CH-1-3 The World of Human Resources Management – Managing Human Resources : Chapter Notes

This Document Contains Chapters 1 to 3 Chapter 1: The World of Human Resources Management If nothing else, my students should learn that… Human resources management (HRM) involves a number of policies and practices (e.g., recruitment, selection, training, health and safety, etc.) that are designed to provide employees with the ability, motivation, and opportunity to perform their jobs well. Effective HRM requires a consideration of the organization’s strategy, as well as the social and political landscape. This requires the HRM department to be a strategic partner and a champion of change. Further, human resources (HR) must partner with line management, who are often the conduits of HR policies. Learning objectives Explain how human resources managers and other managers can have rewarding careers by helping their firms gain a sustainable competitive advantage through the strategic utilization of people. Explain how good human resources practices can help a firm’s globalization, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability efforts. Describe how technology can improve how people perform their work and how they are managed. Explain the dual goals HR managers have in terms of increasing productivity and controlling costs. Discuss how firms can leverage employee differences to their strategic advantage and how educational and cultural changes in the workforce are affecting how human resources manager engage employees. Provide examples of the roles and competencies of today’s human resources professionals. Why is this chapter important? The purpose of this chapter is to acquaint students with the importance of HRM and how it contributes to the achievement of an organization’s overall objectives. In this chapter, we discuss how people can be a source of competitive advantage, the competitive challenges facing firms, and the concerns of employees themselves. Students are made aware of some of the important efforts that both large and small companies are making to develop and utilize the talents of their people as well as the changes taking place in the work environment. We end the chapter with a discussion of the competencies that HR managers and line managers need to possess in order to work together to make the most of employees’ talents. Why should students care? The answer to this question is much the same, regardless of whether students plan on a career in HRM. Organizations compete through people. Studying HRM gives students an understanding of the systems and processes needed to develop and utilize the talents and energies of employees in order for the firm to gain a competitive advantage. Staffing the organization, designing jobs and teams, developing skilful employees, identifying approaches for improving their performance, and rewarding employee successes—all typically labelled HRM issues—are as relevant to line managers as they are to managers in the HR department. The HR professional supports managers as they manage their employees to achieve organizational goals. Because employee skills, knowledge, and abilities are among the most distinctive and renewable resources on which a company can draw, their strategic management is more important than ever. What can I do in this class? This section includes ideas for how to start and finish the class. It also contains information from the textbook that can be used as a basis for a lecture. Moreover, it contains numerous suggestions for student engagement. Depending on your class size, the nature of the students, and your desire for classroom participation, choose from these activities to enliven the classroom. Getting started Begin the class with a brief overview of the strategic role of the HRM function. For instance, emphasize these points: Studying HRM gives students an understanding of the systems and processes needed to develop and utilize the talents and energies of employees in order for the firm to gain a competitive advantage. Staffing the organization, designing jobs and teams, developing skilful employees, identifying approaches for improving their performance, and rewarding employee successes—all typically labelled HRM issues—are as relevant to line managers as they are to managers in the HR department. Explain that this is because organizations “compete through people,” and the success of doing so depends on an organization’s ability to manage talent, or human capital, defined as the economic value of employees’ knowledge, skills, and capabilities. Some ideas for getting students energized at the beginning of class include the following: Connectivity Activity: Ask students to think about a previous or current job. In small groups, discuss their interaction with the HRM department. Note the activities mentioned by students on the board or flipchart. Ask students whether all of the activities are the sole remit of HRM. There are likely to be shared responsibilities with management. Highlight some of the reasons why HRM is important for those who wish to be HRM managers, but also for those who wish to manage others, or even start their own business. Connectivity Activity: Go to websites for HR professional associations, such as the HRPA, CIPD, or SHRM. Collect information on each of the topics to be discussed over the course of the semester (e.g., week-to-week breakdown of HRM activities, such as recruiting and training). Have students get into small groups, and give one topic per group. Ask students to develop a presentation on three of the most important or interesting elements in the reading, and then present their findings to one another. This can also be done at the end of the lecture as a preview for the rest of the course. Call-Out Question: Think of a firm you are familiar with that is facing dramatic changes in order to survive. (BlackBerry is an example.) How do you think the firm’s personnel can help it adapt? What role will the company’s HR staff play in helping with that goal? Call-Out Question: Ask students whether they can think of a situation in which, if a particular person left an organization, that organization’s expertise would drop rapidly. There are many instances in which a single individual’s expertise has an enormous influence on an organization. Some high profile names will jump out. Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Bill Gates at Microsoft are highly recognizable executives. If students have a difficult time coming up with easily recognizable people, ask them about small companies in their hometowns. What would happen at a mom-and-pop store if Mom or Pop decided to leave? In small businesses especially, the human capital may be almost completely tied up in one or two key individuals. The talent, service, and/or reputation of those key individuals “are” the business. Highlight that HRM programs are often the conduit through which knowledge is developed and transferred among employees, and that HRM can provide the systems and procedures so that if a star CEO leaves, he or she does not take the success of the company with him or her. To go outside the bounds of the textbook, it is possible to introduce “strong” cultures in this space (Bowen and Ostroff, 2004; see the full citation in the Recommended Reading section). Competitive Challenges and Human Resources Management Professional organizations such as the Human Resources Professionals Association (HRPA) seek the input from chief executives and HR managers to identify the most important trends. They are listed here as challenges. CHALLENGE 1: Responding Strategically to Changes in the Local and Global Marketplace In order to meet this challenge, HRM professionals need to know the business strategy, and how to align its policies with it. Call-Out Question: Since 2008, the world has undergone a “Great Recession.” How has this impacted business? What have organizations done in order to survive? Students may generate the following strategies: Downsizing—the planned elimination of jobs Outsourcing—hiring someone from outside the company to perform business processes that were previously done within the firm Offshoring—involves shifting work to overseas locations Employee leasing—the process of dismissing employees who are then hired by a leasing company, which handles all HR-related activities, and contracts with that company to lease back the employees Reengineering—a fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in cost, quality, service, and/or speed Six Sigma—a set of principles and practices whose core ideas include understanding customer needs, doing things right the first time, and striving for continuous improvement Note: This topic should be noted on the board for further discussion. Also, more details on some of these challenges are found in Challenge 5; this discussion can occur during Challenge 1 or Challenge 5. See Reality Check: Six Sigma on page 8 for an example of how Six Sigma is used at Goodyear Canada. Once this list is complete (you may need to probe students or teach some of this material, depending on the experience of students), highlight that a common denominator of all these strategies is that they require companies to engage in change management. Change management is a systematic way of bringing about and managing both organizational changes and changes on the individual level. Although most employees understand that change is continuous—responsibilities, job assignments, and work processes change—people often resist it because it requires them to modify or abandon ways of working that have been successful or at least familiar to them. Successful change rarely occurs naturally or easily. Think-Pair-Share: Explain to students that organizations that fail to change do not survive. Provide students with a list of John Kotter’s (1995) eight steps to managing change, and ask them how HRM might contribute to those activities. The steps are: (1) Not establishing a sense of urgency; (2) Not creating a powerful coalition to guide the effort; (3) Lacking leaders who have a vision; (4) Lacking leaders who communicate the vision; (5) Not removing obstacles to the new vision or motivating employees; (6) Not systematically planning for and creating short-term “wins”; (7) Declaring victory too soon; (8) Not anchoring changes in the corporate culture, or failing to maintain the momentum of the change. See the full citation in the Recommended Reading section. Some of the strategic changes companies pursue are reactive changes that result when external forces, such as the competition, a recession, law change, or a crisis (such as BP’s offshore oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010) have already affected an organization’s performance. Other strategies are proactive change, initiated by managers to take advantage of targeted opportunities, particularly in fast-changing industries. Making Links with Previous Learning: Refer to the list generated previously about how organizations are dealing with change (downsizing, outsourcing, Six Sigma, process re-engineering, and the other ideas generated by students). Ask students which of those strategies are more likely to be reactive change, and which are more likely to be proactive change initiatives. Small Group Exercise: State instructions and expectations for a small group activity (5–6 students); the response should be done in PowerPoint if all groups have laptops; limit the number of slides (5–8). In each small group, ask for a volunteer who has a bad habit that he or she wants to get rid of (e.g., nail biting, procrastination, lack of exercise, poor eating habits, etc.). As a group, develop a change management program for the student volunteer while incorporating the key elements of change management from the text. Encourage groups to display their change management programs with their PowerPoint presentations. Comment on the merits of each group’s presentation and also the difficulties in assessing whether the change management programs will produce lasting change; that is, that the bad habits will not return. CHALLENGE 2: Competing, Recruiting, and Staffing Globally How Globalization Affects HRM: When managers talk about “going global,” they have to balance a complicated set of issues related to different geographies, including different cultures, employment laws, and business practices. Human resources issues underlie each of these concerns. Call-Out Question: Ask students to imagine that they want to send a Canadian manager to Hong Kong for two years to give the manager developmental opportunities. The Canadian manager earns $120,000 CAD/year. What would be some of the challenges this manager might face? Lots of different issues may arise, such as family issues, training in cultural sensitivity, performance management, and compensation. Some students will know that $120,000 CAD does not go very far in Hong Kong! Then, ask students to imagine taking the same manager and having him or her work in Mexico for two years. Ask them how far they think that $120,000 CAD would get a person in Mexico! Reinforce the need to have a strategy for dealing with these issues, as perceptions of fairness serve as a bedrock of effective HRM. Think-Pair-Share: Use Discussion Question 2 on page 33 as a basis for a think-pair-share: Suppose your boss asked you to summarize the major people-related concerns in opening an office in China. What issues would be on your list? See the recommended response in Answers to End-of-Chapter Discussion Questions. CHALLENGE 3: Setting and Achieving Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability Goals Corporate social responsibility (CSR), or the responsibility of the firm to act in the best interests of the people and the communities affected by its activities, has become important both domestically and abroad to help the bottom line with job selection, HR leadership, and good corporate citizenship. Making Explicit Real-World Links: Introduce CSR as “the responsibility of the firm to act in the best interests of the people and the communities affected by its activities.” Sources of information about companies and their programs to promote corporate social responsibility can be found on the news service at http://www.csrwire.com. Introduce this challenge by copying pictures from websites of organizations’ career sites showing that they are committed to CSR. Ask students why organizations would do this, and generate a discussion about the benefits of engaging in CSR from both the employee and employer perspectives. Debate: Put students into groups of two. Assign one student the position “CSR has no business in business,” and assign the other student the position “CSR must be a priority for all businesses.” Given that this