Week Four Learning Outcomes OMM618 Human Resources Management (MF.docx

Week Four Learning Outcomes OMM618: Human Resources
Management (MFG1322B)
This week students will:
1. Examine employee compensation factors, including direct
financial payments and indirect payments.
2. Summarize the key attributes of a healthy ethical culture
within an organization.
Readings
Read the following chapters in: A Framework for Human
Resource Management:
1. Chapter 7: Compensating Employees
2. Chapter 8: Ethics and Fair Treatment in Human Resource
Management
Discussions
To participate in the following Discussion Forums, go to this
week's Discussion link in the left navigation:
1. Acme Manufacturing
Answer the questions to the case, "Salary Inequities at Acme
Manufacturing," at the end of Chapter 7. Include at least one
outside source supporting your answers. Explain your answers
in 200 words. Respond to at least two of your fellow students'
postings.
2. Ethics and Organizational Culture
Answer the questions to the case, "Enron, Ethics, and
Organizational Culture," at the end of Chapter 8. Include at
least one outside source supporting your answers. Explain your
answers in 200 words. Respond to at least two of your fellow
students' postings.
Assignments
To complete this assignment, go to this week's Assignment link

in the left navigation:
Incentive Plans
Research and discuss at least two different types of incentive
plans discussed in the text. Highlight the possible advantages
and disadvantages of each. Find at least two articles through
ProQuest that discusses incentive payment plans. Summarize
your findings in a 3-5 page paper. Be sure to properly cite your
resources using APA style.
Week 2 in Review
An examination of Trilogy provided insight into the
complexities of various approaches to recruitment -- and the
importance of incorporating recruitment into organizational
strategies. From an HR perspective, the strategy involves many
intra-related and inter-related aspects, such as job description,
job analysis, recruitment methodologies, legal requirements,
and a planned and cultivated organizational culture. It is all
about Hiring Right! It is all about aligning organizational goals
with individual goals to arrive at a place where work effort
matches work productivity. Culture is the environment people
work in, it’s the element that shapes your enjoyment, work
relationship and work process. Culture is made up of values,
beliefs, underlying assumptions, attitudes, and behaviors shared
by a group of people (Heathfield, 2011). The employees at
Trilogy all share similar interests and passions about their job,
which means that working as a team would not be problematic.
Trilogy has created an organizational culture that represents
decision making, daily work practice, stories and legends.
Heathfield, S.M (2011) Culture: Your Environment for People
at Work. Retrieved on June 29, 2011, from
http://humanresources.about.com/od/organizationalculture/a/cult
ure.htm
It is important to note that organizational culture should be
developed through design, not by merely letting it happen.
Trilogy is a company that recruits employees that are a cultural
fit. Culture is the environment people work in, it’s the element
that shapes your enjoyment, work relationship and work

process. Culture is made up of values, beliefs, underlying
assumptions, attitudes, and behaviors shared by a group of
people (Heathfield, 2011). The employees at Trilogy all share
similar interests and passions about their job, which means that
working as a team would not be problematic. Trilogy has
created an organizational culture that represents decision
making, daily work practice, stories and legends. Heathfield,
S.M (2011) Culture: Your Environment for People at Work.
Retrieved on June 29, 2011, from
http://humanresources.about.com/od/organizationalculture/a/cult
ure.htm
Undoubtedly privacy concerns in any aspect of improvement
must be addressed. But do not be so quick to discount the use of
integrity and honesty testing. Julie Moreland (September 7,
2010; People Views), noted that the primary goals of using such
tests are to identify counterproductive behaviors and attitudes
of applicants prior to being hired. Morlan identified that one
must first look at the policies that are in place in the
organization and that conducting a predictive blind study allows
one to determine if an honesty and integrity test can facilitate
the prediction of counterproductive behaviors in the workplace.
The following article will provide additional details on the
topic.
http://blog.peopleclues.com/index.php/steps-to-assessing-the-
validity-of-integrity-and-honesty-testing-in-job-recruitment/
Week 3 Instructor Guidance
Training and development are important to both the attainment
of organizational strategies and the sustainability (and
retention) of the employee. Ensuring training and development
opportunities are fairly distributed among the workforce creates
an environment of trust and further cultivates the organizational
culture. It is helpful to separate the terms by defining them and
understanding the influence such activities have on the

