Genderization In Automobile Industry In Recruitment & Selection

Attracting, recruiting and selecting the best person for a job is an important business issue. It is an equally critical component of an organisation’s gender equality strategy. Keep in mind that employees are not a homogenous group but reflect the growing diversity of the larger population. By recognising and valuing the differences of women and men such as age, religion, cultural and linguistic backgrounds, disability and sexual orientation and building consideration for differences into recruitment and selection processes, organisation stands to benefit from the diversity of women’s and men’s contributions. Women in India consistently lag behind the men in terms of access to education, health care, jobs etc.

OBJECTIVE :-

PURPOSE OF THE PAPER ;-The aim of this paper is to review research on how gender issues relate to recruiting and retention . Empirical research findings rather than descriptive or anecdotal information have been included in this review. First, the paper will describe some research efforts that assess the representation of women and attitudes towards gender and cultural diversity . Second, research related to gender issues and recruiting will be discussed. Research related to gender issues and retention will be examined, specifically as these issues relate to Equal Opportunity fairness. Finally, practical recommendations will be made based on the findings presented.

AUTOMOBILE INDUYSTRY

The automotive industry in India is one of the larger markets in the world. It had previously been one of the fastest growing globally, but is currently experiencing flat or negative growth rates.[ India's passenger car and commercial vehicle manufacturing industry is the sixth largest in the world, with an annual production of more than 3.9 million units in 2011. According to recent reports, India overtook Brazil and became the sixth largest passenger vehicle producer in the world (beating such old and new auto makers as Belgium, United Kingdom, Italy, Canada, Mexico, Russia, Spain, France, Brazil), grew 16 to 18 percent to sell around three million units in the course of 2011 and 2012. In 2009, India emerged as Asia's fourth largest exporter of passenger cars, behind Japan, South Korea, and Thailand. In 2010, India beat Thailand to become Asia's third largest exporter of passenger cars. As of 2010, India is home to 40 million passenger vehicles. More than 3.7 million automotive vehicles were produced in India in 2010 (an increase of 33.9%), making the country the second (after China) fastest growing automobile market in the world in that year. According to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, annual vehicle sales are projected to increase to 4 million by 2015, no longer 5 million as previously projected. The majority of India's car manufacturing industry is based around three clusters in the south, west and north. The southern cluster consisting of Chennai is National Capital Region contributes 32%. Chennai, with the India operations of Ford, Hyundai, Renault, Mitsubishi, Nissan, BMW, Hindustan Motors, Daimler, Caparo, and PSA Peugeot Citroën is about to begin their operations by 2014. Chennai accounts for 60% of the country's automotive exports. Gurgaon and Manesar in Haryana form the northern cluster where the country's largest car manufacturer, Maruti Suzuki, is based.The Chakan corridor near Pune, Maharashtra is the western cluster with companies like General Motors, Volkswagen, Skoda, Mahindra and Mahindra, Tata Motors, Mercedes Benz, Land Rover, Jaguar Cars, Fiat and Force Motors having assembly plants in the area. Nashik has a major base of Mahindra and Mahindra with a SUV assembly unit and an Engine assembly unit. Aurangabad with Audi, Skoda and Volkswagen also forms part of the western cluster. Another emerging cluster is in the state of Gujarat with manufacturing facility of General Motors in Halol and further planned for Tata Nano at their plant in Sanand. Ford, Maruti Suzuki and Peugeot-Citroen plants are also set to come up in Gujarat.[13] Kolkata with Hindustan Motors, Noida with Honda and Bangalore with Toyota are some of the other automotive manufacturing regions around the country.

SELECTION:-

Recruitment is the process of generating a pool of capable people to apply for employment to an organization. Selection is the process by which managers and others use specific instruments to choose from a pool of applicants a person or persons most likely to succeed in the job(s), given management goals and legal requirements.

