Racism within the Retail Sector in the UK - Literature review Example

?Racism Within The Retail Sector In The UK Introduction Legal enshrinements such as the fundamental human rights of people ensure that all people live and work in an atmosphere devoid of discrimination, inequality and bias of any sort that is based on unfair grounds. In the United Kingdom, several labour laws have been made to protect this basic human rights law for individuals. However, it is sad to know that in the retail sector of the labour force, news and reports of unfair discrimination continue to abound. The worse part of the discrimination even has to do with the fact that people are discriminated against on racial grounds. In this literature review, various works of literature on racism in the retail industry of the United Kingdom shall be critically reviewed. The aim of the researcher shall be to analyze the opinion of various reviewers on what racism is and how it started, laws that protect people against racism and discrimination, effects of racial discrimination on the growth of the United Kingdom retail industry and how racism in the retail industry of the United Kingdom can be stopped. Racism explained Several reviewers see and explain racism just from a perspective of ethic or racial background. To this effect, they make the discrimination against people based on their skin color as the major definition of racism. In this function, Ellis-Christensen (2011) explains racism as the discrimination against people based on their race after explaining that “commonly, but not always, people are categorized into one of five races: White, Black, Latino or Hispanic, Asian, and Indigenous or Native.” Racism however goes beyond the discrimination of people based on their race or ethic background. In fact, limiting racism to discrimination against people based on their race would mean that racism cannot take place among two people belonging to one of the six sects mentioned by Ellis-Christensen (2011). Putting the meaning of racism on a broader periscope, Rogers (2000) documents that “it is racial discrimination to treat someone unfairly compared to others because of their race, color, descent or national or ethnic origin.” The dimensions given by Rogers are more detailed and befitting a universal description of what racism entails. With his explanation, it can established that two people may be of the same skin colour or race but by the mere fact that one is from a different national or ethic origin can result in one of the fellows showing acts of racism against the other. Laws guiding against racial discrimination at the workplace Since racial discrimination is a human rights issue, various countries have laws that guides against it. In the United Kingdom, there are national laws that guide against racial discrimination at the workplace. These laws are very necessary because as noted by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (2011), “everyone should have a right to equal access to employment and when employed should have equal pay and equal access to training and development.” In this regard, Section 1 of The Race Relations Act 1976 (Amendment) Regulations 2003 gives emphatic scenarios that constitute racial discrimination at the workplace and by extension in the retail sector. As a law, the breach of the binding rules comes with daring consequences to offenders (The National Archives, 2003). The researcher is however concerned with the implementation of the laws as the provisions of the law can never be enough if enforcement is not ensured thereof. In 2005 for instance the Abercrombie & Fitch lawsuits sent “award checks to the over ten thousand class members who submitted valid claim forms in accordance with the process set forth by the Court in the April 2005 settlement order”, most of which had to do with racial discrimination (Alvarez, 2005). This not withstanding, Barmes and Ashtiany (2003) report of how various retail companies have their own laws and regulations that guides against racial discrimination. Effects of racial discrimination on the UK retail industry Racial discrimination in retail sector of the United Kingdom comes with several negative effects, which if not explored has a potential of collapsing the retail industry all together. First and foremost, racial discrimination in the United Kingdom retail industry can lead to low employee morale. There is no denying the fact that the present global economic atmosphere is characterised by hardship and downturn. In this striving condition, Mishra, Spreitzer and Mishra (1998) maintains that “as companies continue to downsize, they need to consider how to maintain their employees' morale in order to realize gains such as higher productivity and more flexibility.” This tells the immense role that high employee morale can play in raising the fortunes of retail companies. But should there be constant racial discrimination against employees, they are going to feel downtrodden and retract their high morale spirit in working for their various companies. Gabriel (1994, pg. 99) shares this opinion as he reports of how McDonalds benefited when it set itself as an egalitarian employer and service provider and started fighting against racial discrimination. Another setback effect that retail companies are likely to suffer if racial discrimination continues to exists in their jurisdiction has to do with employee conflicts. The reason why employee conflict will result because of racial discrimination is rooted in the fact that employees who are