Approaches to equity management and their relationship to women in management

Developing equitable practices that provide fair access for all individuals to the benefits and burdens within an organization remains a dilemma for management both in policy and in practice. Research continues to show that the employment status and representation for members of some groups is significantly less than in relation to those of other groups. Addressing the issue of disparity has resulted in a number of different approaches. The main aim of this paper is to explore the ability of a typological theory of equal employment opportunity implementation to account for the differences in the numbers of women in management and in management tiers. This paper identifies and analyses four ideal-typical equity management approaches to achieving workplace parity: traditional (non-compliance), anti-discrimination, affirmative action and equal employment opportunity. While the objective of these approaches may be to ensure equity management in order to encourage equal outcomes the results tell a different story. Results show that an affirmative action approach to equity management predicts increases in women in management across all tiers of management.