HRM Management - Ford Motor Company - Case Study Example

HRM Management Introduction The strike of sewing machinists in Ford Dagenham Plant during 1968 was a landmark for labour-employee relationship dispute within the United Kingdom. This strike was one of the major causes that have triggered the establishment of the Equal Pay Act in 1970. The strike was initiated while the female employees of Dagenham plant of Ford Motor Company Ltd. found out that they are entitled to be paid 15% lesser than the male counterpart who are performing the same level of tasks. This discriminating practice had also influenced the decrease of the job position of these female employees. As per the result of this situation over 200 female employees of the Ford’s Dagenham plant had walked out to demonstrate their disagreement towards this practise. This strike had influenced the country to review their human resources management (HRM) and employment equality laws which thereafter resulted in changes and modification in the employee-employment relation, payment structure and workplace discrimination laws in the UK (Eka and Widyaraga, 2013). The further discussion will evaluate the history of issues related to improper HRM practices and gender discrimination within workplace. This discussion will also detail the evaluation and changes in HRM practices and employment laws over the period of time as well as their impact on the equitable employee relations. Discussion Managing the gender diversity within workforce is one of the major issues within human resource management of the organisations in the UK. Since last 40 years organisations in the UK has experienced huge increase in the female employment. The women employment rate within the UK labour market is almost 65% which is above than the average female employment rates of the European Union i.e. 58.6%. On the other hand, it is still lower than the male employment rate i.e. 75.2%. A number of researches have described different issues related to the equal employment rights of the female employees which resulted in the underrepresentation and discrimination of the female workforce. These issues include payment gap and discrimination in terms of job responsibilities and promotions (Deakin, et al., 2015). The right of workplace equality, equal payment and employment equity in organisations are interrelated. The employment equity depicts the fairness within the work opportunities and work relationship. The concept of employment equity describes the equal right of women in the work opportunities and wages. Similarly, the concept of pay equity illustrates the equal rights of women in the payment for similar jobs performed by their male counterparts. As per Semykina and Linz, (2013), the main issue related to gender inequality in workplace is the stereotypical behaviour and practices of male employees which influence organisations to treat women as the less competent employees. Zhao, et al., (2011) have also explained that female employees are generally provided with very limited opportunities to secure a higher position within the top management of any business instead of higher or similar level of academics and job related qualification. In the UK, like various leading countries, female employees have historically been paid lesser than the male counterparts who are performing same job. The struggle regarding equal payment has been started from 19th century. Since World War 1 women started to replace the men’s job while a huge portion of the male population had been deployed for the arm forces. This trend has encouraged women employees in the UK to explore different opportunities of employment (Acker, 2006). During the period of 1920s as well as 1030s, the state policies of the UK had reflected the common practices of providing lower wages to the female workforce in terms of pay rates as well as unemployment benefits. During 1930s, the Trade Union activism within different industrial areas of the UK had influenced various strikes of female workforces for the right of equal payment (Acker, 2006). During 1968, the strike of female employees of Ford’s Dagenham plant had fiercely elevated these improper HRM practices of different organisation. The strike continues for three weeks which thereafter resulted in 92% wage hike of female workers in comparison to the payments of male workers. This strike has also elevated the issue related to the demotion of positions of women workers in comparison to the male workers who have demonstrated similar potential, skills and competencies (Cohen, 2012). The strike of female employees in Ford’s Dagenham Plant has highly contributed in the Equal Pay Act of 1970 (Cohen, 2012). During 1976, the successful implementation of the Equal pay Act has been started within the workplaces of the UK. The initiation of Equal Pay Act has assisted the female employees of different organisations of the UK to claim for equal payment as well as equal rights within organisations. As per this law employees can claim the payment and interest up to six years from the date they have lodged their complaint (O’Reilly, et al., 2015). The further actions on workplace harassments have also initiated the establishment of the Equality Act during 2010. This legislation has initiated rectifying actions against the direct discrimination and discrimination by association. The direct discrimination law of this act describes that employers needs to treat all the employees equally. The less favourable or higher favourable treatment towards any employee can be observed as unlawful activity. Discrimination by association explains that the improper treatment towards any employee due to their belonging to a particular age, race, gender or religion group will also be considered as an unlawful activity of the employers (Foster, 2014). These legislations have influenced different healthy practices of human resources management within the organisations of the UK. These healthy practices of HRM include effective compensation strategies, effective usage of team, appropriate performance appraisals, proper promotional criteria and empowerment of female employees (Deakin, et al., 2015). The effective compensation strategy has assisted the employers of different organisations within the western countries to maintain the transparency of their payment procedure. The compensation strategy is an essential part of organisations that assists employers to structure a competitive and effective organisation. The wrong compensation strategy hinders the employee motivation as well as satisfactions towards the work responsibilities and activities. The compensation strategy within organisation in western countries mainly considers the work experience, academic achievement