What Is the Distinction Between Equal Opportunities and Managing Diversity? How Is It Possible to Justify Either in an Organisation?

What is the distinction surrounded by equal opportunities and managing sort? How is it possible to justify either in an musical arrangement? What ar the distinctions between equal opportunities and managing multifariousness? catch opportunity checkers that all personnel decisions that relate to recruitment, pay and promotion argon only based on an one-on-ones capability to do their melodic phrase well.Equal Opportunities The term use to describe policies and practices that tackle inequalities, aiming to date that all staff be hard-boiled fairly, and that military service users do not experience discriminationEqual opportunity is concerned with keeping within the justice all organisations are required by justness not to discriminate an idiosyncratic by reasons of their colour, marital status, disability, gender, race, nationality or ethnic or national origins. At the very least organisations should abide by the Equal Pay Act 1970, Sex Discrimination Act 1975, Race Relat ions Act 1976 and the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.Diversity however is a much wide-ranging approach to equal opportunity. Diversity focuses on valuing the varying of qualities that employees bring to their job and organisation. Managing diversity therefore is when a manager creates an environment where the employees feel cute for their individual talents and where the employees skills and competencies are fully utilised. Taking advantage of all employees full potential will benefit the organisation in many ways such as it will encourage employees to work to the best of their ability and a wide range of experience, creativity and ideas will be brought to the organisation.Managing diversity croupe be defined as a proposalned, systematic and comprehensive managerial process for creating an organisational environment in which all employees can contri ande to the strategic and agonistic advantage of the organisation, and where no one is excluded on the basis of factors unre lated to production. Equal opportunities within the work force have many advantages everyone is wielded fairly and without prejudice, removing barriers which impact more harshly on individuals of reasons such as gender, disability, and race, focusing on an individuals abilities rather then who they are.Furthermore the concept of equal opportunities also has its disadvantages positions such as confines are mostly seen as a womens job therefore a patient might not be comfortable with having a male nurse and a job that requires heavy lifting is seen as a male position therefore a male is more likely to be recruited. If two candidates both have the qualifications needed for the job description, managers may feel that they should recruit the candidate who fits the equal opportunity policies rather then the candidate who they feel is more equal to cope better with the dedication that the job requires.Diversity within the workforce has many advantages. These advantages include a greate r access to a wider range of individual strengths, experiences and perspectives, a greater understanding of the diverse groups of potential and existing customers represented within the workforce, better communication with these diverse groups of potential and existing customers and an improved legitimacy and organisational image across a wider audience. Diversity within the workforce also has disadvantages as well as advantages.Some of the disadvantages include an join on in remainder among the workforce as differences in opinion makes it more difficult to agree on solutions, poorer internal communication because levels of noesis and comprehension differ between employees, an increase in the management costs that arise from dealing with potential conflict and communication problems. Valuing diversity convey that organisations recognise that all individuals have complex identities do up of many strands.These can include, but are not limited to, gender, ethnicity, age, sexual o rientation physical and mental aptitudes, nationality, socio-economic status, and religious, political or other beliefs. This means we embrace and celebrate our differences in a confident(p) environment, and are committed to engage with the needs of our diverse staff and users to enable us, both individually and corporately, to accomplish our aims. From 1971 to 2001 the rate of female participation in the workplace had increased from 56. % to 72%. This increase is due to equal opportunities all organisations are required by law not to discriminate an individual by their gender, both men and women are equal. The Sex Discrimination Act meant that both men and women are to be treated equally in the recruitment and selection process therefore resulting to an increase of female participation in the workplace which then resulted to a decrease in male participation rate, now at 84% (Equal Opportunities Review).However equal opportunity is not yet completely equal for instance pay differ entials between men and women have only narrowed down a little since initial improvement after implementation of Equal Pay Act 1970, women tranquillise earn 18% less. Racial and ethnic groups rate of unemployment is still more compared to white population. Also disabled hatfuls rate of employment is 53% compared to 84% for non disabled. climb on discrimination often occurs both being too young and being too old is discriminated against.Coded language in a job description is used to identify the age range in which they managers are looking for. Managers tend to see young applicants as less worthy and less capable of fulfilling the job position. Managers also see old applicants as unreliable and they