PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES FACING MINORITIES IN ACHIEVING AND MAINTAINING MANAGERIAL AND EXECUTIVE POSITIONS

PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES FACING MINORITIES IN ACHIEVING AND MAINTAINING MANAGERIAL AND EXECUTIVE POSITIONS

Abstract

Minorities are population groups that are discriminated against based on their color, gender, and even age. African Americans are a minority because of their color or race; the elderly and the youth are minorities based on age, and females are minorities in the essence of gender. The minorities face a lot of challenges in obtaining well paying and stable jobs because employers prefer the majority or dominant group. The subordinate group that manages to get a job faces many challenges at the workplace, and there are a lot of hindrances to climbing up the ladder into managerial positions. Minority managers face a myriad of problems in maintaining the executive positions because they are looked down upon by other employees and receive little or no support from the management. In this paper, I will discuss the challenges they youth, women, and African Americans face in attaining and maintaining managerial or executive positions.

Introduction

Minorities or subordinates are people in society who are cherry-picked from the rest in the community due to their physical, cultural features. They lack power in the decision making and are mistreated as compared to the minority or dominant group. A minority can be described in terms of skin color or race, gender or sex, and age. African Americans are a minority in the USA as they compose of 12.7 percent of the population as per statistics were done in 2016 (Andrew, 2008).  Females are a minority and are to be subordinate to males who are considered dominant. The elderly and young are also considered a minority concerning age.  The minority group is characterized by outstanding physical and cultural features such as skin color and language, unfair treatment from the majority, uncontrolled membership in the minority group, and recognition that they are to be subordinate to the majority. In this paper, we will focus on gender, racial, and age discrimination as our minority groups.

African Americans fail to reach and maintain managerial positions due to various factors. The unemployment rates in blacks or African Americans is higher compared to their counterpart whites. Whites are preferred to blacks in the jo market simply because of color.  Many blacks are not employed due to a lack of proper qualifications attributed to a lack of education. The majority of blacks cannot afford quality education. The unemployment rate in September 2019 was 3.5 percent. 5.5 percent of the unemployment rate in blacks and 3.2 percent in whites without taking into consideration the age, education, and gender status of the individuals (Robert Johnson foundation, 2017). African Americans who are educated have higher unemployment rates compared to whites. Black college graduates face 2.8 percent and the unemployment rate while graduate whites have an employment rate of 2 percent. This is forty percent higher in blacks than whites.  African Americans face high unemployment rates hence little to no chance of attaining managerial and executive positions. The educated blacks with a higher chance of employment and rising into administrative positions are still discriminated against as the whites have the upper hand in securing a well-paying and stable job (Andrew, 2008).

African American workers are less likely to access a job as compared to whites. This is another challenge in achieving and maintaining managerial posts. The employment share tends to share whites compared to African Americans. Between October 2018 and September 2019, the employment share was 80.8 percent for whites and 75.7 percent for blacks. More blacks who are a minority have access to employment. Employment fluctuates at a high rate in blacks as compared to whites. During the great recession that started in the year 2007 to 2011, the employment share for the minority group dropped by 8.3 percent from 75 percent to 66.7 percent, while that of the majority dropped by 4 percent from 81 percent to 76.8 percent. Africans face a phenomenon referred to as “last hired first fired.” When the economy drops, Africans are the first to lose their jobs, and when it normalizes, they are the last to be hired back. During the great recession, Africans started losing their jobs two months before whites and took fifteen more weeks to start being rehired again compared to the whites. Blacks take more time seeking employment as compared to whites. Whites take approximately take 20.8 weeks to secure a job while blacks take about 25.5 weeks (MacNeil, 2006).

The ever-growing wealth gap between whites and blacks is another factor or challenge for African Americans who are a minority group in attaining and maintaining managerial positions. African families own little wealth as compared to whites. Wealth is needed for the children of blacks to access quality education and subsequently access better job opportunities. Blacks own about a fifth of the total wealth. This can be directly correlated to the illiteracy level hence unemployment. The minority cannot access managerial and executive positions without obtaining employment. Most Africans work in less stable and poorly paying jobs contributing to the racial wealth gap (Peacock, 2007).

