Discrimination in the workforce

Discrimination in the Workplace: A Comprehensive Evaluation of Key Issues

Discrimination in employment is a problem that has affected thousands of organizations, large and small operating in today's global marketplace. Discrimination comes in many different forms. Discrimination in the workplace may be considered one of the most egregious acts in modern society, yet it occurs each and every day. Discrimination is not simply something that affects one minority population, but in fact affects many. It may come in the form of age discrimination, gender discrimination, cultural or racial discrimination and even disability discrimination.

A woman can be discriminated because she is pregnant, a man can be discriminated against because he is older. Discrimination affects all people in some way, and has touched the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in some way in the workplace.

There are many laws and act that have been enacted to protect individuals from discrimination. These laws affect human resource departments in a number of ways. The penalties for not adhering to these laws are many. The impact of discrimination, laws protecting people from it and the impacts it has on the human resources representatives of an organization will be discussed in greater detail below.

Discrimination

Before one can examine the laws that prevent discrimination one must understand what exactly discrimination is in the workforce. Discrimination can best be defined as any type of behavior, action, belief, value or attitude that impacts another individual in a negative manner, that is based on one's racial identity, gender, sex, disability status, age or some other personal factor (Mathis & Jackson, 2003). It can impact an individual or it can impact an entire group of people depending on the manner in which it is carried out in the workplace. It can impact someone directly or it can occur inadvertently. Either way it is a devastating and demeaning practice.

Discrimination can be the result of actions carried out by individuals within an organization, or it can be the result of an entire organizational culture and mindset. Discrimination is most common in organizations that are composed of people from many diverse backgrounds and belief systems. It is inevitable in a society that is more and more globally oriented that some form of discrimination will occur in the workplace.

Discrimination is often the result of stereotyping (Mathis & Jackson, 2003). Stereotyping is the practice of making assumptions or judgments of someone based in interpersonal impressions or conceptions of how one 'should' act or how one 'behaves' (Wyer, 1998). It is the practice of creating working assumptions or perceptions about a group of people based on certain aspects of their persona, beliefs, race, age, status or any number of similar factors.

There is a large body of evidence that suggest that people have a spontaneous reaction or tendency to categorize other people based on any number of factors (Wyer, 1998). Stereotyping and discrimination often fall hand in hand, as both reflect an individual's intergroup status and position within a particular context, such as the workplace (Wyer, 1998). Discriminatory or stereotypical beliefs can emerge from many different sources in the workplace and in society at large, including ideological systems, individual learning and "contextual contrasts" (Wyer, 1998: 54). Does stereotyping and discrimination serve a purpose? One may argue that they "establish justifications for group differences, and accentuate and clarify differences between groups in favor of groups" (Wyer, 1998: 54).

In a non-threatening context, it is not necessarily negative to differentiate between particularly groups. Many organizations and human resource departments have attempted to combat discrimination in fact by encouraging differentiation and understanding through diversity training programs (Haines & Hemphill, 1997). However these efforts often fail because they serve more to point out differences and give individuals the opportunity to separate themselves from the 'cultural norm' even more, creating chaos and confusion in the workplace.

Discrimination can have a number of deleterious effects on members of the workforce. It can result in low self-esteem, depression and serve as the number one de-motivating factor in the workplace (Haines & Hemphill, 1997). Because of this it is vital that human resource departments develop programs that effectively combat discrimination. Failure to do so not only violates the law, it violates the basic moral obligations organizations have to their employees, namely providing a safe workplace free from superficial judgmental behavior and discrimination.

Discrimination Laws

The government has long recognized that discrimination is a problem in the workplace. Because of this a number of laws have been enacted for the sole purpose of combating discrimination in the workplace. Despite these laws some discrimination does still exist in the workplace, however the levels of discrimination have subsided somewhat in recent years (Haines & Hemphill, 1997). The laws that have been created regarding discrimination attempt to tackle the problem from several different angles. Some of the laws are meant to be broad sweeping, preventing discrimination in the broadest sense, whereas others are very specific, prohibiting specific forms of discrimination against specific groups such as pregnant women.

There are many examples however of instances where discrimination occurred despite federal legislation prohibiting it.

