The management of people at work

Identify two Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) that play a significant part in pressing for the ethical management of workers. Using the websites of these organizations and other research sources, describe, compare and contrast their activities and comment critically on their role in encouraging improvements in the management of people at work. Identify two Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) that play a significant part in pressing for the ethical management of workers.

Using the websites of these organizations and other research sources, describe, compare and contrast their activities and comment critically on their role in encouraging improvements in the management of people at work. “I believe, indeed, that overemphasis on the purely intellectual attitude, often directed solely to the practical and factual, in our education, has led directly to the impairment of ethical values. ” (Albert Einstein) In these tumultuous economic times, corporate ethics are more essential than ever.

The current worldview seems to be built on the foundation that the only wrong thing about shady business dealings and immoral workplace ethics is in getting caught. Also as workplaces often consist of a large number of individuals, the differing views and attitudes mean the fundamental role that ethics should play, is otherwise overlooked. So what do we interpret as being ethical or unethical? According to Paul & Elder (2003, pg. 34) “For any action to be unethical, it must inherently deny another person or creature some inalienable right.

” These unethical actions are often directed towards Lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and working families among many other groups. Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) however, provide much needed support and push for humanitarian rights as corporate social responsibility is a key message and ambition of theirs. (Hutler, B and O’Mahony, 2004) It will be two CSOs that I will focus on. Working Families is a similar CSO that instead strives for the rights of children, working parents and carers and their employers in order to find a better balance between responsibilities at home and work.

Its primary aim is to extinguish the conflict between family and employment. Examples of previous successes include; the Equal Pay Act in1979, family credit for low income families1988, Employment Relations Act implementing parental leave and enhancing maternity leave 1999 and the Work and Families Act extending maternity leave to year a pay from 6-9 months 2006. However, they still face key issues such as in-work poverty, long hours and wasted talent. Whilst working families may have benefited from the Employment Relations Act, the government rejected plans to include protection from harassment for gays and lesbians in the workplace.

(BBC, 1999) This makes it particularly difficult for the LGB because, as the Home Office reported, services such as the fire service are said to be institutionally homophobic. (www. homeoffice. gov. uk, accessed December 15th 2009) It is also important to note what is currently happening in other countries such as Uganda. The BBC have recently been slammed for inviting debate on whether homosexuals should be executed for certain homosexual acts. (KansasCity, 2009) Uganda seems to be living in the past, something that CSOs such as Stonewall in this country have been able to advance.

“Genuine equality will not be achieved by providing the same service for everyone; equality of opportunity is not enough. It means delivering the same outcome for everyone, recognising the diverse needs of different communities and individuals and responding appropriately to those needs. ” (Alan Johnson, 2008) Stonewall works with a wide range of public, private and voluntary sector organisations in order to prevent discrimination against sexual orientation in the workplace.

This is demonstrated through its Diversity Champions programme which provides a model for best practice and emphasises the importance of equality to employers. In the last 4 years it has grown to over 500 members. The Diversity Champions programme provides support to its members through an activity and seminar programme, a workplace equality index, guidance on how to make progress and workplace guides. Stonewall regularly produces new and ground breaking research which enables them to produce relative objectives in order to combat the problems.

The research publication named Serves you right (2008) has found that nearly one in five lesbian and gay people, almost 300,000 employees in Britain, have experienced bullying as a result of their sexual identity. It is important that LGBs are open about their sexual orientation in the workplace as a third of people think that they are more productive. (Peak Performance, 2008) Following this, the double-glazed glass ceiling (2008) analysed why there were few openly gay women. The results found that they were more concerned about their gender being a barrier to work and sexual identity was just an added burden.