Affirmative Action and Trend of Cultural Diversity - Research Paper Example

The Human Resources Department Changing Role - Affirmative Action, California’s Prop 209, and the emerging trend of Cultural Diversity Subject Professor April 13, 2013 The Human Resources Department Changing Role - Affirmative Action, California’s Prop 209, and the emerging trend of Cultural Diversity Introduction Laws are made to keep the harmony and cooperation among the people. The research centers on with Affirmative Action. The research centers on the role of the Human Resource Department in keeping the tenets of the Affirmative Action laws. The research centers on Proposal 209 and the Human Resource Department’s role in today’s workplace. The Human Resource Department plays a vital role in ensuring the Affirmative Action and Proposition 209 be implemented. A) History of Affirmative Action. Affirmative action was established as an equal opportunity employment policy. Affirmative action requires all United States companies to eliminate discrimination against job applicants or employees, students or other groups. Prior to Affirmative Action, African Americans, Asian Americans, women, and other minority groups found it doubly hard to find jobs. Discrimination of the minority groups and women can be based on the individuals’ color, gender, national origin or religious beliefs. Affirmative action violations include discrimination on the basis of employees’ promotion, salary, or other work benefits. Likewise, universities refused to accept African American students and students from other minority groups. The police force implemented discrimination in the hiring of police officers. Affirmative action requires all schools to allocate a certain percentage of the total student population to minority groups. Affirmative Action offers preference to job applicants or employees belonging to the female gender, non-white job applicants, and the job applicants’ ethnicity. Under the act, the disparate impact computation was launched (Holzer, H., David, N.,, 2010). A survey conducted in 2005 shows that more than 50 percent of the people favor the support for the minority groups’ desire to have equal job opportunities for women. The same research shows that more men prefer the implementation of the Affirmative Action provisions than women (Myersetal, 2007). For example, the University of California’s school of medicine allocated a quota of 16 of the total available student enrollment slots to the minorities and women enrollment applicants. When Allan Bakke tried to enroll in the school, Bakke passed the medical school entrance tests. However, he could not be accepted because the 16 enrollment slots were reserved for the minorities and women school enrollment hopefuls. Bakke sought the United States Court’s intervention. The court required the school to accept Bakke’s enrollment on the ground that Bakke’s constitution right to equal opportunity with the minorities and women student applicants should not be violated (Knowledge et Al, 2007). In another similar 1999 case, the Lesafe v Texas, the United States Supreme Court emphasized that the schools should implement all the requirements of the Affirmative Action plan (Sims, 2007). The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution focuses on the importance of Affirmative Action. Title 6 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C: The Civil Rights Act disapproves race discrimination when the issue is receiving funds from our United States government. The law also applies to all educational institutions. In the case of Gratz v Bollinger, 539 U.S. S.Ct. 123 (2003) and Grutter v Bolllinger 539 U.S. S. Ct. 123 (2003), the schools are prevented from implementing racial or female discrimination while trying to enroll in one’s preferred school. On the other hand, the Dred Scott v Sandford, the 1857 case ensure that the non-white individuals shall not be reduced to slaves or forced labor situations (Moore, 2005). Further, the word minority is very clear. A minor group is usually lesser in number or population when compared the normally White Americans or Caucasian Americans. One of the minority groups is the Asian Americans. Another minority is the Native American Indians. Another minority is the Jews. Another minority group is the Spanish-speaking people of the United States. B) The impact of Proposition 209. Proposition 209 states that the nation shall not implement any discriminatory act against any person or group or persons. Likewise, the s same proposition states that the nation shall not offer any preferential treatment on any individual or group. The proposition literally runs against the very grain of affirmative action. The proposition removes the quota set for the work place. This means that the criteria for hiring any individual or promoting any employee to the next higher rank is one’s job performance alone. For example, there are 20 new job vacancies in a newly opened company. Under the Affirmative action law, the company is required to reserve a certain percentage or quota of the 20 job vacancies to the minorities or women job applicants. Under the proposition 209, if all 20 White applicants get the highest job placement test scores and the company policy is to hire the applicants with the highest test scores, then the company can hire all the 20 White applicants who had topped the job tests. The company is not forced to allocate ten percent or five percent of the 20 vacant job slots to the minorities or women applicants if the 20 White job applicants’ scores are higher than any of the minority job applicants, women applications, or African American job applicants (http://www.ajdj.com/noccri/labor.html). U.S. District Court Judge Thelton Henderson prevented the implementation of California’s Proposition 209. However, Judge Henderson’s decision was reversed by the court of appeals. Likewise, the proposition states that enrollment in schools eliminates the quota system emphasized by the affirmative action law. There are landmark cases pertaining to affirmative action. In the Gratz v Bollinger case, the United States Supreme Court penned the important landmark law decision. The decision focused on the importance of implementing the tenets of the Affirmative Action law provisions (Sims, 2007). In the University of Michigan