Methodology

Methodology

Research Design and Data Collection

The qualitative research method is applied on the situations where the researcher has to identify the social phenomena or the perception of respondents about certain situation or issue. This method of research helps the researchers to identify the human behavior and have an in-depth knowledge about the target respondents related to the issue. In order to conduct market research, researchers uses this method to have the perception of their target customers about their products or services (Merriam, 2009).

The purpose of this study is also to identify the perception of female employees about the phenomena of glass-ceiling in BBS. It also sought to understand the barriers that females have to face in order to get promotion to achieve the top positions in the organizational hierarchy. For this purpose, exploratory qualitative method is selected (Panneerselvam, 2004). Women do not recognize the intensity of the glass ceiling's impact unless and until it is experienced. Therefore, semi structured interviews will be conducted to gather the data from women who are in senior position.

To analyze the data, Grounded Theory (GT) was selected. The purpose to select this theory is to gather information from under researched area (Charmaz, 2006). There is also no such information available regarding women in BBS about glass-ceiling, therefore this theory will help in analyzing the information in very effective manner.

Population and Sample

The population selected for the study was women mangers and senior managers who are currently working in the BBS. Even if there are women who are qualified enough for the CEO position, but still they are unable to achieve that due to some barriers.

There is a differentiation between Grounded Theory and theoretical sampling. The data in GT needs to be gathered and analyzed on the initial stages of the study (Merriam, 2009). Due to this concept, two women were selected on initial basis from the population. This was done to get a theoretical understanding about the topic. The interviews conducted were with the women who had fifteen years of experience with them, in the commercial banking sector. The age of the respondents was around the forties, and also having their children. According to some researchers, these purposive interviews can also become the source of biasness.

Though, the first two interviews will be the source of materializing the theoretical sampling, through coding those two interviews (Panneerselvam, 2004). This also allowed conducting one more interview. This third interview was conducted ...