IJASOS- International E-journal of Advances in Social Sciences

Abstract

With globalization at its peak, organizations are expanding, acquiring, and merging businesses worldwide to maintain and increase their competitive advantage. As such, we have witnessed an increase in the diversity of the workforce resulting from immigration and opportunity. With diversity not only come a variety of opinions, but also an array of beliefs, customs, practices and traditions which might seem ‘standard or normal’ to some, but ‘abnormal or strange’ to others. When these become a source of prejudices and biased dispositions, as well as more alarmingly discrimination and harassment, these issues must be immediately dealt with under the jurisdiction of the HR as per applicable laws and corporate policies.
This report shall analyse the ‘case – Maalick vs. Rington Communications’ in the context of law as it relates to the U.K.; the equality act of 2010, as well as previous anti discrimination legislation that have been introduced along with HR best practices. The case revolves around an employee of Rington Communications, Inc., Maalick, a.k.a. MarShawn Demur and the formal complaint he filed revolving around his religious beliefs alleging racial harassment and religious discrimination. Rington Communications is a large telecommunications corporation (30,000 employees worldwide ; 2013 Gross Revenue of GBP 20 Billion) with several branches in the U.S.A. and U.K., and pride itself in its diversity, considering it to be one of the driving factors of its success. It considers itself an equal opportunities employer and even has a comprehensive ‘Equal Opportunities / Anti – discrimination / Diversity / Harassment policy’ that clearly defines code of conduct and expectations of each employee.
This report will identify and describe specific issues encountered by Maalick in the workplace. It will analyse his co-workers’ actions and consider them with respect to applicable discrimination and harassment corporate policies, their violations, and U.K. labour laws. It will evaluate the actions of the organization (scrutinizing the behavior of both his direct manager – Clive Jenkins, as well as the country’s HR Director – Marta Ford) in response to his situation, as well as explore potential actions that could have been taken to mitigate the damage and prevent future reoccurrences of the same. It will also deliberate the case from the perspective of the corporate vice president for equal opportunity and diversity – Judith Dixon, while considering formal and informal avenues and the part played by ‘power’ considering the sources of ‘power’. The report will finally make suggestions and recommendations, concluding by evaluating the options of the top management from a broader corporate perspective.