MGMT 309 Exam 3 Chapter 13
What is a contingency worker?
A contingent worker is a person who works for an organization on something other than a permanent or full-time basis. Categories of contingent workers include independent contractors, on-call workers, temporary employees (usually hired through outside agencies), and contract and leased employees. Another category is part-time workers. The financial services giant Citigroup, for example, makes extensive use of part-time sales agents to pursue new clients. In 2019, around 40 percent of employed U.S. workers fell into one of these categories, up from 20 percent in 2017.
Strategic importance of Human relations
Because employees are a major part of an organization's internal environment, HRM plays a critical role in both setting and implementing strategy. For example, it would be a poor decision to enter a new market if the company did not have access to people who understood that market. The use of the term human capital to refer to members of the organization reflects an understanding that the cost and effort of attracting, retaining, and motivating an effective workforce is an investment.
What is the process for forming a Union? There are multiple steps
First, employees must have an interest in having a union. Nonemployees who are professional organizers employed by a national union (such as the Teamsters or United Auto Workers) may generate interest by making speeches, distributing literature outside the workplace, and/or contacting people via email and/or social media platforms. Inside, employees who want a union try to convince other workers of the benefits of a union. The second step is to collect employees' signatures on authorization cards. These cards state that the signer wishes to vote to determine whether the union will represent him or her. To show the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that interest is sufficient to justify holding an election, 30 percent of the employees in the potential bargaining unit must sign these cards. (Sign-ups are increasingly being done online, of course, although traditional "paper" cards are also still in use in some settings.) Before an election can be held, however, the bargaining unit must be defined. The bargaining unit consists of all employees who will be eligible to vote in the election and to join and be represented by the union if one is formed. The election is supervised by an NLRB representative (or, if both parties agree, the American Arbitration Association—a professional association of arbitrators) and is conducted by secret ballot. If a simple majority of those voting (not of all those eligible to vote) votes for the union, then the union becomes certified as the official representative of the bargaining unit. The new union then organizes itself by officially signing up members and electing officers; it will soon be ready to negotiate the first contract. The union-organizing process is diagrammed in Figure 13.5. If workers become disgruntled with their union or if management presents strong evidence that the union is not representing workers appropriately, the NLRB can arrange a decertification election. The results of such an election determine whether the union remains certified.
How does human relations work and function in an organization?
Human relations management is the set of organizational activities directed at attracting, developing, and maintaining an effective workforce. Human resource management takes place within a complex and ever-changing environmental context. Three particularly vital components of this context are HRM's strategic importance and the legal and social environments of HRM.
Legal importance of HRM
In the United States, numerous laws at the federal, state, and local level govern the employment relationship; organizations that operate internationally need to understand the laws in other countries as well. In the United States, certain federal legislation and Supreme Court rulings are foundational to how employers must treat employees.
What is discrimination?
In the past in the U.S. some people were deliberately discriminated against and denied the benefits of employment. Unfair employment discrimination occurs when people base hiring decisions on factors other than someone's capability to do a job. To be fair to everyone, hiring decisions should be based on factors that are directly related to job performance. Luckily laws have been passed to improve everyone's chances for fair hiring. Congress addressed this issue in 1964 with passage of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. This law made it illegal to engage in discriminatory practices unfair to different groups of people. This and other laws passed since make it illegal to base decisions solely on an individual's gender, race, religion, national origin, age, and disability status. These demographic classes are referred to as "protected groups." President Johnson issued Executive Order 11246 in 1965 dealing with the practice of Affirmative Action for organizations with federal contracts. Affirmative Action requires these employers to take positive steps to guaranteed equal employment opportunity for people in protected groups. This means intentionally seeking, hiring, and promoting individuals from protected groups that are underrepresented in the organization based on the local community. Many countries in Europe and elsewhere have passed their own legislation to promote fairness in the workplace. These laws help organizations do the right thing for employees and applicants.
What is labor relations?
Labor relations is the process of dealing with employees who are represented by a union. In recent years, though, labor relations experts have had to address issues that go beyond traditional labor unions. Some of these issues relate to highly mobile knowledge workers. Other issues involve immigrant workers who may not always receive the same employment protections as other workers. At one time, almost a third of the entire U.S. labor force belonged to a labor union. Unions enjoyed their largest membership between 1940 and 1955. Membership began to decline steadily in the mid-1950s, however, for several reasons: increased standards of living made union membership seem less important; traditionally unionized industries in the manufacturing sector began to decline; and the globalization of business operations caused many unionized jobs to be lost to foreign workers.
What is the Fair Labor Standards Act?
Laws also regulate compensation and benefits. The Fair Labor Standards Act, passed in 1938 and amended frequently since then, sets a minimum wage and requires the payment of overtime rates for work in excess of 40 hours per week. The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. Salaried professional, executive, and administrative employees are exempt from the minimum hourly wage and overtime provisions.
