McCarthy C, T D D A (2013) Mainstreaming equality in construction. In: Smith, S D and Ahiaga-Dagbui, D D (eds.) Proceedings of 29th Annual ARCOM Conference, 2-4 September 2013, Reading, UK.
Abstract
Despite over 20 years of initiatives, research, and agendas the UK construction sector has failed to embed equality into business priorities and approaches; with both women and minority groups remaining under represented and unfairly treated in construction trades and the professions. Literature in this area shows low levels of retention amongst minority groups, high levels of discrimination and key talent from across the population finding the sector unappealing due to its macho image and the lack of diversity. We posit that, before equality can be realised in organisations, the majority of employees must perceive a base level of fairness. To understand how this can be achieved, a review of Organisational Justice is presented; a theoretical perspective which can explain how to encourage co-operation across the workforce. In exploring this we consider how the perceived focus on equality with respect to pre-existing out-groups works against group differential theory and, therefore, question whether the co-operation from the in-group must be necessary for any initiative to be successful.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | ethics; equality; diversity; fairness; inclusion; organisational justice |
| Index terms: | women, minority, population, profession, fairness, construction sector, discrimination, low level, retention, justice, ethics, mainstreaming |
| Subjects: | business, institututions, ethical practice, legal systems, management, demography, measurement and scaling, sociology, leadership, professional ethics, industry analysis |
| Topics: | Ethics, Human Resources, Urban Studies, Legal Issues, Organizational Design, Research Practice, Business Strategy, Roles and Professions |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here