Merit, excellence, and intelligence (MEI) is an organizational framework that emphasizes selecting candidates based solely on their merit, achievements, skills, abilities, intelligence and contributions.
Companies that have substituted their
diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs for MEI include:
Toyota
is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on August 28, 1937. Toyota is the List of manuf ...
,
Meta,
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain. As of 2024, it is the second largest by number of locations in the world, behind only the Chinese ch ...
,
Walmart
Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores in the United States and 23 other ...
,
Ford,
Harley-Davidson
Harley-Davidson, Inc. (H-D, or simply Harley) is an American motorcycle manufacturer headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Founded in 1903, it is one of two major American motorcycle manufacturers to survive the Great Depression along with i ...
,
John Deere
Deere & Company, Trade name, doing business as John Deere (), is an American corporation that manufactures agricultural machinery, heavy equipment, forestry machinery, diesel engines, drivetrains (axles, Transmission (mechanical device), transmi ...
,
Nissan
is a Japanese multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. The company sells its vehicles under the ''Nissan'' and ''Infiniti'' brands, and formerly the ''Datsun'' brand, with in-house ...
,
Tractor Supply Company,
Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...
, and
Boeing
The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...
.
History
The acronym of merit, excellence, and intelligence (MEI) was coined by
Alexandr Wang, cofounder and CEO of
Scale AI in a June 2024 blog post named “Meritocracy at Scale”.
While DEI opponents have praised his stance, Wang in his blog post said that he "strongly disagree
with there being any conflict between meritocracy and diversity.
Criticism
Statements critical of merit, excellence, and intelligence (MEI) include:
* While DEI experts all support hiring the best person for the job, and agreed with Wang's ideas of broadly searching for talent and using objective hiring standards, many DEI advocates feel that no one is completely free from bias, and that prioritizing meritocracy will lead to hiring managers hiring people who are similar to themselves.
* Overlooking “systemic barriers that persist
���� and “marginalizing those who do not fit into a homogeneous, heteronormative mold.”
* Being a “
B.S.” philosophy that is pervasive “among some white men in power who believe they deserve their privilege.”.
*
Merit not having a universal
definition
A definition is a statement of the meaning of a term (a word, phrase, or other set of symbols). Definitions can be classified into two large categories: intensional definitions (which try to give the sense of a term), and extensional definitio ...
.
*
Seena Hodges, a DEI consultant, stated that “Saying that you hire for merit, excellence, and intelligence is really saying that historically underrepresented people are not worthy”.
*
Haje Jan Kamps described MEI as “the newest wave of
stupidity”.
See also
*
Achievement ideology
*
Civil service entrance examination
Civil service examinations are examinations implemented in various countries for recruitment and admission to the civil service. They are intended as a method to achieve an effective, rational public administration on a merit system for recruit ...
*
Discrimination of excellence
*
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)
*
EU Concours
Concours or EU Concours is a "recruitment competition and examination to select staff to all institutions of the European Union".
Explanation of open competition
According to the web site of the European Personnel Selection Office
The Europ ...
*
Executive Order 14151
*
Human resources
Human resources (HR) is the set of people who make up the workforce of an organization, business sector, industry, or economy. A narrower concept is human capital, the knowledge and skills which the individuals command. Similar terms include ' ...
*
Meritocracy
Meritocracy (''merit'', from Latin , and ''-cracy'', from Ancient Greek 'strength, power') is the notion of a political system in which economic goods or political power are vested in individual people based on ability and talent, rather than ...
*
Social mobility
Social mobility is the movement of individuals, families, households or other categories of people within or between social strata in a society. It is a change in social status relative to one's current social location within a given socie ...
* ''
Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard''
References
External links
Meritocracy at Scale(
Alexandr Wang, blog post, June 13 2024)
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Human resource management
Sociology of work