BAC04 - Good Government and Social Responsibility

Anna Peachy E. Maguyon

 EMPLOYEE
STAKEHOLDERS
1. What information were you given about the
organization’s strategic direction?
2. How will you managed and treated by your
supervisor?
3. Did you feel empowered to make decision?
4. How much training did you receive?
the term revolves around a smaller subset of industries and goes
beyond the collectives, such as trade unions

are no longer just focused on factory work, manufacturing jobs,

but now also includes the service sector/non-union entities,
part-time, and contractual workers

generally focuses on the restrictions and agreements between

the industry to its worker in various levels of collectivization, as
union or as an invidual (recent practices)
“The Working Life: The Promise and Betrayal of Modern Work”
by Joanne B. Ciulla

writes about the different types of work, the history of work,

the value of work to a person’s self-concept, the relationship
between work and freedom, and, as the title implies, the rewards
and pitfalls that exist in the employee-employer relationship

“Get a job” and “Get a life”

”
1. Economic Issue

- Malden Mills Industries, CEO Aaron Feurstein

In1995, 750,000 square feet of factory and office space at

Malden Mills burned to the ground and workers were injured.

“ The welfare of our employees has always been and continues

to be a priority of Malden Mills”
a. Employee-Employer Contract

Contract - mutual understanding and exist between employee and employer

For example, although employer held the position of power for many years, the new
century brought record employment rate and the tightest job market in years. Huge
salaries, signing bonuses, multiple offers, and flexible, not seniority-based,
compensation plans became common place throughout the late 1990s. The economic
downturn, the attacks of September11,2001, and a series of business scandals in the
early 2000s brought a decline in lucrative employment opportunities and forced many
firms to implement layoffs and other cost-cutting measures. Pay raises, health-care
benefits, mental health coverage, retirement funding, paid maternity leave, and other
benefits, were reduced or costs were shifted to employees.
 a. Employee-Employer Contract

Psychological contract - exist between an employee and employer.

This contract is largely unwritten and includes beliefs, perceptions,
expectations, and obligations that make up the agreement between
individuals and the organizations that employ them
 a. Employee-Employer Contract

Psychological contract - Details of the contract develop through communications, via

interactions with managers and coworkers, and through perceptions of the corporate
culture. These interactions are especially important for new employees, who are trying to
make sense of their new role. This contract, through informal, has significant influence on
the way employees act. When the promises and expectations are not met, a psychological
contract breach occurs, and employees may become less loyal, less trusting, inattentive
to work, or otherwise dissatisfied with their employment situation. On the other hand,
when employers present information in a credible, competent, and trustworthy manner,
employees are more likely to be supportive of and committed to the organization.
Therefore, there are two groups that contribute to the development, maintenance, and
evolution of the psychological contract at work - employees and employer.
Psychological Contract and Why It Matters

• An intangible agreement between both parties binds the relationship between

the employer and their employees.

• the relations within the corporate structure is guided and predictable on a set
of practices and expectations between them.

• There exist various sets of assumptions that may not be bound by solid
contract but are nonetheless, practices that are accepted and expected in the
relationship between the employee and their employers.
b. Workforce reduction

The process of eliminating employment position

This process place considerable pressure on top

management, causes speculation and tension among
employees, and raises public ire about the role of business
in society.
b. Workforce reduction

Downsizing or rightsizing - usually entails employee layoffs and

terminations.

In other case, a company freezes new hiring, hopes for natural

workforce attrition, offers incentives for early retirement, or
encourages job sharing among existing employee.
b. Workforce reduction
Companies can use strategies to reduce overall cost and expenditures.
For example, organizations may choose to reduce the number of employees,
simplify products and processes, decrease quality and promises in service delivery,
or develop some other mechanism for eliminating resources or nonperforming
assets.
An example, in early 2009 General Motors (GM) announced intentions to cut
18,000 hourly job in the United States and approximately 47,000 and hourly jobs
worldwide by the end of 2009. In the previous three years, GM had already laid
off 60,000 hourly employees. These actions effectively signaled the “end of the
old contract” that employees had with employers.
2. Legal Issues
a. Wages and Benefits
b. Labor Union
c. Health and Safety
d. Equal Opportunities
e. Sexual Harassment
f. Whistle-Blowing
2. Legal Issues

