Week 20 Equal Opportunities

 Explain the difference between equality and diversity

According to Mullin’s (2007), the meaning of equality is being fair to all people. The Adult College (n.d) mentioned that is a structure and culture that come from the mission statement, the work place and procedures. This is to ensure that the working environment is a safe and non discrimination place to work in. Equality refers to the term of Equal Opportunities which protects staff / people from being discriminated, for example, sex, disability and race. Equality is based on the legal obligation that every company needs to follow.

Mullen’s (2007) stated that Diversity involves a wide range of conditions within the workforces, for example, valuing the benefits of its workforce that makes the best of people’s talents whatever their backgrounds is. Diversity covers visible and non-visible individual differences.
Diversity also focuses on the movements in company, for example, the culture and how are they meeting the business aims. Diversity is not just focusing on discrimination but also supporting wide range of people and maximising staff potential and contributing to the company (Hemphil and Haines, 1997).

The different between equality and diversity is that equality focuses on wide range of external areas that the company needs to follow, for example, Anti-discrimination Act. In the other hand diversity focuses on more internal areas that the company needs to take into accounts, for example, how to help its staff to achieve the full potential of their career by providing custom equipment.

 Margaret Mountford, who used to be Sir Alan Sugar’s advisor on “The Apprentice” stated that women should only be appointed to senior positions on merit. There should be no positive discrimination. Review the article below and state 3 arguments for and against her views.

To Support Margaret Mountford views
1. When Margaret Mountford is discriminating male at the same time she maybe discriminating female, for example, she said the show has destroyed many management myths and some of these myths discriminate women.
2. According to Sabbatini (n.d) stated that females are scientifically smarter than male, the article also mentioned that the woman brain is 20% bigger.
3. In the question above it is stated that women should only be appointed to senior positions on merit. But this should also apply to men too because all employees need to make profit for the company. For example on the second series of The Apprentice both of the sex was female. This could prove that women can be skilful leaders.


Against Margaret Mountford views
1. According to the UK national statistic 50%of the population is female
2. Due to women nature, when they get married they tend to start a family and this may cause some drawbacks such as less opportunities in their career.
3. Prejudice – stated in the Sex role (2004), that male are better leader or managers then women. Also mentioned that over half top positions are males.

 Age legislation came into force in 2006, as an employer what impact might this have - brain storm some ideas. What stereotypes do we tend to hold about younger and older people? Suggest two ideas as to how organisations can attempt to change these attitudes

When the Age Legislation Act came into force the impact that has brought to employers are;
Some employers may think that old people are slow (Brain storm)
Young people may not be reliable
Unmarried young woman may get penalise because they want to start a family in the future
Young people may not be experienced as old people and old people might complain a lot.

Action 1 attempt to change people attitudes
Now managers can deliberately have a mixture of age’s differences in a team. For example, number of leading industries such as retailers, financial sector - Marks and Spencer, B&Q and Tesco employ a different range of age groups. They will work as a team and this practice may change their attitudes towards the age differences

Action 2 attempt to change people attitudes
Organisation can organise training programmes for their staff to go on because training programmes usually change people’s attitudes especially at work. Also the organisation can put up posters, leaflets around their staff rooms and this may change people’s attitudes just by giving out information.


 Visit two organisational websites to benchmark practice in relation to equal opportunities, for example British Airways, Sainsbury’s, Asda or B&Q (www.diy.com) and detail the most innovative practices

The two organisations that were chosen are Sainsbury’s and Asda this is because they are in the same sector and aim at the same customers. Stated in both organisations web page, (The Times, 2010) Top 100 graduate employer has been awarded. But Sainsbury’s were awarded the most because according to their web page they received numbers of rewards. For example, the Best Place to work for in 2009.
On both of their web site stated that they are decline the usage of packaging. Also both organisations mentioned what charities they support and which communities’ charity they have funded.
On this occasion both organisations were summon to court for price fixing on tobacco Sainsbury’s did not get fined but due to Sainsbury's inform the Office of Fair Trade (OFT) and they were the first to apply to the OFT for leniency Sainsbury’s received complete immunity from fines. In the other hand Asda got fined for £14 million for price fixing on tobacco (The Guardian, 2010).
They both employ hundreds of thousands of staff, so it is important for both organisations to have rules and procedures to follow. This can reduce the number of unfairness and employees and managers will know what to do, for example, in disciplinary procedures so it will be fair to all staff across both organisations

Write a conclusion about this topic and include it in your blog
To conclude, it is important for any organisation to be fair to all staff especially large organisation because they employ hundreds of staff. Also it is important for any company to understand the contract of employment if not they may breach it without their concern.
It is wrong to judge a person just by the age especially in a working environment and this is a breach of regulations.

Bibliography and Reference

Asda (n.d) All about Asda [online] Available at: http://www.asda.jobs/all-about/index.html [Accessed 7 April 2010]

Hemphil, H and Haines, R (1997) Discrimination, harassment and failure of diversity training [online] Available at: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Uq8mCAvmm2wC&pg=PA61&dq=discrimination+diversity+meaning&ei=lAfYS4bpM4GOywTlyryLCQ&cd=1#v=onepage&q=discrimination%20diversity%20meaning&f=false [Accessed 5 April 2010]

Kelbie, P (2004) The Independent. Inflexibility and prejudice women keep from the top jobs [online] Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/inflexibility-and-prejudice-keep-women-from-top-jobs-705002.html [Accessed 5 April 2010]

Sabbatini, R (n.d) Are there differences between the brains of male and female [online] Available at: http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n11/mente/eisntein/cerebro-homens.html [Accessed 6 April 2010]

Sainsbury’s (n.d) About us [online] Available at: http://www2.sainsburys.co.uk/aboutus/about_us_default.htm [Accessed 7 April 2010]

Sex role (2004) Male versus female leaders a comparison of empirical studies [online] Available at: http://
www.springerlink.com/content/q3713k6976126425/ [Accessed 6 April 2010]

The Guardian (2010) OFT levies £225 fine for cigarette price fixing [online] Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/apr/16/oft-levies-225m-for-cigarette-price-manipulation [Accessed 7 April 2010]

The Times (2009) Hang in there, Margaret Mountford of The Apprentice tells women [online] Available at: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/career_and_jobs/article6830916.ece [Accessed 5 April 2010]