978-0134235455 Chapter 14 Solution Manual

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Chapter 14: Building Positive Employee Relations 14-6

14-1: Employee Relations is the activity that involves establishing and maintaining the

positive employee-employer relationships.

14-2: Managers and HR Management use programs to develop positive employee relations.

14-3: Ethics refers to the principles of conduct governing an individual or a group, and

specifically to standards you use to decide what your conduct should be.

14-4: A fair and just discipline process is based on rules and regulations, a system of

progressive penalties, and an appeal process.

14-5: There are several things that any manager intent on building positive employee relations

and employee engagement can draw from by studying “Best Companies to Work For.”

Discussion Questions:

14-1: Explain how you would ensure fairness in disciplining, discussing particularly the

prerequisites to disciplining, disciplining guidelines, and the discipline without

punishment approach.

There are many things that can be helpful: Make sure the evidence supports the charge of

employee wrongdoing. • Ensure that the employee’s due process rights are protected. •

Warn the employee of the disciplinary consequences. • The rule that was allegedly

violated should be “reasonably related” to the efficient and safe operation of the

particular work environment. • Fairly and adequately investigate the matter before

14-2: Why is it important in our litigious society to manage electronic monitoring

properly?

This item can be assigned as a Discussion Question in MyManagementLab. Student

14-3: Provide two examples of behaviors that would probably be unethical but legal, and

three that would probably be illegal but ethical.

When most students think of ethical behavior, they think of rules for distinguishing

between right and wrong, such as the Golden Rule (“do unto others as you would have

Chapter 14: Building Positive Employee Relations 14-7

can become blurred and often debated. Here are several examples to help make the

Unethical but legal:

o Submitting the same paper for two different course assignments.

o Listing information on your resume that is incorrect in order to obtain a job that

you might not otherwise be qualified for.

o Operating a motor vehicle while over your state’s legal limit for alcohol

intoxication.

o Stopping at a red light but then proceeding through the intersection before you

14-4: List 10 things your college or university does to encourage ethical behavior by

students and/or faculty.

This item can be assigned as a Discussion Question in MyManagementLab. Student

14-5: You need to select a nanny for yourself or a relative’s child, and want someone

ethical. What would you do to help ensure you ended up hiring someone ethical?

Asking questions about values and paying attention to both the answers and the

nonverbal cues that accompany them, finding out how the nanny acted in past situations,

14-6: You believe your coworker is being bullied. How would you verify this and what

would you do about it if it is true?

It is important to conduct a full investigation of suspicions. Asking trusted employees for

feedback on performance in the unit on a regular basis often will assist in clarifying

where problems exist. Once the allegations are clear, meeting with the employee to

14-7: Define employee relations and discuss at least four methods for managing it.

Employee relations is the activity that involves establishing and maintaining the positive

employee–employer relationships that contribute to satisfactory productivity, motivation,

Chapter 14: Building Positive Employee Relations 14-8

Individual and Group Activities:

14-8: Working individually or in groups, interview managers or administrators at your

employer or college in order to determine the extent to which the employer or

college endeavors to build two-way communication, and the specific types of

programs used. Do the managers think they are effective? What do the employees

(or faculty members) think of the programs in use at the employer or college?

Encourage students to be precise and inquisitive in their pursuit of this information.

14-9: Working individually or in groups, obtain copies of the student handbook for your

college and determine to what extent there is a formal process through which

students can air grievances. Based on your contacts with other students, has it been

an effective grievance process? Why or why not?

Ask what effect this has on the sense of organizational justice.

14-10: Working individually or in groups, determine the nature of the academic discipline

process in your college. Do you think it is effective? Based on what you read in this

chapter, would you recommend any modifications?

Encourage students to be inquisitive and insightful as they examine this critical and real

14-11: Appendices A and B at the end of this book list the knowledge someone studying for

the HRCI (Appendix A) or SHRM (Appendix B) certification exam needs to have in

each area of human resource management (such as in Strategic Management and

Workforce Planning). In groups of several students, do four things: (1) review

Appendix A and/or B; (2) identify the material in this chapter that relates to the

Appendix A and/or B required knowledge lists; (3) write four multiple-choice exam

questions on this material that you believe would be suitable for inclusion in the

HRCI exam; and (4) if time permits, have someone from your team post your

team’s questions in front of the class, so that students in all teams can answer the

exam questions created by the other teams.

