"Gender and Racial Differentials in Promotions: Is There a Sticky Floor, a Mid-Level Bottleneck, or a Glass Ceiling?" Gender and Racial Differentials in Promotions: Is There a Sticky Floor, a Mid-Level Bottleneck, or a Glass Ceiling?

using a proprietary dataset containing personnel records on over 22,000 full-time, non-unionized employees from a large Canadian firm with nationwide operations from 1996 to 2000, this paper explores the incidence of promotion for women and racial minorities. The findings show that women and racial minorities are less likely than their white male counterparts to be promoted. For both white women and minority women, the disadvantage is most severe at the lower rungs of the organizational hierarchy, lending support to the " sticky floor " hypothesis. Significant promotion disadvantages occur for white women, visible minority women, and visible minority men at the middle ranks of the organization, and visible minority men continue to experience a promotion disadvantage at the highest organizational levels. Researchers have shown great interest in the study of gender effects, and to a lesser extent, of race effects on promotion outcomes. The bulk of the evidence suggests that women are disadvantaged such that they are less likely to be promoted than their equally qualified male counterparts Considerably fewer studies have been conducted to examine race effects on promotions, but the extant research indicates a promotion disadvantage for members of racial minority groups There are several reasons to study gender and race effects on promotions. In addition to avoiding the cost of discrimination, a more diverse workforce at all levels of an organization can be advantageous for both workers and organizations. From the organization's perspective, diverse teams have been linked with better problem solving and higher levels of innovation 2007), and thus are more effective in serving the diverse customer base in today's globalized economy. Expanding the talent pool to include women and minorities will also help organizations mitigate the potential talent shortage. And finally, studies have also shown that a diverse workforce, if managed properly, is associated with higher levels of organizational performance From an employee's perspective, promotions are linked to wage increases and are therefore a determinant of wage outcomes Lack of advancement opportunities is a major contributor to voluntary quit decisions by employees who otherwise fit the job well and contribute value-added to the firm (Moss, Salzman and Tilly, 2008). Because promotions are linked to so many important outcomes, gender and race effects on promotion outcomes imply differential access to an important source of resources, benefits and satisfaction. Beyond documenting a significant main effect of gender and race on promotion outcomes, it is important to study …