Affirmative Action Refers to the Positive Steps

¶ … Affirmative action refers to the positive steps such as policies, rules, and regulations which take represent minority groups in the work place with the final benefit of making them represented in the workplace to counter the effects of discrimination. Some of the discrimination factors that against which affirmative action are instituted are race, religion, sexual orientation, gender, color, and national origin Pynes, 2008()

Position on affirmative action

Affirmative action helps to eliminate discrimination in the workplace. It helps to end unfair treatment of employees or students based on their characteristics such as race, color, etc. This helps to create an equal employment opportunity environment for the workers since there will be no stereotyping and they will all be given an equal chance of succeeding at what they do. Also, affirmative action ensures that the minority groups are represented in the workplace Beauchamp, 1998()

However, on this line, affirmative action has also been opposed on the basis of it being seen as reverse discrimination. This is where the members of the majority group are discriminated in favor of the minority group. In this case, affirmative action brings about undesirable side-effects, which are in addition to failure to meet its goals and objectives Holzer & Neumark, 2000()

This opposition can be refuted in that the benefit of affirmative action in that affirmative action helps to make the minority group more competitive. This can be seen in the sense that the minority group will need to give themselves a chance to compete alongside the majority group and thus not to use their status as minorities to gain competitive advantage.

Affirmative action helps to create a diverse working environment that involves the interaction of various races and nationalities. It eliminates segregation and allows the workplace to benefit from the diversity that is created in the workplace. Affirmative action has been, however, opposed on this basis since it is believed that it devalues the accomplishments of people who are chosen on the basis of their social grouping rather than their experience and qualifications. Affirmative action is also believed to devalue the accomplishments of those people who belong to these social groups that it is intended to bring advantage. Therefore, affirmative action can be seen to be counterproductive Holzer & Neumark, 2000()

The opponents of affirmative action on this basis can be dismissed by the mere fact that the benefits of affirmative action outweigh the disadvantage of counter-productivity which is more of a side-effect of affirmative action.

Affirmative action fosters a good working relationship between the employees and the management. This is because it gives all employees a level ground for relating with the management despite their position as the minority or majority group Beauchamp, 1998.

The opponents of affirmative action have refuted this on the claim that affirmative action hinders reconciliation since it undermines the achievements of minorities and encourages more individuals to identify with this minority group in the hope of gaining the desired advantage. When the management notices that the minority group is not pure in that it does include other people who are not members of the minority group, it ends up stalling reconciliation on this basis. This increases tension between the workers and the management and this tension further hinders reconciliation. This was also well stated by Dr. Thomas Sowell (2004)

who did an empirical study on affirmative action and found that it encourages people who are not members of the minority group to designate themselves as members of the group in order to take advantage of the policies of the group and to benefit from the advantages that will be granted to the minority group. This in turn reduces the incentives given to both the majority and the minority groups so they become unable to perform to their best.

Dr. Sowell's argument also brings about the argument of mismatching which is a negative effect of affirmative action. This is where the people who are not members of the minority group but who identify with the group may end up being placed in a work environment that is too difficult for them. The people may then not be able to perform their work to the best of their ability and there are chances of the person losing their job as a result of this.

The argument that is placed by Dr. Sowell and the other opponents of affirmative action are quite strong and they create a challenge to anyone who is tasked to respond on them. However, it is inevitable to state that the representation of minority groups in the workplace and in educational institutions is absolutely important and even though it may create these negative effects, they can be controlled through proper implementation of the affirmative action policies.