organization. Training addresses knowledge, skills and abilities
to enhance performance requirements currently expected of the
employee to successfully accomplish their current duties.
Development identifies future needs of the organization and
appropriate supportive knowledge expected to address these
needs. Development also identifies persons deemed appropriate
to acquire this knowledge -- and simultaneously provides lateral
and vertical promotion opportunities that come with the added
knowledge.
There are many factors to consider when deciding how training
and development will be employed:
1. What knowledge, skills and abilities (i.e., communication,
empathy) must employees of your organization possess if they
are to effectively contribute to a diverse and inclusive
workplace?
2. What additional knowledge, skills and abilities (i.e., issue
identification, group dynamics) must managers in your
organization possess if they are to effectively recruit a diverse
team and manage staff in an inclusive way?
3. What additional knowledge, skills and abilities (i.e.,
visioning, cross-cultural competence) must leaders in your
organization possess if they are to role model diversity, ensure
that your organization’s clients or customers are treated with
respect, and chart the correct path for your organization’s
future?
4. Which learning methods would be the most appropriate to
employ, given the competencies you wish to support?
5. How can your organization frame training & development
related to diversity so that it is, if at all possible, an ongoing
activity, not restricted to isolated experiences in a classroom?
6. Who must you engage to lead the diversity training &
development initiatives within your organization?
Source:
http://www.shrm.org/hrdisciplines/Diversity/diversity_mgmt_pl
an/Pages/training.aspx

Performance appraisal is that oft-dreaded task which manager's
are expected to complete that identifies the strengths, weakness,
and accomplishments of subordinates. One wonders why this
important component is so often run through with lack of focus,
rendering many (if not most) appraisals meaningless.
Performance planning allows for the identification of many
aspects of organizational processes (training, development,
reward, punishment, promotion, termination). Please review the
following link for a Power Point that details performance
planning (you may need to copy the URL into your address bar).
Consider this information in the context of discussions and
assignments.
http://www.shrm.org/Education/hreducation/Documents/Perform
ance_Management_PPT_SL_Edit_BS.ppt
DISCUSSION ADDENDUM RELATED TO HR ISSUES:
Family Medical Leave Updates
The EEOC has recently reported a significant upswing in
lawsuits under the Family Medical Leave Act of 1993. The
number of cases has recently spiked by about 25% over the
same number filed 10 years ago. A brief synopsis of the FMLA
and common misconceptions:
1. Under the FMLA, people can get up to 12 weeks of unpaid
leave for post-pregnancy care, to care for a family member, or
to attend to a personal health issue, above and beyond any
medical benefits or accrued company leave time.
2. FMLA is not available to all employees in all companies.
The company has to have 50 employees located within 75 miles
of the company work site for its employees to be eligible.

3. Employees have to have been employed for at least 1 year,
usually for at least 1250 hours, to be eligible.
4. Employees are eligible for 12 weeks FMLA leave in any
calendar year.
5. Employees have the right to return to the same or equivalent
employment at the end of FMLA leave, with ONE KEY
EXCEPTION: Highly paid, "key" employees may not be denied
FMLA leave, but the company is within their rights not to
reinstate highly paid, "key" employees who take FMLA leave to
their former job or any job.
6. If employees have indicated that they do not intend to return,
or would have otherwise been laid off, terminated, or
downsized, or are unable to return after 12 weeks, or refuse to
provide company-requested medical or personal
documentations, the company may rightfully refuse to reinstate
them.
Most of the current lawsuits claim that litigants were
discriminated against or retaliated against for taking time off to
handle the care-giving of a child, which is covered by the
FMLA, or to care for a relative with a disability, which is
covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act. Two key areas
of defense for employers fighting these cases:
(1) If the employee is designated as a "key" employee, the
company is not obliged to return the employee to their current
position or any position. Let's say that Jane Doe is 29 years old
and VP of a company with 50 employees. She becomes
pregnant and gives birth. She takes six weeks of paid time
under company policy, four weeks of paid vacation time, and
then desires to take 12 more weeks because of difficulties with
the child's health. The company has designated her as a key
employee. Under the FMLA, the company is not obliged to

