R
RogueHanger
By request, I've put this in a new thread.
It's my take on positive discrimination and why it's sometimes justified.
We are all aware that organisations have objectives, aspirations, goals, call them what you will.
Usually these goals can be divided into primary and secondary goals.
Primary goals usually refer to the primary purpose of the organisation, e.g. a hospital might have “the improvement in health of the local population” or some such statement. Or the police might have “reduction of crime in this area”, etc. as one of their primary objectives.
Whereas the secondary objective might include something along the lines of “being a market leader in this trade or service”, or “ become a beacon of quality”.
In order to achieve the secondary objective of being a beacon of quality, then it would probably be necessary or expected that the workforce reflect the ethnicity of the population that they serve. The reason for this is to demonstrate that no institutional racism exists, whether in employment or in delivery of service. or to be able to meet the requirements of the population.
The ethnic breakdown of the population is easily attainable and it is preferable that the workforce represents that population. The management are charged by the shareholders (I’m using that word in it’s loose sense, because citizens are shareholders of public organisations) to demonstrate the fair and equitable delivery of their services.
The easiest way to achieve that is to be seen to be reflecting the population in employment and delivery of services.
Management therefore strive to ensure that a fair mix of ethnicities are employed.
The one sure method of achieving this is to ensure that targets are met or maintained.
It may sometimes not be sufficient to achieve an organisation overall target, but to create hierarchical or sectional targets to ensure that all levels of the organisation are equally represented.
We recognise that a Person Specification will have the minimum skills required. There may also be preferential attributes mentioned.
So if a person from ethnicity A and a person from ethnicity B both apply and both meet the minimum requirement, but person from ethnicity B meets the preferred requirement in order to meet or maintain targets, they are employed.
What’s the problem?
It's my take on positive discrimination and why it's sometimes justified.
We are all aware that organisations have objectives, aspirations, goals, call them what you will.
Usually these goals can be divided into primary and secondary goals.
Primary goals usually refer to the primary purpose of the organisation, e.g. a hospital might have “the improvement in health of the local population” or some such statement. Or the police might have “reduction of crime in this area”, etc. as one of their primary objectives.
Whereas the secondary objective might include something along the lines of “being a market leader in this trade or service”, or “ become a beacon of quality”.
In order to achieve the secondary objective of being a beacon of quality, then it would probably be necessary or expected that the workforce reflect the ethnicity of the population that they serve. The reason for this is to demonstrate that no institutional racism exists, whether in employment or in delivery of service. or to be able to meet the requirements of the population.
The ethnic breakdown of the population is easily attainable and it is preferable that the workforce represents that population. The management are charged by the shareholders (I’m using that word in it’s loose sense, because citizens are shareholders of public organisations) to demonstrate the fair and equitable delivery of their services.
The easiest way to achieve that is to be seen to be reflecting the population in employment and delivery of services.
Management therefore strive to ensure that a fair mix of ethnicities are employed.
The one sure method of achieving this is to ensure that targets are met or maintained.
It may sometimes not be sufficient to achieve an organisation overall target, but to create hierarchical or sectional targets to ensure that all levels of the organisation are equally represented.
We recognise that a Person Specification will have the minimum skills required. There may also be preferential attributes mentioned.
So if a person from ethnicity A and a person from ethnicity B both apply and both meet the minimum requirement, but person from ethnicity B meets the preferred requirement in order to meet or maintain targets, they are employed.
What’s the problem?
