Age Discrimination in Proxy Construction Ltd - Case Study Example

Age discrimination in a project management situation – the case of Proxy Construction Ltd I. Proxy Construction Ltd – Company overview – case presentation Proxy Construction Ltd is a company that operates in the construction industry. The company is based in Manchester and has as its main activity the completion of large scale projects in the Greater Manchester area. Currently the company has around 260 employees. Around 150 of the employees are working on a temporary basis contracting each time for the company when a specific project occurs. The company is considered to be one of the most successful of its industry with an annual turnover of about 230 millions. However, a significant percentage of this amount equals to the amount spent for the particular projects. Recently the company decided to proceed to the training of its employees in new software that could be used in order to prepare the plans of the projects quickly but without losing significant data of the projects. For the above reason, the company arranged a series of seminars for its computer programmers. These seminars took place within the company’s premises. However, there were two employees, aged of 45 and 49 years old that were not invited to the above seminars. As a result, they were not trained to the new software introduced by the company recently – as already mentioned – and they were not able to participate in the firm’s recent project involving in the construction of a multipurpose building in the suburbs of Manchester. For this reason, these employees have asked the company to compensate them for not have been offered the necessary training and losing the money which they should been paid for their participation in this project. Furthermore, they asked the company to arrange for them a series of seminars that will give them the opportunity to participate under equal terms with the other employees in the completion of the company’s projects. Another issue that these two employees mentioned was the fact that 3 of the programmers participated in the training seminars were just hired by the company and their age was low (an average of 24 years old) – an issue that could be used in order to support the age discrimination argument stated by the above two employees. II. Human Resource Management in Proxy Construction Ltd IIa. General characteristics of corporate HR strategy The HR management in Proxy Construction Ltd belongs to the responsibility of HR department in general. However, in accordance with the overall corporate strategy, the project manager who has the responsibility for the completion and the delivery of a specific project can act also as a HR manager. This right includes especially the freedom to choose the staff which is going to use on a specific project and also the persons who are going to participate in the training seminars organized by the company from time to time. The above ‘freedom’ of the project manager to act as a human resource manager should be considered as absolute. This means that there is no case that the central HR department of the company can intervene to the project manager’s decision to recruit staff or to reject staff regarding a specific project. The role of the HR department of the company is mainly focusing on the supervision of the whole staff involving in the projects that are in progress by the company. In every case that a misbehaviour occur, the HR department has the right to intervene but only through informing the project manager who will decide for the participation of the specific employee in the company’s projects in the future. The relevant decision has however to be verified by the HR department in order to be valid. In order for such a scheme to operate successfully, there is a meeting held every month within the HR department in which the project managers present any problem related with the employees working on the firm’s projects. If there is an issue of emergency, the HR department can be formally notified and its general manager can intervene directly without any previous authorization from the company’s general manager. IIb. HR management, project management and age discrimination in Proxy Construction Ltd The provision of equal opportunities to the employees is an issue that can be evaluated differently in practice according to the conditions involved and the financial strength of a specific company. The human resource strategy applied by a particular company would be also considered as a significant factor towards the form and the number of its resources. At a first level, it has been noticed by Noon and Ogbonna (2001, 135) that ‘equal opportunities are often confused with the diversity management; The reason for this is that the latter has the responsibility and the power of decisions regarding the recognition and the application of the former; Of course when examining thoroughly, the two terms can present points of differentiation’. More specifically, as Noon and Ogbonna (2001) highlight ‘the common understanding of ‘traditional’ equal opportunities is most closely associated with the legal aspects of managing equality of opportunity and the making good of different treatments that are grounded in biases and inequality’. According to the above views age discrimination should be regarded as part of the human resources policies while it is usually preceded by a phenomenon of inequality among two or more employees in a specific workplace. On the other hand, it should be mentioned that in every human resources strategy which involves in a specific project there are several issues that need to be taken into account. Particularly for the resources available for the completion of a project it has been stated by Howitt (2001, 107) that ‘there are practical, ethical and intellectual imperatives demanding systematic, rigorous, coherent and constructive approaches to analysing and responding to the diverse interactions, linkages and complexities; this is the task of developing ‘theory’ in resource management which requires conceptual frameworks in which to situate the information we have, with which to make sense of it and through which to apply it to material and discursive realities’. As for the involvement of people in a specific project management, this should be evaluated in accordance with the