Gender-Based Workplace Analysis in Australian Perspective - Literature review Example

Subject: Teacher: September 16, 2008 University: Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Inequalities in the workplace 3 Introductions 3 Literature Review 4 Findings 11 Conclusion 13 Works Cited 14 Inequalities in the workplace Introductions If we analyse then we come to know that conventional adherence and processes of political recognition have been liquefy since the mid 1970s. No doubt, the 'Australian Settlement' can be sight as exemplify a political resolution, as well as monetary and instructive settlements. This political resolution took the form of the two-party system that came into being succeeding the fusion between the Free Traders and the Protectionists to produce a introverted liberal party in 1909. This blending brought into being an undemanding Labor-non-Labor division in Australian politics a split that was to distinguish the nature of politics for the entire of the era of Modern Australia. Furthermore, it was the 'Australian Settlement', which distinct what politics was to be concerning in Modern Australia. It is value recalling that at the time of the formation of the two-party structure Australia possessed only limited civilizing multiplicity. No doubt, the majority of the Australian inhabitants, except for small privileged, were skilled to a prime level, which is not surprising specified, that the majority of them were employed in labor-intensive or semi-skilled professions. According to the Robert Murray Analysis the employment chances for women were evenly controlled (Robert Murray, pp. 23). If we analyse the policies of Australia organizations, we come to know that the politics shaped and exact by the two-party system replicate equality of Australian life, as well as the division between labour and capital was at the centre of that practicality. Basis of gender depicted in such policies also clarifies the concern of equality among women and women. It is likely for all organizations to follow a nationwide equality of sanitation, as defined by the 'Australian Settlement', even as they fluctuate over the precise form of that nationwide interest (Fowler, H. and Wainwright, M. 2001, pp 337-339). Literature Review Baron, R. A., Neuman, J. H., and Geddes, D. in their article, Social and personal determinants of workplace equality: Evidence for the impact of perceived injustice and the Type A Behavior Pattern, (1999), describe about the social and personal impacts experienced by the employees of any organization. They conclude that all the aggressive situations in a workplace are an outcome of injustice that is done with the employees of an organization. According to them, the business environment is controlled by the managers of an organization. This article was very useful as it gave information related to a working environment and managerial role in it. Jacobs JA, Gerson K in the book, The time divide: Work, family, and gender inequality, (2004), explain about the gender influence in workplaces. According to them, there is an existence of gender inequality that results in the stressful conditions. This book was very supportive for this research paper as it told in details the experiences of employees which they gain by being a part of one gender. Jones JW, Barge BN, Steffy BD, Fay LM, Kuntz LK and Wuebker LJ in Stress and medical malpractice: organizational risk assessment and intervention, (1998), do a research related to psychological implications of stress and misconduct of employees and also suggest methods for the control of such conditions with the help of risk evaluation and involvement. This was also supportive for the research. Lundin, S. C. Paul, H. and Christensen. J. in FISH, (2000), explain the conditions of a stress and aggressiveness of an individual when he/she is trapped in some stressing circumstances. According to them, the condition of the individual is like a fish which is without water. This book was also helpful as it informed about the factors of stress and aggressiveness. Neuman, J. H. in the work, Injustice, stress, and aggression in organizations, (2004), highlights that what circumstances can lead towards strain and anxiety. According to Neuman, the problems in an organization occur due to lack of proper managerial control and assessment. This book is a good book as it informs about the problematic situations created in the organizations and also tracks the reasons for the creation of those situations. It was also supportive. Neuman, J. H., and Baron, R. A. in the essay, Workplace violence and workplace aggression: Evidence concerning specific forms, potential causes, and preferred targets, (1998), give the reasons behind the occurrence of violence and aggressiveness in the workplaces and also inform about the people who are affected by such occurrences. It was also helpful in the research. Neuman, J. H., and Baron, R. A. in the article, Social antecedents of bullying: A social interactionist perspective, (2003), describe about social background of aggressive attitudes. This article was good for giving background information related to social effects of aggravated behaviours. Roth, G. and Kleiner, A. in their book, Car Launch: The Human Side of Managing Change, (1999), describe about the management of changes by managerial levels and also describe how employees can cope up with changes that are made in the organizations. This book is mainly for car companies. Sauter SL, Murphy LR and Hurrell JJ, Jr. in the essay, Prevention of work-related psychological disorders, (1990), describe about the psychological disorders which are in the employees of companies and suggest ways by which these disorders can be controlled and managed. Torbert, W.R. in the article, "The Distinctive Questions Developmental Action Inquiry Asks.", (1999), describes some questions that are asked by the employees or workers to get an answer to their felt stresses and aggravations. It is a type of inquiry. It was supportive for the research. When we brows through the history of the social order, which is always an economic hierarchy, we find the compartmentalized societies, where every class had an assigned work to perform and non was allowed to violate the rules; prescribed by the social order. Aristotle; the renowned