Gender Effect on Multinational HR Policies - Example

Running Header: Gender Effect on Multinational HR Policies Title: Gender Effect on Multinational HR Policies By: Michael Wacheke Date: 23rd April 2009 Table of contents 1. Introduction Human resource policies Gender relations at work 2. Abstract 3. Research process 4. Observations 5. Research findings and results 6. Proposition 7. Conclusion Introduction Creation is a wonderful part of nature that no one gets to choose how it works. Consequently, nature decides who is to be born feminine or masculine. Though great scientific research has been able to change sexes, it is a hassle that many would prefer avoiding regardless of the problems they encounter due to their gender. The modern world is no exception though it embraces people as they are regardless of their gender. Human resource policies Human Resource is a department that is very delicate since it is entrusted by the entire organization to recruit the best suited people for jobs and they have to do this recruitment on strangers. They are therefore left to judge the performance of a person and ability based on the academic qualification and first appearance. In Human Resource management it is very hard not to judge a book by the cover. Most multinationals employ the best Human resource managers since they look for quality employees and to get such, they must be recruited by professionals. Most multinationals vest the power to create human resource policies on the human resource department and this has seen many HR departments being rendered independent from the company management. The HR department creates the policies based on their decisions as to who is suited to get the jobs and the job description as well at the company requirements (Tayeb, 2005). Abstract The Human Resource department in multinationals does not compromise on standards and this is why there is quality service in multinationals all the time. Gender is an issue that has been a headache to many since some of the countries are biased on one gender. Cultures too have proven to be an issue in gender based recruitment since some cultures value one sex more than the other and therefore they discriminate (Barret & Davidson, 2006). Some of the jobs too are presumed to belong to a certain gender. When the person of the opposite sex applies for such jobs, people wonder if the person is capable of performing in the position. This has triggered great debates during human resource conventions. Activists too have taken up the fight against gender discrimination while offering jobs and this has gained the support of international organizations like the International labor organization (Tsay, 1994). Gender relations at work Different people like different things and have different ways of working and this makes the workplace a hard place to cope if ideas and performance methods are conflicting. The HR department could try to streamline the differences but somewhere along the way there arises issues based on gender. This could be from personal perceptions or due to company groupings where a certain gender groups together and separates from the rest of the workforce. This could cause hate at work or coalitions like in the companies where gender based groupings are common. Multinationals have curbed these gender based groupings by creating groups that mix genders and require involvement of each individual. This leaves all workers without an option but to do as company policy states. Such policies are the ones that the HR department should keep creating (Poole, 1999). Research Process A sample carried out in most multinationals has shown that out of a possible 10 multinationals only two will have a bias on gender and this will mainly be where the management is greatly concentrated with people of the other gender. This sample looked at the recruitment process in many multinationals from the point of dropping of the resume. At this point, there was an equal chance for application. This narrowed when it came to the invitation for interviews. The first criterion used was the academic qualifications and based on the regions; there were some places where one gender performed better than the other. Consequently in such a place, the gender that excelled in academics had more chances for the interview (Cooke, 2003). There was the other step that was the interview itself and here the interviewees are ushered in either on a first come first in basis or following the alphabetical order of names. In extreme cases where a chauvinist or a feminist is carrying out an interview, you could find that the sex that the interviewer favors goes in fast and easily passes through this stage. Multinationals have come up with a solution to this as I have found out which is done by getting a number of people on the interview panel and therefore there will be diversity of the views and then voting will follow. This will allow each interviewee to get a fair chance to present their resumes (Swapna & Ratna, 2003). Again, the mood too could affect the gender that gets the job but this is not common in multinationals save for a few that are not strict in their recruitment process. There are some companies that have a perception that a certain gender cannot work well with them and they even specify while they are inviting people for interviews. This mainly depends on the performance of such gender when they are given the job (Konrad, 2005). Observations It was observed from the multinational study that most of them have set up HR polices that ensure that there are no gender based biasness. This is mainly done at the orientation stage of the recruitment where the workers are forewarned to concentrate on the main business. For instance, a policy could have all the workers sign a form where they pledge to the management that if they hit at any of their fellow workers on gender grounds, they should be penned off. This shows how strict the Human Resource department is in dealing with gender based conflicts in companies (Gannon & Newman, 2002). In cases where the nature of the job does not favor a certain sex, there is a minimal application from the sex since most jobs have descriptions while they are advertised and therefore it goes without saying that only the suited will apply. An example is a case where night guards in a factory are being recruited. Such places, it is unusual to find a lady applying since most ladies prefer day jobs and easier jobs. Only a lady who is trained for a technical job will go looking for it. There is a perception in many multinationals that men are more obsessed with electronic and mechanical jobs due to their discoverer nature. They are therefore assumed to be better performers in such departments and almost all multinationals will have over 80% of male workers in the