Challenging the Myths of Fair Employment Practices

(Hardback)

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Description

This book is a practical guide to the development and use of selection procedures for those who are concerned with human resource management, but who are not necessarily specialists in personnel testing. Dr. Barrett explains how to improve the quality of the work force with the most modern techniques while avoiding unfair discrimination against minorities, women, older workers, and the disabled. He challenges myths that have grown up in the past 30 years which interfere with the use of valid and fair selection procedures. Topics include: historical and legal background, cognitive and non-cognitive selection procedures, validity, and measuring and reducing adverse impact. Although he concentrates on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, there is special treatment of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Age of Discrimination in Employment Act. Clearly written and informal, this book is every bit as professionally sound as his earlier book, Fair Employment Strategies in Human Resource Management. It removes part of the mystique about tests with many illustrations of good and bad practice. Besides being useful to human resource executives, it is a valuable supplementary text for graduate and undergraduate courses in personnel management. Attorneys would also find it especially valuable because the author documents its point with citations to important cases and the the Uniform Guidelines.

Reviews

"Challenging the Myths of Fair Employment Practices is a scholarly tour deforce which does not detract one whit from its value to and benefits for practitioners, human resources managers, policy wonks, and litigators. The book is as useful for doctoral students as it is for policy connoisseurs and legislative staffs at all levels of govermental bureaucracies....If I were organizing a conference on this subject, Barrett would be my choice as the keynot speaker, and if I were engaged in fair employment practices litigation, I would move heaven and earth to make sure that he was on my team."-Comtemporary Psychology APA Review of Books
"[Barrett's] latest book...is a concise, easily understandable explanation of the misconceptions and confusion that have arisen which have hampered both the attainment of employment opportunities for disadvantaged individuals and the maintenance of an effective work force in a fair and nondiscriminatory environment. I would highly recommend Dr. Barrett's book as a valuable addition to anyone's professional collection."-Donald J. Schwartz, Ph.D.
"In this book, Richard Barrett shares his extensive knowledge of the subject of fair employment. By keeping relatively free of technical jargon and avoiding arcane advanced topics, Dr. Barrett strives to make that complex subject accessible to a wide range of professionals, including lawyers, psychologists, and human resource professionals. Experts in one or another of the fields covered may not agree with all of Dr. Barrett's assertions or interpretations within their specialties, but even they will at minimum be stimulated to give them further careful thought. In short, the book should prove useful to the many scholars and practitioners whose professions pose issues of fair employment, which is the worthy goal Dr. Barrett set out to attain."-Raymond A. Katzell Professor Emeritus of Psychology New York University
Challenging the Myths of Fair Employment Practices is a scholarly tour deforce which does not detract one whit from its value to and benefits for practitioners, human resources managers, policy wonks, and litigators. The book is as useful for doctoral students as it is for policy connoisseurs and legislative staffs at all levels of govermental bureaucracies....If I were organizing a conference on this subject, Barrett would be my choice as the keynot speaker, and if I were engaged in fair employment practices litigation, I would move heaven and earth to make sure that he was on my team.-Comtemporary Psychology APA Review of Books
This tightly written book is a concise, coherent, and authoritative treatise of fair employment practices and their bases in law.... Challenging the Myths of Fair Employment Practices is a scholarly tour de force which does not detract one whit from its value to and benefits for practitioners, human resources managers, policy connoiseurs and legislative staffs at all levels of governmental bureaucracies.-Contemporary Psychology
"This tightly written book is a concise, coherent, and authoritative treatise of fair employment practices and their bases in law.... Challenging the Myths of Fair Employment Practices is a scholarly tour de force which does not detract one whit from its value to and benefits for practitioners, human resources managers, policy connoiseurs and legislative staffs at all levels of governmental bureaucracies."-Contemporary Psychology

Author Bio

RICHARD S. BARRETT is Principal of Barrett Associates, a consulting firm specializing in fair employment issues. He has held professorships at New York University and Stevens Institute of Technology. Dr. Barrett has also testified in cases argued before the Supreme Court and worked for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, where he participated in writing the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures. He has authored, coauthored, and contributed to ten previous books.