Gender Diversity in Polish Enterprises

About the authors:

Anna Wieczorek-Szymańska, Ph. D. in Economics, Lecturer, Faculty of Economics and Management, University of Szczecin (Poland); wiean@wneiz.pl

Wojciech Leoński, Ph. D. in Economics, Lecturer, Faculty of Economics and Management, University of Szczecin (Poland); wleonski@wneiz.pl

Abstract:

In the era of a socially heterogeneous environment, diversity management (DM) should be of primary significance in any company. As the potential within diverse human resources is huge, its proper utilisation may translate into a company’s market success. In Poland, the society is relatively uniform in terms of culture, race, and religion. Age and gender are the primary elements that are recognized the fastest. These factors most often constitute the reason for discrimination within Polish enterprises. That is why they are the main field of DM in Poland.

In this paper, the authors have chosen to focus on the issue of gender diversity in enterprises.The subject is specifically significant in terms of its topicality. Diversity at the workplace constitutes one of the most important global employment trends. Analysis of selected aspects of DM in the context of gender diversity in Poland may contribute to better understanding of the problem.

The first part of this paper studies the DM from the theoretical point of view, expressed source literature and reports. The next chapter focuses on the issue of gender diversity based on research in Poland and abroad. The further part of the article focuses on the limitations of DM and activities aimed at promoting diversity in Polish enterprises.

The main goal of this article is to analyze the level of gender diversity in Polish and foreign companies as well as the selected support tools and barriers in managing diversity in Poland. The undertaken research topic has been executed using the critical literature analysis method, reports, and papers. The Web of Science Core Collection database has been used as a main source of data.

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