Fundamentals of Human Resource

Management
Fifth Edition, Global Edition

Chapter 2
Managing Equal
Opportunity and
Diversity

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Learning Objectives
1. Summarize the basic equal employment
opportunity laws and how each impacts HR
functions such as recruitment and selection.
2. Give examples of what employers can and
cannot legally do with respect to recruitment,
selection, and promotion and layoff practices.
3. Explain the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission enforcement process.
4. List five strategies for successfully increasing
diversity of the workforce
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Copyright © 2020 Pearson Education, Ltd. All Rights Reserved
1. Summarize the basic equal opportunity
laws and how each impacts HR functions
such as recruitment and selection

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The Equal Pay Act of 1963

The Equal Pay Act of 1963 is the act requiring

equal pay for equal work, regardless of sex.

- Differences in pay do not violate the act if the

difference is based on a seniority system, a merit
system, a system that measures earnings by
quantity or quality of production, or a differential
based on any factor other than sex.

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Equal Employment Opportunity Laws (1 of 3)
• Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act: An employer
cannot discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, or national
origin.

• Executive Orders: most employers who do business with the

U.S. government have an obligation to refrain from employment
discrimination.

• Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967:

makes it unlawful to discriminate against employees or applicants for
employment who are 40 years of age or older.

• Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973: requires

employers with federal contracts over $2,500 to take affirmative action
for the employment of disabled persons.

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Equal Employment Opportunity Laws (2 of 3)
• Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978: prohibits using
pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions for discrimination
in hiring, promotion, discharge, or any other term or condition of
employment.

• Federal Agency Uniform Guidelines on Employee

Selection Procedures: These guidelines explain, for instance,
how to validate a selection procedure.

• The Civil Rights Act of 1991: makes it easier to sue for

money damages. For example, it placed the “burden of proof” of
discrimination on the employer rather than the complainant.

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Equal Employment Opportunity Laws (3 of 3)
• Uniformed Services Employment and
Reemployment Rights Act: employers are generally
required, among other things, to reinstate employees returning from
military leave to positions comparable to those they had before
leaving.

• Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of

2008: prohibits discrimination by health insurers and employers
based on people’s genetic information.

• State and Local Equal Employment Opportunity

Laws: In addition to federal laws, all states and many local
governments prohibit employment discrimination.

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American with Disabilities Act (ADA)
prohibits employers with 15 or more workers from discriminating against
qualified individuals with disabilities, with regard to hiring, discharge,
compensation, advancement, training, or other terms, conditions, or privileges of
employment.
• Qualified Individuals
• Reasonable
Accommodation
• Employer Defenses

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How to Provide Reasonable Accommodation
(Example)
• Employees with mobility or vision impairments may benefit
from voice recognition software.
• Word prediction software suggests words based on
context with just one or two letters typed.
• Real-time translation captioning enables employees to
participate in meetings.
• Vibrating phones and text pagers notify employees when
messages arrive.
• Software programs that convert text from computer
screens into spoken word.

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American with Disabilities Act (ADA) Guidelines
• Do not deny a job to a disabled individual if the person is qualified and
able to perform the essential job functions.
• Make a reasonable accommodation unless doing so would result in
undue hardship.
• Know what you can ask applicants. In general, you may not make
preemployment inquiries about a person’s disability before making an
offer. However, you may ask questions about the person’s ability to
perform essential job functions.
• Itemize essential job functions on the job descriptions. In virtually any
ADA legal action, a central question will be, what are the essential
functions of the job?
• Do not allow misconduct or erratic performance (including absences
and tardiness), even if that behavior is linked to the disability.

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Religious and Other Types of Discrimination
• Religious Discrimination
– Buddhism
– Christianity
– Hinduism
– Islam
– Judaism
– Other

• Sexual Orientation
– Lesbian
– Gay
– Bisexual
– Transgender

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Summary of EEO Actions (1 of 2)
Action What It Does
Title VII of 1964 Civil Bars discrimination because of race, color, religion, sex, or
Rights Act, as amended national origin; instituted EEOC
Executive orders Prohibit employment discrimination by employers with federal
contracts of more than $10,000 (and their subcontractors);
established office of federal compliance; require affirmative
action programs
Federal agency guidelines Indicate policy covering discrimination based on sex, national
origin, and religion, as well as on employee selection procedures;
for example, require validation of tests
Supreme Court decisions: Ruled that job requirements must be related to job success; that
Griggs v. Duke Power discrimination need not be overt to be proved; that the burden of
Company, Albemarle Paper proof is on the employer to prove the qualification is valid
Company v. Moody
Equal Pay Act of 1963 Requires equal pay for men and women for performing similar
work
Age Discrimination in Prohibits discriminating against a person 40 or over in any area
Employment Act of 1967 of employment because of age
State and local laws Often cover organizations too small to be covered by federal laws

