Discuss about the Managing Diversity in Equal Opportunities.
Despite years of progress and advancement in the United Kingdom, women continue to be professionally hampered based on their gender orientation. Due to such gender discrimination at workplace, women fail to achieve a prestigious corporate position that is mostly offered to male employees in the workplace (Leskinen, Rabelo and Cortina 2015). Though organizations have boasted about equal opportunity at workplace, only four percent out 600 companies have women as their CEO. Additionally, it is also seen that women are not offered high-ranking jobs in the organization nor are they given promotions based on their merit. Part A of the assignment shall deal with the kind of gender stereotyping that is carried on at a workplace and the impact of such stereotypes at workplace. Additionally, the answer shall also comprise of examples of organizational stereotyping (Heilman 2012). This study aims to critically discuss what the HR managers can do to reduce the risk of discrimination based upon negative stereotypes within the workplace. Stereotyping in the workplace often goes far beyond national origin, race, religion, color, religion and sex as the bases for inequitable generalizations. The diversity in workforce acknowledges the actuality that individuals differ in several ways particularly in gender, age, social status, marital status, religion, ethnicity, culture, personality and sexual orientation (Mowday et al. 2013).
Gender Stereotyping is defined as “overgeneralization” of differences, attributes and characteristics of a certain group depending on their gender. People who are stereotyped by gender tend to give a prejudgment or form a pre concept that is typically associated with their gender. This means that if a man and women act differently, for a stereotyped it shall be due to influence of the gender of the opposite sex and that is how they are assumed to behave (Nadler and Stockdale 2012). For example, women who are assertive by their nature are called “whores” or men who appear to be less masculine are termed as “sisiies” or are assumed a gay. Such kind of stereotyping is dangerous as it might lead to unfair and unequal terms of treatment to certain person who choose to confront people’s assumptions about their gender (Hippel, Sekaquaptewa and McFarlane 2015).
Gender stereotypes in an organization occur from the assumption that women are a part of their homes. Women cannot chose any kind of job that they wish to, meaning there may be jobs for which they may be inadequate. This resulted in women withdrawing lesser wages as compared to men and having low status jobs, consisting of few superior positions in well-known firms where they struggle with men taking up equal responsibilities (Haines, Deaux and Lofaro 2016). Though there is reduction in the obvious forms of discrimination, women continue to face more subtle kind of stereotyping. For example, having their efforts ignored and having their performances devalued. This statement is supported by claims that are an outcome of a wide range of studies, including self-reports of bias, surveys of attitude of those who make recruiting decisions and experiments that hold the quality of applicants constant but differ on gender application materials. Though women comprise of half of the workers of large organizations, which are less represented in higher positions, higher payment jobs such as medicine and law. Hence, there is a need for reevaluation of strategies from the recruitment leaders to create a neutral gender perspective. For women, equality has come a long way, but there is still need for progress to be made. This does not mean equal pay for equal work, this means unfair treatment of female employees at workplace (Posthuma and Guerrero 2013).
The National Academy of Sciences conducted a test in which hiring managers had to chose from men or women for their math based tasks, they chose women over men depending only on their paper based qualifications. The managers did not compensate for the differences between candidates though it seen often that the male recruits are in habit of over exaggerating their skills during interviews. Women who experience gender stereotyping tend to act more on their insecurities and this may lead to decrease in their level of confidence. Additionally, due to continuous stereotyped behavior in the organization, people may face anxiety and this may decrease their working outcomes in an organization. A trend of ego depletion is also noted amongst women (Koch, D’Mello and Sackett 2015). This kind of influence can be very harmful as it does not only affect professional life of women but influences their personal life as well. There is an urgent need for the organizations to review their recruitment, staffing and training policies to prevent people from gender stereotyping.
