The Contented Cow Blog

Building Workplaces That Work

In a June 30 column in the Chicago Sun Times, Jesse Jackson joined the hue and cry railing against the recent U.S. Supreme Court finding that the City of New Haven had incorrectly ignored the results of its own selection tests for internal promotion to fire department command positions because it deemed that not enough protected class members (minorities) had passed the promotional exam.

According to Mr. Jackson, “Affirmative action is justified on the premise that diversity is good for us as a society.” For the most part, I agree with Mr. Jackson on this point. Diversity, as in attaining a mixture of persons with different backgrounds, heritage, and points of view is not just desirable, it’s necessary in today’s ultra competitive world. And, at times, employers do need to take affirmative measures to see to it that those differences are present in their workforce.

Where we part company is with the notion that valid standards should be lowered in order to remedy a lack of diversity (perceived or otherwise). Putting someone, anyone in a position where, by virtue of insufficient knowledge, skill, or ability they are destined to fail doesn’t help achieve diversity, it harms it. Moreover, it’s irresponsible, and it is cruel. In this particular case it also happens to be dangerous to the men and women of the department, not to mention the citizens of New Haven.

There are a couple of lessons we can draw from this case:

1. Employers should be careful to ensure that all employment selection criteria are based on valid requirements and predictors of success for the given position. Moreover, if you use a test as an absolute measure of determining minimally acceptable knowledge, you damn well better take the results into account, barring some material defect in the testing process itself. Throwing the results out because you don’t like the outcome isn’t one of the options.
2. In not so subtle terms, the court suggested that it is high time we re-think this instrument called “Affirmative Action.” In much the same fashion that The First Tee organization has done in helping kids from all walks of life improve their life chances through the game of golf, I would advocate that we focus on raising the bridge, rather than lowering the river (standards). Be it in the workplace or society in general, we can certainly help people be the best they can be and attain their goals without cheapening the achievement, or cheating others in the process.

Let’s get going.

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A thought leader in the arena of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette is a seminar leader, keynote speaker, and executive coach. He helps individuals and organizations improve business outcomes by having a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their website at www.contentedcows.com, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows

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