Research has shown that many standardized forms of tests are culturally biased a

Question

Research has shown that many standardized forms of tests are culturally biased and unfair for some people due to culture, ethnicity, and other factors. Your CEO wants to implement a series of standardized tests to administer to job applicants to determine whether someone is hired. What main points would you make to the CEO to convince her that she is discriminating against many qualified job applicants through the use of these tests? What factors can you present to back up and support your argument? Finally, if the CEO overrules you and still insists on the testing how can you make it more fair?

Explanation / Answer

I would present the main factor that shows discrimination as the cultural difference between the employees that may not allow them to answer the questions in the standardized test effectively. Each job require certain job specific skills and passing the standardized tests that test the analytical, physical and personality tests are not enough to perform such jobs. The applicants who fail in the standardized tests may be having excellent job specific skills and we may loose those talents. This kind of selection may lead to discrimination among minorities based on race, age, gender and physical fitness and discrimination is always illegal. One factor I would present to support my argument is that different races will have their own values and viewpoints about general concepts and our standardized tests are not designed to select the candidates understanding the diversity. This may lead to discrimination related to race and culture. Another factor is age. The younger candidates would be much faster in answering the analytical questions and may qualify over the experience professionals on physical tests as well. But the aged professionals may have much experience and the ability to perform the job better overcoming the risks associated with the job. Those candidates may fail in standardized tests though they are highly qualified and may lead to discrimination based on age. One more factor is that physically challenged candidates cannot perform well in standardized tests like other candidates due to their disability and we are stealing their chance for employment by implementing the series of standardized tests. This kind of discrimination is against law and may harm the company reputation.

If the CEO still insists on implementing the standardized tests, I would prepare the questions accordingly by eliminating questions that would be a challenge based on the cultural difference. I would include more questions that are related to the job and fewer questions on skills that do not add to the job performance. Another step I would take is I would provide a relatively lower cut off for passing the standardized tests and give more importance to job related interviews. Physically challenged candidates would be given special preference and would be hired based on their ability to perform the job.

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