The Theory of the Business Case Equality - Essay Example

? Business case for equality Introduction The theory of the business case equality s back to the old days of management. The term refers to the application of equal opportunities by employers to all employees. The provision of equal opportunities at the workplace is a socially justice factor. All employers should make sure that employee treatment is paramount. This not only fosters good business practices but also promotes harmony and team work in the workplace. Those who support the case of strategic business borrow from the idea of equal opportunity. Equal opportunity is a fundamental need for the business, and it boosts the competitive advantage. Discussion Human resource department should recognize the importance of human capital in the work set up. Human effort is an asset to the organization and should be valued like other assets. Merit should be the key to rewarding employees. Discrimination should be avoided at all levels regardless of the race or gender. Women at the workplace should be offered equal opportunities as their male counterparts (Aristotle & Chase 1998, p.2). This essay will discuss the merits and criticisms of the business case equality. It will also draw the attention of the extent to which the state and the trade unions can contribute towards strengthening potential business case for equality in organizations. The primary concept of business strategy and in particular the equality case rests on the value for employers. Roles of Trade unions in strengthening potential areas of business equality Trade unions advocate for the collective bargaining case in the realization of business case for equality. The trade unions take all the grievances of the ethnic minorities and women and put proper action to address them (Gilmore 2013). All these are geared towards both the short term and the long term benefits. There is fight for equal treatment at all levels of management in the organizations. Union members are also able to come up with protective measures to the problems facing them. The voices of women are echoed through trade unions where they are treated with equality. Trade unions also advocate for equality in setting of minimum wage laws. All employees are supposed to be remunerated proportionally to the work done. There should be no cases of discrimination in wage set up. The human resource management should take the lead in advocating for the fairness in wages (Williams 2009). Women and minority groups voice their wage complaints to the trade unions which sometimes set the minimum industry price. All the employers should view the equality concept as an interest to the business. There should be mobilization of power to do away with discrimination especially to pregnant women. The argument derives from social justice and the good will of the employees. Legislation should be effectively practiced in matters of human resource manager. Proper management of maternity leaves days will be a boost to the maintenance of potential talents in the organization. Many pregnant women who face the challenge of discrimination at work place reduce their productivity. In the long run, this has an effect to the organization in terms of profitability levels (Gilmore 2013). The concept of the business case for inequality is better understood when one considers the factors that hinder its effectiveness. The first factor is social class of the employees at work. Social class refers to the status of someone brought by the material possessed as compared to the other. People who have physical materials tend to have their own class far from those who do not have. This greatly affects the level of work performance and result to poor results. The contemporary society is a good source of the social classes which are reflected at work places. Work is also another source of the classes among employees, and it affects their interaction. The greatest disadvantage of the social classes is the problem of unemployment among different people. Divisions are also caused by other factors such as gender and ethnicity of the people. All these are the blocks towards the realization of the equality at the work place and even in the society. The society should embrace an all equal perspective towards everyone for justice to prevail (Williams 2009). Women have been on the move towards addressing the social injustices of gender discrimination at workplaces. This has given rise to many women taking higher positions like their male counterparts. The change should be embraced by all employers so as to have a balance of gender at work. All the duties should be distributed randomly without segregating some for women and the minority in the society. There should be a fair playground for all employees regardless of their gender (Bell, 2012). In segregation of duties, the factor of positions should be addressed in a just way so as not to favor any gender. Managerial positions should also be given to women as they can also lead as their male colleagues. There should be no factor of highly paid jobs or even lowly paid jobs in the discrimination program. Women being the pillars of their family should be accorded special jobs favors as compared to men. This is because of the many times they will be away from work to attend to family matters (Hayes 2012, p.20). There are those who