Diversity and Ethics Reporting Systems

Diversity and Ethics Reporting Systems

Diversity Management and Discrimination Issues at Work

Enhanced globalization and immigration, which occurs for economic and socio-political reasons, has led to the development of multicultural societies across the globe. Today, many nations and workplaces have employees from diverse backgrounds. More often than not, cultural differences as well as other inherent differences such as gender often lead to stereotyping, categorization, and labeling; which set precedence for discrimination at the workplace (Appleby, 2007). In basic terms, workplace discrimination denotes unfair differential or unequal treatment of employees based on their differences in gender, nationality, religion, age, sexual orientation, ethnicity, or disability (Collins, 2012).

Gender discrimination issues are part of the discriminatory issues that arise out of gender differences or special gender-related issues such as pregnancy. It denotes the unequal treatment of employees based on their gender. Examples of issues that often arise in relation to this form of discrimination include inequality in pay and dismissal or unfair work policies relating to life issues that affect one gender, i.e. pregnancy (Appleby, 2007). The pay inequality problem is captured under the Equal Pay Act of 1963, which requires that both women and men should get equal pay if their job descriptions and scope of operations is similar (Collins, 2012). Ethnic and racial discrimination issues often arise from unfair or unequal treatment of employees solely based on their race or ethnicity. Common issues under this form of discrimination include discriminatory promotions or job assignments based on race or ethnicity (Collins, 2012). Basically, this is prohibited even in those instances where clients show preference for employees from a certain racial group. Prohibitions under this category also extend to discrimination based on native language, culture, ancestry, or birthplace. Religious discrimination is yet another form of discrimination whose bias is based on religious grounds and affiliation. Challenging discriminatory issues in this category include the need to permit employees to observe various religious holidays, dress code, eating habits and other religious dedications within the workplace (Collins, 2012). Provision of religious accommodation in terms of dress code, holiday observations, and other related factors is often the challenging issue - when these directly impact on performance. Promotions or dismissals of employees based on their age are the most common discrimination issues that arise from age discrimination. Age discrimination denotes unequal treatment of employees based on their age (Collins, 2012). According to the Age Discrimination In Employment Act of 1967; all job promotions or assignments should be based on abilities, skills, and productivity, but not age (Appleby, 2007). Unequal treatment of people with disabilities, especially when hiring is prohibited under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Disability discrimination, which is often based on the disabilities of an individual, is an often experienced issue in the hiring process. While disabilities can hamper performance, ADA recommends that people with disabilities should be offered an equal opportunity if they can display that their disability will not be a hindrance to their performance (Collins, 2012). Discrimination of any nature in assignments, hiring, dismissal or promotion based on sexual orientation has been prevalent in past because there has been no legal framework to support equal rights for those discriminated against under the civil rights Acts (Stachelberg & Crosby, 2013). However, several states have made it possible to prevent this form of discrimination by enacting laws prohibiting the said discrimination (Stachelberg & Crosby, 2013).