INDEX

1. Introduction 3

2. Figure: Framework of HR diversity management.4

3. Figure: factor causing work place discrimination in a work culture.5

4. The Influence of the organizations Internal Context..7

5. Strategies implement by HR department to overcome work place discrimination..10

6 .References17

Globalization has seen a tremendous turnaround in the organizational structure of local company operating in the country beyond the national boundaries and turned into a multinational company operating around the world. This encountered a major change in the working composition of the staff in a particular company. To tackle to this situation HR introduced a term called Diversity Management. The word diversity has a multiple meaning to people. It has interpersonal component attached to it, people working together and contributing their various skills. Whereas the term Diversity Management simply means the proficiency of maximizing the advantage of organizational member diversity and minimize the problem (Donaldson & Preston, 1995). HR plays an important role in the process of recruitment, train, develop & retain the people and create a close group with leadership qualities and give feedback selection. Diversity Mentoring was another phenomenon which the company should introduce for helping and resolving the problems being faced by womens and minority group. This results to an effective increase in the practices and policies implemented in the work place by HR department. The below figure reveals the policies that HR department should comply with in order to overcome the hurdles of diverse workforce present in the company.(Button.S.B,2001)

(Till,1998)

Factors causes work place discrimination in a work culture:

( Gelfand, 2007)

Influence of the organization s Larger Context:

Organization is a system that functions within a bigger context, where they exist. Environmental component into organizations have a created a major impact on the different behavior, processes and structures .That operated within the organizational system and influence the levels of discrimination. So it is very important to know the nature & behavior of the present organizations with increased chances of involving in discriminatory behaviors due to diverse contextual issues. (Gelfand, 2007)

To start with national culture has a great impact on the discrimination that are visible in the organization especially the cross culture variables that results into discrimination against particul(House , Hanges, javidan, Dorfman & Gupta,(in press);The world values Survey,1994). Existing local norms with social cultural heritage may influence peoples tendency to discrimination within organizations in other communities (Cox,1994). Another component is the legal environment wherein the company operates and affects both the discrimination has attention given to the employees. for example , US companies has a limitation in terms of employment which together works to stops the discrimination on the basis of sexual biasness (Jacksons& Schuler,2003). The objectives on which the company works predicts a lot about the orientation of the organizations and its stakeholder, which also include customers, competitors, government agencies, labour work unions, stakeholder ,and supplier ,vendors, among others. (Donaldson & Preston,1995).For example, pressure from professional organizations, government agencies and union contracts tends to lower discrimination in organization. (Blum , Fields & Goodman, 1994,perry,davis-Blake,&Kullk, 1994;Delaney &Lundy, 1996).

To an extend an economic conditions also affect the willingness to give attention and resources to combating discrimination (Kahn, 2001).For example, at the time of low threat companies become rigid and tries to believe on the set of habitual scripts focussing on the core strategic issues. However the extent to which an organization realizes the pressure of integrating diverse workforce are affected by industry based norms and demographic characteristics of the company (DiMaggio&Powell,1983).

The Influence of the Organizatons Internal Context

All the environmental factors briefed above contribute to certain independent processes system and structure. These are formal and informal structure , organizational culture , leadership, strategy ,HR system and organizational climate. ( Gelfand, 2007)

Structure
Formal structure is another one of the most unavoidable form of discrimination the organization. This forms a unseen barrier that stops the women, sex and color based minorities to take up the higher senior seats in the organization. For example, statistics shows that women contributes to only 34% of high level managers in U.S. corporations and 47% of the private workforce where as only 15% of high level managers are members of a minority group ,yet they form 30% of the private U.S .work force(U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission,2001).

Informal Structure
Interpersonal relationship pattern of a company also plays a vital role in organizational discrimination with lack of interpersonal social channels to communicate for the racial minorities. This is influenced by the socio culture similarity or in other words homophilly. As a result of segregated network women tend to form a distinct group within the organization and become less centric to the central function of the organization.

Organizational Culture
Traditionally the approach was to remove the discrimination particularly on the recruitment and hiring of nontraditional employees but somehow diverted the emphasis of more delicate kind of discrimination prevailing in the organization like organization basic values, culture and assumption. The personality of an organization often refers to shared and common values, beliefs, practices and expectations, which are normally taken as easy.