is the first lecture, it might be wise to ask the con-CSR group to meet with each other, and the pro-CSR group to meet with each other. This way, students can share ideas before the debate. After about five minutes, ask students whether their partner made any good points. Jot them on the board and take up with the class. Think-Pair-Share: Use the Discussion Question 3 on page 33 as a basis for a think-pair-share: Name a company you hope to work for someday. What is its track record in terms of corporate social responsibility and sustainability? Are these factors important to you? Why or why not? See the recommended response in the Answers to End-of-Chapter Discussion Questions. If you have access to the Internet in the classroom, you can look up some of the organizations on the Web to see if they have CSR agendas. CHALLENGE 4: Advancing HRM with Technology Collaborative software allows workers to interface and share information with one another electronically (e.g., wikis, Google Docs, online chat, web and video conferencing). Class Discussion: Ask the students whether they use any of the aforementioned collaborative software when working in groups for their courses in university. Many students will have used at least one type of collaborative software. Ask the students the benefits and drawbacks of using such software for group projects. Then ask the students to compare their answers with what they believe occurs in the workplace. Class Discussion: From Touch Labour to Knowledge Workers. Discuss with students their experience with jobs that have moved from “touch labour” to “knowledge workers,” or workers whose responsibilities extend beyond the physical execution of work to include planning, decision making, and problem solving. Ask them what kinds of skills these new jobs require. It may be the case that current employees can be retrained to assume new roles and responsibilities. Other times, new employees have to be hired. Discuss whether, as employees, they would prefer to learn via regular training, just-in-time learning, or virtual learning environments. You can also produce a copy of Highlights in HRM 1.1 on page 12, which outlines a number of rather provocative predictions about the future of work. Ask the students whether they think that these events will happen, and the impact the changes will have for organizations and employees. Influence of Technology in HRM. A human resources information system (HRIS) is a computerized system that provides current and accurate data for purposes of control and decision making. Use Highlights in HRM 1.2: Factors to Consider When Evaluating a Human Resources Information System on page 14 to show the factors that should be considered when evaluating an HRIS system. Think-Pair-Share: Ask the students to collaboratively respond to Discussion Question 4 on page 33: Will technology eliminate the need for HR managers? At this point, this question may be best used for experienced students, rather than novice ones. See the recommended responses in the Answers to End-of-Chapter Discussion Questions. Collaborative Team Project: Put students into groups to compare, contrast, and evaluate two HRIS systems, using the guidelines presented in Highlights in HRM 1.2 on page 14. Information can be sourced from the Internet. Take care to urge students to NOT get into contact with any provider, as this may have negative consequences for the university or college. CHALLENGE 5: Containing Costs while Retaining Top Talent and Maximizing Productivity Stress to students that HRM professionals need to simultaneously focus on retaining top talent and maximizing productivity. Inform students that virtually every major corporation has undergone some cycle of downsizing. Call-Out Question: Do you think it is possible to maintain the morale of your firm’s employees in the face of shrinking budgets and benefits? How might you do so? The answers to this question may very well link back to the students’ knowledge of organizational behaviour if this is a prerequisite for this course in Human Resources Management. Inform the students that many of the theories underlying the study of human resources are rooted in organizational behaviour. Linking Back to Previous Learning: Refer back to reactive versus proactive change, and show that downsizing can be a response to both. PBL: Inform students about a study of 750 companies conducted by Watson Wyatt that showed that organizations with excellent recruitment and retention policies provide a nearly 8 percent higher return to shareholders compared to those that do not excel in these areas. Also, share that organizations with a strong commitment to job security earned an additional 1.4 percent for shareholders. Ask students to generate reasons for these counterintuitive findings. Advocates of a no-layoff policy often note that layoffs may backfire after taking into account such hidden costs, including severance and rehiring costs, accrued vacation and sick day payouts, pension and benefit payoffs, potential lawsuits from aggrieved workers, loss of institutional memory and trust in management, lack of staffers when the economy rebounds, and survivors who are risk averse, paranoid, and political. Companies that avoid downsizing say they get some important benefits from such policies, such as a fiercely loyal, more productive workforce, higher customer satisfaction, readiness to snap back with the economy, a recruiting edge, and workers who are not afraid to innovate, knowing their jobs are safe. CHALLENGE 6: Responding to the Demographic and Diversity Challenges of
the Workforce Connectivity Question: Think about some of the teams you have been a member of. Which of them performed better— those that were diverse or those that were not? What challenges and opportunities did the more diverse teams present? How do you think they translate to human resources management? The Diversity/Immigration Challenge Share the Facts: Use Figure 1.2: Composition of the Population of Canada (Millions) on page 19 to show the 2006 composition of the population of Canada. Ask the students whether they think that the composition has changed since 2006. Encourage them to return to class next time with the answer. Link it to HRM: To accommodate the shift in demographics, demand, and labour trends, businesses know it is absolutely vital to increase their efforts to recruit and train a more diverse workforce. They realize that immigrants are not only critical to their very survival, but also add to their strength and allow them to better attract and serve a larger customer base. Aging of the Population and Generational Differences Share the Facts: Canada’s population was 35.7 million in January 2015. About 5 million are 65 or over, which is a 14.1 percent increase between 2006 and 2011. The number of seniors in the Canadian population is expected to double over the next 10 years. Seniors accounted for 14.8 percent of the population in 2011, up from 13.7 percent five years earlier. Link It to HRM: Some companies such as Home Depot and McDonald’s are recruiting over-50 employees because, although their health care costs might be higher, their retention, absenteeism, and transition costs are lower. Older workers now are choosing to work longer. Good health and longer life expectancies play the biggest role in extended work lives. But some retirees have returned to the