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Title - An exploration into the barriers BAME women face in progressing into leadership and executive Board positions.

CHAPTER I: Introduction

Overview of the topic area

While the number of women being in leadership and appointed to corporate boards and

leadership roles has slowly increased over the years, the number of BAME women appointed

has unfortunately not fluctuated (Gupta et al, 2018). There has been extensive amount of

research that has highlighted the barriers that hinders women’s progression too executive and

leadership positions, however it is important to extend this research to focus solely on BAME

women until there is a change in numbers where BAME women are in leadership and

executive board positions. This topic is important because it will raise awareness that in 2021

there is still a huge disproportion in numbers. In the light of feminist and Black Lives Matter

(BLM) movement the lack of BAME women in executive boards is becoming increasingly

difficult to overlook. According to Lawrence (2016) BAME individuals currently comprise of

14% of the UK population and this is considered to rise to 30% by 2030. In London, which is

home to numerous FTSE companies, have an even higher BAME population, at 40%

(Gov.uk, 2019). Similarly, Beech et al. (2017) states that underrepresentation of BAME

individuals in management and leadership roles were also evident in FTSE 100 in 2014 and

2015, today BAME women in leadership and executive positions in FTSE 100 boards is just

11% and a staggering 5% of FTSE 250 boards appointing women from BAME backgrounds

(DiversityQ, 2019). Given that 80% of the world’s population is from non-white as well as

FTSE organisations are also based internationally, the lack of BAME women in leadership

and executive board positions is very alarming (Barnes et al, 2019). Every ethnicity should be

given the opportunity to reach their full potential regardless of their gender, religion or

background, although change has been recognised it is still not well practiced in many

FTSE100 and 250 organisations. The Green Park report (2021) shows that progression for

BAME individuals at leadership and executive levels are unfavorable and abating compared

to their white counterparts. Without a strong understanding of barriers to career progression

or a clear solution to foster an inclusive working environments that can enable BAME

women’s career advancement and development, organisations face the risk of an

underutilization of talent and lack of a diverse workforce (CIPD, 2017). In spite of the

benefits of inclusiveness, BAME women continue to be overlooked for leadership and

executive board positions, there is a need for organisations to foster diversity in management

to improve their performance in the business environment and to reflect the working

population.

Purpose of the research

The aim of this research is to explore the barriers Black, Asian ethnic minority (BAME)

women face progressing into leadership and executive board positions as well as identifying

the possible factors and barriers that contribute to the underrepresentation of BAME women

in the corporate world, this will include external factors such as discrimination, culture and

diversity labels. Currently there is a low amount of research behind this, as the reasons for

underrepresentation of BAME groups are complex, especially when it is directly focused on

BAME women. Existing literature state that it is critical to understand the factors that cause a

leaky executive and leadership pipeline that BAME women experience (Barnes et al, 2019;

Reddy & Jadhav, 2019), this research project will endeavor to address gaps in literature and

identify why the underrepresentation of BAME women still exists, despite initiatives to

address the concern. In light of the Black Lives Matter movement (BLM) racial imbalances

and inequality in the workplace has heightened awareness across the globe, urging new

motions to be inclusive and foster diversity in the workplace and question phrasings and

labels such as BAME (Burt, 2018; Bunglawala, 2019). This research will explore the

consequences of using the BAME label in a corporate context and how they influence BAME

women’s progression to leadership and executive board positions, the research will also use

theories such as Hofstede’s cultural dimensions (2001) and Bourdieu theory (2010), to the

authors best knowledge this research is the first to use both theories to explore the

discrepancies that BAME women face progressing in the workplace. It can be noted that from

the above overview there is a clear a problem and a dire need for BAME women inclusion,

previous scholars have focused on presenting the current situation however, there is a need to

focus on the solutions and how this can be resolved for the foreseeable future. Therefore, this

study also seeks to fill the gap by offering strategies that can be used to provide a fair

representation for BAME women in leadership and executive board positions as well as

finding evidence that identifies why the under-representation of BAME professionals still

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exists, despite initiatives to address the concern such as the government’s initiative One by

2021 (Green Park review 2019).

Research Questions

The purpose of this research project is to provide an investigation/exploration of the

underrepresentation of BAME women professionals progressing into leadership and

executive Board positions, as well as identifying the barriers. In order to achieve this aim

successfully, the following key research questions have been identified as:

Who are BAME and how they are identified

Do racial and ethnic identity labels, such as BAME help or hinder women in their move to leadership and board position.

Explore the effects of the glass ceiling on BAME women’s progression to the boardroom

To identify the factors and barriers that hinder the progression of BAME women

Summary

In addition to the introductory chapter, there are four additional chapters, which are as follows. Chapter two is a comprehensive review of relevant literature concerning the barriers BAME women face progression to leadership and executive board positions managerial roles. Chapter three discusses the research design as well as exploring the limitations of the methods chosen. Chapter four is followed by the findings and discussions and lastly Chapter six concludes the project as well as giving recommendations for future research.

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CHAPTER 3: Literature Review

Introduction

The study focusses on BAME women in the context of the barriers they encounter in

progressing leadership and executive board positions. BAME is a term commonly used to

refer too Black, Asian and other minority ethnic groups. Various studies have depicted the

unequal distribution of leaders in multiple organisations on gender and racial basis

(McGregor-smith, 2017; Saggar et al, 2016). Inequality is a topic that has generated interest

in the modern world, and various governments and organisations are developing policies to

inhibit gender and racial inequality. However, equality in leadership and executive board

positions are still low, even though there has been research that explored the benefits of board

diversity within organisations and institutions (Torchia et al, 2011; Park, 2020). However,

little is known about the external barriers preventing BAME women from progressing in

these positions, despite researchers such as McGregor-smith (2017) and Park (2020) stressing

the benefits of a diversity in top management roles, these roles continued to be dominated by

the same identikit white males (Kolev and McNamara, 2020). This research will focus on the

external barriers that deter BAME women progression.

Board Diversity

An organisation or company board of directors play a critical role in making decisions

relating to financial and strategic decisions, the board of director’s key functions are to

allocate resources ensure that the appropriate interest of stakeholders and shareholders are

met by over-seeing the organisations executive management as well as the selection,

dismissal and advancement of employers, the board of directors is a fundamental component

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of corporate governance in overseeing executive leadership (Havkovirta et al, 2020; Sarhan et

al, 2019). The boardroom is the highest rank of an organisation inner control system

(Fernández-Temprano and Tejerina-Gaite, 2020), it can be argued that the functioning of a

board is greatly influenced by the demographic of its members (Macaulay et al, 2018) it has

been recognised that members of a board who represent a diverse mix of gender, background,

age and experience tend to benefit from an increase innovation, constructive debate and

decision-making (Havkovirta et al, 2020), a plethora of research has explored the benefits and

outcomes of a diverse board on organisational performance (Park, 2020; Terjensen et al,

2016) for example the Gender Diversity and Corporate Performance found that organisations

with female representation had a better overall organisational performance, higher return on

equity and faster growth than organisations who did not have any female representations on

their boards (Gender diversity and corporate performance, 2012). However, there has been

little research on the external barriers preventing BAME women progressing to leadership

and executive board positions, despite the ample of research exploring the benefits of a board

diversity, leadership positions and executive roles still continue to be governed and

dominated by white males (Kolev and McNamara, 2020).

Who are BAME and how they are identified

Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Group (BAME) also referred to as Black and Minority

Ethnic Group (BME) are a group of people that are defined as all ethnic groups from the UK

census except from white ethnic groups (Lloyd, 2016), during the census, people are required

to show which of the 18 ethnic groups they identify as (Office for National Statistics, 2021),

Goodfellow and McFarlane (2018) explain that these 18 groups refer to a broad umbrella

term including religion, culture, and race of the society such as defining groups of certain

ethnic backgrounds such as Asians, Africans, or Caribbean among other categories as

outlined under the UK Race Relations Act 1968.

