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ethiCS GUiDe Querying Inequality?

pattern; it just happened to jump out at her as she glanced was very high. “OK,” she thought, “I’ll use those cities as a 203
at the screen. rough surrogate.”
As she examined the data, she began to wonder if she Using birth city as a query criterion, MaryAnn created
was seeing a coincidence or if there was a discriminatory queries that determined employees who were born in the
pattern within the organization. Unfortunately for Mary- selected cities earned, on average, 23 percent less than those
Ann’s purposes, the organization did not track employee race who were not. “Well, that could be because they work in
in its database, so she had no easy way of identifying employ- lower-pay-grade jobs.” After giving it a bit of thought, Mary-
ees of Hispanic heritage other than reading through the list Ann realized that she needed to examine wages and salaries
of surnames. But, as a skilled problem solver, that didn’t stop within job categories. “Where,” she wondered, “do people
MaryAnn. She realized that many employees having Hispan- born in those cities fall in the ranges of their job categories?”
ic origins were born in certain cities in Texas, New Mexico, So, she constructed SQL to determine where within a job
Arizona, and California. Of course, this wasn’t true for all category the compensation for people born in the selected
employees; many non-Hispanic employees were born in those cities fell. “Wow!” she said to herself, “almost 80 percent of
cities, too, and many Hispanic employees were born in other the employees born in those cities fall into the bottom half of
cities. This data was still useful, however, because MaryAnn’s their salary range.”
sample queries revealed that the proportion of employees MaryAnn scheduled an appointment with her manager
with Hispanic surnames who were also born in those cities for the next day.

DiSCUSSion QUeStionS

When answering the following questions, suppose that you a. Correct the imbalances immediately.
are MaryAnn: b. Gradually correct the imbalances at future pay raises.
1. Given these query results, do you have an ethical re- c. Do nothing about the imbalances, but train manag-
sponsibility to do something? Consider both the categori- ers not to discriminate in the future.
cal imperative (pages 56–57) and the utilitarian (pages d. Do nothing.
92–93) perspectives. 7. Suppose you hire a part-time person to help with the more
2. Given these query results, do you have a personal or so- accurate analysis, and that person is so outraged at the
cial responsibility to do something? outcome that he quits and notifies newspapers in all the
3. What is your response if your manager says, “You don’t affected cities of the organization’s discrimination.
know anything; it could be that starting salaries are low- a. How should the organization respond?
er in those cities. Forget about it.” b. How should you respond?
4. What is your response if your manager says, “Don’t be a 8. Consider the adage “Never ask a question for which you
troublemaker; pushing this issue will hurt your career.” do not want the answer.”
5. What is your response if your manager says, “Right. a. Is following that adage ethical? Consider both the
We already know that. Get back to the tasks that I’ve as- categorical imperative and utilitarian perspectives.
signed you.” b. Is following that adage socially responsible?
6. Suppose your manager gives you funding to follow up c. How does that adage relate to you, as MaryAnn?
with a more accurate analysis, and, indeed, there is a d. How does that adage relate to you, as a future busi-
pattern of underpayment to people with Hispanic sur- ness professional?
names. What should the organization do? For each e. With regard to employee compensation, how does
choice below, indicate likely outcomes: that adage relate to organizations?