MGT 3513-IN CLASS ASSIGNMENT 1: QUIZ
With Correct Answers Indicated
1. Equal Pay Act The law that requires the same pay for men and
women who do the same job in the same
organization.
2. adverse impact Discrimination that occurs when the equal
application of an employment standard has an
unequal effect on one or more protected classes.
3. bona fide occupational qualification A characteristic that must be present in
all individuals doing a job; used as a valid
“excuse”for considering gender or age in HR decisions.
4. ______Which is not prohibited by the original Title VII of the Civil Rights Act,
passed in 1964?
a. race discrimination in employment decisions
b. age discrimination in employment decisions
c. sex discrimination in employment decisions
d. all of the above are prohibited
e. none of the above is prohibited
5. ______Which is the best explanation of the “4/5ths” rule for determining
whether adverse impact exists?
a. to avoid adverse impact an employer must hire or promote 4 members of a protected class for every 5 members of a non-protected class that are hired or promoted
b. to avoid adverse impact, 4/5ths of all protected class applicants should be hired by the employer
c. to avoid adverse impact, the selection rate for hiring or promotion of the protected class should be at least 4/5ths of the selection rate for the group with the highest overall selection rate
d. to avoid adverse impact, employers should not use any form of employment test,
physical or psychological
6. ______Suppose a company has a formal, written, seniority plan that has been in place for 15 years. The firm faces the need to layoff 10 people. It applies the seniority plan, which results in 7 protected class members getting laid off while only 3 white males get laid off. Most probably, what would be the outcome if the 7 protected class members filed a complaint about this?
a. the company would probably be found guilty of disparate treatment discrimination
b. the company would probably NOT be found guilty of any form of illegal discrimination, as a formal, written, seniority plan is a defense against these charges
c. the company would probably be found guilty of adverse impact discrimination
7. ______Which law explicitly banned employment quotas, but also made sure that employers had the “burden of proof” in employment discrimination cases?
a. Pregnancy Discrimination Act
b. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act
c. Griggs v. Duke Power Company
d. Civil Rights Act of 1991
Bonus (1 Point maximum)
Who was Teresa Harris and very specifically, what does she have to do with sexual harassment law?
Short Answer: Ms. Harris was a complainant in a sexual harassment suit that established the “hostile work environment” definition.
Long Answer: From page 105 (soft-cover page number): Ms. Harris was a manager at a company in Nashville. She was subjected to a lot of offensive comments from her boss at the company. Most of these were derogatory toward women or were sexual in nature.
Ms. Harris sued the company for sexual harassment, even though there was no “quid pro quo.” The Supreme Court ruled that if a “reasonable person” would find the company’s actions hostile or abusive, they created a hostile work environment. The court ruled that creating such an environment was a violation fo the sex discrimination clause of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.