Leadership

Diversity initiatives require commitment and dedication of higher level leaders in an organization, failing to which results into the incomplete eradication of discrimination within the organization.

Strategy

After embedding the culture and strategic move of advancing diverse employees creating an organization with subsequent business plan reduces the level of discrimination. Introducing EEO (Equal Employment Opportunity ) is an integral part of organization business strategy as it indicates the invisible symptoms of stopping the discrimination in the organization. (Morrison &Von Glinow,1990).

Human Resource Systems

Human resources system occupies a very critical role in reducing the level of discrimination in the organization by giving equal access of opportunity to all employees, rewards and valued treatments within the organization as a equal citizen. One of the important responsibilty of HR department is to make a unbiased equal system of processes and policies which can decrease the chances of discrimination within the organization. (Delaney&Lundy,1996).

Organizational Climate

Organizational climate also affects a lot on the level of discrimination. This is comprised of equal shared values, perception, policies and procedures prevailing within the organization. The challenge here is to understand the different organizational variability and perception that differs within the employees of the organization. As perceptions are related to different experience in the workplace and directly influence the behavior. It is very important that the organizations lowers the level of biasness and provide adequate attention to all employees.(Kossek&Zonia,1993;Mor Barak,Cherin,&berkman,1998).Most importantly diverse criteria and climatic formal beliefs are important as they are related to organizational goal and satisfaction in terms of job and performance.(Hicks-Clarke&lles,2000) 8

Strategies implement by HR department to overcome work force discrimination:

There is no doubt to believe that HR practice plays a very important role in deciding and formalizing a structure to influence the discrimination level that is prevailing in the organization and abolish the uneven opportunities and biasness operating within the system.

Recruitment and selection:

In order to reduce the discrimination the (AAPs) affirmative Action Programs is introduced to address the and remove the discrimination against women & minorities. Kravitz and his colleagues in (1996) found that white males respond less to AAPs than other groups and women has more positive attitude then men. However when the attention at the selection stage is given to the individual rather the final stage the reaction to AAPs becomes significant. The level of discrimination directly depends upon the channel of recruiting process which the company used for filling recruitment application. Organization which emphasized more on informal network of hiring people tend to increase the discrimination level against groups who donot have equal access to social network .(Braddock&Mcpartland,1987;Ragins&sundstrom,1989).

The best way to eliminate the discrimination at selection level is to utilize and use tools to nullify the impact of different selection instruments like the use of proper media ,proper response to the application form and a phenomena that covers all aspects of job be it performance, position or reward.

Performance management

There are two main issues that involves in performance appraisal system and to remove the discrimination in these two broader prospects it is very essential to remove the biasness prevailing in the evaluation process and reinforce the system that manages diversity and eliminates discrimination within the groups itself.(Cox,1994).Performance management systems includes a complete performance package of expectation & objective chart which clearly states the expectation level from an employee and divides the performance system basis the standard sets and measurable key points to judge all the employees at an equal platform. This helps to lower the possibility of discrimination in terms of performance. (Bernardin,Hagan,Kane,&villanova,1998;Klimoski&Donahue,1997;Morrison&Von Glinow,1990).

The effective implementation of performance management system also requires the formal consistent channel thats routed through feedback and gives equal importance to all groups within the workplace. Otherwise women would feel more discriminated as compared to men who respond emotionally to critical feedbacks with the fear of preset mind set of being prejudiced.

Training:
It is very important to focus on the two training aspects especially diversity training and competency training .the main objective of these training is to manage the diversity and competency level of the individual .is A diversity training programs catering to different diversity issues and increase the awareness as to how to deal with the stereotyping and bias 10

nature prevailing in the organization and sustain the diverse workforce in terms of career planning and employee engagement. A particular programme designed to increase the competency level of the employees would very successful in reducing the discrimination.

