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Human Resources |
To What Extent has the Concept of Equal Opportunities been challenged by Ideas of Managing Diversity?
The distinguishing feature of successful organizations in today’s global marketplace is the quality of the people they employ. As the world practice has already showed people are becoming to be recognized as the single sustainable source of competitive advantage. The research that has been actually carried out by CIPD in the year 2003 proved that business performance is closely linked with good people management. Professionalism and a proper choice of the management strategy showed proved to be the key contributors to the final outcomes of the company or other business organization. When choosing effective management strategy it is very important to differentiate the differences between the concept of equal opportunities and the idea of managing diversity. To answer this question the essay looks at the benefits and both concepts. Prior to the above, the essay will briefly look at the historical and theoretical bases of equal opportunities concept ways of implementation and that of cultural diversity.
Equal opportunities policies. Equal opportunities policies have long been highlighted as key components of effective human resources management. As well as being legally required, socially desirable and morally right, the promotion of effective equal opportunities policies is regarded as essential if the company plans to engage the best staff in the future. However, difficulties have been encountered in translating paper policies into action and widening the agenda from gender and ethnic discrimination to include issues relating to, for example, disability, age, sexuality and religious prejudice.
In short, the management of diversity is a key component of good company management. An open learning culture based on trust and mutual respect where different views and ideas are welcomed, has long been a goal of many companies where large number of people are being engaged (Richardson, P 2000).
The concept of diversity management. The concept of diversity management has its origin in the US. Having been focused on the human resource development aspect, and to be precise, on the potential of the workforce, this approach is aimed at exploration of human resources management practices. As the report by the Hudson Institute (1987) actually showed, “the American workforce will be re-shaped by issues around race, gender, ethnicity, national origin, and that age and the proper management of this diverse workforce is a key priority, not because enterprises are becoming kinder or gentler but because they want to survive and grow”(Edwards 1991).
Challenges to Personnel and Human Resource Managers
An external challenge many personnel and human resources managers face today is convincing their corporations and government agencies to incorporate the demographic, global and economic forecasts of workforce trends into their strategic planning processes. Some organizational leaders are concerned that implementing diversity initiatives is too expensive, upsets productivity, and causes disruption in the workplace. Prejudice and hostile work environments also pose internal stumbling blocks to effectively managing diversity. These trends and internal stumbling blocks challenge effective cultural diversity management (Robinson, 1994)
Environmental changes causing review of human resources programs pose the question of how to transform a slower growing labor force comprising more females, immigrants, minorities and older workers into a more skilled, productive and adaptable resource. Organizations must also address how to successfully manage employees with diverse lifestyles, single parents, unmarrieds with spousal equivalents, gay couples, job-sharers, two-income families or physically challenged individuals( Mathew, Audrey and Mitchell Rice, 1996). The difficulty human resources managers face is how to create organizational partnerships with line managers that facilitate the productive management of this changing workforce.
Organizations need to hire the right numbers of people, with the right qualifications, for the right jobs, in the right locations. Line managers' expectations are to attract and retain excellent employees from the workforce pool. These expectations challenge human resources departments to successfully recruit, select and train diverse persons to fulfill organizational requirements.
According to Dean Elmuti, another basic challenge facing corporate and government managers in the coming decade is whether to respond to the changing workplace by continuing to regard employees as expendable inputs, or to start treating them as valuable assets.( Elmuti, D., 1984). People are more productive when they have appropriate skills; clear objectives, responses and consequences; resources and organizational conditions to do their jobs.
Food for thought: some diversity facts
Female personnel directors earn 14 per cent less than their male colleagues. Croner/CIPD, Personnel Reward Survey 2004/2005.
• Eleven per cent of non-executive directors in the FTSE 100 are women. These few women are themselves outnumbered by ‘Sirs’ and ‘Lords’. Incomes Data Services, Executive Compensation Review, 279, May 2004.
