The History Of The Human Resources

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Human Resources

Name

Institution

Task one

Introduction

In the United States of America, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is considered as a benchmark for the legislation of the civil rights. The Act is against mainly on the discrimination of individuals based on their religion, race, color, gender, as well as nationality. It advocates for equal treatment of people in various places such as work places regardless of who they are or represent in the society (Loevy, 1990). In the later years after it was enacted, the Congress was involved in the expansion of the Act with the aim of strengthening the fundamental civil rights. In the Act, Title VII tends to protect employees from being discriminated by their employers based on their color, gender, religion, race, and nationality (Gittinger & Fisher, 2004).

Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, there is the Constructive Discharge aspect that the former employee used to file the claim against the organization. As a legal concept that is found in the Act under Title VII, Constructive discharge was relevant in this particular scenario. As well stipulated in the Civil Rights Act, Constructive Discharge tends to regulate and target the discrimination practices that take place in the employment sector. This concept takes place in the working place when the employer makes the working environment intolerable for employees to continue working. In such conditions, an employee is usually forced to quit his or her duties from the organization due to the intolerable working conditions set by the organization (Arlington, 1964).

This particular concept is considered in the given scenario in the sense that the organization changed the working conditions without putting in mind the religious holidays. The working environment was made nasty for the former employee to carry on with his duties because the organization changed the production schedule (Arlington, 1964). The former employee was a production employee, and the organization changed the production schedule that required employees to work 12-hour shifts with four days at work and then four days off throughout from Monday to Sunday. The four working days could occur on any day of the week, Monday to Sunday, not considering Fridays as a holy day for Muslim employees, and Sunday a holy day for Christian employees.

The organization required that all the production employees strictly adhere to this particular changed working schedule. Initially, the condition was fair on the production employees because they were allowed to work from Monday to Friday, reporting at the work place at 8.00am and leaving at 5.00pm. In his claim against the organization, the former employee compared the changed working schedule for the production employees to that of the Office staff members and found out that the organization was discriminative. The office staff members were required to work from Monday through the Friday with the reporting hours being 8.00 am to 5.00pm, unlike the working schedule for the production employees. For this reason, the former employee had all the rights of quitting the job because the organization had created a working environment that was extremely intolerable for him. Therefore, the organization has no option but to respond to the claims filed by the former employee to the court, since the claims revolve around Constructive Discharge (Chow, Wilkinson, & Zinn, 1996).

Since the scenario is based on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, other areas that are covered under the title are as well relevant to the scenario. One of the areas relevant to this scenario under the title include retaliation. Under this area, the former employee of the organization had the right of filing the discriminatory claims against the organization. In this particular scenario, the retaliation area of the Act provides that the former employee of the organization was free from retaliation of the organization for his opposition regarding the creation of unbearable working environment by the organization (Arlington, 1964).

Another vital area under Title VII of the Act that is relevant to this scenario is Compensation and Other Employment Terms, Conditions, as well as Privileges. This particular area is relevant in the sense that the organization had no right to refuse to discharge the former employee from working with them based on his religion. At the same juncture, this area is against discrimination of employees in terms of privileges of employment based on their religion, color, race, sex, or nationality. In this scenario, the privileges of employment in terms of reasonable working days were not given to the former employee based on his religion. The organization failed to recognize his religious holy day by requiring him to work through from Monday to Sunday (Gittinger & Fisher, 2004).

Based on the legal provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the organization had to respond to the claims on constructive discharge filed against them by the former employee. There are various recommendations that would address how the organization would respond to the constructive discharge charges by the former employee, but this essay will deal with one recommendation. One of the recommendations on how the organization should respond to the claims is that it was the duty of the employee to communicate to the organization about his religious requirements before the organization changed the working schedule at the production sector (Payton, 2004). With this recommendation, the organization would challenge the employee for failing to communicate his religious requirements to be considered by the changed working schedule. According to the provisions of Title VII of the Act, it is the duty of both the employee and the employer to notify one another about their requirements. Since the employee failed to notify the organization about his religious requirements in good time, the organization had no obligation of accommodating his requests later, hence the resignation of the employee was at will.

