Affirmative Action Recommendation for Affirmative

Affirmative Action Recommendation for Affirmative Action

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, and further legislative acts have also prohibited discrimination based upon gender, age, and disability status. To remain in strict compliance with these laws, it would behoove this organization to instate a policy of affirmative action, to create both the appearance and the reality of a diverse organization. It is also worth remembering that the Civil Rights Act of 1991 provides monetary damages to wronged defendants in cases of intentional employment discrimination ("Federal Equal Opportunity Laws," 2007, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity). An organization even perceived to be discriminatory can be the subject of damaging lawsuits, and the organization can also find itself on the 'wrong end' of damaging publicity, which can even become a greater drain upon the firm's finite resources.

This does not mean that the organization needs to institute a rigid quota system, however, to become compliant with the specifics and the intent of federal EEOC legislation. A quota system, as you may know, earmarks certain jobs or a certain percentage of positions for persons of disadvantaged status, or persons who are of historically underrepresented minority groups. In fact, quotas are illegal in the United States, and universities such as the University of Michigan that have used quota systems have been forced by the U.S. Supreme Court to discontinue their practices (Kangas, 2006). But affirmative action, in contrast, is legal, and merely gives employers the right to take a successful and qualified applicant's status as a member of historically discriminated against group into consideration when evaluating his or her success.

Of course, this causes opponents of the practice to scream: 'shouldn't merit alone be the determinant of a person's qualifications?' But even if race, gender, disability status, age, etcetera were not taken into consideration, the idea of merit is always a subjective concept. Whether an applicant is a team player, or has shown success against insurmountable odds in gaining an education is difficult to quantify. Affirmative action simply paints a broader picture of the person being considered and helps overcome implicit selection bias or favoritism for groups that are more 'like us.' Although we might like to think so, in the words of President Clinton: "The job of ending discrimination in this country is not done" (Harris 1995)

Affirmative action works by setting flexible goals for the organization, and these goals "are based on the percentage of qualified minorities and women in the region" (Kangas, 2006). A company that searches in good faith but fails to find qualified minorities or women is not penalized for their failure, and unlike in a quota system, a "company incurs no legal penalty if it makes a good-faith search but still cannot meet its goals. Affirmative action allows an employee's contribution to the diversity of the company to be a factor in recruiting and hiring decisions" but it is not an inflexible mandate (Kangas, 2006).