Introduction
Gender discrimination happens the moment members of the opposite sex are treated unevenly. In a company, gender discrimination entails treating workers unequally in their employment just because one is a male or female (Smith, Oades, and McCarthy 51). Gender discrimination in the workplace arises when employers or managers treat an employee unfavorably based on their sex, be it in the process of applying for employment or provision of such requirements as promotions, leaves, and salary increments, to mention a few.
Gender discrimination happens illegitimately, as there are many existing laws that forbid and seek to eradicate discriminatory approaches. Even though females have made it apparent that they have the capacity to operate with similar or greater proficiencies and success in any task when judged against their male counterparts, the problem of gender discrimination still restrains the progress of many.
Though gender discrimination is mainly a problem that affects females, it may, at times, be carried out against male employees. How can a company address the issues of gender discrimination in the workplace? People might suffer gender discrimination through such practices as sexual harassment, being disdained unfairly in employment, dismissed, or mistreated by a supervisor, manager, employer, or a higher-ranking employee. Much needs to be done to eliminate gender discrimination in the place of work, which has persisted in being a major problem in the contemporary world, irrespective of the enactment of many laws that seek to combat the vice.
Discussion on Management Dilemma Question
Why are the issues of gender discrimination increasingly being reported in the company?
Several concerns result in the continued existence of gender discrimination. Though much progress has been realized, female employees continue to earn way less than their male counterparts in typical jobs or get promoted severally with women who have equal qualifications being denied promotion. Although many women are taking up executive positions in organizations, even some professional, vocal, and skilled, female leaders usually struggle with the negative perception that men, and other women, hold toward them.
On the contrary, similar assertive attributes are perceived as strengths in the case of male leaders (Newman 1). Stereotyping males as the breadwinners and females as home managers lead to gender discrimination. This makes some employers feel that they do not have to pay female employees as much as the male ones to make them take a task or promotion.
Management Question
How can the company realize gender equality in its workforce?
The management ought to have a comprehensive understanding of the existing laws to eradicate discrimination in the place of work, for instance, with respect to ensuring equal pay and preventing harassment, victimization, and unfairness anchored in sex. In this regard, they will be better placed to administer the laws. The management should set strict measures against gender discrimination. Moreover, managers should make it easy for workers to report incidences of discrimination (Newman 1).
Research Question
Should the company offer employment, pay, and promotion founded on ability and not gender?
It is a widespread perception that female employees are better placed in junior roles, while male workers will do exceedingly well if offered high pay and executive positions (Patterson and Walcutt 87). Nonetheless, such forms of stereotypes create the basis of gender discrimination in the place of work, and measures have to be implemented to prevent such actions from occurring. Offering employment opportunities, assigning positions, giving salaries, and issuing promotions have to be provided based on people’s capabilities, and attributes, irrespective of their being men or women and the preferences of customers or fellow workers should not be a strong and protected rationale behind the unequal treatment of employees anchored in their gender.
Discussion of Investigative Questions
Will the company reduce gender discrimination?
The company should do everything possible to reduce gender discrimination as a means of rising above its negative effects. One of the negative impacts of gender discrimination is lost productivity. The moment an employee suffers gender discrimination, whether a male or a female, desolation, and loss of motivation are the issues that are likely to crop up (Patterson and Walcutt 87). Lack of morale and a poor sense of worth will make it difficult for the affected employees to give their best to the tasks assigned to them. On this note, the company will gradually begin encountering losses.
Some employees in the company may have a feeling that it is bad for females to take leadership positions when some men have lower ranks. In this regard, some of the female employees who deserve promotion may be denied so that they remain at junior positions. Such acts of discrimination could kill the motivation of the female workers and make them not achieve their best for believing that their efforts will be ignored and cannot be rewarded through such practices as earning them promotions. Moreover, such gender discrimination might negatively influence the victims both professionally and individually.
Gender discrimination in the workplace may result in destruction. Victims of such acts of discrimination might encounter a sentiment of loss of self due to the harbored bitterness and dislike, and they may end up reacting unsuitably to draw the attention of the management through the destruction of the company’s assets, particularly if they are short-tempered. Therefore, the company should reduce gender discrimination and strive to create gender equality.
To attain gender equality, the company needs to equal salaries for both male and female workers and eliminate hindrances to the effective contribution of employees. The management should also learn to address the interests of both male and female employees in a fair and equal manner (Patterson and Walcutt 87). Gender equality in the workplace is the most appropriate and reasonable thing for the company to strive to achieve.