White

1. English / Scottish / Northern Irish / British

2. Irish

3. British

4. Gypsy or Irish Traveler

5. Any other White background

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Mixed / Multiple ethnic groups

6. White and Black Caribbean

7. White and Black African

8. White and Asian

9. Any other Mixed / Multiple ethnic background

Asian / Asian British

10. Bangladesh

11. Chinese

12. Pakistan

13. Indian

14. Any other Asian background

Black / African / Caribbean / Black British

15. African

16. Caribbean

17. Any other Black / African / Caribbean background

18. Arabs and other ethnic groups

Table 1: 18 ethnic groups outlined in the UK (source; Gov.UK)

Ethnicity Population

White 86.0%

Asian ethnic groups 7.5%

Black ethnic groups 3.3%

Mixed/Multiple ethnic groups 2.2%

Other ethnic groups 1.0%

Table 2: The total population of England and wales (source; ONS)

The Black and Minority Ethnic Community Services of West Sussex Council (2007) suggest

that individual who is said to belong to a certain “ethnic minority” is anyone who will tick a

box other than “White British” on the national census form. Based on this information, about

13.8 per cent of the population across the United Kingdom is of an ethnic minority

background with London having 40% of its population from the BAME background,

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according to the last census (ONS, 2011). On the other hand, Kunstadter (2017) defined

BAME as people of colour including Asian, African, Caribbean, South East Asian, and

Middle East Descent. Research by Welsh assembly government (2004) had recognised that

the term used for ethnic groups has changed regularly in the past years and discovered

various organisations had failed to correctly define what BME/BAME is and referred to them

as ‘minority ethnics’, the research further mentioned that organisations that did attempt to

define BME/BAME used different descriptions and definitions. Within the context of the

legislation no formal definition has been set for the for the term ‘BME’ or BAME (West

Wales Consortium, 2004), nonetheless, the Welsh Assembly Government (2005)

acknowledged that despite many descriptions and definitions by organisations there is not an

agreed definition in use currently. Gill (2002) described BME as people of any colour other

than white which includes Asian, African, South eastern and Middle eastern descent. Making

the point of the Welsh Assembly (2004) there is no one way term used for people from ethnic

minorities. For the purpose of this research the term BAME defined by Kunstadter (2017)

will be used as it is inclusive for all ethnic minorities within the UK.

The use of Racial and ethnic identity labels

The terminology ‘BAME’ was introduced in the 1970’s during the anti-racist activist

movement to prevent ethnic minorities against discrimination (Aspinall, 2013), recently the

label has been used to measure organisational diversity and representation. The term BAME

has been described as ‘complex, sensitive and questionable’ (Agarwal and Watson, 2020) this

is because labels by other are associated with legitimation or de-legitimation and positive and

negative discrimination (Safran, 2007) as well as this labels often have relations with politics

and power as they dictate how different categories of people differ in contexts and in

different times (Sajjad, 2018) for instance there are distinct stereotypes and set narratives

associated with different racial and ethnic groups with different ideologies and social and

political consequences for each which can cause problems and inequalities between groups

and actors (Gagnon et al, 2015). For example, it is ‘known’ for Black women to be

stereotyped as hostile, Asian women are considered hard-working but passive as well as

stereotyped to be a terrorist, and Latino women are assumed to be uneducated and

illegitimate (Zou and Cheryan, 2017). The label BAME has been heavily criticized for its

focus on skin colour and that people of the ethnic minority rarely identify with the label

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(Milner and Jumbe, 2020), many believe that the term is simply lazy, outlived, misleading

and not a well understood term for being non-white which results in connotations that coming

from an ethnic minority you are inferior to white people.

The Abolish BAME campaign geared towards ending the use of the BAME label in

mainstream race discourse, government policies and institutions as it halts progress on racial

equality and disparities (White, 2021), Boris Johnson further agreed in the racial disparities

commission 2020 the term BAME is outdated and should no longer be used in public bodies

and organisations (Sharman, 2021) despite the widespread use of the term in organisations,

public bodies and publications the widespread impact of labelling has been largely

underestimated (Wood, 1985), however it has been said using terms such as BAME to show

inclusiveness will not solve institution and structural racism or disparities but does have the

potential to improve discussions on racial inequality so they are more focused on key

minority ethnic groups (White, 2021). Past research often fails to consider how language and

communicative norms reflect white ways of speaking (Baker-Bell, 2020), (Wharton 2013)

finds that people with non-native accents that is not deemed ‘white’ are subject in facing

glass ceiling and negatively impacts their promotion and progression in the workplace. There

has been little to no publications into how the label BAME can help or hinder BAME

women’s progression into leadership and executive board position however this research

endeavors to address this gap.

Discrimination

Opara, Sealy, and Ryan (2020) have argued that as institutional racism and the less

representations of BAME have become global central issues, the question of having equal

opportunities for gaining upward mobility within the labour market and social mobility for

this special community is within the forefront, comprising of the context of the UK. Marsh

(2020) suggests that BAME women tend to have unequal access to relevant opportunities for

their own career progression within the place of work and such upward mobility is

indissolubly linked to different obstacles at each and every stage of their individual career in

comparison to their white counterparts. As argued by Johnson (2021), a majority of the

BAME women employees within the UK report to have been disregarded for promotion to

top leadership on account of their respective ethnicity. Discrimination can be described as

treating someone unfairly because of the 9 protected characteristics under the Equality act

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2010 (Acas, 2020) the 9 protected characteristics are gender, race, age, disability, sex, sexual

orientation, religion and pregnancy/maternity. Discrimination can occur when an individual is

treated unfairly because of their social group rather than their abilities (Scheepers et al, 2006).

Despite BAME women face socially and politically disadvantages every day, a large

percentage of men report that gender discrimination is no longer a problem (Napier and

Suppes, 2020), this denial of discrimination manifests in the silencing of discourse

concerning BAME women’s workplace experiences in the workplace (Smith, 2019), denying

gender discrimination promotes the view that the system is fair and discrimination no longer

exist, for example the incoherent report by the Commission for race and ethnic disparities

2021 which gas lighted and cherry picked data resulting in denying discrimination and

inequality still exist in the UK. Racial and gender discrimination has been found to cause

poor health and well-being (Perry et al, 2013) as well as negative job satisfaction (Stoermer et

al, 2017), which can further hinder the number of BAME women wanting to enter leadership

and executive positions in organisations.

Ahmed (2020) reported that discrimination has long been criticized as being some of the

unprofessional undertakings that happen in most sectors of the world. While numerous

preventive measures have been put in place against discrimination in employment under the

Equality act 2010, such practices still dominate most of the sectors in all countries all over

the world, though the situation is reported to be worst in the UK and they are geared towards

the minority group, more also BAME women (Messarra, 2014). One of the sectors, which

have always reported instances of discrimination, is leadership positions, be it in the

computing sector or in the hardware sector, among others. Faivre-Finn (2017) has argued that

in organisations with preferential treatment, the department of human resources usually fails

to independently take the required activities. Hence, as reported by Miller (2020), within such

conditions, it is somehow impossible to do the appointment best on the knowledge and

competencies of the individuals looking for jobs or seeking to move up the ladder of

leadership (Messarra, 2014). For instance, in a situation where BAME women employees are

competing with individuals who appear to be privileged like the white females, their chances

of being promoted or getting the job really diminishes.

Schuh et al. (2014) have argued that discrimination at the place of work is a great problem

not only in the UK but in other parts of the world. As per the statistics from the Commission

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of Equal Employment Opportunity, the fiscal year, which ended in 2014, reported more than

33,939 charges of race-based discrimination at the place of work. The same year reported

10,601 cases of workplace discrimination based on national origin, 28,000 sex-based and

24,000 age-based (Isaed, 2016). Recent reports point out that workplace discrimination

within the employment sector has always been on the increase year after year, with the year

2015 experiencing a 15% increase in the UK alone. Scholars argue that these statistics might

present an underestimate of the occurrence of workplace discrimination since most of people

usually do not file any formal charges to complain over the same (Schuh, et al., 2014). The

situation might be worst more than it is perceived because there are several cases in different

companies which always end up not reported. With regards to ethnicity of trustees, which

have the basic role of governing and consequently taking individual decisions on behalf of

the aforementioned organisations, most of them are equally white. Murphy et al. (2014)

report that close to 92% of the trustees within CSOs are all white. A further broader

perspective has equally been adopted by Miller (2015), who has made a comparison on the

racial diversity among various positions within the charity sector by demonstrating that the

representation of the BAME community is very high among the trustees, at 9.6%, exceeding

the respective executive leadership team, which is at 6.2%. Within the same vein, Marsh

(2020) argues that the boards as the governing entity of organisations mostly favour white

individuals, while there has been a major reduction in the number of BAME women boards,

from an average of 10 in 2016 to less than four in 2018.

