Ethics in the workplace are constantly changing. Today, there are many issues with discrimination – both with discrimination against employees still occurring (based on race, gender, etc.
) or with reverse discrimination now occurring. There are many situations that are difficult to understand and to select the right course of action, because it can be hard to tell who really has rights in which situation.For this reason, the textbook presents several situations for students to think about, including Julie’s situation on page 167.In Julie’s situation, it is clearly not okay that the company has simply decided not to hire minority employees. This is an outdated and unfair practice that overlooks qualified, hard-working employees like Bandu in favor of potentially lesser-qualified white employees.
The supervisor’s statement that “we are just more productive with less diversity (167)” is also outdated. The company’s policies need to change.First, the company needs to be willing to hire the most qualified applicants, regardless of race, sex, or other characteristics. Well-qualified applicants should be interviewed and selected based on merit, not their nationality.This change must start at the manager and owner level.
If senior staff is clearly uncomfortable around minorities, they will send negative messages to their employees about minority coworkers, potentially creating a difficult environment. Therefore, when making the decision to hire the most qualified applicants, management must emphasize the employees’ qualifications instead of their race. These procedures are similar to the “affirmative action” policies that are currently in place in most workplaces, which call for employers to hire a diverse culture of employees.There are currently many laws in place that require employers to hire certain percentages of minorities, and/or that reward them for doing so.
Affirmative action has been both a good and bad thing.It is good because it forces employers – such as in a case like this – to consider racially and culturally diverse candidates that they may not have otherwise considered, which leads to more hiring of qualified, diverse applicants. However, it can lead to other problems, like reverse discrimination.Management must be careful in their new efforts not to allow reverse discrimination to occur. According to the text, reverse discrimination is when more qualified majority employees are overlooked for hiring and promotion in favor of less-qualified minority employees.This is because the managers are trying so hard to create a racially diverse workplace that they are no longer selecting the most qualified of all applicants, but the most qualified minority applicants.
As the book states, “discrimination is wrong no matter who is being discriminated against (169).”In order to increase discrimination without going too far, management must review applications from all qualified applicants, without favoring one race over another. They must use “criteria of comparable worth” to evaluate all the potential employees.Applicants must be screened and interviewed by multiple senior management or human resource personnel, so that several people can vote for which applicants are truly most qualified. If more people evaluate applications, then the process is more fair, because people can come to conclusions together.
If only one or two people are making decisions, it is too easy to have unconscious biases that never get accounted for, and which may eliminate viable candidates from potential hire.So far, affirmative action programs have been the most common answer to ending discrimination in workplace hires. However, because it can create as many problems as it solves, it is not really the answer.Affirmative action causes reverse discrimination. A beautiful woman who is under-qualified may be hired because of her looks, while an ordinary-looking man is overlooked.
An African American may be hired because the company is trying to fill “race quotas” instead of a more qualified white person (169).Forcing companies to hire racially diverse employees, especially in they are hiring lesser-qualified employees, is going to affect that company’s profitability, and also morale. Employees may know or suspect that a person has been hired simply because of his/her race, gender, etc., and this may lead to a hostile work environment. Morale and perception is as important as reality (171).Instead, companies should have in place a system to evaluate all resumes for available positions that ranks the employees by education, experience, and other qualifications.
If possible, an HR employee should compile a list of resumes and remove all of the applicants’ names so that the committee reviewing the applications does not know the gender or race of the employees.Then, the company should select the top candidates to interview and ultimately hire based solely on their qualifications.Also, in today’s changing culture, discriminatory practices are looked down upon. Companies that refuse to hire diverse employees will have financial issues because they are hiring less qualified employees, and because people may avoid their company due to discriminatory practices.BibliographyGoree, Keith.
Ethics in the Workplace, 2nd ed. Thomson-South Western.
