The Dynamics Of Managing Diversity Essays

The Dynamics Of Managing Diversity Essays The Dynamics Of Managing Diversity Essay The Dynamics Of Managing Diversity Essay Work is a major determiner of mental wellness and societal integrating and that unfortunately favoritism can take to societal exclusion, unemployment and under-employment. This paper foremost identifies the beginnings of the Glass Ceiling and so defines it in relation to handicapped people. It goes on to place grounds for the being of the Glass Ceiling and the Glass Cliff for people with mental wellness troubles. It concludes with steps that could be put into topographic point to guarantee a flat playing field within the workplace and evaluates those steps. Taneja et Al ( 2009 ) supply inside informations in their paper, Empowerment from the Gender Perspective, as to who foremost coined the term glass ceiling and keep it was Katherine Lawrence and Marianne Schreiber of Hewlett Packard in 1979 who described how at that place appeared to be an obvious class of publicity within administrations, but in world adult females seemed to make a point where they were no longer able to progress. Harmonizing to Falk A ; Grizard ( 2005 ) the first mention to the glass ceiling in the printed imperativeness may hold been in a 1984 article in Adweek. The article written by Frenkiel ( 1984 ) profiled Gay Bryant, the so editor of Working Woman, as an of import, advanced businesswoman and quoted her as stating: Womans have reached a certain point. I call it the glass ceiling. They re in the top of in-between direction and they re halting and acquiring stuck. There is nt adequate room for all those adult females at the top. Some are traveling into concern for themselves. Others are traveling out and raising households. Taken from Frenkiel ( 1984 ) It was Hymowitz A ; Schellhardt ( 1986 ) nevertheless ; who ensured the term glass ceiling became a lasting component of the American linguistic communication with an article in the Wall Street Journal that described corporate traditions, patterns and biass that hindered or even prevented the patterned advance of adult females in administrations. As a consequence the U.S. Department of Labor set up a Glass Ceiling Commission in order to level the playing. In 1991 they issued a definition of it, saying that: The glass ceiling is a construct that betrays America s most precious rules. It is the unobserved, yet unbreachable barrier that keeps minorities and adult females from lifting to the upper rounds of the corporate ladder, irrespective of their makings or accomplishments. Glass Ceiling Commission ( 1995 ) Although the term ab initio referred to adult females in administrations who were unable to progress through publicity, in an article taken from Docstock.com, it extends the intension of the term and provinces that in economic sciences, it refers to situations where the promotion of a qualified individual within an organisation is halted at the lower places because of some signifier of favoritism, most normally sexism or racism, but besides describes the limited promotion of the handicapped, and aged. In an interview for Personnel Today, Millar ( 2004 ) discussed Civil Service statistics with Tim Loughton, Shadow Health and Children s Minister that identified an norm of merely 3.6 per cent of junior civil retainers were disabled with the figure dropping to 1.7 per cent for more senior places. Loughton ( 2004 ) stated that there was a glass ceiling in topographic point in the Civil Service for people with disablements and accused the Government of tokenism when it came to implementi ng handicapped enlisting policies. Tal et Al ( 2009 ) suggest that many persons with psychiatric disablements are unemployed or under-employed, with damaging effects for their lives and mental wellness. Although anterior research that stigmatization and favoritism contribute to this result, the exact extent of such employer behavior has remained mostly undetermined. Thorneycroft ( 2006 ) suggests the job can be broken down into three parts, ignorance, pigeonholing and favoritism. Ignorance Cultural beliefs about mental unwellness plus derogative images and contemptuous linguistic communication in the media, ensures society perceives mental unwellness as being an untreatable lunacy ( Allen 2010 ) . There is, hence, the demand to supply work co-workers with the cognition and apprehension of, the troubles and barriers people face in their workplace in relation to non merely mental illhealth, but for all disablements to guarantee ignorance is removed. Employers have antecedently been shown to keep negative attitudes toward mental unwellness ( Nicholas 1998 and Stuart 2006 ) maintain that holding a psychiatric diagnosing can besides earnestly limit calling promotion as employers are less likely to engage people with mental upsets into executive places. Research undertaken by Rosenheck et Al ( 2006 ) shows that people with psychiatric diagnosing are likely to be