International Human Resource Management - Essay Example

The Asian employee was one of a handful of employees from Asia, and was poorly recognised by the White-dominated senior management. In addition, the Asian employee eventually found out that the senior managers had initiated no attempt to gain knowledge of and appreciate diversity in the company, and had implemented several corporate principles and rules, especially those concerning proper clothing at work, that most employees of different ethnic origins thought were intolerable and offensive.

Consequently, the working relationships were obviously weak and conflict-ridden. These employees believed that they were victims of racial discrimination. And based on what I have learned from our textbooks, especially from Shaun Tyson’s Essentials of Human Resource Management (2006), I believe that they were actually unfairly discriminated because of their ethnic origin. There are different types of discrimination. Discrimination could be ‘indirect’ or ‘direct’. Indirect discrimination involves processes and rules that discriminate subtly, like clothing rules that implies that some employees belonging to an ethnic minority are not allowed to wear customary clothes at work.

On the other hand, direct discrimination is an observable type of discrimination, like not hiring or assigning certain employees to higher positions (Wright & Conley 2011, 14). Workplace bullying and harassment are other examples of direct discrimination. In the UK, everybody should be protected from harassment or racial discrimination. The Race Relations Act safeguards citizens from racial discrimination (Tyson 2006, 425). If anyone experiences any form of racial discrimination at work, s/he should file an official complaint to the employment tribunal.

To successfully pursue a complaint under the Race Relations Act, the petitioner has to actually prove that the action of a colleague or an employer led to him/her being unfairly treated due to his/her ethnic origin. It is immaterial whether they planned or deliberately discriminated against the petitioner or not; the matter is the action that resulted in a racial discrimination (Craig 2007, 9). The Race Relations Act includes every feature of employment, as well as terms and condition of employment, removal from office/dismissal, redundancy, compensation packages, training, promotion, selection, and recruitment.

However, and it is essential to take note of this, not all occupations are protected by the Act, such as private residential services (Tyson 2006, 425-426). Another major fact about the Act is that it not merely prohibits occurrences of discrimination; it also prohibits employers from allowing such discrimination to continue. In addition, it grants individuals who witness discrimination, but are not victims of it themselves, the power to take action against it (Wright & Conley 2011, 11-12). I, personally, experienced too much difficulty mustering the strength to do something about the racial discrimination I witnessed at work.

However, the Act also forbids persecution or discrimination against the person who has pursued a discrimination case. Nevertheless, there are exclusions to the Act. If someone, most likely an employer, sufficiently and reasonably justified the act of hiring a person of a certain racial affiliation, then that will be permitted or considered legal (Wright & Conley 2011, 230). Moreover, there is range for initiating positive effort, where someone can call out for individuals of a certain ethnic origin to