Gender in Management: An International Journal

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze how the status and functional responsibilities of female human resource (HR) directors vary cross-nationally and how gender egalitarian cultural values affect role differences between female and male HR directors.

Design/methodology/approach – A cross-country comparison of HR directors involving 22 countries based on the 2004 Cranet survey.

Findings – Consistent with the hypotheses, gender egalitarian values reduce sex-role differences for strategic integration and for traditionally female-stereotyped HR functions. However, there is no support for the notion that egalitarian values influence sex differences for male-stereotyped HR functions. Since, the data indicate higher levels of involvement of female HR directors in male-stereotyped HR functions in 12 out of 22 countries, unequal distribution of functional responsibility is interpreted as an indicator for sex differences in administrative workload.

Originality/value – Macro cultural factors matter for sex-role differences in strategic integration and functional responsibilities of HR directors. The effects of gender egalitarian values have greater impact on reducing vertical differences than horizontal differences.