work and organizational behaviour - lecture 10: equity in organizations: gender, race, disability...

Work and Organizational Behaviour - Lecture 10: Equity in Organizations: Gender, race, disability and class

Equity in Organizations:Gender, Race, Disability and

Class

Chapter 10


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


Figure 10.1 - Proportion of UK households with half the national income (1994)


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.


Table 10.1 – Employer-related difficulties in integrating workers with disabilities - USA


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...


Table 10.2 - International Earnings Ratios

This figure shows the widely varying wage ratios in developed countries


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

work and organizational behaviour - lecture 10: equity in organizations: gender, race, disability...

Documents

work disability

work organizations

class equity

class race

disability act

class tensions

aspects of gender

class gender overview