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The Purpose Of Affirmative Action

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A key focus of organisations in a dynamic and uncertain environment is to maintain a competitive advantage. Academic literature emphasises the importance of maintaining a diverse work force in the quest for that advantage. Affirmative action is the creation of upward mobility for both minority groups and women (Schermerhorn et al., 2014) – the purpose of affirmative action programs is to provide and promote diversity. Holistically developed and appropriately executed affirmative action plans will successfully traverse the cultural, social, and legal structures of companies across the world, amplifying the positivity associated with workplace diversity (Combs et al., 2005). And thus, many organisations implement the programs in order to achieve …show more content…

Through the example of Canada and United States policy makers setting affirmative actions goals in companies, Ng and Burke (2005) have found that both the majority groups and women and minority groups – the intended beneficiaries – have profusely rejected the notion. President Lyndon B. Johnson's view about affirmative action was "You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say you are free to compete, with all the others, and still just believe that you have been completely fair”. It is argued that affirmative action is about fulfilling quotas (Davidson, 2012). The objective behind affirmative action is for the organizational workforce to reflect the percentage of targeted groups represented labour force, the process involving a cultivation of results-oriented efforts (Combs et al., 2005). White males, who are perceived as the majority, are opposed to affirmative action because they regard the practice as “abandoning the principle of merit in …show more content…

Heilman, 1997 and Heilman et al., 1997 (as cited in Ng and Burke, 2005) found that the women who were hired under the required quota stipulated by affirmateive action felt diminished as they were often perceived by their coworkers to be less adequate and less qualified for the job. Hence, affirmative action policies can potentially create a stigma that minorities and women obtain positions in a company based on gender, race or ethnicity, rather than through achievement and qualifications. In the workplace, this stigma can translate into questioning the competence of minority and women employees to do their

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Erica Beckman Duran English 1A 28 October 2015 Affirmative Action In Chapter Seven of Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? , Beverly Tatum discusses affirmative action, an action that guarantees equal opportunity to all individuals, regardless of any circumstances (117). Tatum remarks on the history of affirmative action, in which it was introduced to language and our legal system by executive order 11246 by President Lyndon B. Johnson (1965), and obligated federal contractors to “take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment without regard to their race, religion, sex, or national origin” (116-117).

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The Civil Rights Act led to Affirmative actions in which it ensured that victims of past discrimination would have an advantage in finding jobs, job promotions, and special consideration for admission to college and universities (Mullane, 1993, p. 237). However,

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2000) Now, there is affirmative action and labor unions that require companies to have diversity in the workforce, but there is still racial discrimination in some corporations. The fact that the African American unemployment rate is almost double that of whites proves this.(Nittle, n.d.) Although the conditions for African Americans in the work force have improved, there are still companies that demonstrate racial

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Affirmative action is used to implement specific diversity standards against discrimination of minorities and women. As the corporate world begins to diversify, it is a company’s obligation to form policies that consider these changes. This should be a company standard and social obligation throughout the nation. Unfortunately, not every company complies with the wave of change.

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A standard was set into motion for fair treatment in education and work environments that has strengthened the civil rights causes. Affirmative Action is a global mindset with

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“Affirmative Action may not be a perfect system, but there should be no doubt that it has endangered many successes. It has opened the doors of America’s most elite educational institutions to minority students, granting them unprecedented opportunities” (Ogletree 12). Thanks to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson a policy that prohibits employment and education discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, and sex is offered today to those who suffer from said discriminations (A Brief History). Affirmative action has opened abundant openings for minorities, allowing the cycle of going to college to be passed down generations and provided job opportunities that otherwise would not be considered by most. Affirmative

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This leads to women and those of color to be lead to high risk or failing companies. When they are unable to resurrect those firms, the biased decision makers use that as a reason to say that men are better

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Both “Affirmative Action for Dummies” by Tim Wise and “Affirmative Action: Encyclopedia of Diversity in Education” made me think about how over the years, affirmative action has evolved from the civil war era to the twentieth century to now. I agree how Tim Wise uses the difference between institutional racism and affirmative action to explain his view on the subject. He describes affirmative action and discrimination as two separate concepts, one based on a larger social structure and the other based on color and race. I also agree with the fact that both terms have historical impacted history in two separate ways. Historical events such as Plessy vs Ferguson case and the addition of the thirteenth and fourteenth amendments challenged many

