Employment Discrimination in Regards to

Employment Discrimination in Regards to Promotion America is a country rich in diverse cultures from the Indians, Whites, Asian, Hispanic, Blacks and other minority group like the Arabs. With this diverse culture, there is the need to have cohesion among them for the country to move forward. Discrimination is a major setback to the growth of United States. This paper focuses on employment discrimination as a form of discrimination. Employee discrimination is a practice which eats up the economy of a country.

A country cannot be sufficiently competitive with other nations with the increase in discrimination. For a country to maintain their competitiveness, it must utilize its entire workforce regardless of their color, race, religion, age, sex or disability. Employment discrimination has been on the rise in our work places, and this has led to lack of cultural diversity in the workplace plus other negative impacts on individuals, companies and communities.

BODY Prevalence National data According to a survey done in 2007, it was found that there were about 19,000 age related discrimination claims filed that year, this accounted for 23% of all complaints. Of all the claims on age related issues, 62% of them were found to have no enough evidence or proof of occurrence from the 61.8% in 2006. In comparison with other employee discrimination claims, 37% of all the claims made were race related and, on the other hand, 30% of the claims were sex related (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 2007).

Later in 2008, another survey was done with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; where it was found that 24,582 of the claims made on discrimination were age related, this number was up from the one obtain in the previous year by 28.7%. Of the claims made, 11,124 which translates to 59% were found to have no established cause to believe that discrimination occurred based upon evidence obtained from the investigation while 638 (3.2%) of the claims had substantial evidence for resolution of the claim.

Women and the minority groups are more at risk of employment discrimination. From the various statistics reports show that even with the increased education level of women and the more employment opportunities given to them. Most of them are still earning less than 80% of the total earning men take home. Also on women, reports from the U.S.

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission show that pregnancy discrimination related claims has risen by 30% while discrimination on employment claims increased by 25%, these facts are rising because of the high level of knowledge women are gaining concerning their rights at workplaces (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 2007). Statistics also show that older workers are faced by two types of discrimination. First, 15% of them fail to get employment opportunities because of their age while 10% fail to qualify for promotions also because of their age.

In addition, 16% of all workers in America say that they have at one time faced discrimination based on either race or ethnicity while 8% of them said they have once been discriminated based on age. Data for select cities According to the national employment summary data for New Mexico State obtained from Equal employment opportunity commission state and local government information. It shows that from the 43,936 employees present, of them, 25371 are men while 18565 are women. From the 25371 men employed, 10019 are white, 530 (Black), 13768 (Hispanic), 236 (Asian), 818 (Indian).

While in the women category, from the 18565 women/female employed, 6633 are white, 353 (Black), 10576 (Hispanic), 156 (Asian), 847 (Indian). In comparison with Maryland State, the number of females and males employed are as follows; men are 64205 while female are 55745. In the male category, the distribution of the employees according to race is as follows; 41182 (White), 20142 (Blacks), 1377 (Hispanic), 1288 (Asian), 216 (Indian). On the other hand, the distribution, of women employed is as follows; 28,295 (White), 25,253 (Black), 1,038 (Hispanic), 1,010 (Asian), 149 (Indian). Washington State also had the following statistics.

The numbers of men on a full time employment were 78,988 while the numbers of women also on a full time employment were 65,971. From the total tally of both men and female employees, the following were their distribution according to race; White (82.9%), Black (5.6%), Hispanic (3.2%), Asian (6.8%), and Indian (1.5%). Population Demographics The national statistics in relation to the different races found in America as per 2010 demographic patterns is as follows; the White are the majority with 72.4%, the African-American are the second with 12.6%; the Non-Hispanic Asian are the third having 4.8% of the total population.

Other races include; the American Indian (0.9%), the Native Hawaiiian (0.2%) and other smaller races having a total of 9.1% of the entire population size. From the 2011 statistics, out of the total population of Americans (314,558,780), 155,414,638 are male while 159,414,683 are female. This implies that there are slightly more female than males. Types of Employment Discrimination There are various types of discriminatory practices taking place in the work places, these include; Age, sex, race, equal compensation, disability, religion, retaliation and pregnancy (Bell, 2007).

