Affirmative Action Effectiveness

Today organizations pay due attention to the significance of affirmative action in the workplace. There is much evidence that affirmative action can help to resolve the discrimination problem in the workplace. In fact, affirmative action has been scrutinized for years because of the changes it has brought about in workplaces for minorities and women. Today due to the development and implementation of effective affirmative action programs, minorities and women have an opportunity to advance their capabilities at work. According to Doverspike et al., “affirmative action refers to policies and procedures which attempt to increase the representation of underrepresented, protected group in education and employment through the consideration in decision …show more content…
Before I begin let me define what I mean when I reference the term affirmative action. Affirmative action has been defined as “a public or private program designed to equalize hiring and admissions opportunities for historically disadvantaged groups by taking into consideration those very characteristics which have been used to deny them equal treatment” Affirmative action plans are aimed at addressing the problem of the “strong” and “persistent” discrimination made by the representatives of the large portions of society. It is necessary to analyze both benefits and imperfections of affirmative action plans. The benefits of implementing affirmative action in the workplace are numerous. First of all, affirmative action plans help to establish a more diverse work environment that ensures higher productivity and better adaptation to a wide range of work-related problems, such as language barriers and poor cultural awareness. Secondly, affirmative action plans help to increase opportunities of employees, making them more independent in decision making and problems solving processes, allowing them to share their creative ideas and perform the functions of leaders. According to researchers, “affirmative action stigmatizes the preferred group and causes others to denigrate their achievements.” Thirdly, affirmative action plans help to strengthen …show more content…
In fact, fair conditions of work and equal representation of all employees are essential for the healthy workplace environment and positive interaction between people. Any sort of discrimination misbalances the representation of employees in the workplace environment. For example, white male employees prevailed in the workplace environment depriving female and non-white employees of their jobs. In such a situation, many employees cannot get better jobs, while employers cannot obtain more well-qualified employees. The affirmative action resolves this problem and balances the representation of employees and creates conditions for the balanced workplace environment, where all employees stand on the equal ground, while their professional skills become the major criterion for their promotion and professional development. Hence, the affirmative action contributes to the healthy workplace environment and equality of employees in a long-run