How does management feel about unions?
Organizations usually prefer that employees not be unionized because unions limit management's freedom in many areas. Management may thus wage its own campaign to convince employees to vote against the union. "Unfair labor practices" are often committed at this point. For instance, it is an unfair labor practice for management to promise to give employees a raise (or any other benefit) if the union is defeated. Experts agree that the best way to avoid unionization is to simply practice good employee relations all the time—not just when threatened by a union election. Providing absolutely fair treatment with clear standards in the areas of pay, promotion, layoffs, and discipline; having a complaint or appeal system for persons who feel unfairly treated; and avoiding any kind of favoritism will help make employees feel that a union is unnecessary. Walmart strives to avoid unionization through these practices.
How do Unions work and what can they do?
The intent of collective bargaining is to agree on a labor contract between management and the union that is satisfactory to both parties. The contract contains agreements about such issues as wages, work hours, job security, promotion, layoffs, discipline, benefits, methods of allocating overtime, vacations, rest periods, and the grievance procedure. The process of bargaining may go on for several weeks, several months, or longer, with representatives of management and the union meeting to make proposals and counterproposals. The resulting agreement must be ratified by the union membership. If it is not approved, the union may strike to put pressure on management, or it may choose not to strike and simply continue negotiating until a more acceptable agreement is reached. The grievance procedure is the means by which the contract is enforced. Most of what is in a contract concerns how management will treat employees. When employees feel that they have not been treated fairly under the contract, they file a grievance to correct the problem. The first step in a grievance procedure is for the aggrieved employee to discuss the alleged contract violation with her immediate superior. Often the grievance is resolved at this stage. If the employee still believes that she is being mistreated, however, the grievance can be appealed to the next level. A union official can help an aggrieved employee present her case. If the manager's decision is also unsatisfactory to the employee, additional appeals to successively higher levels are made until, finally, all in-company steps are exhausted. The final step is to submit the grievance to binding arbitration. An arbitrator is a labor law expert who is paid jointly by the union and management. The arbitrator studies the contract, hears both sides of the case, and renders a decision that both parties must obey. The grievance system for resolving disputes about contract enforcement prevents any need to strike during the term of the contract.
Social importance of HRM
Various social changes are also affecting how organizations interact with their employees. First, many organizations are using more and more temporary workers today. This trend, discussed more fully later, allows them to add workers as necessary without the risk that they may have to eliminate their jobs in the future. Second, dual-career families are much more common today than just a few years ago. Organizations are finding that they must make accommodations for employees who are dual-career partners. These accommodations may include delaying transfers, offering employment to the spouses of current employees to retain them, and providing more flexible work schedules and benefits packages. Employment-at-will is also becoming an important issue. Although employment-at-will has legal implications, its emergence as an issue is socially driven. Employment-at-will is a traditional view of the workplace that says organizations can fire an employee for any reason. Increasingly, however, people are arguing that organizations should be able to fire only people who are poor performers or who violate rules and, conversely, should not be able to fire people who report safety violations to OSHA or refuse to perform unethical activities. Finally, discussions continue to take place regarding the minimum wage. While there is a federal minimum wage, as noted earlier, some states have established higher minimum wages. For example, in California the minimum wage is $12 an hour, in Florida it's $8.46, and in Nebraska it's $9. In Oregon some cities have minimum wages that are higher than the state's minimum of $12 an hour. In Portland, for instance, the minimum is $13.25. The rationale for all of these variations is partially based on the fact that the cost of living is higher in some places than in others and partially because the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour is felt to simply be too low.
What is Title VII of the Civil Rights code?
forbids discrimination in all areas of the employment relationship. The intent of Title VII is to ensure that employment decisions are made on the basis of a person's qualifications rather than on the basis of personal biases. The law has reduced direct forms of discrimination (refusing to promote African Americans into management, failing to hire men as flight attendants, refusing to hire women as construction workers, for instance) as well as indirect forms of discrimination (using employment tests that whites pass at a higher rate than African Americans). Employment requirements such as test scores and other qualifications are legally defined as having an adverse impact on minorities and women when such individuals meet or pass the requirement at a rate less than 80 percent of the rate of majority group members. Criteria that have an adverse impact on protected groups can be used only when there is solid evidence that they effectively identify those who are better able than others to do the job.
What is the Age Discrimination Employment Act?
passed in 1967, amended in 1978, and amended again in 1986—is an attempt to prevent organizations from discriminating against older workers. In its current form, it outlaws discrimination against people older than 40 years on the basis of their age. Both the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and Title VII only require passive nondiscrimination or equal employment opportunity. Employers are not required to seek out and hire minorities, but they must treat all who apply fairly.
