The Evidence For Age And Gender

Diversity is inclusive of difference that states people of different range and having terms in respect to ethnicity, race, disabilities, background, religion, gender, ideologies, political beliefs and sexual orientation. It is most important element for global business as even the customers, workforce and market are diverse in nature. In today’s world variations and culture are numerous in terms of customs, practices, rituals, habits etc. That exists in the world (davis, frolova and callahan, 2016). An individual easily notices different manifestations and colors in a group or society.

In this context, one of the major issues being age and gender that is affecting the work performance in some situations prevalent. These issues have to be resolved by accessing, value and analyzing the differences in work as in 21^st century workplaces takes pride being gender neutral for its workforce. In this globalised world businesses need be aware culturally and diversely by incorporating strategies by exploiting them to the fullest for the advantage.

In present workplace the employees are provided information through social media such as twitter, facebook etc. As with generations different ideas, values, communicating and working smartly is the goal (mack, 2010). The four generation that is present in workplace is – traditionalists, baby boomers, generation x and millennia’s. Traditionalist staffs were present at the time of wwii by adhering to principles and sticking to authority, quality and respect. They were lacking in skills and techniques to work, were hard worker, implements rules, money conservative, physical labor and are logical based representing 6.5% of workforce. Second being baby boomer between the time periods 1946-1964 by working through sacrifice mode.

This helped them in being loyal to colleagues and employers that constitutes of 41% of workforce. They work in teams, workaholics, learning on the go, optimistic and working for wellness and health. The generation x is from 1965-1980 periods stated as the first generation growing with computer technology (joshi, dencker and franz, 2011). They work on being productive with 29.5% of workforce by having work flexibility, technology savvy, casual approach, working by having fun etc. The last being generation y or millennials by working through multi-tasking, leveraging between technologies and opting balanced working lifestyle. 22.5% is this by being diverse, sociable, political, confident, diverse, setting goals and working etc.             

As said by amaram, (2011) when a business or owner becomes complacent in nature he thinks at the first look that it is too hard difficult to form policies regarding diversity, cultural competency and hard for negotiating for flexible working conditions. This is making the employers close ended in terms of promotion or recruitment in certain decisions by excluding some people. As discussed by peterson and thea (2006) the different measures that is related to discrimination and gender biasness are discrimination against compensation package, favoritism in job promotion, recruitment discrimination and setting wage difference in workplace. As per magee, (2014) the reason that is governed by intersection of age and gender is the promotion rate, difference in gender and break timings during employment. As per the international scenario it can be perceived that in north america women and their work are different in terms of job evaluations than men.

This is due to the fact that men are considered as resource than women. As said by dyke and murphy, (2006) who interviewed people who are successful estimated that men are making more explicit comments than women that involve material orientation. The difference in interview answer in both men and women varies as men tend to be towards material success and women feel for themselves and their group. In men the emphasis is more up on extrinsic rewards but, in women it is on intrinsic as men feel proud in performing it effectively. According to huges et al., (2003) studies have confirmed that in the process of job evaluation women focus on the aspects of social relations that involves appraisals, coworker and cooperation. As opined by frieze et al., (2006) a study conducted by managers found out that women rank high in terms of personal priority than men as this desire is linked with intrinsic motivation that is salient in women rather than men.              

The workplace market is divided into vertical and horizontal workforce linked to both male and female biasness in terms of wages and unfair distribution to both gender. As per kelan, (2009) this gender quake is affecting relations and engagement in both genders drastically. The framework for gender discrimination and productivity is explained below with the diagram:

[source: abbas, hameed and waheed, 2011]

The above depicts the fact that gender discrimination is happening in three elements- promotion, hiring and providing facilities and goods. This is all linked to employee productivity as each one has its own place in workplace. Each term is crucial for management to perform well so that employees act as asset not as tool. Thus, gender biasness can be concluded that participation of women in workplace is crucial as it leads to creativity and innovation due to amalgamation of backgrounds, skills and perspectives in both genders (garg and punia, 2015). 

With rising age the productivity gets hampered in terms of organization change this is also affecting individual productivity. The changes taking is involved in age diversity affects the firm performance depending up on the nature of the task performed in the business. This change is coming in workplace with the process of ageing as the employee is not able to perform effectively. In australia age discrimination is the biggest issue that the employers are facing but, are not ready to admit. A survey conducted by hays, (2014) estimated that one in 10 bosses won’t hire employees who are beyond 50 years of age. This survey conducted reveals that old workers are being treated as redundant by the employers in australia.

Third business leaders refers that old workers are not comfortable for reminding them their work by the younger people and at times forget what they have to perform. This affects productivity in workplace as time is being consumed in the process and one in 5 is not ready to recruit old people in job (hays, 2014). Another survey conducted in berlin by the      max planck institute for human development gave between the age of 65 to 80 and 20 to 31 to perform tasks in respect to episodic and working memory and perpetual test. The outcome was old people were more effective and reliable by stating the result as motivated, stable mood and routine is balanced. According to australian bureau of statistics people aged between 55 and 64 years are not being employed for long-term as in contrast with people age between 35-44 years i.e. 22% and 13% for 15-24 years old (hays, 2014).              

The unconscious bias occurs when the individual is unaware about the world that is fostered by various factors such as family, community and culture. According to neill, (2015) in case of workplace it affects the whole hr process starting from job advertisements, conducting interview, selection and acquisition of talent by retaining it efficiently. The other factors are age, hair color, disability, height, personality etc. That affects the workforce widely. As per neill, (2015) when a business continues to employ same kind of staffs in organization the range is limited to knowledge, skills, opportunities and idea sharing. In other way the productivity is hampered as not having diverse workforce means not providing effective service to consumers or producing in large quantities.  

From the above discussion it can be concluded that workplace diversity is the biggest challenge that fosters opportunity in business. The strategic use of human resources is done by valuing the workforce diversity and attaining the advantage and disadvantage for managing it effectively. In this globalization era no workplace could survive without diverse workforce but, its benefits can be seen in long-term.

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