a. Wages and Benefits

After the Great Depression, the U.S. Congress enacted a number of laws to protect employee right and
extend employer responsibilities. The Fair Labor Standard Act (FLSA) of 1938 prescribed minimum wage
and overtime pay, recordkeeping , and child labor standards for most private and public employers. Two
other pieces of legislation relate to employer responsibilities for benefits and job security. The Employee
Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) of 1974 set uniform minimum standards to assure that employee
benefit plans are established and maintained in a fair and financially sound manner, ERISA does not
require companies to established retirement pension plans; instead, it developed standards for the
administration of plan that management chooses to offer employees. A key provision relates to vesting,
the legal right to pension plan benefits. In general, contributions an employee makes to the plans are
vested immediately, whereas company contributions are vested after five years of employment. ERISA is a
very complicated aspect of employer responsibilities because it involves tax law, financial investments, and
plan participants and beneficiaries.
2. Legal Issues
b. Labor Union
In one of the earliest pieces of employment legislation, the National Labor Relations Act
(NLRA) of 1935 legitimized the rights of employees to engage in collective bargaining and to
strike. This law was originally passed to protect employee rights, but subsequent legislation
gave more rights to employers and restricted the power of unions. Before the NLRA, many
companies attempted to prohibit their employees from creating or joining labor organizations.
Employees who were members of unions were often discriminated against in terms of hiring
and retention decisions. This act sought to eliminate the perceived imbalance of power
between employers and employees. Through unions, employees gained a collective bargaining
mechanism that enabled greater power on several fronts, including wages and safety.
2. Legal Issues
c. Health and Safety
In 1970, the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) sought to ensure safe and healthy
working conditions for all employees by providing specific standards that employers must
meet. This act led to the development of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration,
also known as OSHA, the agency that oversees the regulations intended to make U.S.
workplaces the safest in the world. In its more than thirty-five years of existence, OSHA has
made great strides to improve and maintain the health and safety of employees.
2. Legal Issues
d. Equal Opportunities
In US, Title VII of the Civil Right Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination
on the basis of race, national origin, color, religion, and gender. This law is
fundamental to employees rights to join and advance in an organization
according to merit rather than one of the characteristics just mentioned. For
example, employers are not permitted to categorize jobs as only for men or
women or women unless there is a reason gender is fundamental to the tasks and
responsibilities. Additional laws passed in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s were also
designed to prohibit discrimination related to pregnancy, disabilities, age, and
other factors
2. Legal Issues
e. Sexual Harassment
The flood o f women into workplace during the last half of the twentieth century brought new
challenges and opportunities for organizations. Although the workplace, the presence of
both genders in roughly equal numbers changed norms of behavior. When men dominated the
workplace, photos of partially nude women or sexually suggestive materials may have been
posted on walls or in lockers. Today, such materials could be viewed as illegal if they
contribute to a work environment that is intimidating, offensive, or otherwise interferes with an
employee’s work performance. Unwelcome sexual advance, requests for sexual favors, and
other verbal or physical conduct of sexual nature constitutes sexual harassment when
submission to or implicitly affects an individual’s employment, unreasonable interferes with an
individual’s work performance, or creates and intimidating, hostile, or offensive work
environment
2. Legal Issues
e. Sexual Harassment
2 general categories of sexual harassment:
a. Quid pro quo sexual harassment is a type of sexual extortion, where there is a proposed or
explicit exchange of job benefits for sexual favor. For example, telling an employee, “You are
fired if you do not have sex with me,” is a direct form of sexual harassment. Usually, the
person making such a statement is in a position of authority over the harassed employee, and
thus, the threat of job loss is real. One incident of quid pro quo harassment may create a
justifiable legal claim.
b. Hostile work environment sexual harassment is less direct than quid pro quo harassment
and can involve epithets, slurs, negative stereotyping, intimidating acts, and graphic materials
that show hostility toward an individual or group, and other types of conduct that affect the
employment situation.
2. Legal Issues
e. Sexual Harassment
2 general categories of sexual harassment:
b. Hostile work environment sexual harassment
For example, an e-mail message containing sexually explicit jokes that is broadcast to
employees could be viewed as contributing to a hostile work environment. Some hostile work
environment harassment is nonsexual, meaning the harassing conduct is base on gender
without explicit reference to sexual act.
2. Legal Issues
a. Wages and Benefits
b. Labor Union
c. Health and Safety
d. Equal Opportunities
e. Sexual Harassment
f. Whistle-Blowing
2. Legal Issues
f. Whistle-Blowing
An employee who reports individual or company wrong- doing to either internal or external
sources is considered a whistle-blower. Whistle-blowers usually focus on issue or behaviors that
need corrective action, although managers and other employees may not appreciate detract from
organizational tasks. Although not all whistle-blowing activity leads to an extreme reaction,
whistle-blowers have been retaliated against, demoted, fired, and even worse as a result of their
actions. For examples, Jacob F. Horton, senior vice president at Gulf Power, was on his way to
talk with company officials about alleged thefts, payoffs, and cover-ups at the utility when he
died in a plane crash in 1989. Allegations that his death was related to whistle-blowing still linger.
3. Ethical Issues

