Institutional Barriers to Women's Ascension to CEO Positions: A Survey of Senior Managers in Kenya

Abstract

Institutions are designed to accommodate and provide an enabling environment for employees to ascend to senior positions including the CEO position, irrespective of gender. Many organisations therefore do not recognize when the organisational structures, policies and procedures themselves, stifle the progress of the employees, more so the senior executives. Given the low numbers of women at CEO level, a lack of appreciation of the root causes may continue to hamper women's ascension to CEO or equivalent positions.

The general objectives of the study was to determine if institutional barriers influence women's ascension to CEO positions in Kenya's largest corporations. The findings from this study will assist women working in Kenyan corporates, as well as the organisations themselves, identify potential and real institutional barriers that stand in the women's of their ascension, and provide a basis for them to prepare themselves adequately and find ways of overcoming the Glass Ceiling effects.

The methodology was based on a feminism philosophical framework, and comprised of a correlational research design. The population of the study were 432 women executives from Kenya's top 50 corporations. Primary data collection of both a quantitative and qualitative nature, was carried out using a self-developed self-administered questionnaire that explored the life history of the participants. A sample size of 124 was targeted and selected using simple random sampling.

Correlation analysis was used to test the strength of the relationship between the dimensions of the independent variables and regression analysis was used for the hypothesis establish whether institutional barriers as the predictor variable influenced the outcome variable, ascension to CEO position.

The findings of this study showed that the institutional barriers which were found to have a significant influence on women's ascension to CEO position were promotion criteria and professional networks, while "old boys” networks and role models having the least influence.

The study concludes and recommends that institutions need to appreciate that although their structures may be designed to be gender neutral, they may unknowingly be contributing to the Glass Ceiling effect, given the low numbers of women at CEO level.

Organisations need to take deliberate action to enable women progress evenly up the ranks, using a number of initiatives. The actions should be preceded by a thorough interrogation of the status quo to establish a baseline situational analysis, such that each organisation can diagnose the specific bottlenecks relevant to their organisation, and thus develop targeted and specific action plans. The action plans may incorporate aspects of executive coaching, deliberate nominating more women to senior leadership and other challenging positions, affirmative action and fast tracking women who show leadership potential.