Benefits:
By removing the formal biasness it is easy for the employees to maintain a balance between work and personal life and concentrate more on their responsibilities in terms of time allocation, family planning, job performance, retirement planning. These also helps to create awareness among the employees for their family & professtional benefits given by the company and help them to avail maximum benefits and facilities being provided by the company like tuitions, medical, child care etc. Which will help balancing diversity among the people working in an organization and eliminates the discrimination level with much self contentment. (Button,2001;Lobel&kissek,1996;Mills,2000

Grievance Procedure:
Irrespective of the programmes designed to tackle with the discrimination level and HR policies sometimes it may be possible that employees perceive that they are being discriminated. So it is very important to have a good grievance system in place to address such problem and give the employees an opportunity to raise their voice against any discrimination internally and resolve the conflicts without any external channels like courts. However, there are chances that the system designed for grievance management may not promote any particular work group which in turn increases the level of discrimination in an organization. For example, in some cases wherein the grievance management system does not take the opinion of womens consideration regarding sexual harassment the level of reporting such cases would be less as it would be determined by majority racial groups.In 11

order to deal with this it is very important that organization make a grievance system sensitizing all work groups and taking the concern of everyone with a well acknowledged formal complaint system file.

Reinforce diversity mentoring:

It is very important to have diversity managing mentors in the workplace which increases the network and evolves in organizational activities. There are different types of mentoring mentioned below which helps in reducing discrimination within the workplace.

Peer Mentoring: when a group of people come together and share their interpersonal relation, information and feedbacks like career information and knowledge its helps to reduce the discrimination level within the organization.

Team mentoring: group of people working together and helping each other with skills training and feedbacks also eliminates discrimination.

Virtual Mentoring: internet as a channel also helps in eliminating discrimination like emailing mentors, mentoring chat room, and web page mentoring links.

Resource group mentoring: groups which represents particular diverse backgrounds.(e.g. African American officers can supply possible guidance as well as personal links on their web sites.

12

Other than the above discussed strategies there are some other ways also to reduce the discrimination level within the workplace.

Organizational communication patterns and its better understanding-Proper diversity management helps to have good organization understanding and knowledge flow.

Acknowledgment and respect for individual participation: To have a sense of fair treatment feeling is very important to prevail within the workforce. That creates an edge of removing discrimination with respect of valuing the emotions and feeling of the individual.

Earlier HR activates was consistent with organizational strategic goals and traditional activates like selection, training, compensation and appraisal are still the source of earning for `HR manager. But with the change of Globalization the entire role of HR became more important and focal for the organization. This has witnessed various changes in terms of diverse staffing, situations issues evolving out of discrimination. And in order to tackle with these situation a concept of diversity management is introduced and implemented in workplace. Every process has its own flaws and concerns but if managed properly can lead us to the situation where there is no discrimination on the basis of women or minority groups with employees satisfaction of equal working place for all reinforcing competencies level within the work group and make an organization a better place to live and work.

13

REFERENCES
Bernardin, H.J., Hagan, C.M., Kane, J.S., & Villanova. (1998). Effective performance management: A focus on precision, customers, and situational constraints. In J.W. Smither (Ed.), Performance appraisal: State of the art in practice (pp. 3-48). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Braddock, J.H., III, & McPartland, J.M. (1987). How minorities continue to be excluded from equal employment opportunities: Research on labor market and institutional barriers. Journal of Social Issues, 43, 5-39. Brass, D.J. (1985). Men's and women's networks: A study of interaction patterns and influence in an organization. Academy of Management Journal, 28, 327-343 Brewer,Marilyn.B.& Rupert J.Brown. (1998).Intergrroup Relations.Pp.554-94 in Handbook of Social Pyschology,edited by D.T.Gillbert,S.T.Fiske,& G.Lindzey.New York:Mc GrawHill. Blum, T.C., Fields, D.L., & Goodman, J.S. (1994). Organizational-level determinants of women in management. Academy of Management Journal, 37, 241-268.

