Equal Opportunities versus Managing Diversity - Essay Example

?Theoretical Approaches: Equal Opportunities versus Managing Diversity Introduction Globalization is a phenomenon that has resulted in various elements that organizations have to deal with. Such elements include: providing equal opportunities to all its employees, managing diversity in the workplace, and maintaining ethical norms and regulations amongst other aspects. In the rapidly growing world, when legal aspects of such facets in organizations are highly managed, it becomes even more important to ensure that diversity and equal opportunity are maintained. The paper is aimed at discussing of two elements in which equal opportunity and managing diversity are evaluated, and a comparison is given as to what is more important and why. The theme of the paper is to evaluate two elements against each other and build a case as to what is and what should be more important for organizations. Equal Opportunity Equal opportunity relates to fair treatment of groups of employees in order to ensure that there is no discrimination. Various categories or groups of employees against which discrimination can be implied include gender, race, ethnicity, class, age, disability, previous offenses and arrests and even sexual orientation. This discrimination may be direct or it may be indirect as well. To illustrate, discrimination against race in the direct sense would be when one set of people are treated unfavorably against others. Indirect discrimination would be when a particular group of people is treated unequally by promoting equal rights to all other groups of people, for example bans on different types of clothing for a particular group of people. Such a ban or regulation does not have a justification while it is discriminatory for the racial clique as well. (CRE, 1983) Discrimination in the workplace is rampant in most countries and organizations, and is the primary focus of this research paper. The ideology behind this study is to understand why equal opportunity is important and how it can be cultivated within organizations. Job is one of the major parts of one’s life and is filled with experiences, where it affects a number of elements within life, such as health, education, leisure activities, as well as housing (Braham et al., 1981). One must note that concerns for equal opportunity are at all stages of employment, from hiring to transfers to training and from promotions, benefits, perks, procedural actions, like grievance handling and disciplinary actions, as well as dismissal. In each scenario, it is important that discrimination is avoided within the organization as it affects productivity and efficiency within the organization (Braham et al., 1981). It is worth noting that there are various areas in which discrimination is a regular feature. For example, studies indicate that on an average, a woman earns relatively less in terms of salary and benefits in comparison to a man. This is primarily because of segregation in choosing a woman for a job, stating that there are various other benefits assigned to a female like maternity leaves, etc (Smith, 1979; Vickers, 1991). In addition, women are considered mainly for temporary or part-time jobs while high end jobs are discriminated against and preference is given to the male counterpart (Gilory, 1993). Several researchers indicate typical conditions for women that are considered to be unskilled labor, services, little overtime, more vacation days and days-off, part-time work etc. This is generally considered as to how women work in organizations. Typically, other discriminatory factors are aimed at race and ethnicity, for example people from the thirdworld countries are typically blue-collar workers, are less skilled and can be given less payment to work more hours (Sloan &Siebert, 1980). Various researchers have conducted studies where it has been revealed that racial and ethnic minorities are discriminated against, where unemployment, particularly long-term, is high, because they are considered as less skilled or qualified and, as a result, this discrimination leads to issues where such minorities can not find a job as easily as other racial or ethnic groups (Blau, 1977; Braham et al., 1981). Legal implications are only applicable when governments have worked upon and developed serious legal rules and regulations against which discriminatory practices can be eliminated within organizations and how equal opportunity mechanisms can be implemented. One must note that equal opportunity is also part of corporate, as well as social, governance, and most large organizations try and incorporate such equal opportunity practices within their workplace environment. Nonetheless, with governmental regulation that defines equal opportunity and its ways of implementation, organizations can ensure that equal opportunity takes place, and employees have a way out to ensure that equal opportunity is implemented for them as well. Various proposals and researches have clarified that without equal opportunity within organizations human resources are wasted and misused. As a result, organizations lose productivity and efficiency which can be avoided. Consequently, discrimination leads to disgruntled employees, while securing rights for all employees can lead to better motivation amongst them. It has been noted in research that more factions of society would likely return to the employment scenario learning from the fact that their rights are being maintained and they would not be discriminated against within an organization. This can lead to a stronger and better workplace and