underemployed, in lower paying humble occupations or in occupations that are incommensurate with their accomplishm ents and involvements: Before I had bipolar upset, I was an electrical applied scientist. Manic depression did non take that off from me, I still have that cognition, those accomplishments and experience . Anon ( 1996 ) Mental unwellnesss can take many signifiers, merely as physical unwellnesss do. Mental unwellnesss are still feared and misunderstood by many people, but the fright will vanish as people learn more about them. Lai et Al ( 2001 ) states that one fundamental job is that disablement so frequently overshadows personal individuality. The individual who has an damage is lost to awareness and merely the damage itself is seen. There are many myths about mental unwellness and some of the common myths and truths are identified in Table No. 1 below: Table No. 1: Myths and Truths of Mental Illness Myth Truth Peoples with mental unwellness are violent and unsafe. The truth is that, as a group, mentally sick people are no more violent than any other group. In fact, they are far more likely to be the victims of force than to be violent themselves. Peoples with mental unwellness are hapless and/or less intelligent. Many surveies show that most mentally sick people have mean or above-average intelligence. Mental unwellness, like physical unwellness, can impact anyone regardless of intelligence, societal category or income degree. Mental unwellness is caused by a personal failing. A mental unwellness is non a character defect. It is an unwellness, and it has nil to make with being weak or missing will-power. Although people with mental unwellness can play a large portion in their ain recovery, they did non take to go sick, and they are non lazy because they can non merely snap out of it. Mental unwellness is a individual, rare upset. Mental unwellness is non a individual disease but a wide categorization for many upsets. Anxiety, depression, schizophrenic disorder, personality upsets, eating upsets and organic encephalon upsets. Taken From: hypertext transfer protocol: //www.cmha.ca When a individual is promoted into a place that is hazardous, hard with high degrees of duty where the likeliness of success is slender this is said to be the Glass Cliff . Ryan et Al ( 2007 ) from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, suggests that although there have been legion literature undertaken in relation to publicity ( Greenwood, Schriner and Johnson, 1991 ) it has non paid much attending to what happens to professionals once they are beyond the glass ceiling. When set abouting interviews with high ranking professionals Ryan et Al ( 2007 ) found that those with a disablement found their occupations to be hazardous and unstable through a deficiency of support, and an overall deficiency of co-worker cognition in covering with people with disablements. Lai et Al ( 2001 ) undertook research into the stigma of mental wellness and identified that a demand for an addition in public consciousness and the demand for a alteration of focal point within the media industry was required. Consequences from Lai et Al ( 2001 ) shown below at Table No. 2, illustrates the negative position the media has on those with a mental wellness unwellness. Table No. 2: Perceived Contribution by Mass Media to Mental Illness Stigma Lai et Al ( 2001 ) Pigeonholing Rimmer ( 2010 ) explains that pigeonholing reduces people to belonging to a group which is identified by peculiar features. These features are seen to be fixed by nature for illustration, dyslexic people are stupid and those with a mental wellness unwellness are huffy, unsafe, scaring. Rimmer ( 2010 ) besides imparts that people are classified harmonizing to the norm and established system, those who do non suit go other Foucault ( op. cit. Oskala, 2005 ) characterized his work as a history of the different manners by which, in our civilization, human existences are made topics and identified 3 manners of objectification, spliting patterns, scientific categorization and Subjectification Research by Goffman ( 1963 ) into the societal brushs between normal and handicapped people shows that normal people frequently feel uncomfortable and unsure when interacting with individual who are disabled. Goffman ( 1963 ) contends that normals experience ambivalent feelings towards stigmatized persons and seek to avoid holding stigma spread to them by avoiding close association with a handicapped individual confirming Foulcault s Dividing Practices manner of objectification. Scheff ( 1966 ) applied the term mentally badly, to Labeling Theory and challenged common sentiment of mental unwellness by declaring that it is manifested entirely as a consequence of social influence. He argued that society positions certain actions as pervert and, in order to come to footings with and understand these actions, frequently places the label of mental unwellness on those who exhibit them. As mentioned earlier, due