and performance of workers in terms of deciding their payment structure. Therefore, it has generated healthy competition within the workforce to provide exceptional performances (Deakin, et al., 2015). The equality legislation of male and female employees in workplace has also influenced the effective as well as efficient usage of teams within organisations. This practice has assisted the organisations to maintain the harmony and collaboration within the employees of different genders. The equal treatment of male and female employees within a team enabled the management to maintain healthy work atmosphere within the team members. Therefore, this process has allowed the employers to generate best cumulative performance of the team members (Dawn Metcalfe and Afanassieva, 2005). The appropriate performance appraisal process of the human resources management assists organisations to consider the performances background, dedication, loyalty and achievements of employees to provide promotions and higher responsibilities. This procedure strictly denies the consideration of any gender biasness in terms of the appraisal of employees. Therefore, these practices of HRM allow employers to motivate the performances of each employee in an appropriate way. These practices also enable the management to provide proper promotional opportunities to the employees of any organisation irrespective of their gender differences. This unbiased promotional activity allows organisations to select the suitable talent to lead different teams and projects (Dawn Metcalfe and Afanassieva, 2005). Finally, this legislation has influences the empowerment of female employees which has enabled the employers to utilize the benefits of diversity in the decision making process. The skills and capabilities of male and female employees are different from each other. The male employees are more targets driven while the female employees believe in generating strong interpersonal relationship with the fellow workers and subordinates. Therefore, these differences allow the management to introduce diversified ways to manage the works as well as teams of organisation. Though over the last forty years the equitable employee relation practices has demonstrated drastic changes, a number of poor practices still occurs which is influencing the unhealthy employee-employer relationship within work locations. These practices are also provoking the discriminatory acts towards the female employees of organisations. The UK economy has been positioned itself in the 6th rant in regards to the gap between the payments of men and women (Deakin et al., 2015). As per the 2014 report of CMI, women in the UK need to work till the age of 80 to match the earnings of their male counterparts. According the statistical data of 2014, the gender payment gap within the full-time workers is 10% while it is 34.5 % for the part-time workers. The data has also detailed that almost 70% of the employees under national minimum wages jobs are female employees. Almost 54% of the women who are working as part time employees are being employed in a lower rank than their potential (Deakin et al., 2015). As per different researchers only 17% of the female employees within the UK top 100 organisations are eligible for different positions within the board of directors. Even the highly competent and skilled female employee requires to break the ‘glass ceiling’ as they are stereotyped to be very sociable and friendly. According to a study of Fawcett Society up to 30,000 female employees within western countries are sacked every year for being pregnant. On the other hand, 440,000 female employees experience pay cut and loss of benefits for pregnancy (Deakin et al., 2015). Therefore, it can be said that though the equality legislations and activities towards equitable employment relations have demonstrated a number of improvement within the human resource management and practices of the organisation in the western countries, the unhealthy practices and gender discriminations still significantly present within different organisation. Conclusion The overall discussion of this study has evaluated and highlighted different issues related to the HRM practices and concepts in terms of the gender discrimination and fair employment relationships. The study has illustrated different practices of discrimination and inequality in terms of gender such as pay gap, inappropriate promotion and job appraisal and pregnancy discrimination. The introduction of Equal Pay Act (1970) and Equality Act (2010) has directed a huge number of employers to initiate healthy HRM practices within organisation in terms of compensation strategies, effective usage of team, appropriate performance appraisals, proper promotional criteria and empowerment of female employees. Finally, it has been illustrated that the practices of HRM within the UK organisations are still affected by a different stereotypical and unhealthy gender biasness which is diminishing the employment relation of a number of organisations. Reference List Acker, J., 2006. Inequality regimes gender, class, and race in organizations.Gender & society, 20(4), pp. 441-464. Cohen, S., 2012. Equal pay–or what? Economics, politics and the 1968 Ford sewing machinists’ strike. Labor History, 53(1), pp. 51-68. Dawn Metcalfe, B. and Afanassieva, M., 2005. Gender, work, and equal opportunities in central and eastern Europe. Women in Management Review,20(6), pp. 397-411. Deakin, S., Butlin, S. F., McLaughlin, C. and Polanska, A., 2015. Are litigation and collective bargaining complements or substitutes for achieving gender equality? A study of the British Equal Pay Act. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 39(2), pp. 381-403. Eka, A. and Widyaraga, D., 2013. The Struggle Of Ford Women Workers Against Stereotype As Depicted In Made In Dagenham The Movie. Jurnal Ilmiah Mahasiswa FIB, 1(5), pp. 23-31. Foster, R., 2014. Does the Equality Act 2010 ensure equality for individuals with Asperger syndrome in the legal arena? A survey of recent UK case law.Autism Policy & Practice: The Open Access Autism Journal, 1(1), pp. 54-100. O’Reilly, J., Smith, M., Deakin, S. and Burchell, B., 2015. Equal Pay as a Moving Target: International perspectives on forty-years of addressing the gender pay gap. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 39(2), pp. 299-317. Semykina, A. and Linz, S. J., 2013. Job Satisfaction and Perceived Gender Equality in Advanced Promotion Opportunities: An Empirical Investigation. Kyklos, 66(4), pp. 591-619. Zhao, J., Settles, B. H. and Sheng, X., 2011. Family-to-work conflict: Gender, equity and workplace policies. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, pp. 723-738. Read More