discriminated against always see themselves against other employees and so would hardly want to work co-operatively with them. This assertion is confirmed in a research by Morales-Lopez, Prego-Vazquez and Dominguez-Seco (2005) who state that their study revealed that conflicts in organisations were caused by “situations of interactional asymmetry between the discourse of employees and customers, the result of the social inequality that exists in terms of citizens’ access to institutional discourse.” This idea reveals an expanded risk of employee conflict, relating its cause not only to racial discrimination but also to factors such as social inequality. Most reviewers consider lawsuits resulting from racial discrimination as the worse effect that retail companies can suffer as a result of racial discrimination against employees. These reviewers are not far from right because racial discrimination is a legal issue and deprive companies of thousands of pounds. For example Milmo (2008) reports that “compass, the British catering group, has been hit with a $200m (?130m) lawsuit alleging racial discrimination at one of its US businesses.” However, instead of limiting the lawsuit effects to only employees, retail company operators must admit the fact that they also face the risk of facing lawsuits from customers as well. Indeed news of customers who have reported issued lawsuits of racial discrimination at the hands of retail shop owners and staffs are not new. In consonance with this opinion by the researcher, Fagan (n.d) notes that “although many businesses hang signs which say, "We reserve the right to refuse service to anybody," the signs are not legal.” This means that companies that discriminate against customers by refusing services or engraining in any act of racial discrimination face the risk of lawsuit from these customers. Retail company owners and investors cannot ignore the seriousness of lawsuits against them because apart from the fact that the situation deprives them of several thousands of pounds, it also leads to the defaming of their company names and have the risk of putting them out of business. Dealing with discrimination at the workplace The fight against discrimination on racial grounds rests much with retail shop owners, managers and investors. This is because most of the racial discrimination cases in the media are reported against them. These owners, managers and investors must therefore have effective plans and strategies for stopping racial discrimination. In the opinion of the researcher, the best way to deal with racial discrimination at the workplace is for superiors to pay attention to every detail of their relationship with workers. The All Business Journal (2011) advocates “if you offer certain benefits to employees, make sure these perks are available to everyone.” This is a strong point but the fight against racial discrimination cannot be taken only from the point of ensuring equality in distribution of resources and benefits. Rather, superiors must be very careful in their approach to the distribution of duties, communication and the enforcement of rules so that some employees do not feel discriminated against on the basis of the race. This could be summed by saying that superiors must show great exemplification at the workplace so that it would be followed in employee-employee relations. Summary of Literature Review It was established that racism should not be looked at only from the point of colour of a person’s skin but also from an inter-nation differentiations that exists among people who may be of the same skin colour. Again, it was found that there are rules in the United Kingdom that guide against racial discrimination in the retail sector. The researcher was however thoughtful in calling for the implementation of the laws. Finally, due to the negative effects of racial discrimination, superiors in the retail sector were admonished to live exemplary leadership in combating the menace. REFERENCE LIST Alvarez F., 2005, ‘$50 Million, Less Attorneys' Fees and Costs, Paid to Class Members in December 2005 in Abercrombie & Fitch Discrimination Lawsuit Settlement’, Accessed October 26, 2011 Barmes L and Ashtiany S., 2003, ‘The Diversity Approach to Achieving Equality: Potential and Pitfall’ Industrial Law Journal (2003) 32 (4): 274-296. doi: 10.1093/ilj/32.4.274 Fagan C. P. (n.d.) ‘Discrimination by a Store or Business Against You’ Accessed October 27, 2011 Gabriel J, 1994, ‘Racism, culture, markets’ New York: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group Milmo D. 2008, ‘$200m suit claims discrimination by Compass in Philadelphia complex’ The Guardian, Accessed October 26, 2011 Mishra K. E., Spreitzer G and Mishra A. K, ‘Preserving Employee Morale during Downsizing’, Sloan Management Review, ISSN 0019-848X, Vol. 39, N?. 2 Morales-Lopez E, Prego-Vazquez G. and Dominguez-Seco L., 2005, ‘Interviews between employees and customers during a company restructuring process’, Discourse Society. vol. 16 no. 2 225-268. doi: 10.1177 / 0957926505049622 The National Archives, 2003, ‘The Race Relations Act 1976 (Amendment) Regulations 2003’ 2003 No. 1626 Regulation 4. Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2011, ‘Diversity and Equality’ Accessed October 26, 2011 Rogers P., 2000, ‘What is racial discrimination?’ FAIRA Aboriginal Corporation. Accessed October 26, 2011 All Business, 2011, ‘Dealing with Discrimination in the Workplace’, Accessed October 26, 2011 Ellis-Christensen, T. 2011, ‘What is Discrimination?’ accessed October 26, 2011 Read More