Button, S.B. (2001). Organizational efforts to affirm sexual diversity: A cross-level examination. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86, 17-26. Campion, M.A., Outtz, J.L., Zedeck, S., Schmidt, F., Kehoe, J.F., Murphy, K.R., & Guion, R.M. (2001). The controversy over score banding in personnel selection: Answers to 10 key questions. Personnel Psychology, 54, 149-185. Carnevale, A.P., & Stone, S.C. (1995). Diversity beyond the golden rule. Training & Development, 48, 22-37. Catalyst. (1993). Successful initiatives for breaking the glass ceiling to upward mobility for minorities and women. New York: Catalyst. 14

Cox, T.H., & Blake, S. (1991). Managing cultural diversity: Implications for organizational competitiveness. Academy of Management Executive, 5, 45-56 Cox, T. (1993). Cultural diversity in organizations: Theory, research, and practice. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler. Cox, T., Jr. (1994). Cultural diversity in organizations: Theory, research, and practice. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Denning, D.L., Russell, C.J., & Conard, M.A. (1996). Affirmative action: A review of psychological and behavioral research. Bowling Green, OH: Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Delaney, J.T., & Lundy, M.C. (1996). Unions, collective bargaining, and the diversity paradox. In E.E. Kossek & S.A. Lobel (Eds.), Managing diversity: Human resource strategies for transforming the workplace (pp. 245-272). Cambridge, MA: Blackwell. DiMaggio, P.J. and Powell, W.W. (1983). The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. American Sociological Review, 48, 147-160. Donaldson, T. & Preston, L.E. (1995). The stakeholder theory of the corporation: Concepts, evidence and implications. Academy of Management Review, 20, 65-91. Fiske,Susan.T. (1998) Stereotyping,Prejudice and Discrimination.Pp357-411 in Handbook of Social Psyschology,edited by D.T.Gilbert,S.T.Fiske, and G.Lindzey,New York:Mc GrawHill.

Gagliardi, P. (1986). The creation and change of organizational cultures: A conceptual framework. Organization Studies, 7, 117-134.

15

Gordon, M.E., & Bowlby, R.L. (1988). Propositions about grievance settlements: Finally, consultation with grievants. Personnel Psychology, 41, 107-123. Gottfredson, L.S. (1992). Dilemmas in developing diversity programs. In S.E. Jackson & Associates (Eds.), Diversity in the Workplace (pp. 279-305). New York: Guilford Press.

Hanover, J.M.B., & Cellar, D.G. (1998). Environmental factors and the effectiveness of workforce diversity training. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 9, 105-125.

Hicks-Clarke, D., & Iles, P. (2000). Climate for diversity and its effects on career and organizational attitudes and perceptions. Personnel Review, 29, 324-346.

Heilman, M.E., Block, C.J., & Lucas, J.A. (1992). Presumed incompetent? Stigmatization and affirmative action efforts. Journal of Applied Psychology, 77, 536-544.

House, R.J., Hanges, P.J., Javidan, M., Dorfman, P.W., & Gupta, V. (In press). Culture, leadership, and organizations: The GLOBE study of 62 cultures. Sage Publications.

Ibarra, H. (1993). Personal networks of women and minorities in management: A conceptual framework. Academy of Management Review, 18, 56-87.

Jackson, S.E., & Alvarez, E.B. (1992). Working through diversity as a strategic imperative. In S.E. Jackson & Associates (Eds.), Diversity in the Workplace (pp. 1329). New York: Guilford Press. Jackson, S. E., & Schuler, R. S. (2003). Managing Human Resources through Strategic Partnerships (8th Edition). Cincinnati: South-Western College Publishing.

16

Jackson, S. E., Joshi, A., & Erhardt, N. L. (2003).Recent research on team and organizational diversity: SWOT analysis and implications. Journal of Management, 29, 801830.

Kahn, J. (2001). Diversity trumps the downturn. Fortune, 144(1), 114.

Klimoski, R., & Donahue, L. (1997). HR strategies for integrating individuals with disabilities into the work place. Human Resource Management Review, 7, 109-138.

Kossek, E.E., & Zonia, S.C. (1993). Assessing diversity climate: A field study of reactions to employer efforts to promote diversity. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 14, 61-81

Knouse.B.S.& Smith.P.A.(2008) Issues in Diversity management ,University of Louesinan at Lafayette Press, Internal Report Number 05-08.

