questionaire
ATTITUDE TOWARDS POSITIVE DISCRIMINATION & AFFIRMATIVE ACTIONS
Abstract:
This research is done to study the attitudes of people towards the policies which are made to encourage the suppressed groups in society. This report mainly focus on positively encouraging the females in working organizations and affects of such policies on their performance. Also how the other groups feel if females are given some extra privileges. Researcher has quantitatively analysis this phenomenon by using a survey technique of questionnaire analysis. The questionnaire is conducted in both manufacturing and service organizations. The results of questionnaire are interpreted by using SPSS software.
Contents
Bibliography 24
INTRODUCTION
PROBLEM IDENTIFIED
Considerable number of people is in favour of positive discrimination on gender basis, and they have developed different methodologies for its practicality. However difference in opinion of people and attitudes towards positive gender discrimination is hindering the practical implication of those methods.
RESEARCH QUESTION
“What attitudes people have towards the positive discrimination in considering it as a source of well being of society and effective utilization of resources?”
SIGNIFICANCE
Our research will clearly indicate the ways of discrimination, and attitudes of people towards that discrimination in Pakistani context, where very little research is conducted on these issues. Our findings will help out the firms and organizations to compare the actual impact of this sort of discrimination and to consider those all issues while they are applying positive discrimination methods. Managers will have a list of pros and cons of the methods, and will assist them to apply suitable and recommendable policy for employment, training and career development of employees in such a way that they end up as effective and productive employees
POSITIVE DISCRIMNATION AND AFFIRMATIVE ACTIONS
Positive discrimination means that, we select the candidates for a given position on the basis of gender, race, or other minority rather than competency and merit alone. This discrimination is done because applications of minority candidates can surpass obstacles and difficulties when they come in collision with applications of the majority. These obstacles might include, for example, poor schooling, poor training or lack of skills and experience. Minority applicants may just as skilled as the majority but that talent might be untapped due to lack of opportunity. Therefore positive discrimination provides smooth ground to minorities to move forward. It might not be needed if there were equal opportunities early on in life, but such inequalities do exist in real life and this action is necessary for development.
DISCRIMINATION ON THE BASIS OF GENDER
For many women the workplace still remains a place of unequal pay and career opportunities, insecurity and fear due to sexual harassment, and conflict and discrimination arising out of competing workplace and family care giving responsibilities. Gender-based discrimination in the labour market is one of the factors that can result in scarce opportunities, shrunken salaries, and limited horizons for women. Three specific phenomena are more important in this regard i.e. the wage gap between men and women, labour market segregation by gender, and the glass ceiling.
POSITIVE DISCRIMINATION AND AFFIRMATIVE ACTIONS
Women have made huge progress toward the goal of achieving equality and respect in their working lives. However, substantial steps and affirmative actions have been taken in past at both corporate level and national level to promote women and provide them equal opportunities in life. For example:
1. Norwegian government, which has a law insisting that, 40 per cent of company directors must be female. And this is isn’t just about equality – it argues that the economy will benefit as well.
2. David Cameroon, leader of opposition in UK has announced if he gets into power, then at least a third of his cabinet will be women. (At the moment, 6 of his 28-strong shadow cabinet are women).
3. There was a conference in Brussels which wants to increase the role of women in conflict resolution. And the UN wants more to help women in the developing world to contribute more to the income of their families by providing micro-credit.
4. In the 1997 UK election Tony Blair created all-women shortlists in winnable seats.
5. In his Vision 2020, the Chief Minister, Punjab has emphasized the vital role women must play in Punjab 's future. The paradigm of this vision commits the Government of the Punjab to making men and women equal partners in development. The Government of the Punjab has in recent times introduced multidimensional reforms for the empowerment of women in the Province. Consistent with international best practices, one of our key reforms is Gender Responsive Budgeting, under which the project 'Gender Responsive Budgeting Initiative ' (GRBI).
LITERATURE REVIEW
Discrimination, in whatever form; positive or negative, is treated as an unlawful practice till today. Positive discrimination means giving an individual more favourable chances of doing something on the basis of age, gender, race or marital status. In doing so, that particular individual is benefited typically because that individual belongs to an under-represented group. However, this discrimination is also treated as being unlawful yet justified. (Diane, 2008)
The type of positive discrimination that this literature review will throw light on is positive gender discrimination. Closing of the wage gap is one main focus area. Previously it was the biggest debate by conservatives that they felt women have to raise children at home, have fewer incentives for any extra hard work and are more interested in those jobs which does not have long office hours or overtime. Hence, women though being more like men, used to earn less. (Cloud, 2008)
Where there is an under-represented group, positive action is taken into account. Gilhooley (2008) discusses that positive action is the way to compensate the under-represented group. Hence, the employers are allowed to offer disadvantaged groups access to facilities for training and to encourage job applications from them. Examples of permitted positive action include placing advertisements where they are more likely to be seen by the disadvantaged group or another example would be to provide computer training courses to those over 60 because they may have had less exposure to training in the past. Employers have to make sure that they are targeting the under-represented group. (Gilhooley, 2008)
Positive discrimination based on gender is though justified for the under-represented group but it might not be justified for the other group involved Positive discrimination in job selection because of gender is unlawful under the Sex Discrimination Act (1975). This raises the question whether or not discriminating against male applicants would be a solution to the previously prevailing gender discrimination, allowing women to rapidly occupy jobs they thought would never be available to them. (Millar, 2006)
The issue allowing positive discrimination still remains that whether it helps to create a workforce that is more representative of the community or not. A survey by the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC), found it would take 20 years, based on present trends, for the number of women to equal that of men in the top management tiers of the Civil Service and 40 years for equality at director level in FTSE 100 companies. Even the EOC agrees that positive discrimination should give way to positive action. Jenny Watson, chair of the EOC, holds the opinion that there were plenty of practical ways the careers of women could be advanced without resorting to active discrimination. She called for a legal requirement for employers in the private sector to promote sex equality and eliminate sex discrimination. This could be started with a diagnostic 'equality check ' to identify whether there is a pay gap and what action is needed to address all three causes of the pay gap: occupational segregation, discrimination and the difficulties of combining work and family. (EOC, 2006)
Another gender based discrimination aspect is the unlawful discrimination for an employer to put pressure on a pregnant employee due to her pregnancy related sick leave and maternity leave, even if the employer did not intentionally discriminate. Positive action by EOC has also been taken on behalf of a woman who alleges that she was discriminated against by her former employer on the ground of her pregnancy by terminating her contract. The EOC has granted legal assistance in this case on the basis that pregnancy discrimination is still rife and must be eliminated from the workplace (EOC, 2010). This is the recent positive step which has been taken by EOC towards positive discrimination. (EOC, 2006)
The Confederation of British Industry 's (CBI) dismisses the idea of positive gender discrimination and believes the solution lies in going back and treating the earliest roots of the problem, which often stem from poor education choices and career advice. The survey (CBI, 2007) shows that almost all employers take action on diversity and equality and a third take positive action to improve equality in the workplace. However, just over a quarter (27%) of firms said they have not taken positive action because they lack sufficient knowledge or resources and are unsure about what constitutes allowable ‘positive action’ as against unlawful ‘positive discrimination’. (CBI, 2007)
The gender equality gap is closing due to rising education levels and the opportunity to balance work and family responsibilities. Employment rates for women are high and rising – they compare well to those in other EU countries. The UK has 13.3 million women active in the labour market. Nearly half (48%) of the UK workforce is now female5 and just over half (54%) of the female working age population is in work – the highest since records began (Labour Market Statistics, 2005)
The halving of the gender pay gap represents real progress in gender equality. The narrowing of the gender pay gap reflects the improved position of women in the labour market, reflecting in part their success in catching up the educational achievements of men both at school and university. The gender pay gap is lowest for the 22-29 age group and was 2% in 2004 8 – it should be expected that this narrowing will be translated into further reductions in the pay gap over time. The key reasons for the gender pay gap are women 's caring responsibilities (15%), differences in full and part-time work experience (38%), education (6%) and segregation (13%). (Labour Market Statistics, 2005)
Flexible working suits employers and employees and new rights are working well – the promotion of work-life balance has particularly benefited women. Workers with children or other family responsibilities can use a variety of schemes such as compressed hours, term- time working, job-sharing or part-time work to achieve a work-life balance. (Labour Market Statistics, 2005)
The numbers of women in senior positions is increasing – only 8% of all managers were female in 1990 but in 2003 nearly one third (30%) were female. Progress at board level has been slower, only 11% of all directors were women in 2003, but this does represent a large rise from the 2% figure in 1990. Employers recognise the advantages that can be gained from increasing the number of women at board level and there are currently a number of schemes that are dedicated to achieving this. (Labour Market Statistics, 2005)
The literature added above clearly shows that positive gender discrimination is encouraged by organizations and that they are moving quickly towards this positive action. Such positive actions are being more common in today’s world as it is moving towards equality and eliminating the concept of over-represented and under-represented groups.