The recommendation above would guide the organization on how to respond to the constructive discharge claims filed by the former employee. For instance, there are legal references that would support this particular recommendation. They include the case between Redmond v GAF company in 1978, Ansonia Board of Education v Philbrook in 1986, and Chrysler Corporation v Curtis L Mann in 1977 (Payton, 2004).

Recommended steps that would help the company avoid issues around Title VII of the Act would be respecting the religious stand of its employees when making crucial decisions at the company. Another step would be to avoid retaliating on an employee’s decision to file any form of discriminatory claims against the company. Another recommended step would be not to deny its employees their compensation and other privileges of the company based on their religion, color, race, gender, or nationality (Chow, Wilkinson, & Zinn, 1996).

In conclusion, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is an important legislation piece that fights for the rights of people against discrimination based on their race, nationality, gender, religion, as well as color. The Act is divided in different titles and one of the most influential title that covers the employment sector is Title VII. The concept of constructive discharge that the former employee of Toy Company filed a case against the company is clearly provided in the Act under Title VII (Loevy, 1990).

Task two

Introduction

In the business world, majority of institutions and companies tend to experience corporate scandals. With the increase of corporate scandals, respective leadership system of companies and institutions are on the cross roads as to whether the enforcement of an effective ethics program could positively impact the corporate scandals. For instance, there has been additional attention given to the ethical actions within various organizations due to the increased scrutiny of corporation actions as well as of those who work on behalf of organizations. Majority of organizations have responded to the increased scrutiny by coming up with programs based on formal ethics. This is aimed at fostering ethical decision making for business officers, directors, as well as employees. Ethics programs that are effective are beneficial in the sense that they create the opportunity for management (Ciulla, Price, & Murphy, 2005).

This further paves way for the establishment of a culture that creates ethical behavior in the organization, both internally and externally, as the business looks forward to doing away with unethical conduct. The task below seeks to address issues of ethical leadership in a given scenario where a toy company released a huge shipment of toys with whistles containing amounts of lead. The amount of lead was considered to be above the limit as per the legal requirements of the United States of America for children below the age of 7 years. In the scenario, it is indicated that the metal whistle in the toy collection failed to pass testing as a result of lead traces. Therefore, the task will specifically address the possible decision alternatives to address the problem regarding the whistles, and the importance of ethical decision making to be presented to the CEO and board of directors at the board meeting.

There are a number of possible decision alternatives that can be effective in addressing the issue of the whistles in the toy, though only three alternatives will be discussed. Since the shipment had not yet arrived at its destination, one of the possible alternatives is to redirect the shipment back to the company for reprocessing and repackaging. The process that was used in the selection of this alternative entailed reexamining the outcomes of the alternative at the organization level, as well as on the intensity of the issue. The process as well involved suggestions from various stakeholders of the company including the leadership system, the employees of the company as well as the feedback from esteemed customers of the company (Ciulla B. , 2013).

Although the alternative could be effective in addressing the problem, it comes along with advantages and disadvantages. The advantages of the alternative include its effectiveness in addressing the issue, enhancing the ethical status of the company in terms of service and product delivery, and the fact that it would have adhered to the legal requirements in the United States concerning lead limits in metal toys for children. The disadvantages surrounding this particular alternative are that the alternative is expensive because of reprocessing and repackaging, it is time consuming as well due to the reprocessing and repackaging processes (Ciulla B. , 2013).

