THE WORKPLACE: TODAYS CHALLENGES

MGT20BET LECTURE Week 8 Chapter 7

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Topics on The Workplace: Todays Challenges

Role of unions, their ideals & achievements & the moral issues they raise. Nature of privacy & the problems of organisational influence over private decisions Working conditions Job satisfaction & dissatisfaction & the prospect for enhancing the quality of work life (QWL)

TRADE UNIONS
Franklin D. Roosevelt Free and independent unions are characteristic of a free and democratic modern nation Main reason for standard of living and security of employment Purpose is to balance the power of employers and employees

Trade Union History

Union victories includes the provision of higher wages, paid vacations, health benefits, retirement pensions and increased job security Contributed to social stability in the country Strongest in period 1940s-1970s

UNION IDEALS
Based on ideals of brotherhood and equality Protect individual employees from abuses of employer power Mutual dependence of employers & employees which gave rise to collective bargaining.

UNION TACTICS
Are tactics used by unions to get management to accept their demands, this includes:

Direct Strikes Sympathetic Strikes Boycotts & Corporate Campaigns

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UNION TACTICS
Strikes occurs when organised body of workers withholds its labor to force the employer to comply with its demands. 3 conditions of a justified strike
Just cause Proper authorisation Last resort

Peaceful picketing considered as moral means of striking

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UNION TACTICS
Boycotts & Corporate Campaigns primary boycotts occur when union members & their supporters refuse to buy products from a company being struck. Corporate campaigns unions enlist the cooperation of a companys creditors to pressure the company to comply with union demands. corporate blackmail
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Privacy
Is acknowledged today to be a fundamental right, yet corporate behaviour and polices often threaten privacy, in most case of employees.

EMPLOYEE PRIVACY
privacy is an example of a human/civic right that is elimated in the workplace Because the employee is regarded as a means to the employers ends (rather than an end in him/herself) this rights are subordinated / of secondary importance The employer is considered to have the right to ignore normal civic privacy rights.
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Examples.
Video surveillance of employees. (may include the washrooms, changing rooms as well as work area) This may be for theft issues but also for level of work effort and to ensure limitation of fraternisation. Mary Kay Cosmetics in Wales has such a system.
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Guidelines for Managers on regards to Employee Surveillance

Employers should carefully research local employee privacy laws. the types of monitoring that may be conducted vary widely from state to state. Check the law in your state before beginning telephone, camera, computer, or any other type of electronic monitoring.
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Examples.
Searching of employees, belongings and lockers on a regular basis. Reading of employee e-mails, letters and silent monitoring of phone calls. DNA testing is on the rise especially in the U.S.A. Could become a basis for employment because of supposed predispositions for ones ability and sickness.
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Guidelines for Managers on regards to Personal Appearance

Employers are generally free to set reasonable guidelines concerning neatness, dress, appearance, and hygiene. However, such codes are always in danger of legal attack, usually on the grounds that they are discriminatory or violate a persons right to privacy.
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Drug testing of employees

In the U.S.A. some employers require that employees NOT smoke, drink or engage in dangerous sports which may include skiing, diving. Regular drug tests of employees to ensure this.

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Guidelines for Managers on regards to Off-Duty Behavior

In most states, employers may discipline or terminate employees for off-duty behavior that might embarrass the company or disrupt its operations, though some methods of obtaining information about off-duty conduct may infringe on privacy rights. Some states, restrict employers from gathering information regarding an employee's off-duty behavior. Check the law in your state before taking any action against an employee
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Drug and Alcohol Testing

The Supreme Court has upheld an employer's right to test employees for drugs and alcohol . However, some state and local governments have passed laws prohibiting testing, and the subject is always bound to raise privacy law issues. Check on the laws in your state before planning a testing policy.
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Lie Detector Tests

