Workplace Integration Challenges: Managing Organization - Management Assessment Answers

WORKPLACE INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS ASSIGNMENT HELP

THIS IS THE QUESTION:

Hiring and retaining women in non-traditional roles has been a longstanding issue in the resource sector in Australia, dating back to the 1980s. Two prescribed readings, by Murray and Peetz, and by Eveline and Booth, examine this issue. Readings through the course have mentioned theories that are relevant, in various ways, to this issue. The question is: What have been the challenges to, and successes or failures of, efforts to integrate women into mining workforces, from the perspective of organisations themselves, employees (male and female), their unions, and frontline and HR management? Drawing from those two prescribed readings, you are required to address this question in essay format, through the lenses of four of the following topics, one of which is compulsory

Introduction

It has been noted that integrating women into non-traditional workplace roles in Australia have been challenging for most employers (Hicks, Basu & Sherley. 2014). The mining industry in Australia is a significant contributor to the Australian economy, employing about 2.3 percent of all workers in the country. The sector influences employment opportunities in other areas of development such as construction, transport and warehousing. It is difficult to estimate the exact impact that mining and related activities of extraction of minerals from the earth’s crust has created; but it is certain that mining was having the fastest growth in employment over the last decade. Mining is also believed to be among the highest paying jobs in Australia.

The industry requires qualified and experienced workers; a fact that is generally exhibited by the relatively high rate of workers aged between 25 and 44. Mining in Australia also employs less than one percent of workers aged between 14 and 19 when the average for other industries is 5.5 percent. Of the entire industry’s workforce, only 14.8 percent of the employees are female. Although mining has provided opportunities for workers at all levels of skill, most of the workers in the sector are skilled with at least a Certificate III level qualification ("Career Industry Council of Australia (CICA) | The national peak body for the courier industry.", 2016).

This essay looks at what challenges, there have been in integrating women into mining workforces. We will also discuss the successes and failures in attempts to achieve the same.

Theories of power

Power is essentially described as the influence or outright control over a population (Simons, 2015). The three main perspectives that describe the concept of social power are pluralism, elitism and Marxism. Some of the six principles of power in interpersonal relationships can help explain part of this phenomenon. Below, we will relate some of these principles with the challenges in integrating women in non-traditional roles in mining.

1. Power as a perception: Traditionally, men have been perceived as the more powerful gender in many workplaces including those in mining. They have been the predominant gender in technical and decision-making positions. Although some do not openly exhibit powerful characteristics, the traditional perceptions might be enough to keep women from daring to pursue seemingly powerful roles in mining workforces.
2. Power as resource-based: By some other force or reason, more men than women hold resources at the workplaces. Following this principle of power as resource-based, the men who hold the valued resources will become the powerful people within the relationships of that workplace. This imbalance in the possession of valuable resources might have contributed to maintaining men in their traditional roles, making it difficult for women penetrate those spaces.
3. Power as enabling or disabling: Since more men than women are believed to be power in various workplaces, their disabling use of power could be creating the chilling effect among women and consequently deterring them from pursuing new roles. Use of power in such a manner that disrupts communication may make workplace industrial relations too harsh to allow the development of women through various career paths. Therefore, inappropriate use of power by its present custodians could be presenting a significant challenge in integrating women into mining workforces.
4. Power as a prerogative: The effect of this principle is closely related to the view of power as enabling or disabling. Those in power “have the authority to violate the rules with impunity”. It is not surprising to find those in power, bending relational rules to suit the occasion without bearing much consequence. Such use of power only reinforces their custodianship of the power inhibiting other people from accessing the power. This might be the situation in the mining workforce – those who currently have lead roles in various workplaces may be twisting the rules in their favour keeping the rest a safe distance from such roles.

One factor is common from all these different principles – the maintenance of the status quo of those in power. A keen look at the situation suggests that if women can access more power in the mining workforce, we might be able to observe more integration. This concept is well corroborated by the elitism theory expressed through the words of Thomas Jefferson “The issue... whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by small elite” (Field & Higley, 2013, p. 47).

Organisational and workplace cultures

Organisational cultures play an important role in promoting good workplace relations. They provide the primary structure for communication within the organisation which is a key element of an organisation’s success. Organisational and workplace cultures also influence how workers interact in the workplace. They can foster hostility towards certain groups of workers such as women, inexperienced or even workers of certain ages (Huhtala et al, 2013). Such hostilities cannot allow the marginalised groups of workers to develop their careers in the workplace. Marginalised workers will normally find themselves unable to express their positions on any matters such as dissatisfaction regarding their work. When such a situation prevails, it becomes virtually impossible to equitably offer opportunities for all the workers in a certain workplace.

