This study examines gender equality issues in the workplace in Malaysia and New Zealand during the COVID-19 pandemic and their consequences for practicing human resource management (HRM) in light of potential social-economic influences. Based on the literature reviewed, content and thematic analysis are employed. Emerging themes, such as country profile, female representation in employment rate and labor force participation rate, gender wage gap, and women in senior management roles, in these two countries are discussed. The COVID-19 alert and protection systems adopted by these countries are compared and their implications on HR practices are examined. Overall, the workforce in Malaysia appeared to experience relatively more complex challenges than that of New Zealand. The current study highlights the importance of positioning the development stages and roles of HR adopted by an organization so that HR professionals, business managers, government, and higher education institutions can work collaboratively to close gender equality gaps in the workplace in these countries.
TopIntroduction
Gender equality refers to the equal rights, responsibilities, and opportunities of males and females (UN, 2021a). It is essential for developing a people-centred and sustainable country because the needs, interests, and priorities of both genders are taken into consideration in different settings, such as a workplace (UN, 2021a; UN, 2021b, UNW, n.d.; UNESCO, 2020; WEF, March 2021).
While discussion on gender equality in a society and a workplace has attracted attention for decades, the efforts and results of promoting workforce diversity and inclusiveness of minorities in a workplace vary globally in a developing country such as Malaysia and a developed country, such as New Zealand.
Therefore, this study examined the nature of gender equality, the gender equality issues that arise in the era of COVID-19 pandemic in the workplace of Malaysia and New Zealand, and their consequences for practising human resource management (HRM) in the workplace in light of potential social-economic influences. Literatures published in major databases between 1992-2021 were reviewed systematically. By examining gender equality issues at the workplace in these countries, this study aims to understand the factors that may contribute to gender disparity at the workplace in both contexts, before and during COVID-19, including the roles of HR and their implications to close gender disparity gaps in the workplace in these countries.
The benefits of this study are threefold. Firstly, this study contributes to theoretical findings relevant to gender equality and HRM practices. For example, as business organization in Malaysia and in New Zealand may employ different HR model(s), the roles of HR practitioners may differ in these countries. Hence, the approaches that the HR practitioners take to close gender equality gaps in a workplace may vary. Secondly, the current study demonstrates managerial implications for key internal stakeholders (e.g., managers, HR professionals, and employees) and external stakeholders (e.g., government, labor union, trade association, and interest groups) who are influenced directly by internal business environment (e.g., organizational culture, system, and process) and indirectly by external business environment (legal-political, economic, social-cultural, technological, globalisation) to close the gender disparity gaps at a workplace. This indicates the importance of reviewing critical roles HR professionals play in designing and aligning HR vision, missions, strategies, policies, procedures, and guidelines to promote gender equality within an organization. In light of these, this study outlines the suggestions for future studies.
TopBackground And Significance
While there is abundant research focused on the gender equality issues in New Zealand (e.g., UN, 9 April 2020; Diversity Works NZ, 2021), and some on Malaysia (e.g., Lim, 2021), few research have attempted to compare gender disparity in these countries from the following aspects. Firstly, how is gender disparity reflected on the employment rate, labor force participation rate, and female leadership in an organisation in these countries? The representation of female workforce in these dimensions indicates the social-economic challenges that they may face in a country. Secondly, how may the COVID-19 alert system employed in both countries since 2020 affect business organisations and HR practices in these countries? As COVID-19 alert and protective systems may vary from country to country, understanding how business organizations and HR practices are affected by the COVID-19 condition and alert system help to understand the challenges that HR professionals may face when organizations are seeking the ways to adapt, adopt, advance, and transform themselves in the business environment. However, not all business organisations in a developed country (e.g., New Zealand) and developing country (e.g., Malaysia) are positioned at the same HR development stages. Hence, the roles of HR and their HR practices an organisation employed may vary from country to country. Therefore, the last aspect this study examined is how HR development stages and HR roles may affect the approaches of closing gender disparity at a workplace in these two countries? The current study intended to close these gaps.