Discrimination, Diversity and Equal Opportunities

Women’s Average Pay as % of Men’s Earnings Luxembourg89 Norway86 Ireland84.5 Denmark83.2 Sweden82 Finland82 Italy81.7 France80.5 Netherlands80 Belgium79.6 United States77.5 Spain76.9 Greece76.2 UK75.9 Germany75.7 Portugal72.6 Austria67

ARE THERE OTHER GROUPS OF WORKERS WHO YOU THINK MIGHT BE DISADVANTAGED?

The Basis for Unequal Opportunities and Disadvantage? Gender Race and Ethnicity Religion Disability Age Sexual Orientation

What Opportunities are Unequal? Earnings Occupational Sectoral Career development Promotional Involvement

Key Issues What are the arguments against inequality and for equality of treatment? What explains inequality at the workplace? What steps are and can be taken to deal with inequality and develop equality?

What are the Arguments for Equality? The Business Case -Better use of human resources -Wider customer base -Wider pool for recruitment -Positive image for company -Diversity leads to innovation

What Explains Inequality at the Workplace? Inequality Discrimination Structural conditions Situational centered factors Person centered factors

What is Discrimination? “To make a distinction” Fair and Unfair Distinctions

Forms of Discrimination Direct versus Indirect

The Cause of Discrimination Discrimination Psychological -personality types -personal insecurities -learned behavior? Prejudice Sociological -Stereotyping -Group insecurities -Difference in cultural norms Economic - See structural

Structural/Economic Human Capital Theory -Labor market non discriminatory -If groups are disadvantaged, it is because they are less productive -Difficult to test qualifications Segmentation -Horizontal (women in health, education, retailing) -Vertical (glass ceiling issue) Reserve army -Unemployment higher amongst ethnic minority groups

Person-Centered Explanations Women are less ambitious? Women lack leadership qualities? Women are less self confident?

Situation Centered Explanations Less Training Excluded from informal networks Poor Mentoring Poor appraisal ratings Lack of family friendly practices

Removing Inequality and Ensuring Equality Equality at the workplace The State The Organization The Trade Union The Individual

The State National Governments -Constitutional rights -Legislation

The Organizational Level What actions would you suggest an organisation should adopt to help ensure equal opportunities in general and in relation to a particular group (select one of: women, ethnic group, older workers, those with particular sexual orientation)?

The Organization Equal OpportunitiesManaging Diversity Liberal ApproachRadical Approach (Jewson and Mason (1986)) Short Term AgendaLong Term Agenda

Equal Opportunities Focused on the needs of members of particular groups Treats members of a particular group as if they all share the same characteristics and experiences Uses special initiatives to focus attention on the issues affecting particular groups Emphasis on the more, ethical and social issues Led mainly by HR specialists

Liberal Approach to Equal Opportunities Assumptions -Everyone should be able to compete freely on the basis of ability -This could and should be achieved by procedural impartiality Goal: -Equal treatment Practical implications -Put into place fair procedures -Remove all barriers to equal competition between groups Indicative Practices -Develop an equal opportunities policy -Ensure all practices (e.g. recruitment/selection, reward, career-advancement) do not discriminate -Consider employee friendly policies and practices

Critique of Liberal Approach Retain assumption of existing (male) management style Ignore informality Runs of risk of just paying “lip service” HR job is not a line managers job

Radical Approach to Equal Opportunities Assumptions -Those for all group are the same (equally talented) -Differences in treatment must mean discrimination Goal -Equal outcome Practical implications -Direct action needed to deliberately make sure that those form particular groups are treated equally Indicative Practices (the short term agenda) -Positive discrimination (quotas) -Use of targets -Retraining managers -Monitoring

- Legality of positive discrimination? -Efficiency concerns -Resentments Long term agenda -Shift societal attitudes -Changing socialisation -Shifting educational choices -Providing more welfare support Critique of the (short term) Radical Approach

Managing Diversity Recognizes that each and every employee is unique Aims to be inclusive by focusing on needs of all employees Values driven More business-focused Mainstreamed - part of all line managers’ jobs

Managing Diversity Ignores real patterns and causes of discrimination Contingent- business focus makes it dependent on bottom line contribution Part of everyone’s job/part of nobody’s job: no one to champion the issues