A Comparison of Affirmative Action Policies between the U.S.A. and Korea

This study compared affinnative action(AA) policies between the United States and Korea, and discovered substantial differences between their policies, with respect to their legal basis, cultural backgrounds, key foci, enforcement, and effects on workPlace. The American AA policy has aimed at elimination of racial and gender discriminations to foster their equal employment opportunities. Enforced smctly and consistently duriog the 1960s and 1970s, the American policy has catalyzed the advent of multicultura1ism in the American workPlace, and diversity management. In Korea, the primary objective was to get rid of employment discrimination against women for a better utilization of women workforce. While the American policy was focused on both racial diversity and gender diversity for a broad inclusion, the Korean AA policy emphasizes gender diversity only, and thus fails to address the issues of racial diversity that is expected to increase due to the recent influx of immigrant workers, and growing number of childreo of rural multi-cultural families. There are a lot of empirical results that the U.S. AA policy has accelerated the diverse demographic composition in the workPlace through increasing hiring and promotion of minorities and women. But there are so limited sources of data to analyze the effects of Korean AA policy on employment in Korean finns. Korean government needs to enforce the AA policy smctly and consistently, and should consider adding legal provisions for equal employment opportunities for immigrants and multicultura1 families. Korean finns should consider adopting diversity management and integrative HRM strategies to fully utilize the potentials of the diverse workforce for gaining sustaioable competitive advantages in the global marketplace.