Besides the advantages, the negative aspects of positive discrimination are also there and cannot be ignored. Miclaus (2010) in her article says that when an organization discriminate one group on other for the sake of achieving positive discrimination, creates problems for both groups one being discriminated and the other being preferred. The first affect is when you start preferring a group that was discriminated in past, will create a feeling of incompetence. for example hiring a female instead of male for a job will make the female employee feel that she gets a job not on the basis of her capabilities instead it was given to her because of some policy. On the other hand the male who hadn’t given job, will feel it as unjust. (Miclaus 2010)
Second harmful effect of positive discrimination is the person not being selected on the basis of positive discrimination will feel that he is truly deserving and feel he was unjustly avoided and rejected. This will create violent attitudes against the people who are being selected on the basis of positive discrimination. An example of an experiment would be the grouping of few male employees with a woman. One group told that the woman is given the job not the basis of her abilities but to have representation of minority group in organization. Such group of employees felt they were better advance then the woman and were less motivated and were disrespect towards the woman. The other group, who were told that the woman was elected on the basis of her competence, was actually motivated to compete with the woman employee. Thus even positive discrimination can bring the feeling of low self esteem in the group being preferred on the other. This affects the efficacy and productivity of an employee. On the other hand it also brings violence and disrespect towards those employees who were preferred on the other.After all the debate of the positive and negative aspects of positive gender discrimination, an area still lies untouched; the confirmation that the affirmative actions taken by the company are being justified in providing women with positive discrimination. (Miclaus 2010)
Tsui and Gutek(1984) in their study indicated that female fund managers were more risk averse than male fund managers. Specially, they found that female fund managers take less unsystematic risk and less small firm risk, while overall return risk does not differ systematically. The significantly higher idiosyncratic risk of male fund managers we document hints at more active trading strategies as compared to female fund managers. This reasoning is confirmed by the examination of investment styles. (Tsui and Gutek 1984)
Female fund managers follow significantly less extreme investment styles as compared to male fund managers. Furthermore, female managers ' investment styles are more stable over time. Study also found that male managers trade more, which was reflected in a significantly higher turnover rate of male managed funds as compared to that of female managed funds. A higher turnover ratio is regularly interpreted as an indication of overconfidence. However we have not found a negative impact of male managers ' increased trading activity on performance. Overall, our results show that behavioural differences between women and men do not vanish if we examine their behaviour in a professional setting. (Tsui and Gutek 1984)
Finally, the result of lower net-inflows into female managed funds raises the provocative question, why fund companies that are ultimately interested in high money net-inflows employ female fund managers at all. We found that female fund managers are more likely to work in large and well established fund companies. (Tsui and Gutek 1984)
Besides all the affirmative actions and policies in place for female right protection, discussed in this literature, executive women still say that they encounter barriers to success. Men tend not to see those barriers, or perhaps they have learned to offer politically correct responses to questions about their attitudes. (Carlson, Kacmar, and Whitten; 2006)
WAYS TO DICRIMINATE WOMEN POSITIVELY
So far we have discussed the importance of positive discrimination and literature in favor or against the discrimination. Our literature survey now will ahead towards of ways to positively discriminate females in corporate world. There are three main broad categories in which discrimination is basically conducted, namely:
1. Recruitment
2. Education & Training
3. Career path
RECRUITMENT:
In first form, women are positively discriminated in recruitment process. There are different ways to encourage females to get job; namely quota system, merit based system, jobs only for females (e.g. job as a nurse), and other ways. It is generally recommended that the selection process must be free of any sexual discrimination so that both male and female who are competent for the job, gets the employment. Moreover the selection criteria must not only be explicitly based on the years of experience (for managerial position) rather it should cosider the skills for that position, as most of the time men have higher years of experience then females and there are higher chances for them to take off with the position, leaving women less chances of recruitment. (Let 's encourage women to raise to the top, 2006). The quota system also helps women to get equal chance of selection as men do have and have equal representation in the organization. It is also believed that in organization, a cosiderable number of female employees provides them an ease of working environment where they can interact with other female employees and hence a comfortable environment have a clear positive impact on their working. However there are many critiques on this system as it eats up the true pool of talent which can be generated through the merit based system. People who are in favor of merit based systems claims that in this system the negative discrimination is actually eliminated on gender bases as criteria is on merit. In this way merit based system is itself a positove discrimination not only for females but also for the opposite gender. (Caiazza, April 2006)
EDUCATION & TRAINING:
It is observed that female employees don’t prefer the training programs conducted either by organizations or by any relevant agency. Females are either hesitant or uninterested or suffering from any other problem to not to be able to attend the training program. Australian agency devised a research to find out the reasons regarding this issue. It was found that females don’t go for this program because most of the time these training session are not accessible by them, either due to time constraints imposed due to heavy work, or due to timings and location for the training activity which might not be suitable for them, or time period of a course also hinders their willingness. So companies can encourage female employees for training sessions while considering above problems and devise the training programs in compliance to their facility, separate training programs for females can also be helpful method for female workforce. (Caiazza, April 2006)
Female employees, for instance in a political party can have encouragement in political activism if party
1. Provides political role models for women who break the mold
2. Provide space for women to address their fears and embrace their anger
3. Build connections across race and class to empower women role
4. Gently push women into leadership (among women) so that a women leader can come up with the strong decisions for subordinate women employees in a way that their productivity is increased and their genuine problems are also addressed.
