Chapter 10 – Social Responsibility: Legal Issues, Managing Diversity, and Career Challenges
© 2013 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or
distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in
whole or part.
10-1
CHAPTER 10
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: LEGAL ISSUES, MANAGING
DIVERSITY, AND CAREER CHALLENGES
This chapter focuses on how training contributes to a company’s social responsibility
through partnerships with unions, community colleges, and other educational institutions.
Also, socially responsible companies take steps to manage diversity and help employees
work effectively in different cultures, as well as preparing employees to cope with career
challenges like balancing work-life, coping with career breaks, recycling their careers,
dealing with job loss, and preparing for retirement.
The chapter highlights some current issues in the training and development arena. This is
an important body of information for the student taking an overview course in training
and development. First the chapter covers sector partnerships, school-to-work programs,
and joint union-management programs. It also includes legal issues, where it is critical to
know the major pieces of legislation, including the Civil Rights Act (1964, 1991), the
Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), and the Americans with Disabilities
Act (ADA), and the major requirements they define for employers. Further, the
categories of legally dangerous situations, e.g., an employee being injured during a
training activity, are described. Next, the chapter addresses the management of a diverse
workforce and the characteristics of successful diversity initiatives. This is invaluable
information in today’s global culture. Thereafter, cross-cultural preparation is addressed,
bringing to light the various types of expatriates; dimensions of cultural differences; steps
in the preparation, including the predeparture phase, the on-site phase, and the
repatriation phase. The chapter also talks about work-life balance practices, dual career
path system, and finally concludes with early retirement programs.
Objectives
1. Discuss the role of training partnerships in developing skills and contributing to local
communities.
2. Discuss the potential legal issues that relate to training.
3. Develop a program for effectively managing diversity.
4. Design a program for preparing for cross-cultural assignments.
5. Discuss the importance of career paths and dual career paths for employees and
companies.
6. Develop policies to help employees achieve work-life balance.
7. Describe how companies are helping veterans develop skills and get employment.
8. Explain the value of phase retirement programs for older employees.
Chapter 10 – Social Responsibility: Legal Issues, Managing Diversity, and Career Challenges
© 2013 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or
distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in
whole or part.
10-2
I. Introduction
A. Training and development should help companies achieve their business goals,
resulting in profits and positive returns to stockholders.
B. Companies have a social responsibility to help improve the communities where
they are located by protecting the environment, supporting cultural activities, and
helping to reduce poverty and unemployment.
C. Social responsibility also means that companies need to comply with laws and
regulations, but perhaps more importantly, take actions and create conditions to
help all employees grow, develop, and contribute to company goals, regardless of
their background and career issues they are facing.
Training Partnerships
A. Sector partnerships refer to government agencies, industry trade groups that help
identify the skills that local employers require and work with community colleges,
universities, and other educational institutions to provide qualified employees.
Sector partnerships can focus on jobs that require more than a high school
diploma but less than a four-year college degree, and some provide skills that are
needed for professional employees such as engineers.
B. The School-to-Work Opportunities Act is designed to assist the states in building
school-to-work systems that prepare students for high-skill, high-wage jobs or
future education. The act encourages partnerships between educational
institutions, employers, and labor unions.
C. The Workforce Investment Act of 1998 created a comprehensive workforce
investment system. The reformed system is intended to be customer-focused, help
Americans manage their careers through information and high-quality services,
and help U.S. companies find skilled workers. The cornerstone of the system is
One-Stop service delivery, which unifies numerous training, education, and
employment programs into a single, customer friendly system in each community.
Lifelong Learning
A Lifelong Learning Account (LiLA) refers to an account for adult education into
which both the employee and the company contribute and the employee keeps—even
if he or she leaves the company. The money in the LiLA can be used to pay for a
range of educational expenses, including tuition, books, fees, supplies, and non-job-
specific certification courses.
