KU Affirmative Action Legality and Challenges Questions

PART 1

“Understanding Affirmative Action”

The personnel director at East High School thinks she is in big trouble. Ten years ago, 30% of the residents in the county were Hispanic yet only 5% of the school employees were Hispanic. To remedy this situation, the school system developed an affirmative action program in which at least 40% of all new hires were to be Hispanic. The program had been working well because today 25% of all school employees are Hispanic compared to 28% in the qualified work force.

Last week, however, a white employee who wasn’t hired for a teaching job filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of the affirmative action plan. Tory Bolton claimed that he was more qualified than the minority applicant who received the job. Bolton had a 3.4 college GPA and three years of teaching experience whereas George Lopez, the minority applicant, had only a 3.2 GPA and two years of teaching experience. Should the personnel director be worried? Why or why not? Use the flowchart (Figure 3.2) in your textbook as a guide. Be sure to discuss your decision at each step of the flowchart

Part 2

Respond to 2 peers Good Day Dr. Fero and fellow classmates,

Based on what I read for our discussion topic and reviewing the flow chart in our book, I do not think that the personnel director has anything to worry about. According to EEOC.gov, BFOQ also known as bona fide occupational qualification legally allows employers to restrict their hiring parameters if the reason is sound enough and as long as it is not done with evil intent. The school is well in its right to hire who they think will best improve the school. In this case, the school needed more faculty who were Hispanic to improve the morale of the students. It was not done out of disgust for specific personal characteristics or with any bad blood in mind.  It was for the greater good of the school in the long run.  For a long time schools that were majority a race or ethnicity other than white, the representation of the staff was not near equal.  Many of the minority applicants would not get hired because of their lower grades or for something else that was minor. It is important for children to see people from all walks of life doing a variety of occupations to encourage them to dream big. Role models and mentors allow kids to look up to someone who they can visualize themselves as, this can be very important for these people to look like them. It is not all about finding the most qualified person who is top of their class, it can also be about finding the person who can make a difference and improve their surrounding mentally as well as physically.  In the scenario, they mentioned the Affirmative Action plan that provides an opportunity for more minority representation. This goes along with BFOQ and therefore is legal, so there should be nothing for the director to worry about legally.

W/C: 321

References: 

Issuing Authority                                                                                             

This guidance document was issued upon approval by a vote of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (1982). CM-625 bona fide occupational qualifications. US EEOC. https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/cm-625-bona-fide-

peers 2 The first step in the flowchart asks whether an affirmative action plan exists. In this case, there is an affirmative action program in place at East High School, as the school system developed a policy to increase Hispanic representation among its employees. Therefore, this step is fulfilled. Moving on to the second step, the flowchart asks whether the affirmative action program involves quotas. The scenario indicates that the program sets a goal of hiring at least 40% Hispanic employees. However, it does not explicitly state that this is a strict quota. It is important to note that quotas are generally considered illegal, as they may result in reverse discrimination. In this case, since the program does not seem to impose an inflexible requirement, this step is also satisfied. The next step in the flowchart is to evaluate the evidence of discrimination. Bolton argues that he was more qualified than Lopez, citing his higher GPA and longer teaching experience. However, this is only one aspect of the evaluation process. The flowchart reminds us to consider the systemic inequalities that affirmative action aims to address. It is crucial to consider the larger context and the underrepresentation of Hispanic employees within the school system. Merit alone may not be the sole factor in hiring decisions, and diversity and representation are important goals to strive for in a fair society. Lastly, the flowchart prompts us to assess whether the affirmative action program is a narrowly tailored remedy. This means that the program should be designed to address a specific issue and should not disproportionately burden individuals not belonging to the favored group. In this case, the affirmative action plan seeks to address the underrepresentation of Hispanic employees in proportion to the county’s population. Looking at the overall statistics mentioned in the scenario, the plan appears to be reasonably tailored and not excessively burdensome on non-minority applicants. Considering the flowchart’s guidelines and evaluating the case at each step, it can be concluded that the personnel director at East High School should not be overly worried about the lawsuit. 

References

Aamodt, M.G. (2022). Industrial/Organizational Psychology: An Applied Approach (9th ed.). Cengage Learning. ISBN: 978-0357658345

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3 part 3

3

3 Understanding Affirmative Action”

The personnel director at East High School thinks she is in big trouble. Ten years ago, 30% of the residents in the county were Hispanic yet only 5% of the school employees were Hispanic. To remedy this situation, the school system developed an affirmative action program in which at least 40% of all new hires were to be Hispanic. The program had been working well because today 25% of all school employees are Hispanic compared to 28% in the qualified work force.

Last week, however, a white employee who wasn’t hired for a teaching job filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of the affirmative action plan. Tory Bolton claimed that he was more qualified than the minority applicant who received the job. Bolton had a 3.4 college GPA and three years of teaching experience whereas George Lopez, the minority applicant, had only a 3.2 GPA and two years of teaching experience. Should the personnel director be worried? Why or why not? Use the flowchart (Figure 3.2) in your textbook as a guide. Be sure to discuss your decision at each step of the flowchart.

The Structured Interview

For this weeks assignment, we will be covering the structured interview. You can find information about KSAO’s starting on page 49 through 56 and structured interview questions starting on page 139 of your textbook. Your assignment should be in APA format and include the following:

Use a job description from your dream job or one for your current job to create 10 essential KSAO’s for a structured interview. (Please refer to Step 4: Determining Essential KSAO’s on the Conducting a Job Analysis section that begins on page 49 of your textbook. Nothing should he taken word for word, KSAO’s must be created based on the job description)

Now that you have your list of essential KSAO’s, the next step is to actually write questions that will use those tapped KSAO’s. Page 139 of your textbook discusses the different types of questions used in a structured interview. Using this as a guide, write two examples of each type of interview question making sure you cover all of the essential KSAO’s you listed in part 1.

The following are the question types you must cover:

• Clarifiers
• Disqualifiers
• Skill level determiner
• Future focused (situational)
• Past focused (behavioral)
• Organization fit