Intergenerational Leadership: The Gender Pay Gap

When interviewing a leader in an organization in order to discover their leadership style one must ask critical questions. I had the opportunity to interview Casey Aguirre who is a Team Manager at the Salem Call Center for T-Mobile. Casey has been with T-Mobile for over 11 years. In this interview we discussed her leadership style, the steps she took to become a leader, her biggest challenges, and her greatest achievements among other things. While interviewing Casey I kept in mind the connection between women in leadership and the cultural disadvantages and advantages that women in leadership

In the United States, study after study continues to show that women have fewer opportunities to advance in the workplace than men. These disadvantages are a result of society’s views of women in leadership positions and how women may view themselves in these roles. Women have been making progress in terms of equality in pay and job positions, but significant gaps remain. Women who strive to be promoted into higher levels of responsibility in their companies often meet resistance that prevents them from achieving the goal of a senior or executive level of management. This barrier is referred to as the “glass ceiling” and it is a controversial issue in our country today. The glass ceiling called this because women are able to see the higher level positions, but can reach them because of an intangible barrier. One can look at the Fortune 500 companies, which are the most successful companies in the U.S. in terms of revenue to see how few women are in leadership positions. Clearly, women are significantly underrepresented in these companies, as less than 5 percent of these companies have female chief executive officers (CEO) today (Dockterman 105). Providing the opportunity for women to move into management positions, like CEOs, would bring a unique talent and a new perspective on how the company can operate to perform better (Buckalew 147). The “glass ceiling” is a real obstacle that creates an intangible barrier that puts women at a disadvantage in advancing in a company.

Today’s leader is faced with many challenges, and one is the generational divide that exists in the workplace today. With four different generations working together it is clear that each group has their own preference for communication. Throughout the context of this paper I will explore the generational differences, and describe the characteristics of my generation with regard to leadership and communication styles. I will also describe how technology and the information age play a role in how leaders communicate. Finally, I will identify basic communication skills that are needed and used in generational leadership.

Leadership - The perception of excellence in business leadership needs to be re-examined. This requires challenging the norms that determine leadership eligibility. Are there drivers that perpetuate a leadership incumbency that excludes females? What is the basis for these drivers?

For the first time in history there is a possibility that there could be as many as five different generations working together and communicating amongst each other on a daily basis.Coming from all different era’s, and eached raised with different values and thought processes, these different generations each have their own impact on the workplace. Each generation has its pros and cons on how well they will work with the other generations, and the ways they effectively communicate amongst themselves.

The world seems to be getting smaller, and a harmonized place of work seems to be something of the yesteryears. Instead, current leaders are required to deal with a diversity of employees across generational in addition to cultural lines, respectively with their personal values, work ethic, as well as desires. The situation can be a difficult profession to keep every person in high spirits and productive. Therefore, styles and approaches that function satisfactory with some individuals may be entirely unsuccessful with others. Nevertheless, a leader should not alter their entire leadership approach every time they have an interaction with someone from a diverse generation or cultural environment. It would be my suggestion to have one sound approach that would work for most of everyone.

Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg is a book about “woman, work, and the will to lead.” This book was inspirational and motivational to me and has opened my mind to the possibility of allowing my voice to be heard louder professionally and personally. Sheryl examines why women’s progress in achieving leadership roles has stalled, explains what cause it, and offers substantial solutions that can empower women to achieve their full potential. The majority of leadership roles are held by men and women’s voices are still not heard equally in the decisions that most affect our lives. Sandberg provides practical advice on negotiation techniques, mentorship, and building a satisfying career, urging women to set boundaries and to abandon the myth of “having

The workplace of today involves interactions among people from four different generations often causing much conflict for leaders and organizations. Each generation represented has its own set of different values and beliefs. These differences can easily lead to conflicting barriers within the workplace. This can pose a significant problem for those in leadership. In order to combat this issue, leaders and organizations can effectively deal with these issues by offering different programs such as executive mentoring, town hall meetings, and leadership seminars for those in leadership.