In 1996 Texaco was charged and found guilty of discrimination; that same year the U.S. Army faced sexual harassment lawsuits from more than 5,000 women (Haines & Hemphill, 1997) these stories remind us that even in organizations with diversity training, discrimination may continue.

The most basic law that protects employees from discrimination on the job is Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits job discrimination on the basis of race, skin color, age, gender, religious belief or national origin (Haines & Hemphill, 1997). When most people consider the laws that prevent discrimination this is often the first that comes to mind. It is the first major piece of legislation that was enacted protecting people from discrimination in the workplace.

The act also dictates that none of these factors may not be the basis for any type of "promotions, dismissals, pay raises, benefits, assignments or other forms of employment relationships" (Haines & Hemphill, 1997:13). A majority of organizations have adopted this law and embodied this philosophy on paper. It is necessary in fact for organizations to have policies that afford all employees equal opportunities in the workplace. Violation of this law results in harsh penalties, including fines in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The government has consistently worked to refine its anti-discrimination laws for the workplace. In 1992 the Civil Rights Act was expanded to state that an employer must show that a job practice that excludes a certain group is job-related or consistent with business necessity in order for it to be legal and not considered discriminatory (Haines & Hemphill, 1997). In certain situations it may be appropriate for an employer to discriminate. However the law has made it very difficult for an organization to do this without having solid evidence that a certain group must be excluded based on some organizational need.

An example may be the need to hire a male worker to work in a men's locker room during the day, when men will be present and possible indisposed. If the organization is an all men's gym that caters to men, it might make business sense to hire a janitor that is male to work in the locker room. This might be a case where an exception could be made to the rule. If that were the case however, a male would always have to be hired in this situation to help prove business necessity. The law does not allow for organizations to 'change their mind' or change their business practices when this exception to the rule applies.

The most common claims of discrimination in the workforce come in the form of race discrimination, sex, disability and national origin (Haines & Hemphill, 1997). This is because these elements of an individual's being are what differentiate them and create groups. Race and sex discrimination are often the two most common forms of discrimination reported in organizations by employees. Of these, sex discrimination is often considered the more common and more devastating. There have been numerous sexual harassment lawsuits in recent years by men and women alike in the workplace.

Sex discrimination is still considered a "blatant, subtle and covert" problem in the workforce primarily affecting women (Gregory, 2003). One form of sex discrimination in the workplace is in the form of sex stereotyping, which is considered a more overt form of discrimination (Gregory, 2003). Gender stereotypes may unfairly place men and women in different categories; they suggest that certain personal attributes are "necessary for higher level positions in the workplace" and suggest that other personality characteristics are incompatible with management (Gregory, 2003). Unfortunately these incompatible characteristics are often assigned to women or viewed as traits that females would have. Included among them is the notion that women are nurturing and more sensitive, and that men are more aggressive (Gregory, 2003).

The same laws that prevent discrimination in general also work to protect women and other commonly discriminated groups. Discrimination against the elderly, against pregnant women, against women with children, against people of color are all prohibited under the law. The EEOC or Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was created to administer Title VII of the Civil Rights act and specifically to "progress race, national origin, religious, and sex discrimination claims pursuant to the statue" (Gregory, 2003). Is the EEC doing its job? During the first year alone after the EEOC was created more than nine thousand cases were filed (Gregory, 2003).

Coleman, Slonaker & Wendt (1993) suggest that discrimination is sex blind, and that as the workforce continues to become more divers in today's global economy, there is a greater potential than ever for employment discrimination that would adversely affect a variety of individuals.

The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1979 is supposed to protect women from discrimination based on pregnancy (Coleman, Slonaker & Wendt, 1993). Another act, the Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973 protects employees with disabilities against discrimination by federal contractors (Coleman, Slonaker & Wendt, 1993). All in all the EEOC is charged with ensuring that all individuals are entitled "to equal opportunities from recruitment to termination" (Coleman, Slonaker & Wendt, 1993).

Despite these laws more than 78% of Americans still believe that employers discriminate, and 25% have reported being discriminated against at one point or another (Coleman, Slonaker & Wendt, 1993). This paired with evidence, which suggest that 1/3 of all employers, admits that discrimination is likely, still a problem within their organization (Coleman, Slonaker & Wendt, 1993).

