Verified Document

Human Resource Management Research Paper

Human Resource Management "America's possibilities are limitless, for we possess all the qualities that this world without boundaries demands: youth and drive; diversity and openness; an endless capacity for risk and a gift for reinvention. My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it -- so long as we seize it together…"

(President Barack Obama, Inaugural Address, 1/21/2013).

The job of a human relations manager in the 21st century goes well beyond hiring and training staff. An important part of an HR manager's duties includes working towards the creation of a diversified employee workforce. This paper echoes part of what President Obama asserted: to achieve success the U.S. will depend on "diversity and openness." The diversity of America's workplace in part depends on the role of women, and this paper delves into that issue and references the available literature. In fact an article in USA Today (Petrecca, 2011) points to the fact that women are being recruited to provide executive leadership in some of America's biggest corporations -- but they still lag far behind in executive opportunities.

Thesis: There must be evidence that the workplace is becoming more diverse vis-a-vis women in positions of authority whose compensation is equal to what males are paid to do the same work. However the evidence to date shows that only 3% of Fortune 500 companies have women as CEOs, an unacceptably small number. The U.S.A. Today article is correct when it asserts that women are not getting the respect (nor the compensation) they deserve in the executive field.

Record number of female CEOs in Fortune "500" companies

The USA Today article points out that more women took the reins of Fortune 500 companies in 2012 "than ever before" (Petrecca, p. 1). The author mentions several corporations that placed females in executive positions in 2012, including: IBM's appointment of Virginia Rometty as CEO; and Heather Bresch has been appointed CEO of the...

However, while those appointments are impressive, and while a total of 18 women are now running Fortune 500 companies (the previous high was 16), "…the gender gap between men and women in the workplace remains vast," Petrecca writes. Females are "…struggling to get the mentors they need and the pay to equal their male counterparts" (Petrecca, p. 1).
Cynthia Good who is CEO of the women's business newsletter, "Little Pink Book," said the advancement of "…key women in business is stalled" (Petrecca, p. 1). In the 3,049 publically traded companies in the U.S., there were (as of 2012) 98 female CEOs; that is 3.2% of the total number of CEOs in publicly traded companies. "We've really flat-lined," according to Debbie Soon, the senior VP of marketing and strategy of Catalyst (Petrecca, p. 1). Over the past five years, Soon emphasized, "there's been hardly any progress" (Petrecca, p. 1).

Tia Gaynor explains in her PowerPoint that diversity is about "…understanding each other and moving beyond simple tolerance to embracing and celebrating the rich dimensions of diversity contained within each individual" (Gaynor). She goes on to assert that "…there is an underrepresentation of women and minorities in certain positions and/or agencies" due to the "artificial barriers that block the advancement of women" to CEO and other managerial and executive positions (Gaynor).

There are several of those barriers that are holding women back, according to Petrecca's article. First, many companies have had a history of male-only leadership,"…so a masculine management pattern is often the default style," said Quinetta Roberson, who is a professor of management at Villanova School of Business (Petrecca, p. 2). The management style in place at many of those firms is to sanction a certain kind of behavior -- "to be very aggressive, unattached and direct" -- and if a woman doesn't have that aggressiveness she won't be able to climb the corporate ladder and…

Sources used in this document:
Works Cited

Gaynor, Tia Sheree. Diversity Management.

Obama, Barack. (2013). Made For This Moment / Inaugural Speech. The White House.

Retrieved January 22, 2013, from http://www.whitehouse.gov.

Petrecca, Laura. (2011). Number of female "Fortune" 500 CEOS at record high. USA Today.
Retrieved January 22, 2013, from http://usatoday30.usatoday.com.
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Human Resources Management
Words: 2782 Length: 8 Document Type: Research Paper

Human Resources Management If what is learned in an important college or university course is not put to use in some pragmatic way -- or understood in the larger social context -- then that learning may be viewed as meaningless time spent. No doubt there is a percentage of students that are simply going through the process of education, working for a degree that will open doors and lead, hopefully, to

Human Resource Management
Words: 1459 Length: 4 Document Type: Book Report

Human Resource Management: Ethics and Employment (Pinnington, Macklin & Campbell, 2007) covers those ethical issues that often come up in regards to employer-employee relationships, such as the rights and duties owed between employer and employee. The book is broken down into three parts. The first part is Situating Human Resource Management. The contributors in this part talk about the potential for conflict in the end relationships between employees and employers.

Human Resource Management
Words: 1674 Length: 4 Document Type: Research Paper

Human Resource Management Job analysis Job Design and considerations Job design is the arrangement of work in organizations. The arrangement assist employees as well as the organization meet objectives. An effective job design satisfies employees in organizations since it prevents dissatisfaction arising from repetitive work. It also assists organizations by preventing employees from alienation. Additionally, job designs improve on the productivity of an organization. Job designs, however, need to consider the following aspects in

Human Resource Management in the
Words: 693 Length: 2 Document Type: Reaction Paper

In the hierarchical configuration it also augmented the working hours but decreased the pay in poor working conditions, increased the social distance between employee and employers and increased bureaucratization of all factors, resulting in an increase in monotony. Because of these factors personnel management began to get a lot of attention. The function of HRM has become even more important since 1980. There has been an absolute transfer from

Human Resource Management
Words: 870 Length: 3 Document Type: Case Study

Human Resource Management Workers, Jobs & Job Analysis Case: ROWE and Flexible Work and Success at Best Buy Explain how a ROWE-type program would fit in organizations where you have worked. Explain why it would work or would not work. Current employee U.S. Army ROWE-type program would not work in the Army because of the following: *Deployments require you be at work 24/7 because there is no place to go in Afghanistan or Iraq. * When

Human Resource Management
Words: 1761 Length: 6 Document Type: Term Paper

Human Resource Management Description of the overall operations and role of the HR department The HR manager interviewed gave the following points as having the most priority in his department and the functions performed (Campbell Clark, S (2001)) Recruitment and selection How to follow best practice in drawing up the relevant documentation from advertising a vacancy and formulating a job description through to interviewing and making a sound Decision in appointing the correct candidate. Engagement procedure Providing

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now