Chapter 3 Summary

L01 Explain how the three branches of government regulate human resource management.
- The legislative branch develops laws such as those governing equal employment
opportunity and worker safety and health.
- The executive branch establishes agencies such as the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration
to enforce the laws by publishing regulations, filing lawsuits, and performing other
activities. The President may also issue executive orders, such as requirements for
federal contractors.
- The judicial branch hears cases related to employment law and interprets the law.

L02- Summarize the major federal laws requiring equal employment opportunity.
- The Civil Rights Act of 1866 and 1871 grant all persons equal property rights, contract
rights, and the right to sue in federal court if they have been deprived of civil rights,
- the Equal Pay Act of 1963 requires equal pay for men and women who are doing work
that is equal in terms of skill effort, responsibility, and working conditions.
- Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination on the
basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
- The Age Discrimination in Employment Act prohibits employment discrimination
against persons older than 40.
- The Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973 requires that federal contractors engage in
affirmative action in the employment of persons with disabilities
- the Vietnam Era veterans Readjustment Act of 1974 requires affirmative action, and
employment of veterans who served during the Vietnam War,
- the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 treats discrimination based on pregnancy-
related conditions as illegal sex discrimination.
- The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 requires reasonable accommodations for
qualified workers with disabilities.
- The Civil Rights Act of 1991 provides for compensatory and punitive damages in cases
of discrimination,
- the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994
requires that employers reemploy service members who left jobs to fulfill military duties,
- the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) of 2008 forbids employers
from using genetic information and making decisions related to the terms, conditions, or
privileges of employment.
- Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 allows employees to claim discriminatory
compensation within a set time after receiving a discriminatory paycheck.

L03 Identify the federal agencies that enforce equal employment opportunity and describe the
role of each.
- The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is responsible for enforcing most of
the EEO laws, including Title VII, and the Americans with Disabilities Act. It investigates
and resolves complaints, gathers information, and issues guidelines.
 - The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Procedures is responsible for enforcing
executive orders that call for affirmative action by companies that do business with the
federal government. It monitors affirmative action plans and takes action against
companies that fail to comply.

L04 Describe ways employers can avoid illegal discrimination and provide reasonable
accommodation.
- Employers can avoid discrimination by avoiding disparate treatment of job applicants
and employees as well as policies that result in disparate impact
- companies can develop and enforce an EEO policy coupled with policies and
practices that demonstrate a high value placed on diversity.
- Affirmative action may correct past discrimination, but quota-based activities can result
in charges of reverse discrimination,
- to provide reasonable accommodation, companies should recognize needs based on
individual's religion or disabilities. Accommodations could include adjusting
schedules or dress codes, making the workplace more accessible, or restructuring jobs

L05 Define sexual harassment and tell how employers can eliminate or minimize it.
- Sexual harassment is unwelcome sexual advances and related behavior that makes
submitting to the conduct a term of employment or the basis for employment decisions
or that interferes with an individual's work performance or creates a work environment
that is intimidating, hostile, or offensive.
- Organizations can prevent sexual harassment by developing a policy that defines and
forbids training employees to recognize and avoid this behavior and providing a means
for employees to complain and be protected.

L06 Explain employers’ duties under the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
- Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, employers have a general duty to
providel employees a place of employment are free from recognized safety and health
hazard
- they must inform employees about hazardous substances.
- They must maintain records of accidents and illnesses.
- They must comply with NIOSH standards about specific occupational hazards

L07 describe the role of Occupational Safety and Health Administration,

- the Occupational Safety and Health Administration publishes regulations and conducts
inspections
- If OSHA finds violations, it discusses them with the employer and monitors the
employer’s response

L08 Discuss wage orders promote worker safety and health

- Besides complying with OSHA regulations. Employers often establish safety awareness
programs designed to instill an emphasis on safety,
 - they may identify and communicate hazards through the job hazard analysis.
- They may adapt, communication and training to the needs of different employees, such
as differences in experience levels or cultural differences from one country to another.
- Employers may also establish incentive programs and reward safe behavior.

