Essay on Discrimination and Diversity Policy

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The University of Liverpool | Diversity management ULMS 794 | Critical analysis of the Diversity policy in Marks & Spencer | | Student number: 200921461 | 4/23/2013 |

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Critical analysis of the Diversity policy in Marks & Spencer
Executive Summary
The diversity policy plays a significant role in Marks &Spencer organisation. This policy links the social and legal obligation of an organisation to the organisation’s business benefits. Although some EO policies in UK market are treated as “empty shells” without any substantial content and supporting documents, M&S EO policy is a positive and effective policy compared with others. Because it is a requirement of business strategy and is supported in practice. However, it still possesses some insufficient areas that should be improved in the future. This article will focus on M&S diversity content, UK law framework and M&S practice to analyse the effectiveness of this diversity policy.
Contents page
Introduction: Brief background of M&S: mission/goal/current activity……………………………………2 M&S Diversity policy: reason and aim…………………………………………………………………2 Issue: empty shell? And How to improve……………………………………………………………3
Critical analysis: Diversity policy content……………………………………………………………………………………….3 Legal Framework…………………………………………………………………………………………………4 The effectiveness of M&S diversity policy in practice………………………………………….5 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..6 Recommendation……………………………………………………………………………………………….6 Reference…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..7 Appendices………………………………………………………………………………………………………..8

Introduction
Equal opportunity and diversity management are relatively important for the development of an organisation. According to the literature, there is a distinction between the equal opportunity and diversity policy. The former one is treated as the traditional approach to address issues of equality, which mainly focus on ‘what can be done to release the employment disadvantage and reacting to discrimination after individuals’ complaints.(Kirton &Grene 2009) In contrast, the latter is an exclusive measure of promoting and preventing equality in workplace, which focus on ‘how workforce diversity can contribute to organisational aims and objectives’. (Kirton &Grene 2009) In other words, the distinction between the traditional equal opportunity and diversity is that the latter one links the legal and social objective with the organisational strategy and mission. Additionally, it promotes the equal opportunity policy by systematic management, openness corporate culture and perfect monitoring system. Therefore, if the traditional equal opportunity policy can be treated as a pure policy within an organization to commit under the law framework, the diversity policy should be recognized as a developed system with a clear EO statement and substantial practices to support its application. With time going, currently, an increasingly number of organisations introduces an equal opportunity or diversity policy within their strategic plan. However, the reasons for doing that are different depending on various goals, nature of companies and the initiatives. Therefore, the effectiveness and function of the equal opportunity or diversity policy are diverse in different organisations.
According to critics, nevertheless, even though the equal opportunity and non-discrimination are required in organisations as employers’ obligation, the EO policies can be an unsubstantial cover of unfair practices, prejudice and inequality. In other words, many EO policies are treated as an ‘empty shells’ with no substantial
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