Minorities in Management - Term Paper Example

? Minorities in Management Minorities in Management The management team of an organization usually has minorities who represent particular rights and responsibilities of their groups, or the factions that they come from. The society today has a number of minority groups such as the disabled, women, and youth. These minority groups have a number of rights and privileges that they wish represented and addressed by the team in leadership. In an organizational context, the minorities comprise of minor shareholders, or those who hold only a few shares of the company. In most companies, the more shares one has, the control they exert in the management of the organization. As such, they have powers to make decisions, basing on the influence of their large share volumes that protect their interests, even if the said decisions undermine the rights of minority shareholders. Under such leadership, the minority in the organization do not have a say in the management decisions of the company, thereby putting their investments at risk (Collins, Emsell & Haydon, 2011). Corporate governance dictates that an organization should uphold the rights of all the members of their organization. As such, the management team should comprise of all groups and unique members in the organization. Contrary to this, most management teams only consist of majority groups, those who have power, wealth, and influence to control and manipulate managerial decisions for their own personal benefits. For instance, most management teams comprised of only men. The male dominance in such organizations denies the female fraternity in the organization their rights and privileges. In addition, this denies these female counterparts freedom to express their rights freely, as well as, the freedom to advance their careers. Such organizations with gender imbalance form the top of the management team also experiences gender related violence and discrimination within the other levels of the organization, all the way to the lower levels (Maume, 2012). However, numerous scholars in the business industry disagree on the idea of the increase of minority managers within the organization, or within an organizational management. In fact, the argument centers around the possibility of whether an increase in minority managers marks a vacuous or real progress in the gains made towards elimination of racial bias within the labor market. In some cases, the minorities in management are those of a different race, or a different social class or social status within the community, these minority managers and supervisors end up holding very mediocre positions in the company. For instance, the minority in management end up getting job assignments that are less challenging. In addition, they hold positions that are most vulnerable to layoffs compared to those from the majority or major groups (Wrench, 2012). However, some majority groups continuously enjoy protection and favoritism in the organization. Bottom-up ascription processes support the fact that, among subordinates, those minority employees working for or reporting to a minority boss earn a lesser amount of cash compared to the workers under a majority manager. This is despite their high level of commitment to their work and responsibilities at their workplace. Eventually, this leads to lower productivity within the organization because the people who work hard the most in the company get the lowest levels or amounts of compensation. The low remuneration level demotivates these workers, especially those reporting to minority managers. These workers end up in a go slow or any other industrial action in order to express their dissatisfaction. Others even decide to quit their current positions and search for better employment opportunities in order companies (Collins, Emsell & Haydon, 2011). Resignation of employees results in a high rate of workers turnover, which also drops the productivity levels of the organization, as it will spend more replacing the employees and managers who resign. A company is only as good as its employees are i.e. employees are the vital wing in the organization that develops the most competitive advantages of the company. A company that has hardworking workers, who are willing to take initiative, as well as, enforce various jurisdictions for the benefit of the company is on the right track to profitability, expansion and development. These employees and managers will be willing to put their lives on the line in order to benefit their company. They will safeguard, protect, and uphold all the values, property, and cultures of the company in order to maintain and increase its productivity, as well as, ensure the continued success of the company (Maume, 2012). The twenty-first century comes along with a significant revolution in the demographic mix of an organization, as well as, the management and leadership of the company. This diversity is due to the increase in the number of workforce entering the labor markets, which are neither of the male gender, or the white race, or speaks the language of the bosses, such as English. Colored people continuously increase their market share in the labor force. This makes them more of majorities than minorities. However, these differences in color, gender, race, and religious affiliations should not be a gauge to discriminate these workers in the management. For instance, denying minority managers equal rights and privileges like other members of the management team makes them uneager to discharge their duties responsibly. They are not ready to work hard for the company since they have a premeditated conception that their hard work will not receive any recognition from the management (Wrench, 2012). In the modern society, women comprised of a higher percentage of the minority groups in the management team. For a long time, the society denied women any opportunity to venture into the corporate world. Most traditional societies as well as, religious factions relegated women to the kitchen and reproduction of children. As such, they did not either have any place in the corporate world, as general workers or let alone as managers. However, with the advancement of civilization, coupled with the gains made by numerous feminist groups, women gradually began having a place in the corporate field. However, they joined companies only to perform menial jobs such as executive assistants, clerks, and secretaries. They did not get promotions to better positions within the company. The male who dominated the primary positions in the company usually sidelined women and never