Ethical and Professional HRM - Assignment Example

Ethical and Professional HRM Introduction This paper seeks to analyse ethical and professional issues arising from the class action brought to court against Wal-Mart where a number of employees have raised issue concerning being presented with suitable seats when working. The employees are seeking compensation over what they claim to be poor health and safety measures in their working conditions. I am the human resource manager of Wal-Mart Stores which has multiple outlets in various countries globally. On June 11, 2009, about 10000 employees went to court claiming that Wal-Mart had violated the California state law when by not proving them with suitable seats in their workstations (Retail Leader, 2014). Since that time, the organization has faced a number of lawsuits relating to provision of suitable seats which has proven costly due to budgets allocated for litigation matters. This situation means there is need for the organization to develop a framework that would help end complaints by employees based on the issue of suitable seats. I will assume that the employees have made a genuine claim about the working condition being detrimental to their health although there have not been medical any medical case concerning employees of Wal-Mart whose condition has been attributed to the working conditions provided by the organization. Consequently, I will argue that the Wal-Mart should introduce suitable seats to the employees to prevent further complaint that might arise in future. To achieve this, the report is organized into three sections where the first section makes an analysis of the conflict of interest between Wal-Mart and the employees. Second part will analyse available options to determine what would be the best option to satisfy both the employees and the company. The third part is about which one among the presented options is the best ethical and professional option before making a brief conclusion. Part 1: Analysis of the Conflict of Interest A number of organizations have in the past years faced legal suits because of the manner in which they have treated their employees. Class action on seating during working hours is among the areas of conflict between employers and their employees. There has been considerable law suits where employees have complained that they were not provided with seats in their workstations a situation which compromised their health due to being on their feet for long periods of time. A case in example concerns the employees at the giant retailer, Wal-Mart who have gone to court to protest the retailer’s requirements that workers should perform their duties while standing (Retail Leader, 2014). To understand the nature of the conflict between the parties properly, it is important to understand the following factors concerning suitable seats for employees. Firstly, the requirement for employers to provide their employees is enshrined in the labour laws of California specifically in the California Wage Orders which asserts “working employees shall be provided with suitable seats when the nature of their work reasonably permits the use of seats.” Secondly although the wording and language in this law appear to apply employees working in the retail sector, there are sections that bind other industries into the requirements of California Wage Orders (Hopkins & Carley, 2013). Further, provision of suitable seats for working employees in the work place is part of the workplace health, safety and welfare regulation which is aimed at improving the working conditions for workers as it aimed at making them comfortable therefore easily concentrate on their responsibilities (Emir, 2012; Battersby, 2013). While seating is not suitable for some workstations where employees are required to walk around, suitable seats are still a requirement. In such cases, the employer should have adequate number of seats placed on specific spots that are in a reasonably near the work area for employees to seat when it does not interfere with their work (Bertolino and Tweedie, 2006). Class action on suitable seats gained prominence in workplace conditions provided by employers to their employees following a 2010 case when a California court ruled that employees could follow suitable seating” cases based on the California Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA). PAGA is the main legislative framework in California that provides grounds under which concerned employee can pursue civil penalties for failure of their employer to provide a suitable seat (Hopkins & Carley, 2013). In the case of Wal-Mart, the interests of the employees are that due to lack of suitable seats especially for cashiers, they are forced to work while standing many hours every day. The effect of this policy is that the employees are fatigued while also complaining of physical discomfort and pain. The workers argue that there workstations allows them to work while seating and therefore their employers should have provided them with suitable seats. The interests of the managers at Wal-Mart is that cashiers are tasked with multiple responsibilities such as move around to see the bottom of the cart in addition to performing other tasks that can include, greeting customers, stocking shelves and taking care of customer service inquiries. These responsibilities require considerable movement and therefore it will be more appropriate when they are performed while standing. These interests are in conflict when the management of Wal-Mart refuse to allow workers to seat while on the counter since it is not impossible for them to stand up when it is necessary. The impact of the conflict is that there are negative relations between the management and workers since the workers feel their health is not important to the employers while the employers feel the request is a sign of indolence (Retail Leader, 2014). Part 2: The options For any organization, professional behaviour refers to people within the institution adhering to the requirements of their occupation (Guffey, 2009). On the other hand, ethical behaviour refers to displaying actions that are consistent with what society holds as good values and can be regarded as being respectful to essential moral principles such as justice, honesty, equality, self-respect, and respect for individuals’ rights. Therefore, professional behaviour relates to views on treatment of people within a particular discipline while ethical behaviour relates to the expectations of the society at large. However, in a business sense, observing one or both will be beneficial as it contributes to a positive perception about the organization (Joyner and Payne, 2002). As the HR manager of Wal-Mart there are many possible options available to me in this situation given especially given that both the employees and the management have different angles over which they have qualified their arguments about suitable seats in the workstations. Some of the options include introduction of contractual agreements on standing while working, accepting employees’ demands leading installation of suitable seats and creating shifts with enough rest periods for the employees. The three specific options, which are each described in more detail below standout as due to their merits when viewed from both the perception of the employer and employee respectively. I) Introduction of Contractual Agreement on Standing while Working Given the importance of customer experience in ensuring consumer satisfaction (Seth, Deshmukh and Vrat, 2005), Wal-Mart cannot afford to compromise the quality of services. Therefore, there should not be any move to change established practices that have proven successful over the years. The policy requiring employees, including cashiers, to perform their responsibilities while standing has resulted in improvement of services offered to customers. Consequently, employees must conform to this requirement for the continued benefit to be reflected in customer satisfaction with services offered at Waymart. To achieve this, the requirements that employees should work while on their feet will be included in the contract signed between the organization and employees. All those presently employed and future employment will include the provision that employees will work while standing. This will ensure employees will not complain about the working conditions as they will be aware of what is expected of them when joining the organization. This contract should