Disparagement Treatment And Disparate Impact Essay Example

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Disparate Treatment and Disparate Impact

Amidst legislation and policies which aims to curve the discriminatory practices in organizations there are still numerous cases that seems to show complete disregard for the laws against discrimination. Although the manifestations of discrimination today are more subtle and less prejudicial, it still does not excuse people who commit it from violating the anti-discriminatory laws. A perfect example for this is the disparate treatment, a practice commonly seen in organizations where disparity obviously exists as in the case of religion, race, financial capacity, etc. Disparate treatment refers to how organizations unevenly treat their employees, some less favorably than others for reasons pertaining to ethnicity, religion, sex or skin color (US Legal, 2015). Given this practice, the implication is concentrated on the consequences rather than the intention of the action (Aguinis & Cascio, 2004).
Disperate impact favored the protected classes. It cradles this group and gives special treatment to them. A good example of company practice that emphasizes desparate impact is the fire department requiring applicants to lift 100 lbs weight from a five plight stairs. It might seem natural to require firefighters to carry this weight, but this implies favor to men as opposed to women considering physical strength and endurance as a barrier to this requirement.
Personally, I believe that the US workplace has been moving very slow as far as making progress eliminating discriminatory practices in hiring, selection, retention and promotion aspects of business operations. This is because many of these companies had cleverly designed their company policies to justify any desperate treatment and desperate impact practices as something highly necessary for business efficiency and success. I believe the best solution to this predicament is to create a body that would evaluate company policies to help prevent such practices from existing.

References

Aguinis, W. & Cascio, H. (2004). Applied Psychology in Human Resource Management (6th Edition). Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice Hall.
US Legal (2015). Disparate Treatment. Retrieved Jan. 17, 2015, from http://definitions.uslegal.com/d/disparate-treatment/