All these types of discrimination take place at different stages or sections in a workplace, and they may affect the working relationship amongst the employees which translates to poor productivity of the company/organization. Causes of employment discrimination Industrialization Employment discrimination dates back from the time few countries were starting to become industrialized. This led to people migrating into United States from all corners of the world in search for jobs and better lives.

Due to the increased migration of people, the companies available could not offer employment for everyone, this lead to competition for job opportunities resulting to issues such as discrimination. At a workplace employment discrimination is more crucial especially when one is seeking recruitment, appraisal and evaluation (Roscigno, 2007). Lack of competition among companies In contrast with the public sectors, the private sector is perceived to have less discrimination, as a result of the existing competition among them.

Due to their urge for profits, they are forced to operate under a minimum expense by producing less expensive products with the least expensive workers. The economic theory confirms that, firms which discriminate based on age, gender, race or color, are likely to lose their efficient workers to other firms that do not engage in discriminatory practices (Byron, 2010). Rational and organizational demography Another source of discrimination is the one based on rational and organizational demography.

This is where a person is discriminated based on his or her demographic similarities to and difference from others in the work group or organization. Demographic characteristics such as sex, age and race are often considered being both source of information and source of identity for individuals. Relational demographics, on the other hand, can be considered to be the distribution of the basic attributes such as age, sex, ethnicity, and educational levels among others (Roscigno, 2007). All these traits have some potential of discrimination.

Studies show that, discrimination based on age comes about as a result of the effect of old age on turn-over of the firm. As a person gets older, so is his/her aggressiveness in working hence experiencing a lower turnover.

At the same time, sex composition is also a reason why many employers discriminate employees in relation to promotion because, for instance, it was discovered that turnover of a firm may decline or be lower if there would be more women for a specific type of work, therefore, to avoid this, the management usually decides to pick or promote individuals with different sex from that of the majority. Discrimination based on Age Employees are also discriminated based on age.

Most employers are known to issue promotion based on the age of a person and not truly the experience he/she has. Discrimination based on age has an impact on the younger employees because they are eventually not guaranteed of promotion even after attaining a field of knowledge in his/her area of specialization.

From the statistical discrimination theory, it is suggested that employers sometimes discriminate when hiring and promoting a certain group of individuals because of the inferences and perceptions of evidence that they are less productive than other groups (Alon, 2007). Statistical discriminators do not rely on an individual evaluation of productivity, but, they tend to rely on the belief about a certain group averages to classify people according to their efficiencies.

Most managers heading both sectors are found engaging in statistical discrimination when they are seeking to recruit candidates for highly productive fields (Couch, 2010). Stereotyping Stereotyping is another cause of discriminatory behavior among employers. For instance women, ethnic minorities and older employees are less likely to be considered for more professional and managerial jobs because they are seen to be less productive. Also, in other specific jobs, men are considered more competent and less warm than women hence they may either be considered or not considered for a given job description.

Therefore, both men and women are grouped or matched according to jobs that suit their stereotypic description in consistent with the group that holds the majority of those jobs (Byron, 2010). Presence of minority groups at a workplace At work places, individuals are being discriminated on the basis of being a minority. Structural theory states clearly there is always a consequence for being the minority.

This theory is in relation to three known token dynamics which include; it leads to contrast effect that leads to social isolation, it has the element of visibility that results to performance pressure and it also results to stereotyping or role encapsulation (Bell, 2007). Discrimination may be as a result of the individual (from the minority group) being scrutinized to find out whether he/she is capable to excel in whatever he/she is doing.

From this theory, an individual whom the public does not associate his/her presence with a certain kind of work is more doubted than a person whom they have faith that he/she can handle the work. For example, a woman with mechanic skills can be discriminated upon by the other workers because they do not associate such a woman doing an excellent work as compared to the one done by men (McDonald, 2008).

Secondly this theory also touches on discrimination which comes from the contrast between the majority group and the minority group. This difference leads to solidarity among the majority group members, and social isolation of the minority group members. For instance when there is a woman engineer among men engineers, the men engineers will start associating themselves as men instead of engineers as normal as they are always called.

