Race Relations in Industry: Problems and Prospects for Equal Opportunity
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb055000 |
| Pages | 12-16 |
| Published date | 01 May 1982 |
| Date | 01 May 1982 |
| Author | David Knights,Trevor Hitner |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
Race Relations in Industry:
Problems and Prospects
for Equal Opportunity*
by David Knights and Trevor Hitner
Lecturer in Management Sciences, UMIST, and Equal
Opportunity Consultant, Toronto
Abstract
This article reports on some of the research findings of a
two year study on equal opportunity commissioned by the
Department of Employment. Although initially conceived
as an investigation of "successfully" operating equal
opportunity policies in private industry, the research data
suggested that effective practice follows a different line of
development. For, in practice, effective equal opportunity
bore a closer relationship to everyday problem-solving in
organisations than to the adoption of formal policies
abstracted from workplace issues and concerns. The
success of equal opportunity policies and practices would
appear to be contingent upon their direct relevance to
workplace problems and the degree to which employees are
involved in formulating and implementing them.
The success of policies depends upon
their relevance to the employees
concerned
Introduction
From time to time, whether as a result of a tribunal case
brought against a company under the Race Relations Act
or because of more general community anxieties
concerning the systematic discrimination against blacks,
interest is stimulated in pursuing equal opportunity for
racial and ethnic minorities in employment. Of course,
government, and those agencies with responsibility for
race relations, have continued consistently to pursue their
task of stimulating employers to comply with the law in
respect of the employment of racial minorities. As part of
the Department of Employment's role in contributing to
this task, we were commissioned to undertake a study of
"successfully operating
"
equal opportunity policies with a
view to discovering models that could be used as a basis for
promoting their adoption more widely within the private
sector. More specifically, our sponsors had expectations
that we would draw up a series of guidelines of equal
opportunity policy and ground-rules of "good" practice.
These guidelines were to be used as back-up material by the
Race Relations Employment Advisers for purposes of
persuading other employers as to the advantages of
adopting equal opportunity policies and practices.
*The research on which this article is based was funded by the
Department of Employment. Any views expressed are those of the
authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department.
We here acknowledge the contributions of our colleagues Eleanor Green
and Derek Torrington to the original research, although they cannot be
held responsible for what is written in this article.
Research Reality Intervenes
Whilst in principle the objectives underlying the
commissioning of our research were valid, in practice they
turned out to be extremely difficult to accomplish, though
we are not arguing that this could have been known prior
to the research. As we began to conduct our survey of
companies, we quickly discovered that the adoption of
written equal opportunity policies was no guarantee of
either a commitment to, or the actual elimination of,
discrimination against "blacks". (We use the term
"blacks" to denote all those of New Commonwealth or
Pakistani origin.) Indeed, the search for a successfully
operating equal opportunity policy proved far more
difficult than anticipated. From an initial sample of 315
companies thought to be "progressive" in this field,
excluding a handful which for some reason or other
refused us research access, we found not one that could be
said to have translated a formal equal opportunity policy
into effective practice.
Some advocates of written equal opportunity policies
(e.g. CRE) have difficulty in accepting that a discrepancy
between policy and practice can occur in so far as the
former embodies the latter in its procedures. This is
certainly the case but procedures, like policy injunctions,
can just as easily be ignored or given a "lip service"
treatment when it comes to actual behaviour.
Our suspicions as to the value of supporting a policy or
prescriptive approach to the promotion of equal
opportunity was first aroused in preliminary interviews
with companies which had adopted formal policies, in
that:
(1) Personnel departments were frequently unaware
of even the existence of their written policies.
(2) Even when the existence of a policy was
established, on numerous occasions personnel
managers had some difficulty in locating the
actual document.
(3) A cursory glance at recruitment and promotion
procedures indicated that the policy had little or
no impact.
Given our previous research experience, these anomalies
were not entirely unexpected. None the less, they had
significant implications for the overall development of the
project. More importantly, however, the anomalies were
symptomatic of much more serious weaknesses in the
"policy approach" to equal opportunity promotion. In
fact, intensive case study investigations, using the logic of
the critical case*, revealed severe discrepancies between
*This
logic involves selecting cases which on all known criteria display the
most favourable set of circumstances for supporting the hypothesis that
the adoption of formal or written equal opportunity policies will
eliminate discriminatory practices in employment relations. We have bor-
rowed this critical case approach from Goldthorpe et al. [1].
*The research on which this article is based was funded by the
Department of Employment. Any views expressed are those of the
authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department.
We here acknowledge the contributions of our colleagues Eleanor Green
and Derek Torrington to the original research, although they cannot be
held responsible for what is written in this article.
*This
logic involves selecting cases which on all known criteria display the
most favourable set of circumstances for supporting the hypothesis that
the adoption of formal or written equal opportunity policies will
eliminate discriminatory practices in employment relations. We have bor-
rowed this critical case approach from Goldthorpe et al. [1].
12 | Employee Relations 4,5 1982
To continue reading
Request your trial