Thursday, February 14, 2013

Manager Vs. Leader

While both leadership and management require near identical skills and abilities, what defines a leader and what defines a manager are two completely separate things.
As referred to by Robert I. Sutton in his post "Why "Big Picture Only" Bosses Are The Worst," “Managers are people who do things right and leaders are people who do the right things." Warren Bennis, the original writer of the quote, seems to imply that managers are willing to sacrifice and do any and all actions to reach their objectives, following the means of the end justifying the mean. Leaders on the other hand are more moral in their endeavours. Leaders are willing to sacrifice their goals to save their followers and any loyal parties that they may deal with. The manager puts themselves and their goals above their supporters while the leader places their follower's health above all else.
And just becuase one is a leader, doesn't mean they have to be a manager and vice versa a manager doesn't neccessarily mean they are leader material.

Sunday, January 13, 2013

EEOC Discrimination Charge Handling Process

As a marketing manager, you have recently turned down Nancy Conrad for a position as sales supervisor. Nancy believes the denial was due to her gender, and she has filed a sex discrimination charge with the EEOC. Explain the steps the EEOC will use to  process the charge; include Nancy's options during the process.

After having filed a complaint, the EEOC would begin investigations of the company. During the investigation the EEOC may ask the company to submit a statement of position, allowing the organization to defend itself and to state what they believe happened. The EEOC of course would also ask the harassed for their statement, as to try to find out what truly happened. From there the EEOC may conduct an on site visit  allowing them to expedite the fact finding process. They may also ask the organization to provide contact information for witness interviews. There the EEOC would conduct interviews with management personal and non management level employees, questioning them for any possible facts that may assist in the case.

After the investigation the EEOC would most likely do one of three actions, depending on the results gained from the investigation. The EEOC may determine that there was no reasonable cause the justify a claim of discrimination having occurred and would issue a Dismissal and Notice of rights that would inform Ms. Conrad that she had the right to file a lawsuit in federal court within 90 days from the date of the receipt of the letter. If the EEOC had determined that there was reasonable cause to believe discrimination has occurred  then both the organization and Ms. Conrad would receive a letter of determination that invites both parties to join the agency in finding a way to resolve the charges. The final option would involve the EEOC enforcing the violation of its statutes by filing a lawsuit in federal court.

Friday, January 11, 2013

EEO-1

The EEO-1 report is the annual Equal Opportunity Employer Information Report filed by government contractors with the federal government. This Report is known as the Standard Form 100, with the report detailing race, ethnic, and sex composition of an employer's workforce at the start of the calendar year or during the period between January 1st and March 31st of a year. The report collects information from organization that employ more than 100 employees and is required to be filled out. The purpose of this report is to report anonymous annual data about the number of women and minorities in each occupation category and subcategory. This information is used to enforce  the Civil Rights act of 1964, prohibiting employment discrimination based upon race, color, religion, national origin, and sex.

EEO Complaint

Joe Alvarez has filed a complaint with the EEO alleging that his employer, Universal Mortgage company  promotes more whites than Hispanics into managerial position. Explain the statistical methods used by the EEOC to investigate this adverse impact claim.

The easiest way to see if Universal Mortgage Company is discriminating against Hispanics would be to check both the employment history of the firm and the employment racial statistics of the Mortgage market, and to compare the two for any form of irregularities. If Alvarez is correct, the Universal Mortgage Company should have a significantly higher percentage of white individuals being hired than the market percentage of white individuals being hired.

Sexual Harassment Complaint

After receiving several complaints of sexual harassment, the HR department of a city library decided to establish a sexual harassment policy. What should be included in the policy? How should it be implemented?

According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's guidelines certain key elements should be included within a sexual policy. These elements include a clear explanation of prohibited conduct, defining what could be considered as sexual harassment, and what the punishment of such acts would be. Organization must also assure that employees who make complaints or participate in an investigation of a complaint will be protected against retaliation as well as providing a clear description of the company's complaint process. Company's must also assure that employer will protect the confidentiality of complaints to the highest possible extent while also assuring that the employer will take immediate and appropriate corrective action when investigation determines that a harassment has occurred.

To implement these policies it would serve the company's best interest to train managers and employees on the procedure of the sexual harassment complaint process as well as providing ground rules that will assist employees avoid decided troubles.

Source:

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/80140#

Monday, January 7, 2013

Future Feelings For Discrimination In The Work Place?

Within the past few decades Congress and U.S Politicians and business executives have taken an active role in combating discrimination within the workplace.  This, as well as the increasing tend for American citizens to take legal actions has lead to a significant decrease in discrimination in the modern workplace. It seems likely that this trend will continue for quite some time, with more proposals being made in government to protect the rights of citizen workers that they may come to believe have been unjustly treated in the workplace. If anything, this attention to discrimination may increase to the point where it has become a deterrence to the efficiency of the workplace, creating a gridlock due to intertwining policies and regulations that could hinder the abilities of certain business to maintain a high level of efficiency. This of course can be combated by an increase in the training of employees and managers within the work area, so that they know how to avoid such situations. The reason why these policies have become so effective is because of the constant legal presence that creates an atmosphere where these discriminant actions are both frowned upon and punished accordingly.Yes, while this continue-es increase in the awareness in workplace discrimination will lead to significant decreases in cases of discrimination, it will never truly eliminate it, either from the workplace or from the public world. The causes behind this are endless, whether it be from cultural shift and actions that affect a large percentage of the population, such as the September 11th terrorist attack, which lead to increasing aggressiveness and discrimination to citizens and workers of Middle Eastern decent, or from past discrimination that will continue to linger, such as the latent racism and sexism that certain individuals contain within themselves.

Historical Perspective of EEO Legislation


Equal Employment Opportunity legislation was influenced heavily by changing attitudes toward employment discriminations, with discriminant acts becoming more frowned upon as society grew, published reports that highlighted economic problems of those being discriminated against, allowing the general public to know of the consequences discrimination has had on individuals, and by a growing body of disparate laws and government regulations that directly dealt with discrimination in the work place.

One of the most publicly known events that influenced EEO legislation was the civil rights movements that reached its height around the 1950’s and 1960’s. During this time minorities made a stand against public discrimination, setting up marches, sit-ins, rallies and any other type of event that would lead to a further increase in the publicity gained by the movement. This fight against discrimination lead to significant increase in the support of the movement, with more of the population coming to know, and in many cases, sympathize with the rebelling minority groups.

Other events that influenced this legislation was a string of acts passed by congress from the late 1866’s to the early 1960’s, such as the Civil right act of 1866 which gave all people the right to full and equal benefits under the law. These acts helped create a foundation that assisted in the nurturing a care of minority workers and lead the beginning of the early efforts to push for a greater sense of equality. They also laid the ground work for the creation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Finally, on of the major stimuli to the creation of EEO legislation was the increasing public awareness of the continuously increasing difference in economic status between white and minority working class citizens, which lead to a further increase in the sympathizing of those, being discriminated against.