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Chapter 4

Equity and diversity within organisations

Glenda Strachan, Erica French and John Burgess

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Gendered organisation

To say that an organisation is gendered ‘means that advantage and disadvantage, exploitation and control, action and emotion, meaning and identity, are patterned through and in terms of a distinction between male and female, masculine and feminine. Gender…is an integral part of those processes, which cannot be properly understood without an analysis of gender’ (Acker 1990: 146).

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Gendering: Interacting processes

1) Construction of divisions along gender lines, e.g. divisions of labour, allowed behaviours

2) Construction of symbols and images that explain, express, reinforce or sometimes oppose those divisions

3) Interactions between and among women and men, e.g. conversation style

4) Gender is implicated in the fundamental, ongoing processes of creating and conceptualising social structures, e.g. organisational rules, directives, job evaluation (Acker 1990, 146–147).

These processes help to produce gendered components of individual identity including presentation of self as a gendered member of an organisation.

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Inequality regimes

• Analysis of work processes have exposed different impacts for people from different classes and ethnic groups, as well as gender.

• Individuals can be subject to a number of inequalities.

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Approaches to equity management

Strategies• Identity-conscious – explicitly includes demographic

group identity, e.g. using employment agencies that specialise in finding female candidates.

• Identity-blind – does not include demographic group identity, e.g. creating part-time management positions (Konrad & Linnehan 1995)

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Approaches to equity management (cont.)

Policy types• Temperamental policies – address individual

disadvantage• Role-related policies – acknowledge differences in

social roles and their impact at the workplace• Social structural policies – concerned with the

organisation of work and organisational structures (Kanter 1976)

• Opportunity and support policies – assist women/minorities in their roles/occupations (French & Maconachie 2004; Sheridan 1998)

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Why do organisations have diversity programs?

• Business case• Labour shortage

‘Best practice’ organisations link strategies and programs to overall business goals, e.g. Coles (retailer): ‘diversity is increasingly being melded into the culture of the organisation, thanks to a clearly defined strategy with accountability at executive level and the integration of diversity into a range of cultural programs, as well as recruitment and development’ (EOWA 2009)

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The case studies

The ‘clean’ lines of policies do not necessarily reflect the ‘messiness’ of organisational practice. Organisational practice is complex.

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Metal Manufacture

Challenges

• There is an active program of recruiting women through high schools and universities. However, there have been disappointingly few applicants, especially at the trade apprenticeship level.

• The need to provide suitable equipment and protective clothing for women in traditionally male plant-based jobs.

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Metal Manufacture (cont.)

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Innovations

• Career development and succession planning is aimed at encouraging female employees.

• There is a mentoring program for women and several women are engaged in study funded by the company.

• Flexibility of working hours within the constraints of the industrial process, work from home, and part-time work has been provided for employees returning from maternity leave. Carer’s leave is used by many employees.

• Five weeks’ paid maternity leave and two weeks’ paid paternity leave.

• The display of inappropriate material was a problem a few years ago, but the levels of non-compliance have fallen from around one third to only 6 per cent. This has been achieved through education and repeated audits of workplaces.

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Technology

Challenges

• Recruiting and keeping skilled staff. There is a competitive labour market in some geographic areas and some skill areas, and an industry-wide tendency for employees to move on after a few years.

• Ensuring consistent and fair promotion and transfer practices across different work areas and locations

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Technology (cont.)

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Innovations

• Success in recruiting female engineers (21per cent of new appointments)

• Focus on training new employees in appropriate behaviour relating to sex-based harassment

• Formalisation of telecommuting in terms of consistent policy and occupational health and safety aspects of the home workplace

• Paid maternity leave under discussion, and the provision of child care arrangements to be addressed in the near future

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Hospital

Challenges

• The high proportion of female employees and the perceived need to provide for effective work–family balance.

• Medical practitioners who are not members of staff have status and power but are not always cognisant of policy and practice, or amenable to change.

• Lack of quality child care has been identified as an issue, and may have to be addressed directly if on-site child care is provided at other hospitals.

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Hospital (cont.)

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Innovations

• Elaborate efforts to accommodate staff with flexible working arrangements to suit a work–life balance.

• Some managers, including senior managers, work part-time or job share.

• Employees can change from part-time to permanent work provided vacancies exist.

• A wide range of services are offered to staff, including access to health facilities and classes such as yoga.

• Opportunities for training and further study are offered to part-time and full-time staff.

• Issues around bullying and harassment of staff by patients and other workers continue to be addressed.

• Six weeks’ paid maternity leave and one day’s paid paternity leave in addition to the statutory requirement. Long service leave arrangements are flexible.

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Leisurewear

Challenges

• Although flexibility of hours and work arrangements has been acknowledged, line managers stressed the importance of meeting certain deadlines, or occasions when a group of employees needed to be present at the same time; so there are clearly limits to the degree of flexibility, at least in some work roles.

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Leisurewear (cont.)

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Innovations

• During a period of rapid expansion, Leisurewear has achieved approximately equal numbers of female employees at most organisational levels.

• Work from home and/or individually tailored return to work from maternity leave has proven successful.

• Most employees praised the availability of flexible arrangements and were pleased that they were made in response to individual needs.

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Recreation Facility

Challenges

• This is a seven-days-a-week operation with peaks during school holidays. This makes work and family balance hard to achieve.

• Some young and inexperienced employees may be reluctant to report harassment or inappropriate behaviour to older staff.

• Recruiting staff in non-traditional areas, for example women into technical roles.

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Recreation Facility (cont.)

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Innovations

• An increasing number of women at more senior levels, and confidence among female staff that promotion is possible.

• A breastfeeding policy allows mothers to take unpaid time from work to feed the baby.

• ‘Banking’ of hours for casual staff, who can accumulate unpaid hours in order to be paid when not at work.

• Extended leave for some employees, e.g. for travel.• Part-time staff have varied contracts to suit their work–

life balance.• ‘Buddy’ system to support young, new or inexperienced

employees.

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Engineering Manufacture

Challenges

• Few women apply to work in non-traditional areas.• Rapid expansion and amalgamation of different

companies adds to the challenge of formulating and implementing consistent, fair policies.

• Women employees expressed dissatisfaction with lack of flexibility and consider that Engineering Manufacture is not a family-friendly workplace.

• Very little flexibility available in terms of varied working hours, part-time work or job sharing.

• Employee awareness of policies and conditions of employment is inconsistent. There is no HR professional in the organisation.

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Conclusion

• Diversity and equity management offers a strategic means of addressing the disparity between individuals and different groups in the workplace.

• Case studies show programs respond to legislation and individual organisational needs.

• There are a range of strategies and policy types used by organisations.

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