Glass ceiling – An illusion or realism? Role of organizational identification and trust on the career satisfaction in Indian organizations

Abstract

The motivation of the present study is to investigate the association between perceived glass ceiling and career satisfaction among Indian managers. The study examined the impact of glass ceilings at the career satisfaction level of employees mediated by organization identification and organizational trust. The sample for the present study embraces 237 middle level managers representing organizations in Delhi/NCR. For data analysis, descriptive statistics, correlation and regression were used. Results illustrate that a significant and negative relationship is found between glass ceiling and career satisfaction which implies that if employees feel that glass ceiling exists in the organization, their career satisfaction will be less. The results validate that the impact of glass ceiling decreases after introducing the mediating effects of trust and organizational identification on career satisfaction. The subsistence of the glass ceiling in the organizations will indirectly be fortified due to inadequacies in networking, mentoring, flexible working hours and family friendly initiatives. Therefore, modifying the human resource policies and practices and altering the organizational culture and attitudes of executives shall help organizations preserve their extremely able women workforce.