Impacts of Class, Gender or Ethnicity on Employment - Term Paper Example

 Impacts of Class, Gender or Ethnicity on Employment Contents Introduction 2 Discussion 2 Class, Gender, Ethnicity 2 Impact on Employment 4 Conclusion 11 Introduction Class, gender, ethnicity are three basic demographic and cultural characteristics of human beings. These are highly sensitive issue in any organization having employees from diverse demographic and cultural characteristics. These cultural and demographic parameters have created the social inequality in society. In most of the times, such discrimination occurs as the employers want to have gender and cultural discrimination in the organization and sometimes it happens according to the nature and requirement of work or sometimes for government rules & regulations. Such kind of business practices is considered as illegal only if employer is not be able to provide proper logic or reason for requirement of gender and culture biased workforce in the organization. If such kind of practices regarding employment can justify the position or it is consistent as per the requirement of business activities then only this HR practice should be considered as legal practice. Many rules and regulations have been applied to prevent such kind of practices. Examples of these rules and regulations are civil rights act and fair housing act of 1968 etc. International Labour Organization also has taken initiative to narrow the differences between the total number of male workers and female workers in a organization in the global context. Discussion Class, Gender, Ethnicity Class can be defined as the differentiation among person to person on the basis of their education, employment, economic condition and health & nutrition. If a person is well educated and do a good job from where he can earn a high amount of money and he is also achieved a good health then it can be called that the person belongs to a higher social class compared to a worker who works a low level job and his economic condition is also not up to the mark in comparison with the 1st person. It is observed that there are 3 types of class in society of each country. These are upper class, middle class and lower class. Different countries have different parameters to distinguish the people into different classes (Vosko, MacDonald and Campbell, 2009). The above graph shows the proportion of population living below the contemporary threshold level of income in UK. The graph depicts the data ranging from 1980 to 2009. The x-axis measures the years while the y-axis measures the median percentages of population living below the threshold level. Three scales have been chosen as shown on the graph. The scales are marked with different colours so as to facilitate the differences between them. It can be witnessed from the graph that the scale of less than 40% of the median is on the rise sequentially. The percentage was close to 3.5 in 1980 while the same rose to close to 10% at the end of 2009. This shows that the level of poverty has take the downward sloping curve in this country. It cannot be disregarded that the other scale namely the scale of 40% and 50% of the median remained stable over the period of time. Although the percentage increased over the period but it was the contribution made by the other scale of less than 40% of the median. The graph shows that almost 22% of the total population of the country lived in poverty in 2009 while the same was only 14% in 1989. Rise in the level of people living in poverty can be witnessed in the middle periods of 1990 to 1995 but the level came down since then. The graph acts as the indicator how the economy has faced the poverty problem over a period of time. It is also evident that the percentage of population living in poverty remained unchanged in 2010 as in 2009 whereas the proportion of people with the lowest income levels also showed no signs of change (Mathis and Jackson, 2008). Gender is the most common demographic segmentation of a person that can differentiate between masculinity and femininity. Socially, gender definition provide two options and those are male and female. Gender also differentiates the functional roles of male and female persons in an economy. As per the social science this can be said that gender is a social construct and biological differences between male and female created the concept of gender and discriminate between the humans. As per the expert’s view, it is clear that formation of gender identity is influenced by biological differences. Ethnicity refers to the perspective, distinction and cultural practices that also can differentiate not person to person but one group of people to another group of people. This also can be said that this indicates the shared cultural heritage. Ethnic differences are not achieved by a person from the time of their birth but it is can be gained from practices. Religions, form of dress, language, sense of history etc all come under the word of ethnicity (Sims, 2007). Impact on Employment In case of employment, there is a significant effect of class, gender and ethnicity. Class is a very important parameter for both employers an employee within an organization in different point of view. For example, a worker who is involved in manufacturing procedure cannot be able to do managerial work as his education is not appropriate for doing that kind of work and he has not such kind of experiences also. Again a manger does not know the technical work of a worker and the system of manufacturing procedure. A mechanic can solve the problems which are related to machine but the same person cannot create new machinery to fulfil the demand of specific machine in the production process. For this purpose, an experience mechanical engineer is required who has the professional degree, knowledge and relevant experience. Therefore, in case of recruiting a new employee, HR manager of an organization should keep high focus on all these parameters as the organization requires appropriate candidates for the appropriate position. But if a person is well educated and appropriate for any vacant position of the company but the person has not good economic condition, in that case, the HR manager should select that candidate as the candidate is appropriate for that position according to his knowledge, experience and education. If the HR manager will not select this candidate for only reason that the candidate belongs to low income group then it can be called as an unethical and illegal human resource practice in the organization. Figure 1 Figure 2 The above mentioned bar graph or figure 1 shows the status of employment in UK according to gender. The graph above considers men within the age group of 16 to 64 and women within the age group of 16 to 59. These age groups have been selected to keep the focus upon the working age population. A different bar graph has also been constructed so as to show the comparison between the two genders (Armstrong, 2006). The total population has been scaled on the x axis while the genders have been posted on the y-axis. The other figure shows the pattern for the period of 2006 to 2008. It can be said from the above graph that three quarters of the adults within the working age were engaged in paid work. Among them, half were employed in full time jobs and mere 9% as self employed. The figures also depict that a further 9% of the population within the working age group were either unemployed or were not job seekers. It can be witnessed that 17% of the population within the selected age group were inactive. However if gender categorization is observed it can be analysed only 59% and 39% of men and women respectively were engaged in full time affairs. Again, 6% and 26% of men and women respectively were engaged in part time employment. Employment according to economic class also affects the different sectors and HR manger of different sectors will take different policies in case of