Role of Work Engagement in Mediating the Relationship between Women’s Perception of Glass Ceiling and Career Growth in IT companies

Workplace environment plays a crucial role in an individual’s perception of his career growth. Although the proportion of women in the workforce has increased over the past few decades, it is uncertain whether their inclusion in the workforce has been fully accepted by all. Glass-ceiling is a hurdle obstructing women's progress to higher leadership or managerial positions due to misconceived perceptions about their unsuitability. The present study aimed to examine the impact of women’s perception of glass-ceiling and work engagement on their career growth using multiple regression analysis. It further examines the role of women’s work engagement as a mediator, influencing the relationship between perception of glass-ceiling and career growth using mediation analysis. Data was collected from 186 women working in IT companies using Elacqua et al.’s (2009) adapted perception of Glass-ceiling (Babic & Hansez, 2021), Career Growth Scale (Weng, McElroy, Morrow, & Liu, 2010) and UWES-9 (Schaufeli et al., 2006). Findings of multiple regression analysis show that the perception of the glass-ceiling and work engagement significantly predict career growth. Further, the mediation analysis revealed that work engagement partially mediates the relationship between the perception of the glass-ceiling and career growth. The findings have implications for organizations to promote an inclusive work culture and encourage a sense of vigor, dedication and absorption of female employees towards their work.