Managing Diversity and Equal Oppurtunity

Question: Describe about the Managing Diversity And Equal Oppurtunity? Answer: In todays world Harassment and Bullying have become a regular issue in almost all institutions and organizations. It is a regular issue that is observed in our daily society today. Hundreds of people are to be the victim of harassment and bullying at their workplace today. Harassment and Bullying is reported to be an offence which has become a part of our daily life today. Harassment includes a wide range of offensive behaviour within its scope. It basically means disturbing a person without any reason with the intention of hurting or making that person upset. Such a disturbance is repetitive in nature (DICKINSON, 2012). It is a continuing process to make a person affected emotionally or mentally. In legal sense, it is a type of behaviour which can be said to have constituted threatening or disturbing. Harassment is generally of various types. It can be either of psychological harassment or religious harassment or sexual or racial harassment etc. On the other hand Bullying can be defined as the application of force or coercion or intimidation on some other person. It has to be remembered that such behaviour is repetitive in nature. Bullying can vary from being simple to complex where we can find wingman present therein to help the primary person is his bullying activities (Bussmann, Panz and Schweighofer, n.d.). Recent report shows that a lot of bullying and harassment takes place in educational institutions and workplaces. According to the Equality Act 2000, an undesired action related to the pertinent fortified character which generally aims at violating an individuals personal dignity and frightening or making a situation hostile or degrading so humiliating for that individual. Harassment and bullying consist of various activities which may include either direct bullying or indirect bullying. Direct Bullying includes activities like pinching appreciation of an individual, exhibiting unofficial or offensive pictures, unroll rumors about an individual or cracking jokes or prank on a person etc (Cousins, 2012). Indirect Bullying or harassment may include the action like making a person work overtime even if not necessary, creating abstract situations for work, marginalizing or biasing or isolating a person etc. According to the law in force, an employer is responsible for any such act of harassment or bullying that takes place in his workplace or with his employees unless it is seen that reasonable measures were taken by the employer. Such a connection has been developed in accordance to the Law of Tort which states that the employer has a vicarious liability towards his employees. Both Bullying and Harassment are considered to be criminal offence in the eyes of law. Anti-bullying laws have been framed to fight with Bullying and Harassment. Harassment and Bullying at workplace are governed by the Fair Work Act 2009, from Sections 789FA-789FI. In order to curb out harassment and bullying from an organization, it is the duty of the employers and the management to jointly work on it (Elias, 2013). Manager in Human Resource is generally responsible for governing the environment of work in an organization. Executive Summary: An organizational Culture means the way in which the employees as well as the employers relate to each other and there way of treating each other in comparison to other organizations. It is the shared values, assumptions, ideas which regulate the behaviour of the people in an organization. An organizations culture has a great impact on the working environment. If we critically analyze this point, we would see that a company is known by the work culture it maintains (Kummerow and Kirby, 2014). While employing a person into the company, good knowledge of that persons background should be taken into knowledge. The accurate knowledge of an employee is required because by employing a wrong person into the company, the entire reputation of the company can be at stake. Again at the same time, if we separately analyze, an individuals behaviour within the company is also very much important to maintain a healthy environment. If a single individuals behaviour is hurting other employees, then a utomatically it will affect the environment at large and will not be restricted within two or three person (Kummerow, Kirby and Ying, n.d.). For example: If an individual in a company sexually tries to abuse a female employee of that company, if such an issue is brought before the company, then it would spread like fire and if media comes to know about the fact, the reputation of the company would be at stake for one person default. In the same way if the working structure of the company is not strategically framed like if more than required power is giving in one persons hand, then there would be chances to misuse his power and centralization of power would amount to exploitation among other employees. This centralization of power creates grievances in other employees mind and as such in that manner harassment and bullying policies is adopted by the employees to break the centralization policies of the company. Introduction: To run any organization basic few things are required to be taken into consideration for creating anti-harassment policies. Today developed countries have taken up different policies to stop harassment at workplaces and new laws are being framed by the legislation in that regards (Heyser, 2010). Yet third world countries have still not recognized this as a major issue and hence are not working on it (Lester, 2013). Before framing in an anti-harassment policy conditions like work process, human resource development, inter-relationship between employers and employees are different points needed to be given a look. An anti-harassment policy should consist of management training event, awareness event for staffs, regular mental health checkup for employees, formation of a committee with selective people significant in handling sensitive issues like harassment and bullying etc. Appropriate strategy to combat bullying: Bullying generally takes place behind