Joint Union-Management Programs
Joint union-management training programs provide a wide range of services designed
to help employees learn skills that are directly related to their jobs and also develop
skills that are “portable”—that is, valuable to employers in other companies or
industries.
Chapter 10 – Social Responsibility: Legal Issues, Managing Diversity, and Career Challenges
© 2013 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or
distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in
whole or part.
10-3
II. Legal Issues and Managing a Diverse Workforce at Home and Abroad
Legal Issues
A. Employers may be required to provide certain types of training or a certain
number of hours of training for employees in certain industries.
B. Many states require that employers be responsible for paying employees their
salary and/or paying them a financial settlement for injuries received during any
employment-related activity, including training.
C. The company is liable for injuries or damages resulting from actions of poorly,
incorrectly or incompletely trained employees, even when training is conducted
by an external vendor. Training content and methods should be thoroughly
documented.
D. Information placed in employees’ files regarding training performance must be
accurate; employees should be informed when their training performance data
will be used for any purpose or discussed with anyone.
E. Copyrights protect the expression of an idea, but not the ideas the material
contains. They prohibit the creation of a product based on others’ original work
and from copying, broadcasting or publishing the product without permission.
F. The use of videos, manuals, handouts or any copyrighted material in training
without the owner’s permission is illegal.
G. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (1964) makes it illegal to make employment
decisions on the bases of race, color, religion, gender or national origin.
H. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) prohibits discrimination
against individuals over the age of 40.
I. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) enforces both the Civil
Rights Act and the ADEA.
J. Still, the US Department of Labor has found that training required for promotion
has not been as accessible to women and minorities.
K. Opportunities for practice, feedback, etc., should be equal for all employees; and
trainers should avoid offensive jokes, remarks, etc.
L. All state Insurance has been the focus of several religious discrimination lawsuits
brought by insurance agents. Some agents charged that the principles emphasized
in training programs were based on Scientology were offensive and counter to
their religious beliefs.
M. Notes taken during a diversity training program at a supermarket chain were used
as evidence of discrimination.
N. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 prohibits discrimination on
the basis of disability in employment practices, such as hiring, firing,
compensation, and training.
1. The ADA defines a disability as a physical or mental impairment that
substantially limits one or more major life activities, a record of having an
impairment, or being regarded as having such an impairment.
2. The ADA requires employers to make reasonable accommodation in facilities
to allow the disabled worker to perform effectively, unless that
accommodation would cause undue hardship on the company. Undue hardship
Chapter 10 – Social Responsibility: Legal Issues, Managing Diversity, and Career Challenges
© 2013 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or
distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in
whole or part.
10-4
means excessive expense or loss of production, assessed by looking at
percentage of profits.
3. The ADA is intentionally vague in its definitions of disabilities, reasonable
accommodation, and undue hardship to allow for full coverage of all
impairments and situations and for case by case interpretation.
O. Companies can often deduct the cost of training provided to employees as a
business expense.
P. Employees may be able to deduct work related educational expenses as itemized
deductions on their income taxes. To be deductible, the expenses must be for
training only.
Q. Managing diversity and inclusion involves creating an environment that allows all
employees to contribute to organizational goals and experience personal growth.
This environment includes access to jobs, as well as fair and positive treatment of
all employees. The goals of diversity training are:
1. To eliminate values, stereotypes, and managerial practice that inhibit
employees’ personal development; and therefore
2. To allow employees to contribute to organizational goals regardless of their
race, sexual orientation, gender, family status, religious orientation, or cultural
background.
Melting the Glass Ceiling
A major development issue facing companies today is how to get women and
minorities into upper-level management positions—how to break the glass ceiling.
The glass ceiling refers to a barrier to advancement to higher-level jobs in the
company that adversely affects women and minorities.
III. Cross-Cultural Preparation
An expatriate works in a country other than his or her country of origin. Cross-
cultural preparation educates employees (expatriates) and their families who are to be
sent to a foreign country. To successfully conduct business in the global marketplace,
employees must understand the business practices and the cultural norms of different
countries.