Material from this chapter that applies to the HRCI exam would include: the meaning of

ethics, ethics and the law, ethics fair treatment and justice, what shapes ethics behavior at

work, ethics policies and codes, the organization’s culture, HR ethics activities, building

14-12: In a research study at Ohio State University, a professor found that even honest

people, left to their own devices, would steal from their employers. In this study, the

researchers gave financial services workers the opportunity to steal a small amount

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of money after participating in an after-work project for which the pay was

inadequate. Would the employees steal to make up for the underpayment? In most

cases, yes. Employees who scored low on an honesty test stole whether or not their

office had an ethics program that said stealing from the company was illegal.

Employees who scored high on the honesty test also stole, but only if their office did

not have such an employee ethics program—the “honest” people didn’t steal if there

was an ethics policy.

Individually or in groups, answer these questions: Do you think findings like these

are generalizable? In other words, would they apply across the board to employees

in other types of companies and situations? If your answer is yes, what do you think

this implies about the need for and wisdom of having an ethics program.

You should receive a wide variety of responses to this question. It is a real question of

whether the employees who scored high on honesty tests will, in fact, respond differently

Experiential Exercise: Discipline or Not?

Purpose: The purpose of this exercise is to provide you with some experience in analyzing and

handling an actual disciplinary action.

Required Understanding: Students should be thoroughly familiar with the facts of the

following incident, titled “Botched Batch.” Do not read the “award” or “discussion” sections

until after the groups have completed their deliberations.

How to Set up the Exercise/Instructions: Divide the class into groups of four or five students.

Each group should take the arbitrator’s point of view and assume that they are to analyze the

case and make the arbitrator’s decision. Review the case again at this point, but please do not

read the award and discussion sections. Each group should answer the following questions:

14-13: Based on what you read in this chapter, including all relevant guidelines, what

would your decision be if you were the arbitrator? Why?

14-14: Do you think that after their experience in this arbitration the parties involved will

be more or less inclined to settle grievances by themselves without resorting to

arbitration?

Botched Batch

Facts: A computer department employee made an entry error that botched an entire run of

computer reports. Efforts to rectify the situation produced a second set of improperly run reports.

Because of the series of errors, the employer incurred extra costs of $2,400, plus a weekend of

overtime work by other computer department staffers. Management suspended the employee for

3 days for negligence, and revoked a promotion for which the employee had previously been

approved. Protesting the discipline, the employee stressed that she had attempted to correct her

error in the early stages of the run by notifying the manager of computer operations of her

Chapter 14: Building Positive Employee Relations 14-10

mistake. Maintaining that the resulting string of errors could have been avoided if the manager

had followed up on her report and stopped the initial run, the employee argued that she had been

treated unfairly because the manager had not been disciplined even though he compounded the

problem, whereas she was severely punished. Moreover, citing her “impeccable” work record

and management’s acknowledgment that she had always been a “model employee,” the

employee insisted that the denial of her previously approved promotion was “unconscionable.”

(Please do not read beyond this point until after you have answered the two questions.)

Award: The arbitrator upholds the 3-day suspension, but decides that the promotion should be

restored.

Discussion: “There is no question,” the arbitrator notes, that the employee’s negligent act “set in

motion the train of events that resulted in running two complete sets of reports reflecting

improper information.” Stressing that the employer incurred substantial cost because of the error,

the arbitrator cites “unchallenged” testimony that management had commonly issued 3-day

suspensions for similar infractions in the past. Thus, the arbitrator decides, the employer acted

with just cause in meting out an “evenhanded” punishment for the negligence. Turning to the

denial of the already approved promotion, the arbitrator says that this action should be viewed

“in the same light as a demotion for disciplinary reasons.” In such cases, the arbitrator notes,

management’s decision normally is based on a pattern of unsatisfactory behavior, an employee’s

inability to perform, or similar grounds. Observing that management had never before reversed a

promotion as part of a disciplinary action, the arbitrator says that by tacking on the denial of the

promotion in this case, the employer substantially varied its disciplinary policy from its past

practice. Because this action on management’s part was not “evenhanded,” the arbitrator rules,

the promotion should be restored.

Application Case: Enron, Ethics, and Organizational Culture

14-15: Based on what you read in this chapter, summarize in one page or less how you

would explain Enron’s ethical meltdown.

Lax oversight by the six-person audit committee was a major contributor to the collapse

of the firm. Executives carried out a series of complex financial transactions designed to

14-16: It is said that when one securities analyst tried to confront Enron’s CEO about the

firm’s unusual accounting statements, the CEO publicly used vulgar language to

describe the analyst, and that Enron employees subsequently thought doing so was

humorous. If true, what does that say about Enron’s ethical culture?

