The Concept of Diversity and its Significance in Modern Society
Critically discuss the extent to which Equal Opportunities approach to diversity management is able to diminish workplace discrimination.
The concept of diversity is deeply associated with the concept of acceptance and respect. Considering the fact that diversity is inevitable, it is really crucial to understand that each individual is unique in their own way. Workplace diversity acknowledges that employees in an organization have several differences with respect to gender, age, color, social status, religion, ethnicity, culture, disability and marital status. According to researchers, the predominance of diversity issues is different in different countries across the world (Krislov 2012). In modern society, the concept of diversity has changed from traditional view to a contemporary view since it covers a much wider frame that involves legal requirements. In this era of globalization, organization requires to incorporate employees from different back grounds to enhance the creativity and cope up with the highly competitive market. Therefore, capitalizing and maximizing the workplace diversity has become a crucial issue for the managers of an organization. The managers of organizations approach issues related to diversity in workplace by implementing several equality policies. In this essay, the extent to which the Equal Opportunities approach to diversity management is able to diminish workplace discrimination has been discussed. The Equal Opportunity management involves four approaches, namely, dissolving differences, utilization of differences, accommodation of differences and finally valuing differences. While dissolving differences involves providing equal opportunities to all employees, utilization of differences involves educating and providing training to all employees in an organization in order to help them understanding the process of organization and thereby, boost their confidence. This essay contains brief discussion about the theory of patriarchy and how the evil practice of patriarchy in the workplace can be eradicated by implementing various rules and regulations associated with the gender inequality act (2012).
According to the theory of Equal Opportunity, each and every individual should be treated in a similar manner without being hampered by prejudices, preferences and artificial barriers. The only exception to this situation is when behaving with an individual distinctly can be justified properly (Liff 1995). The chief aim of equal opportunity approach is to ensure that the workplace is free from any type of harassment related to discrimination. Another objective of thee mentioned approach is to ensure that the procedures, policies, services and structure created by the organization or the government do not provide disadvantage to any individual based on his socio-economic background, disability, language, location, gender, ethnic and cultural background, marital status, political conviction, religious beliefs and gender (LaMontagne et al. 2014).
The Equal Opportunities Approach to Diversity Management
According to Chrobot-Mason and Aramovich (2013), the equal opportunity approach provides justice to all the employees in an organization by providing the same number of choices to all employees. Under equal opportunity, everyone regardless of their age, gender, or ethnic origin should be treated equally. In UK, a legal framework underpins the effectiveness of equal opportunities approach associated with gender equality. This approach chiefly deals with gender discrimination in the workplace. According to this approach, in spite of existing difference between two individuals, differences should not be acknowledge and instead should be ignored. While women should be allowed to take maternity leaves for nine months, this approach also allows men to take long leave in cases of severe illness and thus establish equality in workplace. Apart from this discriminations against ethnic minorities are also dealt with the help of this approach. Here the feminism theory that includes women are not inferior to men and eradication of horizontal and vertical segregation can be used.
However, according to Barak (2016), equal opportunity approach also has several limitations. It has been found that while focusing more on differences related to gender and ethnic minorities, equal opportunity approach pays minimal attention to discrimination due to age, religious belief and disability. These factors of discrimination require legal framework and special attention to protect them from being discriminated. Considering the fact that one of the most crucial discrimination faced by employees in the workplace is sexual discrimination, the equal opportunity approach has several legislations to ensure prevention of discrimination in the workplace. According to the gender equality duty law, every public organization must show that they equally encourage men and women in the workplace in order to abolish sexual discrimination.
Women have been oppressed both in the society an in workplace from time immemorial. The patriarchy theory refers to the theory and practices where women are dominated, exploited and oppressed by the men in the society (Pateman 2014). Even in this era of modernization, women are oppressed by their superiors and colleagues and are treated differently. Women who take initiative to fight for equal rights and opportunities for both men and women are often discouraged and shut down by the management of the workplace. Several examples are their where women are paid much lesser than men in spite of investing the same effort and providing the service as men. In 2015, Ellen Pao, a female employee of the venture-capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, filed case against the company for paying a much lesser amount f money to her compared to her male colleagues (Harvey and Allard 2015).
The Theory of Patriarchy and Gender Inequality in the Workplace
Fortunately, various organizations across the world have implemented several laws and regulation to eradicate this evil practice of gender inequality. In order to address the theory of patriarchy in practice, the household labor of women can be considered as a form of production and thus can be compensated. In workplace, both men and women should be paid equal amount of money for in cases their job profile are similar. The equal pay act states that, both men and women employees in an organization should be provided equal amount of salary if their job value and designation are same (Wambui et al. 2013). In case of discrepancy, the employees need to provide valid reason to providing different salaries and benefits to the employees. While according to the disability discrimination act, reasonable adjustments and equal benefits should be provided by an organization for disabled employees, the benefits of equality regulation states that unlawful distinguish against elder employees along with harassment and victimization is punishable (Trenerry and Paradies 2012).
