When an employee is treated differently in a workplace because of some external irrelevant qualities such as skin color, gender, origin, religion or age it is called inequality or discrimination in the workplace. Legally an organization is bound to treat all the employees equally. Inequality may take place either in form of fair discrimination or unfair discrimination. Fair discrimination is based on the job objectives, qualifications, skills and job-related criteria etc. only the unfair discrimination is based on the quality which is mentioned at the beginning.
There are mainly three types of inequality in the workplace: individual, structural and institutional. Individual inequality depends on personal perspective, judgment, and values. Prejudice, stereotypical thinking can be the source of discrimination. Structural discrimination is rooted in the structure and process of the organization. For example, an organization may prefer a certain group of people for promotion and other benefits. Institutional inequality is associated with organizational culture and norms. Sometimes it becomes so natural that it seems compatible but unequal opportunity which is well entrenched (Lewis et al 9).
A presumption of the society is the belief of the biological differences between groups and it us though that this is impossible to mitigate and undesirable. Paul is an African-American employee. He is a trainee marketing executive. In his last project, he made several errors. To address the problem Paul was placed in performance management to develop skills but he continued to do errors. If all other employees are given the same chance this is not unlawful to alter the employment as it was not based on the personal irrelevant attributes (Lawrence 59). Because of biological differences between groups, equality is impossible and undesirable.
Another presumption is women prefer to perform their existing role in society. It means they prefer to be a mother and to be a wife. Sometimes they are underestimated in the workplace and their pay is lower than that of a male colleague because they are unproductive and women. Sometimes women don’t get deserved promotion for their maternity, parental leave etc. Sally works at an advertising firm. She applied for the vacant account manager position. But the manager tells she didn’t receive the promotion because of the parental leave. Though she is highly qualified for the job she was ignored (Chemberlain 92). This is the violation of the employment act.
Globalization
Globalization represents the interaction between two different regions of the world. It may integrate two parts of the world through international trade, investment, information technology, and culture. At first, it was only economic globalization. But with the course of time, the cultural exchange took place so that the world has become a global village.
There are mainly two perspectives of globalization: Hyperglobalist and skeptic perspective. In hyper-globalist perspective, approach globalization is seen as the new epoch of the history of humanity. It seems that the relevance of national authority is declining. The idea of the global market and economic logic of borderless states is supported by this view. The liberals of the world view globalization as a good thing. The skeptic view sees globalization with suspicion. They believe it will create and reinforce inequality.
So the liberals and neo-Marxist scholars showed their own argument. According to the neo-Marxist scholars, the state plays the major political role in the world economy which protects the interest of the people of a region. According to them the third world country is becoming marginalized. The nation less economy will provide power to some certain corporation which will, in turn, strengthen the capitalism and increase inequality and poverty. Hamilton states the liberals argued that nearly all countries have a comparative advantage so there is a little chance that one can benefit at the cost of other (28). They argued that the growth of Multinational Corporation will channel the foreign investment flows which don’t mean the nation-states are no longer relevant for governing the flow of economic benefits.
The problem with globalization is the outcome of the process can’t be determined because of the historical trajectory of globalization. There is another group of scholars who are called transformationalist who holds the neutral point of view toward globalization. While hyper-globalist is claiming that the power of government is waning and the skeptics are arguing that the power of national government is growing they just see that the nature and role of the national governments are changing but the attribution of waning or waxing is oversimplified (Lemert 75). They consider a range of factors for influencing the process of the globalization. The hyper-globalist and the skeptic-globalists suffer from the theological ideologies and unacceptable empirical. They simply describe the process from linear ideological manner. The statistical patterns can be interpreted differently.
New employment and impact on workers
The future of work is changing. The form of employment is also changing with the socio-demographic and technological revolution. The driving forces have significant effects on the work and the workforce. The technology is transforming the nature of work so the organizations are forced to redesign their jobs. The human resource perspective has changed. The personnel of organizations are managed through close monitoring. There are two different views of HRM: Soft and Hard. In hard management, employees are driven by objectives and they are considered as labor. In soft HRM perspective employees are valued assets, the source of innovation, competitive advantage.
In the modern age still, some business follows the hard perspective but the successful organizations have changed their view towards the employees and the relationship between the employer and worker is shifting.