• In engineering and technology just 6 per cent of the workforce is female, while in nursing it is 90 per cent. Guardian, 6 June 2004, quoting Office for National Statistics report 2000.
• Nearly a quarter of the most senior Civil Service management posts are held by women; double the figure six years ago. Daily Telegraph, 23 April 2004, quoting figures from the Office for National Statistics.
• Black and Asian people are 2.5 times less likely to have jobs than whites. The Times, 23 April 2004, quoting a report from the Trades Union Congress.
• Under-two’s nursery places cost £134 per week and childminders can cost up to £149. That’s nearly a quarter of the income of the average household. Sunday Times, 16 May 2004, quoting from a national survey by The Daycare Trust, Talking about Childcare.• In the past ten years, the employment of the over-50s has risen almost 25 per cent. The Business, 23 November 2003, quoting from Labour Market Statistics, Office for National
Strategies for Managing Diversity
It is important at the outset to point out that cultural diversity is different from equal opportunities. (Richardson, P 2000). The policy of Equal Opportunities is mainly focused on giving under-represented groups greater equality in the workplace. Contrary to Equal Opportunities policy Diversity Policy is more oriented on culture and the environment. As a matter of fact, creation of a supportive environment to all employees where both national and cultural differences would be highly valued has become the main prerogative of Diversity Policy. In this case, achieving the goal of maximizing of his/her development and personal contribution should not be underestimated. On the basis of this information, the main difference between equal opportunity policy and that of diversity management could be classified in the following way:
Diversity management initiatives deal more with attitudinal change and involve all employees and managers in an organization
Equal opportunities initiatives deal with the issue of removing the barriers between different social, cultural and religious groups.
Positioning Diversity
Management of the diversity initiative and its location in the organization structure affects the effectiveness of diversity as a tool. Techniques for positioning diversity vary based upon organizational structure and need. Winterle discusses various organizational structures for positioning diversity. (Winterle, Mary J. 1993). For example, Mobile Oil Corporation, uses a hierarchical organizational structure, separating EEO and diversity functions managed by two separate sections of the human resource department. Mobile created this structure when EEO initiatives became more compliance-driven and externally focused the organization's workforce diversity management on recruiting, career development and outreach (Winterle, Mary J. 1993).
IBM Corporation created a functional link between diversity and EEO by moving the separate responsible departments to one department. According to an IBM executive, "moving the functions into one organization, reporting to the same director, enhances the synergy. The broader the umbrella, the more effective it is."(Winterle, Mary J. 1993) Hershey Foods Corporation used a different organizational strategy - mainstreaming diversity by integrating responsibilities for diversity initiatives into other management functions within the organization. The Chevron Corporation, a matrix organization, made management of diversity one of several key strategies each business unit must address in their Total Quality Management (TQM) process (Winterle, Mary J. 1993).
Whatever the strategy, diversity management initiatives operate best when positioned in the highest levels of the organization and when they are reported to the CEO. Therefore, human resource managers must be strategically placed to effect meaningful changes in the way the organization manages diversity. One of the changes involves facilitating organizational managers to adapt policies and practices to the changing needs of the new workforce.
Conclusion
The economic, cultural and ethical justification for equality of opportunity lies in the very fact all people are equal irrespective of their origin, religious or cultural background. Moreover, as the practice has already showed discrimination and prejudice eventually are not the best “ingredients” of business optimal output. It means that the discrimination favoring particular groups on the basis of age, disability, gender, ethnic origin, background and nepotism, rather than universalism eventually leads to the decrease in company’s profits as it has been proved in this paper.
The comparison of two human resources management concepts: concept of equal opportunities and that of managing diversity proved the second one to be more updated to the needs of modern society. In fact, the issue of changing the attitudes in treatment of the company’s staff of the company that has become the main prerogative of diversity management strategy is far more important than mere removal of cultural barriers having been promoted by the concept of cultural equality.
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