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Impact of diversity on employee performance
Age groups in the workplace
Impact of diversity on employee performance
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The Different Impacts Diversity Has on an Individual
Diversity refers to the presence of individual human characteristics that make people different from one another (Schermerhorn, Hunt, and Osborn, 2005). Among these individual human characteristics are demographic differences, such as age, gender, sexual-orientation, ablebodiedness, race and ethnicity, and religion. Diversity and demographic differences can impact individual behavior by creating discrimination, stereotypes and prejudices in the work place. The differences that impact individual behavior the most are age, gender, sexual-orientation, and race and ethnicity.
Age Differences
Ages in the workplace can vary from as young as 16 to ages over 60 years old. This vast range of age differences within the workplace can create discrimination, stereotypes and prejudices among individuals. Such stereotypes and prejudices come from the misperception that as people age, their skills, ablebodiedness, and thought processing deteriorates and they are in turn unable to complete their work as effectively and efficiently as their younger counterparts.
According to the United States’ government site for equal opportunity, http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/age.html, setting age limits for employment has become common practice among employers. People over the age of 40 years are at the highest risk of age discrimination, but people of all ages can be victims of age discrimination. The government has created several acts, in which age discrimination is unlawful and not tolerated. In 1967, Congress created the Age Discrimination Act (ADEA), protecting individuals over 40 years old against age discrimination. This act protects both employees and job applicants. Under the ADEA, “it is unlawful to discriminate against a person because of his/her age, with respect to any term, condition, or privilege of employment—including, but not limited to hiring, firing, promotion, layoff, compensation, benefits, job assignments, and training” (ADEA, 1967).
Two other acts that protect individuals from age discrimination are the Age Discrimination Act of 1975 (ADA) and Section 188 of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA). The ADA protects individuals of all ages from discrimination when applying for programs and actitivities that receive federal financial assistance, and the WIA protects against age discriminatio...
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...dments to the Constitution, anti-discrimination acts, and civil rights’ movements--discrimination still exists. Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American women to win a seat in the United States Congress, once said, “In the end antiblack, antifemale, and all forms of discrimination are equivalent to the same thing - antihumanism.”
References
American Psychological Association. “Answers to Your Questions About Sexual Orientation and Homosexuality.” Retrieved on April 5, 2005 from: http://www.apa.org/pubinfo/answers.html#whatis.
Fix, Michael E. and Margery Austin Turner (1998) The Role of Testing a National Report Card on Discrimination in America. Retrieved on April 5, 2005 from: http://www.urban.org/url.cfm?ID=308024.
Orfield, Gary and Susan Eaton. 1996. Dismantling Desegregation: The Quiet Reversal of Brown vs. Board of Education. New York: The New Press.
Schermerhorn, John R., James G. Hunt and Richard N. Osborn (2003). Organizational Behavior, Chapter 4. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967. Retrieved on April 5, 2005 from: http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/adea.html.
The "2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals" held that those business practices that have had a disparate impact effect on the older workers are now considered to be actionable under one national anti-discrimination law (Hamblett, 2004). The case does reaffirm a second Circuit precedent that had been set but which is at odds with what a majority of federal courts have held. The appeals court supported the idea that a layoff plan had been properly brought under the The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) although the company did not have the intention of discriminating.
The anti-discrimination legislation, the Age Discrimination Act 2004, which is the most recent, intends to ensure that all Australians of any age are treated justly with equal opportunity. According to the Age Discrimination Act 2004 “The Act also provides for positive discrimination – that is, actions which assist people of a particular age who experience a disadvantage because of their age”. The age discrimination within a workplace can be clearly explained by a case where age discrimination is evident, Elizabeth is a 17-year-old who was employed by a recreational centre as a customer service attendant on a casual basis. She claimed she had not been given shifts for approximately four months because she had been replaced by a younger worker. As the following employee has been replaced by someone younger, the employer is discriminating Elizabeth in the reason of her age. Consequently, Elizabeth filed a complaint, as the manager’s choice of action was unjust. The complaint was resolved through conciliation with an agreement that the employee will still be employed and transferred to work in a different branch of the company. The employer must take reasonable care of their workers in terms of health and safety. Providing the employer does not do the following, the manager could
This paper examines discriminatory behavior against older persons in the workplace. A comprehensive analysis of the problem of ageism is explored from a range of various theories in an attempt to prove and understand the causal link between ageism and negative attitudes. Understanding how and why negative attitudes are developed and perpetuated leads us to make conclusions for change.