It can be clearly understood the equal opportunity approach has the potential to diminish workplace discrimination. The major advantages of equal opportunity approach are:
- The equal opportunity approach gives priority to equality of approach rather than equality of outcomes, hence, this approach can be considered to have an open minded tradition (Torrington, Hall and Taylor 2002).
- Equal opportunity approach provides practical justice by incorporating a foundation for the formalization of procedures instead of unrealistic assumptions. Some of the international organizations where equal opportunity approaches have been implemented successfully are Wesfarmers, Woolsworths Limited and BHP Billiton.
- Equal opportunity approach helps employee to compete against discrimination and achieve success in the workplace.
- The mentioned approach encourages employees from different cultural background to join an organization and this in turn, provides immense benefit to the organization by enhancing the creativity and productivity of that particular organization.
- Another reason behind enhanced productivity of the organization due to this approach is the improved environment of the workplace. According to several organizations, effective implementation of this approach has highly enhanced the workplace environment which in turn has resulted in the increment of productivity of the organizations (Cascio 2018).
However, there are several limitations of this approach which need to be eliminated. Some of the crucial limitations of equal opportunities approaches are:
- Considering the fact that different individuals in an organization have different skills that has contribution to individual performance and productivity along with organizational goals, the equal opportunity approach minimizes the difference by treating every employee the same. Hence employees are getting discouraged to show their performance since they know that they won’t be evaluated on the basis of their performances (Chrobot-Mason and Aramovich 2013).
- In cases, where a successful minority member is discriminated by other employees of the same minority, the equal opportunity approach faces difficulty to protect him/her. Moreover, equal opportunity legislation does not provide support to all the minority groups and often organization objectives collide with the mentioned approach (Wambui et al. 2013).
- Finally in spite of the fact that several international organization has implemented the above mention approach to prevent employee discrimination, still now, a good number of organization are still to implement these practices.
It is really crucial for every organization to develop an effective management strategy to manage the diversities in an organization. If the management of an organization can manage the diversity of its workplace effectively, it will be able to enjoy several advantages. Diversity management strategies help creating a linkage between external and internal aspects of the work of an organization. The chief objective of diversity management is to get benefited from the diversification in the work place. Diversity provides a better understanding of the market to the organization. For example, the marketing department of an organization having a diversified workforce will have a better understanding of the market structure and demand of the consumers due to the knowledge and experience of employees having different origin. By knowing the consumers and the market place in a better way, it becomes easier for the organization to expand its business. Apart from that, a diverse workforce also enhances the satisfaction of the employees and inspires them to enhance their ability to perform. This in turn enhances the productivity of the organization and hence the overall revenue of the organization also gets increased. Besides that, having a diverse workplace also helps an organization to take effective decisions and develop efficient strategies. Employees from different social and cultural background provide a greater variety of solutions to different issues in sourcing, services and allocation of resources. Along with that employees from diverse backgrounds bring individual experiences, skills and talents like understanding of different culture and languages which help the organization to manage and adopt fluctuating international market and demand of consumers. Thus, it can be clearly understood that diversification does impose a positive impact on both the organization and the employees working in it. For this reason several organizations of Australia has already adapted equal opportunity approach to prevent workplace discrimination and enhance the diversity of the organizations (Schermerhorn et al. 2014).
Legal Framework Associated with Gender Equality
However, in spite of the above mentioned benefits to the organization, diversification can be considered as one of the crucial origins of dispute in an organization. According to the theory of Diversity Management, the manager of an organization should effectively handle the diverse population of the work place (Torrington, Hall and Taylor 2002). Considering the fact that a diverse workplace contains employees from several walks of life, miscommunication is a very common incidence in such organizations. While different genders often interpret a single incident differently, people from different religious belief and social back ground faces difficulties to understand and communicate with each other. This often gives birth to lack of team work, low morale activities and confusion (Liff 1997). Therefore it can be said that it is very crucial for an organization to develop an effective diversity management skill in order to successfully manage the above discussed issues. If handled insensitively, diversity management may invade the privacy of the employee which eventually will result in employee attrition. This in turn will not only harm the revenue of the organization but will also impart a negative influence on the image of the company (Patrick and Kumar 2012). Other negative consequences of ineffective diversity management are discrimination suits, money and time along with loss of advertising revenue.
