Introduction
The recent trends in Human Resource Management (HRM) show that many people, particularly women have accorded HR a high regard as a career. Many researches indicate that women have taken the lead as HR professionals.
For instance, the 2011 Forbes list confirmed Human Resource Management as one of the top ten best-paying jobs for the female gender (Murray, Kramar & McGraw, 2011, p. 229). Initially, men dominated HR departments in organisations.
The recent trends however, show that women are pursuing HRM jobs. According to the Nobel Prize economist winner Gary S. Becker, the most important resource in organisations is the people. Most successful companies manage human capital efficiently continuing gaining a competitive edge.
As mothers, women are known as good care takers, and hence get the first priority as HR managers to take care of the people in organisations. Attracting, training, managing, and retaining manpower have become a crucial need for most successful companies.
This has led to the creation of many HR job opportunities in all companies. This paper looks at women working as HR managers in Australia. It discusses the disadvantages and advantages that women have while working as Human Resource managers.
It also analyzes the external environments such as technological changes and globalization, which influence the nature of women’s future work and career.
Relationship between individuals and organisation
People play the most significant roles in organisations. Many established organisations understand this, and hence have HR departments to take good care of the people in order to gain a competitive edge.
This includes using sound recruitment and selection systems to get qualified staff, and sound reward systems to motivate employees in the workplace.
Many people, particularly women have chosen to secure HR jobs following the recent trends in employment which favor and value employees.
These include favourable working conditions, diversity, opposing discriminations of all calibres in the workplace, and favourable working hours among others. Organisations develop good relations with individuals in order to influence them to support their cultures and changes.
They support employees by empowering, training, educating, and promoting them among other things. Organisations understand that people determine their success in business, and hence ensure that they have good relationships with them to raise their morale at work.
On the other hand, employees ensure that they relate well with organisations by being committed to providing services essential for organisational growth. They adhere to the rules and regulations set forth to govern their conduct in the workplace.
They also ensure that they accomplish duties assigned to them within set deadlines, and align their duties with the objectives and goals of organisations. Good relationship between organisations and its employees is instrumental to improved productivity of organisations.
Human Resource Management (HRM) plays significant roles in enhancing and ensuring good relationship between individuals and organisations.
It ensures that organisations take good care of people working for them. It also ensures that people or employees work in accordance with the objectives and goals of companies to help them meet their vision and missions.
Gendered Careers Changing
Looking at the recent trends in careers, gender careers show remarkable changes. Careers that were initially meant for men are now dominated by women. For instance, most of the current HR professionals are women. The modern women are active in career capital.
Just like men, women are equipped with competencies and knowledge in all sorts of careers.
Initially, female children particularly from the developing world never received proper education that would help them in securing jobs after growing up. They were never given opportunities to identify, or take part in jobs to gain experience.
Human Capital (Knowledge/Education) Investment
Today, the past fallacies denying female children from pursuing education are outdated. For instance, women in Australia are more likely to complete school education than men. Gender careers show a lot of changes because many women have invested in career capital.
This is confirmed by statistics showing that 52.6% of the Australian women have a post school qualification. In addition, the 2010 statistics shows that 55.5% of all enrolments at University level were women. This is a clear indication that most women have invested in human capital.
This means that they have equipped themselves with competencies and knowledge, acquired through experience and education (Evans & Kelly, 2002, p. 45).
Social Capital (networks) in Organisations
Despite the global changes being experienced in all parts of the world, many organisations particularly those in the developing world have not fully accorded women the rights they deserve in the workplace.
For instance, most organisations in Australia still offer female graduates slightly lower salaries than those of the male graduates. However, the differences between the salaries offered to male graduates and female graduates show an increase compared to many years back.
This shows that the rates given to female graduates will increase and even balance with that of male graduates in the future. According to researches, the average superannuation payments for females are 43.1% less than for men.
However, women in Australia receive more favourable pensions at their old age than men. For instance, 56.5% of people aged 65 years and more receiving the aged pension are women.
This shows a gendered career change that never existed before. In the past years, the retiring men were treated more special than women.
Researchers suggest that firms in Australia and in the rest of the world look favourably on men with kids. The women’s commitment is questioned. A man is known to be the provider for the family, and hence the favour. A woman, on the other hand, is viewed as a dependent person.
She can seek financial support from relatives, or her husband. This is why organisations put men in first priorities more willingly than women. Moreover, women are less represented in leadership or management than men. Just like in the rest of the world, men still take the lead in their houses.
They are considered to be leaders naturally, leaving the leadership provided by women to be questioned. However, the recent trends in gendered career changes show that many organisations have and are still employing women as managers in their firms.
This is confirmed in most HR departments of organisations. Currently, researches show that the probability of having many women as HR managers or assistant managers in organisations gets higher.
Return on investment in human capital
Organisations measure the return on investment in human capital by evaluating the value that employees bring as well as their impact on the productivity of the business. They align the employees with the goals of the business then.
Human Resources (HR) career opportunities are on the increase in Australia (Fielden & Davidson, 2010, p. 51). This is instrumented by globalisation, which in many ways has contributed to the economic growth of Australia.
The demand for HR managers is also high considering that many organisations in this country are people oriented. Therefore, they invest in capital in order to maximise the shareholder value.
They also employ strategies that enhance good supplier and customer relationships, committed workforce, and competency. Many organisations find it challenging investing in human capital.
Sociologically, the fallacy that women cannot make good leaders is slowly fading, paving ways for more opportunities in HRM than ever before. Many companies consider men first for the top posts compared to women. This is because men are more flexible than women.
