By James Linacre | HR Magazine | January 20, 2022
When Twitter recently named its new CEO, Parag Agrawal, it joined an elite club of prominent US organisations to have a South Asian in a prominent leadership position. Twitter now joins the ranks of Adobe, Alphabet, Citigroup and Microsoft who have placed South Asians into senior leadership positions.
Tender Steps
Yet, despite the US taking tender steps towards greater diversity, there are few companies in the West that feature East Asians in Executive level positions which cannot be explained by job performance or qualifications. Based on statistics, Asian Americans have the lowest chance of rising to a management level when compared to other ethnic groups despite having the highest educational attainment.
This puzzling phenomenon known as the Bamboo Ceiling has been researched by Professor Jackson Lu and the MIT Sloan School of Management. Professor Lu’s research found that ethnic East Asians such as Chinese, Japanese and Koreans are less likely than ethnic South Asians i.e. Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis to attain leadership roles in Western organisations predominantly due to their non-assertive communication style.
Lu’s latest research also highlights an additional mechanism that contributes to East Asians’ lower leadership emergence: their higher likelihood of networking within their ethnic groups however, the same can’t be said for South Asians.
“When a person frequently socialises with ethnic groups other than their own, this person is more likely to be perceived as an inclusive leader who can bridge the values and interests of different ethnic groups, a characteristic central to leadership in multiethnic environments,” says Lu.
Lu’s findings also applied to East Asians who were born and raised in the West which suggests that even as native English speakers, their cultural upbringings may still predispose them to socialise more within their own ethnic group.
HR’s Role in Breaking the Ceiling
Though this phenomenon may not be as valid in Asia Pacific, there are still ways in which Human Resource professionals can help promote and foster a culturally diverse and inclusive workplace for all. Organisations may want to consider creating networking opportunities for inter-ethnic interactions, such as inter-ethnic mentorships and lunches. Mentors can guide teams members and help offer them advice, share cultural information and teach each other how to relate in a culturally sensitive manner.
Another way in which HR can help break the Bamboo Ceiling is to promote self-awareness within the workspace. Employees should be given opportunities to make themselves visible, take pride and credit in their work and offer them a chance to lead projects and propose new ideas. Engaging employees in workplace dialogue can also help to address this issue.
Cross-cultural leadership programmes can also help to cultivate skills and to help translate values across cultures.
