Equal Opportunity in Employment

PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT

Chapter 12 – Equal Opportunity in Employment

Equal opportunity in employment includes several areas: legislation, hiring minorities and handicapped, and discrimination against women.

Legislation

The labor laws relating to discrimination in employment are largely intended to prevent employers, from victimizing employees or potential employees on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, marital status or trade union membership. Under the labor code, legal redress is available to those who claim and can prove that they have been discriminated against by their employers.

Hiring Minorities and the Handicapped

Society now demands that managers hire minorities and the handicapped or those workers whose earning capacity is impaired by age, physical or mental deficiency or injury. It demands that managers provide employment opportunities to those who might otherwise have difficulty getting jobs.

Discrimination against Women

In spite of the recent increase in the number of women in the workplace, there is more to be done particular on the questions of salary inequities and promotions to managerial promotions.  Despite legal actions initiated by militant women, salary discrimination against women continues. Discriminations in the area of management promotions are all too evident. Barriers include hiring biases, policies, procedures, and systems which prevent women’s rise in management.

Overcoming Inequality in the Managerial Ranks

1. Women may cultivate the “feminine qualities” expected on them as basis for achieving managerial positions in functions that place a high value on such qualities.  Since women may build early career advances in it by developing special knowledge on one of these functions and by using it effectively to influence corporate decisions of growing importance.

2. Women may adopt the masculine standard of behavior to enter the ranks of management. And having succeeded in entering the ranks, may consider changing their behavior to one that expresses less of an emphasis on masculinity.

3. Women may seek entry into informal networks of organized by women and for women. Awareness of individual competencies, acceptance of their incremental contributions and sensitivity to organization implications can be achieved through participation in such informal networks.

The Role of Managers in Equal Employment Opportunity

Managers can play a role in neutralizing the problems of discrimination in employment and lack of equal opportunity. He can hire and train disadvantaged employees and live up to the law. He can adopt and enforce non-discriminatory hiring policies, lower job requirements, design and develop programs to train and integrate the disadvantaged into the work force, and he may redesign jobs or provide a more enriching work environment.