, female leaders held approximately 46 percent. Thus, there is a strong indication that women have in fact the opportunity to collect the necessary general management/line experience thought to be lacking. How then, can the lack of women in top leadership positions be explained?

The glass ceiling

An alternate explanation was introduced 20 years ago in 1986, when writers of the Wall Street Journal described the glass ceiling metaphor. The glass ceiling constitutes an invisible barrier for women and minority groups, preventing them from moving up the corporate ladder (Carli and Eagly, 2001; Ridgeway, 2001; Townsend, 1997). Oakley (2000) argued that these three categories explain the barriers that result in a glass ceiling:

1. corporate practices such as recruitment, retention, and promotion;

2. behavioral and cultural causes such as stereotyping and preferred leadership style; and

3. structural and cultural explanations rooted in feminist theory.

Researchers of a study surveying over 1,200 women in Fortune 1000 companies came to the conclusion that “obstacles to women's advancement are not intentional” (Townsend, 1997, p. 6). Yet, as demonstrated in the labor market statistics described above, gender appears to be affecting the advancement of women in a detrimental fashion. Theories and models accounting for the emergence of gender-related behaviors in organizations, and thus the creation of a glass ceiling, fall into three categories:

1. biological explanations;

2. socialization explanations; and

3. structural/cultural explanations (Lueptow et al., 2001).

Biological models argue that there are biological differences between men and women. These differences are thought to be a result of an “evolutionary model postulating constant gendered differences based on genetic patterns evolved from adaptation to differing reproductive challenges of early males and females” (Lueptow et al., p. 1). From a psychological perspective, biologically based models explain stable biological differences between genders as ...