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Article
Publication date: 26 December 2023

Bahaudin Ghulam Mujtaba

This paper aims to provide a historical overview of AA, its purpose and benefits, the legal rationale for the SCOTUS ruling and what it means for colleges and the workplace…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to provide a historical overview of AA, its purpose and benefits, the legal rationale for the SCOTUS ruling and what it means for colleges and the workplace regarding equitable opportunities for minority groups (which include women, Blacks, Hispanics, Asians and other low-income populations), as they aim for the “American dream”.

Design/methodology/approach

SCOTUS decision and rationale, along with literature.

Findings

The race-based affirmative action (AA) precedent was recently overturned by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) in the case of Students for Fair Admission (SFFA), Inc. vs President and Fellows of Harvard College/University of North Carolina. SCOTUS ruled that race cannot be a specific basis for college admission. In other words, public and private colleges and universities will no longer be able to consider “race” as a factor in deciding which qualified applicants should be admitted to enhance the diversity of their student body.

Originality/value

This is an original analysis.

Details

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, vol. 43 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-7149

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 December 2000

Van L Jaarsveld I

Discusses principles of equality and justice in order to justify affirmative action and clarify its need. Posits that in both the USA and South Africa, issues of segregation and…

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Abstract

Discusses principles of equality and justice in order to justify affirmative action and clarify its need. Posits that in both the USA and South Africa, issues of segregation and discrimination are not new and both countries have had the opportunity to address their past policies by way of affirmative action programmes. Looks at what determined the denouncement of the affirmative action in the USA and why the answer to this question may have a great impact on South Africa’s attempt to improve its own affirmative action programmes. Concludes that, although 30 years of affirmative action was deemed unconstitutional, how can South Africa derive and make use of the knowledge gained to help in stopping reverse discrimination.

Details

Managerial Law, vol. 42 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0558

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 September 2022

Koji Ueno, Lacey J. Ritter, Randi Ingram, Taylor M. Jackson, Emily Daina Šaras, Jason V. D'Amours and Jessi Grace

The authors aimed to identify the nature of customer harassment against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) workers.

Abstract

Purpose

The authors aimed to identify the nature of customer harassment against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) workers.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors analyzed data from in-depth interviews with 30 LGBTQ service workers in the United States who had recently experienced customer harassment.

Findings

Among various forms of customer harassment LGBTQ workers reported, some showed commonalities with previously reported cases of race-based and gender-based customer harassment. However, other cases highlighted unique aspects of LGBTQ-based customer harassment—customers morally condemned their LGBTQ identities, refused their service while displaying emotional disgust, and made sexual advances while imposing sexual stereotypes and fantasies about LGBTQ people. Experiences of customer harassment varied across subgroups of workers who had specific sexual and gender identities, and LGBTQ workers of color were harassed for their LGBTQ and racial identities simultaneously.

Originality/value

Past research on group-based customer harassment has focused on incidents against straight, cisgender women and workers of workers of color, but the present study identified the nature of customer harassment that targeted workers' LGBTQ status.

Details

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, vol. 42 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-7149

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 August 2021

Franklin Oikelome, Joshua Broward and Dai Hongwu

The aim of this paper is to present a conceptual model on foreign-born health care workers from developing countries working in the US. The model covers their motivations for…

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this paper is to present a conceptual model on foreign-born health care workers from developing countries working in the US. The model covers their motivations for migration, the consequences in terms of the inequality and exclusion they may experience and the role of institutional responses at micro-, macro- and meso-level of intervention.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is based on: (1) in-depth review of key literature studies on the foundation theories of international migration including sociology, economics, anthropology, psychology and human resource management, (2) analysis of theoretical approaches to medical migration across disciplines, (3) analysis of the international and national documentary sources of micro-, macro- and meso-level policies on migration and (4) analysis of evidence on best practices, solutions and aspirational changes across different levels of institutions.

Findings

(1) Migration of international medical graduates (IMGs) from developing countries to the US can be explained from a micro-, macro- and meso-level of analysis. (2) IMGs who identify as racial/ethnic minorities may experience unfair discrimination differently than their US-born counterparts. (3) Although political/legislative remedies have had some successes, proactive initiatives will be needed alongside enforcement strategies to achieve equity and inclusion. (4) While diversity management initiatives abound in organizations, those designed for the benefit of IMGs from developing countries are rare. (5) Professional identity groups and some nonprofits may challenge structural inequities, but these have not yet achieved economies of scale.

