Abstract:

Cultural barriers make it harder for women to rise in an organizational context in Pakistan, but the sociological and cultural infrastructure of industrialized nations provides more power for women to hold high positions. The purpose of the current research is to look at the influence of glass ceiling beliefs (Denial, Resilience, Resignation, and Acceptance) on the job performance of female employees in Khyber-education Pakhtunkhwa's department in Peshawar. Through a convenient sample approach, an adapted questionnaire was sent to 275 female employees at the directorate of education offices through email and personal contacts; the acquired data was analyzed using SPSS and AMOS software. The study's findings indicated that the first and second hypotheses, according to which denial, resilience, and work performance are positively and substantially related, are accepted. However, the resignation and acceptance were found to be negligible, indicating a negative relationship between these variables and female employee work performance, leading to the rejection of the study's third and fourth hypotheses

Key Words:

Glass Ceiling Beliefs Denial, Resilience, Resignation, Acceptance, Job Performance

Introduction

Women's skills are exceptional, yet they are still overlooked in promotions to senior positions when compared to their male counterparts (Balasubramanian & Lathabhavan, 2018). This misinformation opened the way for the glass ceiling, a concept that describes the variety of variables that contribute to women's underrepresentation in higher-level leadership roles (Akbar, Zeb, & Ahmad, 2017). The glass ceiling is a widely accepted study topic in gender equality studies that serves to explain the difficult nature of challenges that arise on the path to reaching higher-level employment (Krishnan & Szczepura, 2021). Successful career-minded women will eventually encounter subtle hurdles that prevent them from breaking past the glass ceiling and achieving top-ranked posts in an organizational structure (Hymowitz & Schellhardt, 1986). The perception of job success relies on the logic of possessing the "proper skills," which causes unequal conflicting reasoning through glass ceiling connections to women having the "improper capabilities" to achieve top ranks (Kaur, 2021). The glass ceiling is a global issue that began with the Federal Glass Ceiling Commission in the United States finishing research that offered techniques to address the challenges associated with carrying out a series of struggles by women employees to reach the top positions in a firm (Parsons, 2021). 

Researchers in developed countries have investigated intensively the glass ceiling concept, with key components that have helped to alleviate gender discrimination concerns to some degree; however, research on the glass ceiling and its impact on women's career progression is limited in emerging Asian countries (Ayub, Khan, & Khushnood, 2019). Gender disparities are directly connected to the continued economic success of impoverished and rising countries since societal and cultural hurdles hinder women from gaining even the most essential educational rights (Choi, 2019). Studies are needed to explore the kind of impediments that women experience as they develop in their careers in Asian nations such as Pakistan (Zeb, Akbar, & Ahmad, 2016). This study aims to identify the impact of glass ceiling beliefs on women employees' job performance. A survey instrument named Career path was initially coined by (Smith, Crittenden, & Caputi, 2012); that is composed of detailed items refereeing to glass ceiling beliefs used for assessing the significance of these beliefs set in light of women 's promotional campaigns. Glass ceiling beliefs stems from pathway choices that provide strong grounds to explain the attitudes and intentions of female employees in corporate settings (Mohammadkhani & Gholamzadeh, 2016). 

The current study proposed theoretical farmwork was based on the theories of optimism and pessimism developed by (Scheier & Carver, 1985), optimism is attached to favourable events in life while pessimism has considerable concerns with depressive moods, anxiety, and lower job performance. According to Roman (2017); optimistic and pessimistic models explains the logical explanation where denial and resilience were a statistically significant predictor of job performance. However, resignation and acceptance were found to have an inverse association with employees' job performance. Optimism is based on the feeling and emotions about global expectations that good things will happen while pessimism goes in the opposite direction that relies on the occurrences of negative and scarce phenomena. (Fathy & Youssif, 2020). The current research aims to identify the impact of the four glass ceiling beliefs on women's job performance in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa district of Pakistan with a main focus on Peshawar city; as it is considered an educational hub where job advertisements are centred on announcing the equal employment opportunities at the directorate of education offices. 