Few example of organizational stereotyping that reveal an organization’s practices are as follows:
“Glass ceiling” is an invisible barrier than keeps a given demographic, that is applied to women, from rising beyond a certain level of hierarchy. This termed was first coined by the feminists regarding barriers in the careers to women who want to achieve high in their careers. In the United States, this term is used to refer to the obstacles that hiver advancement of women as well as men. In Asia, the term is often used as “bamboo ceiling.” The glass ceiling is regarded as a barrier that protects women from achieving high goals. Such kind of barriers is created within an organization due to the stereotyped mentality of the people in an organization (Cuddy et al. 2015).
“Celluloid Ceiling” means under representation of women in creative positions. For example, Hollywood, music or any other kind of representation where women are generally less represented. A report was conducted in the year 2013 by the Center, it was seen that from 2800 people who were employed more than 50 percent of the people constituted to be men, and the remaining percentage was women (Koch, D’Mello and Sackett 2015).
While gender biases in hiring are the reason for shortage of women in organizations, research suggests that there is an urgent need of the recruiting leaders to change their policies so that it reduces biases and increase representation of women. To the extent that these policies can be adapted for promotion decisions, women should be represented better at higher ranks of their profession, making them more easily available to be part of hiring and search decisions.
Recruitment and selection
Experimental evidence advocates that several managers and employees consider diversity and equality management as being equivalent to having an equivalent opportunity for any individual to join the organization (Bratton and Gold 2012). A number of organizations have been efficient in hiring females and minorities to reflect the market that are increasingly diverse and persuade the new customers. The attention of HR managers to the diversity of increased workforce has been mandated in various multinational companies or organizations. Therefore, the professionals of human resources together with the managers who conduct interviews and recruit the new job seekers in a workforce which is multicultural in nature needs to be attentive of the ways by which the stereotype, attitudes and beliefs of the interviewer persuade interview behaviour (Kirton and Greene 2015). A workforce which is diverse in nature encompasses a variety of understandings, beliefs, values and ways of observing the world. A cross-cultural and multi-cultural workforce is a widespread not only in the companies or organizations in the western economies but also in the firms worldwide. The attitudes of the organizational members range from intolerance to tolerance in addition to admiration of diversity.
The training of awareness with respect to a diversity of a high quality is one of the functions of HR that improves the efficient integration of members of a group that are diverse in nature. The training of awareness constructs a widespread understanding of diversity’s values and assists in building societal cohesion with the intention of improving the individuals as well as the outcomes of the organization (Guillaume et al. 2013). The participants of this training should recognize whether the programme of training look for raising the awareness of diversity or developing multicultural skills. The module of training should also encompass societal psychological investigation on stereotyping and associations for prejudicing reduction. The minorities should be included in the panels that aim to select, evaluate and promote the professionals on a regular basis (Barak 2013).
The practices of efficient performance appraisal with respect to the area of diversity management should be considered as objective and it should not be considered as subjective, pertinent to the organization and the job, and fair to every employee and it should not offer any special type of treatment (Kirton and Greene 2015). The panels of appraisal can assist in the creation of criteria for objective together with the practices of fair performance. While conducting appraisals of the employees, the focus should be on the performance of the individuals and not on the race or personality. Therefore, the aim should be to carry out the appraisal as racially unbiased as possible (Guillaume et al. 2013).
The quality of pay contributes to effectual management of diversity and performance of the organization. The management of diversity in wages needs inclusive relevance of the standard of equal remuneration and a pay-system that is based on the performances of the employees (Moran et al. 2014). Experimental evidence proposes that the structure of compensation, the determinants of wages and the schemes of benefit should be designed in such a way that it only considers the common principles but it should also consider the individuals in terms of their capabilities, skills and knowledge. Individual-driven systems of remuneration smooth the progress of the lifestyles of the workforces and also promote diversity (Kaiser et al. 2013).
A diverse workforce is an indication of transforming world as well as marketplace. The working teams that are diverse make the organizations worthy. The workplace will be benefitted by giving respect to the individual differences, creation of a competitive edge and enhancing the productivity of work. The management of diversity and equality benefits the employees and the higher officials of the organization by constructing an environment which is fair and safe and in which every individual has an access to present their viewpoints and face the challenges equally. The tools of management in a diverse workforce should be utilized to instruct the individuals regarding diversity and the issues together with laws and regulations in an efficient manner.