Thirdly, this theory is stereotypic in nature, whereby an individual may be discriminated or denied the opportunity to hold a certain job position because the managers do not associate those individuals from the same group to hold such positions at work (Bell, 2007). Impact of employment discrimination Impact on the individual Most individuals tend to lose motivation in their work after being denied a promotion opportunity on a discriminatory basis.

These individuals may have worked to attain the promotion in one way or another and failure to get the opportunity is a setback to their motivation and effort to develop their career in the organization. Therefore, after the denial, most individuals become less productive since their motivational factor is not being achieved or they may even decide to quit their jobs for others where they can grow professionally without setbacks.

Employment discrimination has a physical and psychological effect to the individual who has experienced it, research has shown that individuals who have recently gone through discrimination starts to develop blood pressure and heart diseases among other conditions (Byron, 2010). Other researches show that persons who have perceived to have been discriminated against normally experience social rejection and interpersonal problems. Eventually the affected individuals may develop coping mechanism that entails them denying that they were discriminated.

As much as coping is concerned, not all persons will be able to cope in the same manner. Those affected are known to undergo the coping mechanism in two ways, first being the emotional focused coping while the other being problem-focused coping (Hirsh, 2008).

Impact on the family Due to the different forms of employment discrimination existing in the job industry nowadays, it justifies the social closure theory which brings forth some of the barriers that prevent a certain group of individuals from achieving prosperity like their other counterparts who are the advantaged groups. Among the different America state, some groups of individuals from the same race or ethnic groups are highly discriminated upon by their employers thus bringing social inequalities through time, from generation to generation.

This makes these groups weak economically and unable to improve their life circumstances, hence, leading to development of social crimes in the society (Hirsh, 2008). Different groups of individuals can be discriminated based on their cultural practices, race, color and gender among others, this in turn, makes a majority of them jobless, and the few who have jobs are not able to be awarded equal share of appraisal and compensation packages because of these discriminatory factors.

Some of the effects of employment discrimination to the community include, low standards of living, homelessness, many children are sent to foster care due to their parents incapability of taking care of them, increased social crimes, poor utilization of resources hence, poor infrastructure and social amenities (Bell, 2007). Impact on a group or organization level Also at a group level/organizational level, employment discrimination may result to differences in job status, pay, and job type between the discriminated groups and those that have not been discriminated.

Some organizations usually have to go through the negative effect it has on its reputation as well as increased discrimination-related litigation especially when employers introduce bias into the employee selection process. Stigmatized groups in the organization usually like to compare themselves to those in the same position as them, and when they do so they lose their self-esteem hence resulting to negative effects on job performance. Discrimination may also affect the desirability of some workers to certain job promotion and new job recruitment at a new company (Couch, 2010).

When these groups decide to go out of their way and apply for the advertised posts, the discriminatory effect usually has a significant effect since most of them suffer from increased role conflicts, role ambiguity, work tension and decreased job satisfaction and work commitment. Impact to the firm Due to the discriminatory nature of the private firms, most of them are known to lose some of their skilled workers to firms which do not condone discrimination.

This, as a result, leads to loss of profits due to reduced productivity, efficiency and loss of inexpensive labor, hence, the firm may as a result endure a greater loss (Alon, 2007). Due to discriminatory practices, many firms are faced with law suits, which drain the firm financially. The organization also suffers from negative reputation, which is bad for business. III. SOLUTIONS Create formal processes to build relationships The organization may start by building a formal relationship among the workers; this might be the first step towards reducing employment discrimination.

Thereafter, the workers may extend the relationship to informal social networks, and this may help to reduce discrimination more and more. In addition, the organization may improve workplace relationship by initiating mentorship program. Mentoring relationship helps to improve the relationship between a senior employee and a junior employee, so as the two give each other career guidance, they also improve their relationships. Hold managers accountable for making bias-free decisions Managers are normally the decision makers in the organization.

Some of their choices or decision may either have positive or negative impact on the company. It is their responsibility to give guidance which will be for both the company and workers' interest. Therefore, they should be held responsible for any biased decision made such discrimination while hiring, evaluating and promoting. Managers can also be evaluated by other members of the company on some of the decisions they make through a multi-rate evaluation system such as 360 degree feedback (Bell,.