The Dynamics of Managing Diversity - Literature review Example

Critically discuss the view that Human Resource Management (HRM) is at odds with the equality agenda. Contents Contents 2 Introduction 3 Discussion 4Conclusion 9 References 11 Introduction In the present day organizations, extensive focus is given on the maintenance of equality and diversity among the workforces. The need for creating and maintaining a diverse employee group has stemmed from the fast integration and interconnection of ideas, information, products, services, technologies and people across national borders caused due to the advent of globalization. All types of profit based and non profit based organizations are concentrating on encouraging equality and promoting diversity within their employee groups because they have identified that if properly enforced and embraced, equality and diversity management can act as a significant driver of performance, efficiency, profitability and sustainability of a firm. The Human Resource Management (HRM) of every company is given the responsibilities of ensuring that the employees are suitably managed and that the employee relations are kept healthy. As such, the responsibilities of attaining the inherent objectives of achieving equality and anti discriminative standards in a company are also delegated to the HRM department. Ensuring equality among the employees and maintaining compliance with the international equality standards and agenda are mandatory as well as difficult tasks for any organization. This report aims at critically analysing the view as to how the Human resource Management (HRM) department is at odds with the requirements and principles of equality agenda. In this respect, the basic concepts related to equality agenda and the various laws for this are discussed followed by an analysis of the needs and challenges faced by the HRM while adhering to the equality agenda. The benefits of ensuring the implementation of equality and diversity management are highlighted and the results of non compliance to the same are also explained. The report is concluded by analysing whether actually the modern day HRM is at odds with the equality agenda system or whether the HRMs functioning in the multinational companies are trying to adopt these principles as a basic part of their strategic management focus. Discussion The Human Resource Management (HRM) departments functioning in any sector or industry have the primary aim of supporting the success, profitability and growth of the business in the short term and long term scenarios. This is done by the effective use of the most valuable asset of an organization which is the human resource of the organization. In this scenario, the enforcement of the equality agenda in the employment decisions may lead to inefficiencies and constraints among the Human Resource Management professionals. This is because, the ultimate aim of the Human Resource Management department is to manage and employ the available human resources towards the achievement of the business and corporate objectives of an organization. But the creation of equal opportunities and avoidance of any kind of discrimination among the available human resources and talents, it becomes difficult for the Human Resource Management professionals to adequately filter the talented and skilled employees and allocate them in specific job roles in which they can excel (Kandola, 2005). Due to the restrictions and legal compliance requirements imposed by the Equality Agenda enforced in different legislations, the HRM departments have to necessarily develop strategies and employee management techniques that would not lead to the violation of any of these regulatory requirements. In such cases, achieving the maximum efficiency levels and ensuring that the full benefits of employee talents and skills are extracted becomes an impractical concept to implement (Maxwell, Blair and McDougall, 2001). Also, other clauses of the Equality Agenda enforce the requirements of same scale pays of all genders of employees wherein it may always not be possible that both men and women employees perform at the same levels. As identified from many industry examples, the women employees of an organization often face restrictions and limitations in performing their best in their respective job roles because of the additional family responsibilities associated with them as a social stigma among most of the societies across the globe (Webb, 2007). The Equality Act was formulated in 2010 and is aimed at providing protection to the employees against discrimination and also at promoting equality of opportunity for employees who are physically or mentally challenged. The Equality Act was passed as a legal statute in 2010 as a combination and replacement of various ore existing acts like the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) which was passed in 1995. The Equality Act is a part of the Equality Agenda implemented across different industries and sectors across the world. This act protects employees against unfair or discriminative treatments on the grounds and characteristics that are determined by already existing laws. These are known as the protected characteristics and include age, gender reassignment, civil partnership, marriage, maternity and pregnancy, sex and sexual orientation, religion, culture or belief, disability and race (Truss, Gratton, Hope-Hailey, McGovern and Stiles, 2007). The Equality Agenda is aimed at protecting each of the individuals from various types of discriminations and harassments done to the employee groups by the employers. The equality agenda is based on the Employment Equality Act of 1998 and 2004. These acts include the provisions for ensuring workplace quality principles, quality of job roles, non discriminatory practices and flexible working opportunities. The Employment Act of 1998 and that of 2004 were aimed at promoting equality and diversity among employee groups by prohibiting discriminations over nine broad grounds which are marital status, gender, age, family status, sexual orientation, membership of the Traveller community, race, disability and, religion (Thompson, 2007). These acts under the Equality Agenda are designed for the prohibition of victimization and sexual harassment within the workplace, the development of appropriate measures to support the employees with disabilities, and the development of positive actions on the part of the employers and the management for ensuring the desirable level of quality in the enforcement of equality practices as set for the nine grounds described above. The main aspects of employment that are included in the equality agenda are equal pay, vocational training, terms of employment, collective agreements, work experience, access to proper employment opportunities, dismissal, re-grading or promotion and the classification of job profiles and posts. These Acts are applicable to a wide range of sector and employees including the temporary employees, full time employees, part time employees, vocational training entities, trade unions, employment agencies, private and public sector employees, trade bodies and other professional authorities (Schuler, Dowling and DeCieri, 2003). As per the Equality Agenda, the employers have to ensure that the employees in the organization are adequately supported and protected and no action of the company or the management should cause any kind of harm or discrimination towards the employees. This is applicable for the employees of all levels within the organization. This creates a high degree of liability on the part of the human resource managers to constantly monitor the policies and principles implemented by the company in relation to their management of the employees, employee relations, dealing with