Discrimination and How It Relates to Management

In the context of employment, discrimination can generally be defined as treating a group or an individual less well in hiring, recruiting, or any other conditions and terms of the job due to the group’s or person’s color, race, religion, age, national origin, sex, veteran, or disability status. These categories are termed as protected groups since they are singled out for safeguard by EEO (Equal Employment Opportunities). The subcategories of individuals within each protected category are termed as protected groups. The EEO laws offer protection from unlawful discrimination to all protected classifications and not just the minority groups. Therefore, employment job discrimination against a man is as illegal as that aimed at a woman. The only exception to this law regards the application of an affirmative action program, which under certain circumstances permits employers to treat employees of a particular protected group preferentially (Smith, 2015).

Bias and Its Connection to Management

An employee (whether male or female) refers to the people who execute different roles, responsibilities, and duties in order to accomplish an institution or organization’s goals. Organizational performance and productivity are affected by workers’ performance, and employee performance is influenced by gender discrimination. An employee performs essential tasks for the organization's survival irrespective of their gender. Research by Hameed & Waheed (2011) was aimed at establishing some dimensions and factors of gender discrimination that impact employee productivity or performance. They identified two dimensions of gender discernment, which are included in this work: sex discrimination in facilities and promotion. Furthermore, facilities and promotion gender discriminations are more responsible for a worker’s performance level.

Gender discrimination can exist in several scopes, including differences in wages and salaries, discrimination in promotions, inequality linked to different facilities and goods given to different genders, and hiring discrimination. An employee is viewed as the backbone of a firm and performs key tasks responsible for the well-being of the business. Therefore, a worker’s productivity is affected by sex discrimination. According to Hameed & Waheed (2011), in Pakistan, males dominate the labor industry and therefore enjoy job preferences.

Types of Discrimination

According to the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission (2016), there are two kinds of discrimination: direct and indirect. The former refers to discrimination where an individual proposes to treat or treats someone unfavorably due to personal characteristics protected by law. It often occurs because individuals make unfair assumptions concerning the abilities of people with particular personal characteristics. For instance, declining to employ somebody on grounds of their age where an employer considers them too old to absorb new skills.

Indirect discrimination happens in situations where unreasonable conditions are enforced, which disadvantages individuals possessing personal characteristics protected by the law. It also occurs when a practice/behavior and workplace policy appear to treat all employees the same way but disadvantage someone due to personal characteristics that are protected by law. For instance, a requirement for workers to work 12-hour shifts may seem to treat all employees fairly. However, this move disadvantages workers with caring or family responsibilities. If the policy is unreasonable, it is termed as indirect discrimination (Johnson, 2019).

Sexual Harassment and Victimization

Sexual harassment is undesirable behavior of a sexual nature. It consists of practices that can reasonably be anticipated to make an individual feel humiliated, intimidated, or offended. Sexual harassment may be verbal, written, or physical. It is unlawful to help or authorize another person to sexually harass somebody or discriminate against them. This implies that one should not instruct, ask, or encourage anybody else to undertake such actions. Victimization refers to threatening to subject or subjecting an individual to unfavorable conditions because they have proclaimed their rights under identical opportunity law, assisted somebody else to launch complaints, or declined to undertake an action that results in discrimination, victimization, and sexual harassment (Advameg, Inc, 2016). The Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1991 outlaw sex discrimination.

Discrimination: A Broader Perspective

Pager & Shepherd (2010) identify an essential feature of all definitions of discrimination as a focus on behavior. Discrimination is different from racial attitudes (prejudices), racism (ideologies), and racial stereotypes (beliefs), which can be linked to racial disadvantage. Discrimination can be motivated by racism, stereotypes, and prejudice, but the meaning of discrimination does not assume any fundamental cause. Though there have been significant achievements in the labor force eminence of racial minorities, remarkable disparities still remain. In comparison to Whites, African Americans are twice as likely to be jobless (Hispanics are only slightly so). Additionally, according to Pager & Shepherd (2010), the wages of both Hispanics and Blacks continue to lag behind that of Whites. A number of researches have assessed the extent to which discrimination is responsible for shaping the current labor marketplace discrepancies.

