Thesis on "Affirmative Action Defined Affirmative Action (AA)"

Thesis 10 pages (2996 words) Sources: 10 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Affirmative Action Defined

Affirmative action (AA) has had many different and intricate definitions developed over the years. In comparison to the principle definition of equal employment opportunity (EEO) where inactive and indirect efforts to remove biases are give importance, AA gives higher significance to the direct, decisive and insistent participation to make sure that the discrimination towards minorities or women in the workplace or in academic structures, whether its formalized or not, are removed so that equality exists in all spheres. One thing that is important to note here is the phenomenon of affirmative action does not actually equalizes the allocations for minorities or women, instead its suggests how equality can be brought into a structure if it hasn't been recognized legally (Chambers et al., 2005).

Another popular approach that has been used to explain the phenomenon of affirmative action is using two different motivational factors behind the policy making criteria of an organization. The two factors are the integration policies and the diversification policies. For integration as a foundation for AA in an organization, AA plays that role of the buffer between different sections of the society whether they be different based on religion, race, creed, culture, financial standing, social circle, or different genders, etc. For diversification as a foundation for AA in an organization, AA plays the role of the representative of people from all walks of life working as one and united force aiming for similar goals and objectives. AA here basically tries to represent the diversity of the state through representing an unbiased and equal picture of the different ethnicities working within an organization. Both of the motivational factors aforementioned pay huge attention to the morals and ethics of the situations that can exist within an academic or business organization that has a diversity of races, classes, ethnicities, etc. (Chambers et al., 2005).

Affirmative Action and Public Administration

The main scope that most of the U.S.-based researches on public administration have concentrated on is the transformation of the public administration customs from technical or competence-based to value-oriented businesses. This was inlay the premise on which most public administration theories were based on till the late 1960s when this was revised and new model of the public administration theory and its use within an organization began to emerge. Similar to the AA policies, the revised public administration policies focused on the importance of equality, representation, and consensus within an organization. Furthermore it gave importance to the balance of political and ethical aspects in the decision-making process (Glenn and Loury, 2003).

Another important aspect that the new public administration theory highlighted or gave importance to was the value of merit within an organization. This aspect also is directly linked to the phenomenon of AA because here the focus lies on the skills of the individuals chosen and not their social class, gender or race. This of course promotes acceptance and value of competence within an organization with the growth of professional and mutual respect amongst the staff with little to no emphasis lying on the social differences (Glenn and Loury, 2003).

Another aspect of the public administration theory that corresponded to the phenomenon of AA within an organization was the promotion of the concept of equity. This simply means that the practitioners focused on the importance of bringing equity as an actor into their policies because they realized that if they didn't have policies that supported equity then they were inadvertently supporting discrimination and inequality towards minorities and/or women. Hence, a policy designed around removing differences and imbalances of the society was needed a flexible and trough approach needed to be applied that could be customized based on the demands and needs across different segments of the society (Iyigun and Levin, 2003).

Throughout the development of the public administration theory, many practitioners also focused on the reasons that supported the administration of organizations to become more encompassing and diplomatic. The advantage of having a more diplomatic administrative setup in organizations would be the fact that the hierarchical structure would become obsolete and aspects like merit, equality, flexibility, and consistency could exist more openly with eth elimination of the status quo that normally existed within organizations at the time. Furthermore, a diplomatic administration would also be better able to encourage the development of similar goals amongst a diversified staff (Iyigun and Levin, 2003).

Also, a diplomatic or democratic administration equipped with promoting equity could also serve the basic purpose of the phenomenon of AA which would be to remove the discrimination against women and minorities. This in turn could also help the public administrations to make more socially acceptable and equal decisions by taking in the opinions of the women and the minorities. This could also increase their overall client base as they make products and services that are more widespread and encompassing of all ethnicities (Iyigun and Levin, 2003; Kamalu and Kamalu, 2004).

AA and ethics behind Theories of Anti-Discrimination Law

The most significant theories of anti-discrimination law that have been formulated over the years symbolize all of the factors and morals that promote the phenomenon of AA with a social setting. The three main anti-discrimination law theories that will be discussed in this paper in relation to affirmative action are:

The process theory;

The stigma theory, and;

The group disadvantage theory.

The main aim of the process theory is to design or correct fundamental structures of an organization, with the help of the anti-discrimination law, in order to make them more acceptable and equal within the dynamic society it serves (Kamalu and Kamalu, 2004). Hence, many researcher support the consideration of the entire community before the policies and decision within the lawmaking body are designed. However, the practical application of the process theory is flawed because the fact is that the lawmakers and policy makers within a judicial or organizational setup all come from the same society that they serve and if the phenomenon of discrimination is always present and even dominating in the daily decisions made by ordinary people then the same can be expected from the lawmakers. This simply means that in majority of the case, complete unprejudiced approach from the lawmakers won't be possible unless discrimination is wiped or decreased from the roots of the society (Kamalu and Kamalu, 2004).

The stigma theory explains that the shame and the dishonor that most women and minorities face within their workplace or academic setting due to their gender, race or color is damaging in itself. The word "stigma" is used here to represent the negativity, criticism and humiliation that an individual might face in a social setting primarily because of their customs, gender, race or culture. This is mainly a result of the fact that the demands and needs of the women and minorities are not accepted within the standardized idea of respect (Boston and Nair-Reichert, 2003). The downside with the stigma theory is that most researchers believe that it's very ambiguous in application because the recognition of negativity is at times difficult due to the intricacy of the social settings. This is why making laws on discrimination using this theory can prove to be difficult because ambiguous situations can be interpreted differently by different people.

The group disadvantage theory mainly highlights that the anti-discrimination law and policies need to concentrate on the tangible and hard evidenced facts that can be calculated and quantified in order to really eliminate discrimination. The advocates of the groups disadvantage theory explain that the hard evidenced facts and tangible incidents help the anti-discrimination lawmakers maintain focus over a long period of time over what is really happening and negatively affecting minorities and women in their society. Furthermore, many researchers have incorporated understanding the viewpoint of the discriminator in order to better understand the circumstances under which discrimination is most likely to take place and design policies that could prevent those circumstances to emerge (Boston and Nair-Reichert, 2003)

However, many researchers criticize this approach by saying that it is very important to understand the viewpoint and impact that the discriminative act has on the one who is being discriminated against. This they fell will help the anti-discrimination lawmakers to really understand what acts of discrimination need to be tackled as top priorities. This approach would also produce the desired results a lot quicker as their demand would be more obvious and all the settings linked to the discriminatory act will be duly recognized and wiped (Boston and Nair-Reichert, 2003).

All of the three theories of anti-discrimination law mainly highlight and try to handle the discriminations that is so widespread within the U.S. culture, however, the best use of these theories is an efficient and balanced combination. This simply means that all of these theories should be used together to tackle the problems that they each handle best so that the if one theory lacks the dynamics to handle a particular aspect, then one of the two other theories can make up for that deficiency in approach (Bulman-Pozen, 2006).

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