Different ethnicities ought to be considered as a strength and not a weakness in the workplace. Different races have different skills which can be used positively for the betterment of the organisation. Racial discrimination, however, has become the order of the day in many organisations, some races are being considered inferior to others. Due to this, the high level of inequalities has been experienced in the workplace leading to high level of conflicts within the organisation. These practices have ended up affecting the organisation operations negatively causing the organisation not to achieve its strategic objectives. Racial discrimination in the workplace takes many forms, the include; poor recruitment process- under this the human resource of an organisation becomes nepotistic. Through this, the selection process is conducted in a manner which favours one ethnic line while discriminating the other. Due to this, the comparison of employees between ethnic lines becomes unevenly distributed with a particular race dominating the other races.
The dominant race, therefore, starts discriminating the other races on the basis that it’s the favourable race and thus causing further enmity within the employees. The organisation culture also becomes based on the dominant culture since it will have guided by the norms and beliefs of the dominant culture. The isolation of other races causes the feeling of inequality, and therefore the human resource will retaliate in productiveness to seek fairness. Organisational conflict arises as a result of the discrimination which hinders the realisation of the organisation’s mission and vision. Division of the organisation within the ethnic lines affects the spirit of teamwork in the organisation, due to this an organisation cannot operate a single unit in their quest to reach their organisational mission and vision. Organisations operating under the umbrella of racial discrimination undertake their leadership selection discriminatively. As a result, incompetent leaders take control of the organisations. Leadership style in an organisation determines how the employees are going to operate; some leadership style promotes teamwork while others fail to support. Leaders who have been favoured by ethnic lines will tend to operate under an authoritative leadership style and thereby oppressing their subject.
Racial discrimination becomes a demotivating factor in the workplace affecting the performance of the employees. Among some of the characteristics of demotivated employees by ethnicity include; high job turnover, underperformance, reduced job satisfaction among others. These factors affect how the organisation operates and how well it meets it to set goals and objectives. The high job turns over leads to increased cost of operation for the organisation as it invests in the recruitment of new employees. The cost incurred under these circumstances could have been avoided by ensuring fairness in human resource practices. As a result, money which could have been invested in other productive ways is invested in new recruitments. Underperformance occurs when a job which could have been undertaken by a single employee has to be done by more than one. Low productivity on the part of the employee is as a result of inequality in treatment; this will force the organisation to recruit more employees to tackle the same task adding up to the operating costs. The discrimination is extended even to the remuneration plans, whereby an employee from a certain ethnic group receives better pay than their colleagues. Due to this, there is job dissatisfaction on the part of the employees, and they may employ some mechanisms such as going slow or even engaging in strikes to have their voices heard.
Racial discrimination hinders innovation and new idea generation in an organisation. The races considered inferior in the organisation may appear useless to the management. However, these employees may be a source of new ideas and innovative operational approaches to the organisations. Failure to give this group a chance may mean a lost opportunity for the organisation. Human resource is considered the most valuable asset to the organisation since it utilises the other resources towards the achievement of the strategic objectives of the organisation. Leadership by objective is a management approach to ensure each employee puts the organisation goals before their individual goals. Racial discrimination affects the operationalisation of this management approach and therefore affecting the achievement of the set goals and objectives. Employee conflict is highly triggered by discrimination from the management, racial discrimination at the top management causes employees at other lower levels also discriminate amongst themselves. The increased discrimination affects cooperation among the employees and fights for inclusion becomes intensively high. Operation under a teamwork approach becomes difficult since the employees do not have a sense of belonging towards the organisation.
Informal groups in an organisation are formed by employees who are seeking to belong to a particular social group. These groups become avenues for employees to air their griefs amongst themselves about the hardships undergone at the job place. These groups if not adequately managed by the organisation leadership they offer a threat to the operations of the organisation as a whole. These groups, however, cannot be terminated without considering the issues they have raised, this because human beings are social beings and they will create such groups in the future. Through these informal groups the employees’ devices ways through which their message can be delivered to the management.
Effective management of these groups, however, can be achieved by avoiding divisiveness by the administration. Through this, the organisation will operate as a whole, and formal groups will be established to deal with the employee’s grievances. The teamwork approach ought to be encouraged in the organisation; this will change the employs perspective about other races and therefore creating a sense of belonging towards the organisation. Effective human resource planning ensures that the employee’s welfare is considered and therefore the employee doesn’t get discriminated on whichever basis. Through this, the organisation’s strategic goals will be achieved effectively and promptly since the employees will be dedicated to ensuring the mission and vision of the organisation are met.
Gender discrimination is another challenge affecting organisational success. Under this, the employees are discriminated by their gender. The male gender under this case is considered the most effective in productivity while the female gender is deemed to be inferior to the task. The workplace has been set up in a manner that there are tasks which are meant for the male gender and other simple tasks considered favourable to the female gender. Due to this, the female gender has been perceived to be unfit to offer leadership services, and therefore the work has been left out for the male gender in many organisations. Gender discrimination can take various forms in the job place, the most common being unequal pay between the two genders where one gender receives a better compensation for the same task than the other gender. Under this, the female gender receives favouritism when the manager is of the opposite gender, and the male gender is favoured by a female manager.
