Good Example Of Research Paper On Equal Employment Opportunity

Introduction

Equal Employment Opportunity is a concept in modern human Resources management that forbids employers from discriminating employees on the basis of gender, race, religion, ethnicity, color or creed. In America, the Equal Employment Opportunity policy first came into existence in 1964 and was further reinforced during the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson who signed an executive order that officially banned all federal contractors from discriminating employees on the basis of their social categories such as race, gender, religion and ethnicity. Currently, the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is charged with the task of enforcing this policy and therefore ensuring that employees are treated on the basis of merit and not on social categorization. However, the battle against employment discrimination has been quite lengthy in America and even with the existence of this policy, discrimination continues being rife across many private and public institutions, The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has been very steadfast in its battle against this vice of discrimination.
Formalized human resource management structures across all organizations are tasked with the role of promoting the goals and objectives of equal employment opportunity (Connolly, 2013). Simply put, every HRM structure within an organization should be conscious about the aspect of equal employment opportunity. Unfortunately, some organizations seem to be oblivious to this policy. This causes them to appear discriminatory even when this may not be intentional. For instance, an organization whose 80% of its total workers population is white and male may be deemed to be oblivious to the stipulations of the Equal Employment Opportunity and may even find itself subject to an external discrimination review.
The premise of the Equal Employment Opportunity is that employment is essentially supposed to be neutral (Connolly, 2013). It is supposed to be based on pure merit, and the social category of an individual should not determine any aspect of employment. This ranges from consideration for hiring, assignment of duties, position, and status at the workplace and dismissals. An organization that exhibits discrimination in any of these aspects is said to be in violation Equal Employment Opportunity (Noe et al., 2011).
Usually, equal Employment Opportunity goes hand in hand with affirmative nation. In fact, it is argued that affirmative action ensures that equal employment opportunity is achieved. Federal contractors and employers are encouraged to use affirmative action when hiring in order to eliminate discrimination.
Equal Employment Opportunity in the workplace is signified by several elements. The first of these elements is the provision of equal access to all types of jobs, training and development activities and ultimately promotion opportunities ((Noe et al., 2011). Secondly, it is signified by the provision of similar services as well as benefits to every person. Thirdly, all the practices and policies at the workplace are applied consistently and similarly to all staff members as well as applicants. In a nutshell, no employee or applicants are differentiated on the basis of sex, age, religion race, national origin, ancestry, marital status and ethnicity (Connolly, 2013).
Lack of implementation of the Equal Employment Opportunity at the workplace is usually signified by the presence of discrimination. Discrimination may exist in two forms. The first is through disparate treatment whereby members of certain social class are treated differently to others deliberately. Disparate impact is when there is a significant underrepresentation of certain social class of people primarily because of employment decisions that inadvertently work to the disadvantage of this social group (Noe et al., 2011).
All in all, commitment to equal employment opportunity has great benefits and positive consequences for modern human resource structures. Equal employment opportunity is a hugely potent way of elevating an organization’s profitability, competitiveness and even business efficiency (Connolly, 2013). If the human resource structure of an organization fosters strategies that support a management that has its basis on merit, the organization is able to recruit, motivate and subsequently retain hugely effective employees that are required for the realization of the organization’s goals and objectives and its ultimate success.

References

Connolly, W. (2013). Practical guide to equal employment opportunity. S.l.: Law Journal Seminars Pr.
Noe, R., Gerhart B., Wright. P., & Hollenbeck, J. (2011).Fundamentals of human resource management (4nd ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.