Chapter 4 Summary
L01 Summarize the elements of workflow analysis.
- First, the analysis identifies the amount and quality of a work unit’s outputs (products
parts and products or services)
- Next, the analyst determines the work processes required to produce the outputs,
breaking down tasks into those performed by each person.
- Finally, the workflow analysis identifies the inputs used to carry out the processes.
-

L02 Describe how workflow is related to an organization’s structure

- within an organization, units and individuals must cooperate to create outputs, and the
organization structure brings people together for this purpose.
- The structure may be centralized or decentralized.
- People may be grouped according to function, or into divisions focusing on particular
products or customer groups,
- a functional structure is most appropriate for people who perform highly specialized jobs
and hold relatively little authority,
- employee empowerment and teamwork succeed best in a divisional structure.

L03 Define the elements of a job analysis, and discuss their significance for human resource
management
- job analysis is the process of getting detailed information about jobs. It includes
preparation of job descriptions and job specifications,
- a job description lists the tasks, duties, and responsibilities of a job.
- job specifications look at the qualities needed in a person performing the job. They list
the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics that are required for successful
performance of a job.
- Job analysis provides a foundation for carrying out many HRM responsibilities, including
work redesign, human resource planning, employees selection and training,
performance appraisal, career planning and job evaluation to determine pay scales.

L04 Tell how to obtain information for a job analysis

- information for analyzing an existing job often comes from incumbents and their
supervisors.
 - The Labor Department publishes general background information about jobs and the
Dictionary of Occupational Titles and occupational information network (O*NET)
- Job analysts, employees and managers may complete a Position analysis questionnaire
or fill out a survey for the Fleishman Job Analysis System.
- In the case of teamwork, there are standard ways to measure the nature of teams such
as looking at three critical dimensions: skill differentiation, authority differentiation and
temporal (time) stability.
L05 Summarize recent trends in Job analysis
- to broaden traditional approaches to Job analysis in support of talent management,
organizations develop competency models. A competency model identifies and
describes all the competencies, or personal capabilities, required for success in a
particular occupation, or set of jobs,
- Because today's workplace requires a high degree of adaptability, job tests and
requirements are subject to constant change. For example, as some organizations
downsize, they are defining jobs more broadly with less supervision of those positions.
- Organizations are also adopting project-based structures and teamwork, which also
require flexibility and the ability to handle broad responsibilities.
- The pace of change in job design continues to accelerate due to the widening availability
of robotics, artificial intelligence, voice recognition and new applications of information
technology. These developments let organizations automate processes once assumed
to be the domain of humans. However, more research is needed to determine how these
advances will affect the number of jobs in the workplace, although analysts agree that
jobs will continue to evolve.

L06 Describe methods for designing a job so that it can be done efficiently.
- The basic technique for designing efficient jobs is industrial engineering, which looks for
the simplest way to structure work to maximize efficiency
- through methods such as time and motion studies, the industrial engineer creates jobs
that are relatively simple and typically repetitive.
- These jobs may borel workers because they are so simple.

L07 Identify approaches to designing a job to make it motivating

- According to the Job Characteristics Model, jobs are more motivating if they have
greater skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback about
performance effectiveness
- ways to create such jobs include job enlargement (through job extension or job rotation
and) job enrichment
- self managing work teams also offer greater skill variety and task identity,
- flexible work schedules and telework offer greater autonomy.

L08 Explain how organizations applying ergonomics to design safe jobs.

- The goal of ergonomics is to minimize physical strain on the worker by structuring the
physical work environment around the way the human body works,
 - ergonomic design may involve(1) modifying equipment to reduce the physical demands
of performing certain jobs force, (2) redesigning the job themselves to reduce strain
- economic design may target work practices associated with the injuries.

L09 Discuss how organizations can plan for the mental demands of a job.
- Employers may seek to reduce mental as well as physical strain
- the job design may limit the amount of information and memorization involved,
- adequate lighting, easy-to-read gauges and displays, simple-to-operate equipment, and
clear instructions also can minimize mental strain
- computer software can simplify jobs. For example, by performing calculations for filtering
out spam from important emails,
- organizations can select the employees with the necessary abilities to handle a jobs
mental demands.