Affirmative Action - Essay Example

Task: Affirmative action Affirmative action is an attempt to address past discriminatory injustices which may be basedon gender, race or ethnicity. Affirmative action may take the form of policies and programs which are mostly mandated by governments and designed to bring changes in organizations, companies and educational institutions. Affirmative action is a vital tool which provides qualified people with equal access to educational or professional opportunities that they would otherwise have been denied despite them having strong qualifications(Altschiller, 2001) Affirmative action, therefore, ensures that all people, especially the minority are given equal and fair consideration for employment and educational opportunities. Affirmative action is very important because it tries to avoid past discrimination as well as promote diversity in the society (Sterba, 2003). The United States Supreme Court acknowledges that affirmative action is vital in every society. The court argues that to have legitimate leaders in society, it is necessary that talented and qualified individuals of every race and ethnicity be given equal and fair consideration(Goldstone, 2011). It is sad that discrimination is still a problem in America and other parts of the world. In the U.S, women earn about 77 cents for every dollar men earn. Latinos earn 56 cents for every dollar a white earns and Africans earn about 75 cents of what a white person earns.Research shows that in 2002, the median household income for whites was $44,964, compared with $29,177 for blacks.The poverty rate for black people in America is almost triple that of whites. Affirmative actions are very fair since they are intended to help organizations, companies and even educational institutions in the evaluation of candidates fairly based on the candidate’s qualifications. Use of affirmative action have resulted to equality in hiring processes in the last few years, but still much has to be done as inequality continues to exist in hiring processes and remuneration. It is estimated that college educated African-American women earn $19,054 less than college educated white men. Women with a Master’s degree are estimated to earn $4,765 less than a man who has an undergraduate degree. Use of affirmative action will help eliminate such inequalities and give women and minorities greater access to opportunities. Use of affirmative action needs to be promoted so that all people in the society have equal chances for jobs and compensation. However, affirmative action faces opposition. Some white people still believe that African-American are not equal to the whites in terms of jobs, incomes, education and healthcare. At the workplace, affirmative action involves the use of a range of actions to promote fair and equal opportunities for everyone. Some of the affirmative action techniques employed by managers at the workplace involve: outreach to under-represented women and minorities, increasing workplace diversity by using factors such as race, ethnicity or gender to be among those considered in evaluating candidates who are qualified and addressing concealed biases used in hiring and compensation like unnecessary job qualifications or requirements. Equal opportunity laws prohibit discrimination against applicants based on their race, gender, age, disability or national origin but do not require organizations to have formal affirmative action programs. However, a court of law may require a manager to implement an affirmative action program to avoid discrimination at the workplace. There are certain laws that require certain organizations that conduct business with the federal government to implement affirmative action programs. For instance, section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 requires contractors with contracts exceeding $10,000 to have affirmative actions taken regarding qualified individuals with the required qualifications. Executive order 11246 requires federal contractors and subcontractors with 50 or more employees with at least on contract exceeding $50,000 with the federal government to prepare and maintain a written affirmative action program. The program should be developed within 120 days from the start of the contract and should be updated annually and should include recruitment, hiring and promotion of women and minority groups. Some managers, usually implement the affirmative action program, voluntarily to avoid past discrimination against certain groups. For instance a manger may implement affirmative action initiatives to encourage more women to apply for a certain job previously dominated by men. Affirmative action selection standards According to Robert Audi, the use of affirmative action when hiring may at times result in managers appointing minority candidate, who is a bit less prepared to handle the job compared to a competing majority.This is normally happens when the time sensitive affirmative action criteria is used to select candidates for a job opportunity. The time sensitive criterion allows some groups to be given preference when other things are not equal until the organization or business has a certain proportion of minority employees. Therefore, as the manager of my company I would apply this kind of affirmative action standard to select an employee from the minority group. I would give much preference to the qualified minority applicants as compared to the qualified majority applicants until the desired proportion of the minority is achieved in the organization. For example, if the company wishes to increase the number of women to fill a certain advertised position, as the hiring manager I would give much preference to the qualified women applicants as compared to male applicants with the same or even higher qualifications. Another affirmative action standard that I would apply as the hiring manager is the recruiting for diversity criteria. If for instance the company wants to hire more women, I would send representatives to a job fair at a female college, or send advertisements of a new job opening to women’s organizations. This strategy can be applied to reach the minority groups that a company wishes to recruit from. Withdrawal of unfair barriers may be used by a hiring manager to give more people an equal and fair opportunity for the job. For instance, if the company only considers applicants from certain educational institutions some people may not have the opportunity to apply for the job opening despite them having qualifications from other institutions. Utilitarian view on affirmative action Utilitarianism is one of the many concepts of the principles of justice. Classical utilitarianism started in the late 19th century and early 20th century. The main idea of utilitarianism is doing the right thing so as to produce the best outcome. Utilitarians believe that the rightness of actions is determined by their ability to bring happiness or satisfaction. In the case of affirmative action, a moral or ethical action according to a utilitarian would be the one that produces an outcome that increases utility or happiness. It would be an action that will produce the greatest happiness for the greatest number of individuals. A person who believes in the utilitarianism theory might argue that affirmative actions can only be moral or ethical if they have the ability to benefit the society and make everyone happier. Utilitarians may argue that solving a problem on paper by having a certain number of minorities in the workplace will not benefit the society as a whole. By using affirmative actions to hire qualified people from minority groups, a utilitarian would argue that affirmative action promotes the general welfare by undoing the adverse effects of past discrimination. Ethical affirmative action Over the last 30 years, three rationales have been articulated for the creation and implementation of affirmative action. These rationales have become the ethical basis for affirmative action: the first criteria is compensation, which refers to paying back for previous discrimination. The second criteria is diversification, which focuses on creating a multicultural society, and the third involves the changing of present discrimination through Equal Opportunity argument. In my opinion, affirmative action in the workplace has noble intentions that are consistent with high ethical values. It is not in any way intended to discriminate against any group based on their skin color, gender or ethnicity. Embracing affirmative action can create a way of making moral commitments to the ideal of justice or equal treatment for all people in society which is very ethical. Conclusion Affirmative action is intended to compensate for or do away with minority and gender discrimination, which is a kind of unwarranted mistreatment. Weak affirmative action, is generally not controversial since it uses policies and procedures to ensure equal opportunity without demanding that one group or class be preferred over another, on the other hand, strong affirmative action makes use of minority and gender preferences. It can, therefore, be concluded that affirmative action is based on three principles of compensation, diversity and equal opportunity, which all amounts to the principle of justice. Affirmative action is therefore an important tool for eliminating discrimination based on gender, race and ethnicity. Affirmative action takes the form of policies and programs that are mandated by the government and designed to bring about necessary the changes organizations, companies and education institutions. Works Cited Altschiller, Donald. Affirmative action. New York: H.W. Wilson, 2001. Firth-Cozens, Jenny and Michael A West. Women at work : psychological and organizational... by Jenny Firth-Cozens . Philadelphia: Open University Press, 2011. Goldstone, Lawrence. Inherently unequal : the betrayal of equal rights by the Supreme Court, 1865-1903. New York: Walker & Company, 2011. Stimpson, Catharine R. Discrimination against women: congressional hearings on equal rights in education and employment. New York: Bowker, 2004. Sterba, James P. Journal of Social philosophy. New York: Blackwell Publishing Inc, 2003. Read More