Equal Opps and Diversity

Equal opportunities blog

Equality

Equality is usually defined as that general feeling of making everyone, irrespective of where they came from, feels like we are all the same. The feeling of whatever social background we came from, we will all get the same treatment with sheer just and fairness. Like in a workplace, both men and women should have the same salaries if they both perform the same job.

Diversity

Diversity is usually defined as having a mixture of people peacefully co-existing in a place, be it in a community or work place as perfect examples and no one is being discriminated based on one’s race, religion, sex or even sexual preference. It is that state of being able to recognize that everyone is different and that these differences should not matter in how we treat each other.

Difference between Equality and Diversity

Equality is the about receiving the same treatment, although diversity is more about creating an environment that thrives on our differences and no matter how glaring these differences are, no one is being a victim of discrimination. Equality is being able to work in a company or live in a community that give the same human rights to everyone. Whereas diversity is recognizing that everyone is different and being able to peacefully co-exist with each other despite or in spite of these difference.

In 2006 the age legislation act came into force which led to people of all ages gained the equal opportunity and for workplaces to have a diversity of different age ranges, this would therefore lead to a more diverse age group within a workforce and people will no longer be discriminated against due to their age so therefore would effect in the recruitment policy for the employers.

There are many stereotypes for people young and old and these are how people are perceived. For younger people the stereotypes usually followed are trivia driven i.e. fashion and TV, egocentric and energetic whereas a stereotype for older aged people may be complaining, focused, knowledge and slow working. Companies can change the attitudes of stereotyping by employing a workforce consisting of both age groups. This will help as both groups will have to work together and in turn may come to realise that the stereotypical view is not the same as to how the person is. Also companies may realise that both age groups can learn from each other as the older group has experience and may be able to help younger employees, although the younger employees can offer help in other area’s i.e. technology as they may be more use as they are aware of how it works and can support the older staff members.

Sainsbury’s is an organisation that specifically offered jobs to people aged over 50 as this was part of their equal opportunities drive and over 10,000 jobs were made available to the age group. The move was well received by age organisations such as Help the Aged and Age Concern. Although it was met with some critics stating that the younger generation suffered, Sainsbury’s answered these by stating this was to balance the workforce age-gap and was a usual complaint from customers which were asking for more mature employees. Available

To conclude equal opportunities is a fair solution to an unbalanced and unfair system, so from equal opportunities companies should employ people from all backgrounds and age which in turn will also lead to a diverse organisation and a cohesive workforce as they are more likely to be able to help each other based on differences. In some circumstances this policy can’t be followed i.e. sports teams, although in general this should be common practice from 2006 for most businesses and this is what it should be.

References

Laurie J. Mullins (2010) Management & organisational behaviour. 9th ed. Essex: Pearson Education Limited

Age Discrimination Act [online] available from: http://www.is4profit.com/business-advice/employment/age-discrimination-legislation/age-legislation-october-2006.html [Accessed on 22^nd April 2011]

10,000 jobs created for over 50’s [online] available from: http://www.employersjobs.com/news_article.aspx?NewsId=549&NewsArchive=10,000-jobs-created-for-the-over-50's [Accessed on 22^nd April 2011]