Enron promoted a culture of reckless financial deals, avarice, and deceit. A sense of

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14-17: This case and chapter had something to say about how organizational culture

influences ethical behavior. What role do you think culture played at Enron? Give

five specific examples of things Enron’s CEO could have done to create a healthy

ethical culture.

Create an independent external board of directors to oversee the goals and corporate

strategies, create and implement effective auditing practices, select a CEO who is

responsible for the ethical behavior of the organization, remove the CEO if not effective,

Continuing Case: Carter Cleaning Company – Guaranteeing Fair Treatment

14-18: What would you do if you were Jennifer, and why?

The difficulty is that even though they have always “felt strongly about not allowing

employees to smoke, eat, or drink in their stores,” they had apparently never established

any policies about this. Given this, it seems appropriate to give them a strong verbal

14-19: Should a disciplinary system be established at Carter Cleaning Centers?

Definitely, a corrective coaching program should be implemented immediately. This

type of program will help employees understand why their behavior/performance is not

14-20: If so, what should it cover? How would you suggest it deal with a situation such as

the one with the errant counter people?

It should cover all behavior and performance that is expected of employees. It would

identify the steps of the process, including verbal warnings, written warnings, and

14-21: How would you deal with the store manager?

The real question is whether the store manager knew about their beliefs about eating in

the store. If he or she did, then a written warning is appropriate – if not, then a strong

Hotel Paris: Improving Performance at the Hotel Paris – The Hotel Paris’s New

Ethics, Justice, and Fair Treatment Process

Chapter 14: Building Positive Employee Relations 14-12

14-22: Based on what you learned in this chapter, what do you think of the adequacy and

effectiveness of the steps Lisa has taken so far?

Student answers will vary however, it was very smart of Lisa to do her research and

14-23: List three more specific steps Hotel Paris should take with respect to each individual

human research function (selection, training, and so on) to improve the level of

ethics in the company.

Answers will vary. However, some possible steps would be to incorporate honesty testing

in selection, to train employees using ethics cases, and to discipline immediately and

14-24: Based on what you learned in this chapter, write a short (less than one page)

explanation Lisa can use to sell to top management the need to further improve the

hotel chain’s fairness and justice processes.

Senior leadership should be educated that claims of unfair treatment can be both

expensive and expansive. Litigation to defend a claim can be costly and result in an

unpopular reflection of the organization in the media. Also, recent cases have included

My Management Lab

Students can find the following assisted-graded writing questions at mymanagementlab.com.

Answers to these questions are graded against rubrics in the MyLab.

14-25: What techniques would you use as alternatives to traditional discipline? Why do you

think alternatives like these are important, given industry’s need today for highly

engaged and committed employees?

14-26: Using several “Best Companies to Work For” as examples, explain what you would do to

improve employee relations in an organization.

Key Terms:

Employee Relations – The activity that involves establishing and maintaining the positive

employee–employer relationships that contribute to satisfactory productivity, motivation, morale,

and discipline, and to maintaining a positive, productive, and cohesive work environment.

Fair Treatment – Reflects concrete actions, such as “employees are treated with respect,” and

“employees are treated fairly.”

Chapter 14: Building Positive Employee Relations 14-13

Procedural Justice – Refers to just procedures in the allocation of rewards or discipline in

which the actual results or outcomes are evenhanded and fair.

Distributive Justice – Refers to a system of distributing rewards and discipline in which the

actual results or outcomes are evenhanded and fair.

Social Responsibility – Refers to the extent to which companies should and do channel

resources toward improving one or more segments of society other than the firm’s owners or

stockholders.

Organizational Climate – The perceptions a company’s employees share about the firm’s

psychological environment; for instance, in terms of things like concern for employee’s well-

being, supervisory behavior, flexibility, appreciation, ethics, empowerment, political behaviors,

and rewards.

Suggesstion Teams – Temporary teams whose members work on specific analytical

assignments, such as how to cut costs or raise productivity.

Problem-Solving Teams – Teams that identify and research work processes and develop

solutions to work-related problems.

Quality Circle – A special type of formal problem-solving team; usually composed of 6 to 12

specially trained employees who meet once a week to solve problems affecting their work area.

Self-Managed/Self-Directed Work Team – A small (usually 8 to 10 members) group of

carefully selected, trained, and empowered employees who basically run themselves with little or

no outside supervision, usually for the purpose of acomplishing a specific task or mission.

Ethics – The study of standards of conduct and moral judgment; also the standards of right

conduct.

Organizational Culture – The characteristics values, traditions, and behaviors a company’s

employees share.

Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) – The ECPA is a federal law intended to

help restrict interception and monitoring of oral and wire communications.