Mike Noon

The fatal flaws of diversity and the business case for ethnic minorities

It has become fashionable to argue that equal opportunities makes good business sense and that organizations failing to employ a diverse range of people are missing out on valuable human resources and losing opportunities to appeal to a broader range of customers. It is an alluring argument that has prompted the call for managing diversity to replace the traditional policies of equal opportunities, and a business case rationale to replace arguments for social justice. However, this article argues that such a policy shift has potentially fatal flaws which can undermine equality outcomes and might ultimately prove to be dangerous for social justice. It exposes these flaws by specifically focusing on ethnic minorities and arguing against the adoption of the language of diversity and the acceptance of the business case rationale. The case is presented in two parts. First, the problems with the concept of diversity are explored, and second, the logical integrity of the business case is evaluated. The article makes reference to empirical work to back up the arguments; it does not purport to offer new evidence but relies on existing empirical evidence to challenge popular conceptions about the value of diversity and the business case. The implications of this challenge are explained in the conclusion.

Equal Opportunities Policy and Practice in Britain: Evaluating the ‘Empty Shell’ Hypothesis

This article evaluates the nature and incidence of equal opportunities (EO) policies in the UK using data from the 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey (WERS 98).The article identifies the types of workplaces that are more likely to adopt formal gender, ethnicity, disability and age policies. It then assesses whether the policies are ‘substantive’ or merely ‘empty shells’: first, by evaluating the extent to which workplaces that have adopted EO policies have also adopted supporting EO practices; and second, by evaluating the proportion of employees who have access to EO practices in workplaces where they have been adopted. On balance, the ‘empty shell’ argument is more convincing. Smaller workplaces, private sector workplaces and workplaces without an HR or personnel specialist are identified as being more likely to have an ‘empty shell’ policy.While unionized workplaces are more likely to have a formal policy, those policies are no less likely to constitute ‘empty shells’. Finally, the policy, economic and legal implications of the findings are discussed.

The shackled runner: time to rethink positive discrimination?

This article argues a case for reconsidering positive discrimination as a viable and necessary policy intervention to speed up the progression to equality in the workplace. It provides counter-arguments to the four main objections to positive discrimination: the failure to select the ‘best’ candidate, the undermining of meritocracy, the negative impact on the beneficiaries and the injustice of reverse discrimination. It concludes that positive discrimination provides the necessary structural conditions in order for radical, transformative change towards equality to take place.

Ethnic Minorities and Equal Treatment: The Impact of Gender, Equal Opportunities Policies and Trade Unions

The article examines whether ethnic minority employees report poorer treatment at work than white employees, and evaluates the impact of three key features - gender differences, formal equal opportunities policies and trade union recognition. The analysis reveals that ethnic minority men and women receive poorer treatment than their white counterparts. In addition, there is evidence to suggest that ethnic minority women receive poorer treatment than ethnic minority men. Equal opportunities policies are effective in ensuring equal treatment, but the presence of a recognised trade union is not. White men and women in unionised workplaces enjoy better treatment than their white counterparts in non-union workplaces, but the same is not true for ethnic minorities. By contrast, there is very little evidence of unequal treatment in non-union workplaces.

Experiencing Inequality: Ethnic Minorities and the Employment Training Scheme

This article presents the results of an investigation into the participation and outcome rates of ethnic minorities on Employment Training (ET). It demonstrates that ethnic minorities are joining schemes in representative proportions, yet are not enjoying the positive outcomes experienced by their white counterparts. It presents qualitative data which uncovers the experiences of ethnic minority trainees and confirms that, whilst government training is perceived as worthwhile, discrimination and prejudice distort the process to such an extent that inequality of opportunity occurs.

Human Resource Management in Practice: A case Study Analysis at Company Level

This article aims to show through a case study analysis how a UK company has adopted policies that in practice appear to signify a move towards HRM techniques. The analysis discusses first the industrial setting that encourages the flourishing of HRM; second, organisational changes at corporate and company level; third, a model of HRM; fourth, the practice of HRM in a case study, using a goal method as the frame of reference; and, finally, the significance of the new approach in terms of the product life‐cycle.

Shop-floor workers’ responses to quality management initiatives broadening the disciplined worker thesis

Quality management (QM) is now a mainstream management initiative, but few researchers have explored worker experiences of it. An exception is found in the work of Edwards et al. (1998) who make an important contribution by offering the ‘disciplined worker thesis’ (meaning that workers prefer an ordered and disciplined work environment over disorganization or chaos) as a basis for explaining why workers may respond positively to QM initiatives, despite finding that these often require extra effort. We explore the utility of this concept by reference to empirical data from two detailed case studies. We found the disciplined worker thesis to be substantive but not comprehensive, in that it leaves some inexplicable results. In particular it does not capture the non-work factors that shaped workers responses to QM initiatives. As a result, we suggest that the conceptual remit of the disciplined worker thesis could usefully be enlarged to incorporate ‘orientations to work’.

Negotiating Quality: The case of TQM in Royal Mail

Examines how a TQM programme has been implemented within the context of Royal Mail. Demonstrates that within the organization TQM has been “negotiated” around four main factors: the complexities of utilizing the discourse of the customer; the organization′s market dominance in the collection and delivery of door‐to‐door mail; its industrial relations; and the formal and central adoption of TQM within a public sector context.

The Changing Context of Work

The comment is often made that the world of work has undergone dramatic changes over the past 20 to 30 years. Some commentators have gone so far as to characterise these changes as representing a fundamental shift in the nature of capitalism itself: a shift from ‘Fordist’ to ‘post-Fordist’ forms of production, from mass production systems to flexible specialisation, from industrial to post-industrial society, or from modern to post-modern forms of organisation. Such broad characterisations usefully signal both the depth of changes taking place and also the ways myriad individual changes can be interpreted as part of much broader trajectories. At the same time, it is important to examine the specific changes themselves because such generalising shorthands constantly run the danger of obscuring as much as (or more than) they reveal. Not only do they encourage (over)generalisations about the direction in which society is heading, they also (and often more implicitly) embody sweeping assumptions about where it has been.

Pointless Diversity Training: Unconscious Bias, New Racism and Agency:

The latest fashion of ‘unconscious bias training’ is a diversity intervention based on unproven suppositions and is unlikely to help eliminate racism in the workplace. Knowing about bias does not automatically result in changes in behaviour by managers and employees. Even if ‘unconscious bias training’ has the theoretical potential to change behaviour, it will depend on the type of racism: symbolic/modern/colour-blind, aversive or blatant. In addition, even if those deemed racist are motivated to change behaviour, structural constraints can militate against pro-diversity actions. Agency is overstated by psychology-inspired ‘unconscious bias training’ proponents, leading them to assume the desirability and effectiveness of this type of diversity training intervention, but from a critical diversity perspective (sociologically influenced) the training looks pointless.