to a deficiency of cognition and the impact of stereotypes in the media, people are persuaded to judge those with a mental wellness trouble, peculiarly those with schizophrenic disorder, as unsafe and powerless to believe rationally ( Rethink 2010 ) . Peoples who suffer from a mental wellness trouble do non hold a positive ego image and endure from low ego regard. If a individual is told frequently plenty that they are non good, non lending or eldritch so it is possible they will get down to believe it, which implies that they are so active in the procedure of exteriorizing themselves. Directors need to get the better of a tabu over mental wellness issues. When asked what per centum of employees they thought might hold a mental wellness trouble in their on the job life, 71 per cent idea it would be less than 1 in 20 and 45 per cent said none at all. The existent figure is one in four in general and one in six in the workplace ( Rethink 2010 ) Discrimination The authorities s study of mental wellness and societal exclusion published by the societal exclusion unit in 2004, identified stigma and favoritism experienced by people with mental wellness jobs as the biggest barrier to societal inclusion doing it hard for people to work, entree wellness services, take part in their communities and bask household life: 83 % identified stigma as a cardinal issue, 55 % identified stigma as a barrier to employment and 52 % mentioned negative attitudes towards mental wellness in the community ( Rethink, 2010 ) Given the high degree of societal stigma attached to mental unwellness, it is non surprising so that people with disenabling mental upsets experience favoritism within the workplace. Much research ( Manning, 1996, Diksa, 1995, Nicholas 1998, Stuart 2006 ) has been undertaken that identifies employers have more negative attitudes about engaging workers with psychiatric disablements than approximately about any other group. Baldwin and Johnson ( 1998 ) studied disability-related employment favoritism by analyzing net incomes disparities. After they accounted for productiveness derived functions related to functional restrictions and other productivity-related single features, such as instruction, business, and parttime employment, big unexplained discrepancy in pay derived functions between people with and without disablements remained. Despite the increased Numberss of adult females both take parting in the workplace and accomplishing direction places the grounds is that, for the bulk, promotion to the really highest degrees is rare and that the glass ceiling still exists ( Meyerson A ; Fletcher 2000 ) . In relation to mental wellness troubles, many surveies have suggested that adult females are diagnosed with depression at twice the rate of work forces ( MIND 2005 ) and it is suggested this could be because adult females are more able to inquire for aid. Disclosure is debatable for workers with psychiatric disablements because of the hazard of favoritism. In a national study undertaken by Wahl ( 1999 ) of more than 1,300 persons with disenabling mental upsets, about a 3rd reported that after unwraping a mental unwellness they were turned down for a occupation for which they felt qualified. It is likely that many workers with psychiatric disablements fear that revelation will cut down their occupation chances and as mentioned earlier, holding a psychiatric diagnosing can earnestly restrict calling promotion. Although revelation is an issue, if more adult females are able to inquire for aid and therefore are unwraping their mental wellness troubles more so than work forces, this may be one of the many ground less adult females are in senior places, after all 11.2 % of the female population are sing mental wellness troubles at any one clip ( Cochrane 2010 ) . Non-disclosure could make an unanticipated Glass Cliff in that a individual with a mental wellness trouble is placed into a function that increases emphasis and hence the opportunities of failure are high. One piece of statute law that aims to forestall occupation favoritism is the Disability Discrimination Act ( DDA ) . Taken from www.direct.gov.uk, the ( DDA ) defines a individual as handicapped if they have a physical or mental damage that has a significant and long-run inauspicious consequence on a individual s ability to transport out normal daily activities. Normal daily agencies things that people do on a regular or day-to-day footing, such as reading, composing, utilizing the telephone, holding a conversation and traveling by public conveyance. Long-term normally means the damage should hold lasted or be expected to last at least a twelvemonth. Significant means non minor or fiddling. Direct favoritism happens when a handicapped individual is treated less favorably than a non-disabled individual whose relevant fortunes are the same or non materially different. For case, an employer turns down an applier for a occupation who has a mental wellness trouble. This is because of