Researchers have examined racism, sexism and discrimination through an intersectionality

lens arguing BAME women experience a unique form of oppression that is specific to this

ethnic gender subgroup (Speight, 2008; Collins, 2000). For example, the Bourdieu's theory is

concerned with the structural constraints and unequal opportunity to institutional resources

based on gender, race, and class. The Bourdieu theory is evident in Arday (2020), a study that

intends to understand why more white British employees are at senior management than

BAME employees. Arday advocates for the need to fight the discrimination tide in the United

Kingdom. The author outlines that many issues within higher education are associated with

discrimination and inequality. The racist institutional structures are blamed for the continued

challenge the black, Asian, and minority ethnic face in their academic development attempts.

Arday (2020) reveals that among approximately twenty thousand PhD students supported

financially by UKRI research councils, only about two hundred and fifty students were

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Black. The scenario shows various aspects of the learning institutions, limiting some students

to receive equal benefits as white British individuals. The situation in the United Kingdom

learning institutions and the workplace is contrary to the equal opportunity theory that

suggests equality in society. The theory argues that a fair prospect of self-determination

among all individuals is society's collective responsibility. Peterson and Ramsay (2021)

indicate that the BAME community's challenge and progressing to leadership roles can be

reduced by empowering them through providing quality education.

The social dominance theory introduced by Sidanis and Pratto (1999) proposes that humans

have a propensity to develop and maintain social hierarches based on group status (Hermann,

2017) the theory suggest that humans who are at the top of the hierarchies deny opportunities

for career progression to minority members to preserve their status at the top (Kanter, 1977).

Foels and Stewart 2015 state that institutions have created inequality and power differences

among groups which has resulted in high status groups forcefully oppressing lower status

groups. Consequently, board members with more power are more committed to sustaining

higher proportions of white men in corporate boardrooms to maintain their status which

negatively moderates gender diversity and puts a barrier to women progressing to board

rooms (Lewellyn and Muller-Kahle, 2020). This can be seen as preference for gender

similarity in promotional decisions, which is when people prefer to work with others that are

similar to themselves thus, white male CEO’s tend to hire and promote other white males

rather than hire on the basis of merit, Dovidio et al (2018) states that this is form of subtle

discrimination and increases discrimination in the workplace as well as reduces helping

behaviour, his research highlights that people tend to help out their own in-group members

over out-group members showing in-group favoritism in prosocial behaviors (Dovido et al,

2018) for example this could be in forms of mentoring or offering task related help and

sharing of information. McDonald et al 2018 further proves the point of reduction in helping

behaviour following the appointment of BAME individuals and women than to a white male

dominated board. The Think Manger-Think Male phenomenon proposes that these

stereotypes are rooted in the stereotypical belief that only males can thrive in management

positions (Schien et al, 1996).

Furthermore, according to the social identity theory (Tajel and Turner, 1986), boardrooms

and organisation executives are almost always made up of white and male individuals that

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reinforces group boundaries which exclude women and non-whites (Singh and Vinnicombe,

2004). Boardrooms are often dominated by Eurocentric norms which can put pressure on

BAME women in the workplace according to research conducted by Opie and Phillips (2015)

BAME women feel the need to suppress their cultural identity to reach higher levels in the

workplace and avoid ‘agency penalty’. Donahoo and Smith (2019) show that Black women

who choose to wear their natural hair to work are discriminated against and have less

opportunities to reach boardrooms simply for signaling their cultural identity. Moreover,

Hekman et al (2017) supports this claim stating that women and non-white women received

lower performance ratings and marginalized because they engaged in diversity valuing

behaviors however white and male leaders and executives are not penalized for doing so.

It can be noted that some researchers have contended that positive discrimination can

generate favorable conditions for BAME women can generate favorable conditions (Rosette

et al, 2016; Weisskopf, 2006) also an empirical study by Hill et al (2014) stated as female and

ethnic minority are deemed as valuable, rare and inimitable they are more likely to benefit

from their minority status, however the research in this area remains inconclusive as the study

also finds that the effects of minority status on likelihood of exit are significantly different for

female CEO’s.

Challenges Faced by BAME Women

Lack of BAME role models in senior positions is one of the biggest challenges faced by BAME women in seeking leadership positions. Arday (2020) proposes that when women are at the top levels of management, policies will be formulated that will create an equal opportunity for all individuals when applying for leadership positions and while attending interviews.Perfectionism is another challenge that BAME women face in seeking leadership positions. According to Gipson et al. (2017), women are considered the weaker gender, and due to this perception, they have taken it upon themselves to work twice as harder as their counterparts to prove to the world that they too can hold leadership positions. Smith et al. (2019) posit that this need to exceed expectations is triggered by low self-esteem, mostly magnified by racial stereotypes.The evident lack of confidence and self-esteem also discourages the minorities, in which BAME women appear, from advocating for themselves. In an organisation that especially require too much hands-on work, such as the construction company, it is thought that women may not handle such hard work; hence when a leadership position emerges, the opportunity will most likely be given to a man.

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According to Smith et al. (2019), the management’s stereotype about the aptitude of BAME women is another challenge that hinders BAME women from rising to leadership positions. Some organisations have a culture of not giving leadership roles to women since they believe that they cannot handle the assignment.

As Johnson (2017) contends, the pay gap between BAME women and their non-BAME counterparts is visibly big. This statistic may discourage BAME women from looking for leadership positions since they are less likely to reap the full benefits of their commitment and hard work.

BAME women usually have very high expectations of becoming successful in their individual careers. But the kind of infrastructure available cannot always support them in an effective way. Having access to such leadership positions might be the first obstacle for the BAME women who are planning to acquire leadership positions within the working sectors in the UK. Additionally, Naz, et al. (2019) reports that while there exist some good work outside there for creating positions for leadership, the challenge is that such positions are focussed narrowly on some kind of specific people, most likely white men. Miller (2015) report, therefore, that developing a strong network with other women who are already established in leadership positions and understanding the manner in which they managed to gain such leadership positions is so crucial for the success of the BAME women in their careers within the formal and informal sectors in the UK.

Marsh (2020) conducted a study to establish the existing perceptions of the racial and gender barriers which could actually inhibit access to top institutional leadership for the BAME women. Nine BAME women were specifically interviewed so as to ascertain their individual beliefs based on the barriers, supports, gender and race to the position of institutional leadership for the African American women. The study revealed that there are several gender and race barriers that limit such females from ascending to any form of leadership (Hasan, 2021). The barriers, in this case, tend to be common across different professional areas.

While the study by Marsh (2020) was not specific on the barriers and challenges with regards to BAME women journey towards leadership, the authors have shown that the barriers and challenges tend to be common across different disciplines. The researcher had intended to use very much manageable participants in London and hence, the researcher only selected participants from London without collecting more information from the rural areas (Marsh, 2020). This might actually impact the general ability to generalise the final findings at the national level. The other limitation was associated with the mere fact that the study, in this case, did examine the individual experiences of the BAME women within contexts that were not specific on any sector.

Johnson (2021) on the other hand reported that the role congruity theory of having some forms of prejudice towards the BAME women leaders proposed that assumed incongruity between the BAME women gender role and the leadership roles result in two different forms of prejudice: perceiving women as less favourable than men when it comes to occupying the strong leadership roles, and secondly, making evaluations of specific behaviours that fulfills the general prescriptions of a leader role less favourable when it is actually enacted by a

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woman. As further affirmed by Showunmi (2021), one immediate repercussion is that attitudes tend to be less positive towards females than male leaders as well as potential leaders. Some other consequences are that it is very much difficult for women to become leaders and even achieve success in the roles of leadership (Showunmi, 2021). Evidence from the studies by Faivre-Finn (2017) and Ahmed (2020) confirms that such consequences actually occur, more also in situations that heighten individual perceptions of incongruity between the female gender functions and the individual leadership roles.

