Managing Diversity Awareness Campaign - Essay Example

Managing Diversity Awareness Campaign Gender Equality in the Workplace Literature on Gender Equality in the Workplace Gender equality emphasise the equal right of men and women. It strongly opposes the practices of discrimination on the basis of gender differences. Gender quality can be achieved if men and women can enjoy similar opportunities and rights across all the sectors including decision making and economic participation (Krook and True, 2012). Since the last forty years, one of the most significant changes that any organization has experienced is the increase in female employees within workplace. Currently, the participation of women in paid labour accounts for almost 50% of the total labour force (Klomegah and Fleming, 2014). A significant number of researches over the period of time have described the discrimination and underrepresentation of female employees within workplaces which are focused on analysing the gender biasness and earning gaps within the male and female employees of organisation. Equality of Human Right Commission (EHRC) has indicated that gender discrimination within workplace still persists in different forms. The number of charges regarding sex discrimination has been elevated by 12% since the last ten years while sexual harassment changes have increased by 29% (Fredman, 2011). Semykina and Linz, (2013) have explained in their researches that the major issue related to the gender inequality within workplace is the persistence of the male employees towards the stereotypical behaviour, beliefs and practices which influence them to subject women in workplace as the less competent variables. By supporting the view, Zhao, et al., (2011) have also stated that women employees are less likely to secure a higher position within the top management of any organisation despite of possessing similar or higher level of educational as well as work related qualification. Stainback, et al., (2010) have described that family commitments of female employees are generally viewed in a negative light while it hardly affects the career of the male employees. Byron, et al., (2014), has described pregnancy discrimination as one of the potential gender inequality practices in workplace that influences the discriminating treatment with female employees due to their pregnancy, medical condition due to pregnancy and childbirth. Details of the Awareness Campaign The awareness campaign Gender Equality is focused on improving the behaviours and attitude of workers and management towards the diversity of gender within workplaces. The awareness is essential for businesses due to the increase of female employees in the workplaces. Globalization, effects of economic slowdown and changes in family structure and life style are influencing a huge number of women to involve in the professional world. In the current era, women have covered almost 50% of the total labour forces within the world. Beside the increase in the female workers, a number of organisational cultures have demonstrated practices related to workplace inequality and discrimination. A number of researches have demonstrated stereotypical behaviours of managements towards the empowerment and payment structure of female employees. The gender inequality practices have affected the work environment, employee motivation, organisational profit and organisational work culture. It has also restricted the management to improve the diversified decision making process. Therefore, the awareness campaign is targeted to generate and maintain gender equality practices within organisation to improve the organisational culture, employee motivation, performance and retention. Process: The awareness campaigning has mainly targeted the higher level authorities of the organisation. The major target is the top as well as middle level management as they are responsible for structuring and regulating policies to maintain the organisational behaviour and work culture. Apart from that, the campaign also seeks to distribute awareness within the different worker levels to increase knowledge regarding the discriminating practices and the importance of workplace equality. The primary target of the campaign is the male employees within organisation. The campaign will educate them to generate equality within workplace. It will assist them to improve their behaviour and practices towards gender equality while eliminating discrimination. The female employees also need to be targeted to increase their awareness regarding their rights and position in the workplace. Communication Tool and Media: The awareness campaign has utilized the print media to communicate messages with the targeted demographic. The campaign has taken the assistance of posters to impart the knowledge regarding the importance of gender equality in the workplace as well as the negative practices and their affects within organisation. The posters will assist the organisation to enhance the visibility of the message of the campaign while incurring very low cost. The strategic positioning of poster can also be considered as an added advantage. It can be displayed in different location to ensure visibility by a large number of populations. The campaign has also targeted to utilize audio communication tool to rapidly distribute the information and communicate the awareness regarding the advantages and practices of gender equality within different departments of the organisation. Objective: Improvement of the gender equality practices within the organisation. Increase awareness regarding gender discriminating behaviour within workplace and its disadvantages. Communicating the benefits of gender equality with the different levels of the organisation. Suggesting and influencing different practices of gender equality in organisation. Critical Review Advantages of the Awareness Campaign Establishing gender equality practices within organisation is an important phenomenon for any business. The proper execution of an awareness campaign within the workplace assists the business to overcome a number of difficulties related to organisational work culture and behaviours. The gender equality awareness campaign will provide an in-depth knowledge regarding the gender discriminating practices across the business sectors. It will also allow employees to gather knowledge regarding the impacts of the gender inequality in the workplace. Therefore, this campaign will assist the organisation and its workforce to improve their business practices as well as increase their contribution towards the society. The campaign on gender equality will enable the management to concentrate on women empowerment. According to Cornwall and Rivas, (2015) empowerment of women will provide decision making power to the female employees. It will also increase the diversity in the decision making process of any organisation. The author also have mentioned that the gender equality and women empowerment process will improve the ability to increase assertiveness in the collective decision making process of any organisation. The improvement of women empowerment program will allow the