- Equality of opportunity and Diversity management policies- the differences and similarity
The equality of opportunity comes from the concept of EO model. It is a model focusing on eliminating discrimination. Managing diversity can be explained as- it is known a typical workplace consists of different types of people. These differences can be either visible or non-visible or both, the factors that are included in the category are sex, background, age, race, personality, working style, disability and so on. It has been seen that harnessing these differences could lead to better productivity of work, making each employee feel valued. Where the diversities are used to its advantage, making full utilization of their talents, hence making the organization meet its goal.
The main difference between the managing diversity and equal opportunity is the implementation of the driving force. In one hand, where equal opportunities are initiated externally by means of society ethnicity like fairness, justice, human rights etc. on the other hand, managing diversity is initiated by internal means like business needs. Every organization should focus on increasing the productivity of the organization by fully utilizing the skills of the employees. If an organization fails to recognize the skills of its employees, it can be costly. Employees from diverse background should be kept into account fully utilize their skills, which would lead to equal opportunities in the organization.
Another major difference between these two models is the tow approach objective. The main aim of the EO approach represents the social justice, correct errors and human rights. Whereas managing diversity mainly deals with treating all employees as an individual, identifying that each employee has their own desire and needs, and hence need different assistance to succeed in the organization.
Thus there is some essential difference between managing the diversities and equal opportunities. to put it in one sentence it would be like Managing diversity approach is mainly related to business and economics-related matters within the organization. In contrast, equal opportunities mainly deal with the ethnic, social cases in order to treat everyone with equal rights.
But in reality, many employees over the years have fought against the EO legislation as it was forcefully imposed on them. EO was more for the fairness, group parity and justice, but the employees were less likely to implement.
It has been reported that the managing diversities are usually carried on by all the managers because every manager is responsible for bringing out the underling skills and utilize them fully for the benefit of the organization and employee as a whole. Different steps have been taken from time to time in order to merge the cultural diversity, like arranging multicultural workshops, advisory councils to report to top management, good performance appreciation and other development programs. Hence providing all the employees equal opportunities to improve themselves to get rewarded. Similarly, equal opportunities are also driven by the HRM department. Identification of the employee rights and legislation through an approach where also only the disadvantage group may get benefited.
- Commitment to workforce diversity and inclusivity
In today’s world diversity has become increasingly important in the political, economic and business environment. In a report of Human Capital trends of 2014, it has been found out the number of executives citing inclusion has increased by 32%. It has also been found out that in the last three years, the percentage of the companies that were rating themselves at the gender diversity has gone to a top-notch. But at present, the issue is wider than the standard business and needs more attention. Diversity and inclusion have now been affecting different brands, performances and corporate purposes. Not only the companies are aware of the rising issue, but the employees and the public are also showing stronger opinions on the issue of diversity and inclusion. Millennials see inclusion as a part of an organization’s culture and believe that all organization should be committing to it. The shareholders, suppliers and customers have been showing concern on the issue.
Hence as the diversity and the inclusion rate has been growing, the concept of diversity and inclusion and become more popular than ever, in terms of talent acquisition and employment branding etc. many organizations have been operating through environments of high transparency and demand of employees. For the younger employees, it is not only about assembling the different teams but also in making a bond between the team members to see that each one of them is respected. Thus it is recommended that the companies should commit to workforce diversity and inclusivity and hence with the expectations of Millennials.
If it is considered that at present days the organizations have been working in networks, it becomes even transparent, of how the diversity and inclusivity and lead to the reinforcement of organizational performances. Researches have shown result that the teams that involved the concept of diversity and inclusion are found to be more innovative and creative. The research involved comparing a high-performance team that with a low-performance team where it was seen that the people in the team should feel like they are an important part of the team to speak up and give their contributions.
Despite all the researches and scrutiny, it was felt from the surveys that the modern business faces a reality gap, where the result seemed too slow. As the CEOs of the businesses has abdicated themselves from the responsibility reaching out to the chief diversity officers, who hold the managers responsible and business leaders responsible for all levels accountability. The employees are becoming conscious of explicit bias. There are some organizations that have started taking actions to reveal the issue and make the necessary changes to deal with it.
The most popular way that can be suggested to deal with the issue is undoubtedly training. Hence as such interventions are helpful, only making the people aware is not enough. The organizations should opt for making the changes in the structure, and encourage transparency and immersing executives in the biased world to make them understand how biasness can affect business outcomes.