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Summary of EEO Actions (2 of 2)
Action What It Does
Vocational Rehabilitation Requires affirmative action to employ and promote qualified
Act of 1973 disabled persons and prohibits discrimination against disabled
persons
Pregnancy Discrimination Prohibits discrimination in employment against pregnant women,
Act of 1978 or related conditions
Vietnam Era Veterans’ Requires affirmative action in employment for veterans of the
Readjustment Assistance Vietnam War era
Act of 1974
Americans with Disabilities Strengthens the need for most employers not to discriminate and
Act of 1990 and ADA to make reasonable accommodations for disabled employees at
Amendments Act of 2008 work
Civil Rights Act of 1991 Reverses several 1980s Court decisions; places burden of proof
back on employer and permits compensatory and punitive money
damages for discrimination
Genetic Information Prohibits discrimination by health insurers and employers based
Non-Discrimination Act on people’s genetic information
of 2008 (GINA)
*The actual laws (and others) can be accessed via a search at www.usa.gov/Topics/Reference-
Shelf/Laws.shtml, accessed January 24, 2017.

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 2. Give examples of what employers can
and cannot legally do with respect to
recruitment, selection, and promotion and
layoff practices

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Discriminating Law — Knowing What You
Can and Cannot Do
• Recruitment
– Word of Mouth
– Misleading Information
– Help Wanted Ads

• Selection Standards
– Education Requirements
– Tests
– Preference to Relatives
– Height, Weight, and Physical Characteristics
– Health Questions
– Arrest Records

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 3. Explain the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission enforcement
process

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Equal Employment Opportunity Comission
(EEOC) Enforcement Process
Processing a Discrimination Charge
• Filing a claim (The filing must be in writing and under
oath)
• EEOC investigation (After a charge is filed, the EEOC
has 10 days to serve notice of the charge on the
employer.)
• Voluntary mediation (an informal process in which a
neutral third party assists the opposing parties to reach a
voluntary, negotiated resolution of a charge of
discrimination)
• Mandatory Arbitration of Discrimination Claims (Many
employers, to avoid EEO litigation, require applicants and employees
to agree to arbitrate such claims)
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EEOC Charge-Filing Process

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When EEOC Has Filed a Bias Claim
1. Exactly what is the charge and is your company covered by the relevant
statutes? (For example, Title VII and the Americans with Disabilities Act
generally apply only to employees with 15 or more employees.)

2. Did the employee file his or her charge on time, and was it processed in a
timely manner by the EEOC?

3. What protected group does the employee belong to?

4. Is the EEOC claiming disparate impact or disparate treatment?

5. Are there any obvious bases upon which you can challenge and/or rebut the
claim? For example, would the employer have taken the action if the person
did not belong to a protected group?

6. If it is a sexual harassment claim, are there offensive comments, calendars,

posters, screensavers, and so on, on display in the company?

7. In terms of the practicality of defending your company against this claim, who
are the supervisors who actually took the allegedly discriminatory actions and
how effective will they be as potential witnesses? Have you received an
opinion from legal counsel regarding the chances of prevailing?
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 4. List five strategies for successfully
increasing diversity of the workforce

Diversity means being diverse or varied, and at

work means having a workforce comprised of two
or more groups of employees with various racial,
ethnic, gender, cultural, national origin, handicap,
age, and religious backgrounds.
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Diversity can produce behavioral barriers
such as;
• Stereotyping: a process in which someone ascribes specific behavioral traits
to individuals based on their apparent membership in a group.

• Prejudice: a bias toward prejudging someone based on that person’s traits.

• Discrimination: taking specific actions toward or against the person based on
the person’s group.

• Tokenism: when a company appoints a small group of women or minorities

to high-profile positions, rather than more aggressively seeking full representation for
that group.

• Ethnocentrism: tendency to view members of other social groups less

favorably than one’s own.

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Top-Down Diversity Management Programs
(5 strategies for increasing diversity of the
workforce)
• Provide strong leadership
• Assess the situation (equal employment hiring and
retention metrics, employee attitude surveys,
management and employee evaluations)
• Provide diversity training and education (aims to
sensitize employees to value cultural differences)
• Change culture and management systems
(appraise supervisors partly on reducing intergroup
conflicts)
• Evaluate the diversity management program
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