Human Resources Questions - Coursework Example

Human Resources Questions Week 7 Table of Contents Answer 3 Answer 2 3 Answer 3 5 Answer 4 6 Answer 5 6 Answer 6 8 Answer 7 8 Answer 8 9 References11 Answer 1 Affirmative action has a 48 year old history. The term was first used by President Kennedy in the year 1961 to address the discrimination that existed in spite of prevalent civil laws and other constitutional policies that persisted in the country. In relation to this, the Civil Rights Act was established in the year 1964. It was President Johnson, who further improved the affirmative action of Kennedy and established the equal opportunity of employment for all. The concept of affirmative action signifies equality and removal of all barriers or biasness on the basis of gender, class, creed, color or any other form of discrimination. These barriers often prevented the access of women or needful people in the rightful-places such as in educational institutions or for employment. Affirmative action was the result of the slavery and the injustice done by the white race towards the Anglo-Americans. The citizens of America got opportunities of employment and education on the basis of their color code. The term affirmative action comes from the age old concept of equity or justice. The discrimination done between the black and the white and injustice of the ruling class of America in the twentieth century was the cause for affirmative order. After Barrack Obama became the president of America, it was felt that the affirmative action was no longer required. This is because it became clear from the fact that the citizens, the country and its governing body has understood the importance of providing equal opportunity to people round the world in their country for employment and for getting into educational institutions or other rightful places. This is the actual meaning of globalization (Rubio, 2001, p. 1-2). Answer 2 Generally it is seen that that the performance appraisal depends on the feedback of the employees or the superiors of the company, but the advent of teamwork, training and development of the employees and customer services have shifted the focus of collecting feedback just from employees and superiors to the customers, peer groups and even subordinates as shown in figure 1. Figure 1 Source: (United States Office of Personnel Management, 1997, p. 4). This is also called multiple feedback approach for conducting performance appraisal and it is also called 360 degree evaluation. Several past research have shown that 360 degree method of evaluation is accurate, reliable and authentic source of information. In this method the supervisors, subordinates, peers, customers are included to assess the performance of an employee. Considering the organizational culture and the mission of the company, the management would be able to gather diverse information related to the performance of the employee. In any organization no policy would create enough uproar, like the change in feedback system would do. The 360 degree system of employee assessment is a positive addition to the performance appraisal system of the company only when a healthy feedback session is conducted by keeping in mind the mission, vision and objectives of the company and the performance of the employee compared to the benchmark. It must have a specific purpose; just starting 360 degree system of appraisal because other companies have also implemented it would be a wrong choice. The employee should be allowed to fill his/ her own assessment form so as to list down his achievements, assure the employees of its anonymity, verify that the data received is genuine and compile the reports accordingly (United States Office of Personnel Management, 1997, p. 4). Answer 3 Due to increasing responsibility of the new activities in organizations these days, the roles and the responsibilities of the Human Resource (HR) managers have been redefined in the companies. This is because the new strategic planning framework in the companies has included several additional functions in the companies. Much research has been conducted to identify the exact functions of the HR professional in the strategic planning framework. Three specific roles of HR professionals have been identified keeping in mind the benefits that it would be delivering to the stakeholders of the company. The three roles are stated below: Advocate: The role of the HR manager is to investigate the strategic planning processes and monitor all the departments and the employees of those departments. They have to deal with the employees of boardroom, production, accounting and sales department. They not only advocate the issues relating to employment but also retention, compensation, training, safety and the environment of the entire organization. Stakeholder: Stakeholders are those who would be benefited from the profitability and growth of the firm or company. HR being the employee of the company is of course a stakeholder of the company. They have the responsibility of linking effectively the human resources of the organization to the strategic planning framework of the company. Facilitator: The role of facilitator would enable the HR manager to help the employees in the organization to overcome their problems or difficulties they are facing with respect to the strategic framework of the company. The facilitator motivates the reluctant employees to take part actively, they also solve issues within groups, teams or departments and they also perform the decision making functions through discussion. Answer 4 Human Resource Management was previously known as personnel management. During 1960 the civil rights law and in 1970, several other laws in relation to sexual harassment at workplace, equality for women employees, pregnancy discrimination act and other safety security laws at workplace was passed. It was the duty of the personnel managers to comply with these laws and enforce them in the organization. Due to the Civil right law in 1960 discrimination on the basis of class, creed, color, nationality and gender was strictly prohibited. So diversified workforce was seen in the organization and it was the duty of the personnel manager to train them according to the new polices. Women were given greater opportunities of employment in the personnel department as the laws passed by the government in 1970s were mainly inclined to respect the importance of women employees in the organization irrespective of any class, nationality or creed. In 1970s, the name personnel management was changed to human resource management. This was an effort on the part of the organization to elevate the position of professionals working in this