Scenario 3: Equity And Diversity Research Assignment (Research Paper Sample)

EQUITY AND DIVERSITY
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
SCENARIO 3: EQUITY AND DIVERSITY
REPORT
Introduction
Equity and diversity in the workplace is an issue that has been on the radar even in the 21st century. Employees are constantly in a struggle to fight for positions at any organization. The hotel has exposed itself to issues that relate to inequality among the employees especially with regard to gender roles at the hotel. The state at the hotel is the basis of the study in an attempt to try and give analyze the inadequacies and the strengths of how the hotel has been set up by the management. The paper will determine if the division of labor at the hotel is fair for both genders.
Issues analysis
The issue of gender and division of labor is at the helm of the operations at the hotel. The women are in a constant war of fitting into a structure that favors the male gender. The concept of gender has often been confused in various aspects in the society. Theoretically, Gender is defined as the central organizing factor in the society. The manager at the hotel believes that the female gender should only handle certain tasks as opposed to other tasks perceived to be for the masculine gender.
According to experts, gender often places women to an unequal position in the workplace and the society as compared to men. The main goal of intervention is to ensure that there is gender equity at work. Gender Equity at work refers to the different ways of ensuring that there is impartiality and fairness in how women are treated regarding benefits and opportunities. In this case, equity is an important aspect of the case study. Women feel like they are constrained from the numerous opportunities that are present for the male employees at the hotel.
The female employees who want to work at the bell desk are faced with the challenge of conforming to the constant gender disparity at the concierge. The female employees are left out of the concierge desk as it comprises only of male employees who work as either bellmen or doormen. According to Edward, the concierge captain, the work at the concierge is dominated by the males because the job description entails also carrying client bags and it can be strenuous to the female employees at the hotel.
Edwards states that at some point, a female employee had to quit because the bags were too heavy for her to carry. The general manager since has failed to incorporate the female employees to the concierge desk because it needs masculine characteristics to help in handling luggage. Therefore, women at the hotel find it difficult to get a spot at the concierge since one of the ladies had already quite due to heavy loads. The general manager believes that women are socialized to perform certain duties and upholds a chauvinistic approach to division of labor. Women interested in the task are unlikely to get any consideration as it is believed to be a male-dominated section of the hotel tasks. The hotel management has left tasks that require beauty and cleaning services to the female employees hence causing a diversity problem at the hotel
Edward should handle requests by female employees in a better way to avoid any form of discrimination. The challenges faced in the past is clear discrimination against the female employees. Edward needs to encourage more applications to the concierge and present all applicants to the test of service delivery instead of locking out the female gender from the concierge tasks.
The hotel needs to give women fair treatment. If the concierge needs able-bodied men, then it is necessary that the manager allows the female applicants to make their intention known for the position of the concierge. However, denying women on the basis of physical attributes can be termed as discriminatory and against the equal employment opportunity policies already in place in the international community. The best suggestion for Edward is to create assistant slots for the female gender to avoid any lawsuits that would target the lack of diversity and equity at the hotel. Edward must ensure that all employees feel fairly treated and have equal access to opportunities and benefits within the hotel.
Discussion of responsibilities
Organization Responsibility
The organization needs to reaffirm that all employees will receive equal treatment at the workplace. This calls for an audit of the employees and how each department is constituted. This will enable the organization to determine which areas need a reshuffle or improvement. The organization must ensure that employees receive equal employment opportunity to the various department and roles within the hotel. The hotel has to ensure that the policies that are put fourth can help ensure that the problem of equity and diversity are addressed based on the international law, federal laws and state laws on equal employment opportunity (Bailyn, 2011).
The organization can also reaffirm that each employee will receive equal recognition and be awarded benefits just like the rest. The organization needs to ensure that all employees feel appreciated by ensuring that the model for appreciation encompasses all employees regardless of department, gender, race or minority status (Smith & Koehoorn, 2016). This will foster a more inclusive workforce and conducive work environment. All employees must be able to feel part of the system by ensuring that everyone is contented with the rewards and compensation at their level of expertise.
Management Responsibility
The management is closest to the employees. Therefore, the management must conduct an audit of the numbers of employees in each department with an attempt to ensure there is diversity and equity. The management can help write down policy regulations that will govern the hiring and firing process. The equal employment policy will help the hotel owners to ensure that they are conforming to the demands of a fair division of labor. Edward should have proposed to have his department given a few assistant female employees to ensure that each department is diverse.
Secondly, the management should train the employees on diversity and equity issues. New employees should be placed on a mentorship program that would help guide them on the operations and values of the hotel. The management must ensure that there are consequences for any form of discrimination at work hence it would deter more cases of abuse of power or authority to discriminate on an employee based on race or gender. The general manager at the hotel has to ensure that each employee is happy at their station and warn any supervisors from encouraging any form of discrimination (Ukhova, 2015).
Worker Responsibility
Employees can help promote diversity and equity by being aware of the diversity goals and visions of the hotel. The employee needs to determine how the diversity impacts their specific roles or how the roles impact the success of the diversity initiatives. Secondly, employees need to participate in internal surveys and give honest responses to help the management determine areas that may need changes and adjustments. Honest expression of concerns will help determine equity and diversity solutions at the hotel.
Employees like Edward should be tolerant to other female employees. Since one female employee did not succeed in handling concierge duties, it does not mean that male employees should dominate the role. Edward should give a chance to interested female applicants to work under close supervision and guide them on how to handle clients. This will help bridge the gap between the gender disparity in that department within the hotel. Employees need to be on the forefront of driving the agenda of equity at work (Castro, 2015). Once an employee feels appreciated and treated fairly, the output and performance also increase.
Practical application
Gender inequality in the workplace affects women employees in different ways. The women are disadvantaged in various ways because of their gender. It is sad that at the hotel women have been denied the concierge jobs because of the experience of one individual lady who could not perform some of the tasks. Today, the theoretical framework that defines this mode of gender inequality issues include; The Human Capital theory that states that the inequalities present among the women and male employees are due to the differences in skills and work experience and not overt discrimination.
From the human capital theory, it is clear that the hotel owner does not perceive his action as discriminatory but rather helpful to the female employees. The manager is clearly stuck in a society where it is still believed that women can do very little to match the skills and experiences that men can offer at work. According to Canibano & Potts (2016), the management should not handle women in this regard; this could be an avenue to deny women the express freedom to apply for work at the concierge. Women at the hotel should be presented to the interviewing panel to ensure that everyone gets a chance to present their capabilities and abilities. The modern society has come to accept that even female employees can work in fields previously believed to be a dominant male society. The manager should have ordered interviews and give preferences rather than locking out the whole female workforce from the concierge roles. This could be seen as discriminatory.
According to the gender socialization theory, women are believed to be socialized to behave in gender-appropriate ways right from childhood (Carter, 2014). Therefore means that the women at the hotel are likely to be unable to work at the concierge because of the inability to handle roles otherwise believed to be male roles. These assertions are not accurate as the workforce today has seen female employees tackle fields and roles otherwise perceived to be male role...