Equality Legislation And Recognition For Diversity In The Workplace

Finding and Analysis of the Case study

Inclusion at work can be understood as the best practice which ensures that every person in the organization is given equal opportunity, equal treatment, and justice and is treated with utmost respect. A level of compassion has to be shown towards the knowledge, work, perspective and approach of the employee as a way to bring inclusion at the workplace. A lot of discussion has been going around the topic of inclusion at the workplace and efforts have been taken in the direction of equality legislation and recognition for diversity at workplace (CIPD, 2018). However, not a lot of success has been achieved in this area. Inequality in the workplace can be seen in many areas such as Pay gap, gender gap, lack of senior role model in females, less flexible working hours and plethora of other factors. Despite numerous reports, articles and discussion on the benefits of diversity and inclusion at workplace, there is a significant scope of improvement in business organization (CIPD, 2018).

The underlying purpose or the idea of the report here is to comprehend the emerging themes in relation to inclusion and diversity at the workplace. A major part of the report will focus on the critical analysis of the evolving trends in the business management which will be of use in providing robust strategic business solution to the organization. Towards the end a set of recommendation will be provided to the management and leadership to harbour and nurture the diversity and inclusion at workplace. The discussion will revolve around various forces such as environmental, social, technological, legal, political and global issues. Thus, the report will help in identifying the emerging themes related to inclusion and diversity at workplace with a thorough understanding of its benefits in the organization. 

CIPD is a professional body of HR and the people development. This not for profit organization creates champions at work and has been setting benchmark for excellence of people and organizational development for over 100 years. This section here will focus on the key finding and analysis about diversity and inclusion at the workplace.

The report by CIPD highlights the problem which the UK has been fighting for quite some time, the problem of diversity and inclusion at the workplace. Despite innumerable efforts of the government in the form of government legislation the improvement can be seen as excessively slow. There is still a significant scope of improvement in the current practices to allow for better diversity and inclusion at the workplace. It has been mentioned in the case study that the efforts in the organization has to be top down, that is the management has to put pressure on bringing better practices of inclusion at workplace, only then the situation in the organization will be on a upward trajectory(Nishi, 2013). The moral case of diversity and inclusion at workplace states that it is the right of every employee to receive equal treatment, equal opportunities to learn, grow and develop, and giving them a sense of dignity in the work environment. The case reflects that diversity and inclusion at workplace leads to numerous benefits for the organization in the form of fast decision making, better and more productive ideas and a high sense of ownership towards the work and the workplace (Joshi & Roh, 2009).

Findings of the Case Study

Diversity in the organization has to be seen from the holistic point of view as different aspects of diversity and several outcomes in the organization. For example, it has been mentioned that the tenure of the team can be seen as a factor of efficiency from the point of view of the organization, whereas cultural diversity can be seen as a strong factor towards creativity.

• It has been cited that impact of diversity on the performance of the employees is boiled down due to multiple aspects of organizational context.
• One major aspect demonstrated in the case study is that UK is the land of many diversities, therefore the organization can benefit immensely from allowing diversity and inclusion at the workplace in the country. According to Parker, the recent emphasis on gender diversity has been of some use; however, not a lot of benefits were passed to the women belonging to the minorities of other colour (Parker, 2016).

• An important finding of the case study suggests that an individual has to focus on the type of industry, as a male dominated industry will have more males than females. Thus, all the males will be provided with the same rights (Barak, 2016).
• Diversity in the workplace is a qualifying criterion for enhanced employer brand, contribution to the society and corporate benefits, at the same time giving numerous benefits to the employees in the organization.
• The team leader of the group has to ensure that his focus is towards all the members of the group, as this way he will be in a position to give equal attention to all the team members while ensuring equality as the order of the day. In other case, the group synergy will not yield in better team outcome, thus it is advised that the team leader gives equal focus and attention to all the team members.

• Inequality in the workplace occurs during the time of performance evaluation and assessment of the employees. Managers tend to favour one group over the other, as they are of the opinion that diverse group are not cohesive in nature, thus not beneficial for the organization.
• Prejudice and biasedness are still the main reasons for inequality at the workplace which results in high turnover and demotivation for the employees.
• There are inequality issues in the organization pertaining to the roles of women in the position of leadership, and the role and position of disabled candidates.
• The bias towards an employee starts right from the time of his recruitment, he is been asked to join the organization at a very short notice, and clear biasedness is shown towards the employee while introducing him to various employees in the organization (Page, 2017).