5. Developing mentoring programs. Seminars on work/life balance can help employees understand its importance and find ways to achieve it. Such seminars teach employees how to better manage their workloads, eliminate unproductive work habits, get sufficient exercise and negotiate more flexible work conditions that meet their needs.
These ways will definitely help women to get educated about field work and will have ample opportunity of getting training. Training can be on field or off field. (Caiazza, April 2006)
CAREER DEVELOPMENT:
Literature survey reveals that there are many problems and issues which actually oppress the career development of females. However if some positive actions are taken by organizations to counter this problem females can be encouraged to step on the success ladder. This can be done by making more flexible times for work; flextime, telecommuting, and job sharing can be handy for females. Another strategy can be to allow time off from work, provide the paid childbirth, to engage the satisfaction level of working employees. Enhanced satisfaction will ultimately result into elevated productivity. Third strategy can be “bringing life to work”; female employees have issues to balance their job work with their homely responsibilities, so if they are allowed to bring their kids on work day. (Hakala, April 16, 2008)
The other problems, besides family issues, like less chances of promotion due to either less interest or due to stereotype, can be addressed if female managers are engaged in challenging tasks to improve their work experience and skills. These managerial skills will boost their capabilities of leadership. For this companies can promote consistent career planning, offer more demanding and versatile tasks, and help female staff to build network. (Hakala, April 16, 2008)
ATTITUDES TOWARDS POSITIVE DISCRIMINATION
Attitude towards positive discrimination falls into two major categories. One, which is in favor of the discrimination and claims that such discrimination, is beneficial for the society as a whole. The others, who have developed an unfavorable attitude, suggest that it creates injustice in society. Pros and cons of discrimination are described below: (Platform for Action, Para 109)
UNFAVORABLE ATTITUDE:
Unfavorable attitude arises due to following reasons:
Affirmative action is morally repugnant i.e. it is another form of injustice and discrimination now against men. Any form of discrimination that is not based on merit whether in favor of men or women is wrong. Humanity is a natural creation phenomenon. Whether one is male or female it is a natural issue which should not be altered in any case whatsoever. Nature is correct and assigns duties according to the natural capability of an individual, based on gender and other factors. (Platform for Action, Para 109)
Affirmative action is an enemy of excellence and hard work. It encourages laziness and incompetence especially when less qualified people are considered over more qualified ones. When it comes to employment, they are treated with much leniency which encourages laziness and non commitment to their duties as compared to males who are required to work harder. (Platform for Action, Para 109)
Affirmative action is unfair to the current generation. Young men of the present age never participated in the injustices as perceived. They should therefore not be made to sacrifice their opportunities to pay back. Alternatively young women should not harvest where they did not sow, they were not present when injustice was administered to their predecessors. (Platform for Action, Para 109)
Affirmative action encourages stereotypes. Preferential treatments of the females have worked out against their interests by fostering social tension resentment against the females. It creates the impression that women can’t make it on their own merits. They are later subjected to criticism that if not assisted they can’t survive or compete with men. On the other hand it makes them more depended on assistance and to some extent make them hate their gender status which is morally wrong. (Platform for Action, Para 109)
Affirmative action contributes to hiring the unqualified. It entails hiring the unqualified for jobs; promoting the unqualified or accepting unqualified in colleges, universities, and professional schools. It leaves the qualified and suitable locked out due to this factor. For example when recruiting people into the armed forces, women are given certain percentage to occupy. Regardless of their qualifications, the slots must be filled by ladies. This leads to hiring those who don’t qualify who later affects the productivity of such institutions. (Platform for Action, Para 109)
Affirmative action perpetuates the victimization syndrome. This is a situation where the affected lives with the memory that they were once upon a time victims of oppression and discrimination. It makes people fight for justice they are not clearly aware of how it originated and hence prevent them from productive arguments thoughts and competitions. The affected embrace remembrance of the negative past injustice more than productive current thoughts. Injustice obtains the power to distort long after it has ceased to be real. It is a posthumous victory for the oppressors, when pain becomes a tradition. This is a difficult dilemma of the new generation. An honorable life is impossible if they remember too little and a normal life is impossible if remember too little. (Platform for Action, Para 109)
Affirmative action has no proper guidelines. It is feared that once women are accustomed to preferential treatment, they will never let it go even after the goal have been achieved yet the action is meant to be a temporary process. It does not provide a reverse action should the goals exceed the target. (Platform for Action, Para 109)
There is difficulty in establishing the achievements. It will be very difficult to know when affirmative action will have fulfilled its action. It is a strategy with no clear aim and guidelines because of inherent problems facing its strategies. Some scholars suggest that all we have to do is to level the grounds between men and women so that both can strive and compete equally towards equality. (Platform for Action, Para 109)
FAVORABLE ATTITUDE:
There are group of people who are in favour of positive discrimination. The rationales they provide are highlighted below: (Platform for Action, Para 109)
Endure the atmosphere of instability and tension: Positive discrimination endures the atmosphere of instability and tension and distrust. Because females feels secure when they are positively discriminated. The feeling of been privileged helps companies to reduce the atmospheric instabilities. All employees feel equally important for the firm irrespective of gender. (Platform for Action, Para 109)
Incorporation of biological differences: people who favour positive discrimination argues that females have biological differences and been gifted by Divine, so they should be encouraged and helped to put in their skills and capabilities in working environment by facilitating them through positive discrimination. (Platform for Action, Para 109)
Increased workforce diversity: Diversity increases the talented pool of people; work force diversity is created by employing female employees as they have different way of thinking and approaching the problems in work. They come up with more rationales and in depth analysis of data, while men view things broadly, hence women and men together forms a team which becomes competent and sometimes the core strength of the organization. Positive discrimination is conducted to encourage females to work, at the end of the day company ends up as a successful company. If they aren’t supported and facilitated they cannot help company to elevate its productivity. (Platform for Action, Para 109)
Priorities of all stakeholders are identified and addressed: In other sector areas it is becoming increasingly clear that development goals will not be met unless the needs and priorities of all stakeholders are identified and addressed, for example in the transport or health sectors. Even in areas, where gender perspectives were normally considered irrelevant, such as trade and macroeconomics, it is increasingly recognized that sound developments must be based on a clear assessment of the contributions of women as well as men and the potential impact of planned interventions on both women and men and on their productivity. There has been a steady accumulation of evidence that gender differences and inequalities directly and indirectly affect the impact of development strategies and hence the achievement of overall development goals. (Platform for Action, Para 109)
Women represent half the resources and half the potential in any society. This potential remains unrealized when women are constrained by inequality and discrimination. “The empowerment and autonomy of women and the improvement of women’s social, economic and political status is essential for the achievement of both transparent and accountable government and administration and sustainable development in all areas of life…. Achieving the goal of equal partnership of women and men in decision-making will provide a balance that more accurately reflects the composition of society and is needed in order to strengthen democracy and promote its proper functioning.” (Platform for Action, Para 109)
In many contexts, more equitable access to education and employment by women and girls can give very positive returns in improved family health, greater productivity and reduced family size. Studies in 46 developing countries showed that a one per cent rise in women’s literacy had three times the positive effect of a one per cent rise in the number of doctors available. Research on economic growth and education shows failing to invest in education can lower the gross national product (GNP). (Platform for Action, Para 109)
There is also evidence from a number of countries that the benefits for family welfare of increased incomes for women are greater than the benefits from increases to men’s income. Women’s income tends to be more consistently utilized for expenditures on health, food and schooling, which benefit the whole family. (Platform for Action, Para 109)
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
PURPOSE OF STUDY
Purpose of our study will be to explain how positive discrimination is conducted in the organizations, what the attitudes of people towards those discriminations are, and how these attitudes are developed over time.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
The objectives of research are:
To determine the common issues faced by female workers and executives in corporate world, how families and societies are supporting women so that they can work as easily as men can do.
