Analysis on the gender equality management assignment 2020
Gender equality management has been one of the current topics that are being intensively researched by researchers across the world. The gender inequality and wage gap, has been always a being a matter of concerns for the management in the Australian companies. Since 1970, there has been an increase in the number of the female participation in the labour force and in the higher educational system. Gender equality management is being investigated to mitigate the earning gaps that prevail between the male and the female workers in Australia. A report published in the “average weekly earnings report” stated that the gender inequality and the wage gap rate favoured men by around 17.01% and this percentage has increased by 0.9% since 1994 (de Lemus et al., 2014).
Through the gender equality process, qualified female workers regardless of the age, experience, and educational level with are provided an equal opportunity to work and earn equal as men. The differences existing in the pay structure and the work opportunities are being examined in this research report. Australian government has introduced a gender equality policy in 2007, was highly emphasized by the authorities. Despite of the policy, change the gender equality aspect has always been a concern for the people and the management of different companies.
This research aims to find how the gender equality management process in Australia has improved over the years. Female workers regardless of their education, experience, and ability to work are less prevailed to work in the higher positions as compared to men. This reflects the gender inequality that exists in the country and in the companies that operates in different industries. Equality at the workplace permits the female staffs to work at different levels of the managerial positions, participate in the decision-making process, and in contributing towards the operational improvement. There is higher percentage of inequality that exists in this country, despite of the essential changes that were introduced by the government authorities in Australia (Eagly, Carli, 2007).
Research justification
The research subject was conducted to find how the tasks could be conducted with the help of the creating a gender equality management system. With an equality process differences in the pay structure that exists between the male and teh female staffs. This topic was selected to find how the differences in the gender could be reduced.
- To analyse the relevance of the gender equality process to be followed in the majority of the Australian companies
- To find how inequality impacts the morality and willingness of the female workers to work in different managerial positions in the company
- To find the right strategy and solution to deal with this issue
- To identify the issues faced by the fairer gender working in various Australian companies.
1.2. Problem statement
The problem with this research work was associated with the fact collection and its usage in the decision making process needed to reduce the gap between the gender inequality. This problem differently persisted at various companies, and it created a challenge in the fact findings and task execution.
- Analyse how the gender equality management is undertaken by the companies in Australia?
- How are the issues related to gender equality identified in the Australian companies?
- How does the issue of gender inequality impact the work ability of the female workers?
- What are the strategic values designed to overcome the issue related to gender equality management in different Australian organisations?
Different books and research works are referred to find the policy changes and strategic values imposed in the Australian companies to deal with the gender equality management process. The purpose to conduct this research was to find how the inequality issues and the management is being analysed and improved in different companies.
2.2. What is gender equality management
In order to understand the gender equality management, it is relevant to apprehend the concept of gender inequality at the organisational level. A workplace that follows inequality gender management makes in inhospitable place for the female workers to work at the workplace. This affects the earnings and the professional growth prospect thus, leading to a higher wage rate differences. It was realised that female staffs required more time to progressively grow in the organisation. This affected the organisational culture and strategies developed by the company (Blau, DeVaro, 2007).
Improper HR policies and practices determine the gender discrimination that restricts the female staffs to work without worries at the workplace. Human resource system in an organisation depends upon the organisational practices that aim to manage the staffs and ensure that they work towards the goal achievement. HRM process includes selection of the right strategies, introducing performance evaluation process, improving the leadership skills of the people, and enhancing the systems that are followed at the workplace to increase the performances of the staffs (Burke, 2002).
HR policies and strategies are drafted to recognise the value of the employees, implement a proper reward system, and encourage them to meet the expectations of the company. This needs the managers to provide a fair and equal opportunity to the male and the female workers working at different positions. Inequality in gender management is caused due to the improper policies that are drafted and implemented in an organisation. Gender equality management provides a fair and equal chance to the female workers to exhibit their ability to take new challenges, improve performances, and contribute towards the development of the company.
2.2. Issues related to inequality
Gender equality management issue also arises due to the personal discrimination made between male and the female workers. Managers in certain cases feel that the female staffs are not capable of handling work pressure, are not good in decision-making, and cannot handle additional responsibilities. Despite of having proper HR policies, the companies fail to introduce the changes required in the performance improvement and in providing a fair and equal opportunity for the female staffs to work in an organisation. HR policies related to the decisions are importantly evaluated to determine the ay to be made to the female workers and the type of opportunities that could be provided to the potential candidates. The policies doesn’t have a clear specification about the works to be allocated, the positions to be provided to the female at the higher level, and others that would determine a fair and equal work opportunity in a challenging workplace (Borrel et al., 2010).
Personal discrimination against the female workers in a company usually occurs at different stages. This discrimination starts at the time of recruitment, setting, training, and assigning the roles. At the higher level this discrimination occurs at the performances analysis and promotional level.
