Unit 3: Employee Privacy, Termination, and Arbitration - Project - Case Study Example

Employee Privacy, Termination and Arbitration – Project: Wal-Mart, Inc. v. Stewart 990 P.2d 626 (Alaska 1999) Wal-Mart, Inc. v. Stewart 990 P.2d 626 (Alaska 1999)Elvis R. Stewart, an African-American, joined Wal-Mart in n July 1994, began working for the McDonalds restaurant located inside the Wal-Mart store on Benson Boulevard in Anchorage. Stewart also worked at Taco Bell and in order to work both shifts, Stewart carried a change of clothes and personal items in a duffel-type bag. He used to change out of his Taco Bell uniform, and into his McDonalds uniform, in the Wal-Mart bathroom.

Wal-Mart had a national policy of checking the employees for stolen items when they leave the premises of Wal-Mart. Stewart suffered lot of humiliation at the checkpoints and he noticed that the white people and women are escaping from the checkpoints without their bags being checked. Stewart sued Wal-Mart for violating Alaskas civil rights statute, for invading his common-law right to privacy, and for negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress. He sought both compensatory and punitive damages.

The jury awarded Stewart both compensatory and punitive damages (WAL-MART, INC., a foreign corporation, Mark Divis, manager, and Randy Hardy, employee, Appellants,v. Elvis R. STEWART, Appellee, 1999)DiscussionIf Wal-Mart wants to enforce a policy across the country, it should be uniform and non-discriminatory. But in the case of Stewart, Wal-Mart has definitely shown discrimination as they failed to respect the integrity of the employee and continuously harassed him at the checkpoints. Wal-Mart could have isolate Stewart from vigorous checking as he already informed the management that he is working for another company and needs to carry changing clothes.

Instead of checking the employees at the gates, Wal-Mart could have implemented an electronic surveillances system in order to monitor the employee activities and movements while they were working inside their premises. Douglas McGregor, an American social psychologist formulated X-Y theory in 1960, after studying management approaches at workplace. Theory X stands for authoritarian management style whereas Theory Y stands for participative management style (douglas mcgregor - theory x y, 2010).

Theory Y or participatory or democratic management style yields better results compared to the Theory Y or autocratic management styles at workplace. No employee would like to work under pressure. Wal-Mart’s action of checking the employees at the gates is another humiliation which is added to the woes they suffered while working inside. Theory X management styles definitely affect the employee capacity to use a high degree of imagination, ingenuity and creativity in solving organisational problems whereas Theory Y management styles will encourage employee self-control and self-direction in the pursuit of organisational objectives.

Motivation is the activation of goal-orientated behavior. Motivation can be intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation refers to the motivation exists within the individual, driven by an interest or enjoyment in the task itself. Intrinsic motivation does not look for external parameters. Extrinsic motivation on the other hand comes from outside of the individual. Some of the common extrinsic motivators are rewards like money and grades, coercion and threat of punishment etc. Processes like rewards and punishments can motivate an employee both intrinsically and extrinsically.

ConclusionsIt is better to motivate an employee intrinsically to yield better results. In order to motivate an employee intrinsically, the organization should behave positively to the employee needs. Wal-Mart has not shown any respect to the privacy and integrity of Stewart as an employee and such tactics will never fill positive energy for better productivity in the minds of employees. References 1. douglas mcgregor - theory x y. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.businessballs.com/mcgregor.htm2.

WAL-MART, INC., a foreign corporation, Mark Divis, manager, and Randy Hardy, employee, Appellants,v. Elvis R. STEWART, Appellee. (1999). Retrieved from http://scholar.google.co.in/scholar_case?case=7319408399886767790&q=Wal-Mart,+Inc.+v.+Stewart+990&hl=en&as_sdt=2002&as_vis=1