Category: Equality

Introduction

The world around us is undergoing numerous changes every decade and even year. This applies to many areas of society, where the primary goals are to create equality and an honest attitude to all people, regardless of economic and social status. Moreover, this aspect also concerns such items as international law, hegemony, terrorism, political deals, poverty, and gender relations. Hence, the main question that this scientific work asks is whether the world is becoming a fairer and more equal place.

The establishment of an equal position between people is one of the most critical forces that will help the organic and stable development of society and the surrounding world. However, despite the successes of the current stage, the world still cannot ultimately limit such problems as inequality, which causes such negative consequences as poverty, issues related to humanity, and gender discrimination (Sjoberg, 2014). In order to gain the best understanding of these problems, it is necessary to conduct research, which will further help in spreading awareness among the public.

Various literary and online sources provided special assistance in the preparation of this work. Therefore, one of them noted that “inequality is growing for more than 70 percent of the global population, exacerbating the risks of divisions and hampering economic and social development” (“Rising inequality,” 2020, para. 1). It also supports the view of the importance of finding solutions to establish equality and fairness in the world. The need is due to the fact that this will significantly improve the relationship between people, as well as the economic and political spheres of activity of individuals. At the same time, it is worth noting that this process is characterized by a high level of complexity due to its scale. Therefore, it is valuable to thoroughly study it and create policies to limit the problem.

International Law

One of the most critical forces that will help establish equality and fair treatment at the global level is international law. This phenomenon consists of the representation of the sovereignty of each state and governs its actions (Heywood, 2014). Therefore, this law implies following the general rules that must be followed by countries to reduce the possibility of negative consequences. Such undesirable outcomes may be an armed conflict or genocide. However, the factor that stops international law from ensuring equality is the absence of a single body that would monitor the implementation of its postulates and rules. This leads to the opinion that this kind of legislation does not make sense. Despite this, with the help of international law, these rules are followed in some countries (Jackson and Sørensen, 2016). Hence, when particularly acute conflicts and difficult situations arise, governments make decisions by observing and respecting the established rules and procedures.

International humanitarian law is becoming one of the components of international law. This legislative act deals with the consideration and protection of the population and combats the consequences and subsequent possible occurrences of armed conflict (Baylis, Smith, and Owens, 2017; Evans and Newnham 1999). Under the protection and support of this law in countries fall people who do not take part in the increased conflict and those who have received physical or psychological damage during the conflict (Heywood, 2014). A vital characteristic of this law is its effect only in relation to armed conflicts (Jeong, 2007). Therefore, international humanitarian law becomes one of the steps that help in maintaining fair treatment in relation to such severe legal problems as wars.

Another aspect of international law that is being criticized for its effectiveness is the international criminal court. This court considers and punishes illegal acts that are a critical concern to the international community. Examples of such crimes are genocide and, acts that endanger humanity, war crimes (Wallensteen, 2002). The type of court in question is being criticized, especially by African countries. This negative attitude is due to the fact that these states, in many cases, emphasized the inappropriate political of the international criminal court. This is supported by the fact that this part of international law focuses heavily on this particular part of the world, losing sight of others. Moreover, without proper assistance from the governments of the countries, the court may lose sponsorship, which will prevent the entire functioning of this body. This circumstance is a significant drawback of the international criminal court.

Human Rights and Gender Inequality

The next aspect that should be considered in the framework of this scientific paper is human rights and gender inequality. Both of these aspects have reached a reasonable level of fairness but still have many areas for improvement. Consequently, human rights are fundamental for every person and are the basis for the formation of international human rights law (Dunne and Wheeler, 1999). In other words, this concept is attached to individuals from birth and cannot be taken away from them or violated. Human rights affect such aspects of society as gender, ethnicity, class, culture, and other personal differences.

Nevertheless, at this stage of society’s development, the problem of violation of fundamental human rights is still relevant, which does not prevent the establishment of equality and fairness for all individuals in the world. This is due to the fact that many countries neglect the concept under study, which can lead to serious internal and sometimes external conflicts. Examples of such adverse decisions taken by States are the restriction of the rights and freedoms of the female population and political freedom of thought and speech in Islamic countries. Hence, despite this, there are still restrictions on human rights in the modern world, which mainly concern gender.

This type of discrimination based on gender characteristics has long been firmly entrenched in society. It is expressed in a biased attitude towards one of the sexes and becomes the reason for the predominance of one sex over the other. Sources note that “gender is not accurately captured by the traditional male and female dichotomy of sex. Instead, it is a complex social system that structures the life experience of all human beings” (Heise et al., 2019, p. 2440). Most often, in modern society, there is a dominance of men over women and is expressed especially strongly in such areas as political, professional, or economic.

One of the consequences of this phenomenon is the lack of access to education, and the lack of equality in employment and in the workplace. Moreover, acts as an obstacle to obtaining medical services and protection from the state (Cornwall and Rivas, 2015). It is worth noting that these factors often relate to less developed and progressive countries. Therefore, in order to achieve equality, it is necessary to adopt a met to limit gender stereotypes and spread awareness about the importance of fair treatment of all people.

