Impact of Lack of Diversity Management in Australia

This report evaluates the issue of lack of diversity management in Australia and its impact on employees and organizations. It analyzes an article on discriminatory practices at ANZ Bank and provides recommendations for addressing this issue.

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Human Resource Management

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Executive Summary
The aim of this report is to evaluate human resource management issue that affects
the operations of Australian organisations. The issue of ‘lack of diversity management’ is
analysed in this report that leads to increasing discrimination among employees in the
workplace. An article posted by ABC News regarding discriminatory practices against a
former employee of ANZ Bank is analysed in this report to understand how this issue has
raised due to lack of availability of diversity policies in the organisation. The impact of this
issue on Australian businesses and the key reasons which resulted in increasing this issue is
highlighted in this report. Lastly, recommendations are given, which can assist ANZ Bank and
other Australian corporations in ensuring that they effectively manage diversity in the
workplace to avoid discriminatory practices, harassment and racism among employees.

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Table of Contents
Introduction...............................................................................................................................3
Impact of Lack of Diversity Management in Australia...............................................................4
Analysis of the Article.................................................................................................................4
Reasons for this issue.................................................................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
Recommendations.....................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
In today’s ever-changing business world, corporations are focused on addressing the
key human resource management (HRM) issues faced by them in order to make sure that
they generate a competitive advantage over their competitors. One of the key HRM related
issues which are faced by Australian companies is lack of diversity management due to
discrimination between employees (Patrick & Kumar, 2012). People from different countries
and cultural backgrounds visit the country for work, which raises the importance of effective
diversity management in the country to make sure that they are not discriminated (Kramar,
2012). Lack of effective management of diversity resulted in demotivating employees and
increasing other challenges such as poor performance, mental health issues and
absenteeism (Wrench, 2016). An article posted by ABC News highlighted employee
discrimination in ANZ Bank in which employees were harassed by the company due to lack
of diversity management (ABC, 2018). The objective of this report is to evaluate the HRM
issues of ‘lack of diversity management’ in Australia to evaluate how it affects the
performance of employees and organisations. This report will evaluate the article on ANZ
Bank to understand how the company failed to effectively maintain diversity in the
workplace and evaluate examples of other companies that have failed in this regards as
well. Secondary research methods will be used in this report to collect and evaluate data on
this issue. This report will also provide recommendations in order to address these
challenges by Australia companies to embrace diversity in the workplace.

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Impact of Lack of Diversity Management in Australia
Australian businesses face the issue of racial bias and discrimination due to lack of
diversity management in the workplace. A study conducted by Triana, Jayasinghe & Pieper
(2015) found that racial discrimination directly affects the productivity of employees, and it
also reduces the performance of employees. The study found that it has a negative impact
on the job attitude, mental and physical health and organisational behaviour that leads to
negatively affecting the performance of the organisation as a whole (Kramar, 2012). There
are a number of statistics which have highlighted that the lack of diversity management is a
major issue in Australia, which leads to increasing discrimination among employees. In a
survey conducted with over 6,000 respondents, it was found that 32 per cent of them have
experienced racism in the workplace and 36.4 per cent believed that the number of
immigrants that are accepted in Australia is too high (Acharya, 2018). Another example of
lack of diversity management is discrimination with disabled employees; a study reported
that only 53 per cent of disabled people in Australia are employed as compared to 83 per
cent of other working-age people (Darcy & Taylor, 2017). Around 37 per cent of all
discrimination cases filed in Australia is filed under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992.
These statistics highlighted the negative consequences of a lack of diversity management in
Australia and how these challenges affect people across the country.
Analysis of the Article
The article posted by ABC News reported that the officials of ANZ Bank harassed a
former employee of the company by forcing her to recount details regarding a past rape
case. ANZ chief apologises on behalf of the company to the former employee personally and
publically by stating that this is “unacceptable” behaviour, which is considered as wrong by
the company (ABC, 2018). The transcript showed that the manager asked questions from
the former employee regarding her sexual history and activities outside the work, along
with details regarding whether she has ever contracted a sexually transmitted disease. This
incident is a result of the failure of ANZ Bank to implement an effective diversity policy in
which training is given to its former employees to make sure that they avoid discriminatory
behaviour in the workplace (ABC, 2018). The company publically admitted its fault by stating

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that there was no diversity policies implemented that put restriction on the actions of
employees, which lead to this incident (Davidson, 2018).
Another good example is the case of Woolworth, which is Australia’s largest
supermarket chain that also engaged in discriminatory practices against its employees.
Although the company has implemented a diversity policy; however, the lack of effective
training given to its employees lead to violation of the provisions of such policy (Stephens,
2014). The court ordered the company to pay $5,000 as compensation to Steven Willmott
who was asked to provide personal details while submitting an application form for applying
for a job in the company that were unnecessary and embarrassing (Stephens, 2014). This
incident highlighted that this is a major issue which is affecting companies in Australia,
which include both small and large enterprises.
Reasons for this issue
A number of studies conducted on this topic in Australia found that the issue of
discrimination and lack of diversity management is a result of workplace culture in
Australian organisations (David, Frolova & Callahan, 2016). Most of the companies did not
take any actions to implement a positive workplace culture that supports the differences
between employees or encourage them to embrace their challenges (D’Netto, Shen,
Chelliah & Monga, 2014). Racist behaviour and use of stereotypes are common against
people from different cultures and religious backgrounds such as Muslim and Indians.
Although there are various legislative frameworks implemented by the government in order
to avoid discrimination and racism such as Racial Discrimination Act 1975, Sex
Discrimination Act 1984, Age Discrimination Act 2004 and Disability Discrimination Act 1992;
however, there are no policies implemented that bound companies to implemented a
diversity and inclusion policy (AG, 2019). Organisations such as ANZ Bank are free to decide
whether they wanted to implement a diversity policy or not and what provisions do they
wanted to include in these policies.
Generally, these organisations did not take stricter actions against employees or
managers that engage in discriminatory practices in the workplace which creates a hostile
working environment where others also believe that they can engage in racist or
discriminatory practices (Soldan & Nankervis, 2014)). Due to the lack of support from the