a. Training and Development

b. Diversity

c. Work-Life Balance
3. Ethical Issues

a. Training and Development

Organizational culture and the associated values, beliefs, and norms operate on
many levels and affect a number of workplace practices. Some organizations value
employees as individual, not just “cogs in a wheel”. Firms with this ethical stance
fund initiatives to develop employees’ skills, knowledge, and other personal
characteristics. Although this development is linked to business strategy and aids
the employer, it also demonstrates a commitment to the future of the employee
and his or her interest. Professionals also appreciate and respect a training and
development focus from their employer.
3. Ethical Issues

a. Training and Development

Employees recognize when a company is diligently investing in programs

that not only improve operations but also increase empowerment and
provide new opportunities to gain knowledge and grow professionally.
Through formal training and development classes, workers get a better
sense of where they fit and how they contribute to the overall organization
3. Ethical Issues

a. Training and Development

Training and development activities require resource and the commitment

of all the manager to be successful. For example, a department manager
must be supportive of an employee using part of the workday to attend a
training session on a new software package. At the same time, the
organization must pay for thetraining, regardless of whether it uses inside
or outside trainers and develops in-house materials or purchases them
from educational providers.
 3. Ethical Issues
b. Diversity
Workplace diversity focus on recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce as a
business imperative. With diversity programs, companies assume an ethical
•

obligation to employ and empower individuals regardless of age, gender, ethnicity,

physical or mental ability, or other characteristics. These firms go beyond
compliance with government guidelines to develop cultures that respect and
embrace the unique skills, backgrounds, and contributions of all types of people.
Conflicting views and voice of different generations abound in the workplace, and
this is the first time in history that the workforce has been composes of many
•

generations at one-time.
 Profile of generation at work
Generation Name Birth Year Key Characteristics
Veterans 1922-1943 Hardworking, detail-oriented,
uncomfortable with conflict
Baby Boomer 1943-1960 Service-oriented, good team player
Generation X 1960-1980 Adaptable independent, Impatient
Millenial (Generation 1980-1996 Optimistic, technological and financially
Y) savvy, need supervision, multitaskers
Generation Z 1997-2015 Relied to technology, prefer flexible
environment, flexible working hours and
workplace
3. Ethical Issues
c. Work-Life Balance
Most women are typically forced to make tough trade-offs among
career, goals, child rearing, household management, and economic
realities. These are difficult decisions for everyone, thus giving rise to
potential stress and conflict at home and work. Such work-life programs
assist employees in balancing work responsibilities with personal and
family responsibilities. A central feature of these programs is flexibility
so that employees of all types are able to achieve their own definition of
balance.
4. Philanthropic Issues
The philanthropic efforts of companies and the important role that employees
play in the process of selecting and implementing projects that contribute time,
resources, and human activity to worthy causes. In social responsibility,
philanthropic responsibilities are primarily direct outside the organization, so
they are not directly focused on employees. However, employees benefit from
participating in volunteerism and other philanthropic projects. Many employers
help organize employees to participate in walkathons, marathons, bikeathons,
and similar events.
Employer of choice - is an organization of any industry that is
able to attract, optimize, and retain the best employee talent
over the long term