Hartnell Walumbwa (2011) stated there were enough evidences that stated the female workers experienced biased performance analysis process. Female leaders received lower performance analysis as compared to their male counterparts. It was amplified usually act in a stereotype, which affects the overall business performances and the strategies that are expected to be taken up by the managers. Castilla, Benard (2010) stated that the female staffs were poorly examined for the positions that involved complex problem solving process. Managers were sceptical about women’s expertise to deal with various operational issues. Higher authorities adopt discredit opinion about women, but provide a benefit of doubt to the male staffs.
There are quite a few female candidates found at the higher position of the managerial hierarchy. This is because women are provided with lesser opportunities to work and lead the team, assuming that they are not capable of handling challenging roles at the operational levels. Female candidates are provided with less training opportunities at the workplace, thus representing the higher-level of leadership and management in an organisation. To supress the growth of the female staffs at the workplace, the candidates were provided less work opportunities and growth changes (Good, Rudman, 2010).
For example, female staffs and mid-level workers have quite a few accessibility to take higher responsibilities and operational challenges. This restricts their growth and a chance to get promoted to a higher position. Men are easily provided with the key role in various leadership assignments in the female and male dominated fields. This accessibility is provided, despite of the fact that the men candidates are less capable of handling the complicated workplace situations (Cikara et al., 2008).
In this research study an analysis is conducted on the gender equality management followed in the Australian organisations. An exploratory research process was conducted to find the relevant details about the gender equality management process. The facts are collected from the secondary sources, where the needed facts are collected from the journals, books, e-books, and other reliable online sources. The strategies followed by the companies in implementing the policies for the gender equality that were implemented by the managers. Secondary sources were examined from the reports that were presented in different journals.
Explanatory research method is opted when a specific problem hasn’t been studied by the previous researchers clearly and by setting the priorities. In this research study, an attempt is being to find how well, the research strategies were adopted and introduced by different small and medium sized organisations. To successfully conduct the research process, the relevance of the data collection methods was defined. This assisted in selecting the right process to check on the details to be included in the research work.
The data on the gender equality were collected from the latest journals and books that were published on different reliable sources. For the conduct of the research, the processes followed to collect and evaluate the information were effectively planned and followed for the fact analysis.
Secondary data collection process was used for this process, and it assisted in collecting and evaluating the relevant information about how wage differences and the impact of the wage rate paid to the male and the female staffs.
In Australian companies the gender quality HR policies are not up to mark to meet the strategies developed by the government. One of the major factors that reflect the inequality in various Australian industries is with the unequal wage rates that are paid to the female staffs. The wage rates are considerably lower despite of being more calibre and capable of handling the complicated work related issues. As per a research it was found that female staffs were paid around 20% less when compared to the male staffs (Baker et al., 2002).
The wage inequality is also gauged through the growth rate that is easily available for the staffs. Men get an easy accessibility to the higher positions the workplace. As per a study conducted in different companies around 1500 female workers it was found that the female staffs were paid less. This also increased the gender wage gap rates that were being worked upon by the government agencies to control the gap. A serious biased system in the wage rate and the work opportunities are the biggest concerns for the female staffs who intend to improve personal performances (Berdhal, 2007).
A biased system is also followed while recruiting and allocating the works between the male and the female staffs of a company. This issue arises due to the improper and discriminated HR related polices that are developed to improve the organisational work and the behavioural aspects. Apart form the pay structure, growth possibilities, female staffs face issues in proving their potentiality to work in challenging work conditions.
Managers at the higher level don’t provide the female candidates an opportunity to prove their potentiality to work in different work environment. Due to these restrictions, the female candidates don’t get a fair opportunity to develop their ability and work in a challenging workplace situation. Biased system in the HR policy making and its implementations are some of the major aspects that need to be controlled and properly worked out (Banyard et al., 2009).
4.2. HR policies for enhancement
Every potential candidate has to go through the HR process while getting selected and being referred for the training program. Personal gender inequality or discrimination occurs when the staffs are provided with improper and/or sexiest messages by the managers or the organisational decision-makers. These messages are related to the HR enactment. Such messages are termed to gender harassment, and it usually consists of verbal, non-verbal, and physical initiation. The messages are unprofessional and not acceptable in a professional workplace culture.
This is one of the most commonly occurring incidences at the workplace, and no proper strategies and policies re followed despite of implemented policies and rules. The policies to resolve such inequality issues in every organisation are quite lengthy and at times time consuming. Female workers feel stagnated, as the process to solve the issue is quite complicated. As per a survey conducted on 500 female staffs working with different companies, it was found around 200 female workers had to face serious issues with the sexual discrimination (Becker, Swim, 2012).
