Abstract
For decades, existing in male-dominated industries has not been easy for women. At seaports, as a male-dominated sub-industry of maritime, the industrial operators and the freight handlers employ significantly more men than women both in the office and the yard. Listening to women's stories of beginning a job in ports is important to increase their presence in ports. For this reason, this study aims to investigate narratives of women employees about their feelings and experiences at the job interview process in the ports. Narrative analysis was used in this study. According to the results, most of the participants preferred the port sector consciously. Although most of the participants had a positive job interview process, they had some worries before job application. It is hoped this research contributes to the port business both scientifically and practically by revealing the experiences of women employees in job interview processes in ports.
TopLiterature Review
One of the most important functions of human resources management is the employee selection and recruitment process. The employees of an organization, which are crucial intellectual capital for the organization, play an active role in the success of that organization. For this reason, organizations should determine their human resource management policy and establish an effective employee selection system for the sufficient qualification and number of employees (Yelboğa, 2008, pp. 11-12).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Ports: Ports which are a sub-system of shipping are areas that are attached to a sea, ocean, or river by connecting waterway and are essentially considered as entities. They are equipped with infrastructure and technical facilities of any kind that allow them to manage the load type for which they are specialized. Ports are important for the support of economic activities because they act as a crucial connection between sea and land transport.
Women Employees: This term includes working women in the port industry, who ensure their economic freedom.
Narrative Analysis: Narrative analysis is a qualitative research design that enables to define and interpret complex human experiences. Information about the subject can be reached through the narrated stories that participants indicated their own expressions and experiences.
Human resource management: Human resource management is defined as the management of people in organizations in the form of a collective relationship between management and employees. Human resource management is concerned with the notions of people enabling, people development, and a focus on making the employment relationship fulfilling for both the management and employees.
Recruitment: Recruitment can be defined as a process of actively searching potential candidates in adequate numbers and qualities to fill available positions within the organization.
Maritime Industry: The maritime industry includes freight and passenger transportation, shipbuilding industry, port services, sea tourism, sea sports, and the production of living and non-living natural resources. The maritime industry has crucial importance in terms of social and economic development to countries.
Gender Discrimination: Gender discrimination is treating women or men differently in hiring, work environment, and working conditions. Gender discrimination is a situation that especially women are exposed to in their business life. The problems faced by women in wages, training, promotion, and benefiting from social rights in business life are a result of gender discrimination.
Job Interview: It is the interview process that recruitment experts or corporate managers conduct with the job applicant in order to evaluate the suitability of the candidate for the position. At the end of the process, both the candidate and the hiring parties decide whether they are suitable for each other.