This is an assignment worth 50% of my mark, 2000-2500 words. The assignment is turned in via Turnitin so please make sure the whole assignment is in your own words.
The assignment is two parts, a 2000-2500 essay and short ppt for the video I’ll be making
For this assignment I have to define and discuss ONE challenging personal issue in the context of the construction industry and my future participation in it, which for me is being a woman working in male dominated industry.

The complete description is below
This assignment assesses your ability to self-reflect on a key management challenge and communicate persuasively why this topic is personally difficult or challenging for you through both essay and multi-media responses.

The assignment has 2 parts: an essay and a self-recorded video presentation (max.2 minutes).

Assignment topic:
Define and discuss ONE challenging personal issue in the context of the construction industry and your future participation in it. You may choose a topic that YOU anticipate will be most challenging for YOU to develop confident proficiency and mastery of from your own future career perspective based on what you know of yourself and your current strengths and weaknesses.

Use a persuasive essay format (Links to an external site.). Discuss why this management-related topic is challenging for you personally and use hypothetical or real examples of what you would consider success and failure to help communicate your argument.

Once you have finished the essay, summarising the essay into a short video of you describing this personal challenge.

Important!
This essay is about YOU, therefore you must write in the first-person.

This assignment assesses your ability to self-reflect on your current strengths and weaknesses and discuss how these will impact your future career aspirations. It is an opportunity to really think about yourself and your future and document what you are going to do about overcoming ONE selected major concern you have.

Include the results from your personality assessments that you completed near the beginning of the semester. Use these results to help explain why this topic is a concern for you and how your perceptions of your own strengths and weaknesses may need further development. As you are now nearing the end of your degree, you may consider your life experiences to date and include other personality types that you know to be challenging to work alongside. Consider including what strategies will you need to develop to work alongside these people in the future and how you might be better prepared for this.

Be sure to use your Strength Development Inventory (SDI) results – consider how your Motivational Value System and Conflict Sequence give (or have failed to give) you insights you can use today. Look at your Strengths and Overdone Strengths – what do these say about you as a future manager and leader? (This is also a good opportunity to use what you’ve learned from conducting the Results Action Planner exercise in your SDI Learner Guide.)

Provide evidence as to why your selected topic is a personal challenge. Write and speak persuasively. Also, provide evidence of further research into this topic and how others have overcome this challenge. As required, discuss relevant theories associated with this management challenge that you have discovered in your research as required in this assignment. Discuss your understanding of how useful these theories appear to be and how they may support or contradict your initial perceived understanding before commencing the course.

Use real-world applications/examples that may aid your argument from your own life/work experiences to date. You may consider asking someone who you have worked with in the past or who know’s you well to provide you feedback on what theythink is a potential weakness for you as a manager in the future.

Essay Assessment Criteria:
In the context of self-directed learning, you must reflect on what you have learned to date in the course and how it will affect your future personal and professional career development.

Critical reflection provides coherence to your learning by relating it to what you already know, have experienced, and your plans for the future. In this reflective activity explore the assumptions underlying your beliefs and actions and show evidence of self-reflection on one of your weaknesses that you consider a challenge for your future career.

Video Assessment Criteria:
To complement the completed persuasive essay, the creation of a short self-curated video (using a video capture device such as a phone or laptop) is required. This short video will provide an opportunity to summarise your essay and distill the core argumentof your essay into a visual and auditory communication summary. (Refer to my Welcome video of this course for one example – I used my phone).

Submission
Essay length: 2000 to 2500 words max! (excluding references)

Submitted via Turnitin in one PDF file only.

Video length: 2 minutes max!

The video can be uploaded to Canvas Studios (you’ll see the link icon on the left of the screen), or via Youtube or a similar video-sharing website. I have used Canvas Studios for the uploading of lectures successfully, so that is recommended. The video link to be submitted via Canvas should be a clickable link within the essay PDF. CHECK THIS BEFORE SUBMITTING!!! as failure to access the video via a clickable link will result in ZERO marks for the video.

*For the video part can you put together a 5-6 pages ppt to summaries the essay

ANSWER

CHALLENGE OF WORKING AS A WOMAN IN A MALE-DOMINATED CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

Introduction

Before beginning this individual assignment, I asked my friends what they thought when they visualized the construction industry. The most common answer was that they saw strong men, covered in dirt, mud, wearing hard hats and protective gears. In most cases and among many people’s minds, when we think of the construction industry, this stereotypical image tends to cloud our minds and influence our thoughts on females working in the industry, which is a significant challenge working in the construction industry personally. In the 21^st century, realities have changed and will continue changing, as previously and traditionally categorized industries as male-dominated are becoming inclusive and diverse to ensure the representation of women. However, it is not wholly recognized that women are equally represented in the construction industry as, for ages even today, the debate of whether women are weaker or stronger than men remains perennial.