Other workplace issues such as bullying might arise from particular organisational cultures. Violence and harassment may be experienced against the most vulnerable workers of a certain workforce such as women. Nielsen and Einarsen (2012) note that workplace bullying can result to the chilling effect previously described where the victims become completely unable to express themselves. The primary consequence of workers’ inability to express themselves is stagnation in career development. The affected workers will lose motivation to work and will only stick around until a better opportunity is presented.

Women, being among the most vulnerable groups in the workplace, are under the greatest threat of poor organisational cultures. An organisational culture may not provide the rules to protect these vulnerable groups, but it definitely will guide the interpersonal relations at the workplace. With the right culture in place, we can expect the observance of independence and mutual respect of all workers. Women shall not be intimidated from making bold decisions regarding their careers or even specific roles in the workplace. When workers respect each other’s independence in the workplace as a matter of tradition, every group allows an equal opportunity to take up any roles that they feel interested in. Therefore, the role of organisational and workplace cultures in enforcing equity among the mining workforce is an essential one.

From the above discussion, we can conclude that organisational cultures at mining workplaces could be key contributors to the challenges in integrating women into the mining workforce. The specific challenges they may be breeding could vary widely; but the most common effect they all have is the inhibition on women and other vulnerable groups to take up diverse roles in the workplace. However, in the last decade, most mining companies in Australia have been noted to promote women in taking up roles such as truck driving that have traditionally been fulfilled by men. In summary, having the appropriate organisational culture at the workplace can eliminate most of the challenges that inhibit the integration of women into the mining workforce.

Work time, intensity, flexibility and life

The argument as to whether there really are roles exclusively for women and those for men can never end because it has never been objective. Feminism, anti-feminism and politics are some of the forces that sway meaningful discussions on the subject. Nevertheless, what is more important is if a person is able to fulfil a role to above the minimum expected standard regardless of their gender. Traditionally, men have been perceived to be the more prolific workers across the various departments in the mining workforce. Prior to the entry and success of Gina Rinehart into the mining industry women had not been seen as a productive workforce in mining (O’Faircheallaigh, 2013). Today, women have taken even the traditionally male-dominated roles such as drilling and truck driving. We have observed significant progress in integrating women into the mining workforce.

Even as more women are apparently joining the mining workforce and taking “male” roles, I believe that there are anatomical challenges that will limit them. The roles employing the highest number of employees in mining or drilling, metal fitting and truck driving. Save for truck diving, the other two roles demand high physical endurance. The temperatures and the general work conditions and work naturally in the mines are very tough. Due to the anatomical structure of women, fewer of them, compared to men, can be able to withstand such conditions and deliver their roles as expected. Since this is the nature of most of the roles in mining, a lot of women have been limited with regard to the roles they can take on mining.

Societal expectations of women and their own perception of “what they would rather do” also contribute to limiting the integration of women into the mining workforce (Ness, 2012). For example, it would be extremely difficult for women with families to take any roles in mining as most of the work may involve working odd-hours or long shifts. At the same time, these women would be expected, by their own selves and by society, to allocate enough time to raise their families. As such, time and flexibility arise as limiting factors in the integration of women into the workforce.

Work emotions

Undoubtedly, emotions in the workplace have huge impacts on the organizations and the individual workers. The impacts could be either positive or negative depending on the nature of the emotions. Work emotions may be associated with other factors such as organizational culture which promote or inhibit particular work environments. Positive work emotions are particularly as they promote job enrichment and raise the workers’ pride in their roles. Negative work emotions, on the other hand, can lead to workplace deviance where the workers do not wish good for the organization they work in.

Both men and women are equally affected by work emotions. However, men might be able to shed off their emotions sooner than their female counterparts (Nolen-Hoeksema, 2012). In the case of negative emotions, the female counterparts will remain affected for longer. Williams and Dempsey (2014) note that it might be difficult for discontented women to progress in the workplace. Relating these two ideas, there is an indication that more women than men are affected by work emotions to the effect that they are unable to progressively advance their careers in mining. In a research by Bonaccio et al (2016) it was established that it is regarded as more normal for men to express anger at the workplace but for women it would result to a lower social status. These stereotypes and perceptions that act against women stand as challenges to the integration of women in the mining workforce.

Conclusion

The challenges facing the integration of women into the mining workforce are not unique to the mining industry. Challenges associated with work emotions and those arising from organizational cultures are universal. However, there are issues that are specific to the mining industry such as the nature of the work that limit the integration of women into the workforce. We have also established that women are increasingly taking up roles traditionally known to be fulfilled by men. There is remarkable progress with regard to women boldly taking up diverse roles in mining. Nonetheless, a combination of factors including changing organizational cultures and applying affirmative action may be required to spur the integration of women into the workforce. Administrators and workers alike need to start looking at women as equally prolific workers in various departments in mining.