Economic of Race and Gender Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Economic of Race and Gender - Essay Example Although such legislation was needed to ensure equal access to employment for all Americans, it also served the purpose of defining diversity by symbolizing what characteristics of American workers should be preserved in the workplace. In this regard, organizations have relied on policies, such as the 4/5ths rule, for ensuring that selection tools do not unfairly discriminate against minority applicants. From the critical perspective, societies themselves made a rational justification for diversity, revealing through their practices that diversification of the workplace in economics is a necessity for increasing workplace innovation and creativity (Cox & Blake, 1991). This rational argument of economic necessity for diversity has been vividly articulated during the United States Supreme Court case of Gratz v.Bollinger (2003). In this case the University of Michigan’s admissions practices were challenged for automatically awarding minority applicants â€Å"diversity points† that were not available for non-minority applicants. A number of organizations filed briefs supporting the University of Michigan’s policies because promoting diversity in higher education would increase the pool of highly qualified applicants for future workforce. Arguments raised in the briefs were that students educated around diversity (1) are more adept at facilitating unique and creative approaches to problem solving; (2) are better able to develop products that appeal to a wide variety of consumers; (3) are better equipped for working with diverse business partners, employees, and clientele and; (4) will contribute to a positive work environment through decreasing incidents of discrimination and stereotyping (3M et al., 2003). Cox and Blake (1991) argued that attitudes, cognition, behaviors, and beliefs are distributed differently across ages, races, and genders, therefore, such heterogeneity, can foster creativity and innovations.