corporate – related circumstances of the specific period of time and the characteristics of the particular project. Towards this direction, Reiss (1995, 157) found that ‘there are two schools of thought about people in project management; One group believe that science and technology can aid the project manager in motivating and controlling a team; The other attitude is that dealing with people is a natural thing and that most people will motivate themselves if given half a chance’. The choice of the appropriate strategy regarding the use of the firm’s resources belongs in other words in the company’s HR department which will identify the resources which are necessary for the completion of a specific project and ensure their involvement in it. In the above context the leader of the HR department has the responsibility to locate the resources, to examine them as of their appropriateness for a particular project and then arrange their terms of participation in this project. For the above reasons, Reiss (1995, 160) noticed that ‘in project management, the problem of leadership is a little more complex than in ordinary management; To begin with, very often the project team is thrown together at short notice; Because of the nature of project management, people often find themselves working on a project with a crew of strangers; There is little time to adjust to those co-workers; there is a job to get on with while in ordinary management environments, there is a turnover of staff, but the team tends to exist for a reasonably long period of time; There is another problem heightened in the project management arena; The project management team has a desire to achieve a specific objective’. According to the views of the above researcher project management involves mostly in the use of the appropriate resources (including the human resources) for the completion of a specific project while the role of the leader is to ensure that the resources chosen will be used in the project in accordance with the project plan. The responsibility of the leader is therefore extremely high as the use of inappropriate resources can delay the delivery of the project, even lead to its failure. From another point of view PaumÈs Cau-Bareille, D., MarquiÉ, J. C., Volkoff (1998, 279) stated that ‘training is one of the most efficient means of acquiring skills on new equipment, since it reduces the cost of the learning phase and increases chances of success while an initial question that arises here is whether young and old employees are given equal opportunities for training in new techniques; A study by Rosen and Jerdee (1976) suggested that there is indeed discrimination against older employees in the selection of persons to be trained for technological change’. Besides the survey presented, the above researchers also proceed to the conduction of a survey regarding the nature and the necessity of a training session for a company’s employees. In accordance with the results of the survey made by PaumÈs Cau-Bareille et al. (1998, 279) ‘the number of days of computer training received turned out to be approximately the same in the various age groups, with lengthier periods of on-the-job training for the older subjects compensating as a whole for the greater amount of initial training in the younger subjects’. In other words, the above survey showed that in practice there is no differentiation between younger and older employees within an organizational environment but there is an equal distribution of the training provided which ensures the absence of discrimination in an organization. Recommendations In order to understand the HR decisions involved in the specific case we should primarily present the definition of the project. In accordance with Martin (2002, 6) ‘we use the word project to describe something that is not part of ordinary day-to-day work; it also indicates something that is purposeful and distinct in character’. In other words, project management focuses on the completion of a specific project and for this reason it has to be differentiated from all other similar management types in which there is not the issue of emergency (as it can be derived from the existence of a specific day of delivery). Regarding the specific issue of the age discrimination, this can occur in several cases inside an organizational environment however its measurement has become a difficult task particularly because the organizational environment seems to change continuously alternating all parameters of employment and as a result age discrimination is often extended in many areas of the organization. On the other hand, the role of HR in the planning of any recruitment – related policy is crucial. In fact, recruitment has been traditionally considered as one of the most significant sectors of Human Resources management. In this context, it is stated by Ramlall (2003, 60) that ‘it is only through performance measuring that one can really articulate the benefits of HR strategies in achieving the organizations business strategy and in the process enhance the credibility of the HR profession’. In other words, HR not only are related with the age discrimination issue but they are considered as having an important part of the responsibility involved in cases that age discrimination is found by the authorized governmental bodies to have occurred in a specific workplace. However, in the specific case because the dispute under examination involves in a company that deals mostly with the completion and delivery of construction projects, the structure and the operation of the HR department is differentiated comparing similar departments of common enterprises. Moreover, the human resources activity is related closely with the needs and the demands of the particular projects and for this reason it has to change in each project in order to meet the requirements of the specific customer. We should refer in this point in the study of Howitt (2001, 84) who examined the problems involved in the location and use of resources in a project management environment and come to the assumption that ‘there are five major stages when dealing with resources: a) resource definition; B) resource allocation; C) resource aggregation; D) resource aggravation; E) resource levelling; F) resource smoothing’ These stages have to be followed in accordance for the HR activity to