According to Norberg & Johansson (2021), in 2014, women’s participation and representation in the construction industry in the USA was 8.9%, which increased to 9.9% in 2018 (Norberg & Johansson, 2021). These statistics have increased slowly from 2% in the 1990s, which is a concern as the social construction, expectations, and gender roles placed among men and women live on. Moreover, Hickey & Cui (2020) find that despite having a gender distribution of 50.8% and 21.9% of civil engineering degrees in the last 24 years in the USA, women remain significantly underrepresented in the USA engineering and construction leadership positions (Hickey & Cui, 2020). The construction industry is an integral part of a country’s development: infrastructure and industrial development but is primarily male-dominated, which poses a significant challenge for equal opportunities for women. This is the most challenging issue as being a woman; I cannot fully present my thoughts, opinions, and ideas without being met with stereotypical comments like men are stronger, let men do their job, and all these aspects make a woman feel out of place among many men. This issue presents professional, personal, emotional, and psychological challenges in attaining my career goals and objectives. It affects my leadership and management skills to effectively and successfully lead companies, limits my abilities to provide the best I can in my work and become what I have always wanted to become, professionally and personally.

Self-Reflection

In my career in the construction industry, I wish to work and become the best there can ever be, and I aspire to provide the best services and products to customers, the company, the planet, and humanity. However, these career goals and professional objectives may be strained in my management working in the male-dominated construction industry as in working environments where a person feels left out, out of place, and outnumbered they seize to become their authentic selves, they do not provide the high-quality service, performance, and productivity and it becomes challenging to work effectively and efficiently. More importantly, when you feel outnumbered and out of place, finding the right support networks can be intricate, a vital aspect when working in the industry. According to Gibson et al. (2014), lack of support networks results in leadership and management problems as well as organizational culture crisis. Networking involves the goal-directed behavior occurring internally and externally in an organization that focuses on creating, utilizing, and cultivating interpersonal relationships (Gibson, et al., 2014). Support networks in an organization present personal and professional development opportunities that, when not accorded, one’s personal and professional performance and functionality are adversely affected.

Most importantly, these challenges go against my motives and values as a Red-Blue person in my motivational value system. As a Red-Blue person, I am inclined to “achieving self-worth feelings acquired by actively encouraging others to grow, succeed and accomplish great things.” I am motivated to ensure people’s performance and provide assertive nurturing where I perceive maximum growth and development as the development of others, helping those in need, and mentoring relationships. Therefore, if I am left out and cannot make networking relationships with my colleagues, it would affect my self-efficacy, limiting my strengths of attaining my goals and helping others. For instance, as a woman, imagining a situation whereby either when working in the administrative, technical, and onsite positions, one is always excluded and feels like they are working solely, it affects their productivity and performance. In the leadership and administrative functions, a woman among many men may feel intimidated to provide her ideas and thoughts even though she knows they are the best, and even though she airs these opinions, they can be ignored or disregarded. In such an instance, the lack of a support network among the males in the leadership positions renders her invisible in decision-making, which eventually limits her role and makes the working climate hostile. Ultimately, effective and efficient performance and productivity are affected, translating to not attaining personal goals and professional objectives in the career world. To compensate for this invisibility, one can be forced to adopt an authoritarian leadership style and become a Theory X manager to assert power, visibility, inclusivity, and leadership (Arslan & Staub, 2013), a style subject to numerous criticism and stereotyping.

In addition to lacking support networks in the male-dominated construction industry, emotionally, psychologically, physically and financially, it becomes a challenge as mostly one feels incompetent, invisible, and lacking a voice and is subject to mistreatment. These are the challenges that arise or women face while working in male-dominated careers and industries. I keep thinking about the new and first female USA Vice President: Kamala Harris, who, against all odds, attained this milestone and keeps shinning and working. The construction industry being predominantly male, where ‘the boys/men club’ is still a thing, presents gender biases and constraints to professional development as a woman. Kamala Harris is an inspiration and a motivation pillar for me and many girls globally as she seems to maneuver and win in her position that was predominately male ‘possessed.’ I aspire to provide career quality in the construction industry and become one of the most influential and successful women in the industry. However, in such an environment where women’s career quality is defined in terms of how women can have equal access to career development compared to men in a male-dominated industry, it becomes difficult to attain it.

Therefore, working as a woman in the male-dominated construction industry is challenging for me due to the attitudes people or colleagues have regarding women leadership and management, beliefs on gender roles, biases, and stereotypes, as well as external requirements such as subjective factors including self-doubt of own strengths and abilities, fear, weaknesses and social constructions. When establishing how to survive or succeed in such an environment in the male-dominated construction industry, I am coerced to consider three choices Rosa et al. (2017) discusses: either acting like men in the industry, lowering my goals and assuming second positions and surrendering or moving my work somewhere else. Moreover, even when I seek to move higher and climb the ladder of success, I am met with the hurdles of men’s social isolation and men downplaying the contributions to maintain their positions in the male-dominated construction industry (Rosa, et al., 2017). Throughout this course, I have learned an essential aspect regarding relationships and working with others. We are all different, characterized by unique motivational value systems, personalities, leadership philosophies, and beliefs; hence one must find common ground of respect and understanding to work with others effectively. My guiding philosophy is working for the service of people and humanity; therefore, I must learn to work with people with blue, green, red, red-green, blue-green, and hub MVSs. Understanding this will help me not align with Rosa et al.’s (2017) success options of giving up my womanhood, goals, and surrendering in the construction industry but finding elevating and creative solutions.

