University of Southern Mississippi
Affirmative Action is Still Necessary
Affirmative action in various settings is used to treat a sub-class differently from the others to improve their chances to obtain a good proportion of certain opportunities. The affirmative action is applied in the workforce, education and voting. There has been an enormous debate concerning whether the affirmative action is still important or not. Some of the proponents argue that affirmative action has helped in solving discrimination among other achievements. In contrast, the critics argue that affirmative action is reverse discrimination (Cosson, 2011). This paper believes that affirmative action is still very significant in managing the workforce diversity.
There is no perhaps a function that has generated a lot of frictions in the human resource management like the affirmative action has. Since its inception, it has been a target of critics and various wrong information that have left the human resource managers confused about affirmative action advantage. According to Cosson (2011), affirmative action solves the issue of discrimination, increases opportunities and enhances creativities and innovativeness in various organizations.
Inequity in the various places that include workplace has been an issue that has affected many organizations economically. The discrimination affects the morale of the employees that may lead to underperformance. Various organizations have used the affirmative action that ensures that all members of the organization are treated equally, to solve the issue of discrimination. Organizations that use this action have been able to register higher performances (DeNisi & Griffin, 2015).
Affirmative action has a diagnostic component of the organization. This diagnostic component has the quantitative analysis that is designed for evaluation of the composition of the workforce contractor. Whenever a management issue comes up, the human resource management can use the affirmative action policies to ensure that the issue is resolved within the shortest time to avoid time wastage (Cosson, 2011).
In various perspectives, racial-based preference is still very common in many countries including the United States. Given the past country’s history concerning slavery and pervasive racial discrimination, the implementation of the affirmative action is very vital. Conversely, the affirmative action raises many difficult questions on the access and fairness. Having in mind the society’s failure to reduce the issue of de facto discrimination hindered many from receiving the equal protection nowadays (DeNisi & Griffin, 2015). In this case, affirmative action becomes significant.
In the education world, affirmative action is still very imperative. As the societies are changing, the education institutions should be ready to reflect this diversity. While the communities of color have made great strides in closing the education gaps, disparities in the higher education remains prevalent. In this case, the affirmative action is not only imperative in the workforce but also in the education sector.
Affirmative action also includes the action-oriented programs. In cases where the women and the minorities are employed in certain rates that are expected considering the relevant pool, the affirmative action may provide the programs that have steps to address the underutilization. In future, the affirmative action may not be used because the world will have an open to talented and qualified individuals in every race and gender. The affirmative action remains to be a good law but may come to an end after the affirmative action may not be necessary to attain the equality of opportunities. Because the organizations and countries have not reached that point, affirmative action remains to be very imperative in the management of the workforce diversity. Studies by DeNisi & Griffin (2015) indicated that