What human resource issues should managers in the automobile industry be prepared for in the future?
Resistance of human resources due to their gradual displacement in automobile manufacturing businesses comprises the encompassing issue in the industry in the future. Human resource displacement results from two economic trends. One is increasing outsourcing (1998; 2003) of manufacturing activities to developing countries offering more competitive labor prices and plan establishment costs. The other is technological innovations in manufacturing processes (2001) such as the development of highly intelligent computer systems to operate plan equipment minimizing the number of needed human labor and shifting labor demand to highly skilled workers for highly technical work. These developments in the industry are likely to heighten resistance of employees and workers to displacement in the industry particularly due to the lifetime employment agreements with manufacturing companies.
How might the employee skills, management practices, and automobile manufacturing companies change in the future?
Employee skill requirements for the industry would likely shift to high level of knowledge and skills in information technology and allied applications specifically developed for the automobile industry. This means that demand for manual labor would decrease while demand for technically knowledgeable and skilled people would increase in the mother company in the US. Demand for manual labor will shift to competitive labor markets in developing countries. This change in labor demand means that management practices would also shift towards addressing the resistance from current human resources faced with the possibility of displacement. In the future, automobile manufacturing companies would be highly fragmented, geographically, in their operations but highly efficient by taking advantage of competitive labor markets and technological innovations.
How would you expect the managerial trends to affect human resources practices and policies in future automobile manufacturing?
Due to the necessary shift in human resource management towards resistance to displacement responsive practices, human resource practices and policies in the future in the automobile industry would likely result to two general changes. One is the shift from unionized collective bargaining to individual labor contracting. The lesser number of employees and workers and the shift from manual to technologically skilled labor justify the shift to individual labor contracting. For new employees, the employer-employee relations is governed by employment contracts. The other is negotiation of the lifetime employment agreement between the company and employees through the offering acceptable incentives to employees who might be displaced in the future.
Sexual Harassment in the Workplace
Introduction
It is recognized that for employees to become productive contributing members of the organization, there should be a comfortable working environment conducive to the efficient accomplishment of various tasks. A significant issue which may disrupt a comfortable working environment is sexual harassment. The commission of sexual harassment constitutes a punishable wrong so that it is important for employees to know their rights to be able to protect themselves and uphold their rights against this legal violation as well as for employers to know their statutory responsibilities in order to respect the rights of their employees and maintain a comfortable working environment.
Discussion
Sexual harassment refers to a type of sex discrimination. The term is legally defined as the “unwelcome verbal, visual, or physical conduct of a sexual nature that is severe or pervasive and affects the working conditions or creates a hostile work environment” (1999; 2006) This definition is based on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act 1964 on sexual discrimination and Title 29, Part 1604 of the Code of Federal Regulations 2002 on sexual harassment.
Based on these definitions and clarifications and facts given in the case, John may not have committed sexual harassment. This is because not all the elements of sexual harassment were existent. Although the act was an unwelcome physical conduct, it may be classified as of a sexual nature, and it affects working conditions since Peggy felt uncomfortable. However, the act is not pervasive since it was only done once and it may not be considered severe since the verbal remark that came with the pat on the buttocks was not sexual in nature or threatening.
However, despite the insufficiency of the action to constitute sexual harassment as defined by law, Peggy may confront John about the incident to inform him that this made her uncomfortable. Peggy may also obtain the aid of a colleague or Mike to mediate the issue. In the case, Mike did not respond appropriately because he did not promptly address the issue.
Organizations are accorded by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act 1964 with the responsibility to 1) practice reasonable care in preventing sexual harassment and 2) practice reasonable care in promptly correcting sexual harassment which has been committed. Although, there are no specific actions that organizations should comply with, the determination of reasonable care depends upon the context of the organization. (1999)
Awareness of sexual harassment in the workplace and legal rights and obligations of employees and employers together with a system for handling sexual harassment complaints constitute the most significant deterrents for sexual harassment in the work environment.
Conclusion
In preventing sexual harassment from being committed in the workplace, organizations should be aware of this concept and implement an effective grievance system consistent with law.
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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