mechanical and electrical department (Bratton & Gold, 2001). In some multinationals, (those that decision making is left to the boss alone), the ratio of men to women was heavier on the gender that the boss favored. This was mainly common in the multinationals that were private companies. There were cases where the bosses were causing jeopardy in the multinationals since they got intimate with workers of a certain sex in exchange for job opportunities. This led to poor performance of the multinationals since the people who compromise personal principle for a job are people who are untrustworthy and even their performance is below par (Mabey, Salaman & John 1998). Research findings and results This research saw that there were multinational companies; mostly engineering that was biased on hiring men as compared to women on most of their mechanical jobs. They preferred women working in their administrative departments rather than their workshops. This was mainly because they assumed that the ladies were not in a position to perform jobs that required extra manual performance and therefore tiresome. Other multinational companies that favored men for their jobs were the advertising companies that mostly deal with outdoor adverts. They preferred men to mount their billboards instead of women based on the fact that men were better climbers and stronger than the ladies (Ghosh, Roy & Gabbay, 1999). There are a number of multinationals that have decided to be cost effective and they have opted to outsource the HR department. These are the multinationals that have many workers in their administrative department. This outsourcing is done to reduce the number of workers at the administrative offices of the company. There are corporate bodies that offer human resource consultancy services and these are mainly run by highly trained human resource practitioners. These are people who look for skill in an individual regardless of the gender. They concentrate more on capacity building of employees and they even educate the employers against consideration of gender while recruiting manpower (Tuchtfeldt, 2008). Proposition I would propose that the HR departments in multinational companies should consider all genders like the army does. Most of the armies offer equal chances to both sexes and since the job in the army involves muscles, the ladies still perform. It is therefore evident that both sexes can perform all types of jobs at anytime. Multinationals should at the same time be aware of different cultures and how they treat different cultures. This should mainly be a consideration to companies that are new in certain regions to avoid violation of culture of the region and therefore low support in the area. However their policies should be friendly as far as there is no biasness on any gender (Mor-Barak, 2005). The criteria that should be used in offering jobs should be academic qualifications unless there are certain specifications that are required and it is openly evident that certain a certain sex cannot do the job. Multinationals should also use the corporate hiring bodies that offer human resource services like hiring and training of workers. Most of these bodies offer a fair chance to everyone who offers their resume. They maintain a database where they classify the job applicants based on skill (Austin, 1990). I would propose that all multinationals should weed out the feminists and chauvinists in their organizations. This will ensure that both sexes get equal chances in the multinationals and therefore the company benefits. It is of no good having one chauvinist who is a perfect performer but acts as a block to all the ladies who would bring new talent to the multinationals. It is therefore wise to always look at the attitudes of people towards certain sexes when they are working in multinationals (Coyne, Coyne & lee, 2004). Conclusion An overall scrutiny in many multinationals shows that there is a fair recruitment process and the right criterion is used too while retrenching. There are a couple of exceptions but there are reasons that accompany favoring of a certain sex. I would therefore urge all multinationals to keep on refurnishing their recruitment with better standards and consider both sexes fairly. This will enable the right person to get the chance and at the same time, the multinationals will benefit by getting workers who are good enough for the job that they are recruited for. It is time that people abandoned some awkward cultures that look down upon certain sexes. This is due to the high rate of dynamicity that is there currently in the corporate environs as well as any other job environment. Giving a fair chance enhances multinational performance and service delivery since it is getting the right person for the job. References 1. Beulah Coyne, Edward J. Coyne, Monica Lee (2004). Human resources, care-giving, career progression, and gender: a gender neutral glass ceiling New York Routledge Publishers, 2. Rabindra Nath Ghosh, Kartik Chandra Roy, Rony Gabbay (1999). Sustaining development: human resources, gender and environment, Atlantic Publishers 3. Ching-lung Tsay. (1994). Gender Distinction in the Workplace: Implications for Human Resources Development Taipei (Taiwan) The Institute of Economics, Academia Sinica, 4. Michàlle E. Mor-Barak. (2005). Managing Diversity: Toward a Globally Inclusive Workplace SAGE publishers, 5. Shirley Tuchtfeldt. (2008). Human Resource Management, Ideology and Gender: An Explorative Approach to Recruiting Practices and the Special Case of Executive Search Firms, GRIN Verlag Publishers, 6. John Bratton, Jeffrey Gold. (2001). Human Resource Management: Theory and Practice, New York: Routledge Publishers. 7. Alison M. Konrad. (2005). Cases in Gender and Diversity in Organizations, SAGE Publishers, 8. Swapna Mukhopadhyay, Ratna M. Sudarshan. (2003). Tracking gender equity under economic reforms: continuity and change in South Asia Canada: IDRC, 9. Christopher Mabey, Graeme Salaman, John (1998) Human resource management: a strategic introduction Wiley-Blackwell 10. Monir H. Tayeb (2005). International human resource management: a multinational company perspective, Oxford University Press. 11. Michael Poole (1999). Human Resource Management: Critical Perspectives on Business and Management New York: Routledge, 12. Martin J. Gannon, Karen L. Newman (2002). The Blackwell handbook of cross-cultural management, Wiley-Blackwell. 13. William N. Cooke (2003) Multinational companies and global human resource strategies Greenwood Publishing Group, 14. James E. Austin (1990). Managing in developing countries: strategic analysis and operating techniques, Free Press, 15. Mary Barrett, Marilyn Davidson (2006). Gender and communication at work, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. Read More