Exploring the Requirements and Impact of Antidiscrimination Laws on Effective Hiring Practices

Employee selection is one of the most important responsibilities assigned to managers. However, should any practice or conduct in the employee selection process indicate that discrimination affected a manager's hiring decision, the employer will be subject to legal charges and potentially expensive litigation. Poor hiring-related processes or hiring-related decisions by managers that may lead to the risk of employers being charged with employment discrimination were explored in this qualitative, phenomenological study. The knowledge, perspectives, and recommendations of 24 department managers from four automobile dealerships were assessed. The study had three objectives: (a) assess the managers' knowledge of Title VII, ADEA, and ADA protections relative to employee selections; (b) determine the managers' perceptions of Title VII, ADEA, and ADA based on everyday management functions and lived experiences, and (c) report the managers' recommendations for actions that should be continued or implemented relative to preemployment testing, preemployment criminal background checks, and formal employment interviews. The data were collected through open-ended oral interviews which were administered individually to the participant managers at their respective dealerships. The phenomenological design was used to interpret the original descriptions of participants. While the managers' knowledge, perspectives, and recommendations were limited in scope, the study's primary objectives were realized. Each element of Title VII protections was cited at some point within the 24 interviews, but relatively minimal references were made to ADEA and ADA protections. Therefore, the impact of the current research might not be as consequential as could have been realized because two of the major laws on which the research was based were either unfamiliar or deemed unimportant to the managers. Future research recommendations include, in part: (a) exploring the productivity and reliability of similarly situated employees selected with preemployment testing as opposed to employees selected without preemployment testing; (b) exploring any differences of perceived employment discrimination between men working for men, women working for women, men working for women, and women working for men; (c) exploring levels of employment discrimination charges in similarly situated workplaces with dedicated human resource managers as opposed to workplaces without dedicated human resource managers.