According to Fevre the employers are providing the flexibility to bring out the best performance of the employees (208). Flexibility is necessary for work-life balance. Researchers found that when people are satisfied with their job their job involvement increases. Flexibility in the workplace increases work-life balance and job satisfaction. There are various forms of flexibility such as reduced work-week, flex-time, compressed work week and job sharing. Job flexibility also provides financial flexibility and enhances motivation and retention.
Atkinson’s model of core and periphery demonstrates that the core full-time workers enjoy more flexibility. The peripheral contractual and numerically flexible employees experience more disposable and precarious status. So the numerically flexible workers are less protected. Frederick Taylor is a very popular name in management literature. A taylorian view is the employment relationship is based on the need for employees to work in return for a wage. It is more economical than personal choice. Methods are set by the managers and there is a direct control over the workers on how to perform the task. Amazon, McDonald's, and Starbucks are the great examples of it.
The normative approach holds the soft view of HRM. Many successful organizations have taken this approach to improve the organizational performance (Wolf et al 52). In this approach, the management focuses on developing and retaining employees. In return, the organization wants commitment and involvement. The employees and lower level management get the power of delegation and empowerment to carry out the duties and responsibilities. The managers can exercise the power of delegation within the specified boundary. The managers define the boundaries.
Self-Evaluation and ways to improve
Self-assessment is very useful for an organization. It gives the management a different perspective which demonstrates how well the managers and employees are communicating day to day. It allows the employees to provide feedback to the managers. Self-assessment is a very important part of performance evaluation. It is an own performance appraisal to assess one’s personal achievement. The main goal of the self-evaluation is to highlight the accomplishment and focus on the lacking of the performance. The employee should emphasize the impact of the performance on the organization. Self-assessment covers both the triumphs and mistakes. It also shows how critically an employee assesses own performance from a neutral point of view (Shuler et al 24).
My placement was invaluable and it gave me an understanding of the required skills and experience. I got a job as a senior marketing manager. Through the placement procedure, I have learned that how to develop a CV/Resume and cover letter. It developed the soft skills and network with the seniors in many organizations. It managed me internship which helped me to get familiar with a work environment. Relevant work experience is very important in a career path. Degree result is just a milestone and the work experience is the building block.
I have found many areas which can be a challenge such as confidence, understanding the job market, no work experience. There are some other factors which can be obstacles for my career such as joblessness, illness, change of residence etc. I have developed my communication and interpersonal skills so through work experience and networking with the alumni. To achieve the goals I have set some objectives. I have started the research on the industry which will bring the commercial awareness and knowledge. I have listed my strengths and weaknesses so that I can overcome my weakness. I am attending the career workshops every week. The workshops cover various areas such as general understanding of business, general banking; accounting is a firm, information, and technologies in business and marketing strategies. To remove the fear I am regularly interviewing many employers in my campus.
Works Cited
Chamberlain, James A. "Bending Over Backwards: Flexibility, Freedom, and Domination in Contemporary Work". Constellations, vol 22, no. 1, 2014, pp. 91-104. Wiley, doi:10.1111/1467-8675.12132.
Fevre, Ralph et al. "Discrimination and Unfair Treatment in the Workplace". British Journal of Industrial Relations, vol 49, 2010, pp. s207-s235. Wiley, doi:10.1111/j.1467-8543.2010.00798.x.
Hamilton, Sara M, and Bob Wood. Globalization. ABDO Pub. Co., 2009, pp. 26-42.
Lawrence, Kenneth, and Katharine A Klos. Sex Discrimination in the Workplace. Aspen Systems, 2008, pp. 56-67.
Lemert, Charles C. Globalization. Taylor and Francis, 2016, pp. 50-80.
Lewis, Richard. "Differences In Black And White Perceptions Regarding Addressing Racial Inequality in The Workplace". Oalib, vol 04, no. 12, 2017, pp. 1-11. Scientific Research Publishing, Inc,, doi:10.4236/oalib.1104199.
Schuler, Randall S, and Susan E Jackson. Strategic Human Resource Management. Blackwell, 2007.
Steger, Manfred B. Globalization. Sterling Publishing Co. Inc., 2010.
Wolf, Elke, and Miriam Beblo. Does Work Time Flexibility Work? ZEW, 2004, pp. 45-67.