To explore what course of action firm’s have adopted to encourage women workforce and how much firm’s cooperate with women workers when they come across some personal or social issues
To figure out what adapting strategies female executives have followed to balance their family and career.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
RESEARCH FRAMEWORK:
Quantitative research involves a series of techniques aimed at describing, interpreting, and explaining the human experience through inductive reasoning (Patton, 1990). It embodies four defining characteristics: occurrence in natural settings, data origination from subjective experiences, non-standard data collection and analysis, and flexible information gathering techniques (Lee et al., 1999). Our research will base on the quantitative research and it will be a correlation study. A quantitative methodology of survey will be questionnaire to be asked from employees of different organizations from both male and female employees.
RESEARCH LIMITATIONS
Our research will be in the Eastern cultural perspective specifically Pakistan, and will not be generalized in the Westerns context.
HYPOTHESEIS
H0: Positive discrimination (gender) does not leads to the effective utilization of human and capital resources.
H1: Positive discrimination (gender) leads to the effective utilization of human and capital resources.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
This is the conceptual framework of this research report the independent variables here is positive discrimination that include favourable policies of recruitment , training and career path development for female employees in the organization. The dependent variable over here is an attitude that depends on the independent variable which is positive discrimination towards female employees. Two kinds of attitudes can be observed, favourable attitude that will bring personal autonomy of females in the organization and will create potential pool of talent including both males and females. The other kind of attitude that can be observed in relation to application of such policies is unfavourable attitude of other group that is male employees in the organization. This may lead to high cost of hiring female employees but low productivity on their behalf. While the other group that is male employees can feel injustice and stereotype in their organization.
DATA
OPERATIONALIZATION OF VARIABLES:
To operationalize of these variables the attitude of people towards the positive discrimination we have devised a scale to measure the attitude of people towards those variables, questionnaire will be used and format will be just like attitude statements. The answers will be analysed and will quantify the favourable, unfavourable and neutral behaviour of people towards positive discrimination and its consequences.
Features/Contents
Operational definition
Positive discrimination
Recruitment of employees
When the suppressed group is given extra privileges in order to motivate them.
Selection of hiring the employees in organization
Having Quota system
On the basis of marit
Attitudes
Attitudes of employees when special privilages are given to one group (females)
Favourable attitude
Neutral
Unfavourable attitude
DATA COLLECTION MAETHOD:
The data will be collected through primary research (through questionnaire) and secondary sources (SECP reports on productivity, company’s performance reports, and management field information). The questionnaire survey approach is the most common method of primary data collection in research and the advantages are simple administration and data consistency. Questionnaire is carried out by visiting the offices of different companies and handing them the questionnaire that is filled it by them.
SAMPLE SIZE:
The sample size taken in this research report is 40 respondents including both males and female employees. The questionnaire is carried out in both manufacturing industry and service industry
QUESTIONNAIRE:
The Research is about attitude toward positive gender discrimination and affirmative action. Positive Discrimination on the basis of gender implies promoting women to have fair representation in all organizational levels. Research questionnaire is attached in exhibit 1.
EXHIBIT: 1
Research Questionnaire
Attitude towards Positive Discrimination (Survey)
The Research is about attitude toward positive gender discrimination and affirmative action. Positive Discrimination on the basis of gender implies promoting women to have fair representation in all organizational levels. Research questionnaire is attached here with this report.
Designation: _________ Highest Education level: ______________
Gender: ______________ Tenure with the org: ______________
Experience: ______________
Salary:
QUESTIONS
OPINION
Q1) Does your organization have gender-based quota for the recruitment of female employees?
a) Yes
b) No
Q2) Does your organization provide any special privilege to its female employees? Select your answer from the list.
a) Flexible working hours
b) Educational/ Job training
c) Pick & drop
d) Day care facility
e) Other:_______________
f) None
Q3) Do you agree that promoting females in the workforce will bring diversity in generation of idea and problem solving?
a) Strongly Agree
b) Agree
c) Not sure
d) Disagree
e) Strongly disagree
Q4) Do you agree that females are a potential pool of talent required in an organization?
a) Strongly Agree
b) Agree
c) Not sure
d) Disagree
e) Strongly disagree
Q5) Are you in the favour of personal autonomy of females in the society?
a) Yes
b) No
Q6) Is the cost (financial, time) of promoting females justifiable in terms of increased productivity of the organization?
a) Strongly Agree
b) Agree
c) Not sure
d) Disagree
e) Strongly disagree
Q7) Do you agree that special benefits, provided to the female employees improve their performance?
a) Strongly Agree
b) Agree
c) Not sure
d) Disagree
e) Strongly disagree
Q8) Do you agree that special benefits, provided to the female employees improve female representation in the organizations?
a) Strongly Agree
b) Agree
c) Not sure
d) Disagree
e) Strongly disagree
Q9) Do you agree that the special privilege being provided to females in your organisation creates a feeling of unjust for other groups?
a) Strongly Agree
b) Agree
c) Not sure
d) Disagree
e) Strongly disagree
Q10) Do you agree that quota for female employees promote incompetent people?
