Chapter 11 Management Ethics
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Chapter Eleven: Job Discrimination
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Percentage of population in the United States in 2014 and 2060, by race and Hispanic origin
2014
Non-Hispanic White Black or African American Asian Two or more races American Indian and Alaska Native Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander Hispanics (may be of any race) 0.622 0.124 5.1999999999999998E-2 0.02 7.0000000000000001E-3 2E-3 0.17399999999999999 2060*
Non-Hispanic White Black or African American Asian Two or more races American Indian and Alaska Native Nativ e Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander Hispanics (may be of any race) 0.436 0.13 9.0999999999999998E-2 4.9000000000000002E-2 6.0000000000000001E-3 2E-3 0.28599999999999998
Share of total population
Characterizing Intergroup Bias
Stereotypes - beliefs about attributes that are thought to be characteristic of members of particular groups
Prejudice - a negative attitude or affective response toward a certain group and its individual members
Discrimination - unfair treatment of members of a particular group based on their membership in that group
Meaning of Job Discrimination
Definition: Job discrimination occurs when:
An employment decision in some way harms or disadvantages an employee or a job applicant.
The decision is based on membership in a certain group, rather than on individual merit.
The decision rests on prejudice, false stereotypes, or the assumption that the group in question is in some way inferior and thus does not deserve equal treatment.
Forms of discrimination: Discrimination can be individual or institutional, intentional or unwitting.
Arguments against discrimination: It involves false assumptions about a group and harms its members, so utilitarian's would reject it due to its ill effects on overall human welfare.
Kantians would repudiate it as failing to respect people as ends in themselves.
Discrimination is also unjust.
Meaning of Job Discrimination
Evidence of Discrimination
Attitudinal evidence: Statistics alone do not conclusively establish discrimination – other elements may account for the disparities in income and position between men and women and between whites and other races.
Widespread racist and sexist attitudes and biased institutional practices and policies come into play.
Women and minorities often find themselves measured by a “white male” value system.
Management Ethics
1. In your view, how pervasive is job discrimination these days? Have you or anyone you've known experienced some form of it?
Chap 11 – Job Discrimination (pg 580)
Affirmative Action: Legal and Moral
Programs designed to correct imbalances in employment that is due to past discrimination.
Affirmative Action: The Legal Context
The Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) declared racially segregated schooling as unconstitutional and helped launch the civil rights movement in the U.S.
Affirmative Action: The Legal Context
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (later amended by the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972) prohibited all forms of discrimination based on race, color, sex, religion, or national origin.
The problem still exists today
Affirmative Action: The Legal Context
The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (1967 and 1978), and the Americans with Disabilities Act (1990) further defined illegal discrimination.
By the 1970s, companies contracting with the federal government were required to develop affirmative action programs.
They reflected the courts’ recognition that job discrimination can exist even in the absence of conscious intent to discriminate.
Affirmative Action: The Legal Context
Arguments for affirmative action:
Compensatory justice demands affirmative action programs.
Point: We have a moral obligation to redress past injuries.
Counterpoint: People today can’t be expected to atone for the sins of the past – and why should today’s candidates receive any special consideration?
Affirmative Action: The Moral Issues
Arguments for affirmative action:
2. It is necessary to permit fairer competition.
Point: Taking race and sex into account makes job competition fairer by keeping white men from having an undeserved competitive edge.
Counterpoint: Employers have the right to seek the best-qualified candidates without trying to make life fair for everybody – and disadvantaged whites are also out there.
Affirmative Action: The Moral Issues
Arguments for affirmative action:
3. It is needed to break the cycle of minorities and women locked in low-paying, low-prestige jobs.
Point: Even if racism and sexism ended, mere nondiscrimination would need a century or more for blacks and women to equalize their positions.
Counterpoint: Affirmative action has its costs – making everyone racially conscious and causing resentment and frustration.
Affirmative Action: The Moral Issues
Arguments against affirmative action:
It injures white men and violates their rights.
Point: Such programs violate the right of white men to be treated as individuals and to have racial or sexual considerations not affect employment decisions.
Counterpoint: The interests of white men have to be balanced against society’s interest in promoting these programs.
Affirmative Action: The Moral Issues
Arguments against affirmative action:
Affirmative action itself violates the principle of equality.
Point: If equality is the goal, it must be the means, too. Such programs are based on the same principle that encouraged past discrimination.
Counterpoint: We can’t wish the reality of discrimination away by pretending the world is colorblind, when it is not.
Affirmative Action: The Moral Issues
Arguments against affirmative action:
3. Nondiscrimination alone will achieve our social goals; stronger affirmative action is unnecessary.
Point: The 1964 Civil Rights Act already outlaws job discrimination, many discrimination cases have been won before the EEOC or in court. So we only need to insist on rigorous enforcement of the law.
Counterpoint: The absence of vigorous affirmative action programs halts progress.
Affirmative Action: The Moral Issues
Comparable Worth
The meaning of the comparable worth:
It says that women and men should be paid on the same scale – not only for doing the same or equivalent jobs, but also for doing different jobs involving equal skill, effort, and responsibility
Comparable Worth
Advocates point to statistics showing that women are in more low-paying jobs than men – and that the more women dominate an occupation, the less it pays.
Some say monetary reparations (retroactive payment adjustments) are due to for past work.
They believe that paying women equally for a job of equal worth is a matter of social justice.
Opponents say that women have freely chosen lower-paying occupations.
Equity Theory
The meaning of the equity theory:
Adams' Equity Theory (1963) calls for a fair balance to be struck between an employee's inputs (hard work, skill level, tolerance, enthusiasm, and so on) and an employee's outputs (salary, benefits, intangibles such as recognition,and so on).
Equity Theory & Corporate Worth
Management Ethics
2. Do you think affirmative action programs are justifiable and socially beneficial? Which side of the comparable-worth issue are you on?
Chap 11 – Job Discrimination (pg 580)
Sexual Harassment
Definition: “Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitute sexual harassment when (1) submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual’s employment, (2) submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for employment decisions affecting such individual, or (3) such conduct has the purpose or effect of substantially interfering with an individual’s work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment.”
Two forms of sexual harassment:
Quid pro quo harassment occurs when a supervisor makes an employee’s job opportunities conditional on the employee’s entering into a sexual relationship with, or granting sexual favors to, the supervisor.
Hostile working environment is behavior of a sexual nature that is distressing to workers (often, but not exclusively, women) and interferes with their ability to perform on the job.
Sexual Harassment
Sexual Harassment
Dealing with sexual harassment: An employee encountering sexual harassment should:
Make it clear that the behavior is unwanted
If the behavior persists, document it by keeping a record of what has occurred, who was involved, and when it happened
Complain to the appropriate supervisor
If internal complaints prove ineffective, consider seeing a lawyer and learning in detail what legal options are available
Sexual Harassment
Management Ethics
3. What explains sexual harassment?
Chap 11 – Job Discrimination (pg 580)