classified themselves as neo-liberals, and they greatly supported the business case approach. They entirely looked at the aspect of fairness to and for all in the workplace. They also argued that human capital had a lot of potential in them which was a source of opportunities for the organization. The benefits ranged from the short term ones to the long term which were permanent. Criticisms of business case for equality Business case arguments are contingent in nature and also selective which make them fail to realize the broader concept of the rationale of the business case. Broader concept focuses on prioritizing all the pressures in the short term (Williams 2009). Cases such as biases are supposed to be treated urgently in the short term. This does not happen in the business case for equality scenario. Criticism proponents argue that business case for equality is advocated by neo-liberals and they emphasize on the benefits of fairness. Employers fail taking action geared towards equal opportunity realization. This is because of failure to understand the benefit that will accrue to the entire organization in the event of business case for equality is realized. Employers also lack awareness of human resource management which is inclusive in policy implementation. Many employers take the short term approach in the business case for equality. They argue the case for maximizing shareholders and financiers’ wealth. Many view the process of implementing equality in the work place as costly and therefore, should not be prioritized in the short term. Other employers find it as an opportunity cost for wealth creation in the organization (Gilmore 2013). Critics propose that the business case for equality should be strategized as a medium to long term goal. It is the work of the management to draft an all rounded implementation policy for the benefits of all. Another rationale for the critics is that of business managers making environmental scans before decision making. It is argued that business managers oppose the case for equality when they are performing an environmental scan in decision making. Another problem with the concept of the business case approach for equality is that of opportunities and the way they are equal. Opportunities give rise to benefits in a work situation. The benefits are not easily measured and so the aspect of equality is a theory according to the neo-liberal proponents (Bell, 2012). They also argue that the benefits should be felt in the short term as well as in the future. This may also differ because of the cultural differences of the employees. Different cultures have a different view point towards opportunities and benefits associated. The case as presented by the business strategists rely on the factor of the benefits and the associated costs. The analysis portrays that the higher the benefits the higher the inequality among the employees. In a typical scenario, the theorem may fail to hold waters, and this raises the question of applicability. It is also used by managers when evaluating various programs undertaken and their output (Blowfield & Murray 2011, p.10). The line managers together with their production counterpart should emphasize on the matter of opportunity cost and the wage levels. There should be a correlation between the wage or salary earned and the benefit derived from job satisfaction. Some organization will benefit more from the business case than others in the same industry. The case will take a different perspective over time as it will be bound to change in favor of the marginalized in the society. Proponents of the case argue that, the unique nature of a business organization will highly affect the way it will respond to the strategy of equality (Mcnamee & Miller 2013, p.45). Competitive advantage is also another factor that is attributable to the change experienced. The change may happen in favor of women and also members of the minority groups in society. Another concept in the learning of the higher minimum wages and its effect is that of inflation and unemployment. The principle rule here is that high rate of inflation lead to low rate of unemployment and the reverse holds. The only time when there is a tradeoff between the rate of inflation and the level of unemployment is on in the short time as it is depicted by the Philips curve (Stiglitz 2012, p.4). The business case argument has faced opposition in the fact that not all organization uses it. Those who are opposed to the strategy attribute it to the challenges it poses to the organizations. The rationale is applied by the line managers in their managerial activities. An evidence of the importance of the concept is in the application of women positions at work place. There is a need to evaluate the direct contribution of women in the running of an organization. This is done through applying their skills and comparing with their male counterparts. There is also the advocating of the equal human rights at work place for women and the members of the minority group (Rigney 2010, p.2). Recommendations Diversity is an essential aspect when analyzing the equality subject as it addresses the concept of ethnicity at work (Hayes 2012, p.23). It is argued that all forms of ethnicity should be eliminated to encourage harmony in the work place. The top management are sometimes the source of social classes and