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Making the Business Case for Diversity
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Making the Business Case for Diversity &International Human Resource
Management
Terminology
Equal Opportunities
• Refers to legislation that promotes and protects equality and fairness amongst protected
groups
• Employers must observe equal opportunity laws for recruitment, selection, promotion,
redundancy, fair / equal treatment, etc.
Diversity (Inclusion)
• Refers to respecting everyone as individuals, valuing their differences. Employing strategies
that include everyone on the payroll (i.e. everyone’s involved).
• Employers choose to manage diversity (but sometimes choose not to at their peril!)
Equality Act 2010
Under the Equality Act, there are four main types of discrimination:
• Direct discrimination: occurs where someone is treated less favourably directly because of:
o a protected characteristic they possess (ordinary direct discrimination)
o a protected characteristic of someone they are associated with, such as a friend,
family member or colleague (direct discrimination by association)
o a protected characteristic they are thought to have, regardless of whether this
perception by others is actually correct or not (direct discrimination by perception).
• Indirect discrimination: where a provision, criterion or practice is applied equally to a group
of employees / job applicants, but has (or will have) the effect of putting those who share a
certain protected characteristic at a particular disadvantage when compared to others
without the characteristic in the group, and the employer is unable to justify it e.g. haircut
dress code that affects those from a particular race.
• Harassment: ‘unwanted conduct’. It can be verbal, written, or physical e.g. bullying, threats,
or unwanted physical contact.
• Victimisation: when an employee suffers what the law terms a ‘detriment’ - something that
causes disadvantage, damage, harm or loss because of:
o making an allegation of discrimination; and / or
o supporting a complaint of discrimination; and / or
o giving evidence relating to a complaint about discrimination; and / or
o raising a grievance concerning equality or discrimination; and / or
o doing anything else for the purposes of (or in connection with) the Equality Act
2010.
, The Equality Act 2010 defines nine protected characteristics:
• Age
• Disability
• Gender reassignment
• Marriage and civil partnership
• Pregnancy and maternity (i.e. motherhood)
• Race
• Religion or belief
• Sex
• Sexual orientation
(Source: http://m.acas.org.uk/media/pdf/1/0/Equality_discrim_understand_basics_Nov.pdf)
Discrimination
‘Discrimination’ is the process of judging people according to particular criteria. For example, in the
selection process for a teaching post, the appointment panel might discriminate in favour of a
candidate who answers their questions clearly and concisely and discriminate against a candidate
who mutters and digresses from the point. However, when most people use the term
‘discrimination’, they tend to mean unfair discrimination. The word is mainly used to denote that the
criteria on which the discrimination has occurred are unjust. It is likely that most people would not
describe the teaching post example above as ‘discrimination’, because they would not consider the
criteria the panel used (clarity and conciseness) as unfair. However, if the criterion the appointment
panel used to choose between candidates was gender or race, then most people would call it
‘discrimination’.
(Source: Julie Beardwell , and Amanda Thompson ‘Human Resource Management’)
All recruitment is discriminatory, but the objective is to prevent discrimination (specifically unfair
discrimination).
Equality
The emphasis on preventing discrimination was boosted by the American ethos of equal
opportunities (Nelson & Shavitt, 2002).
John F. Kennedy’s Executive Order No. 10925: Affirmative action.
• The concept of affirmative action dates back to the American civil-rights movement of the
1960s. Seeking to expand opportunities for minorities, then-President John F. Kennedy
issued an executive order in 1961 that established the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission and used the term "affirmative action."
• The order mandated that government contractors "take affirmative action to ensure that
applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without
regard to their race, creed (i.e. faith / belief), colour, or national origin."
• Essentially, Kennedy was saying contractors should go out of their way to ensure they didn't
discriminate against prospective or current employees.
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