HRM practices in high-tech sectors and their impact on gender structure

The main findings of the study are related to the homogeneity of HRM policies and practices in Strategic Professional Roles and the impact of HRM policies on gender structure in a sample of high-tech firms. We found that they have a sophisticated approach to HRM, especially those competing in international arenas, and have homogenous HRM policies and practices as a likely result of institutional pressures. These findings are consistent with the view of new institutionalism which proposes that firms in the same industry have a homogenous organisational structure, process and output. According to the literature, homogeneity in HRM is driven by influences from institutional and internal factors. Our study has shown that gender structure is influenced by pressures both from the market and the profession, and also from other institutional orders, the bureaucratic state and family, so that women’s vocational orientation is still influenced by cultural and social pressures linked to the traditional support role assigned to women by society and related to their function within the family. This imbalance brings about the preconditions for horizontal segregation in the short run and vertical segregation over a longer period.