You Are the Judge Hearing a Motion for Summary Judgment

question 15

Multiple Choice

You are the judge hearing a Motion for Summary judgment filed by an employer in the case of an employee who has been terminated. The employee was the sole African-American customer service representative at the firm, who had a lengthy record of good evaluations. However, she received more negative evaluations over a period of three years after a new supervisor was hired, though the more stringent requirements applied to her were not applied to white employees. After 3 years, the employee was then selected for termination in a downsizing based on the previous 3 years evaluations. Based on this evidence, what should you decide?

• A) you should grant summary judgment for the employer because the termination was based on performance appraisals rather than race
• B) you should grant summary judgment for the employer because a discrimination claim based on performance appraisals going back three years was no longer timely
• C) you should allow the employee to go to trial because African-Americans disproportionately received low performance ratings in this company
• D) you should allow the employee to go to trial because the termination was based on performance appraisals that were tainted by consideration of the employee s race
• E) none of the above

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Definitions:

Decentralized Organization

An organizational structure where decision-making authority is distributed throughout various levels rather than being concentrated at the top.

Physical Locations

The tangible and geographical places where businesses, organizations, or other entities occupy space, often important for operations, customer interaction, and logistic purposes.

Taller Organizations

Organizations with multiple layers of management between front-line employees and the top level, often resulting in slower decision-making processes.

Spans

Refers to the extent, scope, or duration of something, often used in contexts such as time spans or spans of control in organizations.