Gender Lenses

The next aspect that still remains unresolved in the context of equality and fairness in the world is the gender lens. Because the previous section discussed the problem of gender inequality, the first aspect of studying will be gender lenses. This concept aims to spread a more detailed understanding and development of gender as a social phenomenon. Furthermore, there will be a limitation of negative consequences in such conditions, such as discrimination. In addition, the phenomenon under study implies the prevention of stigma around conversations and discussions regarding gender definition and the provision of knowledge about this concept from an early age.

Moreover, the gender lens helps in gaining an understanding that bias and discrimination against genders are directly related to other areas of inequality. Thus, the concept emphasizes the need to transform the entire society and its spheres of life in order to limit unfairness in relation to individuals. As already mentioned, an essential step for States and the whole world is the application of effective policies and strategies to improve the situation in relation to the topic under discussion. This approach may include providing jobs and equal conditions for women and men in the workplace. It is also critical to give women the right to vote and to give more value to women in areas such as politics.

Poverty

The last problem that becomes a barrier to achieving equality around the world is not the falling level of poverty. This aspect is a global problem and particularly affects countries with a low level of development. It is worth noting that poverty implies not only a lack of financial resources to lead to a satisfactory standard of living (). In addition to this factor, the concept under study includes such negative consequences as hunger, poor health, lack of access to education, social division, and a growing crime rate. Sources point out that “85% of the world live on less than $30 per day, two-thirds live on less than $10 per day, and every tenth person lives on less than $1.90 per day” (Roser and Ortiz-Ospina, 2019, para. 1). Additionally, there is an opinion that those individuals who were born in conditions of poverty will continue to live in them. This circumstance is especially facilitated by the slow development of the state or its absence.

To get rid of this negative influencing factor, it is important to develop actions to get rid of poverty. In memory of the programs for social and economic support of the population living below the poverty line, it is important to focus efforts on improving the overall situation in the country and in the world. Thus, in order to establish equality in the world, programs for international support and interaction with those countries that cannot independently solve the analyzed problem are being successfully implemented.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this work was engaged in finding the question of whether the world is becoming a fairer and more equal place. This topic is quite controversial since it is impossible to entirely accurately assert either the full achievement or the failure of the rooting of these aspects. This is since at this stage of the development of society, such a phenomenon as equality takes place in almost all aspects of people’s lives. This concerns the provision of education for women and men, holding positions of equal complexity and qualifications, or participating in political activities such as elections. At the same time, these aspects do not apply to all countries since there is still a high level of discrimination in a relatively large number of them. To gain a better understanding, this research paper explored concepts such as gender inequality and gender lenses. These aspects help in gaining awareness of the criticality of the problem, which can be observed both locally and globally.

Other global problems that hinder the formation of global equality and fair relations are poverty and disregard for human rights. The first mentioned aspect is one of the most difficult to resolve, as it causes a cycle of poverty. It is expressed in the fact that individuals born in poverty are also likely to live in poverty, thanks not only to the environment but also to the situation in the country. The problem of living below the poverty line is particularly acute in underdeveloped countries. This circumstance should have a timely solution, as it carries a lot of negative consequences both for the country in which it is localized and for the global development of society.

Violation of human rights is a vital contradiction of established norms since they are essential for each individual and cannot be violated. However, there are still countries that restrict the freedoms of their residents in every possible way, which can lead to the emergence of various kinds of problems and conflicts. This factor is in close interaction with international law and the laws that are related to it and have been studied in this academic work. Thus, this scientific paper concluded that the feast is at the stage of achieving equality and becoming a fairer place. To solve this problem, it is necessary to implement programs and strategies, as well as systems of global interaction that contribute to the prompt resolution of this issue.

Reference List

Baylis, J., Smith, S., and Owens, P. (2017) The globalization of world politics: an introduction to international relations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Cornwall, A. and Rivas, A. (2015) ‘From ‘gender equality and ‘women’s empowerment’ to global justice: reclaiming a transformative agenda for gender and development’, Third World Quarterly, 6(2), pp. 396-415.

Dunne, T. and Wheeler, N.J. (1999) Human rights in global politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Evans, G. and Newnham, J. (1999) The Penguin dictionary of international relations. London: Penguin.

Heise, L. et al. (2019) ‘Gender inequality and restrictive gender norms: framing the challenges to health’, The Lancet, 393(10189), pp. 2440-2454.

Heywood, A. (2014) Global politics. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Jackson, R.H. and Sørensen, G. (2016) Introduction to international relations: theories and approaches. New York: Oxford University Press.

Jeong, H-W. (2007) Understanding conflict and conflict analysis. London: SAGE.

Rising inequality affecting more than two-thirds of the globe, but it’s not inevitable: new UN report (2020) Web.

Roser, M. and Ortiz-Ospina, E. (2019) ‘Global extreme poverty’, Our World in Data. Web.

Sjoberg, L. (2014) Gender, war, and conflict. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Wallensteen, P. (2002) Understanding conflict resolution: war, peace, and the global system. London: SAGE Publications.

