Meritocracy vs. Diversity....is there a right answer?

MWolf
Thu, 09 May 2019 07:18:06 +0000

@tpike12 The problem is that “very high integrity, business-savvy, an owner-oriented attitude and a deep genuine interest in the company” can mean exactly what anybody wants it to mean.

I do not see “merit” there, I see opinion. How do you objectively measure whether one person has more “integrity” than another? Of course, if you think that people do not assign integrity based on race, ethnicity, religion, class, or geography, you are living in a bubble. Then there is “business savvy” which can mean anything that an HR person wants it to. There are dozens of ways to measure this, each just as legitimate as the next, and you can choose whichever one you want to make sure that a applicant will succeed or fail. Then there is “owner oriented”. That is extremely difficult to ascertain, unless they shoot their mouth off about how they are in the job just for themselves. Otherwise you need to be a mind reader. As for “deep genuine interest in the company”, that is something else that requires the ability to read minds. You can try determining it by interview, but everything an applicant says can be interpreted multiple ways, and from that, you can reach any conclusion that you want. Basically, for every one of those measures of “merit” can be manipulated to make any applicant look good or bad, unless an applicant is so obviously the opposite of any of those.

This is all the worst parts of “holistic admissions”.