Will it make employees more competitive in the market?
A company can reduce gender discrimination by training employees on how they are supposed to treat each other and allowing them to access and benefit from opportunities, resources, and awards irrespective of their gender. Training reduces gender discrimination in a company, is considerably significant to the bottom line of the organization, and makes both male and female workers competitive in the market (Delfgaauw et al. 308).
Based on the interviews conducted in this field, I discovered that if male and female employees fail to realize equal opportunities in the labor market, the excellence of the workforce will be lower than in a case where gender discrimination has been eliminated (Delfgaauw et al. 308).
A company can make workers competitive in the market through training, which consequently results in salary increase. However, because the facilitation of the competitiveness of employees and reduction of gender discrimination leads to improved performance, companies are compelled to train workers and offer a favorable working environment to enhance job satisfaction. A positive environment with admirable working conditions and human interrelations is vital to retaining employees’ loyalty to a given company as it prevents them from leaving.
Will it reduce turnover?
The replacement of workers within a company may raise their annual wage by even more than 25% (Delfgaauw et al. 308). If both male and female employees are given equal opportunities, they have a high likelihood of remaining in the company for perceiving the conditions to be fair. On this note, the rate of turnover for a company that has ensured gender equality in the workplace is decreased hence lowering the cost of recruitment.
Members of the gender that face discrimination will keep leaving hence increasing the rate of turnover. Gender equality in the workplace generates flexible working agreements that enhance the satisfaction of the requirements of employees and offer favorable conditions that result in retention of workers. A company that triumphs over gender discrimination will promote retention of workers and decrease expenses by saving funds that could otherwise have been spent in adverts, termination payments, organizing interviews, and onboarding outlays for new workers, in addition to the time that could have been taken in interviewing the candidates to mention a few.
Will it improve employee satisfaction?
The commitment of a company to gender equality results in job satisfaction and motivation, particularly for female employees (Delfgaauw et al. 308). On the same note, most male employees will as well enjoy reduced gender discrimination as long as their salaries or working conditions are not affected negatively. Improvement of job satisfaction will play a key role in generating a more competitive work setting that may improve the productivity of the workers. Moreover, apart from boosting the productivity of workers, enhanced job satisfaction is found to be influential in ensuring facilitated employee retention.
Evaluation of Research
A company should eliminate gender discrimination in the workplace by initiating training programs that enhance equality and diversity (Basford, Offermann, and Behrend 345). For instance, an organization could address gender discrimination by improving gender equality through programs that seek to boost the representation of female and minority employees and closely monitoring the manner in which hiring is conducted.
Gender equality training programs act as a crucial stride in reducing discrimination and decreasing the rate of turnover. Training programs raise awareness, which assists the workers to reflect on the best way of redesigning practices with the purpose countering discrimination more successfully. Nonetheless, studies establish that training programs alone may not be adequate to eliminate gender discrimination that taints fair operations in a company. Nonetheless, training programs are vital as they create awareness and elicit reflection of more successful means of changing practices and organizational endeavors that result in gender discrimination.
It has been found that the things that get assessed in a company are easy to address and when employees receive gender incentives, they embark on approaches that reduce discrimination (Basford, Offermann, and Behrend 345). In this regard, a major aspect of reducing gender discrimination is through the assessment of possible pointers, evaluating the dedication of the management in realizing gender equality, and provision of gender incentives based on performance.
Gender incentives decrease discrimination in the workplace and facilitate job satisfaction. A strong incentive is in line with the set strategic practices, which are based on organizational gender equality plan. This approach seeks to make the female employees competitive because of the public approval of their excellence and the progression undertaken by the company to reduce gender discrimination.
A company could embark on anti-discrimination policies to define the anticipations and values while laying down complaint processes that will establish the best means of handling possible violations. Most companies choose to prepare a single document that details the anti-discrimination policies (Basford, Offermann, and Behrend 345). The policies that bar discriminative practices based on gender ought to encompass a progression of resolving such problems when they occur.
Workers ought to be guided by the personnel who will follow up on their concerns effectively. When discriminatory concerns are forwarded, the personnel in-charge ought to commence a thorough investigation, identify possible witnesses, and recommend the best action. In cases of egregious instances of gender discrimination, the best action could be the suspension or dismissal of the worker that carried out the misconduct.
Enhancing transparency could also reduce gender discrimination (Basford, Offermann, and Behrend 345). This should entail improved transparency in what the management is doing with respect to recruitment, remuneration, and promotion. Making the salary range of the workers public and monitoring what the progress realized in terms of reducing gender discrimination will make both the employees and the executive fair in their decision-making. Making oneself accountable to other people for the decisions made assists in ensuring objective choices.
