Investigating the Effect of Glass Ceiling Beliefs on Women's Succession and Women's Leadership Style in Managerial Positions (Case Study: Hygienic Assistance of Medical Science University of Mashhad)

Women’s role in the development of today's societies depends directly on the goal of social and economic development. Thus it is a fundamental factor in the evolution of all human societies. This study aims at evaluating the effect of glass ceiling beliefs on women's succession and their leadership style in Mashhad University of Medical Sciences. It is an applied research, based on its purpose, and a descriptive survey in terms of its methodology. The statistical population of the study contain the staff of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences. According to Morgan Table, the sample size is 110 people. In order to study and test the effective variables in the research topic, the standard questionnaire of Smith (2012) has helped measuring the variable of glass ceiling beliefs, while standard questionnaire of Khoda Yari (2017) has been used to measure the variable of women-breeding and standard questionnaire of Najarzadeh Arani (2020) to measure the variable of leadership style. The reliability and validity of the questionnaires have been confirmed through combined reliability and confirmatory factor analysis, respectively. In order to analyze the research data, SPSS and Smart-PLS software have been used to prepare descriptive and inferential statistics. The results indicate that the beliefs of the glass ceiling have had a positive and significant effect on the succession of women. In addition, it has been found that the beliefs of the glass ceiling have a positive and significant effect on the leadership style of women in managerial positions.