Workplace Discrimination and Diversity

This assignment requires you to critically examine various scholarly articles focusing on workplace discrimination. The analysis should encompass different types of discrimination (subtle vs. blatant), explore their consequences within organizations, and delve into diversity management practices aimed at mitigating these issues. Relevant concepts like institutional theory and the superstar effect should be considered.

Running head: GENDER INEQALITY
Gender Inequality
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

1GENDER INEQALITY
Executive Summary
Australian organizations over industries are currently facing discrimination due to their gender
biasness. Implementation of gender equality act is ineffective in dealing against pressing issue.
The findings of this report identify the issue that obstructs the organizations in abolishing gender
discrimination related to the basic salary of the employees. The issues that are faced by the
organizations are diversity management, employee relation challenge diversity management,
learning and development program. Bendigo bank is yet another example where the women are
paid less compared to their male colleagues is an example of gender inequality, which is studied
in the report. The recommendations made in the final part of the report are likely to solve issues
identified and increase the speed of the change process. The major recommendations made relate
to the leadership style, organizational policy and training program that will help abolishing the
gender biasness within the organizations.

2GENDER INEQALITY
Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Case Analysis...................................................................................................................................3
Recommendation.............................................................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
Reference Style..............................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
Gender inequality within a workplace is referred to the discrimination of an employee
basing their gender on one or several grounds. This can be payment or rewards, position in the
organization or anything that differentiate a woman basing on their gender (Yang & Aldrich,
2014). Australian government had passed Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace
Amendment Act in 2012. The expected results of the act were to abolish the gender biasness that
exists in the organizations within Australia. However, the impact of imposition such law is far
from expectation. The current discrimination rate in the workplace depending on the gender
recorded by Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) reflects a figure of 15.3% in the pay
gap around the nation. This report studies the gender inequality present in Bendigo bank that
reflects a gap of 33% in the salary of men and women (Browne, 2018). Despite of the fact that
the organizations are taking actions for minimizing this gap, the effort are insufficient for
increasing the pace of change. This report focuses on the identification of the issues reducing the
pace of change supplemented with the related theories and recommends actions necessary for
bringing change.
Case Analysis
There is a clear negligence of the human resource development within the organizations
of Australia in mitigating the gender inequality related to the payment offered to its employees.
The statement can be supported with the figures identified in the annual report of WGEA that
represents a gap of 15.3%. It means that the women within the organizations on an average are
paid 15.3% lesser than the male coworkers for performing similar task. The Bendigo bank is
currently practicing salary pay discrimination between male and female workers. Report of
Australian Bureau Statistics reflects a gap of 33% in the pay scale of the selected bank (Browne,

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2018). This issue of inequality can be an attribution of the failure of human resource
management in managing diversity, learning and development of the stakeholders and
management of employee relationship within the organizations.
Managing diversity
The operation of the Bendigo bank is under public questions due to their unfair biasness
towards the men employees of the organization in relation to the basic payment. The Institutional
Theory of Diversity Management communicates that it is necessary for an organization to see
through their policies and regulation for attributing the diverse workforce and maintaining
equality in dealing with individual employees (Sidani & Thornberry, 2013). Any other variable
should not be taken into account for dealing with the employees other than the organizational
requirement. According to Saka‐Helmhout, Deeg and Greenwood (2016), this helps the
organization in exploring diversified opportunity that diverse workforce can provide. Hence,
considering the authenticity of the institutional theory of diversity management, the gender
biasness in Bendigo bank regarding the basic payment of the female and male employees can be
considered diversity management failure (Martín Alcázar et al, 2013). Moreover, the external
law, which is proposed by the Australian government through the Equal Opportunity for Women
in the Workplace Amendment Act in 2012 for the abolishment of gender discrimination, is
violated due to the absence of equality in the organizational policy. Failure of diversity
management in Bendigo bank further leads to the concept of employment relationship held
between the employer and female employee within the organization.
Employee relationship challenge

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The issue of gender inequality from the case in Bendigo bank could be related to the
employee relationship challenge the human resource management is facing. This is a clear case
of the failure of employee relationship management Bendigo bank are facing. Implication of the
theory of Subtle Discrimination further extends in employment relationship management. The
unconscious discriminating act of the employers based on gender as stated by Hong et al (2016)
has impact on the employee relations and considerably alters the relation between the employee
and the employer. As according to the theories of employment relationship management,
employee satisfaction is determined by the relationship. Mayo, Herzberg, Maslow and McGregor
defined the Human Relation Theory, which is the promoter of unitarist perspective focuses on
the employee social and psychological needs (Ackers, 2014). The gender discrimination
practiced by the Bendigo bank hence supplements in creating gap between the male and female
employees, and between the female employees and the management within the organization.
This is due to the failure of human resource management of the organization in fulfilling needs
of the employees in respect to social acknowledgement and economic benefits being provided to
the female employees (Kramar & Parry, 2014). This in turn reduced the satisfaction level of the
female employee within the organization, which ultimately facilitating in degrading the
organizational productivity and performance. This further directs the issue towards the lack of
training provided to the employees regarding the concern. This issue can further be attributed to
the learning and development of the employee regardless of the position held within the
organization.
Learning and development
The issue of gender inequality within the Bendigo bank can be attributed to the learning
and developmental drawback of the HR management. The HR management of the organizations