workforce because of economic needs. PBL: Use Case Study 2: Intergenerational Issues on page 35 to generate discussion among the students on how HR and line management may need to tailor their approach to suit the needs of an inter-generationally diverse workforce. See recommended responses to the discussion questions in the Notes for End-of-Chapter Case Studies. Gender Distribution of the Workforce Share the Facts: The percentage of women in the labour force is nearly 50 percent, although 61 percent of university graduates are women. Link it to HRM: Employers are taking measures to ensure that women are treated equally in the workplace in terms of advancement opportunities and compensation. They also need to accommodate working parents through parental leave, part-time employment, flexible work schedules, job sharing, telecommuting, and child and elder care assistance. Collaborative Team Project: Use Discussion Question 6 on page 33 as a basis for a collaborative team project: What are the pros and cons of having a more diverse workforce? Is Canada in a better position to compete globally because of its diverse population? Find examples from a school or work project where having a diverse team made a difference. See the recommended solutions in the Answers to End-of-Chapter Discussion Questions. Think-Pair-Share: The textbook emphasizes that harnessing a company’s talent means being aware of characteristics common to employees while also managing these employees as individuals. Ask the students to take either gender or generation Y as an example. Ask the students what might be common to the group (either females vs. males, or generation Y versus others), and what factors may be more individual in managing either female or generation Y employees. For instance, women may have childbearing in common (most women have the ability to bear children), but they differ with regards to factors that motivate them at work. CHALLENGE 7: Adapting to Educational and Cultural Shifts Affecting
the Workforce Education of the Workforce Think-Pair-Share: Use Discussion Question 7 on page 33 as a basis for a think-pair-share: Why do HR managers need to stay abreast of the educational levels and work expectations of people in the workforce? See the recommended solutions in the Answers to End-of-Chapter Discussion Questions. Cultural Changes Employee Rights Concern for Privacy
The Changing Nature of the Job See Ethics in HRM: Skywalkers and Groundworkers on page 26. Debate: Ask the students to get into pairs to debate the merits of part-time work. Once you’ve given them about 5 minutes, ask the students to read The Business Case: Advantages and Disadvantages of Part-Time Workers (page 25) to determine whether they missed any important points and learned something new. Ask the students whether the information changed their mind regarding the merits of part-time work. Changing Attitudes toward Work Clickers: Using either clickers, or just a simple piece of scrap paper, ask the students to rank order the list of job characteristics that are most important to them personally. Then, show the actual rank order from Figure 1.4: Work Is More Than Just a Paycheque on page 27 to demonstrate the reported findings. A discussion that refers back to generational differences or gender may occur, as many students often suggest that they are motivated by different things depending on the stage of their career or gender. Balancing Work and Family Making Explicit Real World Links: Use Highlights in HRM 1.3: Work–Life Harmony on page 28 to see how Nora Spinks, an expert in work–life harmony, consults her clients. Think-Pair-Share for Challenges 6 and 7: Provide students with a “What in the World” Fact Sheet. First individually, and then in groups, ask them to discuss how the facts may impact upon HRM professionals. The facts can be presented in written form, or you can provide copies of some of the figures to students. The latter option is preferable, since it will provide students with an opportunity to understand material that is presented graphically. Facts may also include the following: 1. Minorities in Canada are increasing relative to the population. Between 2001 and 2006, minorities increased by 27.2 percent, compared to a 5.4 percent increase in the population of Canada in the same period. 2. Canada’s population was 35.7 million in January 2015. About 5 million are 65 or over, which is a 14.1 percent increase between 2006 and 2011. The number of seniors in the Canadian population is expected to double over the next 10 years. Seniors accounted for 14.8 percent of the population in 2011, up from 13.7 percent five years earlier. 3. Women make up nearly 50 percent of the workforce in Canada, and the educational attainment of women is also increasing relative to men. Today, 61 percent of university graduates are women. 4. While the complexity of jobs has increased over time, the skills gap is widening. More than 3 million Canadians have problems reading printed material. 5. Nearly half of all jobs created in the past two decades are nonstandard—part-time, temporary, or contract work. These types of jobs represent about 34 percent of all employment. 6. Job attitudes have significantly changed in the past few decades. Many employees—especially younger ones—believe that satisfaction with life is more likely to result from balancing their work challenges and rewards with those of their personal life. Money isn’t everything! In fact, people are increasingly looking for meaningful work. 7. The majority of employees have no children under the age of 18. The Partnership of Line Managers and HR Departments Responsibilities of the Human Resources Manager
The major activities of HR managers include the following: (1) Advice and counsel;
(2) Service; (3) Policy formulation and implementation; (4) Employee advocacy Think-Pair-Share: Use Discussion Question 8 on page 33 as the basis of a think-pair-share: In your opinion, what is the most important role of HR managers? Should HR professionals be the “voice” for employees or the “spokesperson” for managers? Explain your view. Should HR professionals be licensed, like accountants and lawyers? See the recommended solutions in the Answers to End-of-Chapter Discussion Questions. Competencies of the Human Resources Manager
