Asians hit glass ceiling at tech firms

Study finds plenty of programmers

San Francisco — Google, Yahoo and other major technology companies are far more inclined to hire Asians as computer programmers than to promote them to become managers or executives, according to a study released Wednesday.

The analysis uncovered a glaring imbalance between the number of Asian technology workers in nonmanagement jobs and the number in leadership positions in Silicon Valley.

Ascend, a group focused on Asian business issues, based its conclusions on 2013 data filed with U.S. employ- ment regulators by five Silicon Valley companies: Google Inc., Yahoo Inc., Intel Corp., Hewlett-packard Co. and Linkedin Corp.

“If you step in the cafeteria of any of these five companies, you will see plenty of Asian talent around,” said Denise Peck, a co-author of the Ascend study and former vice president at computer networking equipment maker Cisco Systems. “It’s only when you walk into the executive suites at these companies that you might see a problem.”

The study came out on the same day that civil rights leader Jesse Jackson and his Rainbow Push organization held a summit in San Francisco as part of a year-old campaign to pressure tech companies into hiring and promoting more minorities and women.

There’s no shortage of Asians in those technology jobs. Asians, though, are having trouble climbing up the chain of command, based on Ascend’s analysis of the “professional” jobs at the five studied companies. The classification refers to white-collar positions that typically require technical skills or college degrees.

The report found that Asians held 27% of the professional jobs yet only 14% were executives. By comparison, whites held 62% of the professional jobs at the studied companies, but filled 80% of the executive jobs.

The industry’s shortage of Asian executives stems in part from a cultural divide, the report acknowledges.

Corporate America often embraces confident, outspoken individuals with unconventional ideas. In contrast, many Asians are taught to be deferential and cling to a belief that doing a good job will automatically be rewarded, said Peck, a Chinese-american. “There are cultural norms and attitudes that help get Asians to a certain level of success, but then work against them and hold them back from reaching a higher rank,” Peck said.

The challenges aren’t insurmountable. Microsoft Corp. is led by an Asian CEO, Indian-american Satya Nadella, who has received high marks since taking the job 15 months ago. Another Asian leader, Sundar Pichai, has worked his way up to become a top executive at Google.