Introduction

Fairness and equality in the world are important values in promoting business and societal growth. However, it is questionable whether the world is becoming fairer and equal for everyone. This question matters because a just and fair society is the basis for experiencing happiness and growth in life. The concept of fairness implies the need to address people’s issues based on their needs and requirements. It does not necessarily mean that they will get equal treatment, but the amount of attention given to each member of society is proportionate to their needs. In contrast, equality assumes people are the same and hence demand equal treatment. Its application with the concept of fairness defines a contentious area of business practice and social management characterized by the debate regarding whether the world is becoming fairer and equal compared to past years.

It is important to track progress made in promoting fairness and equality in society and the workplace. A meritocratic organizational culture has the capability to affect employee loyalty, motivation, and performance. Relative to this statement, the consensus among many scholars is that companies or societies, which are deemed fairer and equal attract the best talent, high-incomes, and high standards of living (Wendt, 1992). Therefore, fairness and equality are highly valued concepts in business and societal development.

In this investigation, trends in fairness and equality will be analyzed in relation to gender wage gap inequalities in the workplace. This area of business management is selected from the review because, for a long time, gender inequality issues have affected workplace performance and employee morale (Andrejek, Fetner and Heath, 2022). Gender-based wage gap issues have also been mentioned in scholarly texts that have investigated financial crises, labor movements, and international relations around the world (Baylis and Smith, 2017). The world is becoming fairer and more equal because the gender wage gap is decreasing and more women hold high-ranking positions in the workplace.

Reduction in Wage Gap Inequality

For a long time, women have complained of receiving lower wages for the same work done by their male counterparts. The majority of studies indicate that the problem is widespread because it has been reported in several industries (Andrejek, Fetner and Heath, 2022). One of the sectors identified to have the widest wage gap difference is the hospitality and tourism sector (Demet and Volkan, 2018). The presence of imbalanced pay structures in the workplace means that women are perceived differently than their male colleagues and are treated unfairly in the workplace. This trend insinuates that patriarchal systems have infiltrated the workplace and women are valued less despite performing the same work as men. Organizations that do not subscribe to this philosophy of equal payment are deemed unfair to female workers because they promote unfairness in remuneration.

Attempts to change the unfairness and inequality that exists in several organizations have shown progress in this area of management. Particularly, there is a growing body of research that shows that women are increasingly getting the same pay, if not more than their male counterparts, for the work that they do (Andrejek, Fetner and Heath, 2022). Much of the progress has been reported in global multinational companies because of their increased emphasis on adopting global standards of pay and remuneration, which promote fairness and equality (Evans, Newnham and Newnham, 1998). In some countries, corporations are required to abide by such policies in law. Therefore, they could be sued for promoting unfair remuneration practices in the same manner as sexual assault cases are documented in companies (Baylis and Smith, 2017). Small and medium enterprises are also adopting the same practice by eliminating uneven pay and remuneration policies in their corporate management practices (Kronberg, 2020). Thus, based on these developments, women are making significant progress in minimizing the gender wage gap that has its origins in the industrial age.

The reduction in the gender wage gap between men and women in the workplace indicates the progress that society has made in making the world a fairer and equal place. It has helped to promote equality among the sexes in socioeconomic development because, unlike in the past, where the contribution of women in the workplace was deemed more inferior than that of men, female employees are enjoying more opportunities for income growth because of the minimization of the gender wage gap (Vyas, 2021). Therefore, this development has helped to promote the economic equality of the sexes, which is an important tenet of societal development because it promotes equal opportunity regardless of gender. Therefore, both sexes can make individual decisions about their lives without the lingering feeling that one party is making more money than the other does.

Increase in the Number of Women in High-Ranking Positions

For a long time, there have been accusations that there is an imbalance in the number of men and women occupying influential positions in the workplace. Relative to this claim, an argument has been made that promotes the view that more men occupy positions of influence compared to women (Weinstein, 2018). Women have been traditionally relegated to subordinate caregiving positions since they were perceived as inherently more nurturing, such as nursing, teaching, or secretary work. Therefore, they have been poorly represented at top management levels and overrepresented in lower job levels (Baylis and Smith, 2017). In contrast, men occupy high-ranking positions in organizations and thus have extra influence on an organization’s decision-making process. This situation meant that women traditionally could not influence organizational policies or initiate change within the organization without the approval of their male colleagues (Pereira and Kacker, 2022). The result has been the existence of an unfair and unequal organizational structure where men sit at the top of the decision-making structure and women occupy low-level positions.

Recently, there has been an increase in the number of women occupying high-ranking positions. Despite the increase in the representation of women in these top management ranks, it is important to acknowledge the skewed progress reported across cities and states in this area of management (Baylis and Smith, 2017). Notably, Western countries have reported more progress in the inclusion of women in influential positions compared to their Asian or Middle East counterparts (Weinstein, 2018). Similarly, women living and working in cities have experienced the benefits of this progress more than their female counterparts who live outside of cities (Weinstein, 2018). Researchers also opine that multinational companies have a more balanced representation of the genders in top management levels compared to small and medium-sized organizations (Yavorsky et al., 2019). Broadly, this assessment indicates that the progress made in increasing the number of women in influential positions is skewed in favor of some countries, types of companies, and regions. Nonetheless, it does not undermine the general progress made in fostering the inclusion of all genders in decision-making processes around the world. In this regard, it could be argued that the world is becoming a fairer and equal place.