Law School, the Michigan State insists that the 14th Amendment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 indicates that the state has a compelling reason for racial diversity. Race is one of the preferred criteria considered when accepting or rejecting a new law student. The United States court emphasized that the Affirmative Action is violates the law on equal opportunity. Further, the Proposition 209 has several disadvantages. First, the quota system of the Affirmative Action had been eliminated. The same proposition eliminates the counseling for minorities and women. Counseling is one of the required benefits of Affirmative Action. Proposition 209 removes the benefits of the outreach programs. The outreach programs help the minorities of our society and the persons belonging to the female gender from availing of the government’s outreach programs. More importantly, the proposition reduces the efficacy of the present state protection given to the minorities and women of United States society from being victims of discriminated against because of one’s gender, race, physical ability, age, religion and the like. C) The requirements on the HR department under Affirmative Action. To ensure compliance with the required Affirmative Action process, the company should first conduct a survey of the different line and staff individuals working in the company. The survey will include the names of the department under study. Next, the research findings will indicate the job title, gender, race and ethnicity of each line and staff and management employees. The research will indicate proof as to whether the company or school is complying religiously with the provisions enumerated. The ethnicity information may indicate the type of work. The author insists that the minority groups include the African Americans, African Americans. The Human Resource Department‘s work analysis includes the salaries of the research respondents (McAfee, 2010). Further, the Human Resource Department must not renege on its responsibility to implement the provisions of the Affirmative Action law (Condrey, 2010). The department must not discriminate against job applicants on the basis of certain discrimination criteria. The criteria include gender, race, religion, color, or physical condition. The main purpose of the Affirmative Action is to ensure that the normal workplace is filled with individuals from different races, ethnicities, religions or gender. The Affirmative Action provisions are mainly intended to teach the officers, managers, especially the Human Resource Department to fill for the work place with a mixture of people from different cultural upbringings. In short, the normal workplace should be filled with African Americans, Asians, elderly, physically handicapped and other hindrances. To ensure equal job opportunities, the Human Resource Department must give the minorities and women are given equal job opportunities to all employees. To be successful, both the Human Resource Department and management must ensure all recipients of the company’s messages receive the message in the same unbiased and fair order, as intended by the Affirmative Action law. The Human Resource Department must continue to train the employees, especially the elderly people, especially the members of the minority group of employees. With the Human Resource Department’s timely training of the minority employees, the employees’ current work-related knowledge is enhanced. With more work expertise, the customer will gain more work expertise. With more work experience, the minority employees will get higher salaries, wages, commissions and other employment benefits (BusinessNeconomics, 2011). D) How those requirements are no longer necessary. The requirements for the implementation of Affirmative Action may no longer be necessary (Hays &, Kearney, R., 2009). According to Hays and Kearney, each job application or promotion applicant must be promoted or accepted for work based on the job applicants’ credentials. Consequently, the human resource department may prioritize the hiring of the White Americans over the African Americans or Asian Americans only if racial discrimination, job discrimination, and other discriminatory acts are absent. Further, the Human Resource Department must require the newly hired employee to attend the new employee seminars. The seminars will explain the company policies. The company policies will include the prohibited acts. The policies will also include the favored acts of the employees. The seminar will discuss the vision, mission, goals, and objectives of the company. The seminar will discuss the company profile. Similarly the seminars will discuss the company policies on promotions, transfer, terminations, salary increases, and other important matters (Hays &, Kearney, R., 2009). Additionally, the Human Resource Department will explain the rights of the employees. The rights include overtime pay. The rights include how and when to file any grievance complaints. The rights include how to conduct oneself during investigations or when charges of immorally, and other unlawful acts are committed by the employees (Hays &, Kearney, R., 2009). Moreover, the Human Resource Department must explain the company policies in order to prepare the new employee on the new work situation. With the seminars, the new employees are encouraged to ask clarification questions from the seminar emcees or leaders. The nation had seen the approval and implementation of many laws barring discrimination. The United States laws strictly prohibit discrimination against the old employees (during promotions) and new employees (during the hiring of new employees process). The law strictly prohibits all forms, types, and time of occurrence of each discriminatory act (Bohlander, G., Snell Scott, 2007). E) How the Human Resource dept should continue with efforts of outreach and recruitment of women and minorities to be supportive of equal right in America. The Human Resource Department must institute job placement programs that will offer greater opportunity to women and the members of the minority groups. The same departments must ensure that the workplace is composed of diverse employee lists. Diversity means the workplace is composed of Asian Americans, African Americans and female employees. Diversity