This is a drop in the ocean of information rather than a big addition to the world of knowledge. The study's limitations may have an influence on the study's outcomes because no approach is perfect, resulting in inconsistency (Akbar, Rafiq, Takrim, Tauqeer, & Sajjad, 2023). To overcome limits, efforts must be made. The overall results of the study are backed by factual evidence; nonetheless, it is critical to acknowledge the study's limitations. Because the data was collected in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the study's generalizability cannot be claimed in other parts of the region. Because it is extremely impossible to analyse all complete lists of characteristics that may directly influence women's glass ceiling beliefs in a single study, this study focused on a selection of variables. Future researchers might widen their horizons by studying.

Review of Literature Glass Ceiling

The Glass Ceiling describes the hidden hurdles that prevent minorities and women from rising to the highest levels of management while having sufficient educational and professional credentials (Babic & Hansez, 2021). Substantial work has been done in industrialized nations for examining the association between female work performance and glass-ceiling beliefs (Wesarat & Mathew, 2017). Such as, Riccucci (2009) conducted a longitudinal data analysis of twenty years from 1984-2004;  to identify the importance of the Glass Ceiling in the performance of employees at work. The findings of the preceding study revealed exponential jumps of 44.4% in female representations at higher-level posts. Glass ceiling was initially coined by the Wall Street Journal; describing it as a stereotypical myth that creates blockages for female workers in gaining promotions into executive posts of organizational hierarchies(Powell, 1999). Albrecht, Björklund, and Vroman (2003) defined the glass ceiling as metaphysical impediments that hinder female employees to obtain managerial posts in the firm; representing a barrier to upward career growth with the "glass" exhibiting the objects intangibility. Salahuddin, Mahmood, and Ahmad (2021) described it as a phenomenon that revolves around contradictory issues that prevent female workers from advancing to top leadership positions by neglecting their credentials and traits. As a result, the glass ceiling notion is employed to describe the unseen walls (glass); through which women may only gaze at managerial positions but cannot acquire them (ceiling) (Bush, 2020). 

Babic and Hansez (2021) divulged that the glass ceiling depicts the composite of barriers that female employees face while attempting to advance to higher portfolios in workplaces, commercial sectors, academic institutions, establishments wings, and a variety of other businesses. Likewise, Salahuddin, Mahmood, and Ahmad (2022) represent similar views; explaining the glass ceiling as an imperceptible deterrent to a successful professional path. Researchers try to find ways to investigate the factors that can alleviate the hindrances caused by a glass ceiling. Shafiq (2014) investigated the effect of glass ceiling challenges encountered by female employees in Pakistan; findings showed that cultural and societal forces heavily rely on male dominance while women are considered appropriate for domestic obligations. The current research followed the optimism/pessimism theories originated by Scheier and Carver (1985); which claims that employees' behaviour at work is governed by their optimistic and pessimistic outlook on life. Likewise, optimistic/pessimistic perspectives play an important part in studying the human that guides in assessing employees' perspectives on problems they confront (Ianni, 2018). Hill, Matta, and Mitchell (2021) stated how optimistic views describe the quest for good occurrences while perusing the strengths of a result, whereas pessimistic perspectives represent an individual adverse reaction to certain events. Smith, Crittenden, et al. (2012) used the optimism/pessimism models as a base in developing proposed theoretical connections between glass ceiling beliefs; based on the preceding study the first two glass ceiling beliefs named denial, and resilience were classified as optimistic approaches while the resignation and acceptance were termed under the heading of pessimistic class (Akbar, Rafiq, Hussain, & Perveen, 2022). The aim of the current research is to examine the relationship between glass ceiling beliefs and women employees' job performance by employing the theoretical base of optimism and pessimism theories.