Decrease in Skills Gap among Men and Women

Part of the arguments made to promote gender equality in the workplace has been centered on analyzing the percentage of skilled and unskilled workers in various organizations. Traditionally, employees’ skills and qualifications are correlated with their wages. From a gender-biased perspective, the proportion of women who are categorized as skilled workers in various organizations has been exceptionally low compared to their male counterparts (Penner and Willer, 2019). As stated differently, more men are considered skilled workers compared to their female counterparts.

This imbalance has partly contributed to the gender wage gap and the underrepresentation of women in high-ranking positions since unskilled labor is defined by lower wages and less prestige. The perpetuation of this imbalance in the workplace means that women will find it more difficult to rise to the ranks of power to influence decisions within a firm (Baylis and Smith, 2017). Abating this practice has promoted unfairness and inequality in the workplace because women have to be empowered with the same skills as men do to compete fairly (Penner and Willer, 2019). Thus, the importance of minimizing the skills gap between men and women has been a priority for many organizations.

Progress has been made in minimizing the skills gap between men and women through various means and strategies. Increasing the educational qualifications of women has been one of the most commonly used plans to promote fairness and equality in the workplace (Heisig and Schaeffer, 2020). For example, the number of women having a Master’s or PhD degree has increased in the last few years to the extent that there are insignificant differences in accomplishments between male and female colleagues (Andrejek, Fetner and Heath, 2022). The number of women entering the skilled labor sector, such as engineering and construction, has also increased significantly in the last decade (Heisig and Schaeffer, 2020). This progress means that women are increasingly benefitting from an increase in skills and educational qualifications that enable them to attain high-ranking positions in the workplace. These insights demonstrate that the world is becoming a fairer and equal place for all people.

Conclusion

From the onset of this essay, the author sought to understand whether the world was becoming fairer and equal. The findings showed that a reduction in wage and skills gaps between men and women has improved fairness and equality between the sexes. The increased representation of women in influential workplace positions also affirms the trend where men and women are getting equal treatment in society. Therefore, this essay demonstrates that an increase in the representation of women in high-raking positions, a reduction in wage gap inequalities, and the minimization of the skills gap between the sexes have promoted fairness and equality in the world.

Regardless of the progress made to promote gender equality in the workplace, differences in outcomes across regions, company types, and countries still linger. For example, much of the progress made in promoting fairness and equality in the workplace has been concentrated in Western countries, cities, and multinational companies. Thus, small and medium enterprises, non-Western countries, and women living away from cities still have more to do in reducing remuneration and employment gaps between male and female workers. Stated differently, managers operating in these zones have to be more committal in minimizing traditional barriers that have prevented women from getting fair remuneration and representation in decision-making and corporate structure management.

Overall, the progress that women have made to be fairly represented, skilled, and remunerated in the workplace indicates that the world is becoming fairer and equal than ever before. By extension, trends emerging from the workplace represent that have been highlighted in this essay represent a larger movement in corporate circles to embrace diversity and equality at various levels of management and decision-making. It is expected that this trend will be sustained in the coming years because of its relationship with increased productivity and high employee morale.

Reference List

Andrejek, N., Fetner, T. and Heath, M. (2022) ‘Climax as work: heteronormativity, gender labor, and the gender gap in orgasms’, Gender and Society, 36(2), pp. 189–213.

Baylis, J. and Smith, S. (2017) The globalization of world politics: an introduction to international relations. 5th edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Demet, T. and Volkan, A. (2018) Contemporary human resources management in the tourism findustry. IGI Global.

Evans, G., Newnham, J. and Newnham, R. (1998) The Penguin dictionary of international relations. London: Penguin Books.

Heisig, J. P. and Schaeffer, M. (2020) ‘The educational system and the ethnic skills gap among the working-age population: an analysis of 16 western immigration countries’, Socius, 7(2), pp. 1-11.

Kronberg, A. K. (2020) ‘Workplace gender pay gaps: does gender matter less the longer employees stay?’, Work and Occupations, 47(1), pp. 3–43.

Penner, A. M. and Willer, R. (2019) ‘Men’s overpersistence and the gender gap in science and mathematics’, Socius, 6(2), pp. 1-10.

Pereira, N. M. and Kacker, A. (2022) ‘Sex differences in faculty positions among top-ranked US otolaryngology departments’, OTO Open, 7(2), 1-11.

Vyas, N. (2021) ‘‘Gender inequality- now available on digital platform’: an interplay between gender equality and the gig economy in the European Union’, European Labour Law Journal, 12(1), pp. 37–51.

Weinstein, A. (2018) When more women join the workforce, wages rise – including for men. Web.

