Equality and Diversity are relatively similar terms. The difference between equality and diversity is that equality can be described as eliminating discrimination and ensuring that every individual has an equal opportunity whereas diversity is described as valuing individuals and respecting them for who they are and accepting there differences. Mullins (1999). Diversity also recognizes that everyone is different in a society. Equality gives access for all groups which are supported by legislation. However, in equality, sometimes individuals think treating everyone equally can lead to indirect discrimination. This means individuals can be treated unfairly because of requirements that are unreasonable which may exclude the particular group the individual belongs to, for example height restriction can discriminate against women. Equality and diversity are both often used interchangeably but they do refer to different strategies.
The impact that age legislation may have on employers are:
- Due to age limitation, variable experience for future may be affected.
- Organisations will employ more older people which because of the age legislation therefore it can change the culture of the organisation
- Some older people may have to invest extra money into training and other equipment that needs to be used in the organisation
- Some organisation would like to employ certain people for certain jobs such as, someone will a lot of energy, and this may not be possible as due to age legislation because younger people have more energy compare to older people
Everyone gets stereotyped no matter what age category they fall under. Stereotypes that everyone tends to hold on older people are that they are unenthusiastic about changes being made and are very old-fashioned about certain things. They are also unproductive and are very slow learners. They take their time to do things, for example, some aged 45 may take their time to get up on a stall to get something from the shelf. Also, older people tend to have disabilities.
However, stereotypes that people tend to hold on the younger generation is that they do not have a lot of experience as they only are in education and have no experience in the work world. They also get label as being inconsiderate and immature as they are still young they tend to behave like kids. However, the good point that they get labelled as is that they are fast learners.
Organisations can attempt to change attitudes regarding old and young people by comparing their performance in a work environment. This will be ideal as it will help reduce stereotypes. Another thing that organisations can do to change these attitudes is by encouraging both older and younger people to work as teams. This can change the attitudes that may have existed about older and younger people not being able to work as a team.
“Tesco’s practice in relation to equal opportunities”.
Tesco benefit from equal opportunities and diversity in many ways and they do this by the successful development of greater customer and staff loyalty. Tesco have stated on their “This year the Board asked our Diversity Advisory Group to analyse the diversity of Tesco’s UK workforce compared with the UK population – our aim being to mirror the composition of the population as a whole”. As they conducted the research, The Diversity Advisory Group have found out that Tesco need to increase the proportion of:
- female store managers and senior team members;
- store managers and senior team members from ethnic groups
- 45-54 year-old store managers and senior team members.
As they have realised that this will encourage the organisation to provide equal opportunities, they set targets to increase the proportion of women, ethnic groups and older staff in these positions as they are planning to achieve this by providing improved coaching and mentoring and providing foreign language tapes for staff training, improving communication to celebrate success and by conducting research to identify further short and long-term solutions.
On their website they have also stated that “New ideas emerging from this research may be fast-tracked; and we are introducing a KPI to measure our performance on diversity over the coming year”. This shows that they want to spread equal opportunities soon as they can in their organisation.
Tesco have also encouraged stores to look at flexible leave for their staff so they can take time off for special religious festival such as the Indian festival of Diwali. Tesco states “During Diwali, staff organised celebrations in store, wore traditional dress, and brought in home-cooked food to share in the canteen”. This shows that Tesco’s staff organise a celebration of Diwali in the store for everyone so they can take part in the festival. This includes everyone and it excludes diversity.
Tesco have also encouraged their business to make their jobs more attractive to people from ethnic minorities. They quote “This year, for example, during Ramadan we changed the time of store activities to allow staff time to pray, and promoted use of the staff training room as a quiet space for this purpose”. Tesco are paying their respect to different religion and different ethical groups which allows them to provide more equal opportunities for everyone.
The most innovative practice that Tesco offers is the Share Scheme. This seems to be the most innovative practice as they are committed to providing share ownership for their employees. They are trying to encourage staff to become part owners of the company and share in the company’s success. Tesco stated on their website that, “This year, £63 million worth of shares were given to 160,000 staff as part of our Shares in Success scheme”. This means that all employees that have been there for more than one year’s service have received shares worth 3.6% of their salary. Another reason why this is the most innovative practice is because Tesco is offering a save as you earn scheme to enable their staff to buy shares at a discounted price as a medium or long-term investment.
Reference:
- Mullins, L J. ( 2002) Management And Organisational Behaviour. 6th Ed. Pearsons Education Limited: Essex
- Mullins, L J. ( 2007) Management And Organisational Behaviour. 8th Ed. Pearsons Education Limited: Essex
- Tesco Corporate Responsability Review (2005) Tesco [Online]. Avaliable From : http://www.tesco.com/csr/f/f2.html [Accessed 10 May 2011]
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