Role of Positive Discrimination in the Workplace with Regard to the Minorities - Essay Example

Positive discrimination is a group of measures employed in many countries to address discrimination against minorities. This paper used relevant documents to help support the use of Positive discrimination in promoting and speeding up the active participation of minorities in the workplace. The methodology used to obtain the results was review of relevant articles and journals. Table of Contents 1. Introduction 2 2. Literature Review 3 3. Theory-Analysis 4 4. Conclusion 7 5. References 8 Role of Positive Discrimination in the Workplace with Regard to the Minorities 1. Introduction In the United Kingdom, workplaces have seen significant changes in the working patterns and the features of the workforce. The number of women and individuals from different races and ethnicity has increased. This has brought challenges as some employees and managers have been accused of discrimination against women and the minorities. Measures in the form of laws and policies have been put in place by the government to combat discrimination and ensure all the people enjoy equal rights either at work or outside their workplaces (Weisskopf, 2006:717). Employers have realised the value of diversity in relation to the workforce, thus using recruitment and selection tools that help draw culturally diverse employees into an organisation (Giraldi, 2012:71). Positive discrimination was used in the past as a selection tool to ensure that minorities received the opportunity of representing their group at the workplace. This meant that candidates from minority groups were eligible for jobs before the others regardless of their qualifications and skills (Noon, 2010:728). Positive discrimination, also known as affirmative action, has been one of the most important topics debated in the last years. My main objective is to clarify whether or not positive discrimination can be used to promote and speed up the active participation of minorities in the workplace. I will do that by studying and comparing different opinions and articles concerning the subject. 2. Literature Review What is positive discrimination? Positive discrimination is a term used in the United Kingdom to refer to a group of measures employed by governments, corporations, institutions whether private of public, such as schools, and companies in an effort to address discrimination affecting the entire system. Positive discrimination is anticipated to facilitate the role played by minority groups to development and reduce inequalities thereby ameliorating development indicators. It is crucial for the nation to design and implement proper measures that will help in curbing inequality and the United Kingdom has continued to make necessary changes to Positive discrimination in an effort to make them as accommodative as possible (Noon, 2010:728). Positive discrimination is the name used to describe affirmative action in the United Kingdom. Affirmative action was introduced in the United States by President John F. Kennedy as Executive Order 10925 and was signed on 6 March 1961. It was introduced to eliminate or reduce discrimination of African Americans in the workplaces, schools, colleges and residential areas. It all began with President Kennedy when he issued an executive order in 1961. In 1964 the Civil Rights Act was introduced and it made provisions that prohibited discrimination and ensured that all Americans had equal employment opportunities regardless of religion, race, colour or cultural background. In September 1965, President Johnson issued Executive Order 11246 that required all government employers to adopt particular rules while employing workers and to disregard the religion, race, national origin or colour of the candidates. In 1967, affirmative action was amended to admit gender too. (Tsikata, 2009:12). In the United Kingdom, positive discrimination in reference to employment refers to policies and measures laid down to curb employment discrimination barriers for women and individuals from minority groups. Positive discrimination is supposed to raise the involvement of women and the minorities in the workforce. However, positive discrimination calls for preferential treatment of the disadvantaged irrespective of qualifications, competencies and skills. This means that it insists on hiring the under-represented people first even without the best qualifications to hold a certain job and then selecting others from the well-represented groups (Giraldi, 2012:72). Positive discrimination is associated with quotas where a certain percentage of employment opportunities are reserved for the under-represented or the disadvantaged groups in the community. A larger percentage of the well-represented citizens are not gratified with this kind of selection as they insinuate that it promotes reversed discrimination. Take for example, a company offers a job opportunity and two individuals arrive for the interview. One is white and well-qualified and the other black but averagely-qualified. Using positive discrimination, the manager will choose the black man in order to ensure that the minority are well represented, therefore, leaving the well-qualified white man who fairly deserved the job opportunity. Therefore, positive discrimination has regrettably become a label that encompasses good and bad policy initiatives together. Positive discrimination has undergone adjustments and introduced in the Equality Act as Positive Action (The Equality Act, 2011). 