The federal Polygraph Protection Act protects most American workers from taking a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. In many states, however, the law does not apply to applicants in law enforcement agencies, persons in sensitive positions relating to national security, or applicants in drug manufacturing and distributing.
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Personality Tests
Federal law does not prohibit an employer from requiring an employee or prospective employee to take a psychological or personality test. However, check the law in your state before requiring any candidate or existing employee to take such a test.
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Searches
Private employers may generally conduct on-premises searches of employer-owned vehicles, equipment, desks, lockers, briefcases, and other items. In most states, searches of an employee's personal items may be legal if the employee has a reasonable expectation of privacy. Public employees enjoy constitutional protections that guard against many kinds of searches.
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EMPLOYEE PRIVACY
Individuals have a right to make personal decisions autonomously. Organisations may be invading privacy when they coerce employees to contribute to charities or participate in wellness programs Employees must have a free choice, willingly agree to participate to a liedetector & personality test.
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QUESTION????
To what extent may an employer infringe / violate upon or monitor the private life of an employee? For example, suppose that an employee (male or female) works as an exotic dancer during off hours. Does the employer have the moral right to ask that the employee to stop working as an exotic dancer because it impacts or has the potential to impact on the companys image?
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QUESTION????
If you are an employer seeking to hire the best, most conscientious employee you can, are any and all means of obtaining information about prospective employees legitimate? What constraints / limitations, if any, ought to be put on your efforts to obtain information about prospective employees?
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WORKING CONDITIONS
1. Health and Safety
Employees have a legal right to refuse work when expose to imminent danger & their employer are forbidden to reprimand them for doing so. Companies are required by law to inform workers in writing of any life-threatening hazards they face at workplace
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WORKING CONDITIONS
2. Management Styles
How managers conduct themselves on the job can enhance or diminish work conditions When managers ignore individual differences it creates a work atmosphere that is distressing to workers & less productive

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WORKING CONDITIONS
Day Care & Maternity Leave
Increased demand for reasonable maternityleave policies & affordable child-care services. Offering child-care services as a fringe benefits is cost effective in a sense that it decreases absenteeism, boost morale as well as loyalty to the firm & enhance productivity.

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Day Care & Maternity Leave

Moral issues:
1. Woman have the right to compete on an equal ground with men. 2. Woman should not be forced to reduce the quality of their commitment either to their children or their careers. 3. Enable both fathers & mothers to achieve personally desirable balance between paid work & family relations
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WORKING CONDITIONS
EMPLOYEE SAFETY Can be considered a human right U.N. mandated Employer Duty of Care Employee Duty of Care (self & others) Employees must be: aware of dangers, accept dangers freely, receive compensation
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The Hawthorne studies

contributed to development of the human relations movement during the 1950s and 1960s, which asserted that managers who use good human relations in the workplace would achieve productivity. Peoples feelings, attitudes & relationships with coworkers should be important to management, & they the need to recognise the importance of the work group.
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DISSATISFACTION ON THE JOB

3 Sources of worker dissatisfaction
1. Industry preoccupation of quantity not quality, rigid rules & regulations & monotonous repetition of tasks 2. Lack of opportunities to be ones own boss 3. Concerned of bigness more people work for large corporations workers feelings of powerlessness & meaninglessness
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Job satisfaction
is the degree to which an individual feels positively or negatively about various aspects of the job Common aspects of job satisfaction include: a. Satisfaction with pay. b. Satisfaction with tasks. c. Satisfaction with supervision. d. Satisfaction with coworkers. e. Satisfaction with the work setting. f. Satisfaction with advancement opportunities.

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Job Satisfaction
Research has demonstrated a strong and positive relationship between job satisfaction and absenteeism and turnover; workers who are satisfied with their jobs are present more often and are more likely to stay with an organisation.

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QUALITY OF WORK LIFE (QWL)

Job design affects the total well being of workers, work content and job satisfaction. Moral concern:
Company have a moral obligation to devise ways to improve the QWL of employees because happier more contented worker is generally more productive.

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Quality of work life (QWL)

is frequently used as an indicator of the overall quality of human experiences in the workplace. All managers should try to achieve high performance outcomes while maintaining a high quality of work life and helping others to maintain a positive work-life balance.
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Quality of work life (QWL)

A high quality of work life is one that offers the individual worker such things as: (1) Fair pay. (2) Safe working conditions. (3) Opportunities to learn and use new skills. (4) Room to grow and progress in a career. (5) Protection of individual rights. (6) Pride in the work itself and in the organisation.
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