Work and Organizational Behaviour - Lecture 10: Equity in Organizations: Gender, race, disability and class Equity in Organizations: Gender, Race, Disability.
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Work and Organizational Behaviour - Lecture 10: Equity in Organizations: Gender, race, disability and class
Equity in Organizations:Gender, Race, Disability and
Class
Chapter 10
Work and Organizational Behaviour - Lecture 10: Equity in Organizations: Gender, race, disability and class
Introduction
This lecture will:
- Explain how the concept of equity affects organizations- Give an overview of equitable/inequitable practice- Discuss aspects of gender, race/ethnicity, disability and class
across major English-speaking countries- Outline areas of current and future investigation in these areas
Work and Organizational Behaviour - Lecture 10: Equity in Organizations: Gender, race, disability and class
Equity and Justice in Work Organizations
• The area of organizational justice is an important aspect for the development of a theory of equity in the context of OB
• Legislation can relate to:– Pay and employment– Human Rights (including disability, sexual orientation,
political/religious beliefs)
• Research in the area of justice covers three lines of enquiry:– Distributive– Procedural – Interactional
Work and Organizational Behaviour - Lecture 10: Equity in Organizations: Gender, race, disability and class
What is Justice?
• Justice is viewed as 'socially constructed'
• It includes objective and subjective dimensions
• Justice results in positive benefits:– Higher job satisfaction and greater commitment
– Positive manager evaluations
– Employee citizenship
– Reduction in absentees, conflict and sabotage
Work and Organizational Behaviour - Lecture 10: Equity in Organizations: Gender, race, disability and class
Tensions in the Workplace
• Tensions can be horizontal or vertical:– Horizontal tensions relate to group/organizational contexts
– Vertical tensions relate to capital/labour relations
• Vertical tensions relate to appropriation, which relates to private capital accumulation– They are unique to life under capitalism
Work and Organizational Behaviour - Lecture 10: Equity in Organizations: Gender, race, disability and class
Gender Overview
• Women have made up 50% of the workforce in capitalist countries since 1980, but wage differentials have changed little
• Women in managerial positions suffer from the effects of so-called glass ceilings or from sticky floors
• Gender harassment is a feature of workplace discrimination
Work and Organizational Behaviour - Lecture 10: Equity in Organizations: Gender, race, disability and class
Debates about Gender
• An issue of debate relates to management styles – some argue the new styles favour women, but others argue that this is based on a stereotypical view of female and male traits– Contrasting cases are taken by Wajcman and Meyerson and Fletcher
• LePine et al (2002) have developed a business case against gender inequity– Ngo, Foley, Wong and Loi have argued that although inequity can lead to
a decline in morale/performance, the market alone cannot be relied upon to ‘weed out’ unequal firms on this basis
• Despite the high profile of the ‘glass ceiling’ effect, the greatest effect of discrimination is at the level of the ‘sticky floor’ – poor workers often in the ‘Third World’ countries
Work and Organizational Behaviour - Lecture 10: Equity in Organizations: Gender, race, disability and class
Race and Ethnicity
• UK ethno-racial minorities are under-represented in higher roles and over-represented at lower levels
• Differences can exist as to employment within racial groups on other criteria such as age/disability etc
• Culture is as important as racial background in assessing the inequities• The research of Robinson has showed the value of English language
education in promoting mobility
• The situation varies between different regions and different races/ethnicities
• Perceptions of the situation also vary - eg different ethno-racial groups experience work differently (Moodod) – and this can be linked to other factors such as desire for social mobility, schooling etc
• Recent case study by Brief, Dietz, Cohen, Pugh & Vaslow stresses the significance of training relative to applications in black applicants
Work and Organizational Behaviour - Lecture 10: Equity in Organizations: Gender, race, disability and class
Figure 10.1 - Proportion of UK households with half the national income (1994)
Work and Organizational Behaviour - Lecture 10: Equity in Organizations: Gender, race, disability and class
Disability• Definitions of disability vary between countries but can be
defined in terms of five sub-groupings: Sensory / Physical / Mental and psychiatric / Intellectual and developmental / Learning difficulties.– In the UK the Disability Act handles these areas
• Stereotyping and discrimination often mean that disabled people have difficulty:– Finding work
– Applying their skills and talents
– Retaining work
• Disability is increasingly seen as a problem that individuals face in society rather than one that they have.
Work and Organizational Behaviour - Lecture 10: Equity in Organizations: Gender, race, disability and class
Table 10.1 – Employer-related difficulties in integrating workers with disabilities - USA
Work and Organizational Behaviour - Lecture 10: Equity in Organizations: Gender, race, disability and class
Social Class
• Class involves hierarchy and the features of power and control of resources associated with managerial and other elites
• However, 'class' is a difficult concept to define…– Classification can involve culture/status – including socio-economic
(wealth) or professional status (job)
– Views of class categorization vary; theories include Marx’s, Weber’s and those from Cultural Studies
– It is felt, however, that class differences are rooted in economic and employment differences
– Class is not always apparent; it can be low or high profile...
Work and Organizational Behaviour - Lecture 10: Equity in Organizations: Gender, race, disability and class
Table 10.2 - International Earnings Ratios
This figure shows the widely varying wage ratios in developed countries
Work and Organizational Behaviour - Lecture 10: Equity in Organizations: Gender, race, disability and class
Unions
• Unions express the institutional interests of subordinate groups and pursue their interests
• They resolve ‘vertical’ tensions but leave aside the team-based ‘horizontal’ tensions
• They can alleviate the difficulties of minorities and increase pay etc.– This is particularly the case in France/Germany and Scandinavia
– In contrast, recent trends in the US/UK have reduced the efficiency/influence of the unions
• Mainstream economic theory (as presented in the Reagan/Thatcher years) exacerbated the anti-union aspect of the 'market‘ in the US/UK– However.. Our view is that good economic and employment needs healthy
unions
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