Who benefits from (Human Resource Management) professionalization? The moderating role of gender on professionalization effects in organisations

Professionalization aims at closure, that is, having the monopoly protection of expertise for an occupation on the labour market and in organizations. Role congruity theory suggests that the translation of professionalization into organizational closure and reaching board membership is likely to be moderated by gender at the individual and the occupational level. We test this proposition focusing on Human Resource Management (HRM), an occupation with a long history of professionalization attempts. Using a sample of 3276 organizations embedded in 34 countries with varying professionalization levels between countries, results show that professionalization of HRM at the country level is positively related to closure in organizations. The positive relationship is weaker for female HR directors and high proportions of women in the HRM occupation in a country. Organizational closure, in contrast, is negatively related to board representation but increases the likelihood of board membership in countries with high proportions of women in the HRM occupation.