Business Ethics

Concepts & Cases

Manuel G. Velasquez
Chapter Seven

The Ethics of Job

Discrimination
Definition of Discrimination
O Discrimination in its root meaning is
not at all wrong.
 It simply refers to the act of
distinguishing one object from
another.
O The wrongful act of distinguishing
illicitly among people not on the
basis of individual merit, but on the
basis of prejudice or some other
invidious or morally reprehensible
attitude (modern usage).
Elements in Discrimination
1. It must be a decision not based on individual
merit.
2. The decision must derive from racial or sexual
prejudice, false stereotypes, or some other kind
of morally unjustified attitude against members
of the class to which the employee belongs.
3. The decision must have a harmful impact on
the interest of employees against whom the
decision is made in hiring, compensation,
promotion, job assignments, or termination of
those employees.
Types of Discrimination
Discriminatory acts themselves can
be categorized according to the
extent to which they are
intentional and institutionalized.
 Types of Discrimination
• Intentional discrimination = conscious and
deliberate discrimination.
• Unintentional discrimination = discrimination
that is not consciously or deliberately sought,
but is brought about by stereotypes or as an
unintended outcome.
• Individual discrimination = discrimination of one
or a few individuals acting on their own.
• Institutional discrimination = discrimination that
is the result of the actions of all or many of the
people in an institution and of their routine
processes and policies.
 Intentional Unintentional
Isolated a single individual a single individual
deliberately unwittingly
discriminates on the discriminates due to
basis of personal their unthinking
prejudices. acceptance of
prevalent practices,
stereotypes and
attitudes.
Institutionali routine behavior of routine behavior of an
zed an institutionalized institutionalized group
group deliberately unwittingly
discriminates on the discriminates due to
basis of the institutionalized
prejudices of the practice, stereotypes,
group attitudes, or corporate
culture
 Arguments Against Discrimination
O Utilitarian
 Discriminationleads to inefficient use of
human resources.
O Rights-based
 Discrimination violates basic human rights by
holding minorities and women as “inferior.”
 Discrimination cannot be universalized.
O Justice-based
 Discrimination results in unjust distributions
of benefits and burdens.
 Discrimination violates the formal principle of
equality by differentiating between people on
the basis of characteristics that are not
relevant to job performance.
Discriminatory Practices
1. Recruitment practices that rely on the word-of-mouth
referrals of present employees will tend to recruit only
from the groups already represented.
2. Screening practices that include qualifications not
relevant to a job (such as requiring a certain level of
education for very low-level jobs).
3. Promotion practices that place groups on separate
tracks or that rely solely on seniority when past
discrimination has kept women or minorities out of
senior positions.
4. Conditions of employment that do not award equal
wages and salaries to people doing essentially the
same work.
5. Discharging an employee based on race or gender, or
layoff policies that rely solely on seniority.
 Sexual Harassment
• Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual
favors and other verbal or physical contact of a
sexual nature constitute sexual harassment when:
(1) submission to such conduct is made either
explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an
individual’s employment
(2) submission to or rejection of such conduct by an
individual is used as the basis for employment
decisions affecting such individual.
(3) such conduct has the purpose or effect of
unreasonably interfering with an individual’s work
performance or creating an intimidating, hostile or
offensive working environment.
Moral Objections to Sexual Harassment
Guidelines
• Guidelines prohibit “intimidating, hostile, or
offensive working environment.”
– But it is sometimes hard to distinguish this
from male rudeness not intended to degrade
women.
• Guidelines prohibit “verbal or physical
contact of a sexual nature” when it has the
“effect of unreasonably interfering with an
individual’s work performance.”
– But this seems to require use of purely
subjective judgments.
 Moral Objections to Sexual Harassment
Guidelines
• Guidelines prohibit “verbal conduct” that
creates an “intimidating, hostile or offensive
working environment.”
– But this can conflict with the right to free speech.
• Guidelines hold employer guilty of employee’s
sexual harassment even if employer did not
know nor could have prevented it.
– But some respond that eradicating sexual
harassment justifies forcing employer to be
responsible for preventing it, and it is an
“external cost” employers should internalize.
 Other Types of Discrimination
O Age, which is protected by the Age
Discrimination in Employment Act
O Sexual orientation, which has few
protections against discrimination
O Transsexual status, which has few
protections
O Disability, which is protected by the
Americans with Disabilities Act
O Obesity, which has no protections.