Glass Ceiling Beliefs

The current research is based on the work of  Smith, Crittenden, et al. (2012); who devised the survey instrument named career pathway that was composed of items representing the four beliefs of glass ceilings namely denial, resilience, acceptance, and resignation. The foundation of this study followed the optimism and pessimism model initially cultivated by Scheier and Carver (1985).  Roman (2017) describes that exploring the glass ceiling ideas derived from optimistic/pessimistic theories may assist in anticipating female attitudinal responses to advancements to managerial positions at the upper level of management. The relevance of the foregoing study is its contribution to closing gaps in prior research by analyzing the female employees' job performance with reference to glass ceiling beliefs. Glass ceiling beliefs have the capacity to inspire or dampen the inherent desires of female employees to progress towards more senior roles in a business. Glass ceiling beliefs laid the foundation for attitudinal shifts in corporate settings with regard to the vocational pathway (Hartman & Barber, 2020). The strong underpinning of the career pathway survey is closely related to the theories of optimism and pessimism, which gives a rational explanation for the likelihood of female representation being assisted to obtain top-level positions (Akbar, Yousafzai, & Akbar, 2023; Gholamzadeh, Haghshenase Kashani, & Mohammadkhani, 2015). Glass ceiling beliefs has four sets of beliefs denial, resilience, resignation, and acceptance. According to Smith, Crittenden, et al. (2012); denial represents that employees face the same kind of work-related challenges regardless of gender in progressing to the next cadre posts in a business setting. Furthermore, denial is denoted by perceived misconception regarding glass ceiling beliefs; holding that male and female workers face similar nature problems in the workplace.

According to Javadizadeh, Ross, and Valenzuela (2019),; denial and female employees' attitude is moving towards an optimistic perspective that bestows courage in their behavioural patterns to peruse higher ranks in businesses. As described by Adamovic and Leibbrandt (2023) denial represents the perceptual misconception regarding the glass ceiling phenomenon, which holds that both men and women face the same challenges in the workplace. Similarly, women in the denial stage feel that the glass barrier is a myth that cannot be overcome in order to advance to the next level of promotion. Similarly, Singh, Sharma, Bali, Sharma, and Shah (2023) conducted research on the denial approach in relation to women employees' attitudes towards achieving career goals. The study's findings revealed that the denial approach is holding an optimistic view about their surroundings, which instils confidence in women's attitudes in pursuit of reaching top positions in an organisational setup. The denial belief has close concerns with a sense of stability that relies on optimistic opinion with no concerns with gender discrimination in achieving organizational success (Lathabhavan, 2019). 

As reported by Balasubramanian and Lathabhavan (2018); denial belief stems from the feeling of emotional satisfaction that is based on the theory of an optimistic approach towards organizational life. The second belief of the glass ceiling phenomenon is characterized as resilience; which describes that female employees have the guts and drive to smash the illusions created by the glass ceiling (Smith, Crittenden, et al. 2012). Resilience defines the women's fortitude to surpass the glass ceiling that is mainly concerned with their capabilities to withstand all the hurdles and barriers in attaining higher level posts in organisations. According to the research carried out by Javadizadeh et al. (2019); resilience belief and turnover intentions were significantly correlated with each other. Moreover, the preceding study revealed that resilience encourages female workers to trust in their capabilities to make crucial decisions in top leadership positions. Fathy and Youssif (2020) demonstrated that supporters of resilience maintain a positive perspective of their surroundings that represents female employees giving the same output as their male colleagues. Women exhibit a higher level of achievement in addressing complicated difficulties of higher-level management jobs (Fernandez & Rubineau, 2019). 