employment. Class will play a crucial role in case of employment at various sectors (such as agriculture, industry and service) in UK. It is natural that a HR manger never recruits a person in the service industry who has not sufficient knowledge and experience of working in service sector. Again in agriculture based industry, a salaried employee will not get appointment for the position of farmer. For this reason such discriminations are raised among person to person and class plays an important role in case of employment activities. These five economic classes are considered as the labour market characteristics. Trade unions are often involved in case of employment activities and they maintain the interest social classes as and when required. They also help to provide the appropriate work to an employee so that his knowledge, experience and education can get value from his work (Kirton and Healy, 2013). Gender is an important factor in the employment procedure in every organization. Every candidate should inform about their gender in pre recruitment form as because the nature of quality and the offered job will be dependent on this information. For example this can be said that a fire department requires employees who can carry 50 kg pack and they have to carry this item on the top floor of four storied building without any kind of lift facilities. Therefore, for this kind of work, woman workers will not be suitable as there will be an adverse affect on them from this work. So the company will choose male workers and such kind of employment will be a legal employment. Again many companies create equal opportunities for men and women both which will create more competitive stage to get entry into a particular industry (Mayrhofer, Brewster and Morley, 2007). International Labour Organization (ILO) has been given the key priority on this issue and they are very much supportive to create income opportunities and productive employment equally for men and women. They are conducting gender concerned promotion into the employment activities. As per their survey report this is observed that women only consist 40 % of total global workforce but their productive contribution towards the economy will help to face sustainable growth in the past decades. They refer to remove the gender blindness from the developmental and macro economical policies of the world wide spread organizations. Though many special initiatives has been taken by government of different countries and many large organizations to decrease the amount of difference between the male and female employees but the scenario has not been changed till now. Women are getting less remunerated and informal work than men even if they are equally educated and experienced (Zbilgin, 2009). In so many societies in the world a slow progress can be observed in this case. As per the female employment to population ratio this can be said that the level is increased than the previous days but still it is under the level men. One fourth of the total female workers in the world are not getting any kind of direct pay for their work. A certain percentage of female employees are not getting quality job or good opportunities in their profession. Women are receiving comparatively less wages, salaries and other benefits than men and they are continuously facing barriers to get education and professional training due to the gender biasness in many societies which will impact in a negative way on the employment opportunities provided by those organizations which exist in that society (Verdaguer, 2009). Ethnicity is another important factor in case of employment procedure. In UK, this is observed that the unemployment rate has been increased in the present year for ethnicity whereas this rate was in stable situation in the past year. The rate has been increased only for the white ethnic group. Previously this group was only 7 % of total population and now it has been increased at 8 %. In the below mentioned bar graph this is clear that in the manufacturing sector in UK Chinese and black people are getting less opportunities whereas the community of white people are getting maximum percentage of opportunities. Again in case of professional, technical and scientific field, black community and the people who came from Pakistan and Bangladesh are not getting satisfactory opportunities. So here significant discrimination of ethnicity in case of employment can be viewed in a clear way. But another side can be highlighted from this bar graph. Previously the unemployment rate of other minority ethnic group was 14 % which has been reduced in this year by 13 % which indicates that UK has taken initiative to offer employment opportunities not only to the white community but also to the other minority groups. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission also highlighted the said issue to solve this universal problem. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, 1964 also focuses on the prohibition of such discriminations which will arise from national origin, religion and cultural practices. Trade unions and employers should take corrective steps to prohibit the harassment against individual who are perceived from Middle Eastern, Muslim, Arabian and South Asian countries. For example, this can be said that if any person will seek job in UK and if he is coming from any south eastern countries then no harassment can be done on him regarding the affiliation by applying the above mentioned act which is strongly applicable in case of giving employment opportunities. Harassment will also be prohibited on his dressing style, cultural traits, his belief and perception and last but not the least on his religion which is very sensible issue (Gary, 2011). Conclusion In the part of recommendation and conclusion this can be mentioned that so many rules, regulations and systems have been implemented to improve the mentioned scenario but it has not changed totally and properly till date. International Labour Organization has taken initiative and also recommended to improve the condition of female workers in many societies. Creating synergies is one of their recommendations which will promote the gender bias free employment procedure. Some training can be provided to the female workers for building more capacity and raising awareness about their present situation so that they can raise their voice by getting help from the trade unions and can achieve what they deserve for their work. Technical assistance will also develop their skills and increase their knowledge about entrepreneurship. Similarly literacy rate will improve the social classes and give them the opportunities to work in managerial positions. Civil Rights Act, 1964 and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission take steps to prohibit the discrimination in case of employment on the basis of religion, colour, national origin etc. References Amos, T., Ristow, A, Pearse, N. And Ristow, L. 2009. Human Resource Management. Claremont: Juta and Company Ltd. Armstrong, M. 2006. A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. London: Kogan Page Publishers. Gary, D. 2011. Human Resource Management. New Delhi: Pearson Education India. Kirton, G. and Healy, G. 2013. Gender and Leadership in Trade Unions. London: Routledge. Mathis, R. and Jackson, J. 2008. Human Resource Management: Essential Perspectives. Boston: Cengage Learning. Mayrhofer, W., Brewster, C. and Morley, M. 2007. HRM in Europe. London: Routledge. Sims, R. 2007. Human Resource Management: Contemporary Issues, Challenges, and Opportunities. Carolina: IAP. Verdaguer, M. 2009. Class, Ethnicity, Gender and Latino Entrepreneurship. London: Routledge. Vosko, L., MacDonald, M. and Campbell, I. 2009. Gender and the Contours of Precarious Employment. London: Routledge. Zbilgin, M. 2009. Career Choice in Management and Entrepreneurship: A Research Companion. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. Read More