Strategic HRM: Addressing Gender Inequality in Today's Business

This report provides an overview of gender inequality and discrimination in business, highlighting the underrepresentation of female staff and lack of safety measures. It explores the causes of gender inequality and recommends remedies for human resource management, emphasizing the need for equal pay, promotion opportunities, and a positive work environment. The report also discusses the inefficiency of HR departments in addressing these issues and suggests implementing policies that motivate female employees, promote healthy communication, and provide training programs to foster equality and ethical behavior. The ultimate goal is to create a workplace culture where all employees are valued and treated equally, leading to increased productivity, reduced turnover, and improved organizational goodwill. Desklib provides access to similar solved assignments and study resources for students.

Running Head: Managing Human Resource
Managing Human Resource

Managing Human Resource 1
Executive Summary
The purpose of this task is to provide a brief overview of the problem of gender inequality and
discrimination prevailing in the business industries. Almost every industry is affected with the
problem where number of female staff employed is less than the male staff. Also, there is lack of
safety measure in the culture of the organization due to which female feel insecure while
working in the organization. Further, the task talks about the cause of gender inequality and its
remedies suggest to human resource management.

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Contents
Executive Summary.....................................................................................................................................1
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................1
Problem of Gender Inequality.....................................................................................................................1
Current Environment...................................................................................................................................2
Inefficiency of HR Department....................................................................................................................3
Recommendations.......................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................5
References...................................................................................................................................................6

Managing Human Resource 3
Introduction
In the current external environment, the policies of the human resource management keep on
fluctuating due to which the human resource department of the companies also needs to develop
their policies accordingly. So, the purpose of this task is to provide a brief overview of the
gender inequality issue faced different companies all around the world. The report examines the
news article posted by Human Resource Director. Gender inequality issue is widely seen in
organizations nowadays. Irrespective of industries, this issue has been a part of all organizations.
This issue is specifically faced because the female employees of the company are not paid
sufficient according to the requirement of their work (Hacker, 2017). They are always paid less
as compared to male, even if the work profile is same. This is a serious concern for companies as
this aspect give rise to discrimination between male and female in the whole country. Further, it
shall be noted that many studies claim that many organizations have given rise to gender
inequality in the business culture; also now females feel insecure while working in an
organization due to prevalence of such activities. The below mentioned task discusses the role of
strategic human resource management in analyzing and evaluating the gender inequality issue. It
also discusses the current environmental situation and the recommendation to solve the issue
(Hilton, 2017). More details about the task are discussed below:
Problem of Gender Inequality
Female employees worldwide are facing the issue of gender inequality. As the females do not
receive equal pay according to the male due to which they feel discriminated in the environment
and leave the job. The human resource department of the company also does not treat the female
worker equally if compared to male. The department of the company does not promote them in
the senior position as well. Further according to the Human Resource Director report 2016-2017,
the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) explained that large numbers of companies are
implementing understanding the need of the era to address the gender inequality issue and
initiate corrective measures according to it. The director of WEGA mentioned in their comments
that more than four million employees and eleven thousand employees are concerned for the
issue of discrimination (WGEA 2017). But even after taking various measure to solve the issue,

Managing Human Resource 4
there is still presence of such problem in Australia. In the current scenario, there is gender gap of
15.3% in Australia and the male employees are still earning more than the female employees.
The human resource departments of organizations are considering it as an important issue and
they are implementing the policies in their system to remove inequality. Equal Employment
Opportunity (EEO) refers to the process of removing the discrimination from race, religion,
gender, or age in the society. The Australian bill passed in the year 2012 stated that there should
be equal opportunity for men and women in the workplace. The workplace amendment bill
aimed to improve the workplace environment for women and provide equal pay to them as well
(Hirsh, 2014). The HR department of the company aims to take the responsibility of effectively
managing the workforce. They aim to reduce the issues faced by employees in the organization,
manage diversity properly and initiate equality among men and women at the workplace. The
Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency holds the responsibility of gaining data
from different sources and implementing policies to stop the discrimination against women in the
Australian companies (Barak, 2016).
Further, it shall be noted that this issue of gender inequality with women is present in the whole
world, even after taking several initiatives by government it is becoming difficult for the
organizations to reduce or minimize this problem. In current nosiness environment, the HR
managers understand the requirement of equality between number of male and females in an
organization, so with respect to that, they implement policies and procedure to correct the ratio
(Kirton, & Greene, 2015). But, their initiative seems to be inefficient as the structure of the
organizations and issues are not changing at all. Discrimination has now become a major
problem because even after taking several measures, the organizations are unable to reduce its
effect. So, various policies can be implemented in the culture of the workplace to resolve the
issue (Benschop, Holgersson, Van den Brink, & Wahl, 2015).
Current Environment
In earlier times it was considered that the higher section of the society (men) will go to work and
the weaker section of the society (women) will stay at home only. There were definite duties for
both the sections of the society; men were considered to earn money whereas women were
considered to perform household chores only. But in today's era, women have proven that they