As described by Smith, Crittenden, et al. (2012); acceptance is the glass ceiling belief that justifies the reasons why female employees prefer household responsibilities in comparison with organisational success. Acceptance of care and accountabilities towards family is higher than career goals. Acceptance stems from the pessimism approach that supports the notion; that women are happy in their current positions with no desire to move upwards to the organisational senior-level positions (Elacqua, Beehr, Hansen, & Webster, 2009). Prior research has linked the acceptance and women's job performance; the results indicated that women are not eager to move upwards in businesses as they are culturally bound by household chores and duties (Balasubramanian & Lathabhavan, 2017). Likewise, Pothuraju and Alekhya (2021) articulated that acceptance is constituted of several components; which provides a sound base for women's strong tendencies towards family-related goals over managerial and leadership positions in organizations. The fourth glass ceiling belief as explained by Smith, Crittenden, et al. (2012) is resignation; which depicts women confronting a wide range of troubles and subtleties as compared to men in gaining promotion to the next higher levels. As a result, a composite of these hurdles prevents them to break the glass ceiling. According to the study of Bush (2020); resignation comes in the domain of pessimism phenomenon that describes the women's psychological dissonance associated with professional life. Female employees suffer major issues with regard to the behavioural dimensions of their male teammates when it comes to achieving promotions. Resignation and acceptance are categorized as pessimistic views as they explain gender imbalance in the workplace(Newman, 2016).  

Job Performance

Job performance is characterized as the aggregate of projected worth in a business about the overall behavioural outcomes of the employees (Akbar, Ahmad, & Yousafzai, 2022).  Davidescu, Apostu, Paul, and Casuneanu (2020) have interwoven the concept of job performance with corporate goals and objectives. The preceding definition illustrates job performance in relation to the successful achievement of organizational targets and objectives. It represents an employee's efforts and capabilities to attain organizational goals (Akbar & Ahmad, 2022). In accordant with Min and Yoon (2021); employees perform well when they believe their profession is valuable, with worthy feelings of being secure that permit human capital to dedicate their full level of energy to attaining organizational success. Job performance depicts the understating of the core obligations of a job, such as knowing the job descriptions and duties that lead to the successful running of an organizational function (Akbar, Mordhah, Takreem, & Dr, 2023; Popoola & Karadas, 2022). Balasubramanian and Lathabhavan (2018) revealed that job performance is influenced by sentiments of connection to co-workers, attitudinal attachments and a sense of community with firms tied to visionary views about corporate values and beliefs.

Previous research scholars have focused on the role of glass ceiling beliefs in uplifting the firm's performance from different perspectives with a diverse set of variables. Such as Balasubramanian and Lathabhavan (2017) identified a positive relationship between denial and resilience in job performance. However, resignation and acceptance were negatively correlated with job performance. Limited studies have been done on job performance and glass ceiling beliefs in emerging economies. Previous research has overlooked the value of job performance in hindering female progression in an enterprise. Therefore, there is an imperative necessity to deeply indulged in factors that impede women's career growth in an enterprise. As a response to fill the gap, the current study examines the impact of glass ceiling beliefs on women's job performance. Glass ceiling beliefs were studied by previous researchers in industrialized countries. Such as Balasubramanian and Lathabhavan (2018) revealed significant mediation effects of work performance and engagements between glass ceiling beliefs and career success. Similarly, Lathabhavan (2019) reported positive ties between denial and job performance. Resilience belief was found positively and linearly tied to women's job performance and work engagements in a similar nature study conducted by Smith, Caputi, and Crittenden (2012a).

According to Sia, Sahoo, and Duari (2015); denial and resilience beliefs have the capacity to increase the level of women's job performance. However, resignation and acceptance have an adverse impact on female job performance. Resignation creates negative energies; imparting a bad impression of employee turnover that can badly damage the organizational success and job performance of employees.  Acceptance belief is the core concern because that compels women to accept household responsibilities as their major job; family-related tasks are much stronger than career success. Resignation and acceptance rely on a pessimistic approach towards professional career orientation that has an adverse effect on job performance(Balasubramanian & Lathabhavan, 2018). Acceptance and resignation were negatively linked with women employees' job performance; the conflict between household obligations and workplace responsibilities creates anxiety and depression. Thus both institutions get suffered that resulting in lower job performance (Lathabhavan, 2019).  Patronizing the preceding studies as a base; the following hypotheses are formed;