African Americans who are employed face an array of challenges in raising the ladder to attain executive positions; They face denial with their colleagues, especially male whites. Whites look down upon the blacks and believe they cannot be led by blacks who are inferior to them. The decision made by black mangers is not adhered to with the same seriousness as that of a white crib. A black manager faces difficulties in delegating duties to other employees, primarily the white, as they do not give urgency to work. Some organizations cannot promote a black as a manager irrespective of their leadership skills and qualifications. Black managers have to keep justifying themselves every time f their capabilities. Most Africans are discouraged by these challenges encountered in the workplace and, therefore, do not compete for the managerial positions (Marianne & Sendhil, 2004).

Women or females are another minority group that faces a myriad of challenges in achieving and maintaining managerial positions in organizations. Statistics carried out in 2005 showed that 46.5 percent of the workforce in the US is made up of women. Out of the 46.5 percent, only eight percent of the women are in managerial positions. The female managers paid less compared to colleague male managers. Females earn 72 percent of what the males earn. The challenges female face is attributed to unfounded hinderances to opportunities in a company or organization preventing the women from climbing up the ladder of leadership. One of the reasons for not attaining managerial posts is educational preferences. In the technical, scientific, and engineering fields, very few women are in administrative positions due to educational choices. In the states, 25 percent of women venture into mathematics and science, while only 17 percent venture into computer, information, and engineering fields (Glass & Cook, 2016). This directly correlates to few women attaining executive positions in these fields. Women are not trusted to lead effectively.

Some organization has a tendency to hire and promote males compared to females with the same qualifications. This is because males are believed to perform better than females in most of the tasks. Female employers tend to employ and promote men as compared to fellow females.  Males are promoted to managerial positions so that in the case of globalization, they can move and manage the new branches. Most of the females are unable to coup with globalization as they find it move and leave their families behind. Females take longer to acclimatize to the new environment, thus posing a challenger for the employer to promote them into managerial positions. Some regions companies venture into do not recognize female leadership, and this poses a cultural disadvantage for women to be encouraged. Most women are a mistake for junior positions at work and often face discrimination (Nelson & Levesque, 2007). Females are almost always outnumbered in the work environment, thus lowering their probability of being promoted into higher leadership positions. Some managers ask for sexual favors from females to develop them into senior positions. Failure to do so leads to harassment, demotion, and also losing their jobs. Some females in top posts have slept their way there. Females with strong moral stands often face challenges when it comes to compromising their moral standing.

Stereotyping and differences in leadership styles between women and men hinder the females from attaining and maintaining executive positions. In the past, females were perceived to be weaker than men’s incompetence and leadership skills. Success in most companies is equated to masculine characteristics. Men are believed to be assertive, possess leadership skills, and are task-oriented. Women are expected to modest, quiet, and selfless (Glass & wood, 2016). These are nothing close to managerial qualities. A study carried in 1990 showed that males exercise task-oriented leadership skills while females exercise social-related leadership skills. Males are thus preferred to females due to the style of leadership demonstrated. Though social command is used in some circumstances, it’s not widely used (Jogulu & Wood, 2006). The prominent five personalities that are used to access leadership traits manifest differently in males and females. Women demonstrate neuroticism and agreeableness, while males demonstrate extraversion and conscientiousness. This also favors men in attaining executive positions as compared to females.

African American women or ladies face discrimination twice in the attainment of an executive position, by being women and black at the same time. Black women are faced with more challenges in attaining executive or managerial jobs compared to whites and black men. This is attributed to the fact that they are financially unstable and possess unstable situations. Black women are more likely to look for job opportunities compared to white women due to the many responsibilities they have to take to keep under control. African women are breadwinners in their homes. 84.4 percent of black women are breadwinners, and this represents the most significant percentage of women in the racial and ethnic groups who have responsibilities to manage (Andrew, 2008). African American women are charged with taking care of children and elderly parents and grandchildren.  Many of the black women find it hard to secure a job as compared to white women and men. The unemployment rate is higher in black women, 5.1 percent compared to white women, with an unemployment rate of 2.7 percent. The employment share is higher for black females and lowers for white females. Black females are looked down on due to their color and gender; this makes it difficult for them to attain managerial positions (Andrew, 2008). Those who struggle amid the challenges in achieving the executive positions are met with other problems in their workplace, like insubordination from whites, which discourage them. Most organizations cannot promote or hire black women because they are black and females and believed to have nothing to offer. Most of the black women are not educated; hence cannot secure profession jobs, thus limited to casual employment. A cross-sectional study carried out by the international labor office between 1982 to 1988 showed that women and blacks’ representation in managerial positions in the US was low. Over the study period, it was revealed that 30 percent of the managers were female, and ant out of those, only 4 percent were blacks (Ryan & Haslan, 2007).

