Significance of Understanding Human Resource Management from a Gendered or Diversity Perspective - Case Study Example

Significance of understanding Human Resource Management from a gendered or diversity perspective Abstract This article seeks to demystify the understanding of human resource management from the perspective of both gender and people of diversity. It is informed by four published articles regarding the subject matter with different opinions from the authors on how to deal with gender and diversity issues to improve the quality of human resources in the workforce. It also delves into the background on historical injustices that have been there regarding discrimination in the workplaces based on gender and diversity to provide insight to the significance of understanding human resource management. All authors cited on this paper concur on the importance that is human resource in any business and the significance that should be placed on understanding it from this different perspectives. Keywords: Human Resource Management Introduction Human resource management can be described as the efficient organization of human capital for a business or organization. It is primarily set up to ensure maximum productivity of human resource towards the employer’s strategic objectives. Human resource focuses on the processes and policies of an organization and is tasked with duties like training of new recruits, employee development and oversees the benefits employees get. Normally, small organizations or companies have a trained professional placed in charge of human resource management while in bigger, more established companies, there is a whole department that facilitates human resource. This is a very important part of the business or organization as the people in charge of human resource management source the people who will run, develop and implement the organization’s objectives. It is therefore important for them to have full understanding of human resource as we humans are very diverse. People stem from different cultures, have different physical ability, different ages, political opinions, religious opinions, sexual orientations as well as have different gender. All this needs to be put into perspective and consideration in management of the human resource. Understanding diversity Diversity may be defined as the differences that are there among the members of a certain population. Understanding diversity is vital as numerous organizations are becoming increasingly diverse in terms of age, gender, race, ethnicity, disability and other personal characteristics (Maraga, 2009). There are two dimensions of diversity according to The Da Vinci Institute of Technology Management (2013). The primary dimension consisting of attributes we cannot change such as age, race, ethnicity and gender. The secondary dimension consists of changeable attributes such as income, education, religious beliefs, parental status and marital status. A close observation will show you that there is rapid growth of companies and organizations taking offices in various countries which has increased the significance of understanding diversity in the workforce. Most of this corporations and organizations have a cross-cultural and multicultural workforce that is rapidly increasing over time. Consequently, addressing and understanding diversity has become an important issue in political, legal, corporate and education arenas. Despite this, the attitudes towards a diverse workforce have been mixed ranging from intolerance. People have been shown to be less unreceptive with change that comes from working with disabled persons, homosexuals, people of color and ethnicity. Some however, like a good business, have changed with the existing tide and welcomed diversity and all the merit it brings (Shen et.al 2009). Some of this intolerance has be seen in the form of xenophobia where citizens of a country are afraid and skeptical of foreigners especially because they take up jobs that were meant for them. Case in point is South Africa where in the past few years, residents have demonstrated and forcefully evicted foreigners who work in their country. This is an example of a case of intolerance of human resource in the workspace due to diversity. Historical injustices There have been a myriad of diversity issues in various corporations and organizations over time but the most pronounced is that of gender inequality. However, in some parts of the world such as the Middle East, India and China, religion and ethnicity segregate people more strongly (Shen, et al., 2009). According to Shen et.al, Chinese rural migrants are looked down upon by urbanites and face mistreatment in the workplace (2009). In the Middle East, even sects of the same religion such as the Sunni and the Shiites determine whether you get employed or not. This misunderstanding of human resource and the isolation of entire groups of people have been linked to revolutions, civil wars and even the crisis happening in Syria. Nevertheless, gender inequality remains the most prevalent diversity issue worldwide. Females particularly over many years have been neglected in terms of acquisition of jobs, development within organizations as well as exclusion from employee benefits such as promotions. In every country that is a member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), there is a gender gap in favor of men (WGEA 2017). The Work and gender Equality Agency (2017) continues on to report that this inequality continues on into payment of salaries as women go on to average 15.1 % of what men get in these countries (WGEA 2017). This has been done not that they, women, would perform any less as human resource than their male counterparts but as an injustice to them. Even today, there are cries from women non-governmental organizations to curb the glaring gap of women inequality in the workforce. Cumulative differences in the earnings or lack thereof between a man and woman’s salary over a period stretching over a lifetime has shown women go into retirement with far less savings and are more prone to fall into poverty (WGEA 2017). In spite of this, fairer working terms for women and other diverse persons in the workforce have been linked to improved economic performance, innovation and national productivity (WGEA 2017). Why then do women get the short hand of the stick? Understanding gender gap in the workforce comes with first understanding the factors that influence it. One of this factors is stereotypes. Some jobs are assumed to be reserved for men as well as other roles in the workforce. Men take up certain ‘manly’ jobs and also assume positions of seniority in business organizations. Additionally, female dominated industries like healthcare and social