Comparative Analysis of U.S. Army recruiting minorities and Corporate America recruiting minorities
Abstract
The purpose of this article is to reflect the true picture of U.S. military recruiting minorities. Through this paper a comparative study has been done between the U.S. military and the corporate America, which are recruiting the minorities. This tells how the military of U.S. is attracting the minorities to recruit in the forces and what kind of benefits they are offering to the teens. They are mainly targeting the working-class and the schools.
Instead in corporate America, some efforts are being made to fill up the difference between minors and the majors and how the Hispanics are being promoted on top positions. The main purpose of this article is to make comparison between the two systems, the U.S. military and the corporate America’s recruitment policies for the minorities. It highlights that military is only targeting the color people who can take risk of their lives as they are attracted towards the lures given by the military, on the other hand the corporate America is trying to bring the parity between the minorities and the US citizens by giving chances and the similar treatment o the minorities.
U.S. Army recruiting minorities:
The U.S. army has the history of recruiting soldiers of color and they also have a tradition of sending them on frontlines. They intend to recruit minorities and the people who have low income. These color and poor people are offered attractive benefits and if they don’t accept these kinds of offers, it seems that they won’t get such kind of opportunity somewhere else like money, which they can use for college or their special training. Especially, at the time of war the U.S. government and the military are frantic to find out volunteers. At that time they specially look for those who desire to take risk because such type of people generally have very less choices and they don’t have much money for college and educational training. For continue to exist, this minor class also need money. So they are eager to earn sufficient money for surviving. Their helpless condition compels them to take risk of their lives. That’s why they become the part of the military (Stephanie Myers).
Hispanic Americans are offered a way of earning a college degree and for this the military help them. This strategy has become so successful that a marketing firm is helping the military of the U.S. in promoting Hispanic Americans to adopt military careers.
Latinos the other minor class, when it was just 4.5% of the population served at the time of Vietnam War. Just to hire the people for the military, the recruiters crossed the Mexico City and found out the high school dropouts. The poor Latin Americans are also offered best payments time to time and their recruitments have been done in the military. That’s why sometimes the question of human rights have also been raised by those who want to see US citizens also in the military. According to them US citizens should share this responsibility with the minorities (Stephanie Myers).
Even the recruiters target school students also. The 2002 law of No Child Left Behind Education give the military whole information about children’s home addresses, their telephone numbers and favors the military recruitment policy that the school should allow the recruiters for the military. The military is making wide search for the students. They specially ask for Latinos students and search them in Latinos serving school and record their telephone numbers. The National Center for Education Statistics says that in the community college of the U.S., approximately 50% minority students take college education (Joseph Laporte and Meghan Boyle).
These recruiters especially hunt for the minority students and promise them to pay their school or college fee up to $ 70,000.They do the publicity of giving education benefits to attract these students toward military. Recruiters reach everywhere in public schools, located in an internal city. They don’t approach the schools where students from well off family come. They only bother the schools where these poor minority students can be found (Joseph Laporte).
The JROTC has increased its search for helpless students in many schools. They really follow the process very patiently like by making phone calls and by doing the follow up in a computer program, which the military calls “Blue print”. The efficient students are approached by making several home visits and also these students receive huge mailings. The recruiters follow these students in shopping malls, sporting events etc. Generally they look for the working-class public schools. Many practices are done to call the students such as they look for the trendy student and involve him in the conversation in front of other students.
In an ROTC program, in a working-class public school, recruiters arranged dance program and handed out military broachers, mugs and key chains (Joseph Laporte).
So the historical and political circumstances prove that exploitation of color population in the United States, whether its citizens or non-citizens has increased. This country’s capitalism violates the lives of people in the whole underdeveloped world and poor areas and also takes advantage of their people and resources (Stephanie Myers).
Now military recruiters are facing problems in filing their quotas, as their techniques of attracting the individuals are dubious. The military is being condemned for aiming some specific schools and communities unduly. Though there are students in such schools who are eager to join the military. The objectors for these kinds of recruitments feel that the military is aiming only low-income areas like African Americans and Latinos. Except these kinds of lures, presently the military is adapting some other strategies like offering cosmetic surgery to fight with the decreasing recruitments where soldiers and their families are benefited with the plastic surgery like nose jobs, face lifts and some other kinds of treatments for free of cost. It is being believed that it is unethical to put one’s life in danger just for twenty-thirty thousand dollars (Stephanie Myers).
In 1999 the army’s goal was to recruit 75,000 soldiers. Bonuses up to $12000 and the educational benefits up to $50000 were offered by Megawood (Tom Bearden, 1999).
In the year 2005 the military postponed the recruitment of the soldiers just to retrain the recruiters (Manila Ryce, 2006).
