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.

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.

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#

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.

Government Regulation of Equal Employment Opportunity

EEO legislation has multiple laws that affect, help regulate, and help diminish discrimination in the work place such as the Americans with disabilities act of 1990 or the Pregnancy discrimination act of 1978, which assist minority groups deal with discrimination at work.

            The Equal Pay Act of 1962 for example makes it illegal for organizations to alter the pay, benefits and pensions of an employee simply because of their gender. This prevents employers from paying one gender more than another for “equal” jobs. However, employers can bypass this law if they follow a seniority, merit, or quantity/quality system of production. This however must be because of said system, not because of a particular employee’s gender.

            Another act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 discourages discrimination based on age. Under this act it is prohibited for employers from discriminating against people age 40 or older in any area of employment.

            The Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972 increased the coverage created in the Civil rights Act of 1964 to the point where I encompassed state and local government as well as public and private educational institutions.  This act also increases the government’s ability to enforce the power of the Equal Employee Opportunities Commission by allowing the agency to take employers to court.

            Another law, one which was mentioned earlier, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 provide protection for those with mental or physical disabilities. This act mandates that employers must make reasonable accommodation the needs of their disabled employees, such as providing ramps for those in wheelchairs, or to maintain a safe environment for their more unfortunate workers.

            Finally the Uniform Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 was passed to assist those who have entered the military for short periods of service. This act protects against discrimination just because of their military obligation. This act also requires that employers make reasonable efforts to accommodate serving individuals, while the individual in question is required to provide their employers with an advanced notice of their military obligations and possible leaves.

November First Friday

This past Friday we held our latest First Friday, under the theme of Thanksgiving. There we held tables to advertise the Prom, the Crystal Ball, the White Rose Banquet, and many more. One new change for this First Friday was that, rather than limiting our audience to Business Seniors, we allowed any Senior into the event. While this event seemed calmer than past First Fridays, we did have a small issue in the beginning when the FFLA bought in a food table. This lead to a massive pile up near the entrance of the hallway, with many individuals crowding the way. We were able to change this however when we "convinced" them to move their table farther down. After this the opening for the First Friday, the area I was situated in, became much calmer, to the point of being boring seeing as nothing truly happened for our end after that.  However, judging from the sounds coming further down the hallway, where our residential DJ, DJ Fabian was located at, it just seemed that the party decided to follow the food.

All in all, I would say that this event, while having a small hiccup or two, went off fairly well. One issue I did see was the continuous need of some form of security or enforcers, as to keep these pileups from occurring again.

Halloween Event

On October 31, 2012, we here at Project XIII held our own little haunted house in order to both celebrate Halloween, as well as to promote red ribbon week and drug awareness. This little event was lead by our very own Derrick Williams who planned and participated in the haunted house.

The basic format for this event was fairly simple. We first broke the event into two main parts, one targeting children, telling them about how bad drugs were, and the main event, the haunted house. For the haunted house we decorated our room, creating pseudo-walls out of joined garbage bags, adding small decorations such as "bloodied" signs, strobe lights, and a skeleton. We also had students positioned near the entrance who would tell their own little story about how drugs affected them and ruined their lives, while at the same time scaring them and moving them into the second part of the haunted house. Mind you, for this event, all of our students had dressed in costumes as to keep the tone of the event.

To give you an overview, we first had groups of five to six come in through the back doorway. There we had set up an arch with a paper curtain to block their view. As they walked into the arch, we had a large fake spider drop onto their heads. As they stumbled pass that part, they then ran into me, their designated tour guide for the first half of the haunted house. Seeing as I had been dressed as an evil jester, I made sure to unnerve the group with constant signs of insanity and mental imbalance. I then lead them into an area we designated as the "graveyard." Their we had one of our students, Esmi, play the part of a dead body. After introducing her, I lead the groups towards the designated story area. However, practically right after we left the graveyard, Esmi would pop up to scare the group. From their I lead them to the stories, where they would listen to about two stories before we start to literally scream at them to get out. This lead to many groups trying to stumble area from us, where they would pass Cynthia (playing what I believe had an uncanny resemblance to a creep doll). She would then usually pop up screaming at them, scaring them even more as we pushed them into the second part of the house.

As they entered the second half of the "house" there would be students popping up at random intervals to scare the groups, as we herded them into Fabian's "domain." While I am not a hundred percent certain as to what occurred in that section of the event, I do know that a large percentage of our people who visited our event, ended up running out screaming from his little "dungeon of horrors."

In the end we had over 240 individuals who signed to show that they stopped by to visit the event, surpassing last years by a fair margin. In fact, we had so many clients that many were simply unable to enter seeing as their lunch had ended before they could enter. All in all, I would say that this event was a smashing success, and a great way to start off our bigger events with.

First Friday

Last Friday, we of Project XIII held our First Friday for the month of October. For those who may not know what a First Friday is, a First Friday is a small event we at Hambleton Enterprises hold on the first Friday of every month. At these events we pass out information for various events that are planned to be held at the school. We also tend to base these events around a certain topic, this latest one being based around breast cancer awareness. At this event, I was given the task to act as the events security, making certain that only the intended audience group was allowed into the event area. I also was given the task to distribute mandatory papers to seniors that would inform them of the fees that they could be expected to pay this year. When looking back at the event, I've noticed the amount of work that was put into making this event the success it came out to be. Plans had been made to determine where tables would be placed, as well as determining who would be assisting at which table. However, the event could have been better had we put that bit more effort into promoting the event, drawing in a bigger crowd. As for the event itself, we did magnificently. Tables were well decorated any very attracting. The music created a very upbeat and energetic atmosphere. However one problem I came to notice was a lack of communication, with one event worker leaving without notifying the others. In a real job, this lack of notification would lead to a reprise, seeing as it could disrupt the flow of work. And this was not done by only one individual, but by a small sum of workers. This small issue aside, the event was a success. Although, in the future, it may be advisable to increase the target audience, allowing us to further spread information of our up and coming events.

Chapter 1

Work. When taking a look back into the skills needed for the workplace by an administrative assistant, that's really what it all comes down to. The level of skill needed for this line of work is nothing short of amazing. Because of modern technology, virtual assistants need, not only the know how on modern tech, but also the skills to apply this knowledge. Teamwork of course is a must, especially seeing as administrative assistants have a tendency to practically have a small reach in every part of the organization, if not doing work in that sector, than assisting in a way that will directly affect them at some point. And to do this an assistant must be proficient in communication skills, to be able to efficiently convey their message across, as to minimize the amount of confusion. And all of this is but the tip of the iceberg, a small taste of the amount of work and skill put in by professionals that follow this route of work. These people, these workers are part of the reason why organizations run so efficiently and smoothly.To be honest, I had no idea how much work was needed, how much effort had to be put into this profession, not just to be the best, but to even be functional. After having gone through this chapter I can honestly say that I have gained a new respect for any and all individuals who are willing to put so much effort into their work, as to proudly call themselves and administrative assistant.