Glass Ceiling

Glass ceiling is a term used to reflect why women and minorities aren’t more widely represented at the top of today’s organizations. The glass ceiling is not, however, synonymous with “classic” discrimination. Rather, the glass ceiling is indicative of “institutional and psychological practices, and the limited advancement and mobility of men and women of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds.”

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

At Work or at Home

At work we feel in control. More importantly, our efforts are generally noticed and rewarded. Apart from financial rewards, we get ego gratification at work in countless other ways. Co-workers compliment us on our new outfits. Customers thank us for good service. The boss turns to us for help on an important contract because no one else can handle it as well.

At home, on the other hand, our good work may be taken for granted; we may be noticed only when we do things incorrectly.

With the frequent disparity between the ego-strokes received at home and at work, it’s hardly a wonder that more men and women than ever before are giving in to the siren call of their work, choosing to stay late at the workplace. It is for this reason that many workaholics frankly admit that they seldom need to be forced to work; they simply like to work, more than they like to spend time at home.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Women at Workplace

Traditionally, stress-related health problems have been considered a masculine phenomenon. Heart attacks, stomach ulcers, burnout, and strokes were all considered diseases of men in the workplace, and indeed are the reasons why elderly widows outnumber wid-owners by almost five to one. However, with the equal responsibilities women are taking at work now, they are also being exposed to at least equal amounts of stress. If anything, in fact, stress levels faced by career women can be considerably greater than those levels imposed on men.

While women are being given equal hiring opportunities and equal rates of promotion to the middle management levels, they seem to encounter a “glass ceiling” preventing their climb up the corporate ladder. In other words, they have been granted equal access, but not equal ascent. In fact, only 2% of top management in major corporations is female. This reflects a modest advance of women in selected fields such as financial services, telecommunications, retailing, advertising, public relations, and publishing.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Women in the Workforce

One of the most visible trends in the business world is the surge of women joining the workforce. To join the workforce, women are delaying having children under later than they once did. Women in their 30s now account for one birth in four. More of their children under 6 years old spend substantially above-average amounts for a wide array of goods and services, including insurance, entertainment, autos, apparel, and everything for the child (bedroom furniture, toys, clothes, shoes, etc.). working women thus create job opportunities for people in retailing, services, travel, and other industries.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Reverse Discrimination

Affirmative action programs are necessary to assure continued employment possibilities for minorities and women. Programs to foster the careers of these two groups have grown but while this voluntary action may have  been needed to correct past abuses who at some point is becoming a minority in the workforce? Some males feel that affirmative action plans work against them leading to charges of reverse discrimination.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Context for Reinventing the Corporation

1. The shift in strategic resource from an individual to an information society;
2. The coming seller’s market and the new competition for the best employees;
3. The whittling away of middle management;
4. The continuing entrepreneurial revolution;
5. The emergence of the new variegated work force;
6. The demographic revolution of working women;
7. The growing use of intuition and vision;
8. The mismatch between our education system and the needs of the new information society;
9. The rising importance of corporate health issues.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Inventory of Talent

The process addresses the supply side of planning. It requires identification of the current incumbents and the possible candidates. Candidates are usually nominated by the immediate or unit manager, and the inventory typically sweeps widely, including all viable management candidates rather than being exclusive at the outset.

Included among the candidates are in-line successors (essentially replacements waiting to move up), candidates elsewhere in the organization, and longer-term or high-potential candidates. Many companies make a specific effort to include all women and minorities who may have management potential, near-term and long-term.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Creative Abuse

A tactic involves Candid Camera-like observations of how your product is actually used by the customer. You may have a wonderful product, created for one thing, but it may end up being used for an entirely different purpose.

Some don’t find real product until they understand with little unexpected help that they are selling the right product to the right customers for the wrong purpose. Their products don’t really take off until customers tell that they misuse it as partial substitute.

You can see creative abuse all the time in the world of fashion: women wearing men’s shirts, and men sporting women’s earrings, sport coats made out of heavily starched wallpaper, evening gowns patterned after lingerie.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Managerial Efficiency

Managerial efficiency is essential. A business may produce a good or service that satisfies customers and earns some profit. But unless it is as efficient as its major competitors, these aggressive rivals will serve customers better, make more profit, and eventually drive it out of business.

A good location, large size, quality people, and other factors like luck help a business remain efficient. But the most important component of efficiency is good management. So an effective management must:

o     Set realistic goals for the firm.

o     Identify the key markets and types of customers for its main production and marketing efforts.

o     Use the resources of a business (its men, and women, materials, machinery, and money) efficiently.

o     Adapt to outside factors, such as government regulations, ethical standards, and economic and technological trends.

In short, management must direct the resources of the business toward realizable objectives. In the process, management must consider both (1) the firm’s own strengths and weaknesses and (2) the opportunities and threats posed by outside factors in determining what the business actually can achieve.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

 

Reforming Personnel Policies

If women are to be treated equally in the workplace, all jobs and occupations must be open to them so that they may compete on the same terms as all others. A company’s recruiters need to seek qualified workers and not assume that women are unqualified. Rates of pay and benefits need to be matched to the work to be done not to the gender of the jobholder. Pay rises for doing a current job well, along with promotions to more attractive jobs, also require equal treatment. Job assignments should be made on the basis of skills, experience, competence, capability, and reliability—in other words, proven ability to get the job done, not whether women have traditionally worked at one task rather than another.

Career ladders, whether short ones going only a few steps or longer ones leading into the higher reaches of corporate authority, should be placed so that both men and  women can climb them as high as their abilities can carry them.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.