Kravitz, D.A., Harrison, D.A., Turner, M.E., Levine, E.L., Chaves, W., Brannick, M.T., Denning, D.L., Russell, C.J., & Conard, M.A. (1996). Affirmative action: A review of psychological and behavioral research. Bowling Green, OH: Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Ledvinka, J., & Scarpello, V.G. (1991). Federal regulation of personnel and human resource management (Kent human resource management series). Boston: PWS Publishing Co Levitin, T., Quinn, R.P., & Staines, G.L. (1971). Sex discrimination against the American working women. American Behavioral Scientist, 15, 238-254. Lobel, S.A., & Kossek, E.E. (1996). Human resource strategies to support diversity in work and personal lifestyles: Beyond the "family-friendly" organization. In E.E. Kossek & S.A.

17

Lobel (Eds.), Managing diversity: Human resource strategies for transforming the workplace (pp. 221-244). Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.

Mor Barak, M.E., Cherin, D.A., & Berkman, S. (1998). Organizational and personal dimensions of diversity climate: Ethnic and gender differences in employee perceptions. Journal of Applied Behavioral Sciences, 31, 82-104.

Mor Barak, M. E. (2005). Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Mills, K.I. (2000). GLBT employees make gains in workplaces nationwide. Diversity Factor, 9(1),8-11. Morrison, A.M., & Von Glinow, M.A. (1990). Women and minorities in management. American Psychologist, 45, 200-208. Olson-Buchanan, J.B. (1996). Voicing discontent: What happens to the grievance filer after the grievance? Journal of Applied Psychology, 81, 52-63. Peters, T.J., & Waterman, Jr., R.H. (1982). In search of excellence: Lessons from America's best-run companies. New York: Harper & Row. Ragins, B.R., & Sundstrom, E. (1989). Gender and power in organizations: A longitudinal perspective. Psychological Bulletin, 105, 51-88. Reichers, A.E., & Schneider, B. (1990). Climate and cultures: An evolution of constructs. In B. Schneider (Ed.), Organizational Climate and Culture (pp. 5-39). San Francisco: JosseyBass.

18

Reskin.F.Barbara. (2000)The Proximate cause of Employment Discrimination.American Sociological Association.Pp 319-328. Riger, S. (1991). Gender dilemmas in sexual harassment policies and procedures. American Psychologist, 46, 497-505.

Sathe, V. (1985). How to decipher and change corporate culture. In R.H. Kilmann, M.J. Saxton,

Schein, E.H. (1985). Organizational culture and leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Schneider, B. (2000). The psychological life of organizations. In N.M. Ashkanasy, C.P.M. Wilderom, & M.F. Peterson (Eds.), Handbook of Organizational Culture and Climate (pp. xvii-xxii). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Seidel, M.L., Polzer, J.T., & Stewart, K.J. (2000). Friends in high places: The effects of social networks on discrimination in salary negotiations. Administrative Science Quarterly, 45, 1-24. Serpa.R, & Associates (Eds.), Gaining Control of the Corporate Culture (pp. 230-261). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Staw, B.M., Sandelands, L.E., & Dutton, J.E. (1981). Threat-rigidity effects in organizational behavior: A multilevel analysis. Administrative Science Quarterly, 26, 501-524. Triandis, H.C., Kurowski, L.L., & Gelfand, M.J. (1994). Workplace diversity. In H.C. Triandis, Till.Charles. (1998),(Durable Ineuality.Berkeley):University of California Press.

U.S. Department of Labor Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs. (1995). OFCCP

19

glass ceiling initiative: Are there cracks in the ceiling? Washington, DC: Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, U.S. Department of Labor.

U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (2001). Job patterns for minorities and women in private industry (EEO-1). http://www.eeoc.gov/stats/jobpat/2001/national.html U.S. Department of Labor Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs. (1995). OFCCP glass ceiling initiative: Are there cracks in the ceiling? Washington, DC: Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, U.S. Department of Labor.

Wentling, R.M., & Palma-Rivas, N. (1997). Diversity in the Workforce: A Literature Review (MDS-934). Berkeley, CA: National Center for Research in Vocational Education. World Values Study Group. (1994). World values survey. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university consortium for political and social research.

20