H1: denial has significantly tied to women employees’ job performance

H2: resilience has significantly tied to women employee’s job performance

H3: resignation has insignificant ties with women employee’s job performance

H4: acceptance has insignificant ties with women employees’ job performance



Methodology

In accordance with the research's basic aim of measuring the impact of glass ceiling beliefs on women employees' job performance, a structured questionnaire was devised with adapted questions from previous studies in the field of glass ceiling belief in Pakistan. Questions were changed according to the female respondent’s core barriers with respect to the glass ceiling four sets of beliefs and its impact on their level of performance. For the purpose of the study self-constructed and self-administered questionnaire adapted from the study conducted by Smith, Crittenden, et al. (2012) which consists of close-ended questions from only women employees of education departments of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa regarding their point of view about glass ceiling beliefs i.e., denial, resilience, acceptance, and resignation on women employee’s job performance. Data were analyzed by applying descriptive statistics, correlation, and multiple regressions of SPSS and AMOS. The study was carried out in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in four major cities namely, Peshawar, Mardan, Abbottabad, and Swat. The rationale for choosing these cities is their cosmopolitan nature where all Education departments and offices are located. This research was based on a positivist approach with quantitative techniques by employing the Slovin (1960) formula for sample size selection. The sample size was calculated as 275 that were given reached via a convenient sampling technique. The items of the questionnaire were taken from the study of (Smith, Caputi, & Crittenden, 2012b). 

Results Demographic Profile of Respondents

Table 1 of the research reports the demographic profile of the respondents, which produces the percentage as well as the number of respondents in each group. The survey only included female responders since the glass ceiling represents the hurdles that women and minorities encounter while advancing to higher-level organizational roles. Education level, income level, marital status, and family structure were the demographic factors studied. According to educational categorization, 5.8% of respondents have a bachelor's degree; 52% of female respondents have a master's degree; 38.9% of female workers have an MS degree; and just 3.3% have a PhD. Income levels were divided into less than 20,000, 20-40,000, 40-60,000, 60-80,000, and 80,000 and above. Only 1.8% of respondents earned less than 20,000. 10.2% of employees were women earning between 20,001 and $40,000; 44.3% of employees earned between 40,001 and 60,000; and 29.1% earned between 60,001 and 80,000. Women earning 80,000 or more make up 14.5% of the workforce. The percentages of unmarried and married people were 57.1% and 42.9%, respectively. Nuclear and combined family structures were observed to have 50.9 and 49.1% family structures, respectively. 

Table 1

Demographics	Description	Number	Percentage
Education level	Bachelors	16	5.8%
	Masters	143	52%
	MS	107	38.9%
	PhD.	9	3.3%
	Total	275	100.0
Income level
	Less than 20,000	5	1.8%
	20,000-40,000	28	10.2%
	40,000-60,000	122	44.3%
	60,000-80,000	80	29.1%
	80,000 and above	40	14.5%
	Total	275	100.0
Marital status
	Single	157	57.1%
	Married	118	42.9%
	Total	275	100.0
Family structure	Nuclear	140	50.9%
	Joint	135	49.1%
		275	100%

Table 2

Constructs	No of items	Cronbach’s Alpha
Denial	5	0.936
Resilience	6	0.981
Resignation	6	0.846
Acceptance	4	0.910
Job performance	5	0.942
Composite reliability	26	0.905

