While efforts have been made to provide equal opportunity for everyone at the workplace, reports still emerge of people being discriminated. Employees are still discriminated on factors such as race, gender and other occupational stratification factors such as disability (Mullings, 2014). It is on this basis that I interviewed the human resource manager of Axis Architects, Ms. Green. Axis Architects is a firm that has been in existence for almost ten years and specializes in designing buildings that serve various functions such as residential and commercial buildings. Surprisingly, the human resource manager was the only lady with an African-American background holding an executive position. The other lady present at the firm’s offices was a receptionist. The interview questions I asked sought to find the reasons why such disparities existed. Because of the sensitivity of the questions, I assured Ms. Green that all the information obtained would be confidential so that she would not be victimized.
Question 1: How many employees are you in charge of, and how do you feel working in a male-dominated environment?
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Answer: Well, Axis Architects has more than twenty employees who are under my jurisdiction. As you have already observed, most of the employees here are men. Part of the reasons why the number of men is high is because few women enroll for architecture courses. I relate well with everyone because I ensure that I maintain professionalism all the time. Sometimes I feel uneasy especially when I find myself in a meeting where I am the only lady.
Question 2: Evidently, you have an African-American background, and seemingly there are not very many persons with color at Axis, do you think there are racial prejudices at the firm especially during hiring?
Answer: Honestly, to answer your question I can only speculate. In the whole of US, some reports indicate that indeed racism is prevalent in many institutions (Cortina et al., 2013). I would admit that Axis is not an exception. Whenever we advertise for vacancies, people from many racial backgrounds apply. I have little influence whenever it comes to hiring, but I suspect that race plays a part in the hiring process. There is a belief that Native American citizens understand the culture of the US and would be able to come up with designs of buildings that represent Americans best (Dipboye & Colella, 2013).
Question 3: Apart from race and gender, what other forms of stratification do you think exist at Axis?
Answer: I think we do not have a representation of persons with disability. Apart from that, the company only hires people who have experience of not less than three years. In such cases, young people do not get employment.
Question 4: Do you think there will be a time when people will be emancipated from all these prejudices?
Answer: I do not see such a time coming so soon. People only talk about the need to represent everyone in the workplace regardless of their gender, race or disability but do not take the effort of doing the implementation.
Question 5: What would you do differently if you were the only person involved in the recruitment process?
Answer: Well, I would hire everyone according to merit. Architects ought to be creative people, and thus, for as long as someone has the requisite skills to do the job, I would hire him or her.
To conclude, I can also relate to Ms. Green’s experience. I was seeking for a part-time job with a marketing firm. When I presented myself for the interview, everyone got disinterested seemingly because I was a person of color and was younger than the others. Well, I never received any response after the interview. However, I firmly believed that I had what it took to do the job. Although efforts are in place to stop discrimination in the workplace, there is a lot that still needs to be done.
References
Cortina, L. M., Kabat-Farr, D., Leskinen, E. A., Huerta, M., & Magley, V. J. (2013). Selective incivility as modern discrimination in organizations: Evidence and impact. Journal of Management , 39 (6), 1579-1605.
Dipboye, R. L., & Colella, A. (Eds.). (2013). Discrimination at work: The psychological and organizational bases . Psychology Press.
Mullings, L. (2014). On our own terms: Race, class, and gender in the lives of African-American Women . Routledge.
