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No Steps Forward, Two Steps Back: The Fallacy of Trying to “Eradicate” Adverse Impact?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 January 2015

Winfred Arthur Jr.  and
David Woehr
Winfred Arthur Jr.*
Affiliation:
Texas A&M University
David Woehr
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina Charlotte
*
E-mail: [email protected], Address: Department of Psychology, Texas A&M University, 4235 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843-4235
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Extract

Within the context of the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and specifically as it pertains to the tenets of Title VII, Lindsey, King, Dunleavy, McCausland, and Jones (2013) state: “This focal article raises and addresses critical issues regarding a yet unanswered question: How can organizational researchers and practitioners contribute to the ultimate goal of eradicating employment discrimination” (p. 391). We argue that in the context of employment testing and selection, at least as per the disparate impact theory of discrimination, this question is the wrong one—certainly as framed by Lindsey et al. To the contrary, instead of holding up the "eradication of employment discrimination" as our ultimate goal, perhaps we should continue to focus on the development, implementation, and support of the best (i.e., most job-related and valid) employment practices possible.

Type
Commentaries
Information
Industrial and Organizational Psychology , Volume 6 , Issue 4 , December 2013 , pp. 438 - 442
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology 2013

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