As the author points out, the figures on women in leadership is staggering in disparity. The article takes time to focus on identifying and highlighting reasons what makes a successful leader. Having an opportunity to attend a leadership meeting, in which we discussed improving inclusion at my company, this article presented many of the same reasons that as a company we tried to understand, “Why do we not have more women in leadership?” This article really underscores that in order for a business to survive and grow or for that matter, any organization to flourish you need to find individuals that embody the above-mentioned leadership traits not just seniority.

This particular article entitled “Communication for Diversity”, talked about three specific things: Global communication barriers, Gender communication barriers, and tools for managers to overcome barriers. Managing a diverse workforce that is spread widely, presents unique challenges for today’s managers. Despite many obstacles, managers must be sensitive to various cultural values and traditions associated with the employees they manage. For instance, “Japanese culture favors consensus decision-making, taking great effort to engage all members before a decision is reached (1)”, or how Latin Americans use “hierarchical-based decision-making process to show authority (1)”. If a manager understands these perspectives, it can assist them in selecting the best approach when delegating tasks, if ignored it can be considered insulting to their workforce. Many cultures respect responses of humility and sensitivity, allowing the other to regain equal standing in the wake of conflict or embarrassment. If cultural and language barriers weren’t enough, there is also a gender communication barrier. While there are no absolutes and individual differences in communication types across employee groups, general identified trends can assist managers, and even coworkers, in elevating simple gaps in communication styles. “Robin Lakoff, author of “Language and a Woman’s Place,” studied differences in how boys and girls are taught and reinforced to communicate throughout their early childhood

More and more women are rising to the leadership challenge, even in some of the most male-dominated industries. The increase in the number of women attending college, the increasing number of women in the workplace or starting their own business has demonstrated to men who own businesses that women can be both managers and mothers, thus showing their male counterpart that women can in fact "do it all".

As society evolves, generational differences are more apparent than before. To me, a “generation” is a group of people who share age, attitudes, ways of life, and certain beliefs. Members of one generation can learn many things from those in another, and vice-versa, whether that knowledge is some that the member of the opposite generation agrees or empathizes with or not. When interacting with those of different generations than yours, it is important to keep generational differences in mind, whether they are some you can capitalize upon for a mutual benefit or some that may be challenging, but able to be overcome.

Gender and leadership? Leadership and gender? A journey through the landscape of theories start off by giving a statistical summary of percentages of women in higher echelon position in the workforce. With this information in the intro, the article quickly highlights the limited representation of women in exclusive positions in Fortune 500 companies. Next, the paper examines multiple theories why this problem exists in the workforce. The four theories examined are biology and sex; gender role; causal factors; and attitudinal drivers (Appelbaum et al, 2003, p. 44).

This study includes an in-depth critical review of relevant literature to provide a comprehensive foundation for the research. The literature review consists of theoretical perspectives and previous research findings related to the lack of women in top-level leadership positions in the corporate arena, with an emphasis on women in engineering leadership positions. The review provides a focus for the study and reports the important concepts and data related to leadership positions for women in engineering. The review includes an overview of the advantages of mentoring, the impact of organizational culture, and effect of family choice. Arrays of resources were employed for the literature review relevant to the project and to answer the research question. Textbooks, professional periodicals and journals, online databases, and other reference materials were used to gather the data for the review of the literature. The researcher utilized the university online database, articles from professional publications, journals, dissertation research, web site articles and books to collect data appropriate to the topic. This literature review examines the evolution of the role of women in the workforce from the 1950’s through to present day.

Leaders in Generation Y value and appreciate the professional relationships they create within their organizational culture, which creates a more democratic way of leading a team. Within this democratic leadership style, effective communication is essential to successful operations. New research has allowed Generation Y leaders to apply the knowledge they gain prior to getting trapped in the routine of a dictatorship. In the past 5 years alone, there have been multiple studies done regarding solely how leaders can communicate with their team to create the highest success rate along with the most invested followers. According to Clark (2008, para. 2), “Studying the communication process is important because you coach, coordinate, counsel, evaluate, and supervise throughout this process. It is the chain of understanding that integrates the members of an organization from top to bottom, bottom to top, and side to side.” It is this cyclical ideology that has encouraged follower feedback and leader responsiveness and active listening, rather than acceptance of an individual leaders’ vision. The other communication shift that has