Equality and Diversity Management Flashcards
Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) =
Ensuring fair treatment for all employees;
Judging people according to the qualities, skills and competencies they possess rather than age, gender, race/ethnicity and sexuality
- Equal treatment and equal outcomes
- Promoting fairness and avoiding discrimination
- Level of HR policy
Diversity Management (DM) =
Emphasis on the individuality of people, and the importance of valuing each person for his/her unique combination of skills, competences, attributes, knowledge, personality
- Ensuring that all individuals maximise their potential
- Element of overall business policy and organisational strategy
History of Diversity Management (DM)
Affirmative Action (AA) and Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) programs in response to Civil Rights Act of 1964
- Question of unfairness “White, male and worried” (Galen & Palmer, 1994)
- Stigmatisation of its beneficiaries (Heilman et al., 1999)
- Diversity versus inclusion - “Diversity is being invited to the party. Inclusion is being asked to dance.” (Sherbin & Rashid, 2017)
On what can you be discriminated?
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Gender
- Pay gap
- High-paying and high-skilled roles filled by men
- Seats in Parliament
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Disability
- 53.7% unemployment in the UK
- 40% less likely to get a job
- 10% employment rate for people with learning disabilities
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Ethnicity
- 56% of unemployment for black females (double-jeopardy) against 17% for white females of the same age group
- Earnings of Chinese males are equals to those of white males
There is progress but it’s too slow! Economic gender gap to be closed in 217 years at the actual rate!
Affirmative Action =
Positive discrimination
Social Class and discrimination:
- Reduced access to work experience, particularly for those from low-income family, when a period of low-pay or unpaid work is required for a career in particular organisations or sector of employment
- 72% of children from privileged backgrounds used family connections to secure an internship
- 47% of children from low socio-economic background didn’t apply for work experience in London because of the cost
Consequences of discriminations
- Financial and emotional difficulties
- Social exclusion
- Unrealised potential
- Damaging for the business if they fail to promote the best candidate
Business case for diversity
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To tap talent pool
- War for talent - companies seek the best individuals from a global talent pool
- Capturing a wider set of opinions and experiences among employees - more creativity and better decision-making within organisation
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To increase market share
- Reflecting the diversity of customers - diverse employees can better understand and communicate with them
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To ensure legal compliance
- Ranking of corporate social responsibility - many different aspects of diversity have to be reported to stakeholders
Diversity and relationship with performances
- Hinders performance by creating more conflict and decreasing cohesiveness (Pelled & Eisenhardt, 1999)
- Diversity impacts processes, functioning, and performance in a negative way (Willimas & O’Reilly, 1998)
- No relationship between diversity and performance (Webber & Donahue, 2001)
- Creates diversity stress - the experience of ambiguity or uncertainty because one lacks the ability, knowledge or social support to interpret and act properly in a multicultural situation
Diversity programmes/policies:
- Sexual harassment
- Physical access for disabled workers
- Literacy training
- Breaking through the glass ceiling
- Redesigning jobs for older workers
- English as a second language
- Mentoring for people of colour
- Fast-tracking for people of colour
From diversity to inclusion
(Sherbin & Rashid, 2017)
- Inclusive leaders – Display these six behaviors: ensure that team members speak up and are heard; make it safe to propose novel ideas; empower team members to make decisions; take advice and implement feedback; give actionable feedback; and share credit for team success.
- Authenticity - Different employees “need to compromise their authenticity” to conform to their company’s standards or style. (i.e. acting “like a man” can provide an advantage in the science, engineering, and technology industries)
- Networking and visibility - Having a sponsor increases the likelihood of being satisfied with the rate of career advancement.
- Clear career paths - For women, LGBT individuals, and people of color, the map to career success is murky.
Racial and ethnic diversity
- Have a negative impact on business performance unless specific forms of analysis, training, and monitoring are in place
- If left unattended or mismanaged is likely to produce miscommunication, unresolved conflict, higher turnover, and lower performance
- Diversity without inclusion is a story of missed opportunities, of employees so used to being overlooked that they no longer share ideas and insights. But diversity with inclusion provides a potent mix of talent retention and engagement
EEO in practice
- Treating people as if the differences between them do not exist
- Fair, objective, transparent, meritocratic decision-making and treatment
Example: employers have been encouraged to create policies to enable women to compete freely with men by developing policies relating to career break, childcare provision, flexible working and single sextraining
Criticism of the EEO/liberal approach
- Often reinforce a negative view of difference (“women need help, meaning that their are less able/performant”)
- Employees can avoid them, fearing of being seen as the ‘favourited from an under-represented group’ - stigmatisation
- Embedded prejudices and stereotyping within organisation can still remain
- Policies accessible to a minority of employees or non-awareness of them, leading to a poor implementation perception
- Failing to identify and nullifying the differences that can positively contribute to the organisation
MD in practice
- ‘The difference between people should be valued and can represent a source od competitive advantage’
- Assumes inequalities are at least partly determined by social group membership
- Does not lead to an uniform approach to employee treatment as under EEO
- Employees individual needs are taken into account, leading them to be commitedand reducing turnovers and absenteeism
- Culture of inclusion
- Enables firms to recruit from a wider pool of talents
Balance of MD and EEO
Sameness might be the most appropriate in ensuring that selection procedures are free of bias but differences should be acknowledged in order to redress prior disadvantage through positive actions