are not regarded as long term proles so they are less likely to fill an older applicant. Not all discrimination however is direct discrimination. Indirect discrimination can occur this is when a requirement is applied equally but it affects one group more negatively then the others.M anagers are faced with a number of problems when it comes to equal opportunities and diversity. Firstly they are faced with the problem of how to ensure fairness it is not always possible to comply with the rules, for instance where a job requires heavy lifting it is more practical to seek a male worker as they are known to be the psychically stronger sex however this is not always the case. Another question managers need to face is should they ignore the differences and treat people equally or acknowledge differences and treat people differently?Everyone is an individual and therefore their differences should be taken into account when a manager makes a decision for instance an employer has to make reasonable adjustments in respect of a disabled employee. Equality and diversity is vital for both the employees and the success of the organisation. Managers have a moral obligation to treat all individual with the same fairness and equality. It is important for managers to make their d ecisions without prejudice and stereotype. However it could be argued that a managers aim is increase profit not morality.Equality and diversity is also important to the success of a business. Equality and diversity would lead to a positive company image therefore attracting customers and creating customer loyalty. However it is difficult to find a meaningful measure of equality and diversity. How is it possible to justify equal opportunities and managing diversity in an organisation? Tesco is an example of an organisation that tries to provide diversity for all individuals, no matter their differences.For example Tesco has devoted itself to providing more employment opportunities to disabled people by signing agreements with disability employment providers Remploy and the Shaw Trust. This has lead to 400 disabled people getting recruited. The local community is very important to Tesco and these vital agreements ensure we help local disabled people to find employment announced Clair e Peters, head of resources. Another example is that Tesco tries to extend its workforces working knowledge of religions operating in the UK.Tesco issues employees with religious toolkits to improve their knowledge and understanding of all religions and their corresponding festivals, daily routines and eating habits. Tesco also provide mangers with a support summer camp at Ramadan which help them understand how to support staff and customers better during this time of fasting for Muslims. Everyone is welcome is the name given to Tescos diversity work and it is goaded by the value look after our staff so they can look after our customers. Everyone is welcome trains managers so that they will feel more confident in encouraging talent from more under represented groups. Tesco takes part in national benchmarking surveys, giving them an independent assessment of how they perform under apiece area of diversity. This year they were awarded Gold standard in the Opportunity Now benchmarkin g survey and they were also recognised as an Age Positive Employer Champion by the Department of Work and Pensions. They have recently completed the Employers Forum on Disability Survey and the Stonewall Diversity Champions Index.In addition another organisation that aims to provide diversity within the workforce is Toys R Us. Toys R Us is a major retailer of toys and childrens merchandise and has stores spread across the world. To ensure the employees are comfortable with discussing differences, Toys R Us chose to begin their workforce diversity with one day of LIFO training. LIFO training has gone beyond the successful, turnover-reducing diversity weapons platform to take an important part in the management development curriculum and in training line managers to facilitate performance improvement with store personnel.The workforce diversity program aims to encourage employees to discuss their differences and to ensure they feel comfortable and to provide a great source of insight . It is aimed to enable their participants to open up and dowery with each other their own styles and how their styles had helped or hindered them in the business setting. Including LIFO training in the diversity workforce program has enabled Toys R Us to deliver the goods a number of key program goals and it has helped participants identify behaviours they want to change and what will motivate them to change.In conclusion the distinction between equal opportunities and managing diversity is equal opportunities are policies that tackle inequality such as race and gender whereas managing diversity focuses on the varying of qualities whereby managers create an environment where the employees feel determine for their individual talents. The equity and diversity policies are designed to develop equal opportunities policies, provide training, review recruitment, selection, promotion and training procedures, consider the organisations image, set an action plan and draw up a clear and r easonable job criteria.References Managing diversity (Online) uncommitted at http//www. ncvo-vol. org. uk/askncvo/index. asp? id=178 Accessed on 23/4/08 Tesco diversity (Online) Available at http//www. tescocorporate. com/page. aspx? pointerid=7CA5D7226B6E40808B3FFC797B2443D7 Accessed on 24/4/08 Diversity and equal opportunities (Online) Available at http//www. nationalarchives. gov. uk/jobs/equalopportunities. htm Accessed on 25/4/08 Toys R Us (Online) Available at http//www. bcon-lifo. com/doc_library/ToysRUs_turnover. htm Accessed on 25/4/08