Workplace Discrimination

Racism is defined as prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior. In the workforce, the issue of racism and discrimination has been brought to the center of conversations around the world. Companies claim to be “colorblind” and not hire somebody based on their race or gender, but the employment rates among minorities and women around the world is significantly lower than the majority in the given country. There is also the growing issue of minorities, such as blacks in america, making significantly less money than whites. This issue affects people all around the world who happen

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.

Unfortunately, many workplaces have utilized the colorblind approach that emphasizes peoples’ similarities rather than their differences, in order to “treat everyone the same.” The rhetoric behind these tactics are that differences lead to problems between one another, marginalized groups must assimilate into the dominant culture, individual culture must be abandoned, and that there are absolutely no biases at play, although this only leaves marginalized employees more untrusting of their straight, white, male coworkers. Colorblindness also allows those who perpetuate microaggressions to be excused from holding accountability for expressing offensive beliefs and biases. Those offended may ultimately leave their job or their performance will decline. During recruitment, heterosexist and racial biases determines who is “qualified” (218). Companies who adopt a colorblind tactic have very low retention rates because although overt, prejudicial instances may be addressed, covert ones are ignored and deemed as

Year after year, the various departments and agencies of the United States Federal Government are becoming more diverse. The discussion of workplace diversity is not a discussion that is likely to disappear anytime soon in the future. To explain, the literature from Starks (2009) notes that by the year of 2050, minorities groups will account for fifty-percent of the population, in the United States of America. As a result, the discussion of diversity in the workplace is likely to still be a constant topic, for the various department and agencies of the United States Federal Government.

The topic of minorities in the workforce and how the struggle to accomplish equal treatment in today’s workforce is nothing new to our society. For centuries we have been concerned that by bringing together our different backgrounds, skills, and experiences, as well as the many businesses of this great

Reverse discrimination first gained notoriety in the 1970’s and has blossomed into a serious concern as to whether the protection of minorities discriminates against the majority (Does Affirmative, 2009). The affirmative action law was written to protect individuals of all races not just minorities. Managers should be educated on the positive impact of discrimination through professional development trainings and seminars, implementing white papers is a great way to deal with discrimination in the workplace. Meritocracy and diversity often seem to be at odds and a certain tension arises when the two are considered when hiring decisions are made (Walton, Spencer, & Erman, 2013). Jerry Falwell Sr. once said your greatest opportunity is often

When a person is discriminated against their race, gender, and age. This is some of the most evident forms of discrimination. I believe the most qualified person should receive the job, regardless of race or ethnicity. When employers disrupt workplace discrimination, legally they can be sued by the person or persons and receive bad publicity. When a employee hurts from unfair treatment due to their race and religion. Proving discrimination is difficult as is can occur in a number of work-related areas, during your initial hiring phase, during training or even after you get the job and have to participate in job evaluations. As far as ethnicity goes, Americans come in every color, shape, and size and a successful business is one that understands

While the world has unanimously advanced and is more accepting of change, the workplace continues to be a place of discrimination, prejudice and inequality. Discrimination is broadly defined to ‘distinguish unfavourably’, isolate; and is context based (Pagura, 2012). Abrahams (1991) described the workplace as an ‘inhospitable place’ where gender disparity and wage gaps persist (Stamarski & Son Hing, 2015). Among other states and countries, the Australian government actively implements and passes laws to protect and maintain equal employment rights. While the objective of these laws is ‘to eliminate discrimination,’ the regulatory mechanisms in the legislation are largely ineffective at achieving this ultimate goal (Smith, 2008). However,

While equal rights and equal pay legislation made it illegal to discriminate “based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin“ (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 2011b, p. 1), the number of workplace discrimination cases continue to rise and is costing employers more than $319 million in 2010, not counting litigation (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 2011a). Many employers have extensive human resource organizations with a sophisticated grasp on the implications of equal rights legislation on employers, that employ professionals, like I/O psychologists and attorneys, to establish fair policies and employment practices, and decrease an employer’s risk of litigation (Aamodt, 2010). In fact, employers often perform statistical analysis of employment practices to understand whether the practice could have an adverse impact against members of a protected class. For example, testing is a practice employers use for employee selection in the hiring process; even when an employment test is determined to be reliable, valid, and cost-efficient, care is taken to assure testing predicts performance equally well for all applications (Aamodt, 2010). Because governments and corporations have a fiduciary duty to citizens and shareholders, employers should continue to care about the issue of adverse impact, but more importantly, both government and corporations have a civil responsibility to treat the members of society fairly, because societal

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,

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.

Nowadays, with increasing variety in organizations, several inequalities in the workplace have happened. In spite of the regulation policies which have limited inequalities on the workplace, it still exists, because of personal characteristics, such as gender, age and different race (Allan, C & Mcphail, R & Wilkinson, A 2008, p. 225). Inequality in the workplaces can be defined as the unfair discrimination relating to things, such as wage differentials between men and women, unfair practices and unfairness opportunities, particularly with regard to employment of people of different ethnic origins (Grainge, 2007, online). C2E TODAY (Committed 2 Equality) shows that in spite of large UK companies declaring that they have eliminated inequalities in the workplace around 77 per cent of them have little or no equality practices. Even though small companies’ situation is more serious, 97.5 per cent of them have no equality practices in place (Committed 2 Equality, 2008, online). This paper will analyze several inequalities exist on the workplace with the use of real facts for concentrating on gender, age and race, and demonstrate the role of the participants within employments relations by discussing the responses from the state, employers and unions.

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)

Discrimination comes in many forms. Discrimination and diversity are closely linked considering the reasons behind discrimination are what makes up the definition of diversity. Not only is discrimination made against gender, race, and religion, but it is also made of age, disabilities, appearance and in a lot of cases, women who are pregnant too. This is very much a reality for many employers. There are laws protecting acts of discrimination. This topic is so sensitive, that many employers implement diversity and discrimination into their mission statements. Many companies make it their practice to host training sessions to prevent discrimination from happening, then there are many companies who can’t afford such training for their