in the workplace requires that employers and employees include individuals coming from different communities or diversities (Hays &, Kearney, R., 2009). Additionally, the Human Resource Department must implement the tenets of the Equal Opportunity Act of 1973. The Act strictly states that the United States companies must prioritize the hiring of African Americans, Asian Americans, and other individuals belonging to the minority group classification and women. The Equal Opportunity Act supports the provisions of the United States constitutions’ Title 7 of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. It is very clear that the Human Resource Department should implement the equal opportunity provisions of the law, with emphasis on prioritizing the setting into continuing and unstoppable plans to hire as many qualified African Americans, or Disney (Vaughn, 2003). Further, the Human Resource Department must implement programs that will train the non-White job applicants. The training must enhance the minority workers and female workers to improve their job performances to the next possible high level. To be successful, the Human Resource Department and the managers should install training programs that will improve the job performances of the newly hired minority employees and the newly hired female job applicants (Hays &, Kearney, R., 2009). Additionally, the Human Resource Department must implement the steps required by the Affirmative Action law. For example, the department should take the necessary remedial steps to correct any violations of the Affirmative Action Law. The Human Resource Department officers must allow the employees, especially the new employees to exercise their cultural rights within the workplace. With the implementation of the Affirmative Action, there was an increase in the demand for minority employees (McAfee, 2010). Further, the Human Resource Department must inspire management to include the cultural concepts when dealing with the diverse employee line and staff lineup. To do so, the White American supervisor or manager can learn the different cultural concepts of the newly hired employees and the newly hired women workers. For example, the manager must learn some words from the Spanish language in order to better manage the Spanish- speaking new job applicant or new female employee. The same workplace manager must learn the culture of the newly hired Japanese employee. The workplace manager will learn which words or actions bring out the best of the newly hired Japanese employee (Hays &, Kearney, R., 2009). In the same manner, the manager must learn the concepts of the newly hired Muslim job applicant. The manager must remember that the staunch Muslim person does not eat pork products. Muslim religion strictly bans the eating of pork products. The manager’s forcing the Muslim employee to eat pork products during company seminars or meetings may be met with strong disgust or anger. Consequently, the newly hired Muslim employee must exercise his or her right not to eat pork products (McAffee, 2010). Further, the manager must learn the culture of the newly hired Chinese employee (Myersetal, 2007). The Chinese believe in the Chinese style of foretelling or changing the future. Most Chinese believe in the concept of Feng Shui. Feng Shui shows that the different arrangement of objectives within the building will translate to different future outcomes. Some outcomes will be favorable to the company, department, or individual. On the other hand, some outcomes of Feng Shui arrangements may produce negative image of the company (Smith, 2006). Likewise, the Human Resource Department must train management officers to create synergy among the different cultures or upbringings or the employees. For example, the German employee must learn to get along with the Poland-based employee. The manager must learn to create a favorable cooperative team between his Chinese employee and the French employee (Hays &, Kearney, R., 2009). Further, the cultural diversity of the company employees will help the company in several ways. When the current and future customers are French, the company will train the French employee to serve the product and service needs of the current and future French customers. When one of the employees is a young new female employee, the Human Resource Department and the managers should do their share to make the new employee easily adapt to the new work environment. Conclusion Scrutinizing the above discussion, the laws are made to ensure peace and harmony reigns among the people. The research shows the importance of implementing the Affirmative Action. The research indicates that the role of the Human Resource Department in keeping the tenets of the Affirmative Action laws is very important. The research shows that Proposal 201 and the Human Resource Department’s roles in today’s workplace include the implementation of the Proposal 209. Evidently, the Human Resource Department plays a vital role in ensuring the Affirmative Action and Proposition 209 are both implemented on certain fitting occasions. References: Bohlander, G., Snell Scott. (2007). Managing Human Resources. London: Mason. BusinessNeconomics. (2011). Human Resource Management. New York: c. Condrey, S. (2010). Human Resource Management in Government. San Jose: Jossey-Bass. Hays, S., Kearney, R. (2009). Public Human Resource Managmenet . New York: Pearson . Holzer, H., David, N.,. (2010). Assessing Affirmative Action. Journal of Economic Literature . Knowledetal. (2007). A Cure for Discrimination? Affirmative Action and the Case of Californias Proposition 209. Industrial and Labor Relations Review , 60 (3), 379-392. McAfee, B. (2010). Human Resource Management: Affirmative Action. London: Cengage Learning. McAffee, B. (2010). Human Resource Department . London: Cengage Learning . Moore, J. (2005). Race and College Admissions. New York: McFarland. Myersetal. (2007). A Cure for Discrmination? Affirmative Action and the Case of Californias Proposition 209. Industrial and Labor Relations , 60 (3), 379-392. Sims, R. (2007). Contemporary Issues, Challenges, and Opportunities. New York: IAP . Smith, V. (2006). Feng Shui. New York: Kaplan Press. Vaughn, B. (2003). Intercultural Interactions as Contexts for Mindful Communication. New York: Allyn & Bacon Press. Read More