Gender Equality in the United Kingdom and Germany: Human Resource Management in light of conflicting institutional logics

Using a case study design, qualitative interviews and an institutional theory framework, this study aims to explore how organisational-level Human Resources (HR) managers in the United Kingdom (UK) and Germany make sense of and navigate different and conflicting paradigms, policies and norms regarding gender and work when making HR decisions.

Gender equality remains to be a societal challenge and is recognised as a sustainable development goal by the United Nations. While women (1) have caught up with and now exceed men's skill and qualification levels; (2) have an increasing labour market attachment; and (3) show a preference to return into work after taking career breaks, they are still disadvantaged in the labour market. Specifically, women are still significantly underrepresented in top management positions, have less opportunities for career mobility, and receive significantly less pay than men for equal work despite equal performance and especially in highly prestigious occupations. This also holds true for countries that otherwise rank high in gender equality.

This study contributes to research and theory on institutional logics, and explores how individual actors within British and German organisations conceptualise and negotiate conflicting institutional logics around gender and work. This is relevant because conflicting institutional logics can lead to institutional change if a new logic supersedes the previously accepted one. Hence, logics supporting gender equality might deinstitutionalise logics fostering inequality, and vice versa. However, conflicting logics can also result in institutional stability, maintaining a status quo. This discussion therefore leads to two preliminary Research Questions:

1) How do individuals conceptualise, make sense of and navigate conflicting institutional logics surrounding gender and work in the two different institutional contexts of the UK and Germany?

2) How do these conflicting logics shape individuals' actions with regard to the implementation of gender equality HRM?

Both Germany and the UK have been chosen because they are expected to provide different social, economic and political landscapes, and hence different macro-institutional logics, for the implementation of equality policies. This is because they are representatives of different welfare styles and capitalistic systems.

The research will use a case study design and will collect interview data in ten case study organisations: five each in the UK and Germany. These case study organisations will be matched across countries according to size, industry and geographic location (rural/urban). Organisations will be selected that have already adopted hiring practices that promote gender equality, such as hiring quotas, to be able to discuss actual implementation processes. The sample will include Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), which represent 99% of all businesses in the European Union. Interviews will be conducted in each case study organisation with respondents at different hierarchical levels, focusing on those individuals with strategic HR responsibility, operational HR responsibility as well as on line managers who have HR responsibility within their work teams. This strategy will allow to triangulate information and to create a reliable understanding of how gender-related policies are adopted and shared within each organisation. Furthermore, interviews will be conducted with female employees who will be able to evaluate the effectiveness of gender equality HR policies as well as their implementation. Female employees will also be able to provide a personal view on how such policies have affected their careers and employment experiences and how gender has played a role in this. Lastly, interviews will be conducted with employee representatives, especially those responsible for representing women in the organisation.