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top level management, it becomes difficult for companies to strictly implement and comply
with the diversity policies to make sure that issues such as discrimination, racism and unfair
practices can be stopped. As per Maslow hierarchy of needs theory, the needs of people are
categorised into five types, including physiological, safety, belongingness, esteem and self-
actualisation needs (Konrad, Moore, Doherty, Ng & Breward, 2012). Until the lower level
needs are fulfilled, employees cannot be satisfied by upper-level needs. Acceptance from
colleagues and managers and safety in the workplace is a key need of employees and
discrimination adversely affect this need, which demotivates employees and increases
issues such as poor performance, mental health issues and absenteeism (Najjar & Fares,
2017).

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Conclusion
Based on the above observations, it can be concluded that the issue of lack of
diversity management is a major HRM related issue in Australia, which is adversely affecting
the performance of employees and companies. There are various legislative policies
implemented by the government in order to eliminate discrimination in Australia; however,
these policies are not strictly followed by businesses. The example of ANZ Bank and
Woolworths is analysed in this report in order to highlight the challenges faced by
employees in Australia. The reasons for these challenges are also analysed in this report,
which includes lack of stricter implementation and compliance with policies, negative
workplace environment, lack of implementation of diversity and inclusion policy and others.
Recommendations
In order to address the issue of lack of diversity management in Australia, following are
various recommendations which can be followed by ANZ Bank and other Australian
corporations.
1. Australian organisations should implement a “Diversity and Inclusion” policy in the
workplace, which should protect the rights of employees. This policy should be an
integral part of the company, and it should be strictly followed by managers as well
as employees. Policies for imposing stricter actions should also be included to make
sure that those who engage in discriminatory practices or harassment are punished
for their actions.
2. Diversity training should be given to all level of employees in organisations such as
ANZ Bank to make sure that the human resource department, as well as other
departments, know how to avoid discriminatory practices. In these training sessions,
they should learn about how to avoid stereotyping and the consequences of
discrimination, and it should be a part of the induction of new employees.
3. The corporation should implement a corporate social responsibility (CSR) structure in
which they should make announcements regarding the actions taken by them that
affect their stakeholders. In the CSR structure, the provisions regarding the actions
taken by the company to protect and promote diversity should be included along

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with details regarding obligations which are imposed on the managers and
employees to make sure that they avoid engaging in these practices.

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References
ABC. (2018). ANZ chief apologises over 'unacceptable' grilling of former employee in
harassment case. Retrieved from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-21/anz-
chief-apologises-over-employees-rape-questioning/10021160
Acharya, M. (2018). Is Australia racist? Here are the 10 stunning stats. Retrieved from
https://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/hindi/en/article/2017/02/27/australia-
racist-here-are-10-stunning-stats
AG. (2019). Australia’s anti-discrimination law. Retrieved from
https://www.ag.gov.au/RightsAndProtections/HumanRights/Pages/Australias-Anti-
Discrimination-Law.aspx
Darcy, S. & Taylor, T. (2017). Australia's disability discrimination problem in three charts.
Retrieved from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-12/disability-discrimination-
in-the-workplace-in-three-charts/9038178
Davidson, H. (2018). 'At-fault' ANZ bank apologises for questioning in sexual harassment
case. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/jul/21/at-
fault-anz-bank-apologises-for-questioning-in-sexual-harassment-case
Davis, P. J., Frolova, Y., & Callahan, W. (2016). Workplace diversity management in Australia:
what do managers think and what are organisations doing?. Equality, Diversity and
Inclusion: An International Journal, 35(2), 81-98.
D'Netto, B., Shen, J., Chelliah, J., & Monga, M. (2014). Human resource diversity
management practices in the Australian manufacturing sector. The International
Journal of Human Resource Management, 25(9), 1243-1266.
Konrad, A. M., Moore, M. E., Doherty, A. J., Ng, E. S., & Breward, K. (2012). Vocational status
and perceived well-being of workers with disabilities. Equality, Diversity and
Inclusion: An International Journal, 31(2), 100-123.
Kramar, R. (2012). Diversity management in Australia: a mosaic of concepts, practice and
rhetoric. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 50(2), 245-261.

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Najjar, D., & Fares, P. (2017). Managerial motivational practices and motivational differences
between blue-and white-collar employees: Application of maslow's
theory. International Journal of Innovation, Management and Technology, 8(2), 81.
Patrick, H. A., & Kumar, V. R. (2012). Managing workplace diversity: Issues and
challenges. Sage Open, 2(2), 21.
Soldan, Z., & Nankervis, A. (2014). Employee perceptions of the effectiveness of diversity
management in the Australian public service: Rhetoric and reality. Public Personnel
Management, 43(4), 543-564.
Stephens, K. (2014). Woolworths ordered to pay Steven Willmott $5000 for discrimination.
Retrieved from
https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/woolworths-ordered-to-
pay-steven-willmott-5000-for-discrimination-20141216-128kht.html
Triana, M. D. C., Jayasinghe, M., & Pieper, J. R. (2015). Perceived workplace racial
discrimination and its correlates: A meta‐analysis. Journal of Organizational
Behavior, 36(4), 491-513.
Wrench, J. (2016). Diversity management and discrimination: Immigrants and ethnic
minorities in the EU. Abingdon: Routledge.