a) Strongly Agree
b) Agree
c) Not sure
d) Disagree
e) Strongly disagree
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Bibliography: Caizza, A. (2006). Called to Speak: Six Strategies that Encourage Political Activism. Washington: Institute for Women 's policy Research. Carlson, K. a. (2006). What Men Think They Know About Executive Women. Retrieved from Hovard Business Research: http://hbr.org/2006/09/what-men-think-they-know-about-executive-women/ar/1 Cohen, B Coutu, L. (2006). Organizational Practices Supporting Women’s Career Advancement and Their Satisfaction and Well Being. Toronto: York University. Gilhooley, D. (2008, 12 29). Positive discrimination and positive action. Retrieved from times Higher education. Kelly, G. (2008, 10 30). Should there be positive discrimination to get more women in executive positions? Retrieved from Mamamia . Kolb, D. (2009). Too Bad for the Women or Does it have to BE? Gender and Negotiation over the Past Twenty-Five Years. Negotiation Journal , 515-526. Miclaus, C. (2010, 3 10). Discriminated People Advantages - Negative Aspects. Retrieved from http://www.buzzle.com/articles/discriminated-people-advantages-negative-aspects.html Millar, M Norris, P. (2000). Breaking the Barriers: Positive Discrimination Policies For Women. Gender in Management. An International Journal , 388-411. R.R., T. (1990). From Affirmative Action to Affirming Diversity. Harvard Business Review , 107-117. Simon, D. (2003). Discrimination and Affirmative Action. University of Michigan. Thomas, D. (2004). Diversity as Strategy. Harvard Business Review , 2-10. Karram, J. B. (n.d). (2008, 06 26). Government says firms should favour women and minorities. Retrived from Times Onlne. Satyavrata, M. (2006, 12 24). Positive Discriminiation vs Meritocracy. Retrieved from Erope forum: http://www.eupedia.com/ Women, O Tsui, A. S. (1984). A Role Set Analysis of Gender Differences in Performance, Affective Relationships, and Career Success of Industrial Middle Managers,". Verashchagina, F. (2009). Gender Segregation in the Labor Market, Root Causes, implication and Policy responses in the EU:Luxembour. Publication Office of the European Union .
Abstract:
This research is done to study the attitudes of people towards the policies which are made to encourage the suppressed groups in society. This report mainly focus on positively encouraging the females in working organizations and affects of such policies on their performance. Also how the other groups feel if females are given some extra privileges. Researcher has quantitatively analysis this phenomenon by using a survey technique of questionnaire analysis. The questionnaire is conducted in both manufacturing and service organizations. The results of questionnaire are interpreted by using SPSS software.
Contents
Bibliography 24
INTRODUCTION
PROBLEM IDENTIFIED
Considerable number of people is in favour of positive discrimination on gender basis, and they have developed different methodologies for its practicality. However difference in opinion of people and attitudes towards positive gender discrimination is hindering the practical implication of those methods.
RESEARCH QUESTION
“What attitudes people have towards the positive discrimination in considering it as a source of well being of society and effective utilization of resources?”
SIGNIFICANCE
Our research will clearly indicate the ways of discrimination, and attitudes of people towards that discrimination in Pakistani context, where very little research is conducted on these issues. Our findings will help out the firms and organizations to compare the actual impact of this sort of discrimination and to consider those all issues while they are applying positive discrimination methods. Managers will have a list of pros and cons of the methods, and will assist them to apply suitable and recommendable policy for employment, training and career development of employees in such a way that they end up as effective and productive employees
POSITIVE DISCRIMNATION AND AFFIRMATIVE ACTIONS
Positive discrimination means that, we select the candidates for a given position on the basis of gender, race, or other minority rather than competency and merit alone. This discrimination is done because applications of minority candidates can surpass obstacles and difficulties when they come in collision with applications of the majority. These obstacles might include, for example, poor schooling, poor training or lack of skills and experience. Minority applicants may just as skilled as the majority but that talent might be untapped due to lack of opportunity. Therefore positive discrimination provides smooth ground to minorities to move forward. It might not be needed if there were equal opportunities early on in life, but such inequalities do exist in real life and this action is necessary for development.
DISCRIMINATION ON THE BASIS OF GENDER
For many women the workplace still remains a place of unequal pay and career opportunities, insecurity and fear due to sexual harassment, and conflict and discrimination arising out of competing workplace and family care giving responsibilities. Gender-based discrimination in the labour market is one of the factors that can result in scarce opportunities, shrunken salaries, and limited horizons for women. Three specific phenomena are more important in this regard i.e. the wage gap between men and women, labour market segregation by gender, and the glass ceiling.
POSITIVE DISCRIMINATION AND AFFIRMATIVE ACTIONS
Women have made huge progress toward the goal of achieving equality and respect in their working lives. However, substantial steps and affirmative actions have been taken in past at both corporate level and national level to promote women and provide them equal opportunities in life. For example:
1. Norwegian government, which has a law insisting that, 40 per cent of company directors must be female. And this is isn’t just about equality – it argues that the economy will benefit as well.
2. David Cameroon, leader of opposition in UK has announced if he gets into power, then at least a third of his cabinet will be women. (At the moment, 6 of his 28-strong shadow cabinet are women).
3. There was a conference in Brussels which wants to increase the role of women in conflict resolution. And the UN wants more to help women in the developing world to contribute more to the income of their families by providing micro-credit.
4. In the 1997 UK election Tony Blair created all-women shortlists in winnable seats.
5. In his Vision 2020, the Chief Minister, Punjab has emphasized the vital role women must play in Punjab 's future. The paradigm of this vision commits the Government of the Punjab to making men and women equal partners in development. The Government of the Punjab has in recent times introduced multidimensional reforms for the empowerment of women in the Province. Consistent with international best practices, one of our key reforms is Gender Responsive Budgeting, under which the project 'Gender Responsive Budgeting Initiative ' (GRBI).
LITERATURE REVIEW
Discrimination, in whatever form; positive or negative, is treated as an unlawful practice till today. Positive discrimination means giving an individual more favourable chances of doing something on the basis of age, gender, race or marital status. In doing so, that particular individual is benefited typically because that individual belongs to an under-represented group. However, this discrimination is also treated as being unlawful yet justified. (Diane, 2008)
The type of positive discrimination that this literature review will throw light on is positive gender discrimination. Closing of the wage gap is one main focus area. Previously it was the biggest debate by conservatives that they felt women have to raise children at home, have fewer incentives for any extra hard work and are more interested in those jobs which does not have long office hours or overtime. Hence, women though being more like men, used to earn less. (Cloud, 2008)
Where there is an under-represented group, positive action is taken into account. Gilhooley (2008) discusses that positive action is the way to compensate the under-represented group. Hence, the employers are allowed to offer disadvantaged groups access to facilities for training and to encourage job applications from them. Examples of permitted positive action include placing advertisements where they are more likely to be seen by the disadvantaged group or another example would be to provide computer training courses to those over 60 because they may have had less exposure to training in the past. Employers have to make sure that they are targeting the under-represented group. (Gilhooley, 2008)
Positive discrimination based on gender is though justified for the under-represented group but it might not be justified for the other group involved Positive discrimination in job selection because of gender is unlawful under the Sex Discrimination Act (1975). This raises the question whether or not discriminating against male applicants would be a solution to the previously prevailing gender discrimination, allowing women to rapidly occupy jobs they thought would never be available to them. (Millar, 2006)
The issue allowing positive discrimination still remains that whether it helps to create a workforce that is more representative of the community or not. A survey by the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC), found it would take 20 years, based on present trends, for the number of women to equal that of men in the top management tiers of the Civil Service and 40 years for equality at director level in FTSE 100 companies. Even the EOC agrees that positive discrimination should give way to positive action. Jenny Watson, chair of the EOC, holds the opinion that there were plenty of practical ways the careers of women could be advanced without resorting to active discrimination. She called for a legal requirement for employers in the private sector to promote sex equality and eliminate sex discrimination. This could be started with a diagnostic 'equality check ' to identify whether there is a pay gap and what action is needed to address all three causes of the pay gap: occupational segregation, discrimination and the difficulties of combining work and family. (EOC, 2006)
Another gender based discrimination aspect is the unlawful discrimination for an employer to put pressure on a pregnant employee due to her pregnancy related sick leave and maternity leave, even if the employer did not intentionally discriminate. Positive action by EOC has also been taken on behalf of a woman who alleges that she was discriminated against by her former employer on the ground of her pregnancy by terminating her contract. The EOC has granted legal assistance in this case on the basis that pregnancy discrimination is still rife and must be eliminated from the workplace (EOC, 2010). This is the recent positive step which has been taken by EOC towards positive discrimination. (EOC, 2006)
