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The Diversity Management Approach to Equal Employment Opportunity in Australian Organisations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

John Burgess ,
Erica French  and
Glenda Strachan
John Burgess
Affiliation:
Newcastle Business School, University of Newcastle
Erica French
Affiliation:
Faculty of Business, Queensland University of Technology
Glenda Strachan
Affiliation:
Griffith Business School, Griffith University
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Abstract

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This article assesses the ‘Managing Diversity’ (MD) approach in Australia, examining its drivers, discussing its relationship to legislation designed to promote equity, and examining it as a set of management practices. It has been plausibly argued, on efficiency grounds, that responsibility for achieving equality objectives must be shifted to organisations as this links contextual conditions to organisational processes. However, even where there is some prescription and guidance such as that provided by Australian Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) legislation targeted specifically to women employees, both practice and outcomes are variable. This is even more the case with MD where there are no guiding principles or legislative support. The article examines the best practice EEO and MD programs of Australian organisations to demonstrate the approaches and programs that are being developed at the workplace and to highlight the limitations of the ‘business case’ approach underlying such programs.

Type
Symposium
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , December 2009 , pp. 77 - 92
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2009

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