Human Resources

A marketing executive needs to hire a new staff member for a newly created position. Two candidates have been determined to possess the requisite skills, an African-American female and a white male. The marketing manager is committed to diversity and equal opportunity. The marketing manager examines the two candidates’ past performance appraisals. The African-American female has received appraisals in the 3.8 to 4.2 range (on a five-point scale), but the marketing manager knows that her boss rates everyone about 0.4 below where they should be. The white male has received ratings in the 4.0 to 4.4 range, and the marketing manager feels that the candidate’s boss rates everyone fairly, so these should be accurate ratings. The marketing manager wants to make sure he or she can defend the hiring choice made.

1. What are the ethical issues in this situation?

The ethical issues in this situation lay within the hiring manager’s decision making process. While the manager can use the knowledge that the boss of the African-American female rates employees about 0.4 points below their relative rating she cannot use this to argue her case if she hires the female. While the marketing manager’s commitment to diversity is noble, the manager must ultimately choose the best candidate based on the criteria set by the company.

Another ethical issue is that the boss of the African-American female should go through a review process as to how to execute performance appraisals appropriately. Consistently rating employees below their actual work performance is not an acceptable practice.

2. What are the basic arguments for and against selecting each candidate?

Hiring the African-American Female is very much in-line with the manager’s commitment to diversity and if she looks at this candidate’s performance appraisal scores with the curve in place they are higher than that of the other candidate but the manager will not be able to divulge the information behind these scores....