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SMIRK PLEASE find week 4 Discussions due THURSDAY  THANK YOU

Week Four Learning Outcomes

OMM618: Human Resources Management (MFG1322B)
This week students will:

1. Examine employee compensation factors, including direct financial payments and indirect payments.

2. Summarize the key attributes of a healthy ethical culture within an organization.

Readings
Read the following chapters in: A Framework for Human Resource Management:

1. Chapter 7: Compensating Employees

2. Chapter 8: Ethics and Fair Treatment in Human Resource Management

Discussions

To participate in the following Discussion Forums, go to this week’s Discussion link in the left navigation:

1. Acme Manufacturing

Answer the questions to the case, “Salary Inequities at Acme Manufacturing,” at the end of Chapter 7. Include at least one outside source supporting your answers. Explain your answers in 200 words. Respond to at least two of your fellow students’ postings.

2. Ethics and Organizational Culture 

Answer the questions to the case, “Enron, Ethics, and Organizational Culture,” at the end of Chapter 8. Include at least one outside source supporting your answers. Explain your answers in 200 words. Respond to at least two of your fellow students’ postings.

Assignments

To complete this assignment, go to this week’s Assignment link in the left navigation:

Incentive Plans

Research and discuss at least two different types of incentive plans discussed in the text. Highlight the possible advantages and disadvantages of each. Find at least two articles through ProQuest that discusses incentive payment plans. Summarize your findings in a 3-5 page paper. Be sure to properly cite your resources using APA style.

Week 2 in Review

An examination of Trilogy provided insight into the complexities of various approaches to recruitment — and the importance of incorporating recruitment into organizational strategies. From an HR perspective, the strategy involves many intra-related and inter-related aspects, such as job description, job analysis, recruitment methodologies, legal requirements, and a planned and cultivated organizational culture. It is all about Hiring Right! It is all about aligning organizational goals with individual goals to arrive at a place where work effort matches work productivity. Culture is the environment people work in, it’s the element that shapes your enjoyment, work relationship and work process. Culture is made up of values, beliefs, underlying assumptions, attitudes, and behaviors shared by a group of people (Heathfield, 2011). The employees at Trilogy all share similar interests and passions about their job, which means that working as a team would not be problematic. Trilogy has created an organizational culture that represents decision making, daily work practice, stories and legends.

Heathfield, S.M (2011) Culture: Your Environment for People at Work. Retrieved on June 29, 2011, from

http://humanresources.about.com/od/organizationalculture/a/culture.htm

It is important to note that organizational culture should be developed through design, not by merely letting it happen. Trilogy is a company that recruits employees that are a cultural fit. Culture is the environment people work in, it’s the element that shapes your enjoyment, work relationship and work process. Culture is made up of values, beliefs, underlying assumptions, attitudes, and behaviors shared by a group of people (Heathfield, 2011). The employees at Trilogy all share similar interests and passions about their job, which means that working as a team would not be problematic. Trilogy has created an organizational culture that represents decision making, daily work practice, stories and legends. Heathfield, S.M (2011) Culture: Your Environment for People at Work. Retrieved on June 29, 2011, from
http://humanresources.about.com/od/organizationalculture/a/culture.htm

Undoubtedly privacy concerns in any aspect of improvement must be addressed. But do not be so quick to discount the use of integrity and honesty testing. Julie Moreland (September 7, 2010; People Views), noted that the primary goals of using such tests are to identify counterproductive behaviors and attitudes of applicants prior to being hired. Morlan identified that one must first look at the policies that are in place in the organization and that conducting a predictive blind study allows one to determine if an honesty and integrity test can facilitate the prediction of counterproductive behaviors in the workplace. The following article will provide additional details on the topic.
http://blog.peopleclues.com/index.php/steps-to-assessing-the-validity-of-integrity-and-honesty-testing-in-job-recruitment/

Week 3 Instructor Guidance

Training and development are important to both the attainment of organizational strategies and the sustainability (and retention) of the employee. Ensuring training and development opportunities are fairly distributed among the workforce creates an environment of trust and further cultivates the organizational culture. It is helpful to separate the terms by defining them and understanding the influence such activities have on the organization.
Training
addresses knowledge, skills and abilities to enhance performance requirements currently expected of the employee to successfully accomplish their current duties.
Development
identifies future needs of the organization and appropriate supportive knowledge expected to address these needs. Development also identifies persons deemed appropriate to acquire this knowledge — and simultaneously provides lateral and vertical promotion opportunities that come with the added knowledge.
There are many factors to consider when deciding how training and development will be employed:

1. What knowledge, skills and abilities (i.e., communication, empathy) must employees of your organization possess if they are to effectively contribute to a diverse and inclusive workplace?

