You come across a news article reporting that your favorite company was faced with a public lawsuit in which they were accused of widespread discrimination against individuals from an ethnicity, culture, or belief system you associate with.
Would the outstanding claims of discrimination change the way you felt about the company? Would it influence your decisions to support that company? Would it change whether or not you applied to work for that company in the future? Why or why not?
If my favorite company was faced with a lawsuit regarding discrimination, I would have a strong moral decision to make. In understanding the research regarding discrimination, I think it is critical to see how the company is addressing the discrimination and the claims. Before I chose to support the company again, I would want to know what measures are being put in place to ensure these behaviors are not continuing. Depending on how the company is responding to these claims would impact my decision greater. While I would want to continue supporting the company, if they act like nothing happened or that it was a one time occurrence, I would no longer be able to support the company. Additionally, if the company was not speaking out on the issue, I would choose not to support the company. If they are not speaking out on the behaviors, then I would have concerns that they are not taking this situation seriously and are hoping that it will blow over. On the contrary, if the company acknowledges the issue, takes measures to increase diversity, increases the diversity of the staff, and continually educates their employees on discrimination and adverse impact, then I would choose to continue supporting the company. If the company was able to make strides to a more diverse workforce, I would consider still applying for a position. I would push the company to explain the measures they are taking to increase diversity in their workforce and how the results have been received by staff. I think it is important to hold organizations responsible for their actions and the actions that their staff are taking. For those reasons, I work to stay educated on the staffing and training practices of the companies that I support.
3 replies on “Week 2: Experiences with Discrimination”
I think your approach to this scenario is very smart. I also think that I would base my decision strongly off of what the company is doing to correct the discriminatory actions and what changes they were making to ensure that the discrimination would end. In addition to this, it would also depend on if there were a legitimate reason for the unequal hiring practices. For example, if the company were able to defend the discrimination based on the job knowledge or ability of the individuals they did hire, then I would be more inclined to still consider working for said company.
Hi Emily,
Thanks for your feedback! I appreciate your approach with listening to the reasoning behind why the discrimination occurred. I, personally, would have some hesitation because it could be an excuse or explanation to avoid the media attention. I would hope that it would be honest!
Thanks,
Sara
I respect your choice to see how the company handles the charges before making a choice. I like to research things a little bit at least to make sure they’re credible. If they are, I’d hault my support for the company to see whether they’d improve or fall behind and make my final choice from there.