Human Resource Management in a Business Context
3rd edition
April 2007

by Alan Price

Human Resource Management in a Business Context provides an international focus on the theory and practice of people management. A thorough and comprehensive overview of all the key aspects of HRM, including case studies, articles from HRM Guide and other sources, key concepts, review questions and problems for discussion and analysis.
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HRM Guide Sections

HRM Guide Australia

HRM Guide Canada

HRM Guide NZ

HRM Guide UK

HRM Guide USA

Introduction Overview of HRM Guide

HRM Guide Updates Latest updates on the HRM Guide websites

Jobs and Careers Advice, job postings and leads

HRM Topics Hundreds of pages of information, updates and links to articles

HR Directory Links to HR service providers

HR News Releases Announcements, news, reports

Introduction

People are different. They vary in gender, culture, race, social and psychological characteristics. But our attitudes towards these differences can be negative or positive, depending upon individual perspectives and prejudices. In earlier chapters we identified the tendency to form like-minded 'in-groups', to favour members of one's own group and for those in authority to recruit people like themselves. This may seem natural or normal and often goes unquestioned - but it is unfair. (...)

 The environment and opportunity

Anthony Jay is reputed to have said that 'success is when preparation meets opportunity'. Preparation depends on personal effort but opportunity is linked to social factors such as economic conditions, education and other people. Effectively, society determines who is given opportunity and who is not through the process of discrimination. Overt prejudice is comparatively easy to observe but the true nature of unfairness lies in the way opportunity has been institutionalized within society. The status quo is constructed to benefit certain types of individual from particular backgrounds or those who are able to adapt most easily to its requirements. Typically, this has denied opportunity to women and minority groups.

  See  Canadian Employment Acts   - HRDC link page for information on employment acts in Canada

 The  Employment Standards Administration   - provides summaries of legislation in the USA.

 Education and meritocracy

Education plays a key role in causing and, potentially, curing institutionalized discrimination in advanced countries. This section in Human Resource Management in a Business Context looks at the French cadre system in comparison with Germany and the UK.

 The meritocratic ideal

People in developed - and many developing - countries no longer 'know their place' in society. Those who have a vested interest in preserving plum jobs for a select elite are facing overwhelming opposition from a generation whose career aspirations and expectation of equitable treatment by employers would have been unthinkable a few decades ago. However, there is some way to go before a universal meritocracy prevails.

 The Council for Equal Opportunity in Employment Limited focuses on Australian workplaces

 The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in the USA

 Diversity and the organization

The management of diversity goes beyond equal opportunity. Instead of merely allowing a greater range of people the opportunity to 'fit in' or to be an honorary 'large, white male', the concept of diversity embodies the belief that people should be valued for their difference and variety. Diversity is perceived to enrich an organization's human capital. Whereas equal opportunity focuses on various disadvantaged groups, the management of diversity is about individuals. It entails a minimization of cloning in selection and promotion procedures and a model of resourcing aimed at finding flexible employees.

 Communicating workplace diversity a top priority

 Strategies for diversity

Many organizations have adopted equal opportunities policies - statements of commitment to fair human resource management. However, equal opportunities policies are notoriously ineffective, often no more than fine words decorating office walls, designed to appease politically vociferous activists and soothe consciences. They disturb vested interests too rarely. The obstacles to creating a diversified workforce are embedded in organizational culture - particularly the subculture at the top.

 Workplace diversity is more rhetoric than reality

  Female and minority job-searchers look for diversity in the workplace - In a US study, one-third of survey respondents have eliminated companies that lacked gender and ethnic diversity from employment consideration.

 

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