Controversy within Human Resources - Research Paper Example

17 April, Introduction Human resource is a very wide field that links management and employees. It is usually taken to be the employer and is treated with such high respect. Though a company could fail to strengthen its human resource department for one or several reasons, it’s factual that companies can’t operate without this department. In the U.S.A, human resource office is treated with high esteem to ensure that there is satisfaction both on employees’ side, as well as management. The head of this department should ever be sober, and a person of high integrity to make sure that no one gets mistreated in their quest to earn a living. This essay paper seeks to explore controversial behavior of one human resource manager of a U.S company that sought anonymity to avoid court cases on the ground of defamation (Bach p120). However, not all people disagree with the way he discharges since some professionals believe that he is impartial in his work. Hiring of staff It is the mandate of any human resource department to get new employees for a company. Hiring is due to needs that have risen in operations or gaps that need to be filled either due to resignations, quitting from job, dismissal, promotion and staff getting new jobs in other companies among other reasons. Firing comes in when management cracks the whip on certain undisciplined personnel or unproductive staff. However, this is not implemented with immediate effect but is preceded by series of warnings that are on record. It is done when a company can’t tolerate a certain employee anymore, and the only option remaining to explore is firing. In the company under scrutiny here, the human resource manager is charged with putting job adverts across, conduct interviews and confirms hiring of any new staff after the process is duly followed (Price p29). Though every job advert put across says that this company is an equal employer and discourages canvassing, this seems to be done differently. An important point to put across here is that the manager in question is a black American and is known to act in favor of management to avoid being reprimanded. Hiring policies in this company have been drafted to favor the company whereby he prefers to hire female employees even though a certain job is more inclined to the masculine gender as opposed to the feminine gender. Not all female applicants go through the full process of hiring since some canvass on the way by the manner of sexual favors to this human resource manager. This is, however, not for applicants who are American citizens since American citizens usually get first priority in any job advert regardless of qualifications. No enough reasons can explain why this is done this way yet management does not raise an alarm over his conduct causing employees to conclude that management as well has racial discrimination. Firing of staff Firing, on the other hand, is done in an awkward manner since no due process is put in place to show an employee why he got fired. The policies that this human resource manager found in place were said to be aged and thus the need for change. The change that followed was not practical since many clauses, which sought to strike a balance between Americans and non-Americans were phased out. This was done to make it difficult for non-Americans to get hired in this company and this has happened at the reign of this human resource manager. Several staffs who are not U.S citizens have been fired under undue grounds cited by human resource manager. Staffs are also required to carry with them their national identity cards to show their nationality and make it easier for human resource to do his duty ‘well’. This has led to total controversy and staff unrest and some American staff have even gone ahead and expressed dissatisfaction on the conduct of this human resource manager. Some of the Americans who have complained against his conduct are furnished with strict warnings though they have continued to show solidarity with non-Americans who have been continuously mistreated (Poole p113). Several good performing non-Americans have been fired in the recent past citing unprofessionalism in their work though some were on the way to climb up the ladder and their records were straight. Some staff thought that he influenced their firing because they challenged his position and he risked losing it to them. Retrenchment has been on the rise in this company whereby non-Americans have been victims. Americans are ever allowed to hit their retirement age, whereas non-Americans are faced with the painful news of being retrenched with no apparent reason. Promotion of staff Staffs that work well and show diligence in their work are usually motivated through rising up the ladder in a company. However, it should be noted that competence does add up to promotion. In this company, staffs, especially Americans have had a better share of promotions though some promotions are never warranted. The human resources manager has been giving wrong reasons for promoting staff, for instance, promoting an employee with the hope of getting rid of a bad habit in someone. This was once done for a certain individual who was ever late for work; never attained targets set and above all came to work while drunk. Management through the influence of the human resource manager thought it wise to have him promoted to see if he could improve. This was done, and he was given a supervisory role which he gladly appreciated and pledged to do his best to ensure that work was done well. The department he was taken to initially performed well but after a short period of time, he reverted to his behavior, and it was hard to control him anymore. Junior staff wrote anonymous notes to have him transferred, but he ended up being taken to another branch of the same company where he was not well known and this led to closure of that branch later since he did not change his habit. If such an employee was an African-American or a black employee, there would have been due mistreatment and eventually firing from job without pay. African-Americans are not allowed to accumulate pension, and if allowed, it is a disappointing low percentage that could be equated to none. Hence, such an employee as discussed above would end up getting home with nothing to show even after working for a long period. Gender discrimination The human resource manager under scrutiny has had much criticism from the way he conducts himself when the female gender is involved. He is known to favor female gender a lot, as opposed to the masculine gender. No apparent reason has been brought forward to warrant this kind of behavior. He defends himself by saying that the work done in this company is more of feminine than masculine. He is in almost every sitting of interviewing panels to make sure that females get a better share as well as being allowed to negotiate their salaries whereas males have their salaries