Gender, cultural or any other form of stereotyping at the workplace has adverse effects on employees’ morale, motivation, and output. Most importantly, they lead to discrimination and harassment, aspects that influence the presence of negativity in the work environment. Regardless of the efforts instituted by an organization to achieve developmental milestones in different departments, a demotivated workforce is unlikely to own a company’s brand; hence, such efforts would be futile. In relation to HR functions, stereotyping might occur in employment-related undertakings, promotion, leave provision, and diversity management programs. A scenario that would contextualize the above is the refusal to allow a female employee to take a particular partnership because they are too aggressive or not submissive or are not afraid to take a lead role. Often, women are viewed as less capable of making workplace-related decisions and are expected to question situations less than their male counterparts. The Hopkins v. Price Waterhouse case is a classic example of stereotyping that leads to workplace discrimination ( Bennett-Alexander, 1998). The employer was found liable and forced to pay the plaintiff the damages.
Different statutes and theories guard against direct and indirect stereotyping at the workplace. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, for example, provides that no employee should be discriminated against based on their sex. This covers discrimination that emanates from sex-related stereotypes. Besides the above, other policies that address the same include the Age in Discrimination Employment Act and The American with Disabilities Act of 1990.
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The legal issue with stereotyping is that it leads to inequality and infringement of people’s rights. At the same time, discrimination can also be reinforced by stereotypes; for example, gender stereotypes. Some of the claims that can be brought before case on the basis of stereotyping employees include disparate treatment cases, defamation, racial and gender stereotypes that lead to discrimination, among others.
To prevent exposure to such liability in future, an organization’s HR leadership should be well educated on preventing discrimination related to stereotyping. Besides undertaking educational workshops and seminars, leaders should enroll in online classes that help them prevent such biases at all costs.
References
Bennett-Alexander, D. D. (1998). Employment law for business . Irwin, McGraw-Hill.