Conclusion and Recommendations for reducing workplace discrimination and Sterotyping:
There is a need of implementing the policies in the workplace that discourage stereotyping and discrimination among workforces or employees. The policies of fundamental workplace must be based on state anti-discrimination and federal laws like those enforced by the U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) (Kaiser et al. 2013). The post written policies of EEOC, in which the employees throughout the place of work or offices in which the employees will have to follow those policies effectively. They also need to keep in the Human rights which are for every individual. The employees, managers and supervisors should be provided with diversity training. They should be encouraged to discus during the period of training regarding employee diversity and equality in terms of work styles, generational dissimilarities, ethics and philosophy of work (Griffin 2013). The HR managers and the supervisors should schedule meetings with the employees to talk about the ways by which they can stop the stereotyping of employees in the organization, particularly in the departments which are allocated to them. Reassigning of work groups would definitely help in this con text as the employees who always work in the same groups have a limited contact with the other group members. Hence reshuffling of employees in different work groups will help them to know and understand each other (Moran et al. 2014).
References:
Barak, M.E.M., 2013. Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. Sage Publications.
Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2012. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave Macmillan.
Griffin, R.W., 2013. Fundamentals of management. Cengage Learning.
Guillaume, Y.R., Dawson, J.F., Woods, S.A., Sacramento, C.A. and West, M.A., 2013. Getting diversity at work to work: What we know and what we still don’t know. Journal of occupational and organizational psychology,86(2), pp.123-141.
Heilman, M.E., 2012. Gender stereotypes and workplace bias. Research in organizational Behavior, 32, pp.113-135.
Kaiser, C.R., Major, B., Jurcevic, I., Dover, T.L., Brady, L.M. and Shapiro, J.R., 2013. Presumed fair: Ironic effects of organizational diversity structures. Journal of personality and social psychology, 104(3), p.504.
Kirton, G. and Greene, A.M., 2015. The dynamics of managing diversity: A critical approach. Routledge.
Leskinen, E.A., Rabelo, V.C. and Cortina, L.M., 2015. Gender stereotyping and harassment: A “catch-22” for women in the workplace. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 21(2), p.192.
Moran, R.T., Abramson, N.R. and Moran, S.V., 2014. Managing cultural differences. Routledge.
Mowday, R.T., Porter, L.W. and Steers, R.M., 2013. Employee—organization linkages: The psychology of commitment, absenteeism, and turnover. Academic press.
Nadler, J.T. and Stockdale, M.S., 2012. Workplace Gender Bias: Not Just Between Strangers. North American Journal of Psychology, 14(2).
von Hippel, C., Sekaquaptewa, D. and McFarlane, M., 2015. Stereotype Threat Among Women in Finance Negative Effects on Identity, Workplace Well-Being, and Recruiting. Psychology of Women Quarterly, p.0361684315574501.
Haines, E.L., Deaux, K. and Lofaro, N., 2016. The Times They Are a-Changing… or Are They Not? A Comparison of Gender Stereotypes, 1983–2014. Psychology of Women Quarterly, p.0361684316634081.
Posthuma, R.A. and Guerrero, L., 2013. Age stereotypes in the workplace: Multidimensionality, cross-cultural applications, and directions for future research. The Sage handbook of aging, work and society, pp.250-265.
Koch, A.J., D’Mello, S.D. and Sackett, P.R., 2015. A meta-analysis of gender stereotypes and bias in experimental simulations of employment decision making. Journal of Applied Psychology, 100(1), p.128.
Cuddy, A.J., Wolf, E.B., Glick, P., Crotty, S., Chong, J. and Norton, M.I., 2015. Men as cultural ideals: Cultural values moderate gender stereotype content. Journal of personality and social psychology, 109(4), p.622.
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