ABSTRACT
For several years now, some racial/ethnic and gender groups with limited opportunities for educational and occupational mobility have significantly benefited from equal employment and affirmative action policies, programs, and practices. One of the most profound benefits of affirmative action is that many educational institutions and organizations, while acting “affirmatively,” have created seemingly diverse environments that provide channels that expand educational and professional opportunities for racial/ethnic minorities and women and, over the long run, enhance social mobility for these groups as well. While individuals in educational institutions and organizations continue to benefit from affirmative measures, this chapter explores the challenges of managing diversity and identifies some of the distributional and constitutional disputes that have resulted from affirmative measures. This chapter notes that the transition from affirmative action to valuing diversity within a legal,
moral, and social framework can be difficult, given the group positions of minorities and women in institutions and organizations. However, efforts to manage conflict among individuals as well as manage diversity within institutions and organizations may prove valuable strategies in the pursuit of social equity.
