Designing a Glass Ceiling Management Model for Female Employees (Case study: Shiraz University of Medical Sciences)

Background: The aim of this study was to design a glass ceiling management model for female employees in a case study at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. Glass ceiling refers to artificial and invisible obstacles, organizational decisions, and prejudices of the organization’s officials that prevent the progress of qualified people or minorities (especially women) within organizations. The glass ceiling in this study is defined as obstacles to women in managerial positions at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences.Methods: This is an exploratory research with a qualitative approach which was conducted through theme analysis. Its population included 15 experts in the qualitative phase, and 31 experts in the quantitative phase from Shiraz University of Medical Sciences and university professors. They were selected through forming a panel of experts for data collection. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. After collecting and summarizing the data, Atlas software and SPSS16.0 were used, respectively.Results: 67 indicators were identified. Using the experts’ opinions, validity analysis (cvr) and Cronbach’s alpha in the experts’ panel, these indicators were reduced to 49. They were placed in 7 components including individual, group, cultural, political, regulatory, structural, procedural, and content factors. These components were categorized into three dimensions.Conclusion: Based on the results of this study in the behavioral dimension, the organization should divide the type of work based on physical and gender characteristics, and to consider social respect for women at the individual and group levels when defining their  jobs. In the environmental dimension, women, due to their subtlety in affairs, can act as evaluators of the organization’s strategies to respond to the environment (the environment includes consumers, competitors and facilities). Also, in the organizational dimension, policymakers need to be careful when legislating, so that managers pay attention to women’s power when appointing them in managerial positions and cannot destroy equal opportunities for them by violating the laws.