Managing Human Resource 5
are equal to men in every field, but even after proving themselves in every possible industry
women are still treated as the weaker section of the society. Although the awareness of this issue
is spreading in whole environment and the organization is accepting it as their corporate social
responsibility. It is the responsibility of the organization to initiate equality among male and
female so as to create a good workplace culture (Stainback, Kleiner, & Skaggs, 2016). Further, it
shall also be noted that many initiatives are being led by the governments of different countries
so as to raise their level of number of women employed in the country. The government is
changing the mindset of the people of the countries. The major aim of the government is to
change the thinking of the people and make them understand that women are no less than men in
any field. In organizations, the HR departments understand the depth of the issue and are
implementing various reforms as well (Hesmondhalgh, & Baker, 2015).
This is becoming a difficult task to manage because; in earlier time the HR department only
demoted the women. They never considered women fit for the top level management job due
they never provide the opportunity to move above men. Also one of the reasons for occurrence
of this issue is the failure of the HR department to address it as a major concern. Much big
organization is also a part of this problem like, in Uber, it has been noticed that the male staff of
the company does not treat the female staff appropriately. But now, the companies are critically
examining the issue and aiming to take responsibility for this problem as well (Abendroth,
Melzer, Kalev, & Tomaskovic-Devey, 2017).
Inefficiency of HR Department
The HR executives have failed to fulfill their moral obligation that is to initiate gender equality
among men and women, they were unable to address the issue which gave rise to the inequality
in the market. The human resource management of the company should be held responsible as
they did not implement such policies which can prevent such actions in the internal as well as
external market (Strachan, Adikaram, & Kailasapathy, 2015). Inefficient HRM policies increased
the issue for the women in the society as they were being sexually harassed, paid less and
discriminate at the workplace but no such norms were formed to address this issue and take
corrective measures in the environment as well. Further, it shall be noted that an organization can
successfully run their business in the market only when there is presence of diversified human

Managing Human Resource 6
resource at the workplace that can provide their opinion to initiate new and innovative reforms in
the company. The problem of discrimination and gender inequality also decreases the
productivity and goodwill of the companies in the external environment (Joshi, Son, & Roh,
2015).
Subsequently, employee turnover rates also increase with this problem along with attrition rates
as well. The organization also faces many problems and losses due to this problem. Like,
decrease in performance and productivity, increase in employee turnover which increases the
cost of recruitment as well. Further, many companies like PWC, Google, Facebook, and
Glassdoor understand the requirement of the female staff and their security in the company,
which respect to which they are implementing strategic HRM policies as well (Dipboye, 2016).
Female staff in the company not only faces problems because of gender inequality but there are
many other factors present in the culture of an organization which harasses their capacity to
successfully work in an organization. The first of every female is their safety in the organization
and as discussed above in the case of Uber, female is not safe in the environment, another factor
is the negative work environment where female is always treated as they are not qualified or
efficient to perform some acts. So, the only reason due to which such activities started and they
are still prevailing in the market is due to the negligence of the human resource management
towards the issue and inefficiency of the top level management to initiative corrective policies
which can be implemented in the organization (Othman, & Othman, 2015). This has become the
mindset of the HR executive of the company that they cannot promote women employees on
higher positive than male employees (Newman, 2014). But this orthodox practice is now
changing as many organizations are promoting female efficient employees on the position of
CEOs like Sheryl Sandberg (COO of Facebook), Chanda Kochhar (CEO of ICICI) , Indra Nooyi
(CEO of PepsiCo) and many more. Thus, this shows that now the practice of discrimination is
ending with the changing mindset of people.
Recommendations
Following recommendations will help the HR manager of the company to resolve the issue of
gender discrimination existing in their environment. Further, the recommendations are discussed
below:

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1) The HR department of the companies should initiate policies which motivate the female
employees and appraise their performance as well. This will reduce the discrimination on
the basis of pay and will motivate the female staff to work more and more for the
betterment of the organization. The performance appraisal method shall be implemented
that it reduces the attrition rate and keep all the employees on the same scale as well
(Thomas, 2016).
2) The department should also establish flexible and positive working culture in the
organization. This will promote the healthy communication in the organization and it will
ensure the safety of the female staff of the company as well. Positivity in environment
will also increase the efficiency of employees and reduce the problem of discrimination,
jealousy etc.
3) Training programs will help the executive to train the male employees regarding the
safety of female staff in the organization. Also through this way, they can improve the
skills of the employees and help them to work together. The HR executives shall train the
male staff on how to treat the female staff in the organization and how to work ethically.
4) Lastly, the top management shall focus on way of initiate equality among the employees
in the organization. They shall keep with the same designation at the same pay,
irrespective of their age, sex, caste etc. Further, they shall also initiate flow of
communication in the organization so all the problems of the female employees can be
resolved easily. The HR executive shall pay more focus on the recruitment of female staff
in the organization and their comfortability and safety in the workplace environment as
well.
Conclusion
Thus, it shall be concluded that in today’s working environment, it is important for an
organization to provide equal opportunity to both male and female in the society. Activities like
discrimination; gender inequality etc. shall be prohibited by the executives of the company.
Further, the above mentioned task talks about the way in which the HR department shall promote
the equality activities in the environment. The current situation analysis explains that the gender
inequality issue is increasing day by day as there is a gender pay gap of 15.3 percent in Australia.
Further the task also talks about the critical situation which is faced by women worldwide at

Managing Human Resource 8
work. They are being ill –treated and discriminated in every field. People consider them weak
due to which they do not promote them on higher position as well. But now the environment is
changing and they are achieving higher position than men as well. They are proving themselves
due to which different organizations are providing them opportunities as well. In the industry the
HR department should training their male staff to treat women properly as safety of women has
become major concern nowadays. So, training them will help the organizations to improve their
internal communication process which will make females comfortable at the workplace. Thus,
female employment and safety shall be promoted by all organizations to fulfill the corporate
social responsibility and the organizations shall also pay more concern towards their CSR
activities. The above mentioned report successfully fulfills the requirements of the task.

Managing Human Resource 9
References
Abendroth, A. K., Melzer, S., Kalev, A., & Tomaskovic-Devey, D. (2017). Women at work:
Women’s access to power and the gender earnings gap. ILR Review, 70(1), 190-222.
Barak, M. E. M. (2016). Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. Sage
Publications.
Benschop, Y., Holgersson, C., Van den Brink, M., & Wahl, A. (2015). Future challenges for
practices of diversity management in organizations. Handbook for Diversity in
Organizations, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 553-574.
Dipboye, R. L. (2016). discrimination as high risk behavior in the workplace. Risky Business:
Psychological, Physical and Financial Costs of High Risk Behavior in Organizations,
177.
Hacker, S. (2017). Pleasure, power and technology: Some tales of gender, engineering, and
the cooperative workplace(Vol. 5). Routledge.
Hesmondhalgh, D., & Baker, S. (2015). Sex, gender and work segregation in the cultural
industries. The Sociological Review, 63(1_suppl), 23-36.
Hilton, J. (2017). Is HR doing enough to address gender inequality?. Viewed on February 4,
2018 from < https://www.hcamag.com/hr-business-review/leadership-development/is-hr-
doing-enough-to-address-gender-inequality-244874.aspx>
Hirsh, C. E. (2014). Beyond treatment and impact: A context-oriented approach to
employment discrimination. American Behavioral Scientist, 58(2), 256-273.
Joshi, A., Son, J., & Roh, H. (2015). When can women close the gap? A meta-analytic test of
sex differences in performance and rewards. Academy of Management Journal, 58(5),
1516-1545.
Kirton, G., & Greene, A. M. (2015). The dynamics of managing diversity: A critical
approach. Routledge.

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Newman, C. (2014). Time to address gender discrimination and inequality in the health
workforce. Human resources for health, 12(1), 25.
Othman, Z., & Othman, N. (2015). A literatural review on work discrimination among
women employees. Asian Social Science, 11(4), 26.
Stainback, K., Kleiner, S., & Skaggs, S. (2016). Women in power: Undoing or redoing the
gendered organization?. Gender & Society, 30(1), 109-135.
Strachan, G., Adikaram, A., & Kailasapathy, P. (2015). Gender (in) equality in South Asia:
problems, prospects and pathways.
Thomas, T. A. (2016). Remedying Systemic Sex Discrimination with Gender Quotas:'Just
Because'.
WGEA. (2017). Equal Pay Day: 4 September 2017. Viewed on February 4, 2018 from
https://www.wgea.gov.au/media-releases/equal-pay-day-4-september-2017