Human Resource case questions

Review the case on page 85 titled: "Disparate Impact: What do the statistics mean?" Once your read the case, answer all three questions.

Disparate impact: what do the Statistics Mean?

Claims of discrimination can be pursued under an allegation of disparate impact. According to this approach, the effect or impact of staffing practices can be discriminatory and thus in violation of the Civil Rights Act. Such an impact could occur even though there may be no underlying intention to discriminate against members of a protected group or class (e.g., women or minorities). Pursuit of a disparate impact claim requires the use of various statistics to show that, in effect, women or minorities are being treated differently than men or nonminorities under the law.

Exhibit 2.5 shows three types of disparate impact statistics: flow statistics, stock statistics, and concentration statistics. Also shown is a statistical example of disparate impact for each type. For each of these three types of statistics, prepare a report in which you discuss the following:

1. How can an organization collect and report these statistics in the form shown in Exhibit 2.5?

2. What standards or guidelines would you recommend for deciding whether statistical differences between men and women, or nonminorities and minorities, reflect discrimination occurring throughout an organization’s staffing system?

3. What types of staffing activities (recruitment, selection, and employment) might be causing the statistical differences? For example, in Exhibit 2.5 the selection rate is 50% for men and 11% for women. How would the organization collect the data necessary to compute these selection rates, how would you decide whether the difference in selection rates (50% vs. 11%) is big enough to indicate possible discrimination, and what sorts of practices might be causing the difference in selection rates?

Heneman. Staffing Organizations (Page 85). McGraw-Hill Education. Kindle Edition. 

Exhibit 2.5 in the attachment