The Confederation of British Industry 's (CBI) dismisses the idea of positive gender discrimination and believes the solution lies in going back and treating the earliest roots of the problem, which often stem from poor education choices and career advice. The survey (CBI, 2007) shows that almost all employers take action on diversity and equality and a third take positive action to improve equality in the workplace. However, just over a quarter (27%) of firms said they have not taken positive action because they lack sufficient knowledge or resources and are unsure about what constitutes allowable ‘positive action’ as against unlawful ‘positive discrimination’. (CBI, 2007)
The gender equality gap is closing due to rising education levels and the opportunity to balance work and family responsibilities. Employment rates for women are high and rising – they compare well to those in other EU countries. The UK has 13.3 million women active in the labour market. Nearly half (48%) of the UK workforce is now female5 and just over half (54%) of the female working age population is in work – the highest since records began (Labour Market Statistics, 2005)
The halving of the gender pay gap represents real progress in gender equality. The narrowing of the gender pay gap reflects the improved position of women in the labour market, reflecting in part their success in catching up the educational achievements of men both at school and university. The gender pay gap is lowest for the 22-29 age group and was 2% in 2004 8 – it should be expected that this narrowing will be translated into further reductions in the pay gap over time. The key reasons for the gender pay gap are women 's caring responsibilities (15%), differences in full and part-time work experience (38%), education (6%) and segregation (13%). (Labour Market Statistics, 2005)
Flexible working suits employers and employees and new rights are working well – the promotion of work-life balance has particularly benefited women. Workers with children or other family responsibilities can use a variety of schemes such as compressed hours, term- time working, job-sharing or part-time work to achieve a work-life balance. (Labour Market Statistics, 2005)
The numbers of women in senior positions is increasing – only 8% of all managers were female in 1990 but in 2003 nearly one third (30%) were female. Progress at board level has been slower, only 11% of all directors were women in 2003, but this does represent a large rise from the 2% figure in 1990. Employers recognise the advantages that can be gained from increasing the number of women at board level and there are currently a number of schemes that are dedicated to achieving this. (Labour Market Statistics, 2005)
The literature added above clearly shows that positive gender discrimination is encouraged by organizations and that they are moving quickly towards this positive action. Such positive actions are being more common in today’s world as it is moving towards equality and eliminating the concept of over-represented and under-represented groups.
Besides the advantages, the negative aspects of positive discrimination are also there and cannot be ignored. Miclaus (2010) in her article says that when an organization discriminate one group on other for the sake of achieving positive discrimination, creates problems for both groups one being discriminated and the other being preferred. The first affect is when you start preferring a group that was discriminated in past, will create a feeling of incompetence. for example hiring a female instead of male for a job will make the female employee feel that she gets a job not on the basis of her capabilities instead it was given to her because of some policy. On the other hand the male who hadn’t given job, will feel it as unjust. (Miclaus 2010)
Second harmful effect of positive discrimination is the person not being selected on the basis of positive discrimination will feel that he is truly deserving and feel he was unjustly avoided and rejected. This will create violent attitudes against the people who are being selected on the basis of positive discrimination. An example of an experiment would be the grouping of few male employees with a woman. One group told that the woman is given the job not the basis of her abilities but to have representation of minority group in organization. Such group of employees felt they were better advance then the woman and were less motivated and were disrespect towards the woman. The other group, who were told that the woman was elected on the basis of her competence, was actually motivated to compete with the woman employee. Thus even positive discrimination can bring the feeling of low self esteem in the group being preferred on the other. This affects the efficacy and productivity of an employee. On the other hand it also brings violence and disrespect towards those employees who were preferred on the other.After all the debate of the positive and negative aspects of positive gender discrimination, an area still lies untouched; the confirmation that the affirmative actions taken by the company are being justified in providing women with positive discrimination. (Miclaus 2010)
Tsui and Gutek(1984) in their study indicated that female fund managers were more risk averse than male fund managers. Specially, they found that female fund managers take less unsystematic risk and less small firm risk, while overall return risk does not differ systematically. The significantly higher idiosyncratic risk of male fund managers we document hints at more active trading strategies as compared to female fund managers. This reasoning is confirmed by the examination of investment styles. (Tsui and Gutek 1984)
Female fund managers follow significantly less extreme investment styles as compared to male fund managers. Furthermore, female managers ' investment styles are more stable over time. Study also found that male managers trade more, which was reflected in a significantly higher turnover rate of male managed funds as compared to that of female managed funds. A higher turnover ratio is regularly interpreted as an indication of overconfidence. However we have not found a negative impact of male managers ' increased trading activity on performance. Overall, our results show that behavioural differences between women and men do not vanish if we examine their behaviour in a professional setting. (Tsui and Gutek 1984)
Finally, the result of lower net-inflows into female managed funds raises the provocative question, why fund companies that are ultimately interested in high money net-inflows employ female fund managers at all. We found that female fund managers are more likely to work in large and well established fund companies. (Tsui and Gutek 1984)
Besides all the affirmative actions and policies in place for female right protection, discussed in this literature, executive women still say that they encounter barriers to success. Men tend not to see those barriers, or perhaps they have learned to offer politically correct responses to questions about their attitudes. (Carlson, Kacmar, and Whitten; 2006)
WAYS TO DICRIMINATE WOMEN POSITIVELY
So far we have discussed the importance of positive discrimination and literature in favor or against the discrimination. Our literature survey now will ahead towards of ways to positively discriminate females in corporate world. There are three main broad categories in which discrimination is basically conducted, namely:
1. Recruitment
2. Education & Training
3. Career path
RECRUITMENT:
In first form, women are positively discriminated in recruitment process. There are different ways to encourage females to get job; namely quota system, merit based system, jobs only for females (e.g. job as a nurse), and other ways. It is generally recommended that the selection process must be free of any sexual discrimination so that both male and female who are competent for the job, gets the employment. Moreover the selection criteria must not only be explicitly based on the years of experience (for managerial position) rather it should cosider the skills for that position, as most of the time men have higher years of experience then females and there are higher chances for them to take off with the position, leaving women less chances of recruitment. (Let 's encourage women to raise to the top, 2006). The quota system also helps women to get equal chance of selection as men do have and have equal representation in the organization. It is also believed that in organization, a cosiderable number of female employees provides them an ease of working environment where they can interact with other female employees and hence a comfortable environment have a clear positive impact on their working. However there are many critiques on this system as it eats up the true pool of talent which can be generated through the merit based system. People who are in favor of merit based systems claims that in this system the negative discrimination is actually eliminated on gender bases as criteria is on merit. In this way merit based system is itself a positove discrimination not only for females but also for the opposite gender. (Caiazza, April 2006)
EDUCATION & TRAINING:
It is observed that female employees don’t prefer the training programs conducted either by organizations or by any relevant agency. Females are either hesitant or uninterested or suffering from any other problem to not to be able to attend the training program. Australian agency devised a research to find out the reasons regarding this issue. It was found that females don’t go for this program because most of the time these training session are not accessible by them, either due to time constraints imposed due to heavy work, or due to timings and location for the training activity which might not be suitable for them, or time period of a course also hinders their willingness. So companies can encourage female employees for training sessions while considering above problems and devise the training programs in compliance to their facility, separate training programs for females can also be helpful method for female workforce. (Caiazza, April 2006)
Female employees, for instance in a political party can have encouragement in political activism if party
1. Provides political role models for women who break the mold
2. Provide space for women to address their fears and embrace their anger
3. Build connections across race and class to empower women role
4. Gently push women into leadership (among women) so that a women leader can come up with the strong decisions for subordinate women employees in a way that their productivity is increased and their genuine problems are also addressed.