negative stereotyped, premises about the effects of the status without mention to the person concerned. Another illustration could be an employer holding a cover prohibition on using person with a peculiar disablement. Section 141 of the Mental Health Act forces MP s to give up their seats if they are sectioned for six months or more and the jurisprudence still prevents those with mental wellness troubles from functioning on a jury ( Allen 2010 ) . Employers are required to do sensible accommodations to workplaces and occupations for people with disablements to guarantee they have equal chances ; failure to set about sensible accommodations is prejudiced. Some of those sensible accommodations could be altering working hours, for illustration presenting flexi-time or leting clip off for intervention. Research undertaken by Greenwood et Al ( 1991 ) identified the per centum of employers who rated certain groups either inferior to or slightly below norm and they are shown below at Table No. 3. The consequences epitomises the social attitudes in relation to ignorance, pigeonholing and favoritism: Table No. 3: Research Consequences Percentage Group 96 % Serious emotional upset 87 % Blindness 84 % Cerebral paralysis 81 % Mental Health 81 % Quadriplegia 69 % Deafness 68 % Learning troubles 64 % Back complaint 62 % Epilepsy 59 % Paraplegia 56 % Mild emotional upset 36 % Amputation of one leg 15 % Diabetess 7 % Peptic ulcer Taken signifier: Greenwood et Al ( 1991 ) The roots of modern antidiscrimination statute law are in a societal theoretical account of disablement that views disablement as the consequence of society s attitudinal and inhospitable structural barriers, instead than the consequence of that individual s physical or mental damage. Employment policies that have implemented a societal theoretical account of disablement in the chief should place the demand to take the favoritism of handicapped workers in enlisting, keeping and publicity and guarantee employers make sensible accommodations to help handicapped employees. Measures to Make a Level Playing Field Diversity preparation for all staff is aimed at supplying consciousness of single differences. For a company to hold competitory advantage it is indispensable all members of staff be allowed to accomplish their full potency. Awareness based diverseness preparation is aimed at supplying directors and employees with the cognition of diverseness issues and allows them to analyze premises that could take to pigeonholing. The theoretical account is shown below at Figure No. 1. Figure No. 1: Awareness-based diversity-training theoretical account More effectual Improved morale Improved organizational Multicultural interaction Greater productiveness competitory place Increase cognition, Foster appropriate attitudes Eliminate stereotyping Awareness and sensitiveness and premises Information diversity- Training programmes Taken from: Carnevale, A. P. A ; Stone, S. C. ( 1994 ) Not merely must direction systems and calling development systems be adapted suitably, organizational civilization must besides be adapted. Awareness based diverseness preparation should be the starting point for the development of an administrations diverseness programme and should make effectual intercultural interaction. This in bend Fosters improved morale which in bend creates the result of an enhanced competitory place for the company. The theoretical account is non without unfavorable judgments ; Geber ( 1990 ) suggests the theoretical account does non supply the accomplishments to enable participants to move on the freshly acquired cognition. The accomplishments based diverseness developing theoretical account is chiefly used in concurrence with the cognition based theoretical account and ensures transverse cultural apprehension and identifies why co-workers from different civilizations act the manner they do and is shown at Figure No. 2 below: Figure No. 2: Skill-based Diversity-Training Model More effectual Improved morale Improved organizational Multicultural interaction Greater productiveness competitory place Increased creativeness Increase cognition, Build new diverseness Reinforce bing Inventory Awareness and sensitiveness related accomplishments diverseness related accomplishments skill edifice Foster appropriate attitudes methodological analysiss Skill orientated diverseness Training programmes Taken from: Carnevale, A. P. A ; Stone, S. C. ( 1994 ) Equal chances and diverseness direction attacks demonstrate different ways of accomplishing alteration. The equal chances approach focuses more on positive action, supervising the Numberss employed or so promoted in under-represented groups but topographic points less accent on cultural alteration and the demand to run into organizational aims. Legislation often influences administrations to develop equal chances policies which are disseminated by human resource sections. Diversity direction, nevertheless, emphasises an organizational civilization