Seminar on Human Resource Management

Affirmative Action and Reverse

Discrimination

GROUP 2:
Avael Morhan (1210524023)
Kartika Gusdila Putri (1310522010)
Nur Habibah (1310521054)
Lecturer: Rahmi Fahmi. DR. SE, MBA
Andalas University
2015/2016

HISTORY OF AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

On March 6, 1961 President John F. Kennedy issued Executive Order
10925, which included a provision that government contractors
"take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed,
and employees are treated during employment, without regard to
their race, creed, color, or national origin." The intent of this
executive order was to affirm the government's commitment to
equal opportunity for all qualified persons, and to take positive
action to strengthen efforts to realize true equal opportunity for all.
This executive order was superseded by Executive Order 11246 in
1965.
Therefore, it generates US government policy which provides equal
opportunity for all those who fulfilled the qualifications. The policy
prohibits discrimination in the employment based on race, beliefs,
skin color, or nationality. Affirmative action that assigned by EO
11246 requires that employers, companies or firms take positive
steps / affirmative actions in their practices.
Affirmative action is a positive step to ensure employment
opportunities for applicants and equal treatment of employees.
Human

resources

management

practices

related

to

the

employment, upgrading, demotion, transfer, recruitment, Hiring th

employees, turnover and training selection.

DEFINITION OF AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

Affirmative action is one way to fight against discriminations in
employment. Affirmative actions is the policy which give the equal
opportunity (education, job, etc) for the minority groups (women,
black skin people, etc).
EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY VERSUS AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

Affirmative action is essentially a discriminatory policy, although

seen as positive discrimination, because it is only temporarily to
open up the opportunity for certain groups to achieved the equal
opportunities as enjoyed by other communities.
A group of black skin people in the United States for some decades
given the ease to go to the college / university. This was important,
because if they are allowed to compete openly with the group of
white skin people, they may lose.
Many people including governments, consider a value for equal
employment opportunities (equal employment opportunities, or
EEO) and affirmative action (AA) as the same thing, but they are not
the same. EEO emphasized the and require the same treatment;
while the value of AA emphasized the need of special treatment for
particular groups (Gomes, 2003: 72).
So, EEO reflect the value of the rights of individuals, while AA is
intended to guarantee the value of social justice. Both have different
legal foundation.
CONCLUSION
Affirmative action should be carried out together with the equal
opportunity to help those who have no access and no luck in
enjoying a variety of existing employment. Affirmative action has
basic of the values of social justice, by recruiting, hiring and
promoting people from various community in accordance with the
percentage of the total population of each groups.

Reverse Discrimination
Reverse discrimination happened when the member(s) of majority
got discriminated because of favourable action for the members of
minority as a retaliation for discrimination that they got in the past.
In a simple word, reverse discrimination is a discrimination against
the group who historically advantaged.

According to Title VII in Civil Rights Act on 1964, discrimination in

every way is prohibited in any field of employment. As a manager,
we cant recruit people just because they are from minority group
and ignore people from majority group. With the existence of Title
VII, it is expected that the decision made in employed someone will
be based on the qualification, not because of the personal bias.
Affirmative action can be a way to decrease the discrimination to
happen. But, if it done without a specific and appropriate reason, it
may becoming a reverse discrimination. According to Griffin (2002),
in

order

to

prevent

affirmative

action

becoming

reverse

discrimination, a company has to make a written planning about the

reasons why they do the affirmative action and how to do the
action. The company also has to make sure that the affirmative
action is not violate the rights of majority group.
Some actions that noted as reverse discrimination are:

Employed women and non-Caucasians rather than qualified

men and Caucasians

Not hiring or firing people under 40 years old
Manipulate the result of recruitment test because the minorities

cant do well rather than the majorities

Favouring citizens than non-citizens
Etc.

At last, discrimination, whatever the form is, is not allowed in any

field, including in doing a business. As a manager, we need to
conduct anything related to humanity, in this case is in employed
people, as fair as possible. We need to emplo people that really
deserve the job because they are qualified, not because they are
belong to a certain group.
Case Study
Hewlett-Packard (HP)
Focus on female talent

Reversing the underrepresentation of women in technology careers

is a priority for HP. In 2014, we continued to support and develop a
pipeline of qualified female engineers, designers, coders, and
technology executives within our company and throughout the
industry. Internally, HP invests in several programs and events
intended to support women in technical positions at the
company, and to foster the skills and relationships that are vital to
their professional development. Our global Women in Technology
speaker series is one such effort. In 2014, this series hosted bimonthly one-hour sessions covering various career-related topics.
Since the series launched in
January 2014, more than 10,000 women have listened to live
broadcasts or recordings of the sessions. In another example,
Ascend, HPs global sponsorship program for high-performing
female employees, had a successful second year in 2014. Thirty
senior executives gave mentoring, coaching, and networking
support to 30 highpotential female vice presidents and directors for
a year. In the Unite States, the Womens Innovation Council
provides a forum for HPs female executives to connect with other
senior

women

technology

leaders

across

the

industry

to

collaborate, drive innovation, and encourage young women to

pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and math
(STEM). Founded in 2013 by HP, the Womens Innovation Council
now includes nearly 30 of the most
prominent female executives in the industry. The councils 2014
annual event focused on sustainability and innovation and featured
speakers from leading technology companies, including HP Chief
Progress Officer, Gabi Zedlmayer.

REFERENCES

Griffin. 2002. Management 7th Edition.Massachussets: Houghtom Mifflin

Company.
employment.findlaw.com/employment-discrimination/reversediscrimination.html
www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/reverse-discriminationlawyers.html