Enhancing Productivity through Fairness and Inclusion

Discrimination in the workplace is a significant issue that can affect employee performance and behavior. The organization should adopt strategies to deal with discrimination problems, such as providing opportunities for employees, promoting transparency in their working practices, checking compensation equity levels, and conducting measurements of the organization to identify warning signs like low morale, high turnover, and absenteeism. Additionally, adopting an open communication system can help employees share their problems with management. By implementing these strategies, organizations can maintain a healthy and fair environment that ultimately enhances productivity.

Managing Diversity and Equal opportunity

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................1
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9
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Introduction
Discrimination is known as an unequal treatment. On the other hand, workplace discrimination is
considered unfair treatment by employers with their employees based on prejudices.
Discrimination at workplace proves very dangerous for the success of an organization.
Workplace discrimination can be done in different forms in a single organization such as firing,
promotions, hiring and offering benefits or bonuses. The government takes various steps to stop
the level of discrimination at the different workplaces. Equality should be there in every
workplace so that justice can be done with existing employees. Equality is important because it is
considered the foundation of a business success and a fair society. Every member has the right or
opportunity to rich their full potential. It should be there at any workplace because it proves
helpful in maintaining the rights of human beings and fairness in the existing system of the
organizations. Promoting equality brings various positive changes in the success of an
organization with which they are able to gain a competitive advantage in their existing market
(Marchiondo, 2015). This will make them different from others and organizations will able to
attract high skills people by providing equality environment. Maintaining equality at workplace
enable the organization to provide all equal services to its employees which will bring
coordination among employees, and they will together work for achieving the long-term
objectives of the organizations. By establishing an environment of equality, an organization can
operate its day to day functions easily without any interruptions.
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Task 1
Any type of discrimination at the workplace is considered unlawful. The government is engaging
in preventing the discrimination at the workplace in largest manner. There can be the following
type of discrimination which faced by employees at their workplaces:
Direct Discrimination
Direct discrimination is known as an unfair practice done with an individual because of some
specific perceived or protected characteristics.
Indirect Discrimination
Indirect discrimination occurred when an organization developed an unreasonable policy and
rule that is similar for everyone but has negative and unfair influences on individuals who share a
similar attribute (Barak, 2013). The below are basis on which direct and indirect discrimination
of employees takes place
Basis of Direct and Indirect Discrimination
 Age Discrimination: It is a discrimination which contains treating an employee and an
applicant less favourably for any opportunity because of her of his age. Middle age
people are suffering more with this workplace discrimination because they are terminated
due to the requirement of younger talent. The government developed various laws to
prevent age discrimination at workplaces such as Age Discrimination in Employment Act
which prevent people against discrimination.
 Discrimination based on Ethnicity and Race: It is prevented by law in a significant
manner. But that does not mean it is not happened at the workplaces; it is still in
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existence. People may face ethnicity and race discrimination in the form of originality,
and harassment (Okechukwu, 2014). It is wrong to measure the efficiency of individuals
on the basis of their birth city. Employers are not permitted to establish rules and policies
that discriminate or favour against employees that belong to a particular ethnic group and
specific race.
 Disability Discrimination: It is very unlawful for an employer to behave a qualified
individual with a disability who is an applicant or employee unfavourably because she or
he has a disability. The government has published different laws to protected disable
people such as Americans protected disable people with the help of Rehabilitation and
Disabilities act.
 Compensation Discrimination: It is the discrimination which is done by employers by
paying less compensation to deserving candidates. Most of the organizations pay
different compensation to different employees for the same role and same designation.
Equal pay act establishes to prevent such type of discrimination and requires women and
men at the same workplace should pay equal wages for equal work (Boone James, 2013).
 Religion: Lots of organizations are there which judge the capabilities of their employees
on the basis of their region which is totally unfair. The government has developed laws
for all religions like Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Judaism.
 Sex: It is the most important region of discrimination at most of the workplaces. Sex and
Gender-based discrimination occur when a particular gender is preferred more than other.
Career Progression Issue faced by Ethnic managers
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Among all such, the main important discrimination is Ethnicity discrimination which influences
the career progression of an individual in high context. The following are some aspects which are
associated with career progression of an individual from an ethnic background:
 Less career opportunity: Due to the ethnicity discrimination individuals have less career
opportunity which prevent them from reaching a high position as they are deserving
according to their talent. Due to the racial discrimination all promotion and career
opportunities are provided to other candidates because they belong from home country of
the organization (Brubaker, 2014). Therefore, the presence of ethnicity discrimination
influences the work behavior of employees with which they are not able to perform in a
greater manner. They will not be able to pay more attention to their obligations and duties
due to which they are facing very problem in success of their career. The presence of
ethnicity discrimination does not provide any decision making or any other right in the
functions of the organization with which they cannot grow in their fields, and they don't
get any experience in management of those tasks in which they do not participate.
Perception Discrimination
It is a way of discrimination at which a person is treated unfavourably because of others believe
that they have a protected characteristic, but in actual, it is happened not so. For example An
employer doesn't accept job application from white women because he thinks that the applicant
has an American sounding name.
Association Discrimination
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It is a type of discrimination where an individual is associated with others who has a significantly
