A study on the Impact of Workplace Culture on Gender Diversity in SMEs of the Manufacturing Sector

Abstract

With more and more women entering the workforce, gender diversity is increasing in organizations. Manufacturing sector that has been traditionally dominated by male employees also shows an increase in gender diverse workforce. This is true even for the manufacturing companies belonging to the SMEs. With high demand for talented and skilled employees and challenges in retaining them, organizations have realized the importance of attracting and retaining women employees, hence, gender diversity in organizations has become important and received lot of attention. Organizations with more women employees have been found to have a work environment that is supportive and sensitive to their needs. Greater gender diversity ensures lesser disciplinary issues and healthy work environment. SMEs provide employment close to 40% of India’s workforce after the agricultural sector which employs the largest number of people in India. SMEs also struggle with skilled worker shortages. They too need to attract and retain women employees to ensure good quality workforce. This study attempts to investigate female workforce participation and the extent supportive workplace culture for women influences gender diversity in SME’s of manufacturing sector in Coimbatore district. This work also presents the results in support of creating workplaces that supports women and, by extension, all employees. The results of the report will be useful in creating work environments that contribute to improved recruitment and retention of skilled women in the SMEs of manufacturing segment. Respondents were the women employees from 113 SMEs belonging to the manufacturing sector in Coimbatore. Results show a positive relationship between supportive workplace culture and gender diversity.