Work and Environment

         Managerial women working in organizations with values more supportive of work-personal life balance have reported greater job and career satisfaction, less work stress, less intention to quit, greater family satisfaction, fewer psychosomatic symptoms and more positive emotional well-being (Burke, 2001)  Additionally, corporate culture and environment strongly favors men over women where men are likely to be promoted to middle and senior management at a faster pace than women (Tlaiss & Kauser, 2011). It is clear that gender realities may prevent corporations from taking full advantage of the true potential of their women employees by stifling their growth and denying their opportunities to show their worth.

          To retain employees, employers need to believe that the best possible investment is in  their employees. While many senior managers believe loyalty is dead, research shows people  still make a commitment when they feel valued and included. Managers underestimate how much people want to know and how much they care for the organization (Padron, 2004). To keep employees motivated, employers must create a positive work environment and give employees opportunities to grow. When employees are motivated, there is retention or reduction in turnover, and enthusiastic employees will out produce and outperform the unmotivated employees (Honore, 2009). 

2.6.4    Women & Children

         The strains of balancing work and domestic life definitely affected career progression of the women managers. Children had made the greatest impact on the careers of working mothers. It seems exhausting to balance the demands of full-time work and childcare. Single women are expected to bear the brunt of dependent care in their families by caring responsibilities of elderly relatives. Gordon and Whelan-Berry (2005) said that women in a later life stage will no longer be concerned with childcare and their focus on career may also change. By the time a woman reaches her thirties, she is often beginning to establish herself in her career, and at the same time is reaching the older years in terms of child-bearing. In organizations where long hours at the work place are considered important for career advancement, new mothers are often faced with identity dilemmas and difficult career decisions. The women established in their career and the older women at a senior level were concerned with choices related to how they were supposed to work and how restrictive this way in terms of flexible working life. Women with children were greatly affected by long hours as they had to juggle between childcare and the nature of the job working hours. Many childcare centers operate according to office hours and need fixed attendance. Tharenou (2005) stated that lack of adequate childcare has been reported by women managers as a barrier and ultimately damaging to their career. This has been supported by Liff and Ward (2001) statement that women cannot be mothers and career women concurrently. Due to that matter, women managers may choose to remain single and childless in order to minimize their role conflicts. Despite of that, Tharenou (2005) have a different view on this matter as he stated that having children does not decrease women manager’s career progress.

2.6.5 Job Stress

          In a recent review, Perry-Jenkins et al (2000) reported that job stress and conflict are related to various aspects of distress, and these in turn are related to poorer marital relations, parent-child relations, and child outcomes. In large part, because of the demands of being a ‘‘24/7’’ industry, hotel companies often have norms that encourage employees, especially managers, to work as many hours as possible, including weekends and holidays.

Indeed, managers in Stalcup and Pearson’s (2001) study mentioned long hours and not having enough time to spend with families as a major reason for turnover. Nonstandard, irregular hours have also been well-established as a correlate of lower marital quality and divorce, less time with family, children with more problem behaviors, and increased conflict (Presser 2000, 2004). Not only are employees often required to keep long and irregular hours, but there is an expectation that employees, especially managers, will be physically present as much as possible, regardless of the actual necessity of being there. Munck called this the ‘‘culture of face time’’ (2001:125)

         According to Hamid Sheeba 2011 It said, “Today’s fast paced lifestyle calls for managing high levels of competition, stress, tension and work/life balance. The high price to pay for this lifestyle wreaks havoc on human minds and results in stressed-out individuals. People are not able to manage all the demands on them and buckle under pressure. Stress brings failure and failure brings more stress which becomes a vicious cycle, eventually resulting in falling performance. “As further pointed out by the author, the individual member goes through humiliation as he is not able to match the performance level of others and since performance alone is the key for any hike in salary or winning an award, under performance at work leads to low level of morale and job satisfaction.

2.6.6    Time Constrains of Job in hotels

         In large part because of the demands of being a ‘‘24/7’’ industry, hotel companies often have norms that encourage employees, especially managers, to  work as many hours as possible, including weekends and holidays. Indeed, managers in Stalcup and Pearson’s (2001) study mentioned long hours and not having enough time to spend with families as a major reason for turnover. Not only are employees often required to keep long and irregular hours, but there is an expectation that employees, especially managers, will be physically present as much as possible, regardless of the actual  necessity of being there. Munck called this the ‘‘culture of face time’’ (2001:125).

2.6.7    Glass Ceiling Phenomena

       Glass ceiling is a transparent barrier that applies to women as a group who kept from advancing to higher positions simply because they are female. Weyer (2007) declared although women’s visibility in the lower level of management is increasing, there is still continuance relevance in the pattern of gender inequality in leadership position. Gender discrimination continues to keep women stagnating at lower management levels within their organizations (Metcalfe, 2006, 2007, 2008; Moghadam, 2004). Women are either totally scarce or poorly represented at the top level administration in core areas. More studies have found out that women normally perform the most undesirable, lowest status in hospitality, involve less skills and less-obvious career paths (Purcell, 1996; Woods and Viehland, 2000; Korczynski,2002; Adib and Guerrier, 2003). In Asia, the concept of “glass ceiling” is somewhat differ than in the West countries. Studies that have been conducted using Asian found that lack of females in managerial positions (not necessarily top management positions) as an indicator of the glass ceiling effect. Olson & Walker (2004) shown that women executives distinguished themselves with other group of women in business. Hence, this has enacting a comparable pattern to men who assert power and status through differentiation from other men and women. For those executives’ women studied, there was some sort of a fine line between not being one of the “boys” and not being associated with typical femininity.

2.6.8    Old Boys network

      Gransmark (2010) described old boys’ network situation with the dominant group is over-represented among the recruiters for high-status jobs and prefer to hire employees with a similar background as themselves as well as act as gatekeepers, reducing the possibilities for others to obtain the high-status jobs. The old boys’ network can be defined as a system of social networking and perceptions alleged to exist prevalently among certain communities and social strata. Taylor (2001) defined members of this old-boys network by an attempt to shield them from performing with opportunistic or incompetent individuals by dealing uncommonly with unproven nonmembers only. In male dominated fields, there exists doubt if women can ever accomplish a job as well as men. Employers also doubt if women can work successfully with men as their colleagues. Homo-social practices such as marginalization and competitiveness are demonstrated in establishment where male managers portray a fondness for “men and men’s company’ (Broadbridge & Hearn, 2008). According to El-Ghannam (2002) and Eagly & Carli (2007), gender role attitudes are related with the characteristics to individuals in childhood norms where females and males acquire different gender-related attitudes and behaviors. Therefore, women have been culturally socialized adopting certain behaviors and traits that lead them fulfilling assumed roles such as dealing with domestic responsibilities, leaving the managerial positions to be filled by men (Cleveland, Stockdale & Murphy, 2000).

2.6.9    Lack of Mentorship

               There is the lack of or minimal mentorship opportunities, which raises difficulties for women to get access to promotions, higher income, and ultimately increase in their career satisfaction (Blake-Beard, 2001). The lack of mentoring programs reflects less opportunity for women to look up to someone they would consider a role model and who can guide them on their way to higher managerial functions. Certainly, those women who are hoping to receive some form of recognition about their performance – elements regarded as essential for advancement and usually supported by mentors – do not necessarily get it. One bigger obstacle women face is the trouble finding female mentors. Indeed, as many women are excluded from some networks because of their gender, they would benefit more from the advice of women who have faced similar hurdles in their careers (Elmuti, et al., 2003) rather than feeling uncomfortable in a cross-gender mentoring relationship (Linehan & Scullion, 2008).