Competencies of HR managers include (1) Business Mastery (2) HR Mastery (3) Change Mastery (4) Personal Credibility. PBL: Use Case Study 1: New HR Strategy Makes Lloyds a “Best Company” on page 34, and encourage students to answer the questions. See the recommended solutions in the Notes for End-of-Chapter Case Studies. PBL: Use Case Study 3: Shell’s Top Recruiter Takes His Cues from Marketing on page 36 to generate a discussion on the synergy between marketing and HRM, highlighting another important skill of HRM. See the recommended solutions in the Notes for End-of-Chapter Case Studies. Role of the Line Manager Reinforce the idea with students that managing people ultimately depends on effective supervisors and line managers. It may likely be the case that most of your students will be line managers and supervisors rather than HR specialists. Ask students about their career plans and have them indicate how they believe a course in HRM will help them become better managers. PBL: Use HRM Experience: Balancing Competitive Challenges and Employee Concerns on page 33 to encourage students to think about the different roles of HR professionals vis-à-vis line management. FINISHING CLASS Review the learning objectives. Create a multiple-choice style quiz based on the lecture material to reinforce learning. Use clickers if they are available. Ask students to respond to a Discussion Question to present to the class the following week. Provide students with a “one-minute” paper, and ask them to respond to the following questions: (1) What is the most important thing I learned today? (2) What question do I have that is left unanswered? Collect the one-minute papers and take up any unresolved issues in the following class. Provide each student with a sticky note, and ask them to write down anything that was unclear to them in class, or if there are any unanswered questions. Use this as a basis for discussion on the online discussion board for your class. Additional Teaching Resources Recommended Reading Baron, J.N., & Kreps, D.M. (1999). Consistent human resource practices. California Management Review, 41(3), 29–53. Bowen, D.E., & Ostroff, C. (2004). Understanding HRM-Firm performance linkages: The role of the ‘strength’ of the HRM system. Academy of Management Review, 29(2), 203–221. Kotter, J. (1995). Leading change: Why transformation efforts fail. Harvard Business Review, 50–67. Pfeffer, J. (2005). Seven practices of successful organizations. In W.L. French, C.H. Bell, & R.A. Zawacki (Eds.). Organizational Development and Transformation: Managing Effective Change (pp. 460–479). New York: McGraw-Hill. Ulrich, D. (1991). Using human resources for competitive advantage. In R. Kilmann, I. Kilmann, and Associates (Eds.). Making Organizations Competitive. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Chapter 2: Strategy and Human Resources Planning If nothing else, my students should learn that… It is important for HRM to align its policies and processes with the business strategy in order to provide value to the organization (external fit), and that the policies and processes are mutually reinforcing (internal fit). HR planning follows the same pattern as organizational strategic planning, and hence the two processes are complementary. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of strategy, it is imperative to take the “people side” into consideration. Sole reliance on financial documents (e.g., financial statements, cash flow statements, income statements) largely ignores investment in human capital. Learning objectives Explain how human resources planning and a firm’s mission, vision, and values are integrally linked to its strategy. Understand how an organization’s external environment influences its strategic planning. Understand why it is important for an organization to do an internal resource analysis. Explain the linkages between competitive strategies and HR. Understand what is required for a firm to successfully implement a strategy and assess its effectiveness. Describe how firms evaluate their strategies and HR implementation. Why is this chapter important? The purpose of this chapter is to highlight the nexus of organizational strategy and HR planning. It emphasizes the use of planning as a means of ensuring that qualified employees will be available to meet staffing needs when and where they occur. Moreover, it focuses on how HRM policies and practices can contribute toward achieving an organization’s strategic goals. This chapter is important because it situates HRM within the broader organizational agenda, and demonstrates how it can be configured to help an organization succeed. Why should students care? Surveys show that 92 percent of chief financial officers now believe human capital affects an organization’s customer service, 82 percent believe it affects profitability, and 72 percent believe it affects innovation. And, in a survey by the consulting firm Deloitte, nearly 80 percent of corporate executives said the importance of HRM in their firms has grown substantially over the years, and two-thirds said that HR expenditures are now viewed as a strategic investment rather than simply a cost to be minimized. Indeed, research shows that strategically designed and implemented HR systems increase the value of firms, something executives are keenly interested in accomplishing. They are also demanding their human resources groups to push past short-term projections and provide detailed forecasts for needs and the associated costs over a two- to three-year horizon. Even small companies are realizing that their employees are the key to ensuring their ability to compete and survive. What can I do in this class? This section includes ideas for how to start and finish the class. It also contains information from the textbook that can be used as a basis for a lecture. Moreover, it contains numerous suggestions for student engagement. Depending on your class size, the nature of the students, and your desire for classroom participation, choose from these activities to enliven the classroom. Getting started Find some facts about organizations that have recently changed their strategy. For instance, in 2015, Sony changed its corporate strategy (http://uk.businessinsider.com/heres-sonys-new-business-strategy-2015-2?r=US&IR=T) to one that focuses on fewer products within three core businesses. Another good example is how Sears changed its strategy when Target left the Canadian market (http://strategycorp.com/2015/01/how-targets-departure-helped-sears-canada-change-their-corporate-narrative/); however, do be advised that when using this example, economists are projecting that Sears is in financial turmoil and is at risk of bankruptcy. Another Canadian example is Research in Motion: RIM fell out of IDC’s ranking of the top five global smartphone makers by market share for the first time in July 2012. Earlier, it laid off 5,000 workers and consulted investment banks on radical alternatives to its current strategy. Recently in 2015, it’s turning a profit with its new strategy (http://siliconangle.com/blog/2015/01/15/blackberry-is-poised-to-make-a-stunning-comeback-in-2015/). Present the stories to students, and ask them the implications for HRM and the management of people. Impress on students that most strategic moves have HRM repercussions. Bring a copy of your university’s strategy document and share it with the class. Ask how they see the strategy being implemented in the university, or how it isn’t! Ask students to think about their strategy for performing well in this class. Ask students whether they have set goals, such as to learn a lot about HRM and perhaps get an A! You will then want to remind students that strategy is much more than just the iteration of a goal. Strategy is also about making a plan. Ask students if they have a plan that will help them to achieve their vision in the class. Draw a rough sketch of Figure 2.1: Linking Strategic Planning and Human Resources on page 43, but don’t include any written text (no words), or omit some of the words. Distribute copies to the students and ask them to fill in the empty figure with the appropriate words. The figure serves as a map for the chapter and shows how companies align their human resource planning and strategic planning in this way: A firm’s business strategy, along with it’s overall purpose, goals and values, establishes the context for its HR strategy and the number and types of people, the