racism and discrimination Essays (3880 words) - Discrimination

Eradicating Racism and Discrimination in the Workplace Introduction For my paper, I will discuss the Marion County Health Department. The Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County is a municipal corporation established by Indiana Code 16-22-8. The Corporation operates a division of public health, the Marion County Health Department, and a division of public hospitals, Wishard Health Services. An appointed seven member Board governs the Corporation. The Board has the authority to make and adopt appropriate involving public safety and health. The ordinances adopted by the Board constitute The Code of the Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County. My role is to market services to pregnant minority/ low-income females and implement nutrition and healthcare plans to help lower infant mortality rates. This is done by referrals, home visits, local-meetings and by accepting local walk-ins. Upon successful registration, clients are referred to other available health sources such as WIC, Food Stamps, Medicaid, Housing, Clothing, Education and Training, Child Birth and Breastfeeding classes. The issues and events that led to the problems at my place of employment are job discrimination, unfair treatment, and racism. These issues are evident through their hiring practices and how employees are treated on a day-to-day basis. The problem I will discuss in my paper is how job discrimination and racism affect minority employees in a negative way. These problems cause employees to become irritated, ineffective and uncooperative in the workplace. It is a problem to the extent that the organization encourages and reimburses minority employees for pursuing higher education, but does not promote these individuals once their training is complete. Other related problems include hiring only minority employees for low paying positions such as: community health, security, and janitorial positions, but hiring whites as nurses, social workers, nutritionists, and supervisors. This is not a system of another more fundamental problem because minorities are qualified in the same capacity as their white co-workers. However, when whites are not qualified, they are still considered as strong candidates for the positions and are hired more frequently. In an effort to solve the problem, the MCHD has resorted to conducting sensitivity workshops and cultural training sessions. The culture of the MCHD has undergone a tremendous change and some employees are confused by these new directives. These new directives could make a difference if employees and employers had a basic understanding of OCI survey outcomes. Participating in the OCI surveys helped me to gain somewhat of a perspective of the organizational culture at the MCHD and now I understand the outcomes of the survey. Upon completion of the Organizational Culture Survey, the MCHD scored high in Avoidance, Dependent, Conventional and Approval styles. However, they scored low in the styles of Affiliative, Self-Actualizing, Humanistic/Encouraging, and Achievement. These survey outcomes were indeed in alignment with the current culture of the MCHD. Figure 1 shows the accuracy of these results. Figure 1 OCI Organizational Survey Problem Statement The MCHD, located in the heart of the African American community was established in its current location to better serve the needs of minorities. I will discuss the problem of how negatively racism and discrimination affect minorities at the health department. When employees are satisfied with their jobs, they deal with clients in a manner that get results and help the company to operate smoothly without interruption. At the MCHD, a smooth operation cannot be expected at this time because employees are dissatisfied and unhappy with their jobs due to racism and discrimination. This problem causes employees to become disgruntled, ineffective and unproductive in the workplace. The problem is to the extent that when the effects of racism trickle downhill, it causes employees to be discouraging and non-supportive to clients, co-workers and supervisors. (Kelly 2001) Minority employees are only hired in as clerks, field workers, custodians or security officers (low-paying positions). Whites, however, are hired as nurses, nutritionist, grant writers, and sociologists (high paying positions). It is definitely not systematic of another more fundamental problem because there is no obvious reason why discrimination/racism still exists. However, minorities that already have the training, qualifications and education are rarely promoted or hired (Schwarz 1992). The problem I will discuss in my paper is how job racism and discrimination affect employees and their overall job