Corporate America recruiting minorities:
U.S. companies know this truth that by the end of the century there would be a different workforce. They are aware of this truth since 1987.That will be completely different from the white group, which makes toady’s corporate America. The labor department’s “Workforce 2000”report of 1987 assumed that women, minorities and immigrants would be as new workers by 2000. Their percentage would be of 80% and the average age of a worker in the U.S. would be of 39.This calculation also shows the statistics that in the last three decades, the companies are violently employing the women and the minorities. These are the mainly industrial and manufacturing companies, which believe in the manpower and its services not the products.
These companies are offering equal employment program to get variety of workforce. They believe in diversity, which some of the modern historians call a salad bowl with different color, texture and flavor that makes it unique. Many companies are appreciating this diversified approach and the importance of each individual regardless of color, race, class, educational background, age or physical disability and sexual orientation is being understood.
A 1994 survey reveals the truth that the “WyattWorkUSA” discovered that the key factors like age, gender, income everything put effects on an employee’s satisfaction and after all a company’s performance.
In 1985, Hewlett-Packard Co. of Palo Alto also encouraged the motto of working with diversity that was successful in attracting minorities and women. The company also launched some courses on managing diversity into its management-training program.
According to U.S. census Bureau Hispanics, which are the 13% of the total U.S. population are the largest minority group in the country that makes it larger than the African Americans who are the 12.7% of the total population. But for the surprise, though the Hispanics are the fastest growing people still they are not able to make its proper place in corporate America’s offices. But it seems that the recruiters and the executives are going to correct themselves by filling up this difference (Julie Bennett).
According to the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility that it the Washington based organization the Hispanics are included in corporate America by growing up its population up to 42.6 million and it is assumed that by 2050 Hispanics will have place one out of four US citizens.
Latinos number of population is also increasing rapidly in the country. Latinos buying power has been calculated as $630 billion and the Hispanic children have become the hottest demand in entertainment and clothing industries. But Latinos have very less place in corporate America. According to HACR Hispanics achieved only 191 seats in 10,417 board seats in Fortune 1000 corporation. That makes just 1.8%. Similarly they had just 1.1% of the seats in executive offices. Latinos could not have any place in 913 of 1000 offices. Industries like insurance and telecommunications did not have any Hispanic officer (Julie Bennett).
Some times back, on the request of University of California, Greenling institute Community Partnership on Diversity made research on the staff employment practices of the ten campuses of the university. That study revealed the truth that Hispanics made the 17% of the total staff, which was equivalent to any other major community. But this also came into picture that just 0.2% staff of the Hispanics was on the senior post. According to Tammeil Gilkerson if this system continues, then minority will never get any top position.
To defend this subject there is an argument that Hispanics are not included in such type of top positions because there is not sufficient no. of them to fill up these high ranking positions.
A representative from a university protected the process of hiring people in his university by telling that there are very less minority applicants who hold doctorates or postdoctoral degrees.
Verizone, the telephone and communications company applied a strategy in 2001 to give 20% of managerial positions to Hispanics. The company gave promotions to the 10% of the diversified program participants and recruited 15 new Hispanic directors and at the time of program the Latinos leadership was 2.5%, which has increased up to 5%.
According to Rougeau, the vice president of American Express in the 1980s, a lot of changes can be seen by giving the positions of CEO and Chairman to the blacks. Nightly Business Report analyzes the benefits of diversity program that emphasizes to understand the meaning of diversity and its importance on the work place. The program focuses on the reduction of the racial and gender inequality in American economy.
The Proctor and Gamble Company has been increasing the number of women and minorities on the top positions like presidents, general managers etc. for five years. The company is determined to encourage the minorities to get the top positions (Graciela Eleta De Cacho, 2002).
References:
Being All They can Be, http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/military/jan-june99/army_3-12.html
Bennett, Julie, Boosting the Hispanic Rank of Corporate America, http://www.careerjournal.com/myc/diversity/20030321-bennett.html
Companies Seek Synergy in Diversity, http://www.washingtontechnology.com/print,
01/11/96; Vol. 10 No. 19
Diversity in Corporate America: Still a Work in Progress, http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1406
Latina Style 50, http://latina50.latinastyle.com
Myers, Stephanie; Laporte Joseph & Boyle, Meghan, “War on Terror” From a Race/Class Perspective, http://www.csun.edu/Faculty/Sheena.Malhotra/GRCS%20Files/Final%20Projects/military-recruitment.htm
Ryce, Manila (2006), The Simpsons on Army Recruitment, http://www.jwharrison.com/blog/2006/11/13/the-simpsons-on-army-recruitment/
