Module 3 Case Study NCM 512
The given facts state, “Women have had to fight for their rights for a long time. For example, the right of women to vote was granted in the USA only in 1920.” According to O’Neill (2003), there still remains a significantly unexplained difference in male and female compensation that cannot be accounted for in areas of gender differences in work commitment, education, and experience. As given, “Company ABC is a manufacturing company in the automotive industry, with a production plant of 20,000 employees, a sales department of 5,000, and an administrative work force of 1,000. The male workforce in each department is about 75%, 60%, and 40% respectively. On average, women's compensation is 25% lower than that of the men in all departments.” It is without dispute the culture and climate at Company ABC needs to be addressed and altered hence demonstrating the most effective and fair culture for the Company ABC family. Despite these facts, an effort to remedy the current issue at Company ABC concerning gender differences in the workplace will be discussed. In an effort to ensure the best representation and approach to the current gender issue at Company ABC, strategies and issues will be targeted to curtail or eliminate the situation. After reading the two articles on the issue, I would conduct extensive research on the effects of gender in job negotiations. I feel the research on gender in negotiation will offer insights with regard to how negotiation contributes to or could help diminish gender differences in compensation. Then I would target two major issues of discussion in the case. Being mindful across the board changes may be uncomfortable or unthinkable for the organization, several changes exist that can be made to address the issue of compensation for women at Company ABC. To effectively prepare for negotiations, hence representing the women who work for Company ABC, the initial question to address is “why women earn less than their male counterparts in the same position performing the same duties”. Moreover, the underlining causes for lower wages must be considered and addressed, in order to share suitable and reasonable solutions to the management team. Hence, there are numerous causes for this occurrence. One cause to address is the manner of how salaries and/or wages are determined. There are no across the board wage rates, which would protect women. The introduction of individual contracts or agreements means that women are no longer guaranteed a certain wage for a specific job. Many experts in the field point out women do not have the negotiating power men have for negotiating their salaries. Bowles and McGinn (2008) discuss different theories on why women negotiate for their pay differently, including the suggestion by Putnam (1988) that women negotiate differently at work when they perceive greater negotiating power at home. Meaning, the concept that women may marry and have spouses with greater earning potential gives them less power to negotiate at work, when they are often expected to carry out the majority of household responsibilities. There exists a concept of perceived power that the partner with the greatest earning potential has over the other.
Another cause of wage differences is explained by the fact that women more often hold positions of little power in the labor force and have little opportunity to negotiate, along with less power to do so. This is just one of the explanations provided by the National Institute of Labor Studies (2009). According to the institute, women also work in the majority of part-time jobs and in more temporary jobs than their male counterparts. While employers may be reluctant to make substantial investments in workers who may be there a short time or who do not contribute as much as other workers, this does not necessarily excuse paying lower wages to women for the same work. Because there is an apparent lack of...
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