2. What additional knowledge, skills and abilities (i.e., issue identification, group dynamics) must managers in your organization possess if they are to effectively recruit a diverse team and manage staff in an inclusive way?

3. What additional knowledge, skills and abilities (i.e., visioning, cross-cultural competence) must leaders in your organization possess if they are to role model diversity, ensure that your organization’s clients or customers are treated with respect, and chart the correct path for your organization’s future?

4. Which learning methods would be the most appropriate to employ, given the competencies you wish to support?

5. How can your organization frame training & development related to diversity so that it is, if at all possible, an ongoing activity, not restricted to isolated experiences in a classroom?

6. Who must you engage to lead the diversity training & development initiatives within your organization?

Source:

http://www.shrm.org/hrdisciplines/Diversity/diversity_mgmt_plan/Pages/training.aspx

Performance appraisal is that oft-dreaded task which manager’s are expected to complete that identifies the strengths, weakness, and accomplishments of subordinates. One wonders why this important component is so often run through with lack of focus, rendering many (if not most) appraisals meaningless. Performance planning allows for the identification of many aspects of organizational processes (training, development, reward, punishment, promotion, termination). Please review the following link for a Power Point that details performance planning (you may need to copy the URL into your address bar). Consider this information in the context of discussions and assignments.
http://www.shrm.org/Education/hreducation/Documents/Performance_Management_PPT_SL_Edit_BS.ppt

DISCUSSION ADDENDUM RELATED TO HR ISSUES:
Family Medical Leave Updates

The EEOC has recently reported a significant upswing in lawsuits under the Family Medical Leave Act of 1993.  The number of cases has recently spiked by about 25% over the same number filed 10 years ago.  A brief synopsis of the FMLA and common misconceptions:
1.  Under the FMLA, people can get up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for post-pregnancy care, to care for a family member, or to attend to a personal health issue, above and beyond any medical benefits or accrued company leave time.
2.  FMLA is not available to all employees in all companies.  The company has to have 50 employees located within 75 miles of the company work site for its employees to be eligible.
3.  Employees have to have been employed for at least 1 year, usually for at least 1250 hours, to be eligible.
4.  Employees are eligible for 12 weeks FMLA leave in any calendar year.
5.  Employees have the right to return to the same or equivalent employment at the end of FMLA leave, with ONE KEY EXCEPTION:  Highly paid, “key” employees may not be denied FMLA leave, but the company is within their rights not to reinstate highly paid, “key” employees who take FMLA leave to their former job or any job.
6.  If employees have indicated that they do not intend to return, or would have otherwise been laid off, terminated, or downsized, or are unable to return after 12 weeks, or refuse to provide company-requested medical or personal documentations, the company may rightfully refuse to reinstate them.
Most of the current lawsuits claim that litigants were discriminated against or retaliated against for taking time off to handle the care-giving of a child, which is covered by the FMLA, or to care for a relative with a disability, which is covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act. Two key areas of defense for employers fighting these cases:
 
(1) If the employee is designated as a “key” employee, the company is not obliged to return the employee to their current position or any position.  Let’s say that Jane Doe is 29 years old and VP of a company with 50 employees.  She becomes pregnant and gives birth.  She takes six weeks of paid time under company policy, four weeks of paid vacation time, and then desires to take 12 more weeks because of difficulties with the child’s health.  The company has designated her as a key employee.  Under the FMLA, the company is not obliged to hold her vice presidency for what amounts to about a half year.  It is unclear whether the ADA would protect her because the child probably would not qualify under disability rules.
(2) It is unclear whether a company may avoid the potential FMLA issue entirely by refusing to hire persons with small children or who are known to be caring for disabled relatives.  Many companies currently in litigation have claimed that they should not be liable for not hiring persons with high likelihood of going on FMLA or ADA leave time because it makes them the unwilling provider of company benefits for the unproductive.  There does not appear to be any Title VII violations related to refusing to hire persons with small children or who are known to be caring for disabled relatives. Where companies have gotten into trouble is when they have refused to hire female caregivers, instead preferring male non-caregivers.  Hiring female non-caregivers over female caregivers, however, does not appear to be a violation of FMLA, ADA, or Title VII.
This will be an area of increasing interest as more employees end up caring for children, grandchildren, or parents as the workforce ages, and may be an interesting topic for your students.

WEEK 4 STUDENT RESPONSES DISCUSSION 1