There are legal, financial, and ethical considerations that surrounds the alternative. The legal consideration for the alternative is that it would comply with the legal requirements of the United States with regards to the proposed lead level in the whistles. For instance, when the products will be reprocessed, the company will ensure that its employees do not exceed the lead levels in the whistles because that was the cause of reprocessing. The company will be hardest hit by financial considerations of the alternative. It is with no doubt that, the company will spend double the amount for reprocessing and repackaging of the products. The ethical consideration of the alternative will enhance the corporate ethics of the company. This is because by reprocessing the products again indicates that the company is considerate about the health of its customers, hence this will enhance the ethics of the company (Ciulla, Price, & Murphy, 2005).

Another alternative that would address the issue of whistles in toys to be delivered in elementary schools is the complete destruction of the shipment, and releasing a shipment that has passed the testing to be delivered in the elementary schools. This particular alternative will ensure that the elementary schools do not receive the toys with whistles contaminated with lead. The process for the selection of this particular alternative involved the opinion of the key stakeholders of the company. The outcomes for the alternative on the customers and the company’s reputation was included in the selection process of the alternative (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Ferrell, 2005).

The alternative as well has a set of advantages and disadvantages. One of the advantages of this particular alternative is the fact that the toys contaminated with lead will not reach the children. Another advantage is that the process of destroying the contaminated shipment would be fast. The service and product delivery of the company will be enhanced since the elementary schools will receive a shipment of toys with no contamination of lead. One of the disadvantages of the alternative is the fact the company will count losses for destroying the entire shipment of toys (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Ferrell, 2005).

The legal consideration of this particular alternative is the fact it will adhere to the acceptable limits of lead to be included in the whistles as per the regulations of the American law. This legal consideration will be arrived at when the company tests and ensures the second shipment to be delivered in the elementary schools has passed the testing. Under financial considerations of the alternative, the company will definitely count losses. The money they used in the production of the contaminated toys will be lost, and the company will still use more money in the destruction of the contaminated shipment, as well as in the production of another shipment without lead contamination. Under the ethical considerations of this particular alternative, the ethics of the company will be on the positive side because the company considered providing its customers with quality products (Ciulla B. , 2013).

The final alternative that would address the problem of contaminated whistles in the toy shipment to be delivered to elementary schools would be redirecting the shipment back to the company and replace the contaminated metal whistles in the toys with ones that are not contaminated. After successful replacement of the contaminated metal whistles, the shipment should be delivered to the elementary schools. The process of selecting this particular alternative involved the top management team of the company. The views of the customers of the company were as well included in the process of selecting the alternative (Kline, 2005).

Similarly to the above named alternatives for addressing the problem of contaminated whistles, this particular alternative has got is advantages and disadvantages. One of the advantages of the alternative is the fact that it is effective in ensuring that the elementary schools get toys of good quality. Another advantage is that the company will save on costs of reprocessing the entire products, hence less expensive. The fact the alternative will adhere to the legal requirements of America regarding the limit of lead in metal whistles is an advantage. On the other hand, the alternative is disadvantageous in the sense that it is time consuming (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Ferrell, 2005).

Based on the legal considerations of the alternative, it is evident that the alternative would have met the legal requirements of America based on the limit of lead amounts to expose to children under the age of seven. This is achieved by the fact that the contaminated whistles in the toys will be replaced with good ones. Based on the financial considerations of the alternative, the company will only incur the cost of processing new metal whistles, replacing them in the toys, and repackaging the toys. The company will save costs of either reprocessing the entire shipment or destroying the shipment and delivering another shipment of toys. On ethics consideration of the alternative, the company will probably earn itself ethical standards for opting to deliver toys of good quality to its customers (Kline, 2005).

Of the three discussed alternative for addressing the issue in the scenario the recommended alternative is redirecting the shipment back to the company and replace the contaminated metal whistles in the toys with ones that are not contaminated. This recommendation is justified in the sense that it would be of benefit to the company, less costs would be incurred. It would be of benefit to the customers, as they will receive toys with metal whistles containing the required limit of lead. It would as well meet America’s legal requirements of lead limits for children of 7 years and below. This particular recommendation would improve the customer relationship with the company in the sense that the customers will build their trust in product and service delivery of the company (Kline, 2005).

