Equal Opportunity

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Equal Opportunity Diversity Management
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Discussion Topic

• Is there a business case for equal opportunities
  and diversity management at the workplace?

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What is the Business Case?

• A structured proposal for business change
• Justified in terms of costs and benefits
• Addresses the business need that the project
  seeks to resolve
• reasons for the project
• expected business benefits
• the options considered
• expected costs of the project
• a gap analysis
• expected risks

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Equal Opportunity (EO)

• Equal opportunity policies can be seen as an
  attempt to eradicate consideration of social
  differences from organizational decision-making
  using bureaucratic means (Liff, 1999).

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Equal Opportunities Initiatives

• As stated by Dickens, EO initiatives concern
  policy and practice designed to tackle the
  differential distribution of opportunities,
  resources and rewards between workers, usually
  based on their membership of a social group.
• Equality commissions
• Commission for Racial Equality (CRE)
• Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC)
• Disability Rights Commission (DRC)

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Reasons for Implementing Equal Opportunity

• Positive Pursuit of Organization Benefits
• Penalty avoidance through legal compliance

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Positive Pursuit of Organization Benefits

• The image of a good employer
• - improving recruitment
• - better retention of existing staff
• Organizational Effectiveness
• - lower turnover rates
• - better employment relations
• - greater creativity

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Avoidance of Lawsuits

• Extensive national legislation
• Wider scope of the anti-discrimination
  legislation
• Dealing with lawsuits are costly!

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Problems of translating EO prescription into
practice

• Work is a place where identities are shaped and
  lived out
• Divisions between disadvantaged groups
• Human resource concepts and policies disseminate
  workplace inequality

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Rhetoric and Reality of HRM

• Critical and empirically-based evaluations of
  HRM indicate a reality which includes
• - work intensification
• - job segregation
• Thus, HRM emerges as bad news for workers
  (Dickens).
• How does HRM facilitate inequality?
• Examine through two important concepts in the
  HRM model (Guest, 1987)
• Commitment
• Flexibility

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Distinction Between EO Diversity paradigm

• Work Foundation (formerly the Industrial Society)
  suggests that
• Where equality policies open doors, policies
  designed to value diversity offer a more
  strategic way of moving the business forward,
  backed up by a strong business and ethical case.
  Valuing diversity goes further than equality
  (Barmes and Ashtiany, 2003).
• Equal opportunities policies are legislation led,
  remedial and based on the assumption that
  minority groups will assimilate into the dominant
  culture.
• Valuing diversity is visionary in aiming to
  create a positive work environment in which
  everyone benefits and can work to their full
  potential in pursuit of organisational goals,
  aims and objectives.

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Diversity Management

• Definition
• Requires an appreciation that people are
  different
• Emphasize managerial skills and policies
• Optimize each employees contribution to the
  overall organizational goals
• Enhance organizational morale, productivity and
  benefits

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Types of Diversity

• 1. Superficial or Surface-Level" Diversity
• e.g. differences in Gender, Nationality
• 2. Deep-Level" Diversity
• e.g. differences in knowledge, differences in
  values

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Business Case of Diversity

• Mirrors the demographics of the marketplace in a
  global and diverse marketplace (In a global and
  diverse marketplace, a company whose race and sex
  composition mirrors the demographics of the
  marketplace it serves is better equipped to
  thrive in that marketplace than a company whose
  appearance is different from its market's
  appearance).

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Why Diversity Management?

• Believe differences can bring sustained business
  advantage through good management practice
• Survive in an increasingly competitive global
  marketplace

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Expected Benefits from Diversity Management

• Addressing Skill Deficiencies
• Improve Team Effectiveness
• Managing Change
• Recruitment and Retention of Staff
• Reflecting Diversity of Customer Base
• Opportunity to Create and Develop
  Inter-organizational Relationships
• Increase flexibility - necessary for survival
• Reduced Risk of litigation

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Conclusion

• There is a business case for equal opportunity
  and diversity management at the workplace