be successful – with a reference always to specific project demands. On the other hand, it has been stated that ‘in making judgement on any resource project or activity, locally oriented indigenous decision making would measure value and balance costs and benefits, first in relation to local questions of rights and responsibilities, local visions of sustainability and quality, and local structures of accountability for performance’ (Howitt, 2001, 319). In other words, it is a priority for the project manager to estimate the costs involve in a specific project and to examine all the issues described above in order to ensure the success of a specific project. In this context, the project manager – who in this case plays the role of the HR manager also – has to proceed to all necessary decisions in order for the project plan to be feasible within the time framework set by the client. Regarding the claim of the two employees that the recruitment of new staff with a low average number of years can be used as a justification for their argument involving in age discrimination we could present the view of Armacost et al. (1991, 120) who supported that ‘recruiting new employees to fill existing vacancies is an important function within human resource departments while Heneman et al. (1989) identified five interrelated stages in the recruitment process: planning, strategy development, searching, screening, and evaluation and control’. In accordance with the above views, the right to proceed to the recruitment of the staff required for the completion of a specific project belongs to the company managing this project and there is no reason why this right would not be used by the project manager who has the responsibility for the design, completion and delivery of the particular project. Conclusion Generally, it has been stated by Dube et al. (1999, 32) that ‘all projects must be rigorously monitored at regular intervals throughout their lifecycles to ensure that required technical performance occurs on schedule and within the approved budget; to gauge a projects success, project managers devise measures that help control quality, schedule, and cost’. These views support the choice for the recruitment of the younger staff in the specific company, because this staff has been considered as necessary for the completion of the particular project while any opposite view should be examined carefully without however affecting the progress of the project plan. On the other hand, Kesler (1997, 30) stated that ‘the "tools of the trade" - as used by the HR organizations - can usually be summarized as: a. strategic staffing and selection b. learning and education, c. performance management, d. rewards and recognition, e. organization design and f. communications’. This view is more connected with the human resource activity generally and does not refer to the project management case where the completion of the plan is the priority and on this basis all the necessary activities are decided by the project manager involved. Moreover, in the specific case there is an issue that has not been highlighted. The recruitment of the younger staff has been based on their knowledge regarding the technology (software) introduced by the company and there were no other criteria used for their initial involvement in the company’s activities. In other words the issue is that due to the studies of the younger staff – which included as mentioned before the technology acquired by the company - their training was short saving to the company a significant amount of money. Moreover, there was no need for the staff of the IT company – from where the software was bought – to visit the company’s premises in order to present the operation and the capabilities of the specific software. The involvement of these three – newly hired – employees to all phases of product operation (instalment, configuration, supervision) has been proved cost-saving for the company at a significant level. For this reason the short training which was considered as necessary for the use of software on a daily basis, was offered to specific employees and particularly to the employees mentioned by the company’s two experienced computer programmers – who were not invited to the training provided on the particular software product. It should also be noticed that the decision on the persons that were going to participate in the training seminars offered by the company was taken after a relevant discussion during the monthly meeting of the project managers in the company’s HR department. Furthermore, the relevant list prepared during that meeting was verified afterwards – before the relevant announcement to be made to the employees – by the general manager of the HR department. The decision for the provision of the software – related training seminars to specific employees is for this reason supported both in the theoretical and the practical field. For this reason, the argument of the two employees for the existence of age discrimination in the specific HR decision cannot be supported and should therefore been rejected by any public authority that would possible examine the particular issue. References Ackroyd, S., Fleetwood, S. (2000). ‘Realist Perspectives on Management and Organisations’. Routledge. London Armacost, R., Jauernig, R. (1991). ‘Planning and Managing a Major Recruiting Project’. Public Personnel Management, 20(2): 115-129 Dube, L., Hormozi, A. (1999). ‘Establishing Project Control: Schedule, Cost, and Quality’. SAM Advanced Management Journal, 64(4): 32-45 Howitt, R. (2001). ‘Rethinking Resource Management: Justice, Sustainability and Indigenous Peoples’. Routledge. London Kesler, G.C., Law, J.A. 1997. Implementing Major Change in the HR Organization: The Lessons of Five Companies. Human Resource Planning, 20(4):26-37 Martin, V. (2002). ‘Managing Projects in Health and Social Care’. Routledge. New York Noon, M., Ogbonna, E. (2001). Equality, Diversity and Disadvantage in Employment, Basingstoke, England: Palgrave PaumÈs Cau-Bareille, D., MarquiÉ, J. C., Volkoff, S. (1998). ‘Working with Age. Taylor & Francis. London Reiss, G. (1995). ‘Project Management Demystified: Todays Tools and Techniques’. E & FN Spon. London Riddell, S., Salisbury, J. (2000). ‘Gender, Policy, and Educational Change: Shifting Agendas in the UK and Europe’. Routledge. London Read More