The recruitment process at Defence Company A and the extent of the company's focus on attracting female applicants

Abstract

The aim of this dissertation was to explore the recruitment methods within a male dominated organisation and to explore the extent of the chosen organisations focus on employing female applicants. The female employee's perspectives of their experiences within the company will also be examined. The methods used to conduct this study were qualitative, using a single case study method in the form of semi-structured interviews. In total eight female employees from an engineering organisation took part in this research study. Using purposeful sampling, participants were made up of females between the ages 19 and 49 years. The findings of the research found that the selected company for this study does not specifically focus on recruiting females within Area A. It is suggested from the data that this is because the company has to be diversified so cannot just attempt to recruit women. All the participants agreed that certain departments within the company are gender segregated. All eight of the participants have noticed that some males within the company have certain attitudes towards women working within an engineering company, but the women seemed to be unfazed by this. These were the most substantial findings however the results and discussion of this research in chapters four and five examine the findings in more detail.