Wendt, A. (1992) ‘Anarchy is what states make of it: the social construction of power politics’, International Organization, 46(4), pp. 391-425.

Yavorsky, J. E. et al. (2019) ‘Women in the one percent: gender dynamics in top income positions’, American Sociological Review, 84(1), pp. 54–81.

Introduction

Sinclair (2006) argued that the problems for people who advise organisations in the area of diversity management have never been greater. The supposed acceptances of diversity as a good contradict the well-established structural barrier to implementing greater openness to differences in the workplaces. To evaluate this statement, this paper has grounded on aspect of large Multinational Companies.

The MNCs provide strategic importance to the groups those are diverse in practical. The cultural backdrops are turning more significant in this era of market globalsation and with presence of MNCs and have greater than before competition among corporations from any part of the world. Thus the MNCs are much more aware about diversity. Empirical investigation that has scrutinized among the teams from different attributes shows the lacking of Diversity Management.

MNC has been conceptualised e-diversity, heterogeneity, homogeneity, unitary effect whether positive or negative effect on team effectiveness. This would go analyse multi-dimensional view of diversity practiced in large MNCs as well as propose a model of multicultural team working with large multinational corporations (MNCs).

Background to Diversity

Diversity simply refers to human characteristics that make people different from one another. There are many different cultural backgrounds and factors that are important in organizations and that people from different backgrounds can coexist and flourish within an organization. Usually diversification refers to cultural factors such as ethnicity, race gender, physical ability and sexual orientation, but sometimes age and other factors are added. Stoner (2006) argued that the belief that people from different backgrounds can work together is fundamental to democracy and the way of organizational life.

In order to answer this question it is necessary to discuss the dilemmas from the perspective of a Human Resources manager working with staff about to take on international assignments within a large, multi-national company. The managerial challenge is learning how to take advantage of this diversity while fostering cooperation and cohesiveness among dissimilar employees. The HR department may help to meet the challenge by developing training programs, offering assistance and advice, establishing fair selection procedures and like. Managing workforce diversity is the way that both respects the employee and promotes a shared sense of corporate identity and vision is one of the greatest challenge facing organizations today.

Multicultural Teams

Large multinational corporations (MNCs) form multicultural teams to respond to their organizational needs. A team could be organised in an assortment of ways based on the uniqueness of interest to the organisation. MNC’s practice demonstrates several team formats such as self-administered vs. conventionally managed teams fluctuate on the center of attention to control from outwardly obligatory internally.

Another form of team could be based on Leader-staff v jury-like team which focuses on grouping configuration as well as leadership. The Functional v crossfunctional team shows a discrepancy in the well-designed setting of the members. As a final point, homogeneous v heterogeneous teams lay emphasis on the whole diversity in composition. For distinction of functional versus crossfunctional is but one way of distinguishing teams.

One more measurement of team diversity is the national culture. There is no accurate definition of multicultural teams; usually the expression of multicultural indicates to groups where minimum 3 or more cultures are corresponding with members. Presently foremost MNCs, multicultural teams gained an authenticity outstanding for amplified globalization as well as diversity within the workplace. Diversity has been positioned to have moreover an optimistic or pessimistic effect on team’s outcomes. In wide-ranging, diversity in multicultural team has been organised in an unitary approach. This single dimensional focal point led to contradictory consequences about diversity effects

Gender issues in Diversification

One important dimension of diversity in organizations is gender diversity. The workforce is rapidly moving from being male-dominated to one of equality in numbers between men and women. Nevertheless there remain many barriers for women seeking equal treatment in most organizations.

Glass ceiling

While there are more women in the workforce than ever before, they are still largely in junior positions. Only a handle of women are chief executives of large companies. Getting hired is merely an initial step for women, getting promoted within a company often proves a more imposing challenge. For senior positions, promoters are very hard to achieve. This is commonly referred to as the Glass ceiling syndrome- women and minorities can see opportunities for senior management positions but are blocked by seemingly invisible barriers from reaching them. Much of the decision to promote someone to a senior position is based on such intangibles as how comfortable the senior team is with that person.

Sexual harassment

Many women face sexual harassment in the workplace. Sexual harassment consists of any unwanted sexual behavior, including but not limited to suggestive books, sexual jokes, intentional touching, or pressure for sexual favours. There are mainly two types of harassment, the first types occur when sexual favours are requested or demanded in exchange for tangible benefits – advancement, pay increases or to avoid tangible harm, loss of job, demotion. The second type of harassment is labeled hostile environment. It is more complex because claim of this type can be made for unwelcome sexual conduct, either physical or verbal.

However, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly what a hostile environment is, sensitivities differ and what is offensive to one woman is not necessarily offensive to another. In 1991 British survey revealed that 47 % of the women and 14.5% of the men said they had been sexually harassed.

Stereotyping

Women may be stereotyped as human resources managers or public relations executives rather than manufacturing vice precedents or marketing vice presents. Women must also overcome stereotypes about maternity and child care; traditionally managers have assumed that women will drop out of the workforce to have a family, negating the investment that an organization has made in them. Many women critics insist that they should not have to choose between putting their careers first or their families first; men are not asked to make such choices in terms of tracking their entire career. The critics suggest that an organization that truly values diversity and multiculturalism will make it possible for women to have the same career opportunities as men and families, if they so choose.

