Human Resources Management - Essay Example

In this case, there are many legal, ethical and HR issues to address; issues of legal liability, bribery and workplace bullying. This case highlights the recent exposure of sexual assault allegations against sports professionals and the actions taken by club presidents, members, the media and the police in regards to dealing with the issue appropriately. The legal issues raised by this particular case include duty of care, bribery, and preventing the course of justice. If the Carringbush Cheetahs Football Club give the woman $20,000 as “hush money” (Stone 2010 pp539) they would be commenting illegal bribery.

Also, by ‘paying her off’ they are preventing the course of justice. The club have a duty of care not only to their players but to the alleged victim and the public. They are committing a crime by covering up the incident. In Australia, there have been similar cases involving the use of “club members’ money paying for court trials, settlements and even private detectives to follow and build up a file against alleged rape victims” (Krien 2011). . ng similarities to St Kilda coach Ross Lyon when he tried to distance the club from a police investigation into allegations of a rape cover-up in 2011 (McMahon & Hunt 2010).

As well as these legal and ethical issues, from the HR perspective, workplace bullying is present with Troy Sanders pressured into agreeing to bury the accusations and bribing the woman. The Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995 (1(a)(b)) defines ‘workplace harassment’ as when a person is subjected to repeated behaviour by a person, employer, co-worker or group of co-workers that a reasonable person would consider to be intimidating (Jones 2009 pp14). Troy can seek remedy for workplace harassment under common law for breach of duty of care or under Occupational Health and safety legislation.

However, it is unlikely he would choose this action as in sport societies there is a strong “family” subculture (Krien 2011). An incident like this would be seen as “testing loyalty” and Troy’s allegiance would be rewarded (Krien 2011). It has been suggested that sporting clubs, such as the Carringbush Cheetahs, adopt more “vigorous education programs” and HR strategies to teach the players acceptable social behaviour as well as to protect them from “predatory behaviour” (Silvester 2010).

Since players are seen as role models in the eyes of the public, they then have the responsibility to behave appropriately, as does the club. It is unfortunate this is not always the case. Response to the Case Study Answer: I agree with most points raised by the answer to the case study above. The analysis rightly points out that the case in question is typical of many sexual transgressions that male sports professionals are making a habit of. It also correctly identifies the numerous facets to the case,