skills they must have, and the like. In other words, the firm’s HRM strategy follows the business strategy and helps to implement it. STEP 1: Mission, Vision, and Values The mission is the basic purpose of the organization as well as its scope of operations. The strategic vision provides a perspective on where the company is headed and what the organization can become in the future. Organizational core values are the strong and enduring beliefs and principles that the company uses as a foundation for its decisions. Connectivity Activity: Find examples of vision and mission statements of well-known organizations (e.g., McDonalds, Google, Ferrari, Revlon, etc.). Put the vision and mission statements on a slide, without telling the students the name of the organization. Ask students if they can guess each organization according to their respective vision and mission statements. Call-Out Question: Who are vision statements for—the public or employees? Reinforce that marketing professionals focus on how to market products or the organization’s image to the public, but the vision statement is meant primarily for employees in the organization. Nokia’s vision statement is a good example of this: Connecting People and Very Human Technology. It is meant for employees to understand, not the public. Making Explicit Real-World Links: See Highlights in HRM 2.1: Air Canada: Mission, Vision, and Values on page 44. STEP 2: External Analysis Environmental scanning is the systematic monitoring of the major external forces influencing the organization. Managers attend to a variety of external issues. Making Explicit Real-World Links: Ask students to put themselves in the armchair of a senior executive of Starbucks. Ask students to generate the factors that may impact upon Starbucks’s success. Instead of teaching these seven factors in the external environment (1. the business environment, 2. the remote environment, 3. economic and ecological changes, 4. technological changes, 5. demographic changes, 6. social changes, 7. legal and regulatory changes) in a lecture format, try to encourage students, through probing questions, to generate them on their own. For instance, ask students whether they think that Starbucks keeps tabs on what Tim Hortons is doing. Think-Pair-Share: Use Discussion Question 2 on page 78: What external forces influence the future of community colleges and universities? List these and discuss the implications for the demand for faculty. See the recommended responses in the Answers to End-of-Chapter Discussion Questions. The Competitive Environment: The Five Forces Show students Figure 2.2: Five Forces Framework on page 48 to illustrate that the competitive environment includes five forces. A general rule of thumb about this analysis is: The more power each of these forces has, the less profitable (and therefore attractive) the industry will be. Customers Rival Firms New Entrants Substitutes Suppliers Think-Pair-Share: Make Discussion Question 1 on page 78 the basis for this think-pair-share. Ask the students: As you have learned, substitutes can be an opportunity or a threat. The smartphone is a great example of a new product that eliminated the need for many other products. In groups, develop a list of the products that the smartphone has replaced. See the recommended responses in the Answers to End-of-Chapter Discussion Questions. Making Explicit Real-World Links: In Reality Check: Spotting Trends in the Global Economy on page 47, David Foot, a demographer at the University of Toronto, explains why HR professionals must become aware of the need to scan. STEP 3: Internal Analysis (1) The Three Cs: Capabilities, Composition, and Culture Capabilities: People as a Strategic Resource Core capabilities are bundles of people, processes, and systems that distinguish an organization from its competitors and deliver value to customers. Organizations can achieve a sustained competitive advantage through people if they are able to meet the following criteria: The resources must be valuable. The resources must be rare. The resources must be difficult to imitate. The resources must be organized. Connectivity Activity: Find YouTube clips on Southwest’s culture (quite a few show flight attendants entertaining customers). Ask students to watch the clips and then provide examples of how the culture is rare, valuable, inimitable, and organized. Connectivity Activity: Use Sheehan’s (2006) simulation to enable students to understand the resource-based view of the firm. See the full citation for this paper in the Recommended Reading section. Composition: The Human Capital Architecture Use Figure 2.3: Mapping Human Capital on page 52 to show that different occupational groups in an organization can be classified according to the degree to which they create strategic value and are unique to the organization. In many cases, HR practices will differ depending on the group to which the employees belong. HR practices vary for different employees: Strategic knowledge workers Core employees Supporting workers Partners and complementary skills Connectivity Activity: Use HRM Experience: Customizing HR for Different Types of Human Capital on page 78 as the basis for a class discussion on HR architecture. See sample answers to this exercise in the HRM Experience section. Making Explicit Real-World Links: The Province of British Columbia recognizes the value of human capital as described in Highlights in HRM 2.2: The Measurement of Human Capital on page 52. Class Debate: Assign half of the class to argue that organizations should use contract workers, and half of the class to argue that organizations should use full-time contracts. Information pertaining to these positions is found in Ethics in HRM: The Employment Contract on page 54, and The Business Case: Hiring Contract Workers Pays on page 55. Culture: Values, Assumptions, Beliefs, and Expectations (VABEs) Organizations often conduct cultural audits to examine the values, assumptions, beliefs, and expectations (VABEs) of their workforces. A company’s corporate culture is a source of competitive advantage; firms are also beginning to engage in what is called values-based hiring, which involves outlining the behaviours that exemplify a firm’s corporate culture and then hiring people who are a fit for them. Making Explicit Real-World Links: Provide students with the example of SAS, a business-analytics corporation that often ranks No. 1 on Fortune magazine’s “Best Companies to Work For” list. In their cultural audit, they ask employees detailed questions about the company’s pay and benefit programs and a series of open-ended questions about the company’s hiring practices, internal communications, training and recognition programs, and diversity efforts. (2) Forecasting Use Figure 2.4: Model of HR Forecasting on page 57 to explain that managers focus on (at least) three key elements: (1) forecasting a firm’s demand for employees; (2) forecasting the supply of employees, and (3) assessing a firm’s human capital readiness: a gap analysis. Forecasting a firm’s demand for employees Call-out question: Ask the students whether they work over the holiday season (e.g., winter holiday break). Remind them that many employers (e.g., retail mainly, such as Indigo) hire more employees during this time period in order to meet customer demand. The hiring process for a December start-date