Ethics

Ethics Study Guide

©2018 Achieve Page 85 of 116 refers to policies that seek to promote individuals on the basis of race, ethnicity, or gender in an attempt to promote opportunities for minorities. These policies generally focus on employment, education, public contracting, and health programs. The motivation towards affirmative action has two goals: to maximize diversity in all levels of society, along with its presumed benefits; and to amend perceived disadvantages due to overt, institutional, or involuntary discrimination. Arguments for and against affirmative action are numerous. Its defenders offer many reasons to justify preference; primarily these reasons have to do with compensatory or distributive justice. One argument involves a concept of reparation , an aspect of justice. However, it is unclear whether or not affirmative action is sufficient compensation for the past wrongs. Opponents claim affirmative action based on race, gender, or ethnicity is not consistent with justice. By imposing costs disproportionately on disadvantaged white males, affirmative action creates precisely the sort of injustice correctly judged morally wrong in the case of women and minorities. The social utility argument implies that the failure of affirmative action to meet the conditions of justice might be outweighed by the important social good it produces. Supporters of affirmative action note the recognized history of institutionalized limitations on the affirmative action participants. However, opponents say affirmative action underrates the accomplishments of people who are chosen because of the social group to which they belong rather than their qualifications. They also claim that affirmative action has undesirable side effects, such as undermining the achievements of minorities; encouraging groups to identify themselves as disadvantaged, even if they are not; and increasing racial tension. Furthermore, they contend affirmative action benefits themore privileged people within minority groups at the expense of the less fortunate within majority groups (such as lower-class whites.) For these reasons, affirmative action has been described as reverse discrimination , the practice of favoring members of a historically disadvantaged group at the expense of members of a historically advantaged group. 11.2 Human Resources To help ensure employee needs are being met most companies have a human resources department. In addition to handling hiring paperwork, the human resources department was designed to act as an ethical bridge between the employee and the employer. Human resource departments work to make ethical decision to maintain workplace professionalism and productivity. Some typical issues handled by a human resources department includes performance appraisal disputes, training and development, health and safety concerns, privacy, compensation, collective bargaining issues, and discrimination. 11.3 Affirmative Action The term affirmative action