Employee Demographics in Hrm
Employee Demographics in Human Resource Management Research Fiona Edgar & Alan Geare
Abstract
Despite a prominent perspective of the literature that employees are consumers of HRM, only recently has HRM been evaluated from the employees’ viewpoint. Whilst these studies have helped to develop our understanding of the HRM‘experience’ from an employee perspective, they frequently ignore the issue of employee demography. This study contributes to understanding in this area by establishing areas of difference in employee views based upon their characteristics about the importance and application of HRMpractice. Specifically, the demographic categories of gender, ethnicity, age, occupation, length of service, and employment sector are examined. Fndings indicate that employee demography, especially gender, ethnicity and employment sector, does influence employee attitudes towards HRM, and should be given consideration in HRM research. The findings are discussed in terms of their relevance for the Asia Pacific region.
Introduction
The view that best practice models of Human Resource Management (HRM) have universal applicability is an assumption that is often made in the literature (Wood 1995, Purcell 1999). This implicitly suggests that employees are homogenous, and hence, would have similar views towardsHRM policies and practices. However, there is little actual evidence to support this view as few studies in HRM have researched employees themselves. As Bowen and Ostroff (2004) point out in a recent paper: In past research on HRM practices and systems, scholars have typically relied on reports from a higher-level manager or HR executive ... we suggest that a better alternative is to assess these characteristics of the HRM system from employees themselves. (p.216) If employees, as a group, have been largely ignored in HRM research, it is not surprising that employee demographics have apparently been deemed irrelevant. This paper
Abstract
Despite a prominent perspective of the literature that employees are consumers of HRM, only recently has HRM been evaluated from the employees’ viewpoint. Whilst these studies have helped to develop our understanding of the HRM‘experience’ from an employee perspective, they frequently ignore the issue of employee demography. This study contributes to understanding in this area by establishing areas of difference in employee views based upon their characteristics about the importance and application of HRMpractice. Specifically, the demographic categories of gender, ethnicity, age, occupation, length of service, and employment sector are examined. Fndings indicate that employee demography, especially gender, ethnicity and employment sector, does influence employee attitudes towards HRM, and should be given consideration in HRM research. The findings are discussed in terms of their relevance for the Asia Pacific region.
Introduction
The view that best practice models of Human Resource Management (HRM) have universal applicability is an assumption that is often made in the literature (Wood 1995, Purcell 1999). This implicitly suggests that employees are homogenous, and hence, would have similar views towardsHRM policies and practices. However, there is little actual evidence to support this view as few studies in HRM have researched employees themselves. As Bowen and Ostroff (2004) point out in a recent paper: In past research on HRM practices and systems, scholars have typically relied on reports from a higher-level manager or HR executive ... we suggest that a better alternative is to assess these characteristics of the HRM system from employees themselves. (p.216) If employees, as a group, have been largely ignored in HRM research, it is not surprising that employee demographics have apparently been deemed irrelevant. This paper