Legal and other contextual influences on diversity Flashcards
What types of biases exist? (7 types)
- Confirmation bias
- Horns and Halo effect
- Priming
- Mini me bias
- Group think
- Contrast effect
- Stereotypes
What Is an in and out-group?
In-group: a social group in which I am a member
Out-group: a social group in which I am not a member
Why do differences arise in-between groups?(3)
- Believe groups are more different than they are
- to categorise, we need distinction
- to reinforce distinction, we emphasis differences
Why do similarities in in-groups arise? (4)
- Consider individuals in terms of group membership
- Tend to gloss over individual differences
- Out-group homogeneity effect
- in-group thought of as individuals
How do we explain behaviour based on group membership? (3)
- ultimate attribution error (idea that if you observe something that an out-group member does, tend to attribute their behaviour to group as a general entity).
- out-group members: judged more harshly, inner dispositional causes.
- in-group: judged more favourably, outer-situational causes (Blaine, 2013)
At what stages/situations can biases occur in organisations? (8)
Affects individuals on all levels of their career states. (recruitment to promotions etc).
- Development: need more or less development
- Opportunities: women have less opportunities to sit on boards to make influential decisions.
- Performance management: we like to see what we want to see (manager have certain preconceived idea about person).
- Maternity and paternity leave: loads of literature showing that women that have children they hit the maternal wall (don’t get promotions, training opportunities) because managers assume that they have divided attention).
- Talent management: affected by what people think of you based on your achievements.
- Promotions: affected by age and ethnicity and gender
- Redundancy: ageism in bot ways, get rid of people due to lack of contribution.
- Exits: how much payment do you get from someone being redundant.
= biases and prejudice affect all of these career moments.
What is an example of a counter to prejudice and stereotypes in the workplace?
BAE Systems influencer outreach programme!
- Aim: to build its brand in expanded diverse talent pool by targeting diverse students (engineering based). saw 7% increases interest from females.
What is the UK Equality act 2010? and what does it do? (2)
- It legally protects people from discrimination in the workplace, and in wider society.
- it replaced a bunch of equality acts such as the sex discrimination act 2006 etc.
What are the 6 types of discriminations of the Equality act 2010?
- Direct discrimination: where someone treated less favourable than another person due to protected characteristics.
- Indirect discrimination: occurs when you have a rule or policy that applies to everyone but disadvantages someone with a protected characteristic.
- Discrimination by perception: direct discrimination against someone because others think they possess a particular protected characteristic (don’t have to posses the characteristic).
- Associative discrimination: when people are treated differently because you know the person has a partner that is disabled or child etc.
- Harassment: this is behaviour that is deemed offensive by the recipient. Employees can now complain of the behaviour they find offensive even if it is not directed at them.
- Victimisation - this occurs when someone is treated badly because they have made or supported a complaint or grievance under this legislation.(That employee is then treated negatively for making that complaint. Rather than taking complaint on board.)
What are the 9 protected characteristics of the UK Equality act 2010?
- Marriage and civil partnership
- Race
- Disability
- Religion or belief
- Age
- Sexual orientation
- Gender
- Gender Reassignment
- Pregnancy and maternity
Provide some background information about the UK Equality Act 2010? (6)
- Consolidated nine separate pieces of anti-discrimination legislation into a single Act
- Updated and amended previous strands of anti- discrimination law
- Created a new single equality duty on public bodies
- Extended the scope for positive action with
a provision relating to recruitment or promotion - Supported equal pay between men and women by banning secrecy clauses in contracts of employment
- Allowed for wider equality objectives to be included in tenders for public sector contracts.
How does the UK Equality Act 2010 compare to other countries (Brazil, Hong Kong, Russia, Singapore, SA)?
Brazil: it is a criminal offence to ask female employees and job applicants to verify non-pregnancy.
Hong Kong: sexual orientation, age and religion and belief are unprotected under discrimination law.
Russia: has quotas for employment of disabled persons – these vary between states and depend on the size of the workforce.
Singapore: Has a ban on same-sex relations between adult men.
South Africa: The protected characteristics are race; gender; sex; pregnancy; marital status; family responsibility; ethnic or social origin; colour; sexual orientation; age; disability; religion; HIV status; conscience; belief; political opinion; culture; language; birth (ie born within a marriage or not), and “any other arbitrary ground”. (MANY MORE)
Eversheds international, 2015
What are some challenges for multinational organisations (across boarders)? (6 points)
- Cultural and legal differences mandate a different way of doing things
- Often the employment lawyer (or employment law team) is based in the HQ country,
- Different employment laws for different states (e.g. US)
- The organisation must have a good understanding of
employment law in each local jurisdiction - Not just different laws, but also different rules in the data stored about employees
- Sometimes organisations introduce a global practice that satisfies all jurisdictions (and goes over and above in many) for fairness and efficiency.
e.g. Ikea fears of promoting gay in Russia, shuts down store.
Describe the case of Vodafone in harmonising laws on a global level? (2)
- Vodafone has a minimum maternity policy that applies across all 30 countries it operates in.
- All women working for Vodafone are entitled to at least 16 weeks’ maternity leave (fully paid), while mothers will receive full pay for a 30-hour week for six months after returning to work.
= Makes a huge difference to employees working in countries where there is little or no legislation in place to help pregnant women.
What were the comments of the CEO of Vodafone based on the maternity laws put in place? (4)
- supports over 1000 women: “Our new mandatory minimum global maternity policy will support over 1,000 Vodafone women employees every year in countries with little or no statutory maternity care.”
- policy will help bridge gap in gender representation: “Women account for 35% of our employees worldwide, but only 21% of our international senior leadership team. We believe our new maternity policy will play an important role in helping to bridge that gap.”
- no compromise of leaving work: “Too many talented women leave working life because they face a difficult choice between either caring for a newborn baby or maintaining their careers.”
- decision will result in positive changes: “Supporting working mothers at all levels of our organisation will ultimately result in better decisions, a better culture and a deeper understanding of our customers’ needs.”