Effects of Glass ceiling on BAME Women’s Progression to Boardroom

Glass ceiling is described as someone who is qualified and wishing to advance their

leadership hierarchy within the organisation is stopped at a lower level as a result of

discrimination, most often based on racism and sexism. Bertrand (2018) states that the

barriers may be invisible but will restrain people from getting specific jobs even though they

qualify and deserve the job. According to Chisholm-Burns et al (2017), in most cases, the

glass ceiling will prevent women from gaining access to top positions in management.

Wilson (2016) describe glass ceiling as the vertical discrimination that is common against

women within companies. For instance, Woodcock (2016) points out that despite the major

promotion of diversity within companies, together with laws and legislations on equal

employment opportunities for men and women, it should be noted that women still largely

remain within the minority in the positions of decision making. The observation in this case

directly reflects the phenomenon of glass ceiling that comprise of vertical discrimination

within organisations against women. Despite the fact that glass ceiling has since generated

numerous research interests, Showunmi (2021) has asserted that the theoretical model has

made very minimal attempts to come up with understanding of the phenomenon and the

associated implications. While it can be noted that majority of women regardless of the race

face a ‘glass ceiling’ in their journey to leadership and boardroom roles, BAME women face

a ‘concrete ceiling’ which is more challenging to overcome (Wyatt and Silvester, 2015),

terminologies like this were created following that BAME women populations have to work

twice as much to get a position in the boardroom and face more challenges than the white

women due their ethnicity (Mesui, 2019).

How the ethnicity and race impact on an individual’s access to career opportunities has

extensively been studied by a larger group of scholars indicating the invisible as well as the

informal barriers to advancement, commonly described as the ‘glass ceiling’ (Showunmi,

2021). Heller and Gabaldon (2018) stress that it is vital to keep exploring external factors that

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are limiting BAME women’s access to senior roles, informal networks, ineffective diversity,

absence of role models and inclusion policies, nepotism, and finally unconscious bias are

examples of workplace practices that result in the main barriers that impede the opportunities

BAME women have for their individual career progression. Miller (2020) argues that there is

a racial glass ceiling in the civil society sector of the United Kingdom. The author states that

institutional racism and BAME underrepresentation is a central concern globally. Hasan

(2021) suggests an unequal opportunity to the career progression of BAME individuals in

organisations and that upward mobility associated with obstacles at various stages of career

development. Miller (2015) adds that the government must be the leading example of the

inclusion concept, but inequality is evident in the civil society sector. The article reveals that

many BAME employees in the civil sector are dropping out because of the invisible barriers

with no action taken against them. As a result of the lack of women in the boardrooms,

business outcomes may become stagnant due to the lack of diverse initiatives that may have

come from women (Johnson, 2017). Companies that have managed to abolish the glass

ceiling on black, Asian, and minority ethnic have experienced an increase in productivity and

profitability and have attracted and retained talent. Research conducted suggests that women

in the BAME umbrella may have unequal access to relevant opportunities in their line of

work and, as a result, may face stunted growth in their careers at the workplace. Khan (2017)

argues that many black, Asian, and ethnic minority women employees have been disregarded

when a promotion opportunity to leadership arises due to their gender or ethnic orientation.

Saleem et al (2017) state that with most organisations displaying preferential treatment, the

human resource department fails to appoint individuals based on their merits and

competencies independently. In this case, when there is a competition for a specific position

or promotion opportunity between a Black, Asian, and minority ethnic woman and an

individual who appears to be privileged such as a white woman, the chance of the BAME

woman to get the job or promotion significantly reduces (Khan, 2017).

Hofstede's Cultural Dimension Theory

Despite the extensive literature on the benefits of having a diverse organisation and board

diversity, the lack of BAME women in leadership and executive board positions can be seen

across cultures (Cook, 2017) and an official quota for increasing BAME women’s

representation in these positions ceases to exist (Guest, 2019). there have been several

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countries within Europe to implement gender quotas to increase female representation

(Fernandez and Valiente, 2021) however according to Murray (2014) it is not efficient and its

effectiveness remains unclear and not guaranteed; Bush (2011) argues that is largely

dependent on the countries culture dynamics and regimes, which then shapes organisational

cultures and attitudes. As BAME women’s attempts to reach leadership and board positions

are constrained by macro environmental factors (Carter and Mwaura, 2015), it important to

address the cultural barriers that prevent them from reaching these positions (Ng and Sears,

2017).

Hofstede's cultural dimension theory allows a better understanding of the cultural differences

across nations and how businesses are done across diverse cultures. The framework has six

categories, but the study will discuss the power distance index and femininity vs masculinity

(Pheko et al., 2017). The power distance index focuses on the extent to which power and

inequality are tolerated. The framework provides high power and low power measures, the

higher power distance index illustrates that a culture accepts power and inequity differences,

respects authority, and encourages bureaucracy, which is more readily accepted in the

cultures society (Shinnar et al, 2012). On the other hand, a low power distance index shows

that culture advocates for organizational structures that feature decentralized decision-making

responsibility and emphasize power distribution. Most of the United Kingdom organizations

are associated with a high power distance index, limiting the BAME individuals to have an

opportunity to raise their grievances and develop their positions within organisations

(Qureshi et al., 2020). Consequently, BAME women representation in boardrooms are

unlikely in higher power distance cultures whereas gender diversity is more commonly

promoted in countries where governments, corporations and institutions are characterized

lower power distance and are more willing to challenge the quotas and strive to reach

equality (Cabeza-García and Brio, 2019). As Cabeza-García and Brio (2019) suggest the

number of BAME in boardroom positions varies across cultures for example, Norway was

first country to introduce gender quotas in 2003 and has encouraged gender equality

throughout the years as well as increasing women board member representations from 22% to

42% in 2009 (European Commission, 2011), however it can be noted that a third of global

organisations still have no women in leadership and executive board positions (Catalyst.org,

2020) whereas Asia has the highest number of working women worldwide but still have the

lowest number of women in senior leadership and corporate boards positions, despite its

17

economic success (Pathak, 2019). This could be due to the cultural patriarchal norms in Asia

that women are supposed to follow decisions made by males (Eun-Ok and Broome, 2018). It

can also be noted that within western countries cross cultural differences differ, Opara et al

(2020) stated that the workplace experiences of BAME women in the United Kingdom

differed from the workplace experiences of BAME women face in the United States.

Furthermore, Sait et al. (2020) discuss the femininity vs masculinity concept and reveals that

the United Kingdom society considers men to have better leadership and a woman is viewed

as a weaker being in a leadership context. The masculinity vs femininity dimension analyses

the degree to which a society emphasizes nurture vs achievement, with societies high on

masculinity they more often appoint male into leadership roles and women into non-

mangerial roles (Afrifa and Gyapong, 2019). Lewellyn & Muller-Kahle (2019) also state that

in high masculine cultures there is a clear distinction of the role men and women have on

achievement and in less masculine societies there are less rigid role that men and women

have to perform, therefore the masculinity culture favors the traits and behaviour that ascribe

to the male sex such as assertiveness, strength, speed and aggressiveness, the masculine

societies stresses the different expectations for men and women (Janicijevic, 2019). For

instance, Mensch (2013) found that gender socialization in Middle eastern countries tend to

be very patriarchal and supportive of gender roles, these stereotypes were also voiced by

women towards other women who were in managerial roles as family is deemed a primary

concern (Tabassum and Nayak, 2021). The literature suggests that women and especially

BAME women in experience challenges based on their race and gender, the lack of female

support can make it extremely difficult for BAME women to progress to leadership and

execute board positions.

18

CHAPTER 3: Research Methodology

Introduction

The studies aim was to investigate and explore the barriers BAME women face in

progressing into leadership and executive board positions. To achieve this aim, this chapter

discusses the research methodology that guided this study, the methodological approach

chosen was a robust desk research also known as secondary data and used a systematic

literature view. The research plan included an analysis method, ethical concerns and

limitations of the style of research used.

