Affirmative action,is it necessary in the 21st. century Essay

Affirmative action,is it necessary in the 21st. century - Essay Example And although they have nurtured a particular vision of social justice. Unfortunately, not all the problems of equal opportunities at the workplace have been solved. For females and minority employees, affirmative action proposes great opportunities to be equally treated and protected (to some extent). During half a century, affirmative action policies have proved their effectiveness, but cannot "abolish" gender and racial inequalities. For this reason, training and promotion activities as a part of affirmative action are vital for successful organizational performance. Nevertheless, there are some disadvantages of these policies. They include low-qualifies fork force and low-personal achievements of employees involved in the affirmative action programs. To over come these possible threats the organization should conduct programming of specific human resources activities, based on personal development and human capital policies.Organisations play a major and continuing role in the liv es of people, especially with the growth of large-scale business organisations and the divorce of ownership from management. Organisations of one form or another are a necessary part of a society and serve many important needs. The decisions and actions of management in organisations have an increasing impact on individuals, other organisations and the community. It is important, therefore, to understand the role of affirmative action and the pervasive influences which it exercises over the behaviour of people. In the 21st century, the debate over pros and cons of affirmative action is still alive. Heated discussions concern the role of affirmative action in organizational development and its impact on HR management. The policy of affirmative action has deep roots. It goes back to 1941 when F. Roosevelt "encouraged minority employment by ordering defense contractors to cease discriminatory hiring" (Yates, n.d.). Further, this concept was developed by Lyndon Johnson in 1965 when he "put teeth into minority hiring rules for government contractors' (Yates, n.d.). The next amendments took place under the presidency of J. Kennedy who introduced Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) "establishing to investigate contractors' practices, impose sanctions, collect employment statistics, and ensure compliance with government regulations" (Yates, n.d.). The necessity of Affirmative action was caused by dominance by white males in American workforce. At the middle of the XX century they occupied the majority of managerial positions and many of the more important blue-collar jobs. The role of women was to occupies lower-paying positions. On the other hand, racial minorities found considerable barriers to entering the labor market at the higher paying levels. The necessity of affirmative action is still an issue of the day, because people are discriminated in many aspects of our life and work. The selection process in particular directly discriminates between people in order to offer the reward of a job to one but not the others. Certain forms of discrimination are acceptable but others are not, and have been made unlawful. Facts rather than prejudice, and relevant facts rather than irrelevant facts, are important criteria in determining what type of discrimination is acceptable. "For instance, members of minority groups, females, the hard core disadvantaged, persons with disabilities, veterans, and persons more senior in age than most or who have sexual preference differences. People and groups of people typically discriminated against on the job, in promotional consideration, in employment retention, in hiring, in services and in admissions" (Martinez, 1997). Legislation, voluntary codes