Thursday, June 04, 2009

Some New Evidence on the Source of Discrimination

Yesterday we discussed some potential hypotheses for wage gaps (and discrimination). Customer discrimination is one potential source. This study argues that customers prefer white men.
The study will be published in the Academy of Management Journal. "Customers, from students buying textbooks to patients in an examining room, are consistently biased in favor of white men," says Hekman. "Because customer satisfaction is critical for organizational survival, business owners and managers will hire white men when possible and will pay lower salaries to the women and minorities they do hire."

Comments:
While I can understand why people may an economically "correct" choice by hiring a white man, I find it hard to believe that anyone would consider such a choice to be morally "correct".
 
While racism when dealing with hiring decisions is both illegal and morally wrong, it would be hard to blame a company for doing it if the company could prove that it raised revenues as the article suggests. From a pure economic standpoint, it seems as though companies (especially retail companies) should only be hiring white men. As bad as it sounds, this racism is actually rational. As long as preconceived notions about other races exist, there will always be this rational racism. I am not defending racism in any way, but it appears when there are times that some companies would be better off by acting racist. In the long run, I hope and am fairly sure that this trend will diminish greatly.
 
I find this study to be intriguing. I definitely would have thought that white women would be preferred the most, even over white men. I wonder where the study was taken. That might be an influencing factor.
 
Hopefully one day statistics will show that race or gender shouldn't affect earnings, or who receives which job. But we have to realize that it will take time. only 60 years ago or so segregation in schools still existed, and racism was a huge factor in our society. I just hope that the process will speed up but it will take a while until the older generations are gone, and a new way of thinking is excepted by everybody.
 
This is a typical situation of the complications between doing what is economically profitable and what is morally correct. The main question is "would you hire someone that had a lower probability of raising revenues, based on proven theories, over the alternate, more promising prospect?" Unfortunately most profit-maximizing firms would not. This article reminds me of all the issues involved in affirmative action.
 
As sad as it to see these findings, companies are always out to do what they think is best to help them grow and achieve their profit goals. I just hope that more morally correct findings will unveil themselves in the future.
 
Moral problem is always apply in the economic situation. It's strange to think hire the white man is morally correct. But still many companies are thinking by this way. But I believe that in the future, the situation is getting better just like having the first blak persident for the U.S.
 
This study doesn't surprise me at all. The reality is that the United States is 75% white and a significant group are old enough to have been a consumer/worker since the 60's. Although women rights have come along way we are only one generation removed from the progressive movements of the 60's and 70's. The fact is they still exist on some level. Even minorities would prefer the services of a white man because let's face it, most of the richest people, thus with the most influence and power are white men. It's an unfortunate subconscious thing that won't change as long as it's reality. Me on the other hand, being a minority of this generation have different preferences.
 
This is a touchy topic, and it is very easy to understand the stand point of the company that is making the hiring decisions based on the idea that white men generate more profit for the company however when you make decisions based on this study it is important to realize that just because two things are correlated does not mean that one causes the other. I would be interested in seeing some of the data that was used for this study to see if it was biased.
 
Labor policies aimed at equity adjustments are innately divisive. While affirmative action policies are commonly seen as socially beneficial, they often lead to controversial efficiency costs. Adding preference to any quality other than performance (gender, race, etc.) will inevitably create an efficiency loss. But of course, efficiency is not the strict sole goal of the government. When considering this issue, I often wonder how we will decide to abandon such equity-based policies. Will there ever be a time when legislators will finally say, "okay, everything is equal now, we can return to free-market hiring?"
 
It is tough to argue with what people want. The thing I try to remember when reading studies such as this is that sometimes we enjoy something we didn't think we would, and it is a very pleasant surprise. Even if the white employee received better marks and it would seem economically sound to just hire whites guys you may become that "white" store and lose potential new customers because of your perceived racism.
 
While i find it morally troublesome that a firm would find it more attractive to hire a white male, i cannot say i am surprised, although i have never seen the exact numbers or statistic on the matter, i can only imagine that many of the owners of the top 500 companies in the U.S. are in fact white males. while im not saying they are racists or sexists and will only hire members of their own group, it is not a long shot to think it holds some truth to it (Freakonomics introduced the section where two identical resumes are given to a company with only the names change, when a very "white" name and the other "black", it showed the white name was much more likely to get an interview)
 
It appers to me that ethical issues are usually happen in any economic condition regardless which kind of economic it is. I don't believe it is RIGHT to hire white men. I belive it's RIGHT to hire any one no matter their skin color is as long as they got the ability to acquire the job.Racism issue will never vanish, even though it is getting better through out the past few centuris. Yet, it will not be completely terminate.
 
i am satisfied what ever right here
customer satisfaction is so necessary.I find it hard to believe that anyone would consider such a choice to be morally "correct"
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