When attaining this common ground, I feel my top three strengths of being modest, methodical, and a risk-taker will highly help me address this identified challenge. Scholars, researchers, and the general public all have a similar image of the construction industry, a male-dominated industry. Men mostly do onsite construction work, they mostly fill technical positions, and administrative work in this industry is a constant competition for men and women, with men being dominant. However, this trend is slowly changing to include 9.9% women as of 2018 out of 90.1% men. Therefore, even though it is a challenge subjecting women to isolation and lack of support networks or feeling outnumbered, I can look at the positives and slowly build rapport and long-lasting relationships with all colleagues. Even though I know it is possible not to win similar benefits as men and fit completely, it is a long journey with million steps, but a single step can make the difference. My methodical strength will help me make plans to construct relations and better interact with other people, and maybe one day I can create a trend where my male colleagues seek me out, we share a vision, system, and procedure of working preparing an inclusive workplace for other women and slowly making the organizational culture accommodative, adaptable and supportive with gender neutrality.

Nonetheless, addressing the challenges of women working in a male-dominated construction company can be complex and perennial, especially because one is dealing with managing not only external issues but also internal beliefs. This challenge is fueled by our inner/personal beliefs, attitudes, social constructs, institutional systems, and policies, which can take almost forever to address. Hence, with my top three overdone strengths of modesty, rashing, and smothering, I feel they can affect how I overcome the challenge and pursue my future career. For instance, while being a risk-taker, I can create common ground preparing for a supportive, diverse, inclusive, and gender-neutral organizational/industrial culture. However, what if I rash or quickly act seeking to help make the world and the construction industry a better place and end up being labeled as pushy, running things, even riskier, and getting frustrated. Being overly modest can become more of a weakness that can lead me to downplay myself, surrender, act like men in the industry, lower my goals, and assume second positions.

When overdone, my strengths become my weaknesses, which, if not well addressed, may provide more complications in my future career trajectory and profession. However, when looking at my SDI results: 2.0, this challenge can be addressed in the future. My motivation in life is the maximum growth and development of people and serving to create a better world and humanity. I measure my accomplishments in my work, career, and life by seeing that my work and service benefits people and the planet by making them grow, develop, become the better version of themselves and realize their potential. Hence, this will motivate me to work harder on developing relationships, seeking a safe bouncing back platform such as joining women organizations in the construction industry where I can be supported and can support other women, being diverse where I acquire both feminine and masculine skills sets to become all-around and focus on the positive elements of the work and people. When faced with conflict, using my G-[BR] conflict sequence, I would want to maintain order and make reasonable choices depending on the situation. I believe the best way to solve such an issue is by ensuring I have all facts regarding why this underrepresentation of women or women working in a male-dominated industry in the construction industry affects their productivity and performance, which eventually affects the overall organizational performance should be addressed; providing time and attention to try to divert the stereotypical image and deliver the benefits of inclusivity to ensure the solutions create a win-win situation, common ground, inclusivity, and supportive working climate.

Conclusion

Working effectively and efficiently in a male-dominated construction industry presents numerous management challenges such as lack of support networks emotionally, psychologically, physically, and financially, which makes one feel incompetent, feel invisible, and lack a voice. These issues are derived from the attitudes colleagues have regarding women leadership and management, beliefs on gender roles, biases, stereotypes, and external requirements such as subjective factors, including self-doubt of own strengths and abilities, fear, weaknesses, and social constructions. However, times and realities are changing, and I believe with the employment relation policies put in place to embrace inclusivity and diversity in the workplace, this challenge will slowly but surely be addressed. Meanwhile, as a woman, one should adopt coping strategies such as being all-around adopting feminine and masculine skill sets, forming women support organizations and effecting constructive change to maximize personal, professional, and organizational success, high-quality productivity, and performance.

References

Arslan, A. & Staub, S., 2013. Theory X and Theory Y Type Leadership Behavior and its Impact on Organizational Performance: Small Business Owners in the Şishane Lighting and Chandelier Distric. SSRN Electronic Journal, Volume 75, pp. 102-111.

Gibson, C., Hardy-III, J. H. & Buckley, M. R., 2014. Understanding the role of networking in organizations. Career Development International, 19(2), pp. 146-161.

Hickey, P. J. & Cui, Q., 2020. Gender Diversity in US Construction Industry Leaders. Journal of Management in Engineering, 36(5).

Norberg, C. & Johansson, M., 2021. “Women and “Ideal” Women”: The Representation of Women in the Construction Industry. Gender Issues, Volume 38, pp. 1-24.

Rosa, J. E., Hon, C. K., Xia, B. & Lamari, F., 2017. Challenges, success factors and strategies for women’s career development in the Australian construction industry. Construction Economics and Building, 17(3), pp. 27-46.