5. Developing mentoring programs. Seminars on work/life balance can help employees understand its importance and find ways to achieve it. Such seminars teach employees how to better manage their workloads, eliminate unproductive work habits, get sufficient exercise and negotiate more flexible work conditions that meet their needs.
These ways will definitely help women to get educated about field work and will have ample opportunity of getting training. Training can be on field or off field. (Caiazza, April 2006)
CAREER DEVELOPMENT:
Literature survey reveals that there are many problems and issues which actually oppress the career development of females. However if some positive actions are taken by organizations to counter this problem females can be encouraged to step on the success ladder. This can be done by making more flexible times for work; flextime, telecommuting, and job sharing can be handy for females. Another strategy can be to allow time off from work, provide the paid childbirth, to engage the satisfaction level of working employees. Enhanced satisfaction will ultimately result into elevated productivity. Third strategy can be “bringing life to work”; female employees have issues to balance their job work with their homely responsibilities, so if they are allowed to bring their kids on work day. (Hakala, April 16, 2008)
The other problems, besides family issues, like less chances of promotion due to either less interest or due to stereotype, can be addressed if female managers are engaged in challenging tasks to improve their work experience and skills. These managerial skills will boost their capabilities of leadership. For this companies can promote consistent career planning, offer more demanding and versatile tasks, and help female staff to build network. (Hakala, April 16, 2008)
ATTITUDES TOWARDS POSITIVE DISCRIMINATION
Attitude towards positive discrimination falls into two major categories. One, which is in favor of the discrimination and claims that such discrimination, is beneficial for the society as a whole. The others, who have developed an unfavorable attitude, suggest that it creates injustice in society. Pros and cons of discrimination are described below: (Platform for Action, Para 109)
UNFAVORABLE ATTITUDE:
Unfavorable attitude arises due to following reasons:
Affirmative action is morally repugnant i.e. it is another form of injustice and discrimination now against men. Any form of discrimination that is not based on merit whether in favor of men or women is wrong. Humanity is a natural creation phenomenon. Whether one is male or female it is a natural issue which should not be altered in any case whatsoever. Nature is correct and assigns duties according to the natural capability of an individual, based on gender and other factors. (Platform for Action, Para 109)
Affirmative action is an enemy of excellence and hard work. It encourages laziness and incompetence especially when less qualified people are considered over more qualified ones. When it comes to employment, they are treated with much leniency which encourages laziness and non commitment to their duties as compared to males who are required to work harder. (Platform for Action, Para 109)
Affirmative action is unfair to the current generation. Young men of the present age never participated in the injustices as perceived. They should therefore not be made to sacrifice their opportunities to pay back. Alternatively young women should not harvest where they did not sow, they were not present when injustice was administered to their predecessors. (Platform for Action, Para 109)
Affirmative action encourages stereotypes. Preferential treatments of the females have worked out against their interests by fostering social tension resentment against the females. It creates the impression that women can’t make it on their own merits. They are later subjected to criticism that if not assisted they can’t survive or compete with men. On the other hand it makes them more depended on assistance and to some extent make them hate their gender status which is morally wrong. (Platform for Action, Para 109)
Affirmative action contributes to hiring the unqualified. It entails hiring the unqualified for jobs; promoting the unqualified or accepting unqualified in colleges, universities, and professional schools. It leaves the qualified and suitable locked out due to this factor. For example when recruiting people into the armed forces, women are given certain percentage to occupy. Regardless of their qualifications, the slots must be filled by ladies. This leads to hiring those who don’t qualify who later affects the productivity of such institutions. (Platform for Action, Para 109)
Affirmative action perpetuates the victimization syndrome. This is a situation where the affected lives with the memory that they were once upon a time victims of oppression and discrimination. It makes people fight for justice they are not clearly aware of how it originated and hence prevent them from productive arguments thoughts and competitions. The affected embrace remembrance of the negative past injustice more than productive current thoughts. Injustice obtains the power to distort long after it has ceased to be real. It is a posthumous victory for the oppressors, when pain becomes a tradition. This is a difficult dilemma of the new generation. An honorable life is impossible if they remember too little and a normal life is impossible if remember too little. (Platform for Action, Para 109)
Affirmative action has no proper guidelines. It is feared that once women are accustomed to preferential treatment, they will never let it go even after the goal have been achieved yet the action is meant to be a temporary process. It does not provide a reverse action should the goals exceed the target. (Platform for Action, Para 109)
There is difficulty in establishing the achievements. It will be very difficult to know when affirmative action will have fulfilled its action. It is a strategy with no clear aim and guidelines because of inherent problems facing its strategies. Some scholars suggest that all we have to do is to level the grounds between men and women so that both can strive and compete equally towards equality. (Platform for Action, Para 109)
FAVORABLE ATTITUDE:
There are group of people who are in favour of positive discrimination. The rationales they provide are highlighted below: (Platform for Action, Para 109)
Endure the atmosphere of instability and tension: Positive discrimination endures the atmosphere of instability and tension and distrust. Because females feels secure when they are positively discriminated. The feeling of been privileged helps companies to reduce the atmospheric instabilities. All employees feel equally important for the firm irrespective of gender. (Platform for Action, Para 109)
Incorporation of biological differences: people who favour positive discrimination argues that females have biological differences and been gifted by Divine, so they should be encouraged and helped to put in their skills and capabilities in working environment by facilitating them through positive discrimination. (Platform for Action, Para 109)
Increased workforce diversity: Diversity increases the talented pool of people; work force diversity is created by employing female employees as they have different way of thinking and approaching the problems in work. They come up with more rationales and in depth analysis of data, while men view things broadly, hence women and men together forms a team which becomes competent and sometimes the core strength of the organization. Positive discrimination is conducted to encourage females to work, at the end of the day company ends up as a successful company. If they aren’t supported and facilitated they cannot help company to elevate its productivity. (Platform for Action, Para 109)
Priorities of all stakeholders are identified and addressed: In other sector areas it is becoming increasingly clear that development goals will not be met unless the needs and priorities of all stakeholders are identified and addressed, for example in the transport or health sectors. Even in areas, where gender perspectives were normally considered irrelevant, such as trade and macroeconomics, it is increasingly recognized that sound developments must be based on a clear assessment of the contributions of women as well as men and the potential impact of planned interventions on both women and men and on their productivity. There has been a steady accumulation of evidence that gender differences and inequalities directly and indirectly affect the impact of development strategies and hence the achievement of overall development goals. (Platform for Action, Para 109)
Women represent half the resources and half the potential in any society. This potential remains unrealized when women are constrained by inequality and discrimination. “The empowerment and autonomy of women and the improvement of women’s social, economic and political status is essential for the achievement of both transparent and accountable government and administration and sustainable development in all areas of life…. Achieving the goal of equal partnership of women and men in decision-making will provide a balance that more accurately reflects the composition of society and is needed in order to strengthen democracy and promote its proper functioning.” (Platform for Action, Para 109)
In many contexts, more equitable access to education and employment by women and girls can give very positive returns in improved family health, greater productivity and reduced family size. Studies in 46 developing countries showed that a one per cent rise in women’s literacy had three times the positive effect of a one per cent rise in the number of doctors available. Research on economic growth and education shows failing to invest in education can lower the gross national product (GNP). (Platform for Action, Para 109)
There is also evidence from a number of countries that the benefits for family welfare of increased incomes for women are greater than the benefits from increases to men’s income. Women’s income tends to be more consistently utilized for expenditures on health, food and schooling, which benefit the whole family. (Platform for Action, Para 109)
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
PURPOSE OF STUDY
Purpose of our study will be to explain how positive discrimination is conducted in the organizations, what the attitudes of people towards those discriminations are, and how these attitudes are developed over time.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
The objectives of research are:
To determine the common issues faced by female workers and executives in corporate world, how families and societies are supporting women so that they can work as easily as men can do.