management to increase the involvement of female employees in the senior and top management team. This practice will enable the management to enhance the capability to take innovative and flexible steps for the future growth. The awareness campaign will educate the management of the organisation to increase the participation of female employees in the team management procedure. Andersen and Hansson, (2011) have evaluated a number of benefits of women in managerial positions. According to the authors, women in managerial positions provide more importance towards team cooperation, affiliation, nurturing and communication rather than their male counterparts. This behaviour of communal leadership generally influences organisations to establish more open, fair and flexible organisational practices. The interpersonal skills will also allow the female management to improve the relation with the workforce (Beveridge and Velluti, 2013). Hence, it enhances the work motivation as well as performances of the team members. The awareness regarding equality of gender will also enable the organisation to involve in different society development programs of government within their operation countries. Women empowerment within workplaces and society has become one of the important agenda for governmental as well as non-governmental authorities within different parts of the world. Keating, et al., (2014) have mentioned that the development project and programs of women empowerment has accumulated wider acceptance across the world since 1990s. The gender equality program and awareness will certainly enable the organisation to indulge in global citizenship program. Hence, it will improve the position and market reputation of the organisation. The gender equality campaign will influence the organisation to provide healthy working condition of the employees. According to a research of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the sexually harassing behaviour and violent and ignorant behaviour towards the female employees causes poor organisational publicity as well as lower productivity (Emmenegger, 2012). This situation increases the importance of gender equality awareness within organisations. It will also enable the managing to increase the workplace safety for their female workforce. Therefore, it will improve the performance of a huge portion of the workforce while minimizing the employee turnover rate. The awareness will allow the management to improvise the organisational policies for the benefit of women during different health and social issues such as pregnancy, child care etc (Sobering, et al., 2014). Therefore, it allows the management to gain the loyalty of female employees. It also enables the management to retain their valuable and skilled workforce. This awareness campaign regarding gender equality will also enhance the social life of the employees. The equal opportunities of each gender within workplace and collaborative work processes will shape the social behaviour and practices of the workforce. Hence, it will generate harmony in their family and social life as well. The increase in the position and pay structure of the female employees will also enhance the economical condition of communities and societies (Krook and True, 2012). Disadvantages of the Awareness Campaign Though the awareness program will provide a number of positive effects within the organisational culture and organisational operations, the absence of involvement of wide range of media may also hamper the desired outcome of the campaign. The awareness program through the poster may restrict the organisation to reach all of the targeted audience. The absence of proper communication may also hamper the efficient delivery of the message. The scarcity of two-way communication in their awareness program will hamper the understanding of the targeted audience. It will also restrict the management to assess the understanding of the workforce regarding the awareness program. The proper implication of the awareness campaign will be quite time taking. The effectiveness of the process can be assessed by the changing behaviour of the workforce as well as changes in managerial actions. The awareness campaign through record will also possess different disadvantages. The campaign through the audio cannot provide proper confirmation regarding the active listening of the targeted audiences. Most of the times the employees and authorities tend to listen to these messages while they are driving or busy in some work. The absence of complete concentration hampers the desired effect of this awareness campaign. Reference List Andersen, J. A. and Hansson, P., 2011. At the end of the road?: On differences between women and men in leadership behavior. Leadership & organization development journal, 32(5), pp. 328-341. Beveridge, F. and Velluti, S. (Eds.)., 2013. Gender and the open method of coordination: perspectives on law, governance and equality in the EU. United Kingdom: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. Byron, R. A. and Roscigno, V. J., 2014. Relational Power, Legitimation, and Pregnancy Discrimination. Gender & Society, 20(10), pp. 18-24. Cornwall, A. and Rivas, A. M., 2015. From ‘gender equality and ‘women’s empowerment’to global justice: reclaiming a transformative agenda for gender and development. Third World Quarterly, 36(2), pp. 396-415. Emmenegger, P. (Ed.)., 2012. The age of dualization: the changing face of inequality in deindustrializing societies. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Equality and Human Rights Commission, 2015. Dealing with Discrimination. [online] Available at [Accessed 11 May 2015]. Fredman, S., 2011. Discrimination law. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hoobler, J. M., Lemmon, G. and Wayne, S. J., 2014. Women’s Managerial Aspirations An Organizational Development Perspective. Journal of Management, 40(3), pp. 703-730.] Keating, C., Rasmussen, C. and Rishi, P., 2014. The rationality of empowerment: Microcredit, accumulation by dispossession, and the gendered economy. Signs, 40(1), pp. 12-76. Klomegah, R. and Fleming, N., 2014. Pay Inequity: A Comparative Analysis of Pay Inequality in the United States by Selected Correlates. The Journal of Public and Professional Sociology, 6(1), p. 3. Krook, M. L. and True, J., 2012. Rethinking the life cycles of international norms: The United Nations and the global promotion of gender equality. European Journal of International Relations, 18(1), pp. 103-127. Semykina, A. and Linz, S. J., 2013. Job Satisfaction and Perceived Gender Equality in Advanced Promotion Opportunities: An Empirical Investigation. Kyklos, 66(4), pp. 591-619. Sobering, K., Thomas, J. and Williams, C. L., 2014. Gender In/equality in Worker‐owned Businesses. Sociology Compass, 8(11), pp. 1242-1255. Stainback, K., Tomaskovic-Devey, D. and Skaggs, S., 2010. Organizational approaches to inequality: Inertia, relative power, and environments. Sociology, 36(1), p. 225. Zhao, J., Settles, B. H. and Sheng, X., 2011. Family-to-work conflict: Gender, equity and workplace policies. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, pp. 723-738. Read More