ethnicity at work place. The need for corporate governance arises because of the separation of management and ownership in the modern corporation. In practice, the interest of those who have effective control over a firm can defer from the interest of the shareholder of a firm. The agency problem can usually be mitigated through the protection derived from good corporate governance. Governance is concerned with the processes, system, practices and procedures that govern institutions and the manner in which rules and regulations are applied and followed, and the relationships that these rules and regulations create. Essentially, governance addresses the leadership role within the institutional framework and thus address to the problem of the business case for equality. The success of organizations in their environment is dependent on the wellbeing of the environment itself. This is to mean that if the society is healthy and wealthy, the organization benefits from these positive factors. Customer initiatives involve incurrence of costs and their activities do not benefit the organization immediately. However, it has been proven the equality benefits an organization in the long-run. Therefore, business case can be seen as a beneficial investment whose results are to be accrued in future. Notably, equality has been employed as strategic competitive advantage. Ethical equity in simpler terms means executing the affairs of the organization with minimum ill-effects or exploitation of humanity in the society where the organization practices its business (Rigney 2010, p.4). Treats should go to the animals as well as all that exists in the environment whether natural or artificial. This creates a rapport with the members of the environment. This favors through ‘positive buying’ as the consumers will purchase from organizations which meet their ethical threshold. The practice of ethical equity is company-based purchase can be considered as a positive reward to organizations that are positively contributing to society. This plays the role of an incentive to motivate the corporate society to be responsible hence shifting the organization and the society towards future sustainability (Kumra et al 2012, p.34). Also, referred to as Eco-etiquette rewarding, ethical consumer decision has participated in shifting the attention of the corporations from being a mere profit making machine to a responsible member of the corporate world. Business strategy concept faces a lot of opposition because of its limitation. There are social injustices that are not addressed properly by this concept. Employees on their part should fight for their equality rights at work place. All managerial personnel should ensure strict adherence to the rule of law (Bottomore 1993, p.16). Conclusion The paper has discussed the merits and criticisms of the business case equality. It has also drawn the attention of the extent to which the state and the trade unions contribute towards strengthening potential business case for equality in organizations. Business case strategy is a dominant action plan among the employers of all levels. It facilitates the enactment of proper legislation for labour market to operate at optimal. The concept of the business case is seen as a threat by some top management personnel. This is because of the risk of ethnicity and minority groups in the workplace. There is a contradiction in the universality of the principle of equality as it is viewed by some proponents. Equality concept has a lot of benefits to the organization especially in the long run. Business case approach is a newly upheld, yet old concept which involves organizations participating in the affairs which do not only make the company successful profitable but also legal and environmentally conscious. It is a call for the business organizations to participate in helping the members of the community in which they operate. This improves the health and wealth of the environment in which the organization operates. The success in doing this may require self will or some compulsion from legal bodies and governmental regulators. This benefits the community and the organization in the long run. References List Aristotle, & Chase, D. P. (1998). Nicomachean ethics. Mineola, New York, Dover Publications. Pp.1-4 Bell, M. P. (2012). Diversity in organizations, Mason, Ohio, South-Western College. Pp.2-8 Blowfield, M., & Murray, A. (2011). Corporate responsibility, Oxford, Oxford University Press.pp.10-12 Bottomore, T. (1993). Elites and Society, London, Routledge. pp.16-18 Gilmore, S.; Williams, S. (2013) Human Resource Management. Oxford: Oxford University Hayes, C. (2012). Twilight of the elites: America after meritocracy, New York, Crown Publishers.pp.20-23. Kumra, S., Manfredi, S., & Vickers, L. (2011). Managing equality and diversity: theory and practice, Oxford, Oxford University Press. pp.34-35. Mcnamee, S. J., & Miller, R. K. (2013). The meritocracy myth, Lanham, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. pp.43-50 Rigney, D. (2010). The Matthew effect: how advantage begets further advantage, New York, Columbia University Press. pp.1-4 Stiglitz, J. E. (2012). The price of inequality: [how today's divided society endangers our future], New York, W.W. Norton & Co. pp.3-5. Williams, S.; Adam-Smith, D. (2009) Contemporary employment relations. Oxford: OUP Read More