Below is a brief summary of the primary laws that prevent job discrimination in the workplace:

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act

Equal Pay Act of 1963

Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967

Title I and Title V of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990

Sections 501 and 505 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973

Civil Rights Act of 1991 (EEOC, 2004).

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act has already been discussed. The EPA or equal pay act protects sex-based wage discrimination, meaning it protects women and men from receiving different pay based on their sex when they perform the same work. The ADEA or Age Discrimination in Employment Act prevents en employer from discrimination against a qualified individual with a disability in private, state and local organizations. The ADA or Americans with disabilities act prevents an employer from discriminating against an individual that is qualified based solely on their disability status.

Other laws such as sections 501 and 505 of the Rehabilitation Act prevents an employer from discriminating against qualified individuals that have a disability in the federal workplace. Lastly the Civil Rights Act of 1991 does many things similar to Title VII, but also provides monetary damages to individuals in cases where an employer intentionally discriminates against them (EEOC, 2004).

The EEOC is required to uphold all these laws.

Affirmative Action in the Workplace

Affirmative action was also implemented to protect employees from discrimination. Affirmative action can best be described as the name applied to several different policies that were developed to help combat past and present discrimination, and to provide ample opportunity in the employment world to those that were "traditionally denied" equal opportunity in the workplace (Horne, 1992). There are many different recipients of affirmative action policies including African-Americans, Latinos, Asian-Americans, Pacific Islanders, Native Americans and non-ethnic women (Horne, 1992). It has been considered by many a "conscious effort " to reverse discrimination (Horne, 1992).

Affirmative action also requires that certain jobs that minorities frequently hold are upgraded (Horne, 1992). Some people claim that affirmative action actually results in reverse discrimination, however it was devised in fact to help right the wrongs of the past and ensure that everyone is afforded equal opportunity (Horne, 1992).

Some people feel that affirmative action is no longer necessary in the workplace, that it is an outdated method of operating primarily designed to help African-Americans. However African-Americans are not the only beneficiaries of affirmative action plans nor the only people that are discriminated against even in modern society (Horne, 1992). In fact, statistics support the notion that all nationalities are discriminated against and among women; minority women are even more likely to be discriminated against (Horne, 1992).

Affirmative action may be necessary in an employment environment where one population or subgroup of people has been continually underrepresented or disadvantaged. It truly depends on the organization. It can be a means of protecting certain classes or groups of people and ensuring that everyone in the workplace is afforded the same access to employment and the same employment opportunities. It is not designed to be a form of reverse discrimination. There is adequate evidence suggesting that discrimination still exists in the workplace. Until discrimination is completely abolished and is no longer an issue, a need for affirmative action programs and other programs geared toward eliminating inequities continues.

Human Resources and Discrimination

The laws that have been established to prevent discrimination in the workplace have numerous implications for human resource departments. The job of a human resources department includes educating the workforce about diversity and enacting policies and procedures that prevent discrimination in the workplace. A human resource department has a number of obligations under the law, including ensuring that its hiring, promoting and firing processes are not discriminatory in any way. A human resource department is tasked with the constant monitoring of employment processes to ensure that managers are also informed of anti-discrimination laws. In the event that discrimination does occur, a human resource department might be tasked with investigating the claim to determine its validity and impact.

There are many implications if a human resource department violates anti-discrimination laws. First and foremost the company faces tremendous lawsuits and fines depending on the severity of the violation.

Human resources have an obligation under the law to prevent discrimination in all aspects of employment, including: hiring, firing, compensation, transfer, promotion, layoff, job advertisements, testing, training, fringe benefits, pay, retirements plans and more (EEOC, 2002). A human resource department must also ensure that an employer does not promote harassment that is based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability or age (EEOC, 2002). The law also protects employees from retaliation if they file a charge of discrimination against an employers.

Stereotyping is also prevented under the law, as is denial of employment opportunities because of one's religion or marital status among other things (EEOC, 2002).

The primary responsibility of the human resource department is to post notices to employees that inform them of their protection rights under the EEOC (EEOC, 2002). Employers that are covered by the laws mentioned above include private employers, state and local governments and any educational institutions that employee more than 15 individuals (EEOC, 2002). Public employment agencies, private agencies, labor organizations and joint labor management committees are also covered (EEOC, 2002).