Exam 1 - Short Cases
Exercising Strategy: Home Depot’s Bumpy Road to Equality
1) Under the circumstances presented in this case, Home Depot was likely guilty of discrimination under the theory of “Disparate Impact.”

Disparate Impact is a theory of discrimination based on facially neutral employment practices that disproportionately exclude a protected group from employment opportunities. Discrimination by way of Disparate Impact does not require that the discriminating party intend to discriminate against a protected group. In this case there were only sufficient facts to determine whether Home Depot likely discriminated against women, who are a protected group under Title VII of the Civil Rights Acts. Here, it was shown that the …show more content…

Procedures such as interviews, references, personality inventories, and honesty tests do not require outsourcing background checks and can be done within the company. This also gives them a better understanding of the information gathered since they are doing it themselves and not relying solely on the work of another company.
2) In terms of the reliability of the information collected in a background check, one might want to collect evidence that the use of background checks provide accurate background information of potential employees. If the background checks are not providing accurate information then they are not a reliable measuring tool for companies to use in assessing an applicant.
In terms of the validity of the information collected in a background check, one might want to collect evidence that the information collected in background checks have a relevant relationship to the job for which the information is being collected. For example, if the information collected in a background check has no correlation to an applicant’s capability to properly perform on the job then the information that is being collected is not relevant and thus the validity would be low.
In terms of the generalizability of the value of the information collected in a background check, one might want to collect evidence as to whether this information extends to other contexts for which it may be used. For instance, a