• The government has taken a lot of initiative to improve the condition of diversity and inclusion in the workplace. It has also facilitated aide towards the disabled candidates, but as most of the employers are unaware of the aide packages, they fail to take advantage of the same.
• Training and acceptance towards diversity and inclusion at workplace will help in developing a better and accepting environment towards diversity issues.
• It has been also pointed that training does not provide with a long term solution approach towards tackling the issue of diversity, however it is still useful in the short run. For longer run, diversity in the workplace as a cultural value has to be transpired in the business organization (Hwang & Hopkins, 2015).

Diversity and inclusion at workplace are the important topics of discussion at various industry forums meetings and in governmental proceedings. It is advised that inclusion of work and diversity as to be thought of from a wider angle, and to be seen as the step towards uplifting and improving the condition of the people in society, community and the country(Ryan & Wessel, 2015).

The report speaks in volume that diversity and inclusion at work has to be culminated as a culture in the business organization, this culture has to be driven by the leadership. It has been mentioned that leadership has to engage with the workforce while translation diversity at the culture in business organization.

With times changing rapidly, leadership is becoming open and aware of the benefits of workforce diversity. They have come to understand that diversity and inclusion at work will help in better idea creation, better and faster decision making and increasing the brand recognition of the employer in the industry.

Globalization and Internet has been the major drivers for diversity at workplace in the present business organization. This has been ably met with the political climate of the world, which has become more and more accepting towards the immigrants. The world has openness and allows for the people to look for opportunities in other parts of the world. This is definitely a positive and encouraging sign for the people who are looking to work in different parts of the world (Saxena, 2014).

Technology has been one of the drivers of growth of globalization and a potential trend changer in the practice of HR in business organization.  Organization does not care about diversity, these days the focus lies with capability of the employees to deliver the solution. Thus, in order to do so, the employees who are well versed with technology are given an opportunity to be part of the organization. Moreover, the use of social media in HR practice has been an important step in increasing the practice of diversity and inclusion at the workplace (Kundu & Mor, 2017).

Diversity outcomes

Demographics can be understood as the study of the population of a particular nation, it consist of statistic on the population of the nation, culture, education, male female ratio and other factors. Business organization these days are putting in efforts to encourage same level of male female ration as is prevalent in the business organization. Thus, demographic is a strong factor towards encouraging the organization to include diversity at its workplace (Guillaume et. al., 2017).

Internet and social media are the biggest influencers in changing the social trends and shifting the pattern of the society. The world has shrunk into a global organization due to the use of social media in the workplace. Individuals have become more and more aware of their rights and understood the idea behind inclusion at work and diversity. Thus, due to this increased awakening, the employees have a better understanding of the obstacles in the path of inclusion at work, thus they put in efforts to tackle the obstacles effectively (Cullen et. al., 2018).

Industrial globalization is prevalent across all the industries and in different parts of the world. Industries or companies are taking the advantage of globalization and reducing their cost of employment by hiring domestic employees as akin to the employees from the host countries. Additionally, they are looking to deploy economies of scale in their operation by focussing on the diversity in the workforce (Boekhorst, 2015).

The global economy might not be at an increasing slope, but it is most certainly doing better than the last decade. This indicates that people have good purchasing power parity which is an indication of their propensity to work outside their countries to earn a better living for themselves. People are becoming more and more aware of what is good for them in the longer run and the same thing has to be inculcated within the business organization. This will certainly give an impetus to the rising trend of workforce diversity and inclusion at work (Jones, Woods & Guillame, 2016).

The leadership predominantly has the most important role to play here in the issue of diversity and inclusion at work. For instance, if the leadership is convinced of the potential benefits reaped by diversity and inclusion at work, they would encourage the managers and the HR to practice the same in the workplace. Moreover, the employees or the managers will appreciate diversity if it is coming right from the top. Thus, it is the leadership who have to set a culture in the place and appreciate and encourage diversity and inclusion at the workplace (Hwang & Hopkins, 2015).

Implication of Diversity for the Professional People at Workplace

Employees in the workplace are always resistant to change; they have the outright tendency of showing resistance towards any change in the organization. It is a natural tendency to feel comfort in one’s own surrounding, but this culture has to be changed in the organization to allow for improvement in the idea creation, innovation and creativity. Most definitely, once the culture in the organisation changes, the employee would become more welcoming to people of other diversities and would encourage them to work and excel in their professional journey (Ozturk & Tatli, 2016).

References 

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