Human Resource Management, ideology and gender

The impact of organizational practices such as recruitment and performance appraisal on gender relations in society has received extensive attention from a number of researchers. Various authors profess the gendered nature of bureaucratic organization and its processes and practices. However, the rise of executive search firms as a specialized form of recruitment, strangely has not sparked much scientific interest. Executive search seems to be perceived as not distinctly different from traditional recruitment. However, I suggest that extensive outsourcing of recruitment to external vendors intensifies the segregating effects of Human Resource practices in terms of gender composition of the workforce, primarily due to the structurally immanent disconnection between agency and client company culture as well as the heightened ideology of scientific objectivity and effectiveness associated with specialized recruitment.

In my research for this paper I have pursued three interlinked objectives:

1. to define the role of organizational recruitment practices in producing and reproducing gender inequalities, influencing individuals’ lives and career chances
2. to locate the role of state discourse in facilitating reproduction of inequalities through work practices and to illustrate this with the Singaporean case
3. to explore the special case of executive search firms and suggest the potential effects of outsourcing recruitment functions on gender relations in society

My analysis relies heavily on the review of previous studies as well as on two in-depth interviews conducted with recruitment consultants employed in executive search firms in Singapore.