Databases and Systematic Search Process

As stated in the introduction of this chapter the intended data collection for this research will

be a robust desk research conducted in a systematic way, Xiao and Watson (2019) suggested

that a systematic literature review should be drawn from multiple databases as no single

database contains every publication. Therefore, the literature and data will be collected from

various electronic databases such as Scopus, Jstor, Emerald and Science Direct, which are all

commonly used in management research (Loon et al, 2019), Calantone and Shawnee (2009)

accentuated that secondary data can be collected from many sources such as government

agencies, reports/statistics, surveys and research conducted by other researchers. As well as

this, Google scholar was heavily used to identify articles and grey literature as it retrieved a

large quantity of articles for analysis, Gusenbauer and Haddaway (2019) states that it is

advantageous if a researcher uses an exhaustive search than detailed one. Furthermore, to

make the data searches be more concise and selective keywords were used in the search

string to enrich the data collection, these keywords include abbreviations and direct terms

such as: BAME leadership/management”, “BAME representation”, “BAME Women”,

“Ethnic Minority”. “Diversity”, “Career progression”, “Inclusion”. The exclusion criteria

were “male” or “men”. Noting that any articles that were not in English or failed to capture

the research topic or keywords chosen was eliminated, the search strings were also selected

by journal and articles only published from 2011 upwards to ensure that the analysis

consisted of contemporary literature that was befitting for this research, the articles that were

accepted were then assessed as full papers. A total of 25 articles and journals met the criteria

for the chosen research questions. Table 5 illustrates a detailed review of the studies used in

the systematic review.

19

Table 3: Inclusion and exclusion criteria for systematic review

Inclusion Criteria Exclusion Criteria

Articles and Journals published within the scope of BAME women progression to leadership and executive board positions.

Articles and Journals that are ‘Male or men’ focused and not relevant for research question

Articles and Journals publish from 2011 to 2021

Articles and Journals published before 2011

Papers published in the English Papers that are published in languages other than English

Full-text papers Papers that are not full text and only showing abstracts

Table 4: Search Results

Key Search Strings Database: Scopus

Results Database: Science

Direct

Results Jstor Results Database:Emerald

Results

String 1:

("BAME” OR “Black women" OR "Asian women" OR "Minority Ethnic Women") AND (‘leadership "boardroom" OR "board" OR "executive")

34 6 1,350 7 192 2

String 2:

("Hofstede" OR "Culture") AND ("woman) AND (Discrimination) AND ("workplace" OR "boardroom" OR "board" OR ("executive") AND (“Glass ceiling”)

13 7 **N/A N/A 90 2

N/A – Too many items retrieved, unable to analys

20

Ethical Considerations

Although secondary research rarely raises ethnical concerns compared to primary research,

secondary research relies heavily on public accessible data, therefore the research credibility

evaluation must be performed to understand the authenticity of all information. A further

ethical concern is that not all robust desk research includes the latest reports and statistics

even if the data is accurate, it may not be up to date to use for this particular research,

therefore the research ensured that an extensive research method was selected and unrelated

past literature was eliminated, as the researcher this dissertation will go through all methods

to ensure that the data will be heavily considered before using and only drawn from reputable

sources. Due to the topic of research being complex and sensitive because of racial

complexities, it is important that this research does not result in any damages or distress

(Adusei-Asante and Alibi, 2018) and to ensure congruence with existing literature and

government policy. Zimmer’s (2019) states that “public does not mean consent”, in light of

this statement this research ensured that any data that disclosed identification from

participants from other research was removed or made anonymous.

Quality Appraisal

It is crucial to critically asses the quality of each paper as it allows the researcher to identify

the differences in quality, trustworthiness and relevance (Bettany-saltikov, 2012; Thomas and

Harden, 2008). All studies will be critically appraised using the Critical Appraisal Skills

Program (CASP) tool/checklist (2018) to ensure all studies are reliable, using this tool allows

all studies to be systematically assessed equally because the same ten questions are answered

for each paper used. Refer to Appendix A

Limitations of the study

A significant pitfall for this research is that due to the nature of the study being secondary

research, this study lacked the uniqueness of information and enrich data that could have

been retrieved if the chosen method was primary research interviewing participants from

BAME backgrounds and from FTSE100 organisations however due to the Covid19 and the

ongoing pandemic it is not possible to undertake those methods. Secondly, the reliability of a

systematic analysis is not as secure because there is only one main researcher on this study

21

and human error and bias may happen, however measures were taken to avoid biasness by

discussing with supervisor if research is appropriate or not and also by using a study check

list. A further limitation of the study is the lack of information in relation to answering the

research questions chosen which limited the scope for the analysis. A drawback of

conducting a systematic literature analysis is that vital information could be loss during data

synthesis and interpreting data (Gopalakrishnan and Ganeshkumar, 2013). Lastly, due to the

timeframe and word count the analysis may not have attained depth and thoroughness as

intended.

Summary

The aim of this chapter was to outline the chosen research method used to complete this

study. A discussion of the data collection process and a detailed table outlines the specifics of

how the research was conducted and analyzed, the ethics and limitations of this research was

also discussed.

22

Table 5: Selected studies

Author Title Year

Methodology Content Findings

Atewologun Gender, work and organisations

2016 Qualitative research approach

Explores BAME women’s experience in executive roles.

The study found that BAME women managed their gender, race and their executive status to shift their disadvantage or privilege in response to external demands.

Coalition, O.C., Boston, MA: University of Massachussets.

Women of color elected to office

2021 Systematic review

Talks about the fact that racism has ‘helped’ in women of colour being considered for office and positions of leadership

The research revealed that positive discrimination can help progress women of colour to higher positions

Jewell, H. and Bazeley, A., London: Fawcett Society.

Sex and Power 2018 Systematic review

Reiterates the importance of power and how women have been the underdog because of their sex

The finding shows it is crucial for women to have mentoring, networking and career advice for women to progress in seniority roles.

Pratto, F., Henkel, K. E., Foels

The nature of social dominance orientation; theorizing and measuring preference for intergroup inequality


This paper talks about a new conceptualization and measurement of social dominance.

This shows that high status groups forcefully oppress lower status groups and constitutes a preference for systems of group-based inequality that are maintained by an interrelated network of subtle hierarchy-enhancing ideologies and social policies

Cabeza-Garcia and Brio

Legal and cultural factors as catalysts for

2019 Quantitative research approach

Gives evidence on countries who have high masculinity and high

The study revealed that countries with a cultural heritage which does not promote women needs to consider

23

promoting women in the boardroom

power distance tend to have less board diversity

radical options such as positive laws to reshape the gender imbalance in the boardroom

Kosova, S Lund: Lund University.

Protecting positions of power and privileges: The racial glass ceiling in the UK civil society sector.


BAME women do not have equal access to certain opportunities. The civil society sector does not represent racial diversity proportionally to the BAME community.

The study shows that the causes of glass ceiling for BAME women is scarce resources, norms and values as well as ideological conflicts.

Opara, V., Sealy, R. and Ryan, M.K., Gender, Work & Organisation, 27(6), pp.1192-1213.

The workplace experiences of BAME professional women: Understanding experiences at the intersection.


The main focus is intersectional identity narratives. It focuses on understanding the work experiences of BAME women and how they have been affected by these experiences in terms of career and progression.

The findings indicate that BAME women workplace experience include forms of oppression as well as forms of strategic essentialisms.

Arday, J Fighting the tide: Understanding the difficulties facing Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Doctoral Students’

2020 Literature review

It talks about institutionally racist strictures which affect BAME professionals in their career endeavours. It speaks of the low and reducing number of coloured people in professional careers due

The findings show for BAME individuals to be progress in their careers, they must be supported in HE.

24

pursuing a career in Academia.

to the barriers they face.

Khan, C. Do universities have a problem with promoting their BAME staff?


It talks about the unfairness in the movement of the goal posts specifically when it comes to the BAME when they are applying for the same jobs availed to the white community.

Bertrand, M., Coase lecture–the glass ceiling.


It talks about the underrepresentation of women in the top earning positions like board members, leaders, etc. the research makes an effort to explain this phenomenon after revising gender roles in education. It looks at the challenges women might face in their workplaces in juggling the competing demands.

