In the construction industry today, there is a big demand of new recruits. One effective way of reaching new recruits is to consider other candidates than the majority which today populates the construction industry – men. Meanwhile women face a lot of obstacles in the industry as a consequence of the macho culture. Managers play an important role in the wellbeing of their employees and for the company culture. The study’s purpose is to research if managers in Sweden can influence women to staying in the construction industry by answering two research questions: (1) How can management support female employees to make them want to stay in the construction industry? (2) What support and tools do management need from their organisations to ensure the wellbeing and workplace satisfaction of their female employees? A qualitative research approach was conducted and women working at construction sites, their managers, and human resources-personnel were interviewed. In total 12 interviewees were participating in semi-structured and in-depth interviews and a minimum of three interviewees came from the same company. In total three companies were included in the study. A thematic analysis was applied to the collected data and three overarching themes were identified. The most important findings of the study have been: (1) Manager’s knowledge versus managers understanding of the obstacles women face in the construction industry. (2) Managers sharing the opinion of the equality issue progressing organically. And (3) that the conflict per se is not as important as how the conflict is being managed. To give women in the construction industry the right support to want to stay in the industry mangers need to develop a deeper understanding for women’s challenges in the industry, develop their conflict management, take a clear stance in their own role in the progression of the equality issue of the industry, and take proactive actions. The identified support managers need from their organizations is educations to understand the challenges women face in the construction industry and clear and standardized communication flow between employees and different level managers support. Furthermore, they need support from human resources-personnel to minimize the risk of recruiting women on the premises them being able to withstand the current culture in the industry, which today is fuelling the macho culture.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:hj-53218 |
| Date | January 2021 |
| Creators | Karlsson, Jennifer, Edvardsson, Emma |
| Publisher | Jönköping University, Internationella Handelshögskolan |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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