hold her vice presidency for what amounts to about a half year.
It is unclear whether the ADA would protect her because the
child probably would not qualify under disability rules.
(2) It is unclear whether a company may avoid the potential
FMLA issue entirely by refusing to hire persons with small
children or who are known to be caring for disabled relatives.
Many companies currently in litigation have claimed that they
should not be liable for not hiring persons with high likelihood
of going on FMLA or ADA leave time because it makes them
the unwilling provider of company benefits for the
unproductive. There does not appear to be any Title VII
violations related to refusing to hire persons with small children
or who are known to be caring for disabled relatives. Where
companies have gotten into trouble is when they have refused to
hire female caregivers, instead preferring male non-caregivers.
Hiring female non-caregivers over female caregivers, however,
does not appear to be a violation of FMLA, ADA, or Title VII.
This will be an area of increasing interest as more employees
end up caring for children, grandchildren, or parents as the
workforce ages, and may be an interesting topic for your
students.
WEEK 4 STUDENT RESPONSES DISCUSSION 1
Juanita W
6/19/2013 1:02:35 PM
Answer the questions to the case, "Salary Inequities at Acme
Manufacturing," at the end of Chapter 7. Include at least one
outside source supporting your answers.
APPLICATION EXERCISES Case Incident: Salary Inequities at
Acme Manufacturing
Joe Black was trying to figure out what to do about a salary
problem he had in his plant. Black recently took over as

president of Acme Manufacturing. The founder, Bill George,
had been president for 35 years. The company was family
owned and located in a small eastern Arkansas town. It had
approximately 250 employees and was the largest employer in
the community. Black was a member of the family that owned
Acme, but he had never worked for the company prior to
becoming president. He had an MBA and a law degree, plus 15
years of management experience with a large manufacturing
organization, where he was senior vice president for human
resources when he moved to Acme.
A short time after joining Acme, Black started to notice that
there was considerable inequity in the pay structure for salaried
employees. A discussion with the human resources director led
him to believe that salaried employees’ pay was very much a
matter of individual bargaining with the past president. Hourly
paid factory employees were not part of the problem because
they were unionized with wages set by collective bargaining. An
examination of the salaried payroll showed that there were 25
employees, ranging in pay from that of the president to that of
the receptionist. A closer examination showed that 14 of the
salaried employees were female. Three of these were frontline
factory supervisors and one was the HR director. The other 10
were nonmanagement.
This examination also showed that the human resources director
seemed underpaid, and that the three female supervisors were
paid somewhat less than were any of the male supervisors.
However, there were no similar supervisory jobs with both male
and female job incumbents. When asked, the HR director said
she thought the female supervisors may have been paid at a
lower rate mainly because they were women, and perhaps Bill
George did not think that women needed as much money
because they had working husbands. However, she added that
they may have been paid less because they supervised less-
skilled employees than did male supervisors. Black was not sure
that this was true.
The company from which Black had moved had a job evaluation

system. Although he was thoroughly familiar and capable with
this compensation tool, Black did not have time to do a job
evaluation at Acme. Therefore, he decided to hire a
compensation consultant from a nearby university to help him.
Together they decided that all 25 salaried jobs should be in the
job evaluation cluster, that they should use a ranking method,
and that the job descriptions recently completed by the HR
director were current and usable.
The job evaluation showed that there was no evidence of serious
inequities or discrimination in the nonmanagement jobs.
However, the HR director and the three female supervisors were
underpaid relative to comparable male salaried employees.
Black was not sure what to do. He knew that if the underpaid
female supervisors took the case to the local EEOC office, the
company could be found guilty of sex discrimination and then
have to pay back wages. He was afraid that if he gave these
women an immediate salary increase large enough to bring them
up to where they should be, the male supervisors would be
upset, and the female supervisors might also want back pay. The
HR director told Black that the female supervisors had never
complained about pay differences, and they probably did not
know the law to any extent.
The HR director agreed to take a sizable salary increase with no
back pay, solving this part of the problem. Black believed he
had four choices relative to the female supervisors:
1. To do nothing
2. To gradually increase the female supervisors’ salaries
3. To increase their salaries immediately
4. To call the three supervisors into his office, discuss the
situation with them, and jointly decide what to do
QUESTIONS
1. What would you do if you were Black? Why?
If I were Black I would go with option #4. Things need to
change, that is obvious. However, if all three supervisors and
Black got together and discussed the issue and came to a joint
decision, nobody would feel shorted. Let them decide on