To explore what course of action firm’s have adopted to encourage women workforce and how much firm’s cooperate with women workers when they come across some personal or social issues
To figure out what adapting strategies female executives have followed to balance their family and career.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
RESEARCH FRAMEWORK:
Quantitative research involves a series of techniques aimed at describing, interpreting, and explaining the human experience through inductive reasoning (Patton, 1990). It embodies four defining characteristics: occurrence in natural settings, data origination from subjective experiences, non-standard data collection and analysis, and flexible information gathering techniques (Lee et al., 1999). Our research will base on the quantitative research and it will be a correlation study. A quantitative methodology of survey will be questionnaire to be asked from employees of different organizations from both male and female employees.
RESEARCH LIMITATIONS
Our research will be in the Eastern cultural perspective specifically Pakistan, and will not be generalized in the Westerns context.
HYPOTHESEIS
H0: Positive discrimination (gender) does not leads to the effective utilization of human and capital resources.
H1: Positive discrimination (gender) leads to the effective utilization of human and capital resources.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
This is the conceptual framework of this research report the independent variables here is positive discrimination that include favourable policies of recruitment , training and career path development for female employees in the organization. The dependent variable over here is an attitude that depends on the independent variable which is positive discrimination towards female employees. Two kinds of attitudes can be observed, favourable attitude that will bring personal autonomy of females in the organization and will create potential pool of talent including both males and females. The other kind of attitude that can be observed in relation to application of such policies is unfavourable attitude of other group that is male employees in the organization. This may lead to high cost of hiring female employees but low productivity on their behalf. While the other group that is male employees can feel injustice and stereotype in their organization.
DATA
OPERATIONALIZATION OF VARIABLES:
To operationalize of these variables the attitude of people towards the positive discrimination we have devised a scale to measure the attitude of people towards those variables, questionnaire will be used and format will be just like attitude statements. The answers will be analysed and will quantify the favourable, unfavourable and neutral behaviour of people towards positive discrimination and its consequences.
Features/Contents
Operational definition
Positive discrimination
Recruitment of employees
When the suppressed group is given extra privileges in order to motivate them.
Selection of hiring the employees in organization
Having Quota system
On the basis of marit
Attitudes
Attitudes of employees when special privilages are given to one group (females)
Favourable attitude
Neutral
Unfavourable attitude
DATA COLLECTION MAETHOD:
The data will be collected through primary research (through questionnaire) and secondary sources (SECP reports on productivity, company’s performance reports, and management field information). The questionnaire survey approach is the most common method of primary data collection in research and the advantages are simple administration and data consistency. Questionnaire is carried out by visiting the offices of different companies and handing them the questionnaire that is filled it by them.
SAMPLE SIZE:
The sample size taken in this research report is 40 respondents including both males and female employees. The questionnaire is carried out in both manufacturing industry and service industry
QUESTIONNAIRE:
The Research is about attitude toward positive gender discrimination and affirmative action. Positive Discrimination on the basis of gender implies promoting women to have fair representation in all organizational levels. Research questionnaire is attached in exhibit 1.
EXHIBIT: 1
Research Questionnaire
Attitude towards Positive Discrimination (Survey)
The Research is about attitude toward positive gender discrimination and affirmative action. Positive Discrimination on the basis of gender implies promoting women to have fair representation in all organizational levels. Research questionnaire is attached here with this report.
Designation: _________ Highest Education level: ______________
Gender: ______________ Tenure with the org: ______________
Experience: ______________
Salary:
QUESTIONS
OPINION
Q1) Does your organization have gender-based quota for the recruitment of female employees?
a) Yes
b) No
Q2) Does your organization provide any special privilege to its female employees? Select your answer from the list.
a) Flexible working hours
b) Educational/ Job training
c) Pick & drop
d) Day care facility
e) Other:_______________
f) None
Q3) Do you agree that promoting females in the workforce will bring diversity in generation of idea and problem solving?
a) Strongly Agree
b) Agree
c) Not sure
d) Disagree
e) Strongly disagree
Q4) Do you agree that females are a potential pool of talent required in an organization?
a) Strongly Agree
b) Agree
c) Not sure
d) Disagree
e) Strongly disagree
Q5) Are you in the favour of personal autonomy of females in the society?
a) Yes
b) No
Q6) Is the cost (financial, time) of promoting females justifiable in terms of increased productivity of the organization?
a) Strongly Agree
b) Agree
c) Not sure
d) Disagree
e) Strongly disagree
Q7) Do you agree that special benefits, provided to the female employees improve their performance?
a) Strongly Agree
b) Agree
c) Not sure
d) Disagree
e) Strongly disagree
Q8) Do you agree that special benefits, provided to the female employees improve female representation in the organizations?
a) Strongly Agree
b) Agree
c) Not sure
d) Disagree
e) Strongly disagree
Q9) Do you agree that the special privilege being provided to females in your organisation creates a feeling of unjust for other groups?
a) Strongly Agree
b) Agree
c) Not sure
d) Disagree
e) Strongly disagree
Q10) Do you agree that quota for female employees promote incompetent people?
a) Strongly Agree
b) Agree
c) Not sure
d) Disagree
e) Strongly disagree
Bibliography
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