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● Appraisals should be used as a basis for merit raises and promotions.
6. Define counseling and discuss some of the areas in which it may be needed in small firms.
● Counseling helps provide people with an understanding of their relationship with supervi-
7. Outline procedures for handling employee complaints and imposing discipline.
● An effective procedure for handling complaints involves:
○ Setting definite rules and seeing that employees know them
○ Acting promptly on violations
8. Discuss some of the complexities of dealing with unions.
● Small businesses represent a pool of potential new union workers.
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9. Understand the difficulty in terminating employees.
● Courts and legislators are now applying the “good faith and fair dealing” concept.
10. Discuss basic organizational concepts and show how small firms can use them.
● Delegation is assigning responsibility to subordinates for certain activities, and giving them
the authority to perform those activities.
KEY TERMS USED IN THIS CHAPTER
Communication is the transfer of meaning from one person to another.
Counseling helps provide people with an understanding of their relationship with supervisors, fellow
workers, and customers.
Cross-functional teams cut across different parts of the organization to monitor, standardize, and im-
Human relation involves the interaction of people in an organization, especially in the areas of leader-
ship, communication, and motivation.
The informal organization is the set of interpersonal relationships that come about as a result of friend-
ships that develop on and off the job.
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Job sharing occurs when a single full-time job is retained, but its performance is shared by two or more
employees working at different times.
Job splitting occurs when employees divide a single job into two or more different parts, each one doing
one of the parts.
The management prerogatives clause of the contract defines the areas in which you have the right to
freely as an employer without interference from the union.
Motivation is the inner state that activates a person, including drives, desires, and/or motives.
An organization chart shows the authority and responsibility relationships that exist in a business.
Organizing is determining those activities that are necessary to achieve a firm’s objectives and assigning
them to responsible persons.
Performance appraisal is the process of evaluating workers to see how well they are performing.
Right-to-work laws permit states to prohibit unions from requiring workers to join a union.
Self-managing work teams take over managerial duties and produce an entire product.
Specialization is using employees to do the work that they are best suited for.
time.”
NOTES FOR DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
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1. How would you define (or explain) “good human relations?”
Defining the term human relations is difficult, for it means different things to different people.
2. What is leadership? Why is it so important in small business?
Leading, one of the basic management functions, is getting employees to do what you want
3. Why is communication so important in a small business? What are some barriers to effective
communication? How can these barriers be overcome?
Communication is important because people need and want to know what is going on. Owners,
customers, vendors, and others need to coordinate work, so communication must be clear and com-
4. What is motivation? Why is it so important to a small business manager?
Motivation is the process used by managers to bring out the best in employees by giving them
reasons to perform better.
5. What are some practical ways to improve employee motivation?
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6. What is the purpose of personnel appraisals? Why are they so important?
Appraisal enables the employer to answer the question “How well are my people performing?”
7. Discuss the areas requiring counseling. What, if anything, can a small business manager do to
improve counseling in those areas?
Counseling involves all aspects of employee relations, but it is most frequently practiced in the
following areas:
8. Explain the differences between self-discipline and externally imposed discipline.
Self-discipline is based on an employee’s self-confidence. Employees should have confidence in
9. Explain how national labor laws affect small businesses. Should you, as a small business owner,
favor or oppose your employees’ unionizing? Defend your answer.
The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) (the Wagner Act) requires management to bargain with
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10. In 2016, there was renewed interest in unions. Discussion began as to the whys and wherefores
of unions, its history and accomplishments.
(1) Do you know about the use of children as young as four or five in the work force?
(2) Do you think that without unions, work weeks will return to 60 or more hurts a week, with-
out benefit?
(3) What has happened since 2016 as far as union interest and/or company benefits?
(4) What are your views on union and why? Will you be open to your employees becoming a
part of one?
Explain why it is becoming so difficult to terminate employees. Why or why not?
While you still have the right to terminate employees for cause, the concept of “employment at
11. Explain some of the basic organizational concepts used in organizing a small business.
Some basic concepts are delegation, job descriptions and specialization. Delegation means pass-
ing along to subordinates the responsibility for certain activities. When possible, such responsibility
Chapter 11 – How to Maintain Relationships with Your Employees and Their Representatives
NOTES FOR CASE QUESTIONS
CASE 11.1: Personnel Policies Help Intermatic Grow
1. How do you explain the increased performance at Intermatic?
The increased performance at Intermatic is due to a combination of factors. Miller’s reorganiza-
2. Would Jim Miller’s methods work at all companies? Explain.
Jim Miller’s methods have been successful in increasing motivation because of a unique set of
3. How would you like to work at Intermatic?
CASE 11.2: Visiting Angels
1. Do you think that Hill’s method of screening potential employees has a positive effect on her re-
lationship with them?
Hill’s approach to screening is to evaluate potential employees from the viewpoint of her own
2. Do you agree with her hiring techniques?
Students will have their own individual opinions about this. Up to this point her hiring tech-
11–41
3. Do you think she should have a different approach hiring potential employees to work with the
elderly?
4. Does Hill’s hands-on approach to her business help to break some of the barriers to effective
communication?
Barriers to effective communication include the owner’s position of authority and status, impre-
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BONUS EXERCISES
11.1 Ethics Discussion Starters
This exercise gives several situations that present ethical questions in a business. Use Handout
11-A Ethical Dilemmas with this exercise. Have students discuss each situation: (a) from the strictly legal
11-2 Discussion Starter: Crisis Management
This exercise explores management reaction to rapid, unexpected change. Divide the class into
groups of 5-6. Each group will act as a management team for a company faced with a crisis. Have the
11-3 Does Money Motivate?
Divide the class into groups of 5 to 6 students. Assign half the groups one of the following hy-
11–4 Are Unions Good or Bad for Business?
{Do a little internet research to learn about working before unions. Children as
young as two or three worked in fields, and picked cotton (That is a sticky, pain-
ful thing to do, as cotton has stickers that cut your hands. And you must fill
sacks that are 6 feet long.) Boys as young as five or six worked down deep in the
coal mines, inhaling the coal dust, crawling through spaces men could not, and
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dying young with the rest, from black lung. ) There were 40 hour weeks, vaca-
tions nor holidays. The cotton farmers and the coal mine owners owned your
home, your very lives. It is an interesting story. Read it and read how some un–
ions overdid and caused problems. }
What do managers and workers think about unions? The exercise is an extended discussion exer-
HANDOUT 11-A
Ethical Dilemmas
Discuss each situation: (a) from the strictly legal viewpoint, (b) from a moral and ethical view-
point, and (c) from the point of view of what is best in the long run for the company. Be sure to consider
both short- and long-range consequences. Also look at each situation from the perspective of all groups
concerned: customers, stockholders, employees, government, and community.
A. Because of a loophole in federal laws you find that you could legally pay your workers less than
C. You are required to fire a worker for persistent absenteeism, but you know that her absence is
because she is caring for her father who is in the advanced stage of Alzheimer’s disease. You feel
that the organization is being inhumane in its attitude, but your boss remains insistent. What
would you do?
E. You believe that your (male) boss is overly friendly with a (female) member of your staff and
that she is taking advantage of the situation. What would you do?
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HANDOUT 11-B
Are Unions Good or Bad for Business?
What do managers and workers think about unions? Find out by interviewing one manager of a
MANAGER
UNION MEMBER
1. What do you think is good about
1. What do you think is good about the
Chapter 11 – How to Maintain Relationships with Your Employees and Their Representatives
2. What do you think is bad about the
2. What do you think is bad about the
3. How are things different in the com-
3. How are things different in the com-