2. CHAPTER OBJECTIVES:
A Model of Legitimacy of Organizational
Influence
How Rights to Privacy Are Interpreted
Bases for Discrimination at Work
Using Discipline to Change Behaviors
Quality of Work Life (QWL)
Mutual Individual-Organization Responsibilities
3. ISSUES:
1. Areas of Legitimate
Organizational Influence
2. Rights of Privacy
3. Discipline
4. AREAS OF LEGITIMATE
ORGANIZATIONAL INFLUENCE
If the organization and an individual define the boundaries of
legitimate influence differently, then organizational conflict is likely
to develop.
Legitimate - conforming to the law or to rules.
Job Conduct-such as the appearance of one’s workspace and one’s
working hours.
Personal Activities off the job-such as the church one attend, where
charge accounts are maintained, and where one goes on vacation.
Off the Job Conduct-the power of businesss to regulate employee
coduct off the job is very limited.
5. A model of Legitimacy of
Organizational Influence
Type of Conduct
On-the-job
Off-the-job
Job Related Not Job Related
Job Relatedness
High
Legitimacy
Moderate
Legitimacy
Moderate
Legitimacy
Low
Legitimacy
6. Rights to Privacy
primarily related to organizational invasion of a person’s private life and unauthorized
release of confidential information about a person in a way that would cause
emotional harm or suffering.
Business Activities that May Involve Employee Rights of Privacy:
Lie detectors
Personality tests
Location trackers
Medical examinations
Treatment of alcoholism
Monitoring of employee lifestyles
Treatment of drug abuse
Surveillance devices
Computer data banks
Confidential records
Genetic screening
Inquiry into personal relationships
7. Policy Guidelines Relating to Privacy
Relevance
– only necessary, useful information.
Recency – Obsolete information.
Notice – No personal data system is unknown.
Fiduciary duty – keeper of the information.
Confidentiality – secured information.
Due process
Protection of the psyche- inner self should not
be invaded.
8. Surveillance
Is known to employees and has a compelling job reason usually is not
considered to be an undue infringement on privacy.
Forms of Surveillance Devices
Electronic sensor badges – microcomputers in clip-on ID cards, which
emit infrared signals.
Electronic monitoring - it takes many forms, including automatic
counting of key strokes, remote observations of the screen s of
desktop computer operators, surreptitious reading of employee’s
electronic mail, and voice recording systems.
Cybersurfing – activity done by employees who use work time and
work computers to surf the Web, looking for wide range of
information of personal interest.
Cyberloafers/Cyberslackers – called to those employees who abuses
their privileges.
9. Honesty Testing
The Polygraph (Lie detector)
– is an instrument that was developed to record those
changes and provide evidence of lying.
Paper and Pencil Tests
– also known as integrity tests, attempt to get the
respondent to disclose information about his or her
previous or prospective honesty.
10. Treatment of Alcoholism
Since alcoholism presents major medical and job problems, employers need to
develop responsible policies and programs to deal with it without endangering
rights of privacy.
Reasons for Company Programs
The firm and employee already have a working relationship on which they can
build.
Any success with the employee will save both a valuable person for the company
and a valuable citizen for society.
The job appears to be the best environment for supporting recovery.
Successful Programs
treat alcoholism as an illness
focus on the behavior caused by alcoholism
provide both medical help and psychological support for alcoholics
11. Drug Abuse
Abuse of drugs other than alcohol, particularly if used at work, may
cause severe problems for the individual, the employer, and other
employees.
Drug Testing
- To employers, the direct consequences of employee drug abuse are
are enormous.
Impairment Testing
- A solution to the problems with drug testing.
- this method usually consists of a brief motor-
skills test performed on a computer
12. Genetic Testing
Positive uses of genetic testing
information include transferring the susceptible employees to
work areas where they will not be exposed to the substances,
providing health warnings, and developing protective measures to
shield the employees from danger.
Negative side of genetic testing
comes into play when a firm screens present employees or job
applicants on the basis of genetic predispositions and uses the
information o discriminate against them in an attempt to minimize
the firm’s future health costs.
13. DISCRIMINATION- EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES (EEO)
laws generally prohibit job discrimination on the basis of race,
color, national origin, sex, religion, status and other factors.
Sexual harassment
When supervisors make employment or promotion decisions
contingent on sexual favors.
When an employee’s colleagues engage in any verbal or
physical conduct that creates an offensive working environment.
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS)
is a deadly virus affecting the human immune system.
14. Discipline
is management action to enforce organizational
standards.
2 Types of Discipline
preventive discipline
is action taken to encourage employees to follow
standards and rules so that infractions do not occur.
Corrective discipline
is action that follows infraction of a rule;
it seeks to discourage further infractions so that future
acts will be in compliance with standards.
15. QUALITY OF WORK LIFFE
- refers to the favorableness or unfavorableness of total job environment for people.
A progressive Discipline System
Written reprimand, with
record in personnel file
Verbal reprimand by
supervisor
One-to three day
suspension from work
Discharge for cause
Suspension for one week
or longer
16. Core dimensions:
A Job Characteristics Approach
Five Core Dimensions :
Skill Variety-allows employees to perform different operations that often require
different skills.
Task Identity- allows employees perform a complete piece of work.
Task Significance-refers to the amount of impact, as perceived by the worker, that
the work has on other people.
Autonomy- job characteristic that gives employees some discretion and control
over job-related decisions and it appears to be fundamental in building a sense of
responsibility in workers
.
Feedback- refers to information that tells workers how well they are performing.
17. Enrichment Increases
Motivation
Managers can then take action to increase one or more of the five
factors to enrich the job.
Jobs that have been enriched increase the probability of high
motivation, provided that employees
Con’t
o Have adequate job knowledge and skills
o Desire to learn, grow, and develop
o Are satisfied with their work environment (are not distracted by
negative hygiene)
18. Social cues Affect
Perceptions
One explanation for the lack of predicted changes from enrichment
lies in the presence of social cues, which are often rather subtle bits
of information workers receive from their social surroundings. These
social cues may come from co-workers , leaders. Other
organizational members, customers and family.
20. The Individual’s responsibilities to the
organizationOrganizational Citizenship- Applying the social exchange idea makes it
evident that employees are expected to go beyond their job description and
be good organizational citizens. This reciprocal relationship at the individual
level parallels the way the organization expected to behave in the broader
society in which it operates.
Dues-paying- a special case of individual responsibility to others occurs when
employees are expected-by their peers- to pay their dues or put in their time.
It consists of the total costs that a person’s group believes an individual should
pay for the privileges of full acceptance and continuing membership in it.
Blowing the Whistle on Unethical Behavior- it occurs at all levels. Despite
our own optimism about human nature and fundamental goodness within
people, many studies still find that many people act in dishonest ways at some
point in their work careers.
Mutual Trust- is joint faith in the responsibility and actions of the parties
involved; when it is present, each person has a strongly positive expectation
that the other person will do the right thing.
