Discrimination is unfair treatment of people because of who they are or based on certain characteristics they possess, (sergeant, 2013). Employment discrimination occurs when employees experience harsh treatment due to their skin color, age, gender, national origin, race or disability. However, some forms of discrimination at work place maybe legal whereby employers decide to employ potential human resource personnel depending on their intellectual abilities.
Discrimination in a work environment has impacts on the employee . For instance, there is sluggishness, loss of focus and one may not be time conscious leading to decline in productivity. Discrimination It causes higher psychological distress & health related problems. In addition, it can lead to employee quitting job, or even committing suicide Hudson . On the other hand, discrimination negatively affects businesses, there is low productivity, loss of customers due to bad reputation & inability to recruit and retain staff.
Leaders should play an important role in promoting cultural diversity & friendly work environment as it helps to increase productivity, reduces absenteeism and lower employee turnover. Developing clear discrimination policy at work places can be helpful to prevent it. Meanwhile, inclusivity and Cultural diversity plays a key role when alleviating discrimination; therefore, it should be practiced in all organizations. This will not only bring productive and happy employees to the organization but will lead to development of competencies among all employees (Nessie, 2015). Ethically, companies’ employment should be based on particular employers level of performance not based on certain characteristics than one possess.
References
- Colella, A. J., King, E. B. (2018). The Oxford handbook of workplace
- Discrimination. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
- Harris, D. (2014). Avoiding workplace discrimination: A guide for employers and employees.
- Hodson, R. (2019). Work place behaviors. Work place sabotage, 89-108. Doi: 10.4324/9781315203850-
- Pfadenhauer, D. (2009). Workplace investigations: Discrimination and harassment. Datamotion Publishing LLC.
- Sergeant, M. (2013). Discrimination and the law. London, England: Routledge.