When it comes to equal opportunity approaches, equal treatment of employees having various sexual origins is a highly crucial field to be discussed on. In the past, accepting individuals who are lesbian, gay or bisexual in the workplace was a matter of controversy (Liff 1999). However, in this era of modernization, this conservative psychological setup of the society has not changed completely. Even today, people with a non-conventional source of origin suffer from extreme discrimination both in the society and in the workplaces. This phenomenon has resulted in a fear in the mind of lesbian, gay or bisexual individuals of being rejected by the colleges in the workplace. Several people from non-conventional origin of sexuality have reported to bear the fear that their job and promotion opportunities are in threat due to their sexuality. Apart from discrimination, verbal abuse of gay, lesbian and bisexual people is also common in the workplace. Moreover, in the past, it was not against the law to refuse homosexual and bisexual people to give job (Rice 2015). As a result lots of homosexual and bisexual people were compelled to conceal their sexuality and act a heterosexual person in order to get and keep their job and their position in the organization. According to several surveys, homosexual employees who have achieved a higher position in an organization, still feel lack of confidence to open up about their sexuality in the workplace. The chief reason behind this which has been stated by the management of several organizations is that top management employees are expected to set examples for their subordinate and maintain certain professional manner and that’s why it is expected that top employees have a conventional sexuality (Cockburn 1989). This type of professional mentality is highly common in professional fields like health science, teaching, armed forces and television broadcast companies (Sabharwal 2014). Many surveys disclosed that even in today’ s society, gay, lesbian or bisexual employees are given a considerable amount of low sally compared to that of the homosexual employees.
Benefits and Limitations of Diversity Management
In recent years, a good number of European countries have enforced the equal opportunity law to protect the homosexual and bisexual employees of the organization. Not only are that several governmental protection also being provided to individuals who are gay, lesbian or bisexual. The employee equality regulation act protects homosexual and bisexual employees from sexual harassment and discrimination (Ali 2013). According to the civil rights act of Australia, sex discrimination including discrimination based on the employees or applicant’s sexual orientation is illegal (McDonald 2012). For instance, it is illegal for an employer to deny employment or terminate an employee for the following reason:
- In cases where a female employee does not dress or talk in a feminine way.
- In cases where a male employee dresses in an effeminate manner or have effeminate choices.
- In cases where a female or a male employee is married to the same sex.
- In cases where an employee has gone through a gender transaction
However, it is really unfortunate that in spite of the laws and regulation along with equal opportunity approaches taken by the organizations, protection of homosexual and bisexual employees from getting harassed by the heterosexual employees cannot be eliminated completely till now. In the United Kingdom, several bisexual and homosexual employees have reported to be the sufferer of discrimination on the ground of religion. However, some countries like Iran, Algeria, Nepal and Liberia has strict policies against discrimination. Even in this era of modernization, homosexuality and bisexuality is considered to be a crime and hence is illegal in a good number of countries (Colgan and McKearney 2012). It is seen that, the government of Malaysia reprimands individuals who are found to have homosexual and bisexual affinities. Several other incidents can be given as evidences of the activities of discrimination against lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals. The supreme court of Massachusetts reviewed a case where a lesbian employee had been terminated by an organization after her sexual orientation got revealed. In another case that also happened in Massachusetts, a lesbian employee lodged a complaint against her female boss that she has been sexually harassed by her boss and told not to disclose the incident in order to save her job. In both the cases, the Massachusetts court dismissed the cases stating that the there was a lack of sufficient prove against the convicts (Schmidt et al. 2012). Therefore, from the above mentioned cases it can be clearly understood that even today the environment of workplace for people with homosexual or bisexual origin is not safe. Apart from verbal and sexual assaults, lesbian, gay and bisexual employees often suffer from several unethical gestures, acts, innuendoes and jokes.
From the above essay it can be concluded that since a diverse workforce can be considered as the strength of the workplace and a reflection of changing world, it is very crucial to eliminate employee discrimination on the basis of sex, gender or sexual orientation. Diversity in workplace brings high value in international companies. Understanding and respecting the differences among the employees will not only enhance the capacity to work as a team but will also ensure enhancement of the productivity of the organizations. The chief goal of the equal opportunity approach is to ensure a safe and fair workplace environment where every employee will be given same opportunities and respect. From the above discussion it can be seen that although several organizations across the world have implemented the equal opportunities approach to cope up with the employee discrimination in the workplace, very few organizations have gained success in the process of complete eradication of the evil act. Among the different types of discrimination, the practice of discriminating employees based on his or her sexual orientation is highly prevalent in a majority of organizations. Even in this era of modernization, individual having homosexual or bisexual orientation is treated as a taboo. While several organizations refuse to provide jobs to them, several incidents are being discussed in the report where employees are verbally and physically abused. Therefore, it can be clearly understood that managers of every organizations across the world should immediately implement the equal opportunity approach in order to stop violence against bisexual and homosexual employees.
Effective Diversity Management Strategies
Reference List
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