where everyone, and particularly directors, are responsible in gaining the potency of all employees. The issue with an Equal chances attack is that it presumes attitudes will alter one time a individual with a disablement, for illustration, has demonstrated that they are able to execute. Equal Opportunities does non take into consideration the aims and ends of the company. Diversity direction has its jobs besides, in that it is complicated. Lorbiecki and Jack ( 2000 ) remark on whether diverseness can be managed at all. Is one attack better than the other? Ford ( 1996 ) Argues that equal chances policy and diverseness options have to be mutualist if they are to recognize their possible as organisational development tools. Further differences in the two attacks can be seen at Table No. 4 below: Table 4: Diversity Management and Equal Opportunities: Different Approachs Diversity Management Equal Opportunities Ensures all employees maximize their possible and their part to the organisation Dressed ores on issues of favoritism Embraces a wide scope of people: no 1 is excluded Focuss chiefly on adult females, cultural minorities and people with disablements Dressed ores on issues of motion within an organisation, the civilization of the administration, and run intoing concern aims Topographic points less accent on cultural alteration and meeting concern aims Is the concern of all employees, particularly directors Concerns chiefly forces and human resource practicians Does non answer on positive / affirmatory action Relies on positive action Taken from: Carnevale, A. P. A ; Stone, S. C. ( 1994 ) The Two Ticks Disability Symbol is a authorities enterprise that employers can utilize to demo their committedness to using handicapped people. Those companies that use the symbol commit themselves to the following five confidences identified at Table No. 5 below: Table No. 5: Two Tick Guarantees A guaranteed occupation interview for handicapped appliers Regular audience with handicapped employees Retaining employees if they become handicapped during their employment Bettering cognition about disablement for cardinal employees Reviewing these committednesss and be aftering in front Taken from: Torrington et Al ( 2005 ) These warrants provide a big measure frontward for a flat playing field for those with a disablement but need to be monitored to guarantee work is come oning. Unfortunately at present as Dibben et Al ( 2001 ) note, the symbol appears to hold merely a limited consequence on support for handicapped employees or possible employees. Bettering cognition in relation to disablement is cardinal in taking stigma, pigeonholing and favoritism ; it has been the most highlighted cause of workplace favoritism throughout the research undertaken for this piece of work. The authorities has late introduce an amendment to the Equality Bill which should set a halt to prejudiced employment patterns which deter many people with mental wellness jobs from using for occupations. The measure stops employers from inquiring occupation campaigners about their wellness until after a occupation offer has been made ( Rethink 2010 ) Evans ( 2001 ) argues that it is possible to enroll the best individual for the occupation, provided that determinations are based, as they ever should be, on solid grounds of aptitude and ability. He goes on to province that sensible accommodations to workplaces and conditions of work to make a flat playing field rarely turn out hard or expensive to implement. Reasonable accommodations could include acquiring new or accommodating bing equipment such as desks and chairs, modifying instructions to larger print or holding hearable every bit good as ocular dismay systems. These are proactive attacks that would profit all non merely handicapped workers. To guarantee sensible accommodations can be provided it is indispensable that employers create a scene and civilization whereby workers feel able to uncover a disablement and guarantee that this confidential information is non divulged to unneeded individuals. Decision Diversity preparation is indispensable and in order to change organizational civilization and attitudes in relation to, non merely people with mental wellness troubles, but all employees the support from senior direction should be enlisted. Training should be compulsory and should non be avoided and hence should be introduced within the company s initiation procedure. Mentoring could besides be introduced but with cautiousness as without equal consciousness and preparation for staff, negative sentiments could originate. Most of all, whatever attack is adopted, effectual monitoring should be undertaken to guarantee advancement is being made. The one individual who is able to place whether their workplace has a flat playing field in relation to disablement is the handicapped individual and therefore communicating with handicapped people is required when policies are being drafted to seek to extinguish prejudiced actions.