The Impact of Stigma and Legislative Measures

Stigma is both a distal and proximate cause of job inequity for individuals with mental inability who encounter direct discrimination due to prejudice from workmates and employers' attitudes and indirect discrimination because of structural impediments against competitive jobs, generalized policy neglects, and past patterns of disadvantage (Stuart & Heather, 2006). Against such a background, legislative policies and modern mental health rehabilitation, which focus on full social participation and citizen rights, are to be welcomed. However, Stuart & Heather (2006) complain that recent findings show that the laws remain susceptible to the very prejudicial behaviors they are intended to abate. The ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) of 1990 was formulated to abolish discrimination against persons with special abilities (Advameg, Inc, 2016).

Role of Human Resource Managers

Hameed & Waheed (2011) ascertain that human resource managers must be careful while promoting and hiring workers and giving facilities to employees to avert any gender biases because of its direct relationship to a worker’s productivity, which can decrease the productivity of an organization. Moreover, they should provide goods and facilities according to the ratio of men to women. The promotion of workers must also be based on seniority and merit. Human resource managers should appreciate the significance of female employees and recognize the international scenario of quotas in hiring and women's fair representation and facilities in a firm. Failure to comply with such requirements leads to a bad reputation and defamation in the world corporate sector, which can decrease international business cooperation as well as lose a huge number of business orders. The reduction in the number of business orders across the world affects the survival and profitability of organizations. Thus, according to Hameed & Waheed (2011), top management should avoid discriminatory practices in facilities, hiring, and promotion of employees irrespective of their gender. A loyal and positive culture builds an organization and hence increases profitability and productivity.

Legal Framework and Workplace Policies

The Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission (2016) alludes that the Equal Opportunity Act 2010 has set out eighteen personal characteristics for which employment discrimination is unlawful. The federal anti-discrimination regulations are also applicable to Victorian employers. Workers are guarded against discrimination at all phases of employment. They include recruitment, which comprises the manner by which positions are advertised and the conduction of interviews, unfair employment terms and conditions, denial of promotion, transfers, training opportunities, performance pay, and other job-related benefits which are unfairly retrenched, demoted, or dismissed. According to Advameg Inc (2016), the CRA of 1964 was amended by the Pregnancy Act of 1978, thus widening the interpretation of gender discrimination to include childbirth, pregnancy, or related medical conditions.

Conclusion: Creating a Harassment-Free Workplace

The DIISR Workplace Discrimination and Harassment Policy (2014) ascertains that workers’ sustained discrimination or harassment can have an overwhelming impact on the lives of victims. Individuals may suffer anxiety, stress, and fear, which can exacerbate or cause physical sickness, increase absenteeism, decrease their work performance, or even make them quit employment. If unchecked by the human resources department, harassment may also destroy the workplace by creating conflict and tension that can lead to a divided team, poor staff morale, absenteeism, higher staff turnover, and reduced productivity.

The aim of accomplishing a harassment-free workplace is not anticipated to impose restrictions on persons' working styles or on workplace social activities and related relationships. Instead, its objective is to identify that people of distinct backgrounds and interests need to treat each other with courtesy and respect if the section is to be an efficient organization. All workers have a role in maintaining suitable standards and monitoring their own conduct. Supervisors and managers have extra responsibilities and are required to be familiar and aware of the department’s rules on workplace discrimination, actively promote and support the policy, take action in eliminating discrimination, set a good example, and encourage workers to instantly report any workplace harassment (Jackson, 2018).

References

Advameg, Inc. (2016). The Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1991. Retrieved from [website link]

DIISR Workplace Discrimination and Harassment Policy. (2014). Retrieved from [website link]

Hameed, A., & Waheed, A. (2011). Gender discrimination in the workplace and its impact on employee performance. Retrieved from [website link]

Johnson, M. (2019). Understanding indirect discrimination in the workplace. Retrieved from [website link]

Pager, D., & Shepherd, H. (2010). The sociology of discrimination: Racial discrimination in employment, housing, credit, and consumer markets. Retrieved from [website link]

Smith, J. (2015). Employment discrimination and protected groups. Retrieved from [website link]

Stuart, H., & Heather, S. (2006). Stigma as a barrier to recovery. Retrieved from [website link]

Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission. (2016). Types of discrimination. Retrieved from [website link]