Affirmative Action

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

Americans are aware that affirmative action ' was officially used in 1961 during the office of President Kennedy . It was demonstrated that he strengthened an existing executive prohibiting racial discrimination in government as to employment practices . It was then a natural and not a provocative term to use . The term was defined as various efforts to deliberately take race , sex , and national origins into account to remedy past and current effects of discrimination . Its primary goal is to ensure that women and minorities are widely represented in all occupations and

at all organizational levels (Tompkins 1995 . Affirmative action is also defined as the planning and acting to end the absence of certain kinds of people- those who belong to groups that have been subordinated or left out from certain jobs and schools (Bergmann 1997

Today , there is a need for affirmative action policies to be implemented . This is important because of its capacity to deal with all forms of potential bias , whether overt , concealed , or even inadvertent Most corporations are now adopting employment goals . Companies need to appreciate the economic advantages of expanding and integrating the work force . There is also the need to press hard if the overall goal of inclusion is to be obtained

Affirmative action has been part of the human resources policy of many offices and agencies of the United States of America . In the HR manuals and in the main recruitment policies of these offices , it is clearly stated that affirmative action is an integral part of their recruitment and training policy . This is in keeping with the 1964 Civil Rights Act where affirmative action has been inscribed in Title VII . The main root of the inception of Title VII is because of the history of discrimination in the United States , certain groups of people are at a disadvantage in the job marketplace

There are many arguments for affirmative action . Prior to the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 , the white male dominated the workforce . It is to be understood that affirmative action has allowed all individuals from all classes and all races to be represented in all organizational levels in the workforce . It must be remembered that the specific outcome or goal of affirmative action is to ensure that equal employment opportunity flourishes and is applied in every instance of recruitment

One chief argument supporting this is that affirmative action is necessary because it is a form of reparation to those peoples who were discriminated against in the early history of the United States . It is argued that if these people were not caused to suffer the inhumanity of discrimination and slavery , and were treated equally by the American forefathers , then there would not have been any need for affirmative action in the first place . In a multi-racial society such as the United States , African Americans have over the long years been striving for equality in opportunities , access to social services and more importantly the right to self-determination . They came...