The study revealed the effects of discrimination and prejudice is a result of women still facing the glass ceiling and not progressing to senior roles

Chisholm-Burns, M.A., Spivey, C.A., Hagemann, T. and Josephson,

Women in leadership and the bewildering glass ceiling.


Talks about women in most sectors including the health sector, education sector and other find themselves beset by intransigent obstacles with regards to

The findings of this research suggested that for women to overcome glass ceiling organisational polices should be changed as it will allow more women in top positions.

25

aspirations to leadership positions.

Saleem, S., Rafiq, A. and Yusaf, S.,

Investigating the glass ceiling phenomenon: an empirical study of glass ceiling’s effects on selection-promotion and female effectiveness


The paper identifies hurdles women face when rising up to positions of higher ladders through an epistemic concept known as the glass ceiling phenomenon. It determines how this phenomenon effects the results in the failure women are burdened with when it comes to securing equal representation in male dominated high ranking positions.

The study found that to if an organisation is more diverse the glass ceiling loses its effectiveness and the glass ceiling is better controlled by implementing employee acts.

Smith, A.N., Watkins, M.B., Ladge, J.J. and Carlton, P.,

Making the invisible visible: Paradoxical effects of intersectional invisibility on the career experiences of executive Black women.


Talks about the complex experiences and challenges of black women as they are ties to their marginalised identities and how they are overlooked by management. It talks about how easy it is for them to overlooked in terms of and become invisible.

The study found that when black women do find themselves in the position of executive roles they still face constraints regardless of the opportunities which then leads to psychological problems.

Gipson, A.N., Pfaff, Women and 2017 Systematic The paper investigate The findings were differential rate of

26

D.L., Mendelsohn, D.B., Catenacci, L.T. and Burke, W.W

leadership: selection, development, leadership style, and performance.

literature review

how different genders are faring in terms of gender roles. It reiterates the difference between men and women being selected for leadership roles.

selection for women and men leaders. The study revealed that women face more barriers when attempting to progress to leadership roles, the study also suggest that women will fare better in leadership roles than men.

Johnson, H.L., 2017. Washington, DC: American Council on Education.

Pipelines, pathways, and institutional leadership: an update on the status of women in higher education.


The paper is examining the leadership role women occupy across 10 workforce sectors in America.

The paper found that most of the academic students are made up of women but only a fraction is made up of women in terms of active roles of leadership and positions of power. Female members of the faculty have not made substantial process regarding their careers in the education sector largely due to gender and ethnicity.

Schuh, S.C., Hernandez Bark, A.S., Van Quaquebeke, N., Hossiep, R., Frieg, P. and Van Dick

Gender differences in leadership role occupancy: the mediating role of power motivation.


Talks about the fact that the statistics presented of BAME women who have been discriminated may be wrong since not all report these incidences

Lewellyn and Muller-Kahle

The Corporate Board Glass Ceiling: The Role of Empowerment and Culture in Shaping Board

2019 Mixed Methods research approach

Investigates how national cultures forces may impede or enhance the positive impact of females economic and political empowerment on increasing board

The research found cultures with supportive and empowering forces (low power distance) mitigated the negative effects of high masculinity on board diversity.

27

Gender Diversity diversity. Schein, Mueller,

Lituchy and Liu

1996 Systematic review

The relationship between sex role stereotypes and characteristics perceived as necessary for management success. The comparison supports the view that ‘think manager—think male’ is a global phenomenon, especially among male

The findings revealed that males and females in both countries perceived that successful middle managers possess characteristics, attitudes, and temperaments more commonly ascribed to men in general than to women in general

Singh an Vinnicombe Why So Few Women Directors in Top UK Boardrooms? Evidence and Theoretical Explanations. Corporate Governance


This paper researches and gives explanations for the persistent homogeneity of top UK boards.

The findings show that there is still an ideology that men believe gender does not stop a female to becoming a director

Hekman et al Does diversity-valuing behavior result in diminished performance ratings for non-white and female leaders?


Paper discusses why top executives are led by majority of white men and why there is still a power gap with non-white female leaders.

The study found that women and ethnic minority women receive performance ratings than white males when engaging in diversity valuing behavior.

28

29

CHAPTER 4: Findings and Discussion

4.1 Cross-Cultural Differences

People’s values and cultural norms play a significant role in shaping their beliefs and

behaviours (Cabeza-García, Del Brio, and Rueda, 2019; Lucas, 2015). Consequently, it is

correct to deduce that a society’s values and cultural norms impact the number of BAME

women that rise to the top leadership positions (Uribe-Bohorquez et al., 2019; Corradi, 2021).

Societies practising cultures that favour masculinity, individualism, and power distance had

their top female leaders changing their behaviour to blend in with male chauvinism to

increase their opportunities of remaining successful at the top leadership positions (Mangan,

2019; Limki, 2018). In support of Corradi (2021) findings, Hunt (2018) argues that when top

female leaders integrate masculine traits in their leadership styles, they receive more positive

reviews, and society generally considers them to be more effective in their leadership than

women who ignore masculine traits in leadership. However, Lewellyn and Muller-Kahle

(2019) negate the above argument through the study that revealed that the introduction of low

power distance systems in a society with masculine cultures generates more support for

boardroom diversity. In essence, different dimensions of Hofstede’s (2001) cultural

dimensions elicit different perceptions towards BAME women’s advancement to high

leadership positions and boardrooms.

Moreover, Yeganeh (2017) scrutinised the use of Hofstede’s theory in research for neglecting

to consider future outcomes he stated that Hofstede’s (2001) cultural dimensions do not offer

a futuristic perspective of the problem of BAME women in top leadership positions and

boardrooms (Yeganeh, 2017; Anderson and Summers, 2007). The modernisation theory

argues that the availability of resources and socio-economic conditions plays an integral role

in shaping a society’s cultural values (Inglehart, 1997; Rodriguez et al., 2016). Countries in

their early stages of development, such as African and Arab nations, exhibit more

discrimination against BAME women because their rigid economic frameworks do not

benefit from minority groups (DeHaas et al., 2019; Gust, 2017). However, different studies

revealed that the USA only had 4.6% of its board positions in Fortune 500 companies held by

BAME women (Few-Demo, 2014). Consequently, Hankivsky et al. (2010) concluded that a

society's or country's high socio-economic status does not determine its toleration and support

for BAME women in top leadership roles.

Korea’s cultural values, such as Collectivism, Confucianism and the military culture, pose a

challenge to women in their career advancement (Cho et al., 2019; Matlon, 2016). Hammack

(2010) highlights that due to the cultural challenges, most women in Asia resign from their

work early before rising to the top leadership roles because the women are not able to handle

the pressure the society places on them. Bangladeshi women felt that their country’s culture

pressured them to stick to the cultural female roles such as house chores and child-rearing at

the expense of their career progression (Saifuddin, Dyke, and Hossain, 2019; Bombak and

Bruce, 2012). According to Ryan et al. (2012), in addition to the pressure for Bangladeshi

women to conform to cultural roles, the women have a cultural barrier to career success since

the society’s safety and mobility policies discourages the women from leaving work as late as

their male colleagues. Top leadership positions demand longer working hours hence

automatically depriving the women of the chance to succeed in the top positions (Mesui,

2019; Holvino, 2010). However, study results by Huijg (2012) contrast the above argument

by highlighting that Pacific women in European workplaces have more career progression

opportunities because of their family background and culture.

4.2 Discrimination

BAME women in top leadership positions device management systems based on social

identities such as invisibility and hypersensitivity to avoid the harsh impacts of discrimination

at the workplace (Buchanan and Settles, 2018; Zaid et al., 2020). BAME women in executive

positions create new and positive views about BAME women leadership, hoping to create a

permanent mental and societal change of attitude that could ultimately lead to increased

opportunities at the boardroom for BAME women (Wilkins-Yel et al., 2018; Nadeem et al.,

2017; Setó-Pamies, 2015). For example, advocating for and practising human resource

diversity in the boardroom increases pay equity and fair career progression for minority

groups in an organisation (Park, 2020; Zahid et al., 2020). Black women in executive

positions made deliberate efforts to change policies and structures that potentially block

BAME women from progressing in their careers at the same rate as other members of the

organisation (Sales et al., 2019; Ferrero-Ferrero et al., 2015). However, Ellwood and Garcia-

Lacalle (2015) argue that due to the limited number of BAME women in executive and

powerful positions, BAME women fighting to change organisational policies and structures

to bring equity too other BAME women could yield to societal pressure from the majority.

