Week 8

1
Week 8

• Chapter 8
• Employee Relations

2
Psychological Contract

• The beliefs, perceptions, expectations, and
  obligations that make up the agreement between
  individuals and employers.
• Largely unwritten.
• Details develop through interactions with
  managers and coworkers and corporate culture.
• Breach means loss of loyalty, focus and trust.

3
Employee-Employer Contract

• Up to early 1900s Master-Servant
• 20s/30s More balanced
• 50s Keep happy to avoid problems
• 60s Participatory Management
• 70s Freedom and democracy at work
• 80s Attention to employee welfare
• 90s Empowerment and teamwork
• Today Global competitiveness
  efficiencieslayoffs

4
Workforce Reduction

• Result of pressure to increase efficiencies
• Signal to end of old contract
• Involve reducing the number of employees,
  simplifying products and processes, and
  decreasing quality and/or services.
• Converts private issue into public issue
• Outsourcing offshoring
• Key employer considerations
• Take into account the financial implications and
  qualitative and emotional toll of the reduction
  strategy.
• Commit to assisting employees who must make a
  career transition.

5
What can Employees do?

• Understand how skills and competencies affect and
  align with business performance.
• Strive for cost-cutting and conservation
  strategies regardless of the employers current
  financial condition.
• Be willing to fulfill diverse and varying roles.
• More cross training
• Be flexible
• Learn the whole business

6
Employment at will

• This common-law doctrine allows the employer or
  employee to terminate the relationship at any
  time as long as it does not violate any
  employment contract.
• Many states still use the employment at will
  philosophy, but laws and statutes may limit total
  discretion (see http//www.oregon.gov/BOLI/)

7
Wages and Benefits

• Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 prescribed the
  first minimum wage (current 5.45/hr or 11,
  336/yr.) and overtime pay, record keeping, and
  child labor standards.
• Employee Retirement Income Security Act (1974)
  set uniform minimum standards to ensure that
  employee benefits plans are fair and sound .

8
Labor Unions

• National Labor Relations Act (1935) legitimized
  the rights of employees to engage in collective
  bargaining and to strike.
• To protect employee rights and restore the
  balance of power.
• In 2006, 12 of wage and salary workers were
  union members (down from 20.1 in 1983).
• About 36 of government workers were union
  members in 2004, compared with about 8 of
  workers in private-sector industries.
• http//www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm

9
Health and Safety

• Occupational Safety and Health Act sought to
  ensure safe and healthy working conditions for
  all employees.
• Recent issue ergonomics, the design,
  arrangement, and use of equipment to maximize
  productivity and minimize strain.
• Emerging issue Violence by strangers,
  non-employees and coworkers.

10
Equal Opportunity Employment

• Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment
  discrimination on the basis of race, national
  origin, color, religion, and gender.
• Later laws added pregnanacy, disabilities and
  age.
• Affirmative action programs allow companies to
  build balanced workforces.
• Equal Employment Opportunity Commission monitors
  compliance with the law.

11
Sexual Harassment

• Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual
  favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a
  sexual nature.
• When submission to or rejection of this conduct
  explicitly or implicitly affects an individuals
  employment unreasonably interferes with an
  individuals work performance or creates an
  intimidating, hostile, or offensive work
  environment.

12
Sexual Harassment (cont.)

• Quid pro quo
• Exchange of job benefits for sexual favors.
• Explicitly illeagal, one incident may justify
  legal claim
• Hostile work environment
• Epithets, slurs, negative stereotyping,
  intimidating acts, and/or graphic materials that
  show hostility toward an individual or group.
• Conduct that a reasonable person would
  determine as intolerable to the work environment.

13
Whistle-Blowing

• A whistle-blower is one who reports individual or
  corporate wrong-doing to either internal or
  external sources.
• The focus is usually on issues or behaviors that
  need corrective action.
• Legal protections vary according to the subject
  matter of the whistleblowing, and sometimes the
  state in which the case arises.
• http//www.ethicspoint.com

14
Whistle-Blowing (cont.)

• Managers and other employees may not appreciate
  reports that expose company weaknesses, raise
  embarrassing questions, or otherwise detract from
  organizational tasks.
• Historically, whistle-blowers have been
  retaliated against, demoted, fired, and even
  worse as a result of their action.
• Sarbanes-Oxley provides solid protection and
  penalties for retaliation from reporting
  corporate fraud.

15
Ethical Responsibilities to Employees

• Ongoing training and development
• Benefits include stronger recruitment and
  retention, employee commitment, job satisfaction,
  and productivity.
• Embracing diversity
• Utilize the unique skills and contributions of
  all types of people.
• Reflect customers characteristics.

16
Generation Profiles
17
Ethical Responsibilities to Employees (cont.)

• Allow for work/life balance
• Assist employees in balancing work
  responsibilities with personal and family
  responsibilities.
• Provide flexibility
• Flextime/Telecommuting
• Job sharing
• Child care/Elder care
• Health clubs
• Design jobs around workers abilities

18
Philanthropic Responsibilities

• Even though directed outside, corporate giving
  affects employee attitudes toward the
  organization.
• Attracts good employee candidates
• More productive employees
• Employees benefit from participating in
  volunteerism programs and other philanthropic
  projects.
• Builds teamwork skills.
• Educates employees.

19
Strategic Considerations

• Strong employee initiatives lead to a company
  being viewed as the employer of choice.
• Value the human component of business, not just
  financial considerations, ensure that employees
  are engaged in meaningful work, and a stimulated
  intellectual curiosity.
• This allows an organization to attract, optimize,
  and retain the best employee talent over the long
  term.

20
Best Practices of Employers of Choice, Table 7.6

• FOSTER
• Openness
• Community
• Creativity
• Loyalty
• Responsibility
• Individuality
• Teamwork

21
Fortunes Most Admired Companies

• 1 General Electric
• 2 Starbucks
• 3 Toyota
• 4 Berkshire Hathaway
• 5 Southwest Airlines

• 6 FedEx
• 7 Apple
• 8 Google
• 9 Johnson Johnson
• 10 Procter Gamble

http//money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/mostadmired
/