Mid-Term Exam Review Fall 2011

Transcription

1 VIDEO CASE: Named one of America s top companies to work for by Fortune for many years, Patagonia s reputation is such that it has to spend very little on recruiting; for each new hire, the company receives 900 résumés. It experiences very low turnover, about 4 percent annually. Between its formal environmental programs and the steady labor pool of like-minded workers, employee motivation is all but inevitable. 1. Which approaches to employee development are used at Patagonia? 2. How does employee development at Patagonia contribute to the company s strategies relating to employee retention, building intellectual capital, and business growth? HOD 2740 Human Resource Management 1

2 3. For each of the bulleted situations below, identify one or more constitutional amendments, laws, or executive orders that may apply. - Thirteenth Amendment - Fourteenth Amendment - Civil Rights Act of 1866 and 1871 (as amended) - Equal Pay Act of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act Age Discrimination in Employment Act - Vocational Rehabilitation Act of Vietnam Era Veteran s Readjustment Act of Pregnancy Discrimination Act of Americans with Disabilities Act of Civil Rights Act of Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of Executive Order and Executive Order A veteran of the Vietnam conflict experiences lower-back pain after sitting for extended periods of time. He has applied for promotion to a supervisory position that has traditionally involved spending most of the workday behind a desk. One of the female workers on a road construction crew complains to her supervisor that she feels uncomfortable during breaks, because the other employees routinely tell off-color jokes. A manager at an architectural firm receives a call from the local newspaper. The reporter wonders how the firm wishes to respond to calls from two of its employees alleging racial discrimination. About half of the firm s employees (including all of its partners and most of its architects) are white. One of the firm s clients is the federal government. During a recent downsizing seven employees (3 male and 4 female) with more than 25 years of service were asked to take early retirement. A female employee was recently denied a promotion to another division within the company. Six months earlier, she filed a sexual harassment claim against a former supervisor in the company. HOD 2740 Human Resource Management 2

3 4. CASE STUDY EEOC Files Discrimination Lawsuits By LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ Associated Press Monday, October 2, 2006; 5:07 PM MIAMI -- The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced that it has filed employment discrimination suits against the Atlanta Bread Co. restaurant chain, BJ's Wholesale Club Inc. and auto parts retailer AutoZone Inc. In separate lawsuits filed Thursday in federal court here, the EEOC claimed that Natick, Mass.-based BJ's and Smyrna, Ga.-based Atlanta Bread International Inc. allowed racial discrimination of black and Hispanic employees. The complaint against Memphis, Tenn.-based AutoZone, filed Monday, accuses the company of permitting sexual harassment of several female workers. The EEOC also filed suit against ARO Enterprises, which owns the Atlanta Bread store in Pembroke Pines, about 20 miles north of downtown Miami. In each of the cases, the EEOC said it tried first to settle with the companies. The EEOC is asking a judge to prevent future acts of discrimination and order the companies to pay back wages and damages. According to the EEOC, between June 2005 and Sept. 2005, the Atlanta Bread Co. and ARO Enterprises, also known as Acra Enterprises, fired black employees and segregated them by race at the South Florida restaurant. "It is shocking in the 21st century to see a work force segregated by race and the systematic termination of virtually all black employees," said the commission's regional attorney Delner Franklin-Thomas in a statement. "All these workers wanted was an opportunity to provide for themselves and their families; they were denied that because of the color of their skin." In the BJ's case, managers at the company's Homestead store in south Florida allegedly harassed Hispanic and black employees with slurs and other derogatory comments. In the Autozone case, the manager of the Starke AutoZone store in north Florida allegedly made repeated unwelcome sexual advances and offensive comments to female employees between October and December of The women complained to the manager but said no action was taken until one of the victims was fired in January ) Describe the types of discrimination that have been alleged in these three companies: A. Atlanta Bread Company B. BJ s Wholesale Club Inc. C. AutoZone Inc. 2) What preventative measures can organizations take to avoid these types of allegations? HOD 2740 Human Resource Management 3

4 5. A major Human Capital Consulting Firm is expecting a labor shortage in the next 5 7 years as many of the partners (all baby boomer age) will be retiring or severely decreasing their time in the office managing client relationships. Recommend actions the organization could take in the areas below as it pertains to planning for this inevitable event. Recruitment Training & Development HOD 2740 Human Resource Management 4

5 6. Select 3 major learning challenges in an organization and possible ways to address these issues. HOD 2740 Human Resource Management 5