Managing the changing and increasing diverse workforce presents business management with both opportunities and challenges. What is acceptable and normal behavior with one type of worker can be offensive and a barrier to others. Despite decades of legal and political initiatives to bring equal opportunity, an increasingly diverse workforce has not yet translated into increased diversity in positions of authority, equality of wages and benefits, and in positions of power and prestige.

The view that as long as business does not deny equal treatment and equal opportunity it has fulfilled its legal responsibility concerning discrimination in work and commerce is considered at great length with emphasis on determining that point at which discrimination becomes unethical or unfair. The importance of reflecting on and understanding the meaning of terms in the language used to debate affirmative action and preferential treatment is stressed with special attention given to the ambiguity surrounding these words' meanings. The differences in policies of preferential treatment in hiring decisions are explained and the deontological arguments supporting and challenging these policies are presented in detail. Finally, the chapter addresses sexual harassment in the workplace examining the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission's guidelines for defining illegal sexual harassment, the two fundamental types of illegal sexual harassment, and the difficulty in determining the standard that is best suited for interpreting what constitutes unreasonable interference with a person's work.