department. The human resource management functions included all the new policies and regulations related to the laws passed in the year 1960 and 1970. The laws passed in 1960, included the equal pay act which was passed in the year 1963, the civil rights act in 1964, age discrimination act in the year 1967 and in the phase of 1970s, the sexual harassment act was introduced in 1978, pregnancy discrimination act in the year 1978 and occupational safety act in 1970. Answer 5 While conducting interview, the HR department must keep in mind that such questions should be asked which would determine the potential of the employee in performing the duties. The employer must not get into asking controversial questions which might hurt the cultural or religious sentiments of the individual. There are better ways of judging the ability of an individual for the present job profile, but it should not in any way be annoying to the interviewee. The probable dos and don’ts that should be kept in mind while formulating interview questions are discussed below: Don’ts Do not ask the employee about his/her religious beliefs. Do not ask the age of the person because it is prohibited under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967. Do not ask the nationality of the interviewee as this is prohibited under the Immigration Reform and Control Act. Do not ask questions about the physical disability of the interviewee as the Disabilities Act of 1990 prohibits it strictly. Dos Do explain the job profile and the requirements to the interviewee in detail and any issues if he/she might face in doing so. Do inform the person about working hours and whether he/she has to work on holidays or not. Do ask necessary questions to test the skills relating to the job description. Do ask the interviewee about previous job experiences, companies in which he/she was hired and previous job functions that he/she has delivered in the past. Do check all the necessary skill, certificates, licenses, training proofs’ and educational background of the interviewee. Answer 6 It is very important for the manager to evaluate the performance of the employees so as to understand whether the employees are doing their job efficiently or not. That is why companies formulate standards or implement performance measurement tools or scales for measurement of performance. We are going to evaluate the significance of the three most popular performance appraisal tool used in the organizations nowadays, they are stated below: Graphic Rating Scales: It is one of the most popular performance appraisal tools which organizations generally use. It helps in assessing both the quantitative and qualitative dimensions of an employee performance, such as the job knowledge, honesty, co-operation, etc. The evaluator here assesses the list and gives ratings to the employee on the basis of their performance. Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales (BARS): It is a combination of two performance appraisal tools such as graphical rating scales and critical incidents because here the HR manager rates the employees on various assessment criteria, but the items that are included are actually the job behaviors. 360 degree Appraisal: This is the most popular method now days. It includes collecting feedback of the employees from their superiors, peers, subordinates and even customers. It is a thorough process, though time taking, but gives an accurate and true picture of the performance of any employee for appraisal. Answer 7 Sexual harassment signifies bullying, coercion or disturbing any employee by unsuitable promises of exchanging sexual favors. Sexual harassment is illegal and strict laws have been introduced from time to time to combat such illegal practices. There are two types of legally recognized sexual harassments: Hostile environment and quid pro quo. In case of hostile working environment form of sexual harassment, when a person discourages the sexual advancement of other employees, turns down the sexual request of another or avoids the verbal or physical sexual advancement, then an abusive working environment is created in the organization for that employee. Quid pro quo form of sexual harassment is considered when the employment of the person is depended on the sexual favors that he/she can offer. A very common example under this is when the boss in the company demands sexual favors in return of appraisal. The major difference between the hostile work environment and quid pro quo form of sexual harassment is that the employer becomes automatically liable for punishment in the second case and he/she is terminated from his /her job. In case of quid pro quo, the employee also gets the support of lawsuit under sexual harassment act. In hostile work environment, the management can save them by stating that the victim did not complain against such practices in the organization. Employees should be trained and motivated to create a healthy working environment and the management should be cautious enough to take personal feedback from every employee regarding the working environment and evaluate their problem areas (Boland, 2005, p. 25-26). Answer 8 The corporate environment is changing along with the changes in strategic plans of the companies. The Human resource departments are also functioning according to the changing need of the global market situation. So the five specific global market trends on the human resource management of the companies are: technological advancements, changing values and attitudes of the employees, globalization, outsourcing, and increase in workforce diversity. These five changing trends have significant impact on the HR of the company. The technological advancement has reduced the work of the HR professionals in recruitment and selection activities, training and controlling and monitoring the workforce. The values and the attitude of the employee have changed a lot due to increasing diversity in the workforce and that is why they have become more open to discuss issues within the organization with the HR personnel. Globalization has also motivated outsourcing, so developed countries outsource many services and workforce from other countries to do their task at a cheaper rate (Kumar, 2010, p. 26-28). References Boland, M. L. (2005). Sexual Harassment in the Workplace. Illinois: SphinxLegal. Kumar, R. (2010). Human Resource Management: Strategic Analysis Text and Cases. New Delhi: I. K. International Pvt Ltd. Rubio, P. F. (2001). A History of Affirmative Action, 1619-2000. Mississippi: Univ. Press of Mississippi. United States Office of Personnel Management. (1997). 360-Degree Assessment: An Overview, 4. 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