Research limitations/implications

Although it is well-documented in the US health care literature how ethnic/racial minorities are unfairly disadvantaged in work and career, the studies are rarely disaggregated according to sub-groups (e.g. non-White IMGs and US-born MGs). The implication is that Black IMG immigrants have been overlooked by the predominant narratives of native-born, Black experiences. In placing the realities of native-born Blacks on the entire Black population in America, data have ignored and undermined the diverse histories, identities and experiences of this heterogeneous group.

Practical implications

An awareness of the challenges IMGs from developing countries face have implications for managerial decisions regarding recruitment and selection. Besides their medical qualifications, IMGs from developing countries offer employers additional qualities that are critical to success in health care delivery. Considering organizations traditionally favor White immigrants from Northern and Southern Europe, IMGs from developed countries migrate to the US under relatively easier circumstances. It is important to balance the scale in the decision-making process by including an evaluation of migration antecedents in comprehensive selection criteria.

Social implications

The unfair discrimination faced by IMGs who identify as racial/ethnic minority are multilayered and will affect them in ways that are different compared to their US-born counterparts. In effect, researchers need to make this distinction in research on racial discrimination. Since IMGs are not all uniformly impacted by unfair discrimination, organization-wide audits should be in tune with issues that are of concerns to IMGs who identify as racial/ethnic minorities. Likewise, diversity management strategies should be more inclusive and should not ignore the intersectionality of race/ethnicity, nationality, country of qualification and gender.

Originality/value

Immigrant health care workers from developing countries are integral to the health care industry in the United States. They make up a significant proportion of all workers in the health care industry in the US. Although the literature is replete with studies on immigrant health care workers as a whole, research has rarely focused on immigrant health care workers from developing countries. The paper makes a valuable contribution in drawing attention to this underappreciated group, given their critical role in the ongoing pandemic and the need for the US health industry to retain their services to remain viable in the future.

Details

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, vol. 41 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-7149

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 May 2020

Jake Cornett and Kimberly M. Knackstedt

The United States (US) system of special education committed three original sins that perpetuate inequities between children with disabilities and their peers. The purpose of this…

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Abstract

Purpose

The United States (US) system of special education committed three original sins that perpetuate inequities between children with disabilities and their peers. The purpose of this paper is to examine the history of the US system, contrast this history against international disability law and identify opportunities for leaders to transform policy and practice for inclusive education.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper explores the development of the three sins in US special education law: (1) weaving throughout it a medical model of disability, (2) failing to mandate inclusion and (3) hampering meaningful enforcement. The paper contrasts the US system with the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), an international law adopted by 180 nations that requires inclusion of people with disabilities at all levels of systems.

Findings

This paper finds that the United States has not embraced inclusion in education, but has permitted a continuum of segregation and integration. After a discussion of the three sins and the CRPD, the authors describe opportunities for international and US leaders to learn from the original sins of the United States and develop a system of true inclusion for all students through the transformation of policy and practice.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to the literature on policy development and implementation, with implications for future amendments to US education law and international public administration of education.

Details

Journal of Educational Administration, vol. 58 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-8234

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 June 2015

Sianan Healy

The purpose of this paper is to explore representations of Aboriginal people, in particular children, in the Victorian government’s school reader The School Paper, from the end of…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore representations of Aboriginal people, in particular children, in the Victorian government’s school reader The School Paper, from the end of the Second World War until its publication ceased in 1968. The author interrogates these representations within the framework of pedagogies of citizenship training and the development of national identity, to reveal the role Aboriginal people and their culture were accorded within the “imagined community” of Australian nationhood and its heritage and history.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper draws on the rich material available in the Victorian Department of Education’s school reader, The School Paper, from 1946 to 1968 (when the publication ceased), and on the Department’s annual reports. These are read within the context of scholarship on race, education and citizenship formation in the post-war years.