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is failing in developing their knowledge to support the change recommended by the government
through the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Amendment Act in 2012. The
discrimination in current scenario can be considered as Subtle Discrimination. The theory of
Subtle Discrimination as considered by Jones et al (2017), is the discrimination made by the
employer from a natural instinct that has developed within the individual. This is completely
automatic process and employer fails to identify the act as discriminating. Dalton et al (2014)
argued that the subtle or automatic discrimination needs attention and can be revised through the
implementation of learning and development program within the organization. Alston (2014) on
the other hand related the issue of gender equality to the lack of awareness. Even thought the
government policy states the required modification in the organizations regarding the issue, the
management of the organizations however, fails to identify the intensity of the issue, which
makes them neglect the adverse effect of the action.
Recommendation
The issues identified in the Bendigo bank that supplements limits potential of abolishing
gender biasness. These issues can be considered as interrelated and negligence in addressing one
particular issue will make the change process ineffective. Hence, it is necessary for the
organization to simultaneously address the issues in hand. Implementation of the following
recommendations is likely to help them in bringing equality in workplace of Bendigo bank.
As mentioned in the Institutional theory of diversity management, it is necessary for the
organization to have a transparent policy addressing the workplace diversity issue (Ozturk &
Tatli, 2016). This is to eliminate discriminative actions conducted by the employees and the
employers within ht organization. It is recommended for the Australian originations to formulate
and communicate organizational policies for addressing the gender discrimination issue

7GENDER INEQALITY
regarding the unequal payment. The policy should communicate the restriction of gender
inequality and have a transparent salary structure for both men and women in the organization. It
should set equal basic pay structure for the male and female employee holding similar position
and responsibilities with similar qualification and experience. The policy should not only
consider the equal pay of the female employees but also address other possible aspects related to
gender equality within the organization. Moreover, formulation of the policies will only be the
first step of many recommendation made in the report as the policies requires to be
communicated throughout the organization.
Moreover, gender discrimination facilitates in creating gap between the male and the
female employee and with the employer, which considerably reduces the organizational
performance. The unitary perspective of Human Relation Theory communicates the need of
harmonious system within the organization that helps in building stronger and transparent
relationship between the employees and employers (Bidwell et al, 2013). Hence, it can be
recommended for the originations of Australia over the industries to implement equity based
payment system that will structure equal payment system. This will supplement the equality
policy recommended for the company. According to Cyrenne, (2018), it will help the
organization to bring parity between the male and female employees that will again help
developing healthy relations between them. This in turn will help the organization in attaining
greater performance.
Another recommendation that can possibly be made on the respected organizational
scenario of Australia is the change in leadership practice. There is definitely a need of
transformational leadership practice for reducing the gap between the employer and the female
employees. The characteristics of transformational leadership as communicated by Saleh et al

8GENDER INEQALITY
(2014) helps in building greater and effective employment relationship. The characters of
transformational leaders are self-management, ability to make right decision, make difficult
decisions, share collective organizational consciousness, inspirational, entertain new ideas,
adaptability to change, proactive and lead with vision. These effective characteristics of a
transformational leader will not only help in reducing employment gap between the employees
and the employer, but also enable the organizations in adopting the recommended changes
(Avolio & Yammarino, 2013). This is considered as the necessary for changing the stagnant
workplace culture in the Bendigo bank related to the gender biasness.
The next recommendation that can be proposed is the implementation of learning and
development program. As identified through the subtle discrimination theory, the discrimination
can sometimes be done by the employer unconsciously. This is attributed to the existing
organizational culture the employer that he or she had been working over years. Moreover, lack
of awareness also leads to the subtle discrimination, which requires to be changed for bringing
change in organizational culture (Krings et al, 2014). This can only be transformed using
learning and development course. Hence, it is recommended for the organization to implement
training program for the developing awareness among employees related to the gender biasness
(Sung & Choi, 2014). The employers of the organizations are also recommended to attend the
awareness programs for improving their attitude towards gender discrimination. This course will
further communicate the policies to the employers and employees that has been taken by the
organizations for eradicating gender inequality within Australia. The implication of
transformational leadership as recommended will extend its benefits in this case for bringing the
change in the organization, as it is hard to modify the existing trend in the organizational culture
(Ashikali & Groeneveld, 2015). Hence, implementation of transformational leadership as

9GENDER INEQALITY
recommended would supplement will help in implementing other modifications necessary. This
not only will help in reducing the gap between the female employees and the employers, but also
facilitate in implementation of training programs and formulation of policies for defending the
female right to equality.
Conclusion
It is possible to draw conclusion form the discussion that gender discrimination is a
serious issue within the organizations of Australia. This can be considered as a pressing issue of
the organization that exists despite of the existence of anti gender discriminating law of the
government. Various issue related to the topic that have been identified are poor diversity
management skill of both the manager and the HR department, inefficient employee relationship
management and the absence of learning and development programs within the organizations.
However, the prescribed modifications can potentially improve the management and help them
in addressing the gender discrimination issue with Australia. There is an absolute need of
transformational leadership for developing greater relationship with the female employees for
treating them equally and motivating them for obtaining greater performance. Implementation of
transformational leadership will further help in developing other recommendations
recommended in the report. Moreover, requirement of training program for spreading awareness
of gender equality is also stated. The other recommendation made is the implementation of
equality policy that will support the cause and help in modifying the current scenario. Finally,
the primary motivational factor that will play for the female employees is the equity in the pay
structure offered by the organization.

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Reference Style
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