Steps In Cross-Cultural Preparation
A. To be effective in overseas assignments, expatriates need to be:
1. competent in their area of expertise.
2. able to communicate effectively both verbally and nonverbally in the host
country.
3. flexible, tolerant of ambiguity, emotionally stable, outgoing and agreeable,
and sensitive to cultural differences.
4. motivated for success, able to enjoy the challenges of a different culture, and
willing to learn about the host country’s culture, language and customs.
5. supported by their families.
Chapter 10 – Social Responsibility: Legal Issues, Managing Diversity, and Career Challenges
© 2013 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or
distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in
whole or part.
10-5
B. The key to a successful foreign assignment is a combination of training and career
management for the employee and family. Cross-cultural preparation involves
three phases: predeparture, on-site, and repatriation (preparing to return home).
C. Predeparture phase is the preparatory period before the expatriate leaves the
States. It is critical that expatriates and their families receive training in the host
country’s language and an orientation on the host country’s culture and customs.
Information regarding housing, schools, recreation, shopping, and healthcare in
the host country needs to be provided.
1. Cross-cultural training methods used range from presentational methods, such
as lecture, to experiential exercises.
2. The rigor of cross-cultural training needed depends on the degree of
difference between the United States and host country’s cultures (i.e., cultural
novelty); the amount of interaction with host country citizens and nationals
(i.e., interaction); and the familiarity of the job tasks and work environment
(i.e., job novelty). High levels of novelty call for experiential training
methods.
D. The on-site phase, when the expatriate and family are in the host country, should
involve continued orientation to the host country through formal training or
mentoring.
E. The repatriation phase is the time during which the expatriate prepares to return to
the parent company and country.
1. To prepare to reenter the United States, expatriates and their families should
be brought up to speed on current national issues, politics, and news stories.
2. Employees may have to adjust to a lower standard of living upon their return
to the U.S.
3. Virtual Expatriates have an assignment to manage an operation abroad
without being permanently located in that country.
Career Challenges Facing a Multigenerational Workforce
A. Employees’ careers involve four stages: exploration, establishment, maintenance,
and decline.
1. In the exploration stage, employees attempt to identify the type of work that
interests them. They consider their interests, values, and work preferences and
begin pursuing the type of education and training they need.
2. Establishment involves finding employment, making an independent
contribution, achieving more responsibility and financial success, and
establishing a suitable lifestyle.
3. In the maintenance stage, individuals are concerned with keeping their skills
up to date and being perceived as someone who is still contributing to the
company.
4. The last stage, disengagement, involves individuals preparing to phase out of
work and retire.
B. It is important to recognize that there are likely generational differences in what
employees want in their career. As a result, to attract, motivate, and retain a
talented multigenerational workforce companies need to understand and manage
career challenges and help employees deal with career issues.
Chapter 10 – Social Responsibility: Legal Issues, Managing Diversity, and Career Challenges
© 2013 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or
distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in
whole or part.
10-6
Work-Life Balance
A. The Family and Medical Leave Act (FLMA) is a federal law that provides up to
twelve weeks of unpaid leave in a one-year period for parents with new infants or
newly adopted children.
B. Telecommuting refers to a work arrangement that gives employees flexibility in
both work location and hours.
C. Compressed workweek refers to a work schedule that allows employees to work
fewer days but with longer hours, for example, four days, ten hours each day.
D. Flextime refers to giving employees the option of choosing when to work during
the workday, workweek, or work year.
E. Job sharing refers to having two employees divide the hours, the responsibilities,
and the benefits of a full-time job.
IV. Career Paths and Dual Career Paths
A career path is a sequence of job positions involving similar types of work and skills
that employees move through in the company. Career paths help companies offer
career options to their employees that help them make job choices that best fit their
life situations.