Findings

State government policies of assimilation following the Second World War tied in with pedagogies and curricula regarding citizenship and belonging, which became a key focus of education departments following the Second World War. The informal pedagogies of The School Paper’s representations of Aboriginal children and their families, the author argues, excluded Aboriginal communities from understandings of Australian nationhood, and from conceptions of the ideal Australian citizen-in-formation. Instead, representations of Aboriginal people relegated them to the outdoors in ways that racialised Australian spaces: Aboriginal cultures are portrayed as historical yet timeless, linked with the natural/native rather than civic/political environment.

Originality/value

This paper builds on scholarship on the relationship between education, reading pedagogies and citizenship formation in Australia in the post-war years to develop our knowledge of how conceptions of the ideal Australian citizen of the future – that is, Australian students – were inherently racialised. It makes a new contribution to scholarship on the assimilation project in Australia, through revealing the relationship between government policies towards Aboriginal people and the racial and cultural qualities being taught in Australian schools.

Details

History of Education Review, vol. 44 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0819-8691

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 31 January 2020

Ambika Prasad, Laurie T. O’Brien and Caitlin E. Smith Sockbeson

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relevance of caste identity in applied settings. The authors do this within the larger framework of affirmative action programs (AAPs…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relevance of caste identity in applied settings. The authors do this within the larger framework of affirmative action programs (AAPs) or “reservations” in India. The paper explores the interplay of a primordial identity like caste with the modern institutions representing equality – a context unique to India.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper reports the findings of two experimental studies collecting data using Mechanical Turk.

Findings

The first study finds that an individual hired under the AAP is perceived poorly on his/her competence and reward worthiness. The second study finds support for the influence of an individual’s conception of modern casteism and his/her caste identity as factors in shaping attitudes toward AAP.

Research limitations/implications

The paper lays the groundwork but does not explore the contours of casteism in contemporary India. Understanding of this construct as well as the impact of factors as region, education, urbanization, religion, nature of employment, etc. on caste dynamics should be considered by future research.

Practical implications

The paper uncovers some similarities between Indian and Western findings, but it also demonstrates key differences between findings related to race-based AAPs in the West and the caste-based AAP in India. This understanding will guide discourses on diversity management in under-researched countries like India. The findings can sensitize organizations to the need for addressing unconscious biases related to caste.

Social implications

The paper underscores the continuing relevance of caste in modern India and the negative perceptions of lower castes. The paper finds that individuals with an appreciation of the subtle forms of casteism are sympathetic to programs that promote social equality. In modern social contexts this nuanced operationalization of casteism can be a relevant indicator of caste dynamics.

Originality/value

This is the first empirical study to examine caste-based AAP in India in an applied study and unpacks the psychological underpinnings of the attitudes toward AAP.

Details

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, vol. 39 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-7149

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 September 2017

Frank J. Cavico and Bahaudin Mujtaba

While the words diversity, disparate impact, and discrimination are commonly read and heard by working adults and professionals, they can at times be confusing and fearful to some…

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Abstract

Purpose

While the words diversity, disparate impact, and discrimination are commonly read and heard by working adults and professionals, they can at times be confusing and fearful to some managers. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of a specific aspect of US civil rights laws – the disparate impact theory. The authors provide an analysis based on the statute, case law interpreting, and applying the statute, administrative guidelines from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, as well as legal and management commentary. The paper illustrates the requirements of a plaintiff employee’s initial case based on the disparate impact theory. The challenging causation component which requires some degree of statistical evidence is given particular attention. Limitations to the paper are stated at the beginning; and recommendations to managers are explored and provided toward the end of the paper.

Design/methodology/approach

It is a legal paper which covers all the laws related to discrimination based on disparate impact and disparate treatment theories. Actual court cases up until this month and Americans laws related to this concept are reviewed and critically discussed.

Findings

The salient feature of disparate impact is that this legal theory allows a plaintiff job applicant or employee to sustain a case of illegal discrimination without providing any evidence of a discriminatory motive. As opposed to the disparate treatment liability is imposed based on disproportionate adverse results and not discriminatory intent.

Research limitations/implications

This paper deals with the disparate impact theory pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. However, it must be pointed out that the disparate impact theory is also applicable to claims arising under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. Since the focus of this paper is Title VII federal and state constitutional issues, such as the applicability of the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection clause that may arise in disparate impact cases involving government entities will not be addressed.

