Legal issues/diversity

Difficult class. Perhaps one of the most challenging. Get into statistics.

Legal issues and HR.

Employer can be sued for what types of labor practices?

Generate a list.

Why do these laws exist?

Keep in mind business lobby is commonly seen as stronger than the labor lobby.

Do these laws provide a comparative advantage or disadvantage for American businesses. Explain.

HR Departments are eventually called as critical defendant witnesses in civil and criminal suits

Be asked to explain policies and why variations in policies occurred.

Need to be familiar with

Scope of employment Law (note there is another course on this subject).

with basic legal theories. with legal procedures. Effective risk management

Can not discriminate in work place

Subtle discrimination as case suggests.

Legal system hinges on several elements

Distributive and procedural justice Validity and Reliability.

Distributive justice

Treating others similarly with rewards and discipline.

Examples

Procedural justice

Is the process consistently applied to all.

If incorrect employment action

Grievance process in place. Actions could be discipline related,

harassment based, compensation, abusive supervisors, promotion.

Usually over discipline but could be positive issues.

What does a grievance process look like. Policy usually in handbook. Lists what can be grieved/not grieved. Discipline is always there. Questions

about opening it to other issues such as abusive supervisors.

Define terms.

Define the process

How to file a grievance. Who reviews the grievance (peers and

supervisors, standing committee or special committee).

Ability to go to arbitration or mediation. Information exchange processes Usually a final oversight by HR. Mostly to

determine if the process has been followed appropriately.

Need to consider it an informal court process. Both Plaintiff (usually employee) and Defendant (usually a supervisor) must have opportunities to respond.

Imagine the case with a grievance process.

What information would plaintiff defendant share?.

What questions should the committee be seeking information about to clearly understand the situation.

Why is this better than just a group of higher ups making a decision?

Biased standards

Consistency in Rewards Consistency in Procedures Standards discriminate. Example: Height and being a police

officer. College degree and bank teller (not

seen as entry level management position).

Good Management is good Risk Management.

Why do I say this.

How does good risk management used to support and develop a good workforce that promotes organizational productivity. Think about your OB course. What are some of the desired consequences of procedural, distributive justice.

Steps in Good Risk management/good management

Standards for Promotion, hiring, compensation need to be valid and reliable.

Reliability is the easiest to understand Consistency in assessing if individuals meet

standards. Sources of inconsistency. Ratee

inconsistency. Rater inconsistency. Examples of Ratee inconsistency. Selection tools. The job interview. How many have a good and bad interviews. How many of you have used more than one

resume when looking for a job.

List goes on and on.

Rater inconsistency

Largely between raters. But also same rater. Again job interviews.

Thank about student evaluations. Are they consistent across students?

Compare against and standardized computational or typing test.

Why is consistency important.

Increases confidence in assessments. Statistical and reduction in error term.

Easier to establish Validity.

Validity

Does standard use to make an HR decision actually relate to job performance.

Future job performance (selection) or current job performance (Performance appraisal).

Examples:

HR director job position. Specifically, what would be used to predict future job performance. What would you use as a selection standard?

Different types of validity

Content—logical Predetermined attributes based on job/organizational analysis

Criterion or predictive—statistical demonstration. Anything that statistically predicts performance. Performance and criterion both measured reliably. Then correlate.

Are the two bestConstruct validity, but less useful.

Again good management is good risk management

HR job is to ensure that

Appropriate standards with valid and reliable measurements are used rather than first or general impressions.

That standards are not inherently biased against protected groups.

We will be focusing on validity and reliability when come to HR tools.

Legal Theory

Two approaches to discrimination

Disparate treatment

Treated differently than others with similar qualifications.

Examples: Not hire someone because the are pregnant.

Not hiring an Hispanic in Iowa because they would not stay in area without other Hispanics.

Not hiring a Moslem due to dress. Not promoting a woman because the all

male subordinates would not accept her. Asking only women in an interview if she

has children Ignoring test score results to select a

minority who is qualified in other ways.

Two employees caught stealing. Fired the white employee but not the minority employee. Same act.

Intangible--glass ceiling--sports talk.

Proof

Plaintiff must be a minority applied for and was qualified for the job

based on company standards. Rejected Job remained open

Defendant then Show reasons for actions taken. What are policies, were the policies

followed, was there reasonable judgement--ie is this a common way decisions get made.

Plaintiff must show reasons are pretense and really governed by bias.

What really happens?

Nothing consistently done the same all the time. Exceptions are done. Plaintiff capitalizes on this. Then takes any context statements as motivations for bias. Easiest with internal hires to demonstrate this. Class action cases.

Defendant attacks the credibility of the plaintiff. Character assassination.

Whoever comes out least scarred wins. Adversarial approach

Adverse impact

Policies or procedures provide defacto discrimination.

HOOTERS Table attendants. What do you think?

Process

Statistically demonstrate discrimination by 80% rule (see the book).

Defendant says process is valid (Bona fide Occupational Qualification)

Plaintiff must show alternative process is better.

Hooters

Male applicants and female applicants. Make it up.

Hooters-valid. Its in the business of catering to a traditional male audience.

Customer preferences are hard to discern and thus discriminatory (actual past case history in airlines).

Risk Management

Work with line decision makers. Training Selection Performance appraisal Rewards

Risk Management is Cost and benefit. Think about direct and opportunity costs.

Wrap up

Not much time and a lot to cover. Need to be sensitive to policies, their

enforcement, and validity. Choices. Each employer is different. OK to discriminate at HOOTERs by sex.

Affirmative action and its cousin Diversity

Everyone to write down a definition of Affirmative action. Diversity.

What is the controversy?

Case discussion

In teams, case. You are the grievance committee. Outsiders so easier. Do not know people.

What is the problem and what should be done about the problem? What programs?

Report Back.

Affirmative action

Designed to proactively prevent discrimination.

Was there discrimination How many of you felt something needed

to be done to prevent this? How many of you would see this as

affirmative action?

Differences between

Voluntary Court ordered Affirmative action. Problems--no have women as middle

managers. So what do you do? See p. 195

Affirmative action

Now more focused on diversity. Video on Dayton Hudson. Celebrate differences we all have and

share. Avoid negative stereotypes. Offensive jokes. Open acceptance of all. Tolerance for diverse ways to approach the work environment.

What is the pay back for diversity programs. You generate them?

Summary

EEO and affirmative action have major impact on all HR activities.

Difficult due to line-staff problems. How to avoid.

Command and control vs Incentives and positive culture.

We will revisit these issues throughout the course.

Bring a job description next class

Read Quantum and Miller cases. Consider, the type of fit that is important in that organization. What does HR do to accentuate that type of fit. Would you recommend other actions?

Need to read Werbel and Johnson. Three types of fit, PG PO and PJ fit.

Strategic HR. Read Werbel and Johnson. Be prepared to

do person-group fit.