Investigation of the factors caused by glass ceiling syndrome in female managers by DEMATEL method: The case of health institutions

Glass ceiling syndrome refers to an invisible upper limit in institutions or organizations. Although it is stated that male employees are also exposed to glass ceiling syndrome, it is known that female employees encounter glass ceiling obstacles more frequently. The weights of the factors determined in this study and their relations with each other were nterpreted by applying the DEMATEL method, which is one of the Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methods. For this purpose, three main factors causing glass ceiling syndrome and twelve sub-factors related to these main factors were created by using the literature. The main factors are divided into three as individual factors, organizational factors and social factors. Individual factors; It was evaluated as four sub-factors as "playing multiple roles", "personal preference and perception", "learned helplessness" and "not being able to participate in informal communication networks". Organizational factors; "organizational culture", "organizational policies", "lack of mentors", "obstacles placed by male administrators", "obstacles put by female administrators" were considered as five sub-factors. Social factors are; Three sub-factors were determined as "stereotypes", "occupational discrimination" and "gender discrimination". In the study, the importance of the factors and their relations were revealed by taking the opinions of 47 experts working in the fields of senior and middle management such as provincial health director, president, vice president, chief physician, hospital manager, field coordinator in health institutions. According to the results of DEMATEL technique, the most important of the main factors causing the glass ceiling syndrome was determined as "Individual Factors" and the least important "Organizational Factors". When individual factors are analyzed within themselves, it has been determined that the most important criterion is "Learned Helplessness" and the least important criterion is "Inability to Participate in Informal Communication Networks". When the organizational factors are evaluated, the most important criterion is "Organization Culture" and the least important criterion is "Barriers Placed by Women Managers". When the sub-criteria of social factors were examined, it was determined that the most important criterion was "Gender Discrimination" and the least important criterion was "Stereotypes". When the researches are examined, while there are studies on glass ceiling syndrome, there is no study that focuses on establishing a relationship between the factors causing glass ceiling syndrome. With this study, it is expected that the most important and effective factors that cause glass ceiling syndrome will be determined and various measures will be taken to prevent people from experiencing glass ceiling syndrome, both individually, organizationally and as a society.