In ethical decision-making process, social responsibility was included. The role of social responsibility in ethical decision-making was to ensure that all the stakeholders of the company including customers, employees of the company, the company’s management, and the society affected by activities of the company receive an equal treatment. Therefore, the alternatives selected for addressing the issue of contaminated whistles in the toys considered the well-being of all the stakeholders of the company (Price, 2008).

There are a number of strategies that a company can adopt in ensuring that ethical decision making takes place at all levels of the organization. One of the strategies to be adopted is the identification of all stakeholders of the company. The organization should be able to identify who are the people to be affected later by any decision they make in carrying out their activities. It is important to recognize the people who are interested in being associated to the activities carried out by the organization another strategy would be respecting the opinion of the identified stakeholders concerning any decision to be made by the organization. Once the management team of an organization respects the feedback given to them by the stakeholders o the organization, then ethical leadership would take place at all levels of the organization (Brown, 2005).

The company would benefit from code of ethics in various ways. One of the ways it would benefit is the fact that the company will be able to make effective strategic decision-making. Code of ethics will ensure that there is a foundation on which all decisions of the company will be based. Another benefit of code of ethics is the fact that it would be of legal importance to the company. For instance, code of ethics would protect the company in case an employee of the company commits a criminal act in the name of the company. Another benefit of code of ethics for the company is that it safeguards the reputation of the company (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Ferrell, 2005).

There are a number of components included in the Johnsons and Johnson Company code of ethics that the toy company would include in developing its code of ethics. The components include the company’s top leadership commitment to the code of ethics, proper coordination of the code of ethics with the policies of the company, as well as the culture of the company.

Task three

Introduction

A performance appraisal system in an organization is considered as a process that does the evaluation of job performance of the employees of the organization. The evaluation of performance is usually done in terms of time, cost, quantity, and quality of the performance. The management team of the organization usually carries out the process of performance appraisal (Grote, 2002). The task below seeks to address some of the selected issues in performance appraisal of a toy company.

The optimal results for a well-prepared and delivered performance entail performance competencies as well as expectations. Such a performance appraisal appears in terms that are understandable to the employee, and be supported by examples that are clear, honest and with facts. The performance appraisal should as well be consistent, and takes into consideration the timeline of what is observed throughout the period of appraisal (Henderson, 1984).

Another optimal result for a well prepared and a well-delivered performance appraisal is that the appraisal properly does the assessment of performance of the employee in order to meet the expectations that were established by the company. For instance, this particular result ensures that the performance appraisal recognizes the good performance of the employee in the company and identifies the areas that require improvement in the performance. In this particular optimal result, the performance appraisal promotes the effectiveness of communication between the employee and the leadership system of the company for the success of the company as well as the employee (Grote, 2002).

There are pre-appraisal activities that would ensure that the performance appraisal process is beneficial to the company and the employee. One of the activities include reviewing the past performance appraisal. This will ensure that the mistakes incurred in the past process are avoided in the future process. Another recommended pre-appraisal activity would be proper communication of the performance appraisal system in the organization before carrying out the process. This would assist both the employee and the management familiarize with the process before participating in it. Another vital pre-appraisal activity that would ensure the process is beneficial to both the employee and the company is the documentation of the performance appraisal system prior to the process. This would as well ensure that the employee and the management of the company familiarize themselves with the system. The final recommended pre-appraisal activity would be creating a better working environment for proper work standards for both the employee and the management of the organization (Henderson, 1984).

In addition to the pre-appraisal activities, there are as well post-appraisal activities that would ensure that the performance appraisal process is beneficial to both the employee and the company. One of the recommended post-appraisal activity include holding a post-appraisal meeting in which both the employee and the management team of the company attends. This particular meeting would ensure that both the employee and the management team of the company identify the outcome of the performance appraisal process. Another post-appraisal activity that would be beneficial to both the employee and the company would be communicating the performance of the process. This would enable both the employee and the management team know whether the process was successful or it failed. This activity can be combined with post-appraisal meeting where the issue can be discussed by the stakeholders involved. Finally, another post-appraisal activity would be setting new targets for the next performance appraisal process. This particular activity can be carried out when the performance of the process has been delivered (Grote, 2002).

