A qualitative study of the Hispanic gender role and social-cultural factors influencing the attraction process: The recruitment of the Latina to meet 21st century labor shortage challenges in America

Approximately one-fourth of the 303,824,640 individuals representing the labor workforce in the United States (U.S.) are part of the baby boom cohort (Toossi, 2004). Seventy eight million individuals are credited for the shifting demographics in the U.S. The largest gap in the labor force will be seen in the professional arena (Hilton, 2008). In order to proactively meet the challenge of a future labor shortage, organizations will need to focus their recruitment effort on the remaining replacement pool of qualified individuals. For a variety of reasons, the recruitment of the Hispanic as a sustainable and growing replacement pool offers many competitive advantages. The focus of this dissertation centers on the female gender within the Hispanic group, the Latina. Theory and research focused on factors identified as gender-role expectations, social network influences and cultural norms values and beliefs (GSC) within the Hispanic group imply that the Hispanic females are more affected by these factors than their male counterparts (Burke & Tully, 1977; Villarreal & Cavazos, 2005; Zurcher et al., 1965). Thus, the purpose of this grounded theory study is to fill two voids in the literature by first identifying the GSC factors, if any, which could hinder the Latinas\u27 attraction to an organization. In particular, the research interest is whether the social and cultural factors existed for the Latina and if they influenced her attraction to an organization when job requirements impeded her ability to fulfill gender-role expectations. This study identifies the recruiters presently trying to attract the Latina are facing a challenge because of the GSC factors and, if so, whether the organizations had formulated or practiced any effective recruitment strategies that seem to decrease the influence of the GSC factors