| Providing Opportunities While Pursuing Market Share: EEOC Compliance in the Radio Broadcast Industry |
| | Jones, Ray | U. of Pittsburgh | rayjones+@pitt.edu | (412) -486-9118 |
| | The issue of compliance with anti-discriminatory policies and programs (e.g., EEO, affirmative action) has received a great deal of attention in both scholarly and practitioner circles. Such policies can be evaluated by examining their impact at reducing the consequences of past discrimination - as well as their ability to institute measures which will prevent discrimination in the future. The question of whether firms are taking steps to both reduce past discrimination and prevent future discrimination can be addressed by examining a current practice often used to comply with EEOC regulations - recruitment efforts directed toward increasing the pool of talented minority applicants. This study examines the EEOC compliance plans of firms in the radio broadcast industry in broadcast markets with a significant minority population. The goal is to determine the presence and extent of discrepancies between the firms' planned and realized recruitment activities as a means of reducing and preventing discrimination, and to examine whether firms who pursue such policies have competitive success in these markets. This will ultimately show whether firms competing in markets with diverse populations can develop programs to create more diverse organizations as a strategy for pursuing competitive advantage. |
| | Keywords: Affirmative Action; Diversity; Regulatory Compliance |
| Changes in Sexual Harassment Law: A Strategic Opportunity for Defining the Next Step in the Journey |
| | Sherwyn, David | Cornell U. | dss18@cornell.edu | (607)-255-4043 |
| | Tracey, J. Bruce | Cornell U. | jbt6@cornell.edu | (607)-255-8555 |
| | Two recent Supreme Court cases on sexual harassment have provided a unique
opportunity for scholars and managers to help clarify and define the law.
In this paper, we review these two cases and demonstrate that
organizations can take a proactive, rather than compliance, approach to
coping with sexual harassment in the workplace. We argue that all
organizations must develop policies and practices that address sexual
harassment, but that there is some degree of flexibility regarding the
manner in which such policies and practices are implemented. We then present
a template that outlines several standards that can be used for determining
compliance. Finally, we discuss the need to incorporate sexual harassment
provisions within a strategic human resources approach, and conclude by
providing suggestions for future research. |
| | Keywords: sexual harassment; strategic HRM |
| Double Jeopardy: The Impact of Work Place Discrimination and Cognitive Style on Depression |
| | Shneer, Robert W. | U. of California, Los Angeles | Robert.shneer@agsm.ucla.edu | 310-544-6381 |
| | Porter, David M. | U. of California, Los Angeles | David.porter@agsm.ucla.edu | 310-206-6460 |
| | This study explores the effect of social support and cognitive style on individuals perceiving race based and gender based discrimination in the organization. Employing cognitive depression theory and health psychology, two major hypothesized findings are discussed: 1) individuals perceiving race based discrimination and displaying a self-defeating cognitive style will be more likely to develop depression than individuals perceiving race based discrimination and not displaying a self-defeating cognitive style; 2) Individuals perceiving gender based discrimination and displaying a self-defeating cognitive style will be more likely to develop depression than individuals perceiving gender based discrimination and not displaying a self-defeating cognitive style. Additionally, our results produced a non-hypothesized finding: individuals perceiving gender based discrimination and who are not satisfied with their social relationships will be less likely to develop depression than individuals perceiving gender based discrimination and who are satisfied with their social relationships. |
| | Keywords: Race; Gender; Depression |
| Relational Practice: The Answer to Managing in a Pluralistic World or Just Another Idea "Dead on Arrival"? |
| | Fletcher, Joyce K. | Simmons GSM | JoyceFlt@aol.com | 617-521-3874 |
| | Jacques, Roy | U. of Otago | ryokimoto@aol.com | 510 849 9375 |
| | This paper suggests that the relational behaviors, skills and organizational principles increasingly touted as essential for managing in a pluralistic world are in danger of becoming "dominant but dead." (Calas & Smircich, 1987). It argues that as some postmodern theorists predicted, popular representations of these relational principles have abstracted them from the context of social (gender) identity and power in which they exist, thereby suppressing and silencing their most transformational - and useful - aspects.
The paper critically examines this concept of "abstracted relationality" and contrasts it with "relational practice", a less well known, emerging stream of work delineating relational activity from a feminist perspective. This feminist elaboration of relational activity, drawn form several different streams of feminist research, highlights the particular aspects of relational practice that have the potential to disrupt current gender and power relations in organizations. That is, it highlights the radical/trasformational aspects of the practice that have been and are increasingly likely to be suppressed when incorporated into the dominant organizational discourse. The paper goes on to enumerate the potential contribution this feminist conceptualization of relational activity could make to current representations of abstracted relationality. And finally, it discusses the need for organizational change processes that take into account the way challenges linked to gender identity and therefore to current organizational gender/power relationships are likely to be undermined, co-opted and changed during the implementation process, despite widespread agreement on the (supposedly gender-neutral) strategic need for such change. |
| | Keywords: Relational Practice; Gender; Power |