During the process of performance appraisal, there are some aspects that can go wrong when giving the feedback. For instance, there can be dissatisfaction in the employees when giving a feedback. The process may lower their performance morale.

When delivering a performance appraisal for optimal value, the manager should follow the following steps for better outcome. The first step is proper preparation for the process. The next step that the manger should follow would be assessment of the performance of the employees of the company, since it is their responsibility. The next step would be proper reviewing of the documentation of the performance appraisal system for the previous years. Eventually, the manger can deliver the performance appraisal clearly (American Management Association., 1977).

It is of great importance for companies to work together with their employees to further their career goals. One of the benefits for this is the fact that the company is enabled to support the overall goals of the organization and that of an individual employee.

Effective assessment of team performance is for the better of the overall performance of the company’s performance. In carrying out this particular task, it is important to include all the employees of the company for better outcomes. In order to effectively assess team performance in an organization the recommended strategy to be adopted is management with objectives. In this particular strategy, the objectives of the organization are agreed upon so that there can be a common way forward for both the employees and the management team of the organization. The strategy tends to greatly motivate employees through the participation in the process of planning (American Management Association., 1977).

In the evaluation of team performance and individual performance of the employees, there are various differences in the activities. One of the difference is the fact that in individual performance evaluation, the employee is rated based on his or her own productivity and performance, while in team performance evaluation, the productivity and performance of employees is evaluated collectively. Another difference is that individual performance evaluation is more accurate because the evaluation is based on each employee, while in team performance evaluation the process is less accurate since it is collective in which some employees may joyride in his or her performance (Rothwell, 2001).

The aspect of succession planning is vital in the management of an organization. It is a process that entails the logical creation of management progression in an organization. The process of succession planning ensures that organizations recruit well-developed and trained employees to fill positions in the organization. There are various reasons for adopting succession planning in an organization. They include ensuring that there is the availability of competent individuals to fill in the higher positions in the organization, the strengthening of relationships between departments within an organization, and the reduction in the instability in the organization (Rothwell, 2001).

A given company can use succession planning in various ways. One of the way in which succession planning can be used by a company is in the choice of a competent candidate to fill in a higher management position in the organization. Another way in which succession planning can be used by a company is in the developmental activities of the company. This may entail the search of suitable employees for the top positions in the organization.

Since succession planning is a process, a company may follow the following steps in carrying out the process of succession planning. The first step is the identification of the key positions within the organization. The next step would be developing an exit strategy in the organization that would allow the newly recruited employees for the identified positions be able to fill in the positions. The next step would involve developing a full list of key successful applicants for the key positions, then identifying at least two successful employees for the position. The next step in the process would involve the determination of whether the two successful employees of the organizations are interested in taking part in the succession process. The next step for the process would entail scheduling of time for the development of succession planning, and eventually specific training and development opportunities should be identified (Blair, 1997).

In conclusion, the key reiterating points include the importance of performance appraisal system in an organization, evaluation of the performance of employees, as well as the aspect of succession planning. For instance, for the implementation of the key points, the CEO and the board of directors should consider the following recommended steps. On the performance appraisal process, the CEO and the board of directors should consider the pre-activities that are beneficial for both the employee and the company before carrying out the process. Another recommended step for this point is that they should carry out the process effectively for the best outcomes, which would benefit the employee and the company (Rothwell, 2001).

On the performance evaluation, it is recommended that the team should focus on evaluating the performance of individual employees rather than carrying out team performance. Finally, on the succession planning, the team should effectively follow the stipulated steps of the process for best results on succession planning (Grote, 2002).