Impact of Glass Ceiling Effect on Conflicts in Dual Career Families: With Special Reference to Female Professionals in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Operation of glass ceiling effect is not an uncommon phenomenon in modern corporate world. Organizational structures in corporate environments have evolved over time to reflect socio-economic changes, but traditional male leadership styles continue to dominate modern corporate environments. However women are better educated and hold more jobs worldwide than ever before, representing significant proportion of the world’s labor force. - — Women’s earning power and educational accomplishments continue to grow. Therefore, breaking through glass ceiling by female professionals is not a reason to be surprised in modern era. As a consequence of this trend, the probability of arising conflicts based on time, behavior or strain among dual career families is high and predictable. In Sri Lankan context, the role of “good wives” who stay at home rearing the children without competing with men is expected by most males due to the cultural and social settings. Role overload and role incompatibility is significant in today woman’s life style which creates dynamic conflicts in their employed spouses. The study endeavor was to explore the impact of glass ceiling on conflicts of dual career families in Sri Lanka, highlighting the role of females. The method for this study is qualitative since the topic is related to human interactions in their natural settings. Six professional female respondents in upper management levels were opted as the sample of the study which leans on the principles of grounded and narrative analyses. Semi structured- in depth interviews and focused group discussions were held in order to generate fruitful data being closer to the context through natural language. It was evident that the glass ceiling effect led conflicts of dual career families in Sri Lanka, where the context was proved with the quotations of the respondents and the relevant empirical literature. Recommendations and implications for the future studies were produced in this research.