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880 Words | 4 Pages

It is exactly that mindset, she argues, that creates so many boundaries and limits for minorities. She believes that unconscious bias, or explicit prejudice, leads to a detrimental lack of diversity in the workforce. (Abdel-Magied, 1:37) The unconscious bias that we all have, she says, is harmful to society because there are people who are just as qualified to be in certain positions, but are sometimes held back merely because of race, religion, disability, class, or

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For an example, that diversity in higher education provides an educational advantage for all students, both personally and intellectually (Affirmative action, ncsl.com). Even though this is in many ways true, the admission to one school should not be determined by the color of one’s skin or someones historical descent, but for the academic merits, and even though, it is very true that in average disadvantaged groups tend to grow up with less opportunities, there should be no preference, affirmative action should be applied by preparing students for higher education or to defend them for discrimination but not to give them preference. Shelby Steels, Ph. D. from the Santa Clara university, said that admitting poorly qualified students into universities will not only harm the better qualified ones, but it will also harm the lesser qualified ones by putting them in a position for which they are not prepared, or qualified (pardon the redundancy), and will end up dropping out (Shelby, 1992). This might not be the case for many subjects, but reality is that jobs and schools have requirements that are meant to be completed in order to successfully fulfill the ties required for the

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Affirmative action is defined as; the policy of favoring members of a disadvantaged group who suffer from discrimination within a culture. History in America has always had the reoccurring theme of racism. Throughout history there has traditionally been a universal feel of oppression to minorities. Blacks and Latinos specifically have been stereotyped as underprivileged and not able to have equal opportunity in America. Statistics back these claims up as well; America boasts 64% of the American workforce is considered Non-Hispanic White, 16% Hispanic, and a mere 12% for African Americans.

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You’ve worked your butt off for this moment. You have your accomplishments, you have your resume, you have your college degree. Then when you least expect it, everything comes crashing down. They tell you, “I’m sorry, we were unable to hire you for this job”. You are heartbroken…

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715 Words | 3 Pages

Affirmative action is a messy, brute force method of trying to close the enrollment gap. Although on paper it may seem like a good idea to require colleges to admit a certain number of students of color, it actually gives an unfair advantage to minorities. A white student and a student of color with identical grades, test scores, and resumes do not have an equal chance of getting into the same college because one student belongs to a minority. Affirmative action causes the same problem it attempts to solve in reverse. Ashley K., a student who gave her opinion to the New York Times, says that she is “being given an advantage in college admissions” based on her race.

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Introduction Since 1996, Royal Dutch Shell (Shell) had been promoting the diversity and inclusion (D&I) initiatives, which aimed to increase the variety of compositions and values the differences such as, age, sex, gender, race, nationality, and education (Sucher & Corsi, 2012, p. 5). Yet, Voser’s, the new Chief Executive Officer, Top Management Team (TMT), was dominated by middle-age American and European men from 2008 to 2009. Because diversity could have both positive and negative impacts on the company (Webber and Donahue, 2001) and the nature of industry as well as the contextual circumstances could both support or hinder various diversity characteristics (Cannella et al., 2008), the implications regarding the short run situations and

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1734 Words | 7 Pages

Throughout many of the affirmative action legal cases, one of the main arguments from proponents is that it is necessary in order to right the wrongs of past racial discrimination. Some say that affirmative action is justified because even though white applicants may be more qualified, this is only because they did not face the same hardships as their minority counterparts (Rachels, Ethics, 1973).  Many argue if we do not integrate disadvantaged minorities into mainstream social institutions, they will continue to suffer the discrimination that has plagued our country for centuries and that this is detrimental to not only the minorities but also society as a whole (Anderson, 2002, 1270–71). However, the debate has recently shifted to the benefits of diversity in the classroom which the Supreme Court has affirmed as being a positive thing

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