Career diversity. Men's and women's careers in Human Resource Management

The changes in organizational structures and in labour market insitutions favour the spread of career patterns which are not developed within the boundaries of one firm, but which emerge from transitions between organizations, departments, hierarchical levels, functions and sets of skills. We suggested that women might be favoured in following boundaryless career patterns because of their personal characteristics and education, and because they were “forced” to develop mobile careers to circumvent glass ceiling. The aim of this article is twofold. The first objective is to verify if men and women follow different career patterns, in terms of mobility between functions, industries and firms. Then, we are interested in understanding what are the factors (individual characteristics and organization-related factors) which influence their mobility. An empirical research has been conducted on a sample of Italian Human Resource managers (30 women and 30 men). The results supported the hypothesis that women have a more mobile career than men, and that their mobility is influenced by the education level, organizational size and industry.