Year over year I come across a tons of books that talk about the glass ceiling smashing it / breaking it / moving beyond it / dancing on it in the Western world, then the paper rice ceiling in Japan, the bamboo ceiling for Asian in some of the western cultures and so on. Often wonder what is the point?
• Introduce the audience to the types of ceilings? by culture?
• Expose prejudices?
• The relevance by race, gender?
• Strategies to deal with them?
• Create role models?
Honestly I am not sure? It is quite clear though that a construct like the ceiling does exist in the corporate world! Some individuals have moved beyond while others are affected, but there is no panacea. What works in a certain organization and culture may not work every where. Could one benefit from the collective knowledge of all the books? May be but there is so much literature out there it would take a very long time to scour through.
There are certain things that are obvious… for one to beat these ceilings one needs consistent performance, persistence, common sense, being savvy (projecting the right image) and lastly managing the “Brand You” effectively through the right exposure.