Psychologically, women are viewed as too emotional to handle sensitive cases, and hence making men to be put as the first priority. For instance, organisations fear that women can run out of their control while handling certain matters.
In Australia, many global business corporations have women in top positions. For instance, 15.4% of the leaders of the ASX 200 are of female gender.
This shows an increase of 1.4% from the previous year and gendered career changes, whereby women get opportunities to contribute, particularly in Human Resource Management (HRM).
There is a need for a clear pipeline where women will not only take the top positions to ensure changes in mindsets at all levels (Vinnicombe, 2008, p. 46). However, this will take time considering that there are more men at work than women globally.
Nature of Structure, technological advances, and duality
Traditionally, men were regarded as the bread-winners. For instance, particular jobs were meant for men and others for women. The belief that men are supposed to hold certain positions, or to work at particular levels is slowly fading (Bartram & Rimmer, 2012, p. 130).
Women are slowly taking the lead on some jobs, and in top positions. The changing trends instrumented by globalization and technology advances have made it easier for both men and women to adapt jobs in a manner that favours their family lives and type of work.
For instance, the emergence of part-time jobs, online jobs, and entrepreneurships have opened ways or opportunities for women to showcase their abilities in the workplace.
In Australia, Canada and other western countries, a greater diversity than before is being experienced due to quick adaptations to the rapid advances in technology. This has opened career ways for women.
Changing policy priorities around women
In Australia, many policies supporting contemporary careers have been implemented. This enables women to be considered the same way as men in the workplace. Policies that guard women not to be discriminated because of pregnancies or disabilities help them stay in the workplace.
These policies give women a right to take parental leave when pregnant, and return back to work after the parental leave. They also receive increased salaries, if their peers or teams’ salaries are raised, while still on parental leave.
They also demand that women get promoted even while pregnant. The changing policy priorities surrounding women are instrumental in the current integration of gender diversity metrics in Australia (Lindhe, 2010, p. 11). This shows family-friendly workplace arrangements in Australia.
All workers irrespective of gender differences get short term incentives and bonuses. The policies ensure that CEOs demonstrate commitment to diversity and inclusion, and hence equality in the workplace.
These policies also demand an equal number of women and men in top management positions. This ensures equal representation of females in all talent pools. For instance, the Australian labour market policies require a greater stakeholder engagement (Rainnie & Grobbelaar, 2005, p 127).
This has instrumented increased female representation in union/employer association leadership. During restructuring and retrenching, efforts are geared towards retaining more women than men. Most organisations in Australia ensure that women get senior sponsorships.
The Australian policies on labour markets also protect the job securities of all people irrespective of their genders.
The tax and welfare systems in Australia favour women more than men (Castles, 2010, p. 16). The country uses tax and social security to reconstruct the part-time labour market, whereby single mothers’ tax is low compared to that of both parents (Cook & Noblet, 2012, p. 204).
The country understands that tax discourages work and encourages avoiding tax. The welfare systems emphasise on the well-being of workers particularly the women and disabled people (Graham & Marston, 2012, p. 80). They protect them against all forms of discrimination.
Changing career reforms
Just like in other countries across the globe, people do not depend on jobs from the same firms for the rest of their lives. Globalisation and technological advances contribute largely to the creation of jobs, giving people opportunities to choose their best jobs (Parry, 2013, p. 11).
Currently, short term arrangements based on uncertainty and frequent changes are on the increase. Today, careers are boundless. Employers from any region can be employed in any organisation so long as they meet job specifications.
They draw validity and marketability from outside the present employing organisations. The today careers are sustained and supported by external networks. They challenge the traditional assumptions about career advancement and movement up through an organisational hierarchy.
The current boundless careers also allow people to accept or reject opportunities for advancement in favour of their personal or family reasons.
The today careers are protean based. They involve psychological dimensions, personal value systems, and subjective notions (Paludi, 2013, p. 56). People construct their own careers.
The today individuals, not the organisations, take charge. They have freedom to grow their careers. Workers have a freedom to create kaleidoscope careers of their choices to fit their lives.
Practices as HR manager
As HR manager it is important to stick to fairness and equity principles. Being fair to all employees means handling all of them equally without favouring others (Dent, 2012, p. 41).
The equity principle guides HR managers to employ and promote employees equally by ensuring that women get equal positions in the workplace. An HR manager needs to understand and accommodate fragmented work patterns.
They need to improve work and family balance. For instance, they should stick to KPI’s career supporting initiatives (Price, 2007, p. 66). This involves mentoring career paths and leadership strategies based on flexible models.
Outcomes for my careers
The ability to accumulate career capital is gendered structurally and behaviourally. As an HR manager I will support employees meet their personal goals as well as the organisational goals? I will ensure that I stick to the principles of equity and fairness.
I will develop good relationships with employees and motivate them to focus their work on meeting organisational objectives and goals. The demand for HR managers is high particularly for women. I will ensure that more women get represented at all levels in organisations.
I will ensure that employees receive good training to meet the goals of an organisation. Favourable working conditions, diversity, opposing discriminations of all calibres in the workplace, and favourable working hours among others will be my agenda in the workplace as a HR manager.
Conclusion
The recent trends in Human Resource Management (HRM) show that many people, particularly women have accorded HR high regard as a career. The trends in career development in Australia show increased participation of women in the workplace.
The traditional beliefs whereby jobs were only meant for men are gradually fading, paving the way for equal gender participation in the workplace. Globalisation and technological advances have made work easier and more flexible. Many policies in Australia favour women in many ways.
The changing career reforms promote diversity, and hence ensure women are equally represented in the workplace. Most women prefer working in HR departments which deal with the people.
List of References
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