availed to them an equal platform to advance their career or develop their experiences in other fields (Collins, Emsell & Haydon, 2011). In fact, the society categorized particular jobs in an organization as those set out for men, and those set out for women. The women were not free to join the careers set aside for men, and those who did, faced open opposition and discrimination. Some male dominated careers include engineering, architecture, doctors, accountants, supervisors, and management. On the other hand, corporate positions relegated for women include clerks, secretaries, tea-girls, cleaners, nurses in the medical field, and executive assistants. However, with the new trends in the industry and growth of globalization, more and more women are advancing into a better position in the corporate field. Most of them are advancing into the management field of their companies, owing to the free disposition adopted by most companies whereby they consider academic qualifications, professionalism, and career experience in assigning positions and responsibilities rather than gender of the managers involved (Maume, 2012). However, women, just like any other minority group in the organization still find difficulties securing executive positions in their companies. This is quite the contrary especially in consideration of the growing numbers of women recruited into the labor force. Most women have to go through a chain of struggle before toppling the men holding management positions in their companies so that they may occupy them, even if they have higher qualifications that their male counterparts. This struggle to infiltrate managerial, as well as, executive positions in the company yields minimal fruits for the women. Statistics provide that, in the executive suite, women made up to a measly 15.7 percent of the corporate officers in 2002’s Fortune 500 companies. Furthermore, these women only held 13.6% of the seats in the Boards of their companies, which is quite insignificant compared to the percentage of women in the workforce (Wrench, 2012). The above is just a common case of other minority groups in the organizations, or those who seek managerial positions. Mot minorities in the company do not get the highest executive jobs in the company. However, they top out in middle level management teams. Rarely do this minority group’s end up in senior level management teams on the companies, primarily owing to the discrimination subjected to them by the majority in the company. This denies them an opportunity to make clear executive decisions for the benefit of their company, as well as, to protect the rights of their minority group within the organization or the society as a whole. In addition, all the decisions, recommendations and suggestions that comes from these minority managers do not pass through to the senior level of the company or even get consideration for implementation in the product development and strategy of the company (Collins, Emsell & Haydon, 2011). Most organizations have something like a glass ceiling for the minority groups in their organizations. They struggle so hard to get to the middle level management positions, and it becomes even more difficult, due to the glass ceiling created, for them to advance to the top-level management team of their company. This is the glass ceiling that minority workers have to contend with in many organizational settings. For instance, there are large numbers of women currently in the labor force, but very few of them are executive managers in their companies. The ratio of male CEOs in the labor force compared to that of women is very high. In most regional companies, the ratio of a male CEO or president to that of a female CEO is 10:1, meaning in every ten companies, the probability of having a female executive as the overall leader of the company is one. The case is also true for other minority groups in the company (Maume, 2012). This has been the case for most minority groups in the workforce over a period of numerous years. They always face a subtle and invisible institutional barrier to the advancement of their careers, especially owing to their promotion into executive positions of a higher level. They face a brick wall, which brings to reality the belief of most minority groups of their advancement into senior level management groups after reaching their organizational plateau, most of which consists of artificial barriers. These artificial barriers, probably placed by other members from the majority groups, derail them from reaching senior level management groups or teams. All these barriers existing in the structure of numerous organizations often stymied career advancement of these groups of employees to the management level (Wrench, 2012). Nonetheless, most minority groups are aggressively fighting off these glass walls and artificial barriers set up for the minority groups in the company. They work hard to improve their chances to advance into senior level management by undertaking a number of strategies such as exceeding their performance expectations. Excellence performance leads to the better recognition of the minority groups by other management teams who suggest or propose their elevation into senior levels. In addition, these managers from minority groups can also develop a comfortable style with which to manage their majority counterparts. This eliminates the feelings of uneasiness and anxiety between majority and minority managers, hence treat each other on the same platform. They also achieve this special recognition from other senior level management teams through looking for assignments that are more challenging, as well as, finding influential mentors to patronize their career development and advancing (Collins, Emsell & Haydon, 2011). In conclusion, it is not proper to discriminate minority groups in apportioning of management positions in the company. This is because these minority groups have equal rights just as those in majority groups. As such, treating them as outsiders or undeserving of senior level management positions discourages and demotivates them from performing their duties professionally (Maume, 2012). References Collins, C., Emsell, P. & Haydon, J. (2011).Leadership and Management Development. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Maume, D. (2012). The Minority in Management Effects on Inequality in Income, Conditions of Working, and Subsidiary Career Viewpoints among Men Wrench, J. (2012). Diversities Discrimination and Management: Ethnic and Immigrant Minorities in the European Union. London: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. Read More