Gender-based discriminations have far-reaching impacts on the part of the organisation and can be destructive if not controlled. There are many negative impacts of gender-based discrimination in the workplace. These include; increased job stress, high job turnover, increased cost of operation, reduced productivity among others. Discrimination increases job stress on the part of the employee; this is because an employee is exposed to a different operating environment with their counterparts. Employees require a certain level of stress to operate effectively and efficiently. High levels of stress affect the employee’s productivity and even their health (Plickert and Sterling 2017). The employees under this case may be exposed to a more severe working condition beyond their capabilities. The employee, therefore, ends up pressuring themselves to meet the performance standards set by the management. Due to this, the employee’s production morale is highly reduced. Job stress affects the employee’s performance rate and even lowers the quality standard of the employee’s job.
Increased stress can lead to depression on the part of the employee; when this happens, the organisation will incur a medical cost to cover for the employee. The high job turns over can also be caused by job stress. Job-related stress reduces job satisfaction on the part of the employee making them quit the job and seek other less stressful situations. The organisation also incurs increased cost of operations as a result of the discrimination vice. The law is always against gender discrimination, in instances where cases of gender discrimination have been proven. The organisation is forced by the law to compensate the victim of discrimination; this leads to a financial loss on the part of the organisation. Due to increased turnover rate, the organisation incurs more cost on selection and recruitment of other employees. The organisation which encourages gender discrimination suffers from negative publicity; the vice negatively impacts on the brand image of the organisation making it lose on potential business (Verniers and Vala, 2018). Effective use the human resource enables an organisation to have a competitive advantage over its competitors. Discrimination makes an organisation lose its employees to the competitor and therefore reducing their competitive advantage.
Discrimination in the workplace leads to conflicts between the employees; this is because the employees who are discriminated against will relate poorly with their colleagues. The favoured gender will tend to oppress the discriminated gender thus leading to conflicts. These conflicts can involve physical encounters among the employees leading to either loss of life or damage to the organisation’s properties. Gender discriminations make the organisation lose on opportunities which would have accrued by giving the other gender an enabling environment to fully deliver on their production capabilities. Human resource is the source of new ideas and innovation for organisation discrimination, on the other hand, discourages the achievement of full human resource potential.
Gender discrimination affects the teamwork spirit among the employees; this is because the employees have not been motivated to interact freely with other members of the organisation. Due to this, the human resource of an organisation cannot operate as a team towards the achievement of the set goals and objectives (Stamarski, and Hing 2015). The employees in return create informal groups with the organisation in the quest to seek for social representation within the organisation. Employees within these informal groups may have dysfunctional impacts to the organisation if not well managed. Employees need to be motivated to deliver on their tasks in a more efficient manner. Discrimination destroys the inner motivation of the employee to operate effectively; this is because it kills the positive motive towards job performance leading to low performance.
The perception of an employee about the organisation also affects the productivity of the employee. It also changes the employee attitude towards their colleagues and the overall job. Discrimination affects the employees’ perception and attitude towards their job and therefore affecting their productivity in the organisation. The leadership of an organisation dictates the direction the organisation ought to take, in line with its mission and vision. Selection of the leaders thus should be based on leadership skills and not the gender of the leader; the organisation policies should be changed to discourage gender discrimination (Gupta, 2017). These employees, therefore, should be given a favourable productive environment to ensure that they undertake their job effectively.
Conclusion
Any organisation which seeks to achieve its mission and vision must effectively make use of their human resource. The human resource, therefore, ought to be given an enabling environment to exploit their productive potential fully. The organisations must, thus, eliminate performance hindrances which negatively impacts the productiveness of their employees. The organisation must create an avenue under which the organisation operates as a complete whole through encouraging good employee’s relationship. Any form of discrimination in the organisation should be discouraged and these specifications included in organisations policies to ensure that they are strictly followed. The human resource department has to ensure adherence to the labour law which discourages discrimination in the workplace. Through this, the organisation will avoid an unnecessary financial loss as a result of employee’s compensations and reduce the operating costs.
References
Plickert, G. and Sterling, J. (2017) Gender Still Matters: Effects of Workplace Discrimination on Employment Schedules of Young Professionals. Laws, 6(4), p.28
Verniers, C. and Vala, J. (2018) Justifying gender discrimination in the workplace: The mediating role of motherhood myths. PloS one, 13(1),
Stamarski, C.S. and Son Hing, L.S. (2015) Gender inequalities in the workplace: the effects of organizational structures, processes, practices, and decision makers’ sexism. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, p.1400
Gupta, N. (2017) Gender inequality in the work environment: a study of private research organizations in India. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, 36(3), pp.255-276.