Black women are paid less compared to black men and whites. The salary of a lacking female is 39 percent that of a white man and 21 percent that of a white woman, doing the same job, and having an equal or better qualification. Out of 100 men promoted, about 60 of black females are promoted. Black women are not allowed to interact with their seniors in the workplace. Their access is limited compared to white women. Fifty-nine percent of black women have not had any interaction with their seniors in the workplace (Andrew, 2008). Black women are less supported at work by their seniors, thus lack the motivation and driving force to perform better at work. New ideas and inventions by black or African women are not recognized by their leaders and not even allowed to share their ideas with other colleagues. Managers or company owners do not support black women in any way and are not involved in stretch assignments to improve their skills. Many women see their gender as an obstacle to being promoted or holding a managerial office (Marianne & Sendhil, 2004). The women themselves already have a preformed idea that their gender will hinder their promotion to senior positions and maintaining them. More than a quarter of females believe that their gender has played a role in missing out on a managerial position while eight of the males think that gender plays a role when they miss out on administrative jobs.

The elderly and the young, especially the youth, are another minority group than faces a lot of challenges in attaining and maintaining managerial and executive positions. The youth face a lot of problems first in securing a job after college and then other challenges in working their way up into administrative and operational positions. Stiff competition after school as every year, thousands of graduates finish school and are released into the job market. Securing a job is not an easy task. Slow economic growth has to lead to a lack of employment for the youth. Though being innovative with brilliant ideas, no capital is available to materialize the ideas. Once the youth secure a job in an organization, they face an array of challenges in achieving managerial positions. At the time of employment, the youth have little to no work experience as this is the beginning of their career. Employers and the manager prefer promoting older employees with better and longer work experience (Peacock, 2007).

Youth with a lot of new ideas and innovation often face rejection from their immediate manager because they fear competition and replacement from the youth. The managers who want to hold office for long and do not want change, discourage the youth, and kill their dreams by demoralizing them. This slows down the youth’s morale, and eventually, the youth settle for less and do not work to get promoted to executive positions. Most of the youth are not trusted to manage managerial positions due to lack of experience, lack of leadership skills, and because the child might be insensitive to the needs of the clients and other employees. The youth are not conversant with problem-solving techniques, and this poses a problem in being promoted into managerial positions (MacNeil, 2006). Youths in administrative areas are looked down upon by other older employees because they feel the youths have nothing to tell them and cannot be led by a minority.

The elderly are also discriminated against because of their age and therefore face many challenges in attaining managerial positions. This is attributed to the fact that most older adults are weaker physically due to an increase of disease with come wit advanced aged such as hypertension and Diabetes, which lower their effectiveness to perform well compared to when they were younger (Peacock, 2007). They are prone to memory loss, which can alter the quality of services offered. The elderly are not well acquainted with modern technology. Technology keeps changing, and its quite hectic for the elderly to catch up with the ever-evolving technology. The elderly can be consulted since they have better and longer experience in the field but cannot be promoted into managerial positions.

In conclusion, it has been determined that the minority in society concerning gender, race, or color and age face a myriad of challenges in attaining and maintaining managerial positions. The minority groups discussed are females, African Americans, the youth, and the elderly.  The challenges vary according to the group involved. Females face more problems compared to men, and black females face challenges twice because they are females and are also black. Some factors like level of education and professional qualifications also contribute to the difficulties the minority groups face in accessing employment and subsequently raise the ladder into managerial positions. Several interventions should be put in place to solve the problems minorities face in attaining administrative positions. Diversity should be encouraged in workplaces to ensure all people are given equal opportunities to participate and compete for managerial positions. Regulations should be put in place against discrimination of people due to gender, race, or age. All people should be given equal opportunities, and managerial positions should be free for people to compete fairly for them. Education should be open and available for everyone regardless of race to provide an excellent base for all to attain qualifications required for employment and rising the ladder into managerial positions. Minority groups should be encouraged to air their concerns without fear. Employers should pay all the employees fairly according to their work and rank, not according to race, gender, or age. All employees should be engaged in the running of the organization or company so that different ideas can be put into action for the better development of the company.

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