Astrid Reichel

Equal, but different?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze how the status and functional responsibilities of female human resource (HR) directors vary cross‐nationally and how gender egalitarian cultural values affect role differences between female and male HR directors.Design/methodology/approach – A cross‐country comparison of HR directors involving 22 countries based on the 2004 Cranet survey.Findings – Consistent with the hypotheses, gender egalitarian values reduce sex‐role differences for strategic integration and for traditionally female‐stereotyped HR functions. However, there is no support for the notion that egalitarian values influence sex differences for male‐stereotyped HR functions. Since, the data indicate higher levels of involvement of female HR directors in male‐stereotyped HR functions in 12 out of 22 countries, unequal distribution of functional responsibility is interpreted as an indicator for sex differences in administrative workload.Originality/value – Macro cultural factors matter for sex...

The influence of social policy practices and gender egalitarianism on strategic integration of female HR directors

The integration of the HR director into the strategic planning process is important if the HR function is to play a strategic role. A considerable number of women hold HR director positions with varying strategic integration across countries. This article deals with the impact of societal factors on the strategic integration of female HR directors. It analyses the consequences of social policy practices facilitating womens participation in work for the strategic integration of female HR directors and additional effects resulting from the interplay between these practices and gender-egalitarian attitudes at the societal level. A study of 984 companies with female HR directors in 16 countries shows that while enabling social policy practices are positively associated with strategic integration of female HR directors, related gender-egalitarian attitudes do not have a supporting effect.

Help that is not recognized: Harmful neglect of decision support systems

Decision support systems (DSSs) aim to enhance the performance of decision makers, but to do so DSSs have to be adopted and used. Technology acceptance research shows that user evaluations (i.e., beliefs, perceptions, and attitudes) are key drivers of adoption and use. This article first presents evidence from the literature suggesting that the link between user evaluations of DSSs and actual performance may be weak, or sometimes even negative. The authors then present two empirical studies in which they found a serious disconnect between user evaluations and actual performance. If user evaluations do not accurately reflect performance, then this may lead to harmful neglect of performance-enhancing DSSs. The article concludes with a discussion of interventions that may alleviate this problem.

Gender‐egalitarian culture and differences in strategic integration among women and men in HR director positions

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze how differences in strategic integration between women and men in HR director positions vary in an international comparison and particularly how gender‐egalitarian cultural values influence the level of these differences.Design/methodology/approach – Cross‐country comparison of HR managers involving 22 countries based on the 2004 Cranet survey.Findings – Consistent with the hypothesis, findings show a negative relationship between gender‐egalitarian values and sex differences in strategic integration.Practical implications – Enhanced understanding of impact of cultural egalitarianism on cross‐national differences in segregation of women in the HR profession.Originality/value – Level of segregation of women in HR director positions varies with the prevalence of gender‐egalitarian cultural values.

The Effects of IT-Enabled Cognitive Stimulation Tools on Creative Problem Solving: A Dual Pathway to Creativity

Abstract We investigate the effectiveness of three types of IT-enabled cognitive stimulation tools for enhancing creative problem solving: mind mappers, process guides, and stimuli providers. Based on the dual pathway to creativity models, the authors examine the extent to which these tools are capable of stimulating individuals to explore their knowledge base more deeply (i.e., the persistence pathway) and more broadly (i.e., the flexibility pathway) and, hence, help to produce more novel ideas. In a laboratory study with business students, they find that, as compared to unaided individuals, IT-enabled stimuli providers enhance individual creativity more than process guides and mind mappers. As for the underlying creative process, stimuli providers push individuals to explore their knowledge base more deeply and more broadly, leading to more novel but, unexpectedly, also more useful ideas. The reported findings may facilitate the development of creativity support systems and their assignment to individuals and tasks.

Departmental status in light of a growing proportion of female staff: the case of human resource management

Human Resource Management (HRM) has a history of striving for acceptance and legitimacy in relation to top and line management. The identification of factors influencing HRM status, therefore, is very important for the field. One of these relevant factors is gender. On the occupational level, there is evidence from various occupations that an increase in the proportion of women is associated with a status loss in these occupations. Besides one stream of literature that states that gender is an omni-relevant and -present category, there are also other approaches which hold that the category of gender has lost its relevance, and functional attributes are the dominant categories in the workplace today. Using a multilevel model of 1508 companies located in 17 countries, this study analyses the impact of gender composition and functional attributes on the organisational status of the HR department. It reveals that while gender still has a significant influence on status, education and experience are more important.

Mehr Unabhängigkeit im neuen Karrierekontext? Der Kampf um Arbeit und die rosa Brille der Karriereforschung

Karrieren sind ein zentrales Phanomen individueller Erwerbsleben, die in organisationalen und gesellschaftlichen Kontext eingebettet sind. Im deutschsprachigen Raum wird Karriere stark mit hierarchischem Aufstieg verbunden, in der englischsprachigen Literatur ist sie definiert als „the unfolding sequence of a persons work experience over time“ (Arthur et al. 1989a: 8, Arthur et al. 1989b: 8) und stellt ein bedeutendes Konzept an der Schnittstelle von Individuum, Organisation und Umwelt dar. Die starke Verbindung von Karrieren mit dem organisationalen, institutionellen und okonomischen Umfeld hat zur Folge, dass Kontextanderungen Karrieren elementar beeinflussen.

An institutional logics approach to the heterogeneous world of highly skilled work

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to clarify the relationship of highly skilled work and (collective) power. It develops an institutional logics perspective and argues that highly skilled workers’ propensity to join trade unions varies by institutional order. Design/methodology/approach – Data from two occupational fields in Austria, university professors and management consultants, representing two different institutional orders were collected via questionnaires. Stepwise logistic regression analysis was employed to test the hypotheses. Findings – The results show that over and above organisational level variables, individuals background and employee power variables institutional logics significantly add to explaining trade union membership of highly skilled workers. Prevalence of a professional logic in a field makes collective action more likely than market logic. Originality/value – Highly skilled workers are overall described as identifying themselves more with the goals of their employer or cl...

Action Programs for Ethnic Minorities: A Question of Corporate Social Responsibility?

With increasing globalization and migration the workplace is becoming more and more culturally diverse. Although cultural diversity is found worldwide, handling of diversity as a corporate social responsibility (CSR) varies depending on national as well as organizational contexts. This article presents cross-national research linking macro level and meso level of analysis to identify national and organizational factors influencing an organization’s implementation of action programs for ethnic minorities. Utilizing techniques of multilevel modelling with 1,865 organizations from 10 countries, the study analyses the influence of normative and economic reasons as well as managerial discretion to act socially responsible. The patterns of influencing factors identified suggest that the main reasons are neither economic nor normative ones. The factors go beyond and represent rather social reasons. This article gives an overview of relevant predictors that increase the likelihood of action programs in organizations. Societal decision makers can find the direct relevance of political decisions and public perceptions on actions taken that address issues of interethnic group relations in organizations.

New Captain but a Sinking Ship? The Influence of HR Director’s Gender on the Status of the HR Department — A Longitudinal Study

The past decade has seen profound transformations within the HR profession, one of which is the dramatic increase in the number of women (Reichel, Brandl & Mayrhofer, 2010). Today, in numerous industrialized countries, women represent the majority of HR specialists, and increasingly occupy managerial HR positions (Brandl, Mayrhofer & Reichel, 2008a). Such a rise in the proportion of women working in an occupation is termed ‘feminization’ (e.g. Philipson, 1993; Reskin & Roos, 1990; Roos, 1997). This chapter examines the effect of feminization on the status of HRM.