Racial and Minority issues

Another important dimension of diversity is race and ethnicity. Many cultural differences exist between racial and ethnic and minority groups such as African and Asian. Yet members of all these minority groups have experienced the challenges of working in a multicultural setting where their own cultural heritage was devalued. It can be seen the biases against people of color being in positions of authority by looking at professional sports. In addition, statistics reveal earning gaps, which are discrepancies between the earning power of workers of similar educational backgrounds but different races. The reasons for the earnings gap are complex, but they do serve as an identification that discrimination still exists in the workplace.

Gender, race and ethnicity are not the only eleme4nts of diversity. If an organization is to value the contributions of all of its members, then its approach to diversity must include issues such as age and sexual orientation.

Ageism

In spite of the aging of the workforce, many managers still fail to place adequate value in order workers, even though restrictions on mandatory retirement have eased. In UK the maximum retirement age is 65 for male, on the other hand 60 for female. It is direct bias against female.

Sexual orientation

The presence of homosexuals in the workplace poses many issues for the development of the diversity workplace. In the past, most of homosexuals kept their sexual orientation hidden or in the closet. Today, increasing numbers have declared, or are grappling with the possibility of openly declaring, their sexual orientation, even though they recognize that it could jeopardized their jobs. Some companies are taking actives role in making homosexuals feel more comfortable with one another in the workplace.

Multicultural Team Effectiveness

MNC’s tragedy model of multicultural team efficiency has represented in Figure 1. In basic characteristics, the model highlights two dissimilar kinds of contingencies and these are external fit among MNC strategic planning and team diversity and internal fit among team work and group diversity. According to the team essence the affiliation among MNC’s strategy and diversity an external issue that is outside the team context. The connection among task and diversity would be internal for the reason that task fit in to the team essence.

Within the Contingency model of Diversity, each elements of the model has been explained in the first segment. Simultaneously the conception of fit has been functional to multicultural teams has residential and discuss for detailed types of task as well as MNC strategy. Propositions of Contingency model of Diversity have been recapitulated in Figure 2a & 2b. As a final point, the contingency model has been incorporated within the last segment and amalgamated in Figure 3.

Multiculturalism and Organizational Success

Most organizations have realized that diversity exists and that the culture of any organizations must pay attention to the needs of a set of very diverse employees. In short, many managers are grappling with how to make their corporate culture more in tune with the issues of multiculturalism.

The Cost Argument says that if organizations do a poor job in managing diversity issues they will have higher costs. The revolving do a poor job syndrome is expensive. When women and minorities leave, the organization gets no return on the investment it has made in them. In addition, if multicultural issues aren’t manage well, and then people are not as compfort6able as they could be in the work environment and they spend time and energy worrying about discrimination, harassment, and other issues rather than their jobs.

The resource acquisition argument says that companies that handle multiculturalism well will have an advantage over other companies in hiring multicultural workers an increasingly important advantage in this era demographics. For example a recent book discussed the best places to work for women and African Americans.

The marketing argument says that organizations that manage multicultural issued well have an insight into market consisting of minority group members and women. Markets, too, are diverse, and cultural issues have some effect on the buying decisions of customers. UK today is successful precisely because it has a variety of people from different cultural backgrounds involved in daily news meetings.

The creativity and the problem solving arguments hold that groups of people from diverse backgrounds can be more creative than groups with homogeneous backgrounds, and are better at solving problems however steps must be taken to realize these benefits In particular team members must become aware of possible attitude differences in others. And there must be a core of share benefits or shared values around which people can expense their differences.

Finally, the system flexible arguments say that the ability to manage diversity increases the adaptability and flexibility of an organization. External and internal issues can be responded to more quickly. In addition, to manage diversity successfully, an organization must question outdated policies and procedures that emerged in days when multiculturalism was not a large concern for the organizations.

Managing Cultural Diversity: Implications for organizational Competitiveness

MNC Team Diversity

The demographic heterogeneity within organisational performance is also as a determinant for team effectiveness. It has been objected to growing intellectual attention when firms are conflicted in front with more and more diversity in workforce. In adding together, strategy experts have checked up the work of art of top management teams as well as their consequence on strategic leadership. The “top management team” (TMT) literature provides various demographically unpredictable issues have been considered together with age, tenure, gender, functional conditions as well as race and education. On the other hand, the consequences of this study regarding the effect of diversity on team performance are ambiguous.

MNC Team Task

The literatures on large groups have offered more than a few issues of group tasks obtainable within the literal on large groups. On the other hand in most examination of group heterogeneity, the measure of reutilization in the groups, tasks have been make available in most notional influence among categorization schemes Another inveterate proposal is that custom problem solving is best handle by a consistent group. Team task is more novel and ground-breaking events that are best fingered by a heterogeneous group. Where diversity of viewpoint and estimation permits more and more extensive generation and freshening of alternatives.

