Rhetoric and reality: the business case for equality and why it continues to be resisted

Successful companies of the future must be more responsive to customers. Managers are being forced to question traditional authoritarian management practices for business reasons. Discusses organizational effects of disadvantage and inequality, particularly in relation to women, but also in relation to black workers and those with disabilities. Discusses resistance to change by managers and the different perceptions of managers′ behaviour by themselves and by their employees. Discusses the practices organizations must adopt in the future. Equality measures are no longer a question just of social justice but are a business necessity if contracting is to develop around social values.