Define the Terms Affirmative Actions, Sexual Harassment, and Glass Ceiling. How Are They Important in Today's World of Business?

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

An “Affirmative Action” refers to methods aimed at increasing the numbers of people from specific social groups in employment, education, business, government, and other sectors. These groups usually consist of women and such minorities as African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, American Indians, disabled people, and Vietnam veterans. Thus, affirmative action is intended to improve and benefit groups that are thought to have undergone discrimination.

Different affirmative-action programs have different features. Some seek only to remove hindrances so that all people may compete equally. Others use numerical goals called quotas to ensure that women or minorities are included in preset proportions. Programs using quotas may prefer members of certain groups. Discrimination is defined as to make a clear distinction between elements. Generally, affirmative action has been undertaken by governments, businesses, or educational institutions to solve and efface the effects of past discrimination against a group, whether by a specific entity, such as a corporation, or by society as a whole.

From the very beginning, affirmative action has been highly controversial. Critics accuse that affirmative action policies, which give special treatment to people based on their participation in a group, violate the principle that all individuals are equal under the law. These critics argue that it is unfair to discriminate against members of one group today to compensate for discrimination against other groups in the past. They believe affirmative action is a form of discrimination that unequally prevents whites and men from being hired and promoted due to the partiality towards blacks and women.

Supporters of affirmative action respond that discrimination is, by definition, unfair treatment of people because they belong to a certain group. Therefore, effective treatments must methodically assist groups that have suffered from discrimination. Supporters battle that affirmative action policies are the only way to ensure an linked society in which all divisions of the population have an equal chance and opportunity to share in employment, schooling, and other benefits. They argue that numerical goals for employing, advancements, and college admissions are necessary to integrate fields, which were usually always closed to women and minorities because of discrimination.

I believe that the “affirmative actions” are indeed crucial in the labour sector. It may not be admitted, but there are numerous situations even in today’s modernized world, where discrimination takes place, either with race, age, nationality, ethnic groups, religion, colour, sex, and etc. I believe in affirmative actions because there has to be some kind of foundation and some kind of level where injustice cannot prevail. Every individual should be judged on their abilities and should never be differentiated and compared with others based on their heritage. Everyone has his or her own specialties and abilities and that’s what makes an individual unique. Everyone should be treated equally.

SEXUAL HARASSMENT

Sexual harassment, in law, consists of deliberate and unwelcome sexual advances, unwanted requests for sexual favors, and certain other offensive conduct of a sexual nature. It occurs in the workplace or in an educational setting under certain conditions. Such behavior is illegal if it creates an environment that is hostile or intimidating, if it interferes with a person’s work or school performance, or if acceptance of the harasser’s behavior is made a condition of employment or academic achievement. Sexual harassment may be committed by men or women in many different roles, such as that of boss, client, co-worker, military superior, or teacher. However, a large majority of cases involve the harassment of women by their male bosses or fellow employees.

Laws recognize two types of employment-related sexual harassment: (1) quid pro quo and (2) hostile environment. Quid pro quo harassment occurs when a person in authority requires sexual favors from an employee in exchange for a job advantage, such as getting hired or promoted or not getting fired. Quid pro quo is a Latin phrase meaning one thing in return for another. In hostile environment harassment, the offender does not demand an exchange. Instead, a pattern of behavior makes the victim's job so unpleasant that the person's work is affected. The harassment may consist of asking sexual favors, making sexual comments, telling sexual jokes, or displaying pornographic pictures.

Many federal courts began to recognize a link between sexual harassment and job discrimination in 1976. In 1986, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled for the first time that sexual harassment is a form of sex