Dual Career Path
A. A dual-career-path system enables employees to remain in a technical or sales
career path or move into a management career path. Figure 10.3 on page 448
shows a dual-career-path system.
B. Effective dual-career paths have several characteristics:
1. Salary, status, and incentives for technical employees compare favorably with
those of managers.
2. Individual contributors’ base salaries may be lower than that of managers, but
they are given opportunities to increase their total compensation through
bonuses (e.g., for patents and developing new products).
3. The individual contributor career path is not used to satisfy poor performers
who have no managerial potential. The career path is for employees with
outstanding technical skills.
4. Individual contributors are given the opportunity to choose their career path.
V. Career Recycling
A. Recycling involves changing one’s major work activity after having been
established in a specific field. Recycling is accompanied by a re-exploration of
values, skills, interests, and potential employment opportunities.
B. Recycling is not just limited to older employees who are nearing retirement.
Many companies that face a serious shortage of qualified employees are
developing retraining programs in hopes of filling labor shortages with employees
from other fields.
Chapter 10 – Social Responsibility: Legal Issues, Managing Diversity, and Career Challenges
© 2013 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or
distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in
whole or part.
10-7
C. Companies are using these training programs to help recycle employees into new
jobs and careers.
D. It is also not uncommon for employees who are considering recycling to conduct
informational interviews with managers or other employees who hold jobs in
functional areas that they believe may be congruent with their interests and
abilities, to gather information about the skills, job demands, and benefits of their
jobs.
Job Hopping
A. Job hopping refers to employees changing jobs, usually between companies,
every two to three years. Job hopping is prevalent today, especially among Gen
Xers and millennials, as more employees view themselves as “free agents” who
must actively manage their own careers.
B. For companies, job hopping results in a loss of talent and productivity that results
from turnover, retraining, and recruitment costs. Also, job hopping makes it
difficult to create and sustain a culture that supports relationships between
employees or continuity in employee-customer relationships.
C. Job hopping does provide companies with the opportunity to hire employees who
have a variety of experiences in different companies, which can allow the
company to understand and implement best practices.
D. Hiring employees who job hop may increase company’s flexibility and
adaptability because these employees are capable of quickly learning different
jobs. Also, employees who job hop likely do not need or have high expectations
for job security, making it easier for the company to downsize if necessary.
E. For employees, in addition to better pay and growth opportunities, job hopping
can provide opportunities to work in a variety of industries, in different-sized
companies, and to gain new skills, experiences, and personal contacts.
F. The downside of job hopping for employees is that they may not be staying in any
one job long enough to complete important projects, develop personal networks,
or gain relevant experiences. This may hurt their opportunity to obtain attractive
job and career opportunities in the future.
G. Companies are unlikely to eliminate job hopping. However, companies can
reduce job hopping and attract and retain talented employees by creating
conditions for employee engagement, providing employees with growth
opportunities, and offering incentives and rewards for good performance.
VI. Coping with Career Breaks
Both men and women face major problems in trying to return to work after taking
several months or years off for family-related or other reasons. The Uniformed
Services Employment and Reemployment Act covers deployed employees’ rights,
such as guaranteeing jobs when they return except under certain circumstances.
Chapter 10 – Social Responsibility: Legal Issues, Managing Diversity, and Career Challenges
© 2013 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or
distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in
whole or part.
10-8
VII. Coping with Job Loss
A. Companies seek alternative ways to reduce head count (the number of employees)
and lower labor costs. These alternatives may include asking employees to work
fewer hours, offering early retirement plans, delaying wage increases, and
deciding not to fill position openings created by turnover and retirements.
B. To prepare employees for layoffs and reduce their potential negative effects,
companies need to provide outplacement services. Outplacement services should
include:
1. Advance warning and an explanation for the layoff
2. Psychological, financial, and career counseling
3. Assessment of skills and interests
4. Job seeking services, such as résumé-writing assistance and interview training
5. Job banks where job leads are posted and where out-of-town newspapers,
phones, and books regarding different occupations and geographic areas are
available
6. Electronic delivery of job openings, self-directed career management guides,
and values and interest inventories
VIII. Meeting the Needs of Older Workers
A. Older employees are as productive and customer-savvy as younger employees,
and they have valuable experience.