trade unions, compensation package designing, posting and job designation as well as recruitment and selection (Richard, 2010). Any kind of violence of the standard principles of the Equality Agenda may lead to severe repercussions for the organization. Due to this, the HRM department of any domestic and multinational organizations have to constantly monitor and review the human resource management policies used by the organization and if any type violation to the required standards is identified, the department has to take immediate actions in order to rectify these problems (Snape and Redman, 2003). This is necessary as well as difficult in the globally connected corporate world because of the high level of different kinds of diversity noted among the worker groups in a company (Price, 2007). Not only does the Human Resource Management team have to deal with the internal conflicts among the employees from different backgrounds but also they have to ensure that any kind of discrimination made from the managers and the high level employees towards the low level of employees are prevented (Torrington, Hall and Taylor, 2014). This is often difficult because discrimination and conflicts of inertest are likely to arise when people from varied cultures, religions and backgrounds have to work together as a team everyday 24*7. The inability or inefficiency of a company to enforce the equality principles in their organizational culture may lead to huge social and legal costs that cannot be avoided easily. One lawsuit filed against a company for discrimination or biasness may lead to high amount of expenditures for the company made towards the legal proceedings and towards the compensation of the employee for the same Also, if any of these lawsuits are faced by a company, the image of the company as an employer is likely to become tarnished and repairing this damage may take years (Maxwell, Blair and McDougall, 2001). Apart from this, if any discrimination is done towards one employee, it may lead to the loss of faith of the other employees in the company towards their employer. In the case of proof of such allegations, the employees may think that the management of the company is only focused on making economic profits and is not concerned about the well being and interests of the employees. This may lead to more employees switching to other job opportunities or losing interest and motivation in their work thereby increasing the attrition rate and staff turnover rate for the firm and also affecting the performance and efficiency of the firm in a detrimental manner (Schneider, 2007). It is a necessary defence on the part of an employer to prove that the organization has enforced reasonable, appropriate, practicable and feasible steps for the prevention of any type of sexual harassment, discrimination or victimization of the employees and the prevention of the unfair and discriminative treatment of the employees in their course of employment or in the workplace (Reskin and McBrier, 2000). Also, the employers are liable for the reversal of any kind of discriminative or harmful defects caused by the organization, any of its policies or entities towards an employee on a personal or a professional level (Truss, 2009). This is especially difficult to maintain in a multinational organization which has operations in different locations and which has to deal with different levels and types of entities in their business processes. The burden of maintain the equality agenda and practices come on the Human Resource Management (HRM) department and any deviation from the expected standards gives rise to intense complexities and negative results for the organization and its reputation (Erickson, Stephenson, Bradley and Williams, 2009). However, equality management is indispensable because there are many expected and possible benefits that can be achieved through the use of the equality agenda in a corporation. Some of the common benefits that can be derived from the employment of the Equality Agenda are reduced staff turnover rates, lower attrition rates, reduced absence and sickness leaves, increased interest of the employees towards their work because of the flexibilities, improved professional and personal life balances of employee which increase the concentration and moral interests of the employees towards their responsibilities, reduction of the time and costs related to the recruitment, training and induction of new employees, retention of developed talents and skills within the company, improved commitment levels, productivity levels an genera morale of the workers, and strong and positive employer reputation and image within the industry of operation and among the business partners and associates (Kirton and Greene, 2005). The maintenance of adequate level of diversity among the employee groups helps to create a reputed public image for the organization. At an individual level, the equality agenda helps the highly skilled workers to avail the different arrangements like flexible working opportunities which enhance their skills and interests towards their respective jobs. The flexible working opportunities are a part of the equality agenda and are commonly practices in firms which have established formal equal opportunity policies for their employee groups and in firms that have adopted or are in the process of adoption of high commitment policies and practices within their respective organisational cultures (Sanglin-Grant and Schneider, 2000). Being a good employer in the modern business world requires the enforcement of the equality agenda supported by the high commitment of the management practices to sustain the equality and diversity principles sufficiently. Additionally, being a good employer is automatically associated with higher performance and efficiency levels of the human resource groups. It has been found out through researches on big and small organizations across different industries that the companies which have adopted the equality agenda in their Human resource Management (HRM) practices have performed in a more innovative and successful way through the most efficient use of their available resources (Wilson and Iles, 2009). Conclusion Thus, it can be identified that the stake of the organizations and their respective Human Resource Management (HRM) departments are high in the areas of equality and diversity management within the employee groups. However, it cannot be established that the functioning of the HRM departments are at odds with the equality agenda. Instead, it would be more appropriate to say that the Human Resource Management professionals functioning in the modern organizations have to embed equality management principles as a vital part of their strategy and functions. The adoption of equality and diversity management principles is seen as a main source of value creation and sustainability for organizations in a dynamic and globally connected corporate environment. Since equality management has been recognised as a major part of the strategic human resource management, therefore, it is necessary for the HRM department in different organizations and industries to focus on developing policies and principles that would help them to comply with the necessary equality agenda. References Erickson, M., Stephenson, C., Bradley, J. & Williams, S. 2009. Business in Society: People, Work and Organizations. Cambridge: Polity. Kandola, R. 2005. Managing Diversity: New Broom or Old Hat? International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Vol.10 (1), pp.101-102. Kirton, G. & Greene, A. M. 2005. The Dynamics of Managing diversity. Verlag: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann. Maxwell, G. A., Blair, S. & McDougall, M. 2001. 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