Case Study 2
This is an alternate Case Study 2 assignment: if you do it, post it in the upload spot for Case Study 2.
What I call "Preferential Selection" is the
acceptance of a new member into an organization for reasons not entirely based on merit, but on some other criterion /crieria as well. The most morally plausible version of this is Preferential Selction based in part on demographic criteria.
To what extent is demographic makeup a relevant concern for organizations?
There are several angles from which to approach this issue.
1. Whether there are cases in which preferential selection is
advisable even at the expense of merit;
2. Whether there are cases in which preferential selection is
advisable as a tie-breaker.
3. Whether there are cases in which preferential selection of some
kind ought to be made municipal or state law.
4. Whether preferential selection is ever in the interests of
organizational improvement, such as hiring the male nurse, the
Vietnamese cop, the female firefighter, etc.
5. Whether diversity is itself an organizational value with respect
to internal social dynamics, which indirectly affects organization's
quality or output.
6. Whether diversity itself is an organizational value directly with
respect to creative output.
7. Whether diversity itself is an organizational value with respect
to external social dynamics, i.e. the relationship between the
organization and the community at large.
Think of various kinds of non-meritorious traits on which
preferential selection may be based: race, gender, height, size,
age, ethnicity, native language, social class, family connections,
geographical origin, religious background. Think also of gray-area
categories where it's controversial whether a trait is meritorious
or not: "IQ", whether one is disabled; or unmeritorious or not:
weight or body type.
As a case study, take any Affirmative Action Case in the news or in your community.
One suggestion is the University of Michigan's Affirmative Action admissions policies both for Undergraduate Admissions and for law School admissions. UM was sued in a two-prnged case that went all the way to the Supreme Court, where the Court issue a split decision favoring UM on the Law School Admission Policy, but against them on the Undergraduate Admissions ploicy. The issue for UM was that diversity is a quality concern of the university as a product and a community.