the employment society as well (EOC, 1988). Managing Diversity Researchers generally tend to assume that when they study an organization, the population within is homogenous in nature. As a result, employees are not affected by each other or by different treatment to each different type of group present within the organization. When researchers study diversity, this phenomenon is marked down and diversity is studied as different types of people, who have different backgrounds, work with different values, as well as identities, and their experiences are different as well. Diversity and management of it has become important at present day because it involves the study of various attributes related to diversity and difference between employees, study of groups of attributes instead of single ones, and which imply diversity within organizations, study of diversity within organizations as contextual instead of in isolation or in a generic form and understanding diversity in terms of local as well as international forms of business, which may be within one organization or across organizations as well (Pulakos, Schmitt, & Chan, 1996). Diversity in the local scenario is primarily related to elimination of national and similar cultural differences in order to focus on the domestic features and attributes. On the other hand, international diversity is primarily relevant for the study of cultures and different in nationalities leading to study of attributes that make people from various countries (Morrison &Herlihy, 1992; Tsui, Egan & O’Reilly, 1992). Researchers indicate that domestic, international diversification and understanding diversity within the organization are extremely important. They have to be dealt with independently and both of these types of diversity are becoming important. Research indicates that management of diversity can only be conducted within an organization when organizations learn the differences amongst their employees and learn to manage these differences in order to reduce discrimination (Ragins, B & Cotton, 1991). It has been noted that diversity has grown over the years, particularly in the light of globalization. With gender and ethnicity being the primary areas of difference, other factors have also played a key role in the recent years, such as nationality, religion, age and sexual orientation. In order to understand and ensure that diversity in all such areas is met, organizations must learn to deal with such differences through changing the way an organization runs and how it has been strategized (Morrison &Herlihy, 1992; Tsui, Egan & O’Reilly, 1992). In the world of globalization and instant information, there are several ethical and legal implications if organizations fail to realize that the diversity that is present within their organization. Legal implications can be followed with serious repercussions if organizations fail to realize and learn to manage the diverse range of employees within their organization. It must be noted that over the past few decades, legal rules and regulations has been enacted and implemented in order to ensure that factions of employees are not discriminated against based on how they look, behave or on other such aspects which do affect how they work (Lau, & Murnighan, 1998; Nkomo,1992). A thorough study has found that financial success of an organization is directly linked to how it manages diversity and how affirmative action programs have helped organizations to improve their productivity and efficiency (Jackson & Alvarez, 1992). The study has determined this correlation by the time in which affirmative action programs were implemented within the organization and the stock prices as to how they reacted after the implementation of the program. A positive correlation has been seen in the stock price and the affirmative action program leading to the belief that diversity management and affirmative action programs can lead to a better and more successful organization (Richard & Johnson, 1999). On the other hand, organizations that do not have their diversity management programs in place, pay the price through paying for legalities, law suits and damages in order to get out from lawsuits that are based on discrimination (Wright, Ferris, Hiller & Kroll, 1995). Researchers have also found correlations where diversity management has affected the bottom line through indirect ways other than simply affecting profit directly. Such include better motivation amongst employees, satisfaction, productivity and efficiency amongst groups of employees as well (Ohlott, Ruderman, & McCauley, 1994). There are various attributes that are now linked to diversity and discrimination and which are not limited to age, ethnicity or gender only. Workforce within the organization is also related to other elements which are subtle but still discriminated against, such as mannerism of dressing based on religion, etc. Researchers have broken down diversity into two different factions: one being underlying and the other that is detected easily. Both of these factions form the way diversity can be understood and managed within the organizations and management of diversity can only be done with organizations learn the relationships and tasks associated with diversity and their discrimination (Morrison &Herlihy, 1992; Tsui, Egan & O’Reilly, 1992). Attributes that can be easily detected include such that can be very easily understood with only limited exposure or finding very limited information about the particular person. Such factors include race, gender, team, department, education and professional experience amongst others. Factors that