ABSTRACT
Diversity programs became popular in the USA some time ago. Popularity in the USA may be seen in that ‘According to a study by the society for Human Resource Management in Alexandria, Virginia, 3 out of 4 Fortune 500 companies have formal diversity programs in place, over half of which (58 per cent) have staff members dedicated to these issues’ (Caudron 1998: 91). More recently diversity programs have been taken up in Europe. Often cited reasons for the present need are: increased globalization in organizations through mergers and acquisitions and the required cultural integration; equal opportunities legislation which looks to prevent discrimination; increasing emphasis on corporate social responsibility brought on by triple bottom-line accounting, whether environmental, financial and social (PriceWaterhouseCoopers 2001). There have been legal implications with regard to equal treatment for many years; politicians have made strides in making society more inclusive. In Europe, the major driving force is The Treaty of Rome 1957, further supported in European Law by the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms 1998, article 14, Prohibition of Discrimination. While these laws have been in place for
some time, discrimination and issues around equal opportunity and pay continue to attract attention today. This link between HR and legal, the protection from potential expensive litigation, provides me with a picture of HR as protecting the organization, policing practices to ensure that organizations are compliant. The focus is both on protecting the ‘organization’ and on the rights of individuals in the organization; a situation that is fraught with inconsistencies when policies seem to be more focused upon ‘organizational’ needs.