MNC Team Task

The literatures on large groups have offered more than a few issues of group tasks obtainable within the literal on large groups. On the other hand in most examination of group heterogeneity, the measure of reutilization in the groups, tasks have been make available in most notional influence among categorization schemes Another inveterate proposal is that custom problem solving is best handle by a consistent group. Team task is more novel and ground-breaking events that are best fingered by a heterogeneous group. Where diversity of viewpoint and estimation permits more and more extensive generation and freshening of alternatives.

MNC Strategy

MNCs general practice involved three types of strategies and they are predictable as : global, multinational, and international. The firms those follow a multinational strategy, are aimed to respond complying with local market conditions as major objective. Every national associates or overseas subsidiaries are given enormous autonomy and administer as a self-governing business unit. In this context, organisations pursue a global strategy faced on world markets.

They impose their highest importance on global efficiency accumulating from the scale and scope of economies. In the concluding point, organisations pursue an international strategy on emphasising knowledge and know-how in overseas affiliates. They are not as much of advanced in technology as well as market expansion and they are further treated as attachment of corporate headquarters. Some times affiliates are allowed to adapt business strategies as well as products depending on the requirements of local market within the area of its operate.

Positively they are fully dependent on the mother company concerning process innovation, new product development and selecting market strategies. Consequently there are more harmonisation and control by means of the mother company for international strategies next to multinational strategies.

MNCs adopt efficient conditions and national cultural ideology for team diversity. The team farm duties within MNC strategy have two important unforeseen events in an MNC background. Thus, investigating the dependent relationships that may survive for multicultural teams all along these scopes emerge to be important.

There are numerous dissimilar types of multicultural teams, such as a project team increasing a product suitable for multiple countries, a business team accountable to put together and put into practice global strategies. The task force is in incriminating for trim down worldwide manufacturing, while many multicultural groups are shaped for the time being for specific purposes. They also do not have to be project-based or time-bound

The Concept of Fit

The concept of fit has been a foundation in the strategy field which has been imply in a various way. One of the main viewpoints of this management involves that MNC require to maintaining their assets systematically with their objectives and plans. In addition, HR department should concern the internal strengths and weaknesses situation in order to benefit the companies or to uphold competition in the market.

Managing Cultural Diversity

Diversity under EU Law

The area of sex discrimination law or rights for women in Community law is a later developer than the other areas of law because of the original less extensive provision for it in the treaty than other policy areas, the delays by the Community and in particular, the Commission in introducing secondary legislation and the delays by the members states in implementing the principles of equal pay from Art 119 (now 141) of the Treaty and equal pay and equal treatment from secondary legislation. Article 119 was the sole original treaty provision for the European Community on concern itself with sex discrimination.

The ECJ has expanded the reach of Art 141 EC considerably by adopting a very broad interpretation of the meaning of ‘pay’ and also by including indirect discrimination within the scope of the Article. Art 141 EC within the scope of the Article. Art 141 EC has been held to be both vertically and horizontally directly effective. The aim of this Art 141 was to ensure similar economic product. A consideration which support this view is the fact that Art 119 originally applied only to equal pay and not to all discrimination on the grounds of sex, although the ECJ has since than considerably extended its scope in a number of judgement and the Union has now enacted Directives 2000/78 and 2000/43 dealing with other from of discrimination.

Consequently, therefore, the Commission was encouraged to produce proposals for different Social Action Programme. After some considerable delay and somewhat watered down in their final from, an almost inevitable result of the Community Legislative process, the following Directives were adopted: Equal Treatment Directive 76/207, Equal Pay Directive 75/117, Social Security Directive 79/7, Parental Leave Directive 96/34, Occupational Social Security Directive 86/378, Pregnancy Directive 92/85, Burden of proof Directive 97/80, Part-time Workers’ Directive 97/81 and Directives 2000/78 and 2000/43.

However, Community law is characteristically framed in broad general terms and concepts which seemed unsuitable for the provision of individual rights. Community legislation was criticised because of its formality, limited accessibility and distance from those who needed the effective application and enforcement of the provision for example women at work. The effect was, at first, that very little knowledge of European Community Equal rights law was disseminated beyond the small number of people in direct contact with these laws except where given substantial media publicity.

Women’s right in the Community has been considerably strengthened by changes introduced by the Treaty of Amsterdam. The Treaty has introduced as one of the goals outlined in Art 2 EC “equality between men and women. Recent amendment of The Equal Treatment Directive by Directive 2002/73 has provided the definitions of Sexual harassment in Art 2 of the Directive.

A high point in this jurisprudence was when the Court explicitly recognised that the elimination of sex discrimination was a fundamental human right upheld by Community law. The ECJ stated that equal treatment of men and women in employment was ‘simply the expression, in the relevant field, of the principle of quality, which is one of the fundamental principles of Community law’.

An explicit legal basis for legislation now exists to combat this and other forms of discrimination. The Treaty of Amsterdam added Article 13 EC to the Treaty of Rome, which provides a legal basis for the Community to take action to: ‘combat discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation’.