The HR policies and strategies have been quite ineffective and not relevant to control the occurrence of such issues, and thus the issue has become more prominent. To deal with the challenges, it becomes relevant for the companies and the managers to respect female co-workers and not adopt an unbiased attitude to deal with the growth prospect. This affects the overall morality and the growth potentiality of the female staffs. Unlike the dissemination followed in the HR policies and issues, sexual harassment could be easily detected by the members.
The work attitude of the female workers is negatively impacted by the disseminating attitude included in the HR policies and processes. Some of the examples of such types of attitude are not being preferred for a job, underpaid, not promoted to a higher positions and others. Biernat et al., (2012) stated that although female staffs are negatively perceived for different types of complicated jobs the attitude of the workers towards the job is not being changed. Female staffs strive hard to work to grow vertically and horizontally at the workplace as it enables them to get more payment and growth.
4.3. Gender inequity a the organisational structural level
The issue of the gender inequality are inherited in the structural formation of the company. This happens when the company has a segregated departments for male and female staffs, and don’t prefer to make any relevant changes in the system. Such segmentation also persists in the networking system, job ladders, and others that clearly differentiate the male workers form the female staffs. For examine, if the HR policies and strategies are developed in a way that the pay-structure is determined on the basis of the comparisons between the individuals working in a department then it leads to the lead to the devaluation of the departments that is being worked upon by the female staffs (Cohen, Huffman, 2007).
In case of the over-representation of the female staffs in some of the jobs can lead to the reduction of the status for those specific jobs. For instance, it might include pay-brackets for the jobs which could eventually decrease with the increase in the number of the female staff improvement. In the networking process, the position of the female staffs is delayed at the time of making a pay decision. For instance, to was found that the staffs who worked under the female staffs were under-paid as compared to the make members. This process directly reflected the biased system that was followed at a workplace (Hitlan et al., 2009).
Apart from the work related policies, inequality highly or mainly exists in the organisational structure. Female staffs are provided with less perks and benefits as compared to the male staffs, thus reflecting the occurrence or the presence of the inequality at every level. Gender segregation is the other way or processes that are used in discrimination analysis of the policies implemented by the HR managers for increasing the ability of the female workers working in different departments (Cuddy et al., 2004).
Cultural practices and the systems followed in a company also lead to dissemination that impacts the female staff work ability. Organisational culture is defined as the beliefs, assumptions made, and the value followed by the staffs. The views of the founders and the top managers are also included in the analysis of the cultural values and the practices adopted and implemented at the workplace level. An improper culture, can directly lead to the gender equality issues at different levels. To resolve this issue, the female and the male workers needs to be updated about their rights and other aspects that are associated with the rights and other processes. It is relevant to mitigate the issue by improving the policies and by introducing the right methods to overcome the challenges related to the based system followed at the workplace (Glick, 2013).
4.4. Gender inequality in organisational culture
The gender inequality issues also highly exist at the organisational cultural level. Organisational culture revises the perception of the members about the formal and informal practices, routines and procedures followed at the workplace. A direct experiences experienced at different levels of the organisational cultural factors are analysed to understand how well the biased system at the workplace can be overpowered and/or controlled by the managers. To improve the strategic values, it is relevant o deal with the organisational strategic values and deal with various issues rising from the gender inequality process (Heilman, Okimoto, 2007).
Diversity culture needs to take care of the biased system as it will improve the work culture and the ability of the staffs to work positively at the workplace. A positive work culture could be seen when the perception of the organisational members belonging to diverse groups are included and fairy treated by the members. It is relevant for the company to increase the supportive system for the female staffs to prove their potentiality to work positively at a challenging workplace. This needs the mangers to adopt and introduce a less biased system that would improve the female staff’s commitment level and improves their job satisfaction (Gelfand et al., 2007).
Analysis
It was found that the wage rate differences existed in some of the majority of the companies. The differences impacted the morality of the staffs, and reduced the ability of the female employees to work perfectly. Through the policy changes and other aspects, it was essential to make the needed changes within the system, and achieve the targeted goals. The differences existed despite of the policy changes that were introduced to mitigate the gender quality factor.
Gender equality management concentrates on providing fair and possible opportunities to the female staffs. The policies are introduced to reduce the discrimination process that restricts the ability of the staffs to work in an organised manner. Managers have to introduce a change in the cultural practices and policies, as it would encourage the female staffs to improve their individual performances. Female staffs need to get equal opportunities to grow, as compared to men based on the performances and ability. An effective method had to be adopted to provide a fair wage rate to the female staffs that would encourage them to increase the overall business performances.
Recommendations
- To analyse the policy related the gender equality management
- Introduce a close monitoring process to improve the gap that exists between the policy formation and its implementation
- Discuss the associated factors or methods that could be followed to control the gender inequality factors in an organisation
- Educate the staffs and managers about the gender equality factor.
- Introduce a proper policy improvement process that would be followed to deal with this issue.
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