Robbins , Stephen P. and Judge, Timothy, A. Organizational Behavior. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. Prentice Hall. Pearson Custom Publishing. 2008 Print
The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 is an act that was passed that clearly states that employers can’t be discriminate against someone based on their age 40 and older. The older adults are trying so hard to hold onto their jobs with dear life, because if not they will be nudged out and pushed aside. Not because of anything but rather because of their age. Age discrimination is on the rise as young as 50 years old. Age discrimination can happen to anyone regardless of your race, ethnic backgrounds or sexual orientation. A study was published in the Journal of Age Ageing and in the report it said that British People 50 years old and older faces discrimination about one third of them. In a resent survey older adults says job insecurity
Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) of 1967, as amended, protects workers age forty and over in hiring, promotion, and termination decisions. This project is going to analyze the ADEA and its amendment in terms of effectiveness, ineffectiveness, and influence which will be demonstrated by employment cases, research data. The project shows that the ADEA is not as effective as it suppose to be and its purpose of prohibiting age discrimination has not been implemented efficiently in workforce. The ADEA somewhat has enabled Americans work longer, however, it might not be the best
In this era of equality where diversity plays a crucial part in a workplace to create an inclusive environment of workforce which ensures equal opportunities between different individuals with distinct age, it is important to consider persons of all ages and backgrounds when it comes to equity in employment opportunities. 2. EXPLAINATION OF MY ALLOCATED ACT: When I researched the Act I found that: “The Age Discrimination Act 2004 helps to ensure that people are not
Employers cannot refuse to rent an employee, disregard him from employment, or in any other case discriminate against the employee for this sort of reasons. Likewise, the organization may not retaliate against a worker for making a rate of discrimination below the Act. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act extends the prohibition of discrimination in hiring and firing actions to personnel elderly forty and older. This regulation does now not follow to organizations with less than 20
Kinicki, A., & Kreitner, R. (2009). Organizational behavior: Key concepts, skills and best practices (customized 4th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Age discrimination can be something the fact that regular employee understands almost nothing of the subject. Despite the fact that, most Americans are working longer to ensure a productive and comfortable lifestyle. Countless of individuals who are working day-to-day lives for being middle aged may pretty good possibility associated with an age prejudice act, age discrimination is usually a non-issue to the majority of individuals. This frame of mind is shown in the literature that is readily available about the subject. Therefore, the subject of Age Discrimination is the topic in which I wish to learn more about (U.S. Equal Employment , 2017).
Robbin et al (2012) highlighted that the average age of the workforce has been increasing due to medical and technological advancement. The introduction of laws and regulations to protect older workers provides the choice to continue working after the generally accepted retirement age. As such, ageism has proliferated the workplace and top Managers, trade unions and policy makers are charged with the responsibility to develop concepts and implement measures to reduce and fight ageism (Hofacker 2014). This paper seeks to answer specific question that is related to increasing age diversity in the workplace. Firstly, what changes in employment relationships are likely to occur as the population ages?
An employer may look for a middle-aged person rather than someone who is “too young” or “too old”. There are many stereotypes that may cause employers to look to hire a specific age group and they may even treat current employees who do not fall into this group poorly.
Employers deny job seekers of all ages for many reasons, including age. Some argue that this discrimination is against the law, is unjust, and should be taken out of the equation when considering applicants’ eligibility for the job. There are laws put in place against age discrimination. “The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) protects certain applicants and employees 40 years of age and older from discrimination on the basis of age in hiring, promotion, discharge, compensation, or terms, conditions or privileges of employment” (United States Department of Labor). This law does protect applicants from age discrimination, but only protects applicants 40 years of age and older.
Age Discrimination No matter how experienced or talented a person is, history in places of work has shown that young people have huge chances of gaining promotions than old ones. Discrimination of employees based on age is becoming a global problem calling for firms to come up with laws of protecting employees. As a result of this trend, the age discrimination in employment was made as a way of trying to protect worker that were let go because of continuous unfairness in ageism(Schuster and Miller,1984). The current issue is that majority of companies are not willing to go an extra mile beyond their workforce but rather opt to have them pushed out of the technological loop. Experts
Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (2011). Organizational behavior (14 ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.