Manage HR Magazine | Tuesday, March 09, 2021
Businesses and government bodies adopt affirmative action programs to increase the number of people from specific groups in companies, institutions, and other areas of society.
Fremont, CA: Affirmative action is a strategy that focuses on increasing opportunities in the workplace or education to a less represented part of society by considering an individual's color, race, sex, religion, or national origin.
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The policy aims at demographics who have had low representation historically in leadership positions, professional roles, and academics and is often believed as a means of tackling historical discrimination against certain groups.
Efforts to encourage such changes can take the shape of assistance such as grants, scholarships, and other financial support assigned to help those groups of the population to have access to higher education.
Hiring practices can also be designed to need the inclusion of diverse candidates for job openings. Government agencies can regulate that companies and institutions fill their ranks with a minimum percentage of qualified professionals from different ethnicities, genders, and cultures. Not meeting these requirements could disqualify institutions from receiving government funding or contest for public contracts.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Affirmative Action
The practice of affirmative action policies has received both strong support and criticism as well. Supporters of affirmative action say that the effort should continue because of the low percentages of diversity in positions of authority, media representation, and insufficient recognition of the achievements of minority groups.
Affirmative action opposers usually call these efforts a combined failure, claiming the small changes to the status quo after years of effort as proof of this. The cost of these programs, along with the belief that this policy pushes the population to make unjustified accommodations, motivates a major part of the opposition.
Also, the opposers may claim that no bias exists in the society from their perspective. It has also been argued that in some cases, affirmative action has overlooked qualified candidates in favor of hiring less qualified candidates that meet its standards.
There is also the issue that affirmative action results in contempt for those benefitting from the policy. For instance, some people may be accused of getting a job or promotion because of their ethnicity or gender instead of qualification. Affirmative action is a sensitive balance of encouraging a diverse workplace without any discontent.
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