Anti-discrimination Directives

Directive 2000/78 prohibits discrimination on the grounds of race or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation, in regard to access to employment or occupation, with the aim of ‘putting into effect in the Member States the principle of equal treatment (Art 1). It covers both direct and indirect discrimination (Art 2).

Directive 2000/43 is now in force. It implements the principle of equal treatment on the grounds of racial and ethnic origin.

Diversity training programs

Supervisors need to learn new skills that will enable them to manage and motivate a diverse workforce. Many multinational companies have developed extensive in house diversity training programs that provide awareness training and workshops to educate managers and employees on specific cultural and sex differences and how to respond to this workplace. A recent survey of CEOs found that the most common reason for implementing diversity training programs was “tapping diverse customers and markets” (44%). only 2.9% of respondents indicated the avoidance of litigation as a reason.

Much experimentation in this type of training is occurring UK. Often multinational companies has sponsored an all-expense paid conference for minority group’s managers to discuss the problem they encounter and how they can contribute more of the firms. They has offered homophobia seminars designed to help straight employees feel comfortable working alongside openly gay employees and to eliminate offensive jokes and insults from the workplace. However, multinational companies should introduced a mandatory four day awareness training programs for some 7000 salaried employees- a day and a half for gender awareness, two and a half days for ethnic awareness.

At least a dozen multinational companies have introduced “diversity kits” aimed at employees’ young children. The companies give the kits to their employees and suggest that they share the information with their children.

First, the training may have come at the t6ime when employees were preoccupied with more urgent priorities such as downsizing, increased work level, or launching a new product under tight deadlines. Second, if employees perceive that external forces such as a court order or a politician’s decree have prompted the training, they may resist. Third, if the training poses some as perpetrators and others as victim, those who feel blamed may be defensive. And fourth, if diversity is seen as the domain of a few groups (for example people of colour and women), every one else may feel left out and view the initiatives as being for others, not for them.

to avoid these four problems, the Society for Human Resources Management provides recommendations including holding focus groups with people who may find fault with the training; creating a diversity council that represents a cross section of employees with a wide range of views and attitudes; and exploring ways to deliver the training that do not use a typical classroom format such as one-on-one coaching to help managers deal with diversity challenges or interventions at team meetings on request.

Challenges in managing employee diversity

Although employee diversity offers opportunities that can enhance organizational performance, it also presents managers with a new set of challenges. These challenges include appropriately valuing employee diversity, balancing individual needs with group fairness, dealing with resistance to change, ensuring group cohesiveness and open communication, avoiding employee resentment and backlash, retaining valued performers and maximizing opportunity for all.

Individual versus Group Fairness

An issue closely related to the “difference is divisive versus better” debate is how far management should go in adapting HR programs to diverse employee groups. Now the question arise that should the company make the ability to speaks Spanish a condition of employment for first line supervisors who manage a large number of Latino employees. Should management make dress code exceptions for employees who view coats and ties as European customs that do not fit their lifestyles?

The extent to which a universal concept of management, which leads to standardized management practices, should be replaced by relativity concept of management, which calls for molding management practices to the workforce’s different sets of values, beliefs, attitudes, and patterns of behaviors, is an extraordinary complex question. The proponents of universalism believe that fitting management practices to a diverse workforce sows the seeds for a permanent culture clash in which perceived inequities leads to intense workplace conflict.

Resistance to Change

Although employee diversity is a fact of life, the dominant groups in organisations are still composed of white men. Some argue that a long-established corporate culture is very resistant to change and that this resistance is a major roadblock for women and minorities seeking to survive and prosper in a corporate setting.

Group Cohesiveness and interpersonal Conflict

Although employee diversity can lead to greater creativity and better problem solving, it can also lead to open conflict and chaos if there is mistrust and lack of respect among groups. This means that as organisations become more diverse, they face grater risks that employees will not work together effectively. Interpersonal fraction rather than cooperation may become the norm.

Segmented Communication Networks

Shared experiences are often strongly reinforced by segmented communication channels in the workplace. Most communication within organisation cannot fully capitalise on the perspectives of diverse employees if they remain confined their own groups. Second, segmented communication makes it more difficult to establish common ground across various groups. Third, women and minorities often miss opportunities or are unintentionally penalised for not being part of mainstream communication networks.

Conclusion

Successful organizations and MNCs believe that the strong, faithful employees construct businesses competitive are an intramural part of Diversity Management. The smartest organizations realise that the employer play an essential role in creating their employees strong and faithful. Thus their knowledge goes quick to listen and slow to speak is imperative and understanding to their employees. They always try to gain the trust of their employees with full emphasize. Thus they take motivation, training and interaction to development of their employees. At the same time employees go to the workplace with prospects and expectation of working with the managers who are good virtues like personal treatment, professionalism, working support respect and trust.

The managers must have the concepts of leadership, excellence, honesty, integrity, and respect for working force. Employees always look for High wages, Job security, Promotion in the company, Help on personal problems Stimulating work, Personal loyalty of supervisor, Tactful discipline, Full appreciation of work done well and Good working environment. Successful managers respond to all this factors with full respect and trust.

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