Lease Plan Effectively Manages Diversity The term, glass ceiling, was used to represent an absolute barrier or solid roadblock that prevented women from advancing to higher-level positions. The ceiling resulted in women finding themselves stuck in lower-level jobs, ones that did not have profit and loss responsibility, and jobs with less visibility, power, and influence. This scenario is changing. This case illustrates the impact motivated leadership and changing company policies can have on gender diversity in the workplace. Per the United States Department of Labor, compared to women comprising 21 percent of the workforce in 1920, women comprised nearly half of the workforce in the United States in 2013, making gender diversity issues more and more important. This activity asks you to identify and apply your knowledge of such aspects of diversity.
Read the case below and answer the three questions that follow.
In 2003, the representatives of Lease Plan USA's top customers were mostly women, as was most the company's employees. However, men represented a large majority of top managers at the company, reflecting the old-boys network type culture that dominated the fleet industry. New leadership decided to change this and provided career counseling to women, revised reward systems to focus on performance instead of seniority, and replaced some existing managers. Two years ago, only one of seven top executives were a woman. Now, three of the top eight executives are women.

The company's new chief executive claims that these changes are motivated by strategy rather than political correctness. He says, "Lease Plan doesn't build anything…Our sustainable competitive advantages are people." Lease Plan now also implements a development program catered specifically for female employees. The program includes skills assessments, career guidance, communications, brand building, and panel discussions with female executives from other companies.
Lease Plan’s efforts have yielded very positive results in a short period. For example, a 2006 survey showed that 35 percent of women agreed that "management supports my efforts to manage my career," which was improved the following year to 47 percent. A growing percentage of women also feel that their opportunities are growing—increased to 30 percent from 22 percent.
Gerri Patton, Director of Client Activation, says the program helped her become more confident and outspoken. The 23-year Lease Plan veteran encourages her female subordinates to apply. "I wish I would have done that program 10 or 15 years ago," she says. "There's no telling where I would be...The sky would've been the limit."
After reading the case please answer three multiple questions below:
1) According to Eagly and Carli, and also supported by subsequent data analysis by the textbook authors, women have broken through the glass ceiling. Based on what you have read in the case, which of the following trends in gender diversity appears to be most supported by the outcomes of Lease Plan’s program changes?
Educational attainment—women earned the majority of bachelor’s and master’s degrees from 2006 through 2012.
Increases in seats on boards of directors—in Fortune 550 firms up to 16.6 percent in 2013 from only 9.6 percent in 1995.
Leadership positions—in educational institutions in 2010, women represented 18.7 percent of college presidents and 29.9 percent of board members.
Court Appointments—in federal court in 2013, women received 32 percent and 30 percent respectively of appointments to federal courts of appeals and US district court judge positions.
None of these
2) Which of Thomas’s generic action options for managing diversity is most illustrated in the case?
suppress
isolate
deny
include/exclude
tolerate
3) Based on the information in the case, which of the following barriers and challenges to managing diversity that were identified in the text appear to have been present at Lease Plan?
an unsupportive or hostile work environment
poor career planning
lack diversity in senior management
inaccurate stereotypes
difficulty in balancing career and family issues