Dimensions and determinants of declining employment opportunities for mature aged male practitioners within the human resources profession : occupational change, age and gender

![CDATA[In line with other professions, Human Resource Management (HRM) is witnessing changing age and gender profiles with the advent of greater rates of female participation, increasing reliance on qualifications for entry to the profession and a younger workforce. This paper examines how these factors are influencing opportunities for older male professionals within HRM through an examination of the primacy of HRM (in organisational effective terms), the influences of gender in management style, ageism and sexism. The subtleties of how these ‘isms’ are deployed as an organisational methodology are discussed, as is the emerging capitalist view of the value and usefulness of female management styles with its attendant gender segmentation. Current literature argues that ageism and sexism contribute to consistent findings of a decline in opportunities for older workers of either gender and the role of structural and attitudinal factors will be highlighted.]]