Recommendations to Management
- Create training programs for both the staff and workers regarding prevention of gender discrimination: Since employees are at times not conscious of their biases, they may not realize when they are swaying the outcomes negatively. In this regard, educating and making workers aware of what is required of them is vital to reducing gender discrimination. When employees know the way stereotypes operate, they have a tendency of examining their decisions carefully (Okechukwu et al. 580). This has been established to break the inclination of using stereotypes as a crosscut. Companies should also sufficiently train gender discrimination prevention staff. Such personnel ought to be educated in both the evident and indirect discrimination that occurs in the workplace. They should be taught on the means of recognizing the incidences of gender discrimination amid the employees, the best way of handling the occurrences, and prevention strategies.
- Provide gender incentives: The management should seek a manner of offering positive motivational influence, particularly to the gender more vulnerable to discrimination. This will make the management proactive in the endeavors of discrediting stereotypes. For instance, any time when managers have the opportunity of introducing the employees, particularly female, they should affirm their proficiency or praise them for being successful. These approaches will assist in rising above the notions that stereotypes usually generate, particularly in raising uncertainties regarding the proficiency of female employees (Basford, Offermann, and Behrend 345).
- Create policies that promote gender equality: For the organizations that value diversity in their labor force, it is established that they ensure an increase in productivity and the bottom line, and a reduction in gender bias, absenteeism, court cases, and turnover. Mutual respect should be created by companies creating policies that enable it to hire individuals of different ethnic backgrounds, cultures, ages, and sex anchored in their competence, and treat them evenly. In such instances, the diversity backgrounds of the workers coupled with their skills enable them to offer more resourceful initiatives, which hold the focus of customers and generate their loyalty. Furthermore, an organization that eradicates gender discrimination finds it easy to draw a wide pool of talents and, hence, attain better-skilled applicants (Okechukwu et al. 580).
- Enhance transparency: Lack of transparency creates the likelihood of gender discrimination, which may make skilled employees leave, decrease the motivation of workers, or lead to the buckling of the bottom line. A company ought to facilitate transparency by ensuring that its practices of recruitment, remuneration, and promotion are done in an open and fair manner, and offering clarification to anyone that may find it necessary. Enhancing transparency reduces gender discrimination in the workplace by making every worker feel treasured and well-incorporated into the team (Okechukwu et al. 580).
Conclusion
In a company, gender discrimination involves treating workers unevenly based on one’s sex. Even if gender discrimination is mostly a challenge that affects females, it may in some instances be carried out against male workers. A lot requires being done to eradicate gender discrimination in a company, which acts as a major problem in the contemporary world notwithstanding the endorsement of many laws that seek to fight the vice.
Providing employment opportunities, allocating positions, giving remunerations, and issuing promotions have to be done based on people’s competencies and attributes, regardless of their being men or women. Some of the recommendations to the management with respect to the eradication of gender discrimination entail educating workers regarding how stereotypes function, revealing the professionalism of female leaders, and providing training.
Works Cited
Basford, Tessa, Lynn Offermann, and Tara Behrend. “Do you see what I see? Perceptions of gender microaggressions in the workplace.” Psychology of Women Quarterly 38.3 (2014): 340-349. Print.
Delfgaauw, Josse, Robert Dur, Joeri Sol, and Willem Verbeke. “Tournament incentives in the field: Gender differences in the workplace.” Journal of Labor Economics 31.2 (2013): 305-326. Print.
Newman, Constance. “Time to address gender discrimination and inequality in the health workforce.” Human Resources for Health 12.1 (2014): 1. Print.
Okechukwu, Cassandra, Kerry Souza, Kelly Davis, and Arnold Butch de Castro. “Discrimination, harassment, abuse, and bullying in the workplace: Contribution of workplace injustice to occupational health disparities.” American Journal of Industrial Medicine 57.5 (2014): 573-586. Print.
Patterson, Louise, and Brandon Walcutt. “Korean workplace gender discrimination research analysis: A review of the literature from 1990 to 2010.” Asia Pacific Business Review 19.1 (2013): 85-101. Print.
Smith, Patrick, Lindsay Oades, and Grace McCarthy. “The Australian corporate closet, why it’s still so full: A review of incidence rates for sexual orientation discrimination and gender identity discrimination in the workplace.” Gay and Lesbian Issues and Psychology Review 9.1 (2013): 51. Print.