31

Asian women in executive positions face discrimination from their colleagues in the same

positions but surrender to the cultural pressures that disagree with women competing against

men at the workplace (Mukkamala and Suyemoto, 2018; Cheuk et al., 2018).

BAME women could alternatively use the management based on identity impression to

strongly disagree with the unfair cultural female roles and norms (Fernando et al., 2018; Isola

et al., 2020). The above management method requires BAME women to conceal their weak

social positions to appear as strong and aggressive towards the advocacy for equity at the

workplace (McCluney and Rabelo, 2019; Ntim and Soobaroyen, 2013). However, the

approach could face implementation challenges because some BAME women could fear

being associated with racial stereotypes, for example, 'angry black women, therefore, failing

to support their fellow women in displaying strong and aggressive advocacy towards

workplace equity (Dickens and Chavez, 2018; Meliá-Martí, Tormo-Carbó, and Juliá-Igual,

2020). Most black women did not collaborate at the workplace and failed to openly criticise

workplace stereotypes (Pierce, 2020; Goyal et al., 2019). Selfish ambitions among some

BAME women lead them to push away other BAME women in fear that supporting their

career progression could directly result in more competition at the workplace for the limited

executive positions (Kirgios et al., 2020; Zigerell, 2019).Similarly, Tran et al. (2019) argue

that due to natural selection and survival for the fittest, dominant groups in the society are

naturally positioned to use unfair means to maintain the status quo so that the minority groups

do not rise to challenge the limited resources. The inclusion of black women in the top

leadership positions and boardrooms results in exacerbated discrimination (Smith et al., 2019;

Akomolafe, 2013). The exacerbated discrimination led to poor performance appraisals of

black women in top leadership positions, which ultimately results in their exclusion from

strategic social and political networks. According to Lewis et al. (2013), side-lining executive

black women from critical social and political networks halts and ultimately kills their career

progression. The above research findings reveal that BAME women in executive positions

have reduced motivation to join other BAME women in the fight for workplace equity

because of the fear of anticipated completion and positional rivalry.

4.3 Diversity Labels

32

According to Nadal et al. (2014), racial labels have tangible impacts on people of colour in

addition to affecting a society’s legislation and job structures. Regardless of the racial labels

phenomenon being a social construct, its impacts, especially on people of colour, warrants

special attention (Alim and Smitherman, 2012; Olkin et al., 2019). Labelling in society is

retrogressive because it creates rival groups within the society that undermines the society

members’ productivity (Davenport, 2016; Adusei-Asante and Adibi, 2018; Lee et al., 2020).

Labelling also plays an integral role in shaping individual attitudes and beliefs towards

certain groups in the society that could lead to discrimination based on the attitudes and

beliefs (Fairchild, 1985). Labelling results in rivalry in the society when people attempt to

claim their societal positions that were undermined by the labels (Kalungu-Banda, 2008;

Smith et al., 2019). BAME label is superficial, and it fails to recognise the society's

heterogeneous identity of each ethnic and racial minority (Austen et al., 2017; Mamokgethi,

2015). According to Broadbridge and Simpson (2011), the BAME label fails to clearly

outline the specific barriers and challenges that the BAME women face in their careers. For

instance, the Islamophobia that women from Eastern Asia face is a challenge unique to them

and may not be experienced by other BAME women (Murray and Ali, 2017; Tariq and Syed,

2017). Additionally, Asian women face more discrimination than black and Hispanic women

(Yu, 2020; Dickens and Chavez, 2018). Consequently, it implies that Asian women are less

likely to reach their optimal career levels compared too other BAME women. However, there

is scarce research that explores the issue of discrimination among Asian women (Lu et al.,

2020; Lewis and Simpson, 2012). Few successful BAME women serving in top leadership

positions are highly conspicuous and biasedly exposed to public scrutiny, hence they feel the

pressure to excel in their work (Settles et al., 2019; Mohr and Purdie-Vaughns, 2015). Token

BAME women's success or failure in their leadership positions affects other BAME women

on the career ladder (Holder et al., 2015; Kanter, 1977; Sarubbi et al., 2019). Kelan (2014)

supports the argument through his research that concluded that the performance of BAME

women in top leadership positions impacts the career progression of other BAME women.

Grouping non-white employees under one label has misleading signs of diversity and

progress in the workplace (Iroanya, 2020; Berry and Bell, 2012). The above findings could

convince researchers that the issue of women diversity in the boardroom could be a bigger

problem than current research indicates.

33

Grouping BAME women under the BAME label reduce the individual minority groups'

appreciation of the similarities and unique differences between them (Showunmi et al., 2016;

Bourne and Calás, 2013). The society should actively abolish the BAME label because it

hides the extent of racism and discrimination in the workplace by not offering employees and

other stakeholders at the workplace to acknowledge each race (Opie and Roberts, 2017;

Williams et al., 2013). However, the BAME label is crucial to researchers and scholars

because they use the label to streamline their study with government policies in

understanding discriminations issues facing non-white employees (Opara, Sealy, and Ryan,

2020; Hasan, 2021). The BAME label enables organisational managers to create valid data to

monitor organisational diversity that helps create organisational changes (Hammonds and

Bhandal, 2011; Kelly, Loder-Jackson, and Christensen, 2016).

34

Chapter Six: Conclusions and Recommendations

As evident from the analysis in the research, the barriers that the BAME women face in their

career progression are interconnected. The BAME women face discrimination that is highly

linked to society's use of the BAME label and the cross-cultural norms. Patriarchal societies

have norms that promote gender stereotypes and systematically limit women’s opportunities

in top leadership. Another example reinforcing the interconnectivity of the barriers is cultural

modernisation that brings accommodative attitudes to BAME women, and the economic

systems appreciate the importance of equity for the minority groups in enhancing economic

development. Therefore, BAME women have limited representation in top leadership

positions because of the cultural barriers that women face in society and at the workplace.

Additionally, the BAME label creates conflicting groups that fight against each other to foster

discrimination against the minority group. According to the systematic analysis in the

research, BAME women conform their workplace behaviour to the male stereotypes in fear

of rejection or unfair penalties, hence revealing that cultural values and beliefs are critical in

shaping the BATE women's workplace behaviour. Consequently, the BAME women that

integrated masculine traits in their leadership style received positive reviews as being

competent. This leads the society to generally view black women as domineering. Such labels

limit the black woman's career progression. The above findings suggest that the race and

gender combination facing BAME women complicates the stereotyping they face because of

the double identity. The unique interpretation of the discrimination and cultural barriers

facing BAME women is pivotal in creating solutions towards increasing BAME women’s

representation in top leadership positions.

Additionally, the study analysis revealed that BAME women’s fear towards stereotypes

associated with the fight against inequality is partially responsible for the women’s

discrimination at the workplace. The fear of being stereotyped could potentially hamper their

progress in increasing BAME women representation through reformative leadership methods.

The findings indicate that the BAME women could benefit from supporting each other in

their fight towards ensuring that they mitigate the impacts of increased masculinity in the top

leadership positions and boardrooms. The findings further highlight that employees felt

motivated to speak out against workplace discrimination when they felt psychologically safe.

Consequently, it is integral that organisations and government structures create and enable

35

supportive and comfortable platforms for the BAME women to express their opinions. When

BAME women have open and free communication channels, it helps society create an

accurate picture of the existent problems due to workplace discrimination. It is also crucial

that the BAME women have mentors and sponsors that help them in their salary increments

and career advancements negotiations. However, the limited number of BAME women in top

leadership positions does not inspire the women aspiring to reach their optimal career levels.

