After working through this chapter you should be able to:

• understand discrimination in the workplace

• define the barriers to organizational diversity

• identify approaches to diversity management

• critically discuss the ways organizations can prevent discrimination and encourage diversity.

Leisure service organizations employ more diverse workforces than traditional manufacturing plants of old. The emergence of service economies has changed the nature of work and the nature of those who work in service sector organizations. Leisure service organizations are more likely to employee large numbers of women, young people and members of ethnic minorities. Some leisure service organizations are renowned for poorly paid, low-skilled jobs with few career prospects (HtF, 2002). In some countries these organizations are likely to employ people who work part- time or on a casual basis to satisfy variations in demand for leisure services. In many ways they have been described as secondary labour market employers . In other words, they recruit people whose labour skill base is low, plentiful and cheap, and who belong to groups in society which are perceived as having low value. This chapter will explore some of the issues related to prejudices that value some people s labour as having less value than others, and the implications this has for employing organizations.