As someone who's suffered job discrimination and terrible management, the news that researchers are studying which factors actually lead to better job performance is great news. Certain jobs may be off-limits to me because the data shows I won't be good at them, and as long as the science is sound, I'm okay with it.
Of course, there will be abuses, but it's not like they're breaking a system that currently works well.

NY Times: Big Data Trying to Build Better Workers, 2013-Apr-20, by Steve Lohr

In the past, studies of worker behavior were typically based on observing a few hundred people at most. Today, studies can include thousands or hundreds of thousands of workers, an exponential leap ahead.

“The heart of science is measurement,” says Erik Brynjolfsson, director of the Center for Digital Business at the Sloan School of Management at M.I.T. “We’re seeing a revolution in measurement, and it will revolutionize organizational economics and personnel economics.”