The study further highlights that the wide use of the BAME label also acts as a barrier to the

BAME women’s career progress. The corporate’s usage of the label aids in covering up the

deep extent of underrepresentation and discrimination of women from the minority racial and

ethnic groups in top leadership. However, it is integral to appreciate that the BAME label

helps scholars and researchers to streamline their studies with the existing government

policies. As the study highlights, society should take an active role in addressing racism

against individual minorities to effectively address the problem. The active address against

racism to individual minority tribes should extend to diversity reporting and organisational

policy frameworks. According to the study findings, BAME women felt underrepresented in

cases where organisational structures and policies categorised them together with other

protected groups. The BAME women felt that they could not effectively express their unique

discrimination experiences. Therefore, organisations should single out individual minority

races or tribes to reduce the extra pressure that the BAME women feel in representing all the

non-white minority races and tribes. According to the findings, organisations could cultivate

a diverse culture by incorporating equitable women in the top management positions and the

boardrooms. Additionally, the research findings reveal that there is a need for improving the

terminology used in reporting diversity.

36

Chapter Seven: Research Limitations and Future Research

The study’s research methodology was its main limitation because of three reasons. Firstly,

the study’s systematic analysis was not reliable because of its reliability on an individual

researcher to confirm each study’s eligibility. The overdependence on one researcher’s

confirmation potentially exposed the research to bias or human error from the researcher.

Secondly, the research had a strict and short time frame accompanied by a limited word count

that limited the extent of study analysis. Consequently, the research ignored legal and

government policies as external barriers to BAME women’s career progression into top

leadership positions and the boardrooms and narrowed down on culture as the single external

barrier. According to the findings, it is impractical to disassociate racial labels and

organisational policies, politics and government policies. From the above argument, ignoring

government policies and the law as potential external barriers to BAME women could have

compromised the research’s validity and reliability.

Thirdly, the research’s limitation lied in the fact that it singly highlighted the interconnection

between gender and ethnicity/race as the double factors that limit the BAME women’s career

progression. Other factors such as disability and sexual orientation could hinder BAME

women’s career advancement, hence the study’s narrowing down on race and gender limited

the study’s scope of research. Consequently, future studies in the area should explore

different areas of diversity among the BAME women, such as disability and sexual

orientation. Fourthly, the research’s concentration on BAME women at the top leadership

positions only could have limited the study’s analysis. While the research only concentrated

on the BAME women at the top, the researcher generalised the findings on all BAME

women, although the BAME women at the lower levels could have different experiences

from their fellow women at the top leadership positions. The analysis of cultural evolution as

an external barrier to BAME women’s career progression to the top leadership should be

conducted over a long duration because culture constantly changes with time. Therefore,

another positive recommendation to better the study results would entail conducting cross-

cultural longitudinal analysis to determine culture’s influence on the BAME women’s

progression to top leadership positions and boardrooms using Hofstede’s cultural dimensions

and the modernisation theory. Research conducting double synthesis of the two models

enhances the finding’s reliability because they complement each other’s weaknesses.

37

Furthermore, the national culture is characterised by generational differences where the older

generations resist changing from the cultural settings while the younger generations exhibit

individualism and political egalitarianism that draw them further away from the national

cultural limitations. Therefore, future research should explore the intergenerational

differences in the cultural dimensions that affect diversity in the top leadership positions and

boardrooms.

An additional limitation in the study was the application of only four of Hofstede's

dimensions in exploring the cultural barriers that BAME women face in their career

progression. Consequently, future research on the subject should apply all the six dimensions

of Hofstede to offer a balanced and more objective analysis. It is not clear whether the

BAME women’s conformation to the high-status groups for the benefit of advancing their

career progress outweighs the negative long-run impacts of being associated as a token

BAME woman such as performance, organisational commitment, and psychological

wellbeing. Therefore, future research in the subject should address the research gap.

Although current research assumes that conflicting groups are brought by the discrimination

from the BAME label, it is impossible to link the two factors without conducting a primary

analysis. The research explores the potential negative impacts of tolerating the use of the

BAME label and creates a viable dialogue for the people in top leadership positions and

boardrooms in using the label. However, it is integral to highlight that the sole reliance on a

literature review to determine the full impacts of using the BAME label. Future research

should dedicate studies to using primary analysis on the BAME women's discrimination

experiences to determine the consequences of grouping the minority racial groups under one

category. However, the limited number of women in the top leadership positions and

boardrooms challenges researchers in conducting detailed analysis. Alternatively, future

research could understand the impact of using the BAME label by conducting a detailed

content analysis of social media posts and newspaper articles in recent years. Future research

should also be dedicated to exploring the impacts of using other cultural labels such as

‘People of colour’

38

Critical Reflection

Whilst conducting my research project, I realized that completing a project of this magnitude

required a lot of dedication and strategic planning, for this project I choose to undertake a

systematic literature review and was unaware of the amount of research and planning it

would take to complete the project effectively, I found that it was more time consuming than

I expected and required far more strategic planning in terms of arranging past literature to fit

the purpose of my own project. Whilst writing up this project I learned the importance

writing down a to do list to manage my time and not procrastinate. I implemented the Pareto

Principle to this project categorizing the project into ‘vital few and trivial many’ which

helped boost my overall productivity and gain self-discipline, I placed the most time

consuming and important sections of my dissertation to the ‘vital few’ and then placed the

sections which were not as time consuming to my trivial many category. I learned that

applying the 20/80 Pareto principle and as well as strategically planning improved my time

management and planning skills doing, which is skills that would help me in my future career

as a HR professional.

During the process of completing this dissertation I realized that I need to develop better

communication skills and ask for help when needed, instead of attempting to figure out things

on my own. My supervisor was there to help and guide me through this project but because I

deem myself as an independent person I did not seek the help of my supervisor as I should

have even when I became unsure of how to conduct a systematic review however when I did

eventually get in contact with my supervisor she gave me valuable tips and guidance on how

to successfully complete my project. This showed me that it is important to have better

communication skills and be more open seeking help as well as utilizing all the available

support given regardless of my ‘can do it on own’ attitude, this will ensure that I am clearer

and more confident with the tasks that I need to complete, as well as gain tacit knowledge

from someone who is wiser. Furthermore, undertaking this project highlighted my need to

improve on my academic skills such as critical reading and writing, as mentioned prior this

project was a systematic review which entails more reading and analyzing of large quantity

literature, towards the end of my project I became more proficient in these areas however it is

something I do need to develop in the future.

39

Conducting a project of this magnitude will come with its challenges and difficulties, a

significant issue that I face when completing this project was my lack of motivation and

getting myself in the right head space after completing my summer exams, during the

beginning month of June I felt completely drained and procrastinated instead of starting my

project at intended time I scheduled which then delayed my work progress. I dealt with this

by making a new timetable and applying the Pareto Principle to ensure I was being consistent

and putting this project as my main priority, I also spoke to my supervisor who gave me the

motivation to start. For future purposes I will ensure to give myself enough time to complete

task and factor in breaks which give me the best possible outcome instead of procasinating

and shutting down completely.

In terms of understanding the process of business research, doing this project showed me that

there are many more databases where I can search for articles and journals other than google

scholar, I realized that when conducting a project, it is essential to use different databases to

gather a wider scope of information, this allowed me to successfully complete my project by

accessing a lot of journals and articles to analyse from.

Looking back at the start of the project process I would have firstly changed my research

methods and gone with conducting a qualitative research rather than do a systematic one due

to my topic being a sensitive one and I would have been able to get unique information from

participants gauging their experience in the work place however, I do believe I was still able

to do my topic justice. Choosing to do a systematic review has improved my critical reading

and writing skills which I am able to apply in my future career.

40

References

41

Appendices

Summary of Sources

Screening questions Responses

Was there a clear statement of the aims of the research? Yes No Can’t tell

Is a qualitative methodology appropriate? Yes No Can’t tell

Was the research design appropriate to address the aims of the research?

Yes No Can’t tell

Was the recruitment strategy appropriate to the aims of the research?

Yes No Can’t tell

Was the data collected in a way that addressed the research issue?

Yes No Can’t tell

Has the relationship between research and participants been adequately considered?

Yes No Can’t tell

Have ethical issues been taken into consideration? Yes No Can’t tell

Was the data analysis sufficiently rigorous? Yes No Can’t tell

Is there a clear statement of findings? Yes No Can’t tell

How valuable is the research? Yes No Can’t tell

42

43

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