Work Place Discrimination-Free-Samples for Students-Myassignment

Question: To what extent can work place discrimination be effectively managed by human resources? Answer: The essay aims to address the question- to what extent can work place discrimination be effectively managed by human resources? Workplace discrimination is the burning problem in Australia and in many countries in the world. Talking about Australia, nearly a million people have faced workplace discrimination in recent years and it can take many forms. According to O'loughlin et al. (2017), in past two years, around 480,000 Australian workers reported having experienced workplace discrimination due to age. Everyone in three Australians experience racism in the workplace. Further sexual harassment is affecting Australian women disproportionately. Every one in 20 men and one in five women report experiences of sexual harassment in workplace Australia. Human resource managers may not be able to manage the workplace discrimination to a great extent. The essay will critically analyse the relevant resources related to workplace discrimination especially age discrimination, sexual harassment and racial discrimination and the way it can be avoided to address the essay question. The human resource department cannot stop sexual harassment at workplace. As per the standard protocol, a well trained human resource manger conducts immediate and impartial investigation whenever anyone experiences sexual harassment at work (Kensbock et al., 2015 pp. 36-50). The recent statistics of sexual harassment at workplace in Australia demonstrates how far things are from the standards. There is a wrong system in place to address such queries and concerns. Human resource management in many cases appeared to show biasness towards star performers. No action was taken against sexual harassment committed by excellent performers in the organisation. In several recent cases the HR mangers were found to support the alleged abusers instead of victims (Braithwaite Ahmed, 2015 pp. 20-26). It is argued by Fox and Cowan (2015, pp. 116-130) that in majority of cases in Australia and US, it was observed that HR mangers do not follow the basic compliance function. It seems that they misinterpret their mission of ensuring zero violations of law by the company as protecting the organisations from lawsuits. It is the not the scenario in most cases. HR managers provide sexual harassment training just to follow the basic rule set by Supreme Court in 1980s. If a company can prove itself that it has taken adequate measures to prevent harassment then by Supreme Court decision it is not liable for employees behaviour. Therefore, many middle and small size organisations only tend to maintain the preventive part of the standards by stating in guidelines about the Sex Discrimination Act or a short training. There are few organisations that handle sexual harassment at workplace however; it should be a visible commitment and requires an effective leader. It can be concluded that HR depa rtment fails to address the sexual harassment to a great extent in workplace due to reluctance, lack of skills and talent and poor position of this department in the organisational charts. HR managers fail to address racial discrimination in Australian workplace which is known as multicultural society. Human resource management on the name of preventing the racial discrimination at workplace only does teach its employees on how to treat those from other races and backgrounds. It is just the backdrop of tolerance when talking about the diversity and inclusion in workplace. In many workplaces the zero tolerance policies only cover the discriminations such as minorities making less money than the white counterparts. Zero tolerance does not really mean zero tolerance in most organisations (D'Netto et al., 2014 pp. 1243-1266). Some of the cases showed HR manager to victimise the employees for complaining the Australian Human Right Commission about racial discrimination. As per D'Netto et al. (2014) the HR style of diversity management in Australia especially in manufacturing sector uses legalistic compliance approach. The root cause of racial discrimination is not considering the diverse workforce as source of competitive advantage. Based on survey maximum small and middle size organisations were found to lack effective practices for diversity management. Various Australian manufacturing sectors have failed to recognise the overseas skills, capitalise on benefits, and value diversity. Other factors acting as barrier for HR department to handle the workplace racism are increased training costs, ineffective communication skills, and social isolation. In Australian workplace most migrant workers were found to be disadvantaged. HR management in several organisations is not relevant to prevent age discrimination. With the increase in aging population, age discrimination has become very common in Australian workplace. Age discrimination was also reported by the job seekers. More than 300,000 older Australianswhen applying for job feel to be judged unfairly (Macdonald Levy, 2016 pp. 169-190).As per UNSW Australian Business School, many agencies hire people at age range that cuts off at 40 or 45. It means mature labour forces cannot be expanded and its feasibility and validity is questionable. As per the age discrimination study conducted by the Human Rights Commission in 2015, many people over 50 looking for paid work are deprived of opportunities for promotion and training. The human resource managers are found to reinforce the negative attitude towards ageism at workplace. In many Australian job descriptions it is mentioned young and vibrant which is indirect signal to old workers that they are not welcomed (Martin et al. 2014 pp. 992-1018). The HR department does not keep pace with what is known as skilled based workforce due to anticipations and myths. Further, there is reluctance in HR manager and line managers to have transparent open conversations with mature-age workers. There is lack of awareness among these professionals about the true value of old workers and that old people are also talented (Conway Monks, 2017 pp. 585-606). Without a positive perspective on skilled based workforce and willingness to handle the stereotype about old workers skills the HR department cannot fix the age discrimination. Thus, it acts as a barrier to governments expectation that the aged people will remain in paid work. In conclusion, the workplace discrimination is the burning problem in Australia and many other developed countries. The essay discusses three areas of discrimination at workplace that are sexual harassment, racial and age discrimination. It is difficult for HR managers to handle these discriminations at workplace to a great extent. The preventive measures taken by HR department are just to flaunt the high company standards but not address these issues. The presence of age discrimination legislations or Racial Discrimination Act or Sex Discrimination Act does not seem to help HR mangers to prevent such discriminations. Only by changing the stereotyping attitude and including diversity and inclusion in true sense can the discrimination be handled. There is need to fours on long term corrective actions by the HR managers and use systematic approaches to what is known as individual problem References Braithwaite, V., Ahmed, E. (2015). The personal management of shame and pride in workplace bullying. Conway, E., Monks, K. (2017). Designing a HR System for Managing an Age-Diverse Workforce: Challenges and Opportunities. InThe Palgrave Handbook of Age Diversity and Work(pp. 585-606). Palgrave Macmillan UK. D'Netto, B., Shen, J., Chelliah, J., Monga, M. (2014). Human resource diversity management practices in the Australian manufacturing sector.The International Journal of Human Resource Management,25(9), 1243-1266. Fox, S., Cowan, R. L. (2015). Revision of the workplace bullying checklist: the importance of human resource management's role in defining and addressing workplace bullying.Human Resource Management Journal,25(1), 116-130. Kensbock, S., Bailey, J., Jennings, G., Patiar, A. (2015). Sexual Harassment of Women Working as Room Attendants within 5?Star Hotels.Gender, Work Organization,22(1), 36-50. Macdonald, J. L., Levy, S. R. (2016). Ageism in the workplace: The role of psychosocial factors in predicting job satisfaction, commitment, and engagement.Journal of Social Issues,72(1), 169-190. Martin, G., Dymock, D., Billett, S., Johnson, G. (2014). In the name of meritocracy: managers' perceptions of policies and practices for training older workers.Ageing Society,34(6), 992-1018. O'loughlin, K., Kendig, H., Hussain, R., Cannon, L. (2017). Age discrimination in the workplace: The more things change.Australasian Journal on Ageing,36(2), 98-101