assistance have been shown to attract lower wages than male dominated industries like manufacturing and construction. Human resource management practices in reference to diversity It is widely understood that the role of human resource management includes recruiting, training, managing performance and pay for the work force. Many international organizations are currently hiring women and minorities to deal with the increase in diversity of human capital. There is currently low tolerance for organizations that largely have a specific group of people and therefore organizations have been forced to branch out in their recruiting practices. A survey done in Australia of 396 employees from different companies to examine 13 separate diversity practices showed 93% of these companies reported zero-tolerance for workplace discrimination in recruitment (Shen et.al., 2009). Despite this, it is seen that there is still wide practice of discrimination when recruiting employees and this is shown through the low employment numbers of women and minority groups. For example in the United States of America, African Americans, Hispanics and Asians where shown to have lower rates of employment (Shen, et al., 2009). It is also often seen that minority groups and women are more often than not hired for lower managerial positions as compared to their male counterparts. A lot of organizations do not take into consideration individual differences when formulating training, performance reviews and pay policies (Shen, et al., 2009). For example a woman who is pregnant and about to take maternity leave is expected to perform at the same standard as the male counterpart. The commitment of this woman to the company is put to question and they may be overlooked for big positions in the company or organization since their time would be split between raising a family and benefiting the business. Moreover is also seen that women and minority groups are given fewer chances for advancement in the organization. It is often easier for a male to get promoted as compared to a female. Women have also been shown to get more criticism at work when they are in a position of power and it is more common to see a female or someone in an ethnic minority group get demoted from a high managerial position after making a mistake than it is for a male especially one in a majority group. This pressure placed on them, consciously or unconsciously, negatively affects how they perform which in term reduces productivity as a whole. Benefits of considering diversity in human resource Even with the gender stereotype that men do better work than women, studies confirm the contrary that women in fact are better at certain jobs than men. An example of this is one study done in Kenya were it was observed that female tea pickers working in plantations pick higher quality tea leaves than men (Maraga, 2009). This was attributed to their patience and gentleness as to pick the finest tea leaves which would be processed to make tea, you had to pick budding tea leaves (Maraga, 2009). Men, who are rather less patient than women, picked tea leaves that are not specifically budding leaves as it was more hectic to find budding leaves than just pick tea leaves at the top of the plant. If women would then be excluded from picking tea meant that the tea that would be processed would be of poor quality and thus fetch lower prices in the market. This shows that significance of understanding diversity as different people have their own strengths that they bring into the business or organization. Additionally, having a diverse workforce improves the quality of management decisions and is a source of great innovative ideas. In a diverse workforce, the think tank of the business or organization does not come from a similar background. For example, if a marketing company is trying to brainstorm on ways of how they can launch a new product into a particular market, a more diverse managerial team would have a better chance of finding the right means and is more likely to breakthrough (Wright, 2011). Better solutions to organizational problems are thus achieved. Diverse people bring their diversity in terms of skill, experience and knowledge providing a refreshing change and insight into a business or organization. Businesses should then not only employ people from diverse backgrounds but also create organizational structures that attracts people from a diverse labor market which has been proven to be beneficial (Maraga, 2009). Furthermore, recruiting employees regardless of age, gender, race or ethnicity increases competition since the best person for the job is the one who gets employed (Wright, 2011). By leaving out certain sects such as in Syria, there was a decline in the quality of labor as qualified professionals from different religious sects were left out in favor others (Wright, 2011). Lack of competition lowers productivity which is in contrast with the definition of human resource management which is the maximum utilization of human capital. Conclusion How can diversity issues be addressed? Many companies are aware of inequality issues in the workplace, however very few take affirmative action programs that go beyond what is legally required of them[She09]. One of the ways to reduce this is to ensure that for all organizations the diversity culture has to be emphasized in the organizations vision, mission, business strategy and human resource management strategy (Shen, et al., 2009). Legal frameworks should also be elaborated and enforced to make sure businesses that neglect the employment and development of people because of their gender or diversity face serious reparcussions and or penalties. To conclude we see that human resource management is important in that the workforce employed can impact an organizations performance. It is critical to understand and acknowledge everyone’s strength and weaknesses in the workplace regardless of their gender, race, age, religion or ethnicity. References Maraga, P. (2009). Diversity Management Practices among the Non-Governmental. Nairobi. The Da Vinci Institute for Technology Management (2013) Human Resource Management Work. Shen, J., Chanda, A., D'Netto, B. & Monga, M. (2009) Managing diversity through human resource management: an international perspective and conceptual framework. International Journal of Human Resource management, 20 (No. 2), pp. 235-251. Work Gender Equality Agency (March 2017) International Gender Reporting Schemes [Pdf] Retrieved from: https://www.wgea.gov.au/fact-sheets-and-research-reports/fact-sheets -and-statistics Wright, P. (2011). “The 2011 CHRO Challenge Building Organizational, Functional and Personal Talent” [Pdf]. Cornell Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies. Read More