B. Companies can take several actions to meet the needs of older employees.
1. First, flexibility in scheduling allows older employees to take care of sick
spouses, go back to school, travel, or work fewer hours.
2. Companies need to ensure that older employees receive the training that they
need to avoid obsolescence and to be prepared to use new technology.
3. Third, older employees need resources and referral help that address long-
term health care and elder care.
4. Fourth, assessment and counseling are necessary to help older employees
recycle to new jobs or careers, or transition to less secure positions whose
responsibilities are not as clearly defined.
5. Fifth, it is important to recognize that as older employees’ physical and mental
abilities decline, they can rely on experience and motivation to avoid poor
performance.
6. Finally, companies need to ensure that employees do not hold inappropriate
stereotypes about older employees.
Preretirement Socialization
A. Preretirement socialization is the process of helping employees prepare to exit
from work. These programs typically address the following topics:
1. Psychological aspects of retirement, such as developing personal interests and
activities
2. Housing, including a consideration of transportation, living costs, and
proximity to medical care
Chapter 10 – Social Responsibility: Legal Issues, Managing Diversity, and Career Challenges
© 2013 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or
distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in
whole or part.
10-9
3. Health during retirement, including nutrition and exercise
4. Financial planning, insurance, and investments
5. Health care plans
6. Estate planning
7. The collection of benefits from company pension plans and Social Security
B. Preretirement socialization or retirement planning can help employees avoid
being forced to return to work because of poor financial planning.
C. Many companies are also using phased retirement and alternative work
arrangements such as rehiring retired employees to help employees make the
transition into retirement while at the same time continuing to use their talents.
D. Phased retirement involves employees transitioning from full-time employment to
full-time retirement by working part time.
E. Formal preretirement socialization programs are primarily for employees who are
considering retirement, but financial planning, estate planning, and purchasing
insurance need to be done much earlier in their careers to ensure that employees
will have the financial resources necessary to live comfortably during retirement.
Retirement
A Retirement involves leaving a job and a work role and making a transition into
life without work.
B. For some employees, retirement involves making a transition out of their current
job and company, seeking full- or part-time employment elsewhere, or recycling
into another career.
C. The aging workforce and the use of early retirement programs to shrink
companies’ workforces have three implications:
1. First, companies must meet the needs of older employees.
2. Second, companies must take steps to prepare employees for retirement.
3. Third, companies must be careful that early retirement programs do not
unfairly discriminate against older employees.
Early Retirement Programs
A. Early retirement programs offer employees financial benefits to leave the
company. These programs are usually part of the company’s strategy to reduce
labor costs without having to lay off employees.
B. To avoid costly litigation, companies need to make sure that their early retirement
programs contain the following features:
1. The program is part of the employee benefit plan.
2. The company can justify age-related distinctions for eligibility for early
retirement.
3. Employees are allowed to choose early retirement voluntarily.
Chapter 10 – Social Responsibility: Legal Issues, Managing Diversity, and Career Challenges
© 2013 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for
sale or distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a
website, in whole or part.
10–10
Chapter Summary
This chapter is filled with valuable information about various issues that currently
surround the training and development function. Legal issues were addressed, as were the
preparation of expatriates for overseas assignments and the management of a diverse
workforce. School-to-work initiatives were also described, as were training the hard-core
unemployed, and overcoming the glass ceiling. Joint union-management training
initiatives were discussed, along with cross-culture preparation, and dual career path
system. Finally, areas such as planned retirement, and meeting the needs of older workers
were addressed. This variety of issues helps the student to see the many factors that come
into play for the training function. A basic understanding of these issues is essential.