WORKFORCE DIVERSITY IN A SOCIETY

Introduction:

This piece of work examines workforce diversity in terms of male and female or gender bias and also studies the workplace entitlements for an employee such as leave for maternity, childcare leaves etc. which is mostly applicable in case of female workers and thereby the industries are seeing lesser female workforce as compared to male ones. The writing also scrutinizes on issues relating to equality if could be achieved in terms of ratio of men and women on work. There can be efforts to minimize work entitlement bias and this may help lower the burden on women workers and will also motivate men workers to indulge more in home or family affairs.

The Australian society has seen remarkable increase in number of women employees on the job after the advent of globalization but then also we are lacking in the equal percentage of entitlements or benefits for both men and women as they both differ in their family responsibilities, so the ease of doing job should also vary in such cases.  There should be both equality in pay and job for both women and men and on the same time, there should be difference in opportunity for both men and women as women have more responsibilities than men. Feminists have been fighting for sameness but actually there should be fight over difference in privileges like maternity, childcare leaves, flexible timings, extra leaves as compared to men etc. [Jamil et al, 2006, 20-22] As per current Australian standards of human resource management, maternity leaves are provided to temporary women staffs also, they also rationalize their leaves for maternity by giving unpaid leaves for 12 months to mothers whether natural or adoptive, although paternity leave has been comparatively low in all countries whether Australia or Sweden. We have seen that many women workers prefer part time or flexible jobs as compared to men, the percentage of women in category of part time employee is almost 7-8 times more than men involved in part time work. Some of developments like part time jobs, flexible timings, equal payment options etc can make life very easy even for women employees and increase their participation in job. [Plueigisi, 1999, 97] There is lot of support from both men and women on unpaid parental leaves for long durations like 52 weeks so that they could bring their child to mature stage after giving birth and then again come to job. Some studies of USA say that permit for flexible working hours may damage the equality on the job and also disturb the balance of full time workers as women would instead prefer sending their husbands or male family members on untimely flexible work time like evenings or nights. [Reiskin and Beilby, 2012, 71-86] These kind of pattern may on the other hand disturb the working pattern of many organizations as company’s win or loss is ultimately based on full time dedicated employment and not on part time employments. Altogether it has been seen that women employees or workers are more supportive for work entitlements than men employees. Large percentage of men and women employed think that women must have opportunity to parental leave. Blue collar employees are more responsive to leave entitlements than white collar employees and that in itself shows that work characteristics has influence on leave entitlements and desire for so. [Jacob and Schein, 98] It has also been seen that families with small children are more responsive towards leaves than adult child having families. All these factors show that leave entitlements are subject to various facts like gender on the priority, nature of work to be done, number and age group of children which are to be taken care of in the family. The analysis indicates that the respondents are less likely to consider themselves for paid leaves for long maternity periods but are more inclined for unpaid long week leaves for the purpose of child care. [Chung et al, 1998, 5-12] Consequently the organizations should provide parental leaves on priority basis even in private organizations so that employees are motivated to work and more and more female employees could be involved in work culture even if they have huge family burdens and prerogatives. The question of profitability should not arise with the private firms because profit will not get affected even if women workers take more leaves rather it will enhance the workforce diversity and make organizational culture more systematic and diverse. [Loscocco, 2012, 3-36] The argument lies that whether workplace entitlements are likely to be beneficial for the human force as well as industrial relations or not? If the answer is yes, then up to what extent it should be included in mandatory leave entitlements. Some HR practitioners say that workplace entitlements should be limited to leave structures, maternity benefits but flexible timings and part time work pattern should not be made open in the companies as it may hamper the basic work pattern and smoothness of the firm. Gender bias can be minimized with the help of increasing workforce diversity and enhancing the work life balance of blue collar female worker class. [Lenon, 235-247] Employees who like working in flexible jobs can continue being involved in part time jobs and flexible time or work jobs but those people who like to work in full time jobs can very easily get involved in job as their family priorities must be given considerations in their work life also. Consequently it has been seen that Australian workforce is receptive on four components of workplace entitlements: firstly the respondents were found highly inclined towards leave entitlements like maternity leaves, paid leaves, unpaid child care leaves. Meher and Saugeres, 5-21] Secondly women are more supportive of leave entitlements than men, this means that the female employee source favors leaves as an employee benefit act but this ratio is dependent on some variable factors like age of the child, employment location, education of the family and work characteristics of the employee. [Brown et al, 225-254]Thirdly the analysis suggests that child care is treated as personal responsibility of the employee and not an employee benefit plan of the employer as many respondents favored unpaid leaves and not paid leave for child care and development. Fourthly the analysis suggests that most important determinant of work entitlement is combination of employment nature and extent of the need for such entitlements. [Acker, page 936-945] Higher grade families and white collar staff will desire lesser holidays than lower grade staff, women having small children will demand more leave entitlements than those with elderly children. Similar factors affect the nature of leave entitlement demands. [Olsen and Walby, 2-29]

Conclusion:

Thus it can be said that workplace entitlements are subject to various variable conditions and maximum number of female workers in Australia and overseas have been found to favor and show inclination for workplace entitlements. Workplace entitlements include maternity leaves, unpaid child care leaves from the organization, paid leaves for female employees should be more as compared to male employees and similar factors. [Anketle, 2009, 54-66] Out of these factors, it has been seen that female employees of socially backward class show more interest for leave entitlements than female employees of higher class backgrounds, female employees of grown up children show lesser demand for leave entitlements than female employees having children between one to 10 years. [Zou, 2007, 1-16] Female employees of blue collar constitution show more inclination for such leaves than employees of white collar constitution. All these data show that overall requirement for leave entitlement is more in worker class and therefore it should be made legally inclusive because it may increase the number of female workers employed with the firm in various industries and may also increase the demand for job or work on full time basis even in female employee base. [Hotson, 385-399] Trade unionism also plays an important role as decline in unionism has called for increased leave entitlements and tensions on these issues because when union was prime source of collecting workers and making them work, then leave, pay, nature of job all these things were easily managed by any employee because they had bargaining power and union support. [Peterson et al, 2007, 13-37] Sociological condition of women workers is a matter of concern and it should be taken care of. Women workforce engage their double efforts in managing both home and office related works therefore, corporate sector must understand the need for special privileges being provided to female employees as compared to men in terms of leave entitlements and it should also be considered that female employees must have more number of holidays than male workers. The analysis pointed out the view of various employees from both genders male and female about leave entitlements of female employees and the analysis also reviewed the demand of workers and white collar employees on the nature of such holidays or degree of leave entitlements which must be permitted and it was seen that the employees rationally gave their views on inclusion of leave entitlements for female in case of prenatal and postnatal maternity but for child care, most of employees demanded unpaid leaves. The nature of entitlement demand varied on various grounds as we already saw above and this shows that leave entitlements on the whole is a crucial role player in making female employees more involved in work.

References:

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