Practical implications

Managers and employees can protect themselves in the workplace from illegal discriminatory practices. Initially, employers and managers must be aware of the distinction between a disparate impact case and a disparate treatment case with the latter requiring evidence of intentional discrimination. Evidence, of course, can be direct or circumstantial or inferential. Whereas in a disparate impact case there is no intentional discrimination; and as such proof of discriminatory intent is not required. Rather, the employee has to present evidence that the employer’s neutral on-its-face employment policy or practice caused an adverse disproportionate impact on the employee as a member of a protected class.

Social implications

Human resources professionals and managers must become educated in diversity laws in order to provide an inclusive workplace for all employees and candidates. Employers have legitimate areas of concern in hiring and promoting employees; and the courts are cognizant of employer responsibilities; and thus the employers must be able to show how specific knowledge, skills, education, training, backgrounds, as well as height, weight, strength, and dexterity are legitimate qualifications that directly relate to successful job performance.

Originality/value

This is an original paper by the authors.

Details

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, vol. 36 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-7149

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 March 2009

Chris Poullaos

This paper seeks to examine the social construction of the racialised, colonial subaltern accountant in the British imperial centre in the early twentieth century..

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper seeks to examine the social construction of the racialised, colonial subaltern accountant in the British imperial centre in the early twentieth century..

Design/methodology/approach

Primary sources are used to provide an historical analysis of the British accountancy arena in the 1920s, this being the period when “race thinking” first became explicit. Secondary histories of race and empire are used to contextualise this analysis by highlighting: the growth of “race thinking” in the latter part of the nineteenth and the early decades of the twentieth centuries; and the American challenge to British imperial hegemony after the First World War.

Findings

This paper tracks the struggles of British accountants in the imperial centre in the 1920s to find a path between racialist attitudes in the imperial centre, their own included and countervailing discourses of non‐discrimination. For the Scottish chartered bodies, this involved the development of a de facto barrier to entry when a proposed de jure one aroused, surprisingly enough, the prospect of retaliation from American accountants.

Research limitations/implications

Limitations in the primary sources preclude detailed examination of the attitudes of individuals or for all variations in the positions adopted by particular bodies.

Practical implications

The troubling thing about the demise of explicit race talk by the end of the 1920s is that de facto barriers to the entry of the racialised, subordinated Other remained in place.

Originality/value

This paper shows that the rise of race thinking in Britain did not leave British accountancy untouched; largely through the pressure it placed upon the identity of British accountants qua Britons and the consequential issue of inclusion/exclusion of non‐Britons.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 22 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 September 2020

Eddy S. Ng, Greg J. Sears and Muge Bakkaloglu

Building on the notion of “White fragility,” this study aims to explore how Whites react and cope with perceived discrimination at work. Specifically, the authors explore whether…

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Abstract

Purpose

Building on the notion of “White fragility,” this study aims to explore how Whites react and cope with perceived discrimination at work. Specifically, the authors explore whether: (1) Whites react more negatively than minorities when they perceive discrimination at work and (2) Whites are more likely than minorities to restore the status quo by leaving the situation when they perceive discrimination at work.

Design/methodology/approach

Data for this study were obtained from the Professional Worker Career Experience Survey. In total, 527 working professionals from multiple organizations across the central USA participated in the survey.

Findings

The authors find evidence that Whites experience more negative psychological effects (i.e. lower job satisfaction and higher work stress) from perceived discrimination than minority employees and are more likely to act to restore conditions of privilege by leaving their current job and employer. The stronger negative effects of perceived discrimination for Whites (vs minorities) were restricted to work outcomes (job satisfaction, work stress, turnover intentions from one's employer) and were not evident with respect to perceptions of overall well-being (i.e. life satisfaction), suggesting that White fragility may play a particularly influential role in work settings, wherein racial stress may be more readily activated.

Originality/value

Consistent with the notion of White fragility, the study’s results demonstrate that the deleterious impact of perceived discrimination on employee work outcomes may, in some cases, be stronger for White than minority employees.

Details

International Journal of Manpower, vol. 42 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-7720

Keywords

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