DIVERSITY

Managing Diversity

Managing Diversity

Introduction

Diversity, viewed in its broadest sense, includes all the characteristics that make one individual different from another. It includes variations in personal aspects we control as well as those over which we have no choice. The term diversity, when applied to demographics, can include variables such as race, religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation, age, education, and geographic origin. Diversity can also include work group affiliation, life-style, career history, and cognitive style. The diversity found in the UK gives us areas of commonality through which we can connect with others and aspects of difference from which we can learn. Diversity can provide opportunities to embrace new customs and expand traditional roles; however, it may also create challenges as people struggle to find common ground in communities composed of individuals and groups with varied backgrounds and values.

Discussion

The main aspect of workplace diversity is the inclusion of women in the workforce. Within the UK, feminist analyses of the position of women in the labour market have, traditionally, placed great emphasis on gender divisions within the family and women's responsibility for domestic work as having necessary implications for women's labour market participation and positioning. For example, the tendency of married women or women with child care responsibilities to work part time is adduced in support of the Conventional View that processes prior to entry into the labour market determine women's segregation into lower paving sectors.

The fact that the majority of part time workers in the UK are women with family responsibilities” has ramifications for the proper role of anti-discrimination law: both domestic courts and the European Court of Justice have recognized that unequal treatment of part time workers may amount to indirect sex discrimination, since any exclusion of part time workers is likely to have a disproportionate impact on women (compared to the impact on men). Furthermore, there has been much empirical research to show that, in spite of equal pay legislation, occupation by occupation, part time workers earn less per hour than full time workers. Whilst the differential between men and women's hourly pay can be explained in part by differences in skill distribution, a persistent percentage of the differential remains attributable to women receiving unequal pay for jobs of similar skill levels.

In the 1970s, the U.K. passed legislation against women's workplace discrimination to ensure that women receive pay and work conditions similar to that provided to men (Hetherington 2008, pp. 25). However, to date, the conditions for women workforce is still not favourable in relation to conditions for men. One legislative body dealing with enforcing employment rights is the Employment Tribunal System or the ETS. Through ETS, both men and women workers could file suits against any of the discrimination faced in their employment. In spite of the present strong status of the institution, women hourly pay, both for full time workers and part timers, averages lesser than men.

Today we must recognize that people have different profiles and needs, but also in culture, national origin, age, sexual orientation, ...