Gender discrimination in the workplace continues to be a major problem in the workplace despite the passing of time . Sexual or gender discrimination at work occurs whenever an individual is treated differently on account of their gender and may affect anything from within Sexual Harassment section. Below you will find information on gender discrimination, including an overview of gender discrimination laws, some frequently asked questions, and examples of illegal interview questions. Gender discrimination has occurred when: (1) an employee has been treated differently because of his or her gender, (2) an employee has been excluded from consideration or participation in an opportunity because of his or her gender or (3) an employee has been eliminated from certain activities because of their gender. It can be difficult to determine when gender discrimination has occurred because it is not always as overt as other violations such as sexual harassment. Five out of ten employees in India Inc have experienced one or the other kind of discrimination, said a study by staffing firm Team Lease Services. In its latest survey ‘Bias@Workplace’, the firm said that India Inc (mainly in the top 8 cities) is yet to adopt the concept of equal opportunity in its true sense. The report indicated the strong prevalence of discriminatory practices while recruiting and at work. The survey pointed that while gender, age and qualification based biases existed in companies, discrimination based on caste and religion have become almost obsolete. Discrimination at workplace based on qualification goes as high as 50%. A number of empirical studies indicate that the extent of anti-female bias in survival is substantially reduced by various influences that give women more voice and agency within the family. One of these influences is female education. Another is the ability to earn an independent income through paid employment.' (Dreze and Sen 1996: 159-60) The `socialisees' rather than the already `socialized' represent the potential agents of hange' (Epstein 1982) Autonomy for women should not imply irresponsibility on the part of others. Hence the ontinued importance of support networks and group solidarity (Abadian 1996). Of relevance here is the istinction that has been made between the role of human capital (`human resource endowments with physical health determining capacity to work, and skills and education determining the returns to labour') and social capital (`inter-household and intra-community level reciprocity drawing on social resources' (Moser 1995).

In 1997, the Supreme Court of India took it upon itself to lay down the Guidelines against Sexual Harassment at the Workplace (the ‘Guidelines’) in Vishaka and

employer (or other responsible persons) to provide for measures and procedures that will prevent and deter acts of sexual harassment done not only by persons within the establishments but third parties as well. The employer is also obligated to devise dispute resolution mechanisms and means to prosecute offensive acts. There is a marked absence of monitoring and enforcement issues in the collective agreements surveyed. While standards are mutually agreed upon, there is an implicit assumption that all the laws and rules issued by the government will be complied with. Studies indicate that in several institutions, the provisions with regard to maternity benefit, crèches, restrooms, and toilet facilities are not complied with. However, grievance committees to deal with such discrepancies do not seem to have been a priority in the negotiation/social process. Reliance is placed upon the inspection procedures of the labour administration departments that regularly inspect premises for violations. Studies undertaken of such inspection procedures indicate that the number of women enforcement officers of the labour department is abysmally small. In the absence of adequate women labour administration officials, it is difficult to detect violations of laws such as the ERA, 1976, mandating equal wages for same or similar work. Labour administration officials lack transport facilities, and are understaffed, and laws specifically affecting women, such as those dealing with equal remuneration or maternity benefit, are not subject to the same numbers of inspections as general laws affecting all workers (Thorat, 1995)