often begins in October. But how do such retailers know how many people to hire in October to be ready for the holiday period? They need to engage in forecasting. Organizations can use one of two approaches to figuring this out: Quantitative approaches. An example is trend analysis, whereby a firm’s employment requirements are forecasted on the basis of some organizational index. Qualitative approaches. Management forecasts are the opinions (judgments) of supervisors, department managers, experts, or others knowledgeable about the organization’s future employment needs. The Delphi technique attempts to decrease the subjectivity of forecasts by soliciting and summarizing the judgments of a pre-selected group of individuals. Making Explicit Real-World Links: Highlights in HRM 2.3: HRP and Strategy Questions to Ask Business Managers on page 59 contains a list of questions that HR personnel can ask as part of the Delphi method. Forecasting the supply of employees Staffing tables Markov analysis. Making Explicit Real-World Links: See Figure 2.5: Hypothetical Markov Analysis for a Retail Company on page 60 for an example. Skill inventories Replacement charts. Making Explicit Real-World Links: See Figure 2.6: An Executive Replacement Chart on page 61 shows an example of how an organization might develop a replacement chart for the managers in one of its divisions. Succession planning. Making Explicit Real-World Links: Highlights in HRM 2.4: Succession-Planning Checklist on page 62 shows a checklist for evaluating the “success” of succession planning. Making Explicit Real-World Links: Use Highlights in HRM 2.5: Lack of Succession Planning Threatens Family Businesses on page 63 to emphasize the importance of succession planning, not only in large organizations, but also smaller ones. Assessing a firm’s human capital readiness: gap analysis Human capital readiness: The process of evaluating the availability of critical talent in a company and comparing it to the firm’s supply Making Explicit Real-World Links: Use Figure 2.7: Assessing a Firm’s Human Capital on page 64 to show how Chemico, a chemical manufacturing company, approaches human capital readiness. Managers begin by identifying a company’s core capabilities and the key people and processes that are critical to those capabilities. Chemico’s executive team identified eight key job “families” that comprise about 100 employees of the firm’s 1500-member staff. For each critical job family, managers identified the critical knowledge, skills, and behaviours necessary to build the core capabilities. They then determined the number of people required for these positions, as well as the number who are currently qualified. As the lower portion of the figure shows, the company’s human readiness ranged between 0 percent for supply chain management design specialists and 75 percent for call centre representatives. STEP 4: Formulating Strategy Strategy Tool: SWOT analysis is a comparison of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for strategy formulation purposes. Figure 2.8: An Example of a SWOT Analysis for Liz Claiborne on page 65 shows a SWOT analysis done for the fashion apparel company. Connectivity Activity: Go on the Internet and find an example of SWOT analyses for a well-known organization, such as Starbucks, McDonald’s, or Google. Try to find an organization that your students know well (McDonald’s normally does the trick!). Print out one copy of the SWOT for each group of about five students. Then cut out single sentences that are strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, or threats, and stick them in an envelope in no particular order. Provide each group with an empty SWOT grid and see whether they can determine which piece of information is an S, W, O, or T. Alternatively, you can give each student one slip of paper with a piece of tape, and make a giant SWOT grid on the board. Ask students to come to the board and tape their S, W, O, or T in the appropriate box. The learning point is that sometimes it is difficult to know whether an issue is an opportunity or a weakness; you can reinforce that O and T are external, and S and W are internal to the organization. Linking to Previous Learning: Ask students to develop their own personal SWOT for this class. What are their strengths (e.g., writing)? What are their weaknesses (e.g., multiple choice tests)? What are the opportunities (e.g., online discussion boards)? What are the challenges (e.g., friends want to go out on Friday night)? (1) Corporate Strategy Corporate strategy focuses on domain selection, that is, the markets in which they will compete. Some options are: Growth and Diversification Mergers and Acquisitions Strategic Alliances and Joint Ventures
Team Assignment. Use Discussion Question 4 on page 78 as the basis for a team assignment: Shopify and Tim Hortons are both Canadian success stories. From websites and news articles, try to articulate and compare their corporate strategies. See the recommended responses in the Answers to End-of-Chapter Discussion Questions. (2) Business Strategy Low-Cost Strategy: Compete on Productivity and Efficiency This strategy is based on cutting costs. A good example is McDonald’s; it focuses on efficiency, productivity, and minimizing waste for a broad target base. Differentiation Strategy: Compete on Unique Value Added This strategy is based on providing something unique to customers. Examples include FedEx’s focus on speed and flexible delivery, Holt Renfrew’s commitment to fashion and customer service, and Apple’s emphasis on innovation and product development. Group discussion: Use Case Study 1: Domino’s Tries to Get It’s Strategic Recipe Right on page 79 as the basis for a group discussion. See the recommended responses in the Answers to End-of-Chapter Discussion Questions. (3) Functional Strategy: Ensuring Alignment Vertical Fit/Alignment This strategy focuses on the connection between the business objectives and the major initiatives in HR. Horizontal Fit/Alignment This strategy ensures that HR practices are all aligned with one another internally to establish a configuration that is mutually reinforcing. Making Explicit Real-World Links: Use the Baron and Kreps (1999) article (see the Additional Teaching Resources for a full reference) to draw out examples of fit and misfit. The article reviews the Portman Hotel case (Harvard Business Review Case for sale), and can be used as a point of discussion on how HRM policies and practices need to “fit,” both internally and externally. With a seasoned class, the instructor may wish to purchase the case from Harvard Business Review. With a less experienced class, it may be best to provide some clear examples from the Baron and Kreps (1999) article instead of using the full case. STEP 5: Strategy Implementation Use Figure 2.9: The 7-S Model on page 69 to show the 7-S framework to reveal that HRM is instrumental to strategy implementation. While strategy lays out the route that the organization will take in the future, organizational structure is the framework in which activities of the organization members are coordinated. Taking Action: Reconciling Supply and Demand Demand considerations Based on forecasted trends in business activity Hiring full-time employees, over-time, recall laid-off workers, temporary or contract employees, outsourcing, offshoring Supply considerations involve determining where and how candidates with the required qualifications can be found to fill a firm’s vacancies. Restrict hiring; reduce work hours; consider layoffs, demotions, and/or terminations; attrition; early retirement Student Team Presentations: In groups, ask students to answer Discussion Question 5 on page 78: During the semester that you are enrolled in this course, there will be news about an organization needing to reduce the workforce by thousands of employees. What are the options? