No Steps Forward, Two Steps Back: The Fallacy of Trying to Eradicate Adverse Impact?

Within the context of the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and specifically as it pertains to the tenets of Title VII, Lindsey, King, Dunleavy, McCausland, and Jones (2013) state: ”This focal article raises and addresses critical issues regarding a yet unanswered question: How can organizational researchers and practitioners contribute to the ultimate goal of eradicating employment discrimination” (p. 391). We argue that in the context of employment testing and selection, at least as per the disparate impact theory of discrimination, this question is the wrong one—certainly as framed by Lindsey et al. To the contrary, instead of holding up the ”eradication of employment discrimination” as our ultimate goal, perhaps we should continue to focus on the development, implementation, and support of the best (i.e., most job-related and valid) employment practices possible. This is because employment discrimination, as per the disparate impact theory of discrimination, pertains to the use of employment devices that in the presence of adverse impact, are not job related. Moreover, we believe Lindsey et al.’s treatment of this issue suffers from a lack of scientific and technical precision that clouds