3. Theory-Analysis Some authors argue that positive discrimination should not be used to promote and speed up the active participation of minorities in the work place for various reasons. Firstly, Weisskopf, argues that positive discrimination was initiated as a way of giving restitution to the minorities for the years that they were exploited and abused through slavery and racism. The people who had committed these atrocities against the black people were older white males; therefore, the young male whites should not be liable to positive discrimination. Therefore, all the people in this new generation should have an equal platform where their success in the corporate world should be based on hard work. They should all compete equally with other candidates and no preferential treatment should be awarded to the minorities (Weisskopf, 2006:719). Secondly, Weisskopf argues that positive discrimination is no longer necessary in the society because employment discrimination no longer exists. He argues that nowadays, employers hire in the best interests of their firms, therefore, choose the candidates according to their competencies and skills but not inclining towards a certain race. He continues to claim that underrepresentation of minority groups only indicates lack of qualified individuals and not signs of discrimination (Weisskopf, 2006:721). Employers are aware of the benefits of working in a diverse workforce, therefore, cannot intentionally fail to hire an individual because of race, religion, ethnicity, or cultural background. Individuals from minority groups should work hard in school and in the workplaces in order to get good employment opportunities and promotions without preferential treatment (Southwood, 2013). Thirdly, Southwood argues that positive discrimination contributes to unskillfulness resulting from a lack of efficiency because the individuals from the minority groups are selected to work in occupations that they are not well-qualified for. They are employed to meet the positive discrimination goals that insist on having a firm that is well-represented culturally. Positive discrimination also shows a discrimination when a certain tool is used to favour certain people over others (Southwood, 2013). There are other authors who argue that positive discrimination should be used to promote and speed up the active participation of minorities in the work place for various reasons. Firstly, Ahmad Ayob argues that positive discrimination is noble. Ayob debates that positive discrimination cannot be viewed as reversed discrimination because it is not motivated by stereotyping, hatred or prejudice of other groups. To the contrary, positive discrimination results from the search for solutions to give justice to people who have been oppressed and denied justice over a long period of time. Its intentions do not stem from revenge but are purely as a means to right the wrongs carried out to the minorities (Ayob, 4). Secondly, Ayob and Professor Noon agree that positive discrimination promotes equality. It helps create a level playing field by giving the minorities a chance to catch up with the more prosperous people. It is crucial to give an advantage to the less fortunate so as to be fair. For instance, when an employer considers two candidates for a job, it is vital to check the obstacle that they have faced to get to that level. Most of the black people usually come from humble backgrounds and attend public schools with fewer resources and more difficulties (Ayob, 6). Getting to the same position with a white person, who may have enjoyed a few luxuries in life, is a difficult task and it would only be fair if the obstacles were to be considered. Positive discrimination would help the individual from the minority group advance in life, therefore, making a positive statement to others in the same struggle that one can succeed regardless of the background or other difficulties. In a world advocating for equality, an individual from the minority group deserves an advantage after overcoming the various hurdles in his path (Noon, 2010:736). Thirdly, Professor Noon argues that positive discrimination supports cultural and ethnic diversity, which is a growing trend in these times of globalisation. Positive discrimination can prove to be useful when attempting to establish heterogeneity in an organisation. Preferential selection of candidates who are from the minority groups would help when a hiring manager needs to increase diversity in the firm. Working with people from different races, or of different ethnic backgrounds can prove to be helpful as it reduces group think and helps solve complex problems. It is also associated with creativity and increased sales from the minority groups once they associate a certain brand with one of their own (Noon, 2010:737). 4. Conclusion According to the different articles that have been discussed in the paper, positive discrimination has proved to have some advantages and disadvantages. In the evidence brought forward, equality is the main theme being advocated for by positive discrimination. It is because of inequality that positive discrimination was introduced and since the minorities have not been able to catch up with the more prosperous groups, it should continue to be promoted. Positive indiscrimination should be used to promote and speed up the active participation of minorities in the work place until equality is fully achieved. When acting in the overall good of the entire society, positive discrimination ensures equality but when looking into individual needs of white males versus individual from the minority group, it does not promote equality (Ayob, 6). Since the societal needs come before individual needs, positive discrimination can be justified to be a promoter of equality. Therefore, I support the use of positive discrimination to promote and speed up the active participation of minorities in the workplace. 5. References Ayob, A. (n.d.) Affirmative action is not reverse discrimination. Giraldi, A. (2013) ‘Urban Policies and Roma. The Positive Discrimination Paradigm,’ The journal of Urbanism, vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 71-77. Noon, M. (2010) ‘The shackled runner: time to rethink positive discrimination?’ Work Employment & Society, vol. 24, no. 4, pp. 728-739. Southwood, B. (2013, June 27) Good and bad objections to positive discrimination. Adam Smith Institute. Retrieved November 27, 2013, from http://www.adamsmith.org/research/think-pieces/good-and-bad-objections-to-positive-discrimination The Equity Act (2011) The equity Act-What’s new for employers? London, Government Equalities Office, viewed November 27, 2013, from . Tsikata, D. (2009) Affirmative action and the prospects for gender equality in Ghanaian politics, Ghana, Abantu, Women in Broadcasting. Weisskopf, T. (2006). Is Positive Discrimination a Good Way to Aid Disadvantaged Ethnic Communities? Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 717-726. Read More