Restoring Merit to Federal Hiring: Why Two Special Hiring Programs Should be Ended

Abstract

This report discusses two special hiring programs created in 1981 by a Federal court consent decree that settled a lawsuit against the Federal Government. The lawsuit alleged that an employment test the Government used at that time for more than 100 entry-level professional and administrative occupations had adverse impact upon African American and Hispanic job applicants. The two programs discussed in this report, the Outstanding Scholar and Bilingual/Bicultural Programs, were created as a partial and temporary remedy. The report finds that today, some 18 years after the consent decree was approved, the hiring programs it created are no longer needed to achieve the goals of a representative workforce. Furthermore, both special hiring programs are in conflict with a statutory merit system principle requirement that hiring be based on merit. The report also finds that the Outstanding Scholar Program has been misused and that the consent decree itself has been an impediment to the development and use of better employee selection methods.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2000
Accession Number
ADA372435

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • African Americans
  • Anthropology
  • Business Administration
  • Congress
  • Employment
  • Ethnic Groups
  • Governments
  • Law
  • Management Personnel
  • Minority Groups
  • Native Americans
  • Organizational Structure
  • Personnel Management
  • Psychological Tests
  • Recreation
  • Sociology
  • United States

Readers

  • Government and Public Administration Law.