are underlying are a little more complicated to detect and in some cases require interpretation, and such factors are also very difficult to re-check and confirm from other people. These factors affect the manner how people react and behave socially within the company. Most of these elements are also directly linked to tasks within the organization as well even if the task does not depend on these elements on a direct basis (Morrison & Herlihy, 1992; Tsui, Egan & O’Reilly, 1992). It has been understood and researched upon over the years that diversity is a topic that can only be touched upon and cannot be studied in details because its range and horizon is not limited and will continue to grow as well. Each study has different variables that become part of diversity and which need to be evaluated. On the other hand, diversity has been studied in extreme detail, but the key learning factors and their clear-cut solutions cannot be implemented through undertaking a research study (Morrison & Herlihy, 1992; Tsui, Egan & O’Reilly, 1992; Watson, Kumar, & Michaelson, 1993). Equal Opportunity Versus Managing Diversity When researchers conduct their studies, they primarily evaluate diversity and equal opportunity based on their laboratory tests, questionnaires and ethnographic studies. However, when all constants become variable within the organization, it becomes difficult to understand how to manage diversity. The primary reason for such a case is that diversity and its consequences are affected in tasks, teams, in the organization, groups and the cliques in which employees intermingle. As a result, the relationship and task based elements within the organization will also need to be evaluated in great detail in order to understand how diversity has to be managed and how equal opportunities can be created for each employee within the organization and all other stakeholders within and outside the organization (Morrison & Herlihy, 1992; Tsui, Egan & O’Reilly, 1992). It must be understood that several rules and regulations have been enacted within various countries in order to ensure that diversity management takes place within organizations, along with providing equal opportunity to potential, as well as actual, employees. However, subtleties within equal opportunity and diversity management have led to issues and problems which cannot be eliminated altogether unless and until organizations learn and understand what diversity means, how it affects the organization, what equal opportunity means, and how it needs to be implemented within the organization (Morrison & Herlihy, 1992; Tsui, Egan & O’Reilly, 1992). When organizations think about how equal opportunity needs to be provided to its employees, it also has to focus on understanding why equal opportunity is important and how it has not been provided to its employees or potential employees. Only by understanding where equal opportunity has been neglected by the organization, it is capable to understand how it can be eliminated. One such way by which the organization can actually implement equal opportunity is to ensure affirmative action plans which focus on removing discrimination based on diversity within the organization. Problem, however, arises when one looks at it from the perspective of balancing affirmative action plans with equal opportunity. The balance will be at one level, because discrimination is a consequence when people do not deal with diversity within the organization. However, introducing action items through affirmative action plans that help focus on some factions within the organization while neglecting the bigger picture, that is, all other employees, can again lead to discrimination on the other end of the spectrum (Morrison & Herlihy, 1992; Tsui, Egan & O’Reilly, 1992; Tang, 1993). Conclusion This paper is aimed at analyzing various elements that are part and parcel of diversity management within organizations, alongside with studying equal opportunity with its clear advantages and usage within organizations. The ideology behind this study was to understand what exactly diversity is, why it needs to be managed and what the various ways by which diversity can be understood within organizations. Other element within this assignment was to understand what exactly is equal opportunity, why it needs to be understood and what are the various ways and techniques by which equal opportunity can be implemented within the organization. The paper highlights the various subtleties of both equal opportunity and diversity management, and how both of them are equally important for any organization. However, the primary focus is on that diversity management and equal opportunity management would result in trying to keep a balance which may become difficult when trying to manage equal opportunity can end up leading to failure of curtailing discrimination when diversity is against majority and not the minority sectors within the organization. References Blau, F. (1977). Equal Pay in the Office, Lexington, Lexington Books. Braham, P., Rhodes, E. & Pearn, M. (1981). General introduction. In P. Braham, E. Rhodes & M. Pearn (eds). Discrimination and Disadvantage in Employment, London, Harper and Row. Commission for Racial Equality (1983). Code of Practice for the elimination of racial discrimination and the promotion of equality of opportunity in employment, London, CRE. Equal Opportunities Commission (1988). Equal Treatment for Men and Women, Strengthening the Acts, London, EOC. Gilroy, R. (1993). Good Practices in Equal Opportunities. Vermont, Ashgate Publishing. 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