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each option? See the recommended solutions in the Answers to End-of-Chapter Discussion Questions. Ask students to present their findings to the class. Alternatively, generate a list on the board as a class together. Then assign one option to each group, and ask each group to present to one another to foster collaborative learning. Making Explicit Real-World Links: Use Highlights in HRM 2.6: Managing Labour Shortages on page 71 to show how one Nova Scotia company deals with labour shortages. STEP 6: Evaluation and Assessment Evaluation and Assessment Issues Benchmarking is the process of identifying “best practices” in a given area—for example, productivity, logistics, brand management, training—and then comparing the practices and performance to those of other companies. Metrics fall into two basic categories: Human capital metrics: assess aspects of the workforce HR metrics: assess the performance of the HR function itself Making Explicit Real-World Links: Most large companies use software to track their HR metrics over time. Figure 2.10: An Example of an HR Dashboard on page 73 illustrates an HR “dashboard,” which is software that tracks and graphically displays HR statistics for managers to view at a glance (as you do your dashboard readings when you are driving). Team Assignment: Look at studies being conducted by the HR Benchmarking Association at www.hrba.org. Write a report that summarizes the benchmarking activities in one industry. What impact would your results have for HRM managers in the best/worst of those organizations? Measuring a Firm’s Strategic Alignment Strategy Mapping and the Balanced Scorecard The balanced scorecard (BSC) is a framework that helps managers translate their firms’ strategic goals into operational objectives. The model has four related cells: (1) financial, (2) customer, (3) processes, and (4) learning. Think-Pair-Share: Use Discussion Question 6 on page 78: Imagine that you are president of the HR student association at your school. You want to measure the success of the association during your term. What metrics would you use? What benchmarks would you use? See the solutions in the Answers to End-of-Chapter Discussion Questions. Measuring Horizontal Fit Making Explicit Real World Links: Use Figure 2.12: Assessing Horizontal Fit on page 75 to show an example of how organizations can assess the horizontal fit of their HR practices. There are essentially three steps. Managers identify the key workforce objectives they hope to achieve. Managers identify each of the HR practices used to elicit or reinforce those workforce objectives (job design, staffing, training, appraisal). Managers evaluate each HR practice on a scale of –5 (not supportive) to 5 (supportive). By tallying up the ratings across managers, organizations can get a very clear idea of which HR practices are working together to achieve the workforce objectives and which are not. Ensuring Strategic Flexibility for the Future Successful HRP helps increase organizational capability—the capacity of the organization to continuously act and change in pursuit of sustainable competitive advantage. Flexibility can be achieved in two primary ways: Coordination flexibility occurs through rapid reallocation of resources to new or changing needs. Resource flexibility, on the other hand, results from having people who can do many different things in different ways. FINISHING CLASS Use Case Study 2: Staffing, Down to a Science at Capital One on pages 80‒83 to generate a discussion of how planning occurs at Capital One. See the solutions in Notes for End-of-Chapter Case Studies. Review the learning objectives. Create a multiple-choice style quiz based on the lecture material to reinforce learning. Use clickers if they are available. Ask students to respond to a Discussion Question to present to the class the following week. Provide students with a “one-minute” paper and ask them to respond to the following questions: (1) What is the most important thing I learned today? (2) What question do I have that is left unanswered? Collect the one-minute papers and take up any unresolved issues in the following class. Provide each student with a sticky note and ask them to write down anything that was unclear to them in class, or if there are any unanswered questions. Use this as a basis for discussion on the online discussion board for your class Additional Teaching Resources Recommended Reading Baron, J.N., & Kreps, D.M. (1999). Consistent human resource practices. California Management Review, 41(3), 29–53. Bowen, D.E., & Ostroff, C. (2004). Understanding HRM-Firm performance linkages: The role of the ‘strength’ of the HRM system. Academy of Management Review, 29(2), 203‒221. Kotter, J. (1995). Leading change: Why transformation efforts fail. Harvard Business Review, 50–67. Pfeffer, J. (2005). Seven practices of successful organizations. In W.L. French, C.H. Bell, & Zawacki, R.A. (Eds.). Organizational Development and Transformation: Managing Effective Change (pp. 460–479). New York: McGraw-Hill. Sheehan, N.T. (2006). Understanding how resources and capabilities affect performance: Actively applying the resource-based view in the classroom. Journal of Management Education, 30(3), 421–430. Ulrich, D. (1991). Using human resources for competitive advantage. In R. Kilmann, I. Kilmann, and Associates (Eds.). Making Organizations Competitive. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Chapter 3: Equity and Diversity in Human Resources Management If nothing else, my students should learn that… There are four main pieces of legislation in Canada that relate to equity and diversity: The Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Canadian Human Rights Act, Pay Equity, and The Employment Equity Act, and although it is illegal to discriminate on a number of grounds, the four main designated groups in Canada are women, Aboriginal people, visible minorities, and people with disabilities. The management of diversity goes beyond equity legislation; workplace diversity can be voluntarily embraced and leveraged as a source of competitive advantage. Learning objectives Explain the reasons for equity legislation. Identify the legal framework, including the Charter and human rights legislation. Describe pay equity and strategies for implementing it. Discuss the Employment Equity Act with respect to its origins, its purpose, its continued enforcement; and the implementation of employment equity in organizations. Discuss sexual harassment as an employment equity issue. Explain and give examples of diversity management. Why is this chapter important? Managers and human resource professionals are expected to manage employees in ways that comply with and respect the laws and regulations of Canada. Canada is one of the most diverse countries in the world—a kaleidoscope of cