Discrimination And Diversity

This research paper addresses the importance of diversity training in the workplace. Having realized how pertinent workplace discrimination is globally, this paper will give a broad look into the various ways that diversity is displayed in the workplace. The diversity issues involving gender, sexuality, race, age, culture and religion will be explored,

According to the Equality and Human Rights Commission First Triennial Review 2010 “The Equality Act 2010 complements and builds on the provisions of the Equality Act 2006, which itself strengthened several aspects of discrimination law and set out the roles and responsibilities of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.”

There are many pieces of legislation that are put in place to protect and safeguard vulnerable people; like Mrs Naidoo. I am going describe five pieces of legislation and regulations, and explain how they safeguard vulnerable adults.

In a perfect world, people would be equal in rights, opportunities, and responsibilities, despite their race or gender. In the world we live in, however, we always face all kinds of neglect based on different attributes. All over the United States, certain people treat others with prejudice because of particular features they possess. Unfortunately, prejudice and discrimination occur even in places which, by definition, should be free of all personal prejudices – specifically, in offices and other business surroundings. This tragedy is called workplace discrimination; not every unfair behavior at work, however, can be assessed as discrimination. Discrimination in the workplace happens when an employee experiences unfair treatment due to their race, gender, age, religion, marital status, national origin, disability or veteran status, or other characteristics. Discrimination is one of the largest issues people face in the workplace and it must be dealt with. The U.S. have laws and regulations on discrimination but it still often occurs. Workplace discrimination appears in hiring, training, promotion, firing, and other institutional or interpersonal treatment. Discrimination sometimes causes an employee to leave or quit the workplace, resign from a position, or in more severe cases, to commit suicide or act violently against the discriminators. Discrimination is one of the largest issues many people face in the workplace.

Discrimination comes in different forms.  It can be direct when someone’s gender, ethnicity, faith, sexual orientation, age, disability or being transgender is used as an explicit reason for treating them differently.  This is the kind of discrimination that people often recognize easily.  An example would be if a person is fired at work

Discrimination is also evident in employment. In the year 2000, students from the universities of Chicago and Washington teamed up to conduct a survey. They paired up a black man with a white man who were identical in almost every way, i.e.

Discrimination is something that happens everyday, based on someone’s race, sexuality, gender identity, appearance, etc. This is something that has been happening since the beginning of time; and will most likely not stop any time soon. Martin Luther King made a huge difference within the racial section of America; and President Obama made a controversial decision to make same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states. Even though great people have taken huge strides to make a difference in the world, equality is still something that is not fully in place. I see it every day, and at my job, I am expected to treat every customer with the same amount of respect I would treat anyone else.

Since the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it has been illegal to discriminate in regards to hiring, firing or promotions based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin or disability (U.S. Equal Employment, 2016). Organizations have adhered to this federal regulation, some more than others, by incorporating this law into their policies and procedures for personnel. Adhering to the law through the hiring process and during orientation by informing them that these practices are prohibited in regards to their performance and work. In all fairness, most organizations have done a good job in adhering to this law. If not only because by not doing so would cause potential for serious lawsuits. However, many organizations focus only on the numbers of

Discrimination has extremely negative impacts and future consequences on the workers. Several laws need to be placed in almost every single workplace to protect all the workers from a variety of discrimination (for eg: Canadian Human Rights Act of 1977 in Canada protects the federal employers as well as the private company employers against discrimination and states that employers cannot refuse to hire workers because of their race, religion, ethnic origin, skin colour, sex, age, marital status, and disability (Government of Canada (Federal government), 2007). Discrimination not only affects the performances of the workers, but also has a significant drop in the overall performances of the companies.

When you sit back and think about it, discrimination and prejudice in the workplace have been around for many and many and many of years. These prejudice and discriminations come in the form of sexism and racism, even if the two people haven’t had any sort of contact with each other. According to the U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) they had received an astonishing amount of job discrimination complaints. The number came out to be 95,402 complaints, and this was just within the United States alone. Sadly, I am not surprised by this number, and neither should you. Even though discrimination and prejudice in the workplace are serious offenses that could ultimately result in severe penalties, many people look past this because

Workplace discrimination is still prevalent and could have disastrous effects on social cohesion and political stability if it continues unchecked. While the most blatant forms of discrimination at work may have faded, many remain a persistent and daily part of the workplace, or are taking on more subtle forms. Every day, around the world, discrimination at work is an unfortunate reality for hundreds of millions of people. Women are by far the largest discriminated group, with the pay gap between the sexes still significant in most countries. Racial discrimination also persists, though older theories of the purported superiority of one racial or ethnic group over another have been replaced by allegations that foreign and "incompatible" cultures may have disruptive effects on the integrity of national identities. New forms of discrimination based on disability, HIV/AIDS, age or sexual orientation have now become cause for growing concern.

Managing diversity and equality effectively in the workplace is the core responsibility of any organization in the contemporary business world. Shen, Chanda, D’Netto and Monga (2009) conducted a survey whose results revealed the massive diversity within the British society in terms of ethnicity, nationality and religion. As a result, the Equality Act of 2010 was formulated and became law whose provisions focus on legal protection against discrimination based on gender re-assignment, marriage, civil partnership, age, disability, sexual orientation, religion, pregnancy and maternity, sex and beliefs (Monks, 2007). Therefore, managing diversity in the workplace is critical towards the achievement of equality and discrimination free working environment. Bhatia (2008) observed that the ability to understand, accept, value, acknowledge and celebrate differences among people with respect to race, sexual orientation, religion, age, ethnicity and mental ability within an organization is crucial in eliminating discrimination. Discrimination refers to the tendency of denying equal treatment to people believed to be members of the same social group (Ozbilgin, 2009). In other words, discrimination in the work place is related to denial of equal treatment in terms of promotion, compensation, career development, training and empowerment. Therefore, managing diversity in the work place is crucial towards the achievement of a discrimination free working environment and the

This paper will assess my personal experience with prejudice in the workplace, including the implications of the situation to the organization in terms of its stakeholders, reputation, and its legal responsibilities. Furthermore, I will analyze the negative effects the discriminatory behavior had on morale and functioning of coworkers and employees. Lastly, I will recommend three action steps that I would have taken as a manager to avoid the situation, in addition to three steps to render the situation.

The discrimination-and-fairness paradigm is considered the “dominant way” of understanding diversity by most organizations. It attempts to remove discrimination and create employment equality by seeking to increase diversity among employees. Progress is measured by how well the company is able to meet its diversity number goals but avoids looking deeper at the reality behind the numbers. (Thomas & Ely p. 81)

Do all lives matter? How would it feel knowing that there is a target on you solely based on your gender or your ethnicity? There are many people today with different backgrounds and different ways they go about things, but you can not always judge one another. Just because one is black does not mean that they are violent, should be told where they are and are not allowed to work, or just because one is a male does not mean they are violent. People judge others based off of their outer most shell — appearance. Being discriminated has always been a problem in America, but discrimination and cultural differences are somewhat the same things. People do not look at situations as if they were you. Others are not brought up how you were nor are you brought up like them.