The past decade has shifted the spotlight on Asia and its role as an emerging power. anufacturing has played a key role in the growth story of most economies in Asia. The manufacturing sector, in most rapidly developing economies, contributes to 25-40 percent of the GDP. The Indian manufacturing sector, according to CII’s 2012 Manufacturing Summit Report compiled by BCG, on the other hand has focused on an aggressive growth of 12-15 percent, creating over 100 million incremental jobs and an ambitious growth target of 25 percent of GDP by 2022. Considering this as the backdrop of the economic situation, the opportunities for diversity in all sectors, including the auto industry, seem extremely positive to accelerate growth. However, one wonders where the real challenges are. Early on, in the manufacturing sector at large, and the auto industry in specific, women were few in number, and this number almost The scenario sped by to unravel a decade that has seen a revolution in the head count of women at the workplace, be it manufacturing, engineering, finance or IT. The women hired in the 1990s were most likely to be the only ones in their team, often with high visibility and low authority. While it was a challenge to penetrate the male bastion of core production areas, women’s contributions in primary functions, ability to nurture, build and lead strong teams were gradually recognized and appreciated. While gender diversity in the auto industry is lower compared to other industries like IT and service, one can see slow change seeping in. The auto industry must acknowledge and encourage this change and create an atmosphere conducive to nurture diversity. Women are today highly educated and bring with them refreshingly different perspectives and new competencies and have bridged the gap that used to exist between genders. Today the industry is endeavoring to get in place the best of talent and is focused on achieving excellence. It is, therefore, important for the industry to ensure that it taps the best of talent, irrespective of gender, and make women important and valued members of their team. One such difficulty is the belief that men and women have different leadership styles. Leadership styles attributed to women are believed to reduce their effectiveness in the workplace. Specifically, women are thought to be more people-oriented in their leadership style and men more task-oriented. The people-oriented leadership style of women is viewed as less likely to inspire productivity among workers. Gender stereotyping is a problem that working women must deal with. Barnett and Hyde, (2001), conclude that the empirical studies they reviewed challenge gender differences predictions of earlier theories. The behavior of men and women in the workplace is similar. Differences may have existed in the past but these differences are rapidly disappearing. Perhaps what needs to be examined is why these differences are disappearing.

What transpires from the analysis above is that measuring gender discrimination is no easy task. The problem arises not simply because the phenomenon can manifest itself in myriad form, thus necessitating the tracking of different “indicators”, but also because there is no guarantee that these indicators will move in roughly the same direction under all conditions. Thus determining the context – specificity of different indicators becomes important, as is the need for establishing systematic patterns of linkages between mental health, such as stress and anxiety that is caused by gender related factors. Most available studies of violence against women are concerned with acts of actual perpetrated violence. Apart from the problem of reporting bias, the actua l acts of violence may be only the tip of the iceberg. Credible threat of violence is an equally potent measure of women’s subjugation. Only a properly conceived psychological assessment of gender-relatedstress can hope to bring out this incidence. Such assessment needs to be done in the context of other, more conventional measures of women’s status in society. Mapping these complex sets of issues against the background of changing economic policy regims poses another set of challenges. Changes in macro policy would generally get manifested in changes in external economic opportunities and constraint for households at various levels. These may trigger gender-differentiated changes in labour use patterns, both within and outside the households, generate some new pressure points and relieve some other. Tracing them systematically to track the changing nature of gender relations in a particular context is a challenge in itself. It is not clear at this point whether it is even a doable research agenda. What propels the inquiry is the belief that it is important to start by asking the right questions.

Abadian, Susan. 1996. ‘Women's Autonomy and its Impact on Fertility’. World Development vol. 24, No. 12 pp 1793-1809 Barnett, Rosalind Chait, Hyde, Janet Shibley. (2001). “Women, Men, Work, and Family: An Expansionist Theory.” American Psychologist. Vol 56 10: 781- 795 Dreze, Jean and P.V. Srinivasan. 1996. ‘Poverty in Indi a: Regional Contrasts and Female Labour Force Participation’. Paper presented at workshop on Gender and Employment in India, Indian Society of Labour Economics and Institute of Economic Growth, New Delhi Dec 18-20. Epstein, T. Scarlett. 1982. ‘A Social Anthropological Approach to Women's Roles and status in Developing Countries: The Domestic Cycle’ in Anker, Richard, Mayra Buviniv and Nadia H. Youssef (ed) Women's Roles and Population Trends in the Third World. London: Croom Helm pp 151 – 170.

Thorat, M. 1995. “Labour administration, enforcement and gender”, in K.V. Easwara Prasad and C. Joseph