Table 3

Constructs	Items	Cronbach Alpha	Standard loadings of items	Composite Reliability	AVE
Denial	5	0.936	DENIAL1=0.80 DENIAL2=0.82 DENIAL3=0.91 DENIAL4=0.91 DENIAL5=0.94	0.93	0.69
Resilience	6	0.981	RESILIANCE1=0.93 RESILIANCE2=0.93 RESILIANCE3=0.92 RESILIANCE4=0.91 RESILIANCE5=0.93 RESILIANCE6=0.70	0.85	0.55
Resignation	6	0.846	RESIGNATION1=0.87 RESIGNATION2=0.92 RESIGNATION3=0.93 RESIGNATION4=0.84 RESIGNATION5=0.87 RESIGNATION6=0.72	0.91	0.68
Acceptance	4	0.910	ACCEPTANCE1=0.87 ACCEPTANCE2=0.90 ACCEPTANCE3=0.94 ACCEPTANCE4=0.93	0.88	0.65
Job Performance	5	0.942	JOB PERFORMANCE1=0.86 JOB PERFORMANCE2=0.98 JOB PERFORMANCE3=0.99 JOB PERFORMANCE4=0.97 JOBPERFORMANCE5=0.88	0.86	0.66

Table 4

Discriminant Validity
Latent Variable	Denial	Resilience	Resignation	Acceptance	Job Performance
Denial	0.724
Resiliance	0.705	0.739
Resignation	0.712	0.709	0.789
Acceptance	0.621	0.670	0.702	0.790
Job Performance	0.711	0.720	0.717	0.740	0.796

Structured Model

The structured model of the study revealed model fitness values (CMIN = 640.981), df = 183, p 0.001, CMIN/df = 3.503, NFI = 0.902, TLI = 0.915, CFI = 0.932, RFI=.88, IFI = 0.932, RMSEA = 0.07), and the SRMR value was 0.020. model fitness values of the measurement model were determined as (CMIN =510.937, df = 172, p 0.001, CMIN/df = 2.971, NFI = 0.932, TLI = 0.942, CFI = 0.945, RFI=.915, IFI = 0.952, RMSEA = 0.06), and the SRMR value was determined to be 0.03.  





Results of the study demonstrated the statistically significant impact of glass ceiling beliefs on job performance that leads to acceptance of the study hypotheses of the study. However, the third and fourth hypotheses of the study were insignificantly tied to job performance that revealed that resignation and acceptance beliefs were inversely related to the job performance of women employees. The beta coefficient value of 0.71 with a p-value of 0.000 was less than 0.01 which supports the first hypothesis of the study. The beta coefficient value of 0.17 with a p-value less than 0.01 indicates a positive and significant association between resilience and job performance that results in acceptance of the second hypothesis of the study. The third glass ceiling belief resignation p-value was more than 0.01 which was 0.474 with a beta coefficient value of -0.041 accepts the third hypothesis of the study. The acceptance glass ceiling belief beta coefficient value was found as .103 with a p-value more than 0.01; that was calculated as 0.146. thus, accepting the fourth hypothesis of the study.

Table.5

Model	Unstandardized coefficients		Standardized coefficients	T	Sig
	B	Std. Error	Beta
(Constant)	.048	.103		.470	.000
Denial	.738	.055	.713	13.353	.000
Resilience	.205	.074	.172	2.779	.006
Resignation	-.042	.058	-.041	-.717	.474
Acceptance	.095	.065	.103	1.457	.146

Discussions

The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of glass ceiling beliefs (denial, resilience, resignation, and acceptance) on job performance. The review of the literature section provides evidence of previous work done by scholars and researchers on the basis of which hypotheses were developed. Glass ceiling beliefs were revealed as a dominant phenomenon that has created barriers for female employees to advance to higher-level positions in an organisation. The study's findings have placed a stamp on prior studies that reveal a favourable and substantial association between denial, resilience, and job performance. The first and second hypotheses of the study are accepted on the basis of which denial, resilience and job performance were positively and significantly linked with each other. Lathabhavan (2019)  used a structural equation model to investigate the relationship between glass ceiling beliefs and performance and work performance in an Indian environment. The study's findings supported job performance as a mediator between glass-ceiling beliefs and employee performance. Furthermore, denial and resilience beliefs were revealed to be favourably related to job involvement. Smith, Caputi, et al. (2012a) discovered a favourable and substantial relationship between denial, resilience, and work performance. The study's second and third hypotheses were rejected because the glass ceiling beliefs of resignation and acceptance were insignificantly related to work performance. Sia et al. (2015) discovered a favourable relationship between job performance and denial and resilience, whereas an inverse relationship was discovered between the mythological occurrence of gender-discriminatory glass ceiling beliefs of resignation and acceptance and job performance.