whether getting it one lump sum or to gradually increase their
pay.
2. How do you think the company got into this situation in
the first place?
I think that when the company first opened it was small and
only men worked there since it opened 35 years ago. Then,
when they started hiring women to work they had little to no
experience and so were paid less. Of course this happened all
before the equal pay rights were put into effect. Obviously Bill
George just overlooked the pay raises for women over the 35
years that he ran the company. It may have just slipped his
mind to update the pay grades.
3. Why would you suggest Black pursue the alternative you
suggested?
Most companies pay outside companies to make out the
paychecks so the males would not know about the increase
unless they were told about it, for one. Many companies today
have direct deposit which would also help hide the fact from the
other employees and supervisors. Meeting with the 3 women
would let them know that he was thinking of the “glass ceiling”
within this company. It also allows the women to speak freely
of their needs and for Black to hear how he can better assist
them.
Dessler, Gary. Framework for Human Resource Management, A,
6/e Vitalsource eBook for Ashford University. Pearson Learning
Solution
s.
Jackson, Nancy Mann (June 22, 2010). Break your own glass
ceiling. Researched June 19, 2013 from

http://www.glassdoor.com/blog/break-glass-ceiling/
Nita Wood
Respond
Week 4 Discussion 1 - David Teeter
David T
6/19/2013 8:14:07 PM
1. What would you do if you were Black? Why?
Out of the four options which Black has, I would increase the
supervisors salaries immediately. There are three reasons for
doing so. (1) Not increasing the salaries would be in violation
of the 1938 Fair Labor Standard Act and the 1963 Equal Pay
Act. The 1938 Equal pay Act address the equal pay. The 1963
Equal Pay Act “states that employees of one sex may not be
paid wages at a rate lower than that paid to employees of the
opposite sex for roughly equivalent work” (Dessler, 2011, p.
202). (2) Increasing the salaries of the supervisors is the ethical

action to take. “…fair treatment reflects concrete actions such
as “employees are trusted,” “employees are treated with
respect,” and “employees are treated fairly”” (Dessler, 2011, p.
236). (3) It is the right thing to do. Just because Bill George
used different standards to pay the employee, does not make
what actions he took to be fair. “Doing the right thing” will
start repairing the damage which Bill George started. As stated
in reason two, the supervisors will feel appreciated.
2. How do you think the company got into this situation in
the first place?
Bill George worked with each employee on pay. “… salaried
employees’ pay was very much a matter of individual
bargaining with the past president” (Dessler, 2011, p. 230).
Also, “the HR director said she thought the female supervisors
may have been paid at a lower rate mainly because they were
women, and perhaps Bill George did not think that women
needed as much money because they had working husbands”
(Dessler, 2011, p. 230). This could also be stereotyping the
role of women in the work place which, in some organizations,
are still in place.
3. Why would you suggest Black pursue the alternative you
suggested?
As stated in reason two and three of question 1, it is because it
is the ethical and right thing to do. There is a chance the
supervisors could demand back pay or file a lawsuit against

Acme for the difference in pay. Acme will have to deal with
what “might happen” if that is the case. The organization was
in violation of the two federal laws and will need to “own up to
it” and take responsibility for their actions or lack of actions.
One of the steps Black will need to take in the future is to
accomplish a wage assessment for Acme. A wage assessment
needs to be completed at this point to insure the wages are
competitive for the industry and demographics. After the
assessment is completed the a “benchmark” will be established
to guide the organizations wages. The federal Troubled Asset
Relief Program requires and initial assessment. Joanne
Sammer, in her article, Measure Compensation’s Impact, states
“Executives found the assessments so useful that they still
conduct and review them, even though doing so is no longer
required” (Sammer, 2012, para. 13).
David Teeter
Dessler, G. (2011). A framework for human resource
management (sixth edition). Upper Saddle River, NJ, Pearson
Education, Inc.
Sammer, J. (2012). Measure compensation’s impact.
HRMagazine, 57(9), 85-86, 88, 90. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com/docview/1039493629?accountid=325
21

Week Four Learning Outcomes OMM618 Human Resources Management (MF.docx

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