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TABLE OF CONTENTS
| Ser | Subject | Page No. |
| 1. | Abstract | 3 |
| 2. | Introduction | 4 |
| 3. | Literature Review | 8 |
| 4. | References | 15 |
ABSTRACT
1.0 INTRODUCTION
The type of personnel an organisation engages and the processes by which applicants are selected are one of the major contributions of Human Resources to the growth of the organisation and global development. It is generally expected that when there is a vacant position certain procedures are undertaken to engage the right personnel be it in the managerial level, new employee or promotion from a temporary to a permanent worker (Huffcutt and Arthur Jnr 1994). Therefore, the importance of ethical handling in selection processes cannot be over emphasised as it also has its effect on the performance of the worker (Rees and French 2010). Domineering concerns in the issue of organisation selection procedures are the business, legal and ethical perspectives which arguably play contrasting roles in considering personnels depending on the nature of the job and its specifications (Gilliland 1993).ORGANISATIONS ENSURE FAIRNESS
The business perspective of selecting personnel implies that the organisation go for specifications examples Gender preference in a case of Mining jobs where only the male sex is considered, Body Mass Preferences in a case of Air host/hostesses who are required to weigh and possess certain physical features, also the religious specifications includes churches engaging Christians, Islam recruiting only Muslim clerics etc. ORGANISATIONS ENSURE FAIRNESS This specific requirements influences the decisions of the selector who may put aside the due processes of personnel engagement and hand pick a personnel of choice.
The legal perspective in ensuring fairness in selection processes is fundamental in other to protect the prospective employee from discriminatory activities and unfair practices as well as to enforce established employment laws to govern the procedures and decisions of employers. The laws and legislations on the subject relevant to the UK are listed as follows (BMG Law, 2014):
- Act on equality 2010 which aimed at addressing inequality issues such as cultures and attitudes as well as building a stronger and fairer opportunity for everyone
- Regulations related to fixed-term workers and concerns with part time workers which was set to protect workers who have fixed term contracts from less favourable treatments and ensure that their service terms are reached
- Act on basic human rights which include rights to liberty and security, right to fair trial, right to religion, thoughts and beliefs, respect to individual private and family life amongst others.
- Whistle blowing is a concern raised by a worker, however in some occasions the whistle blower gets burnt in a bid to make things right. Because people require references from previous workplace, it sometimes poses as a challenge for a whistle blower to get engaged in another organisation. Therefore laws have been passed to protect such persons from being victimised at work.
- Research Background
This research project has its focus on recognising the importance of ethical handling of the organisational selection procedures for hiring of new employees and granting fair opportunities for permanent and leadership positions to fixed-term workers, while shedding light on the discriminative practices as related to gender, race, ethnicity, religion or age in contemporary organizations.
The issue of selection of personnel differ in different organisations. Small- Medium sized organisations usually conduct and engage their staff internally using the organisations Human Resource department before considering external candidates for a vacant position. Whereas, larger organisations will go all out to hire the services of external recruiters and have little or nothing to do with the employment process until the final results are considered. However, in the case of managerial positions selections are done involving the already existing management of the organisation.
Furthermore, certain observations have been made during selection processes by applicants who belief that organisations intentionally use near impossible criteria’s to eliminate people who are qualified for advertised jobs in other to preserve such positions for persons of interest. Criteria’s such as ‘Person description’ or ‘Person Profile’ which may have ironic attributes like: Age factor, Experience factors and Educational qualifications (Bird 1989). Example of such scenario is when organisation XYZ requires a qualified engineer between the ages of 25-35 years with 7 years practical/paid work experience with a post graduate qualification (MBA). How many applicants have such requirements and if most companies seek such requirements how, where and when will the prospective employees gain all those required work experiences and academia qualifications?
1.2 Research Objectives
The main objectives of the research are:
- To explain the concepts of discrimination and fairness in hiring procedures being followed by contemporary organizations.
- To determine the scope of ethical handling of hiring procedures being followed by contemporary organizations.
- To explore the theoretical perspective of the subject through an exploration of the direct and indirect discrimination models and also the theories of systematic direct discrimination, past discrimination and functional equivalence.
- To explore the legislative perspective of the subject through an exploration of the Acts on equality, gender recognition, basic human rights and trade Unions and labour relations consolidation and also the regulations on agency workers, fixed-term workers and whistle blowing.
- To suggest viable ways and means of ensuring fairness in hiring and selection of existing employees for newly created leadership positions.
1.3 How is the Research Expected to Help Organizations?
After World War 2, the world started witnessing a gradually increasing active participation of women along with other previously dormant demographic segments. However, apparently the business world was still not ready to assume an unbiased attitude towards the employees as women, Jews and African Americans were still being discriminated and that too in industrialized and developed western countries like the US and UK. ORGANISATIONS ENSURE FAIRNESS Hiring procedures in those times were therefore marred by unfairness and inequality. Though, with the passage of time and an increase in general awareness, these attitudes have changed a lot, but still their manifestation is frequently visible in the modern organizations (Doyle, 2014).
Discrimination in general and the unethical hiring in particular can be translated as selecting or discarding a potential candidate owing to his or her specific skin colour, nationality, ethnic origin, physical disability, religious affiliation or faith, sexual inclination, age or gender. Despite acknowledging this as an unethical and illegal conduct, modern businesses all over the world are still guilty of these practices (Doyle, 2014).
On a slightly different note, where shortlisting the people for the newly vacated or created vacancies are concerned, organizations follow entirely different policies and methodologies depending upon their specific cultures and employee development programs. Normally, these policies and methodologies follow two main approaches i.e. exploration of externally available qualified human resource or moving up existing employees into higher slots (Doyle, 2014).
Considering the importance of ethical handling in general and fairness in particular for employee morale and levels of loyalty towards the organization and the resultant enhancement in the latter’s productivity and profitability, a need was felt to elaborate upon the subject in detail in order to draw pertinent suggestions with regards to ensuring fairness in hiring and selection of existing employees for newly created leadership positions.
It is expected that this research effort will not only provide guidelines to the contemporary organizations with regards to incorporating the element of fairness in selection and hiring procedures and will act as a reference material on various dimensions of the issue but will also indicate future directions of study to the fellow researchers.
1.4 What is meant by discrimination in hiring?
Discrimination in recruitment and hiring in modern organizations encompasses the dimensions of both fairness and equal opportunities. With special reference to the UK, the existing laws and legislative procedures define discrimination in terms of sexual orientation, marital status, sex or gender, ethnicity or nationality, racial origins and age. Both direct and indirect discrimination fall under the purview of these laws and procedures; the former encompassing a less favourable treatment being accorded to a person depending upon his or her affiliation to a group especially covered under the law of discrimination; and the latter includes a disproportionate treatment of two separate groups resulting into discrimination against any one of these (Rees & French, 2010).ORGANISATIONS ENSURE FAIRNESS
From the point of view of selection and recruitment, discrimination especially relates to the aspects of faith, sexual inclination, physical disability, ethnicity and gender. In UK it is illegal to discriminate in the form of eliminating some specific groups while carrying out planning for the recruitment process. The law…
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