closed doors where there are no witnesses to testify the bully and there is no evidence available against the individual who is guilty (Einarsen, 2003). In order to deal with bullying at work, the following comprehensive strategies can be taken: Firstly, a thorough evaluation of the nature of bullying should be done in such a way that the individual who is being bullied regains his control over himself/herself; It is very essential to understand that if I am being bullied at, then, it is not me who is at fault. Rather the one doing the act is guilty and hence the shame and anger should be his and not mine.; Secondly, a proper action plan should be framed so that the one who is being the bully can be trapped in his own acts (Nunn, 2010). Reports and journals should be accessed regularly which notify people of the bullying acts across the globe; Thirdly, a proper action should be taken to combat the problem. One needs to remember that bullying is nothing but an obsessive impulse of an individual which often takes the shape of a recurring behavior in order to disturb the mental peace of another individual. Role of HRM in combating Bullying: In most of the instances, it is seen that the Human Resource Managers are reluctant to solve the issues of workplace bullying (Piehl, 2009). This results in the target employees from turning down and losing their jobs as well as their rights in the matter. The Human Resources Managers should address workplace bullying in the following ways: They should create a zero tolerance policy; There should be proper implementations of procedures that would investigate and address the issues of workplace bullying; They should try to arrange for training sessions that will train the employees on combating bullying; They are also supposed to call upon the bullies and make them accountable for their acts; The employees who are being bullied should be heard by them and they should be given mental and emotional support; The basic requirement on their part is to remain empathetic and listen to the issues with concern; Being associated with the Human Resources, they should try to remain as leading examples; They are supposed to constantly work in such a way that they succeed in creating a bully free organization; Finally, they are also bestowed with the responsibility of raising awareness about the matters related to workplace bullying through newsletters, blogs and other such anti bullying events. Legal framework of Bullying: In dealing with the matters of bullying, generally, two different hurdles are faced by any organization (Einarsen, 2011). Firstly, it is required that the victim needs to prove that peer-to-peer harassment claims are properly established. Secondly, it is required that the victim has to clear the immunities which are there in the hands of the public agencies and the officials who work in the official capacity. The different jurisdictions across the globe have different guidelines to address the issue of bullying. We shall rely on the discussion of the points of Natural Justice. Under the principles of natural justice, harassing an individual and disturbing him in his workplace is totally against the law. One generally has a right to be protected at his/her workplace, has the right to be heard in case he is being harassed, and has the right to have confidentiality when his case is being adjudicated or looked at (Minton, 2014). These principles can never be swayed from and one must rely on these requirements irrespective of age, sex or race. It is the responsibility of the Human Resource Managers to see that these requirements are met by in the organization under question. Recommendations to stop Bullying: A comprehensive three step bully rehab plan can be taken to curb this problem at the earliest. This is being given as follows: Identify the bully and find out a solution: this way one can find out what exactly the bully wants and why is he doing certain acts. Once this is identified, a person will be able to find out if the bully is doing the things intentionally or if he is doing it just by chance (NIELSEN, 2012). Remedial steps like talking to the bully and coming across a viable solution for him can be an alternative of punishing the bully and giving him options to mend his ways. Putting an end on the enabling system: in this step, questions can be asked to the bully as to what he likes which will give an answer of their desired outcome while they be a bully. Further questions like how they feel when they are bullied will give answers like what is their stake on this issue. Gathering proof and showing what are the requirements and advantages of not bullying someone are helpful as one can understand the psychological backdrop of the bully and the happiness he gets upon bullying someone (Raum, 2008). Setting up a healthy system with boundaries: this step generally relates to the process of conflict resolution. In this step, one needs to explain why we are entering into the meeting process and what will be the outcome of the meeting once decided upon. Further, the observable data needs to be stated here where description of specific behaviors that qualify as bullying shall be discussed. The impact of these bullies should be properly discussed with the individuals and their ill effects should be discussed (Sanders, 1996). The problem needs to be checked and an acknowledgement of the same should be given. One can also plan a strategy where the bullies will be put up in a committee that tries to stop bullying. Thus shall be a reverse treatment for them and this will give a wider platform to address the issue. Lastly, measures can be taken to build up smaller agreements with the bullies and they can be lured towards not bullying by giving then incentive schemes or such other technique s. Conclusion: Today the world is moving too fast and with the world. Developments are taking place in all parts of the world. In order to ensure this developments to be effective for people, proper secured and safe environment should also be ensured. Only a healthy atmosphere can provide a person more self confidence to work. 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