also include the provision that dissatisfied employees should resign from their posts without being entitled for compensation (Silverstein, 2000). II) Provide Suitable Seats The second option is to adjust the policies guiding operations in the stores to allow employees sit while performing their duties. For this to happen there are specific modalities that will have to be implemented to guide how implementation demand by workers. There are several approaches that would be adopted under this provision to ensure workers maintain a high standard of performance to satisfy the needs of customers. Firstly, there can be revolving and movable seats for employees to ensure they can move to different locations while still seated. This will ensure employees are mobile enough to handle different needs of the customers at their stations. Secondly, there should be seats for employees to use when their tasks do not require movement. Such seats will allow the workers to seat while at the counter but be able to move around the store when they need to access the shelves. Additionally introducing the suitable seats is important since it will help reduce employee complaints about being fatigued because of standing for a long time. There are also a number of older employees who will benefit from this initiative as they will find it easy to work for longer hours therefore increasing their productivity (Retail Leader, 2014). III) Introduce Shifts to Suit the Needs of Employees to Rest The third alternative is to have the workers operate in shifts to reduce complaints of fatigue and pain that results from spending long hours on their feet. Employees will have time to rest when their colleagues relieve them from their stations after a predetermined time. Improvement in implementation of shifts will ensure workers enter the stores after adequate rests as the hours of rest will be more frequent. Offering employees adequate rests has been found to be effective in maintain high standards of output as they are able to renew their energy while their body also relaxes. Therefore, introducing more periods of rests by creating shifts for employee rest will reduce complains brought forward by dissatisfied employees. Part 3: Choosing the Most Ethical and Professional Option The options above are among the decisions available which could be adopted to solve the conflict between Wal-Mart and employees complaining about lack of suitable seats for their workstations. The issues that arise from this situation reflects decision making dilemma that involves taking care of the rights of employees and maintaining corporate profits. According to Martin and Woldring (2001), organizations must make decisions that reflect both the human rights of the employees and the quest to improve corporate profits with the successful organization being that which balances the two. From the above options, I would choose the second option based on my own views about what is the most ethical and professional choice for an HRM in this situation especially since it considers the interests of the employees. Although each one has its merit that would be suitable for diffident practitioners or organizations, first and third option does not address the root cause of the mater. The main reason for employee complaint is the need for suitable seats that would make them perform their duties comfortably. The first option fails to solve the main area of contention between the employer and the employees. This is because even when there will not be any future complaint about the need to have suitable seats, employees will still face similar challenges as before. This option basically forces the employees to work under stramineous conditions while also prohibiting them from expressing their grievances. This move creates a situation where employees are forced to perform their tasks even through pain without having the right to complain about their working conditions. Such situation is likely to lead to high turnover as employees increasingly get tired of working under strenuous working conditions (Hom and Kinicki, 2001). This option is not appropriate for both business and ethical reputation of the organization. On the ethical front, the organization does not take care of the safety and health of it workers since it predisposes them to health complications. Standing for long hours in the workstation has been found to result in significant health challenges for employees especially in the lower limbs as it damages joints, leads to aching muscles and complications with the feet which include development of bunions, corns, heel spurs and flat feet. The legs are also at risk of swelling and becoming painful with these side effects spreading to knees, thighs, hips and lower pack (Halim and Omar, 2011). On the business front, the first option creates a condition where employees will be resigning from their position which leads to shortage of human resource to perform important tasks in the organization. High turnover will result in the need to recruit and train new employees which is costly process that will also waste resources that could have been useful if directed towards other areas (Gibb and Megginson, 2005). While the third option addresses the health and safety of workers, it will be expensive to maintain as it requires the organization to increase the number of employees for them to work within the requirements of the new shift program. It means the organization will be paying two workers for tasks that should be performed by a single employee depending on the frequency of the shifts. This increase recurrent cost of operation as wage demands increases to carter for the salaries of the new employees. The consequence of adopting the third option is therefore duplication as additional employees will be required for the system to succeed. The second option therefore the best ethical and professional decision as takes care of employee needs by improving their working conditions while also reducing the cost of labour that could result from implementing the third option. The second decision is the best ethically as it results in improved working conditions for the workers. Given the identified risk that can result from standing for long hours, the organization will be responding to the health and safety needs of employees. Employees will therefore work in an environment that takes care of their needs by providing them with suitable seats. Even if this move does not result in improved output from the employees, it is the right thing to do base on the situation. Letting employees work through pain is not ethical as it does not take care of their psychological wellbeing. These workers are not machines which might not suffer from working under such conditions (Halim and Omar, 2011). On the business from, providing suitable seats to employees improves the perception of the organization in the eyes of other stakeholders such as customers and prospective investors. The treatment of workers at Wal-Mart works towards creating a perception about the values of the organization (Argandoña, 2003). When the rights of the employees are not respected the customers and investors judge the organization negatively and therefore affecting business. Since the news is already in the public domain, there are risks that the situation if not rectified will lead to a significant lose in the number of loyal customers. Loyal customers will like to be associated with organization that conducts business professionally observing employees’ health and safety being among such practices. Conclusion This report has argued that it is important that Wal-Mart considers the issues raised by it employees in the lawsuit concerning provision of suitable seats to employees by providing introducing the seats. Although some of the functions performed by the employees cannot be performed while seated, providing suitable seats is beneficial both for business and improving the working conditions of these employees. While it is important that Wal-Mart maintains high standards of services to the customers, the working conditions for employees should also be improved to ensure they put their best in their workstations which is important in increasing the levels of sales for growth of the business. Proving the suitable seats to employees is also good for business as it create a positive perception about the organization from the part of customers and potential investors. 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