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I noted with interest that research done for the Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For showed that the happiest workplaces are those run by women. I don’t think the answer is that all our companies should be run by women (though progress in this respect is seriously needed!); its more that we need to focus on the way women run organisations and encourage others to do the same. The research pointed out that women were in touch with their emotions, put others first, cared for their staff and praised them for their contribution.
The research reminded me of the well-known book ‘Good to Great’ where Jim Collins stressed the need for leaders to show humility and professional good will
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Submitted by karamat on Sun, 2006-03-05 18:12.
Interesting headline in Personnel Today about Barclays Bank expecting its suppliers such as legal firms to deliver on diversity in line with its own commitment. This reminded me of Contract Compliance from the 80s when mainly Labour controlled councils such as GLC used to expect their suppliers to demonstrate their commitment to equal opportunities.
I certainly agree with Personnel Today that "it is largely accepted that it makes good business sense to weave diversity through the fabric of corporate culture" and also that if the trend catches on then it "could have far-reaching cultural changes"
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Submitted by karamat on Thu, 2006-03-02 16:32.
According to the recently published Management Agenda from Roffey Park , while only 6% of the respondents (who contributed to the Agenda) saw no evidence of commitment to diversity in their organisations another 28% felt organisations have "fine statements but little action".
Overall, less than a half of the respondents had both clear statements and concerted action to address issues.
Critically, less than half believed that managers are competent to manage diversity in their organisation.
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Submitted by karamat on Tue, 2006-02-28 12:21.
I recently came across an article in The Guardian entitled 'Liberal Racism'. At first I thought how can this be possible. Isn't this a contradiction in terms? Upon reflection, it reminded me of a paper written by Roger Ballard and Tahirah Parveen on marginalisation and exclusion in professional arenas. They explored Memmi's views which pointed out that people, least of all from polite, professional and middle class circles find it difficult to accept that they could be guilty of discrimination. Of course, many of the 'arenas' the authors were referring to are in the control of people from these very same circles. If there are failings in the institutions run by them they have to at least accept some of the responsibility.
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Submitted by karamat on Sat, 2006-02-25 17:51.
Two headlines I came across recently which make it clear that there is still a great deal to do by organisations on equality and diversity:
"Most firms still failing to combat bias in the workplace"
"Tribunal costs reach £210m as employers fight
harassment claims"
I also came across a statistic which stated that "by 2011, only 20% of the UK workforce will be white, able bodied men aged under 45". It may be stating the obvious to point out that, if the figures are true, then in five years time 80% of the workforce will be made up of ethnic minorities, the disabled, wom
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Submitted by karamat on Sun, 2006-02-19 16:49.
An international airline has recently been reported for asking its Christian employees to remove their crucifixes on the journeys to Saudi Arabia. This is a clear example of organisations taking pre-emptive steps in case they offend sensibilities of people from other faiths. Other similar examples have included removal of Bibles from patients' drawers and attempts to change names of Christian schools, all supposedly to avoid offending non-Christians.
Employers should be careful in case their actions are seen as discrimination in the workplace and cause them to fall foul of the Equality in Employment (religion or belief) legislation.
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Submitted by karamat on Sat, 2006-02-11 18:37.
At Bilston Community College, where I worked as Deputy Director of Equal Rights and Management Unit for some 13 years, I developed much of my expertise in equality and diversity. I learnt that it was pointless talking about the general concept of equal opportunities, one had to look at its component parts ie equality of access, outcome, resource allocation etc. Perhaps the key one amongst these was equality of treatment (according to need). This was basically saying that we should not treat everyone the same but treat them according to their needs and circumstances, in other words, that we should treat people differently.
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Submitted by karamat on Fri, 2006-02-10 08:24.
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Submitted by karamat on Thu, 2006-02-09 14:58.
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Submitted by karamat on Thu, 2006-02-09 14:47.
