Final answer:
The major goals of affirmative action programs are to create a diverse workforce, improve intergroup relations, and reduce prejudice by providing equal opportunities for historically underrepresented groups.
Step-by-step explanation:
The goal of affirmative action programs is manifold, but it primarily includes fostering an increasingly diverse workforce, improving intergroup relations, and reducing prejudice. Affirmative action involves proactive efforts by governments and businesses to correct the effects of past discrimination by enhancing opportunities for women and minorities in employment, education, and other areas where they have been historically underrepresented.
Such policies include the targeted recruitment of minority candidates and may extend to giving preference to these groups in certain contexts to balance representation. Despite some controversy and legal challenges, the core aim remains to provide equal opportunities and to reflect the changing demographics of the U.S., anticipating a more diversified population and workforce.
Increasing workforce diversity acknowledges changing U.S. demographics, where the representation of racial and ethnic minorities, particularly Hispanics, is predicted to rise significantly, as is the progression of women in their organizational careers. Affirmative action, which originated from civil rights legislation, has had a lasting impact on workplace and education dynamics, despite evolving interpretations and implementations by the courts and government agencies, like the EEOC, which enforces such policies against federal contractors with previous discrimination lawsuits.