Legal and Ethical Implications of Diversity and Inclusion - Essay Example

Diversity and Inclusion Diversity and Inclusion As a leader whose aim is to foster equality, diversity and inclusion of all employees in a workplace, one should have a broad and a dynamic mind-set. There are laws that have been put in place to govern these like The Equality Act 2010, which aims to promote diversity through encouraging good relations between different groups of people. The Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) aimed at ensuring ages is not used as a factor for discriminating and ensured the presence of diversity at the workplace.

Apart from the law any leader should be in a position to ensure that diversity and inclusion are valued by all parties in an organization especially during employment and the way they relate to one another in the workplace. Provision of excellent relationships in a workplace despite, the race, colour, age, culture brings about an all-inclusive working environment that in return improves the performance. I also help in reduction of harassments and abrasions of the workers (Ely, Meyerson & Davidson, 2006).

Ensuring people of different ages are provided with similar opportunities, and promotion is done on merit and not age is the other manner of meeting diversity and inclusion needs at the workplace. A leader should understand the organization’s aspects of diversity and inclusion to explain to the employee or members of staff their importance and also describe the ethical and legal policies. By understanding and interpreting the organizational policies where the impacts, consequences and remedies of certain forms of actions at the workplace are treated brings some conscience to both staff and employees on the importance of observing such.

Also as a leader, one should be able to understand different forms of acts that can be detrimental to diversity and inclusion process. Through this, a leader can be able to identify potential issues relating to diversity and inclusion and hence, define ways to prevent such from being practised in their firms. It also helps in determining of policies and procedures that describe legal and ethical requirements which needs to be followed by employees, business partners, third party suppliers and even customers (Tyler et al., 2008). Accepting diversity and inclusion usually take place after an introduction of a process or procedure is met with resistance or slow adoption of the policies that promote the acts.

Embracing diversity and inclusion, on the other hand, refers to willingly accepting the policies relating to the same which were initially available at the organization. Accepting typically takes place after facing the challenges and then developing the remedies to the challenges and, therefore, the change of the normal working conditions are inevitable. This is opposed to embracing that is done at will, and the execution is smooth and more efficient. A successful management and implementation of these policies are experienced when they are embraced other than accepted (Greenberg, 2004).

Diversity and inclusion can be best experienced by an individual who makes visits to different countries, especially in other continents. They are faced with culture shocks, religious differences, race, gender and colour diversities. An example is age discrimination that differs in countries owing to differing perceptions. In the United Kingdom, those aged above 58 years are considered old, and there is a high chance of discrimination at the workplace compared to Greece at 68 years. My experience is that ADEA is the most robust and effectively invoked age discrimination law with foreign laws favouring 20 years over 40-year-olds and least favoured are the elderly at 70’s.

The United States Equal Opportunity Employer Commission (EOEC) is tasked with the legal protection of discriminated workers and in enforcing discrimination laws in the United States. The need for equal access to opportunities and jobs is an important undertaking for all. An example is 27% of Australians faced by age discrimination, and Singaporeans believe that the largest obstacle to employability is age discrimination. The experience of older and younger workers differ globally owing to the lack of strict laws governing workplace place discrimination based on age with laws recently passed in Canada, Europe, and other regions of the world.

ReferencesEly, J, R, Meyerson, D,E,& Davidson, M,N. (2006). Rethinking Political Correctness. Harvard Business Publishing.pdfGreenberg, J. (2004). Diversity in the Workplace: Benefits, Challenges and Solution.Retrieved from http://www.multiculturaladvantage.com/recruit/diversity/diversity-in-the-workplace-benefits-challenges-solutions.aspGwynne, Y. (2009). Attorney at Law Magazine: Attorney of the month. Retrieved fromhttp://www.cfjblaw.com/files/Uploads/Documents/PR/Gwynne-A-Young-Attorney-of-the-Month.pdf.Tyler, T, Dienhart, J & Thomas, T. (2008). The Ethical Commitment to Compliance: Building Value-based Cultures.

University of California, Berkeley.Winkle, Locks, M A. (n.d). Diversity and Inclusion on Campus: Supporting Racially, and Ethnically Underrepresented Students. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=qcWvAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA183&dq=Bell-+diversity+and+inclusion+2012&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CDAQ6AEwA2oVChMIguKGuoSFxgIVJAbbCh2sNgDQ#v=onepage&q=Bell%20diversity%20and%20inclusion%202012&f=false