protected characteristic. It does not apply on all protected characteristic. It mainly involves civil
partnership, marriage, maternity, and pregnancy.
So, it is necessary to avoid all type of discrimination because it influences the mental behavior or
career of an individual in a larger extent (Jones, 2015). The government need to fix many laws
and should take serious actions against those organizations which utilizing discrimination
practices at their workplace. Apart of this, employees should also take the initiative and not to
bear any discrimination and also file a complaint against any wrong action occurred at their
workplaces.
Task 2
Ways of Addressing Discrimination and Inequality at Workplace
It is necessary for the management of an organization to address discrimination and inequality at
the workplace. This can efficiently do by following practices:
 Engaging and Communication with employees: Daily basis communication and high-
level engagement with employees help them in identifying feelings of employees. High-
level engagement with employees become the manager very friendly with them, and they
can easily share their problems.
 Monitoring the workplace: When the management of the organization is visible and
accessible to staff, it becomes easier for them to raise concerns and ask questions right
away (Reavley, 2016). They should give time to walk around the workplace and observe
employees when they are working.
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Apart of all this, the management of the organization can also measure the performance of
employees and also find the reason for employees turnover in the organization. This will
provide information about the problems of employees in working there.
Importance of Organizational policies and practices for the Equality
Organizational practices and policies play an efficient role in resolving the equality and
discrimination problem in a significant manner. The following strategies can be adopted by the
management of an organization to resolve equality and discrimination problems:
Diversity Management Strategy
Diversity management strategy is considered the main important aspect of resolving
discrimination and equality problem at the workplace. It is a very important strategy because it
helps the management in maintaining and creating a positive work environment which will
facilitate overall growth of employees (Offermann, 2014). It ensures that all staff of an
organization have the opportunity to enhance their potential and self –development level by
which they can give a significant contribution towards the organization.
Policies of Communication
Communication policy plays an important role in resolving discrimination and equality
problems. It is important because it committed to building satisfying and productive work
environment for effectively operating. Communication policy create a suitable framework for
good communication, with which management of organization has great knowledge about all
aspects of the organization. In addition, it resolves the doubts of employees regarding any matter.
Training
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Training is considered one of the important aspect of a business organization. In the absence of
training, individuals are not able to perform their job obligations in the desired manner. Training
is important because it creates an equal opportunity and human right culture which proves very
significant in avoiding discrimination problems at the workplace. Training enables the
organization to create flexibility and inclusive culture which provide an equal chance to succeed
to employees (Posthuma, 2012). It is necessary for strengthening the services and advocacy of an
organization.
Reinforce strategy
Reinforce strategy is considered as a process of strengthening the desirable behavior of
employees by providing them various incentives and reward facilities. Reinforce strategy play an
important role in avoiding discrimination problem at the workplace. It is the way to motivate
people, and if they feel motivated, they contribute more towards the success of the organization.
This can be done by promotion, and providing more opportunity (Brubaker, 2014). If
organization provide opportunity and work hard towards their benefits, then they never feel
exploited and discriminated there. This will ultimately enhance the productivity of the
organizations.
Measure
Measuring strategy helps the management in a measure the different aspects of the organizations
and also helpful in collecting necessary data from them. With the help of measurement strategy,
they can observe the discrimination problem and behavior of employees which can improve
further by taken necessary steps.
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Workplace Behavior
Workplace behavior strategy is important to measure the behavior of individuals. It is important
to study the behavior of people regarding the job environment. This will provide significant
information about prevailing culture and behavior of workplace which enforce performance of
employees (McKenzie, 2015). By measuring workplace behavior the organization can
significantly resolve its overall problem related to employees discrimination.
Conclusion
After studying all this, it can be concluded that there are several types of discriminations which
faced by employees during working somewhere. The level of discrimination significantly
influences the performance and behavior of employees. The organization can utilize a large
number of strategies to deal with discrimination problem because it is very important for the
success of the organization. If the management of organizations wants to bring fairness, they
should bring transparency in their working and also check the compensation equity level. In
addition, they should adopt an open system of communication so that they can share their
problems with management, and also should conduct measurement of the organization to
identify different warning signs such as low morale, high turnover, and absenteeism (Australian
Human Rights Commission. 2016). All these steps help them in maintaining a healthy and fair
environment of organisations.
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References
Marchiondo, L., Ran, S., & Cortina, L. (2015). Modern discrimination. In The Oxford Handbook
of Workplace Discrimination.
Barak, M. E. M. (2013). Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. Sage
Publications.
Okechukwu, C. A., Souza, K., Davis, K. D., & de Castro, A. B. (2014). Discrimination,
harassment, abuse, and bullying in the workplace: Contribution of workplace injustice to
occupational health disparities. American journal of industrial medicine, 57(5), 573-586.
Boone James, J., McKechnie, S., Swanberg, J., & Besen, E. (2013). Exploring the workplace
impact of intentional/unintentional age discrimination. Journal of Managerial
Psychology, 28(7/8), 907-927.
Jones, M., & Williams, M. L. (2015). Twenty years on: Lesbian, gay and bisexual police officers'
experiences of workplace discrimination in England and Wales. Policing and Society, 25(2),
188-211.
Reavley, N. J., Jorm, A. F., & Morgan, A. J. (2016). Discrimination and Positive Treatment
Toward People With Mental Health Problems in Workplace and Education Settings: Findings
From an Australian National Survey.
Offermann, L. R., Basford, T. E., Graebner, R., Jaffer, S., De Graaf, S. B., & Kaminsky, S. E.
(2014). See no evil: Color blindness and perceptions of subtle racial discrimination in the
workplace. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 20(4), 499.
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