Purpose Of Reverse Discrimination

Preventing Discrimination Organizations contribute large amounts of time and effort to ensure equal employment opportunity since discrimination is harmful to performance and punishable by law in most environments. Although the many policies preventing discrimination are effective in providing equal opportunities for groups who have faced discrimination in the past (protected class), these protections may actually cause reverse discrimination (Gomez-Mejia, Balkin & Cardy, 2016). Since certain policies, such as affirmative action, attempt to hire or select members of the protected class, these selection criteria create a distinction between individuals. Thus, leading to discrimination of the non-protected class.

Purpose of Reverse Discrimination

Instead of viewing equal employment as a legal requirement, diversity management welcomes and values diversity as well as “respecting every individual in the workplace regardless of their race and gender among other variables” (Sharma, 2016, p. 2). The core values of promoting diversity reflects Proverbs 20: 5, “The purposes of a man’s heart are deep waters, but a man of understanding draws them out” (NIV). Moreover, this verse demonstrates that all people have potential and talents, but in order to realize these talents others must be understanding and

Diversity management encourages members of organizations to accept and cherish differences since the merging of talents and purposes can lead to increased performance. As Sharma (2016) mentions, when diversity and equality are properly managed, the organization can improve critical business factors such as productivity and opportunity. Additionally, since diversity and equality result in employees with varying experiences and backgrounds, problems such as group-think are reduced and replaced by increased creativity and problem solving (Gomez-Mejia, Balkin & Cardy, 2016). In order to benefit from diversity, organizations must first enact certain practices to effectively manage diversity. Diversity practices. The first action of achieving diversity is evaluating and measuring the current practices and diversity within an organization (Sharma, 2016). This initial evaluation provides the organizations with clear direction of how to design their diversity management to specifically address issues and areas for improvement unique to the organization. Moreover, this first assessment provides a strong foundation for future policies and diversity