Effects of Affirmative Action on AT&T
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In any discussion on affirmative action and its challenging effects on business and government the two key words are: discrimination and justice. The root of the word discrimination comes from discrete, from the Latin meaning to sift apart (Shipley 163). The root of the word justice comes from the Latin word ôjus,ö which means law (202). A legal stance such as that of Affirmative Action seeks to use justice, or the law, to combat discriminatory practices, which have literally separated and categorized people according to their gender or race. In seeking justice, however, sometimes there is more harm done than good. Studying the ethics in a given situation helps to find the moral middle ground whereby justice is best done to all parties concerned. This essay will examine the circumstances at AT&T and the Pasadena City Council and discuss the key ethical challenges these organizations have in coming to a resolution in regards to their affirmative action practices. In 1973, American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) agreed to a consent decree that not only paid $45,000,000 back pay to women and minority men, but also established a Model Affirmative Action Plan, which would permanently alter the recruiting, transfer, and promotion policies of the company (Fullinwider 287). This was a landmark decision that created a benchmark for dealing with discrimination and affirmative action within the workplace across the United States (Bernard 16).
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es, this program proved to be a positive influence on those who took advantage of it (Bernard 18). In addition, AT&T has initiated education programs whereby employees are given the opportunity to further their education, gaining bachelor and master degrees while employed (17). However, these programs have sometimes become victim to benign neglect, leaving some minority employees behind who have been transferred between departments and worked on their education only to be passed over for promotions time and again as inroads into creating a diverse workplace have decreased (Poe Q1). So, while the override function was not ôfairö in essence, it may have prevented such oversights from happening. According to Poe, however, one of the reasons for this decline is that the corporate culture of companies has remained stagnant and shut women and minorities out of advancement. Since simple hiring goals have been attained and the population is officially ôrepresented,ö many companies do not strive to go beyond these goals into actively recruiting and promoting women and minorities for key executive positions (Q1). Pasadena City Council Case
In 1985, the Pasadena City Council voted to include Armenians under the ôprotected classö of cit
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1856
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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