Conclusion

The term glass ceiling is a globally acknowledged study topic in women's rights studies that concentrate on the challenges that women face in the workplace while aspiring to top executive posts. The current research was centred on the theory of optimism/pessimism established by Scheier and Carver (1985) which provide a logic for developing attitudinal responses towards positive and negative events in life. The positive perspective towards life explains the optimistic views while the negative part is related to the pessimistic approach towards life. Denial and resilience come under the domain of optimism. However, resignation and acceptance are tied to the pessimism approach towards life (Roman, 2017). The current study aimed to investigate the role of glass ceiling beliefs in the job performance of women employees at directorates of education offices, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Peshawar. Results showed a statistically significant relationship between denial, resilience, and job performance. Therefore, the first two hypotheses of the study are accepted. The findings regressed an insignificant association between resignation, acceptance, and job performance. Thus, the third and fourth hypotheses were accepted as the relationship was hypothesized as insignificant based on the previous studies. The current research findings contribute to the literature on glass ceiling beliefs and women employees working in administrative positions. Managerial implications of the study can guide human resource managers in understanding the female employee's problems and challenges they face in order to gain promotion in organizations. This study will guide the corporate authorities in providing equal employment opportunities in their broader organizational plans. Potential researchers can add a diverse set of moderators and mediators' roles in assessing the connection between glass ceiling beliefs and the job performance of women employees at work. Researchers in future may employ the same theoretical farmwork in other cultural settings with different geographical proximities. The current research can assist in policy implications with respect to the perception of female employees working in an organizational setup striving for advancement and embracing all welcoming ways to adopt equal employment opportunity practices in the recruitment and selection process. This study will assist all company settings in understanding women's ideas about the glass ceiling and its influence on work performance at various levels, which can ease the complexity of winning the gender equality race to some extent.

Conclusion

The term glass ceiling is a globally acknowledged study topic in women's rights studies that concentrate on the challenges that women face in the workplace while aspiring to top executive posts. The current research was centred on the theory of optimism/pessimism established by Scheier and Carver (1985) which provide a logic for developing attitudinal responses towards positive and negative events in life. The positive perspective towards life explains the optimistic views while the negative part is related to the pessimistic approach towards life. Denial and resilience come under the domain of optimism. However, resignation and acceptance are tied to the pessimism approach towards life (Roman, 2017). The current study aimed to investigate the role of glass ceiling beliefs in the job performance of women employees at directorates of education offices, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Peshawar. Results showed a statistically significant relationship between denial, resilience, and job performance. Therefore, the first two hypotheses of the study are accepted. The findings regressed an insignificant association between resignation, acceptance, and job performance. Thus, the third and fourth hypotheses were accepted as the relationship was hypothesized as insignificant based on the previous studies. The current research findings contribute to the literature on glass ceiling beliefs and women employees working in administrative positions. Managerial implications of the study can guide human resource managers in understanding the female employee's problems and challenges they face in order to gain promotion in organizations. This study will guide the corporate authorities in providing equal employment opportunities in their broader organizational plans. Potential researchers can add a diverse set of moderators and mediators' roles in assessing the connection between glass ceiling beliefs and the job performance of women employees at work. Researchers in future may employ the same theoretical farmwork in other cultural settings with different geographical proximities. The current research can assist in policy implications with respect to the perception of female employees working in an organizational setup striving for advancement and embracing all welcoming ways to adopt equal employment opportunity practices in the recruitment and selection process. This study will assist all company settings in understanding women's ideas about the glass ceiling and its influence on work performance at various levels, which can ease the complexity of winning the gender equality race to some extent.

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