fixed. African-American citizens regardless of gender are rarely allowed to apply for supervisory roles in white companies (Storey p93). Thus, this particular human resource manager is not an exception in denying non-Americans to get to supervisory roles. He has this general notion by Americans that African-Americans are incompetent until proven competent whereas Americans are competent until proven incompetent. Women applicants are deemed to be less experienced, and no senior position is awarded to them since they are viewed as the weaker sex. In this company, the human resource manager has instituted policies that ensure female applicants are thoroughly scrutinized basing his argument on other companies that employ same policy. Women retain junior positions only so long as they continue to grant the human resource manager his demands of sexual favors. There are only one percent of women in a supervisory role, and it has been established that a woman supervisor earns less by far as compared to a male employee in the same position, in the same company. Leave days for staff Employees in this company are awarded two days a month apart from American public holidays. These days are earned on an accrual basis. However, African-Americans in this company have been harassed by the human resource manager since it is hard for them to secure leave days. A long and exhaustive process is in place to tame the way in which African-Americans spend their leave days (Townley p105). This is demoralizing to non-Americans since it is very hard for them to have their leave forms signed by senior management. Management views African-Americans as immoral and this works against their morale at work. African-Americans productivity has gone down in the recent past since the department that is supposed to listen to their grievances adds more misery to them. Several employees have been laid off due to constant complain in their quest to secure a conducive workplace. Management does raise any alarm even as this is done though the company’s rank in the market has fallen considerably since the actions of the human resource manager are known across the board. American staffs sympathize with non-Americans since they see the kind of suffering they undergo as they seek to get justice and fair treatment. Some of the Americans have even joined non-Americans to press management via human resource manager to accord non-Americans respect in the workplace. Overtime of staff This is one controversial issue that has made the human resource manager to be on the lime light and a subject of discussion in the field of human resource. As per this research, it is in the policies of the company to have American employees earn overtime two-times the normal rate for any overtime hour worked while non-Americans earn one and a half times the normal hourly rate. However, when non-Americans work overtime, the human resource manager goes ahead and cuts their pay and pays them at the normal rate of normal working hours. Americans do not attend overtime work unless it is mandatory, but non-Americans attend to boost their earnings yet their sweat goes to the ground. The worrying issue is that he intends to have overtime scrapped off from the policy of the company and introduce a policy whereby people will be made to finish their work and, if they fail to, they plan on how to finish at their own time with no authorized overtime. Recommendations Human resource managers need thorough training to avert industrial unrest amongst employees as well as restoring their confidence. This should focus more on cross-cultural environment of work. Labor unions should rise and defend employees from such hostile treatment. Government should give them more backing to ensure that employees get a fair deal of services offered. A leadership expiration period needs to be in place to ensure that employees do not get used to one management team and hence face mistreatment. Companies need to set up reward schemes to recognize employees’ hard work, i.e. pay for performance. Conclusion Human resource is a sensitive department in any company and should be headed by personnel ready to exercise sobriety in dealing with all issues. She or he should not appear to favor any side regardless of race, gender or even family. All employees are equal in the eyes of human resource manager and treating anyone unfairly is what raises controversy. No discrimination whatsoever is allowable in the workplace as this will adversely affect production. Works Cited Bach, Stephen. Managing Human Resources: Personnel Management in Transition. Hoboken: New Jersey. John Wiley & Sons. 2005, Print. Price, Allan. Human Resource Management. Connecticut. Cengage Learning, 2011, Print. Poole, Michael. Human Resource Management: Critical Perspectives on Business and Management: Routledge. London. 1999 Print. Storey, John. Human Resource Management: A Critical Text: Stamford, Connecticut. Cengage Learning. 2007, Print. Townley, Barbara. Reframing human resource management: power, ethics and the subject at work: Sage. Thousand Oaks, California. 1994 Print. Rhetorical Strategies These are the strategies that one uses to develop a topic. Such strategies are said to be obvious to the reader of a certain topic. One such strategy employed here is that there has to be an ailing side for controversy to arise. Two sides do not argue if there is no side that is oppressed and is able to prove this oppression. The suffering side is given attention equally to the other side to help solve the controversy. The topic in question is about human resource management and this paper is more inclined towards an individual. This is due to the fact that individuals are bound to appear to favor some people either on the workplace or elsewhere. He will not be a darling to all thus this is a strategy to help get areas of discussion. The company under scrutiny is in cross-cultural environment comprised of different races. The major races in discussion are Americans and African-Americans. In such a setting, the authority will not have it smooth in their discharge of duties and will be said to favor one race as opposed to the other. One race will complain of unequal treatment and thus raising controversy. In any company, the human resource manager will have the full backing of the senior level management and will receive necessary support in its quest to discharge its duties. Management will not side with employees mostly since policies of the company under discussion have to be followed. Thus, employees will tend to raise alarm over the way management sides with human resource manager even when it is not warranted. Employees are treated as secondary and mostly production comes first then employees follow. In the research presented herein, employees’ demands fall on deaf ears since management does not accord full attention to employees. Attempts to have staffs compare and compare their company usually works against staff and may earn them dismissal. Read More