Greek Philosopher, advocated that slavery was natural. He poses a question first. He wanted to know whether slavery was natural or it was the violation of the nature. (Aristotle) And he finds an easy answer of his query. To him slavery was not the violation of the rules of nature. To him the birth rights were determined by the birth place of the person. Though Australian society has never been the victim of the strict cast system since ages and the system is protected by Christian monarchy. Obviously such societies encourage the social mobility and the victim of any unjust societal treatment has other option than suffering from the plight of the social stratification. Different occupational groups had to live within the prescribed circumference. In the above cited work ethics to question inequality in the work place is a great sin, so does apply in Australian perspective. But the working conditions, with the advent of the modern world, are changed. “In pre war days when anyone thought or talked about the possibility of a fundamental reorganization of economic society, it was usually assumed that the driving force power of such reorganization would be furnished by the Laboring Class.”(Hoover, Calvin B) But later, as suggested by Calvin B. Hoover, “the economic order” was changed and in Italy and Germany it was the not the proletariat class which was responsible for the change in the economic order but all other classes contributed for the change. To substantiate his stance he cites the development of the economic order in UK and its colonies like Australia too. The economic legislation of the New Deal was brought by pressure from almost all classes in the Australian courts and societies. (Hoover, Calvin B) As every modern constitution safe guards the rights of every individual to work so new rules and regulations are passed to provide much friendly atmosphere for employees. But the issue of inequality in the work place was not given that much importance as it is witnessed in recent years. The issues of gender inequality, child labour and the issue of palatable working conditions are given much importance than ever in human history. The concept of bondage labour is a heinous crime now-a- days and the modern societies are struggling hard to protect people from the slavery or bondage labour. The civil society of any locality is at its feet to protest such labour. Protection of the dignified labour is the great achievement of the human history. But it won’t be far-fetched here to first find what does equality means in work place as it is a persistent effort of human beings to provide the congenial space for workers to work. Equality in workplace demands the contentious efforts by the given society where it is still an uphill task to achieve the goal of friendly culture for work. Philip J. O’ Connell and Helen Russell of Economic and Research Institute submitted their report to the Equality Authority England in 2005. They made a very important point in suggesting that equality promotes efficiency in workplace and moreover, it strengthen the democratic norms in any society where equality in workplace is taken care of. Philip J O’ Connell and Helen Russell are of the opinion that equality in a work place is a relative term; there can not be any set rules for every society to follow. It is a common effort of all the social groups to have a friendly workplace. But the universal norm is to condemn the social stratification to provide an ample opportunity for every individual to work.. (See Philip J O’ Connell and Helen Russell). Equality in work place is emphasized since it is helpful for the healthy environ where people from all strata of the society can exploit their talent which promotes the culture of creativity in the given society and generates initiative to work. So, we have less parasites and much of the workers, willing to contribute in the society. A particular value base is obsequious to enhance social mobility. The stratified societies remain conservative by sticking to their social norms and are the great hurdles in achieving the democratic values. . Equality flows from a particular value base - a value base that has a particular emphasis on the shared humanity of all in society and the implications of this. (Philip J. O’ Connell and Helen Russell) So, the equality in work place is the important factor for any society to leap forward. Now most of the countries are providing a breathing space for the people who were facing discriminations at workplace before. It is usually said that women face "glass ceiling” in their workplace which is an imaginary hurdle but most of the working women clamor that it stops them achieving top ranks as compared to men. The research scholar s Elizabeth Fox-Genovese shares this viewpoint and demands the equal job status for women to give them an equal chance of earning (Gender Inequality in the Workplace: Wise to Social Issues; September15, 2008.] It is observed that the working conditions at most of the work places in the world are deplorable. The employees have to face discrimination regarding their religion,race and mother tongue. Philip J. O’ Connell and Helen Russell define discrimination as, “Discrimination is described as the treatment of a person in a less favorable way than another person is, has been or would be treated in a comparable situation on any of the nine grounds which exist, existed, may exist in future or is impeded to the person concerned.” (8) The nine grounds are gender, marital status, family status, age, disability, sexual orientation, race, religion and member of the Traveller community. (see Philip J. O’ Connell and Helen Russell: Equality at Work Place?) The gender discrimination is the great obstacle to have the shared interests of the community materialized. It does not help the society also. The society is an abstract term otherwise it is the people who establish any society and if people are stratified economically it does not enhance the social development as is required in the today’s world. Such society lags behind which does not strive for the equality in the work place. Sometimes at the surface level we feel that inequality in work place (in developed countries particularly) was the daemon of the past and the 21st century is new era of ideal working conditions. This concept is quite deceptive as the social discrimination, income inequality and gender discrimination are still the practice of the day. Of course, you may say that the situation is improving and the people are now politically motivated to fight for their rights and courts by judicial activism are at the door step of the effected to provide them the relief but it still needs much work to be done. As the concept of equality in work place is the enchanting elf to lure the worker to a world of fantasy. The western societies by raising the affluence level in general have succeeded to proclaim that inequality was evil of the past and society is exorcised by economic prosperity, so, the worker feel to have a great stake in the social order that “by overthrowing it they have much to loose than merely their chains.” (Halevy, 1981) In competitive societies an individual suffers a different kind of stratification. The most of the scholars are of the view that the competitive society may bring out the best in every individual. The advocate of the competitive society claims that it provides the means for the whole society to become rich. A society which does not inculcate the sense of competition in an individual it becomes stagnant. But usually it is observed that when an individual fails the cherished goal he becomes desperate and it is quite likely that person may succumb to crime. (see Morris Ploscowe: Crime in a Competitive Society) In the competitive economic policies special attention is given to two problems. Efficiency is given emphasized in competitive economic policies. The other is ignoring the effects of unequal economic distribution. The competitive society caters one working class and ignores the others who are unable to compete. Such people do not enjoy equality at work place. Findings The above described study shows the importance of communication at a workplace to maintain a standard diversity level is very high. This research also highlights some themes to foster up and affect the performance of an organization. The most important theme of the communication is the content itself. The message or the content or the orders whatever one has to convey to others is a crucial object which directly influence the receivers. That is why intensive care has to be exercised for the proper choice of the content. With regard to the contents; the role of gender also impacts greatly. While men use stronger, direct and authoritative contents to express their thoughts or suggestions or the orders, women use mild, indirect and assertive method to communicate with others. The other remarkable thing of the communication is that one has to be attentive for listening properly what is being said. In this sphere, women excel as they are a natural listener in that men often have the tendency to ignore what women say. That is why women have automatically adopted the role of listener. There has been done a lot of research with regard to the gender role. Gender is often perceived unproblematic as synonymous with biological sex, a historical and highly normative category (Brewis et al., 1995), that is, a something which exists outside its current context and determines roles and behaviour. Therefore a person found to be biologically female would also have the feminine gender. This is biological essentialism (Garrett, 1987), a belief that everyone has a pre-determined inner essence, a view challenged, for instance by de Beauvoir (1949) who wrote about becoming a woman, rather than it being innate. Lorber and Farrell (1991) similarly assert that gender is a social construct, that is, gender is a category people collectively agree to subscribe to as a concept. This concept is also evident in an organizational environment where there are different sets of roles for men and women. This discrimination should be given proper consideration as the recent research has found the womenfolk in a better position in communicating sphere. The vivid example of this role is the call centres, receptions, especial meeting dealing with delegations and so on, where women can show their full potential. (Adler, R. B) The communication direction is important in that it specifies the role of coordination and sending and receiving information and directions. Likewise the communication barriers are helpful to demonstrate us how one can solve problems and find where there are thing going wrong. Conclusion The workplace inequalities are the outcome of improper and troubling working conditions. The management and the co-workers of an employee should develop a good communication process and implement fair policies in environment so that a friendly and diverse environment is created on a workplace and the employees feel good while working. Such conditions will result in business promotion and development. When the staff will feel no stress and aggression, the management will also be comfortable because of normal working of the staff members. Management should make groups of such people who can work flexibly with one another and they should monitor the groups for their effective performance. All the problems created on a workplace should be solved with the management interference and they should work for the betterment of their employees. If they will care for their employees, their employees will care for them and a friendly work atmosphere will be established which will be beneficial for the workers as well as management. Such simple techniques can generate good diversity in the workplace. Works Cited Baron, R. A., Neuman, J. H., & Geddes, D. (1999). Social and personal determinants of workplace aggression: Evidence for the impact of perceived injustice and the Type A Behavior Pattern. Aggressive Behavior, 25, 281- 296. Jacobs JA, Gerson K (2004). The time divide: Work, family, and gender inequality. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 45-62. Jones JW, Barge BN, Steffy BD, Fay LM, Kuntz LK, Wuebker LJ (1998). Stress and medical malpractice: organizational risk assessment and intervention. Journal of Applied Psychology 73(4):727-735. Lundin, S. C.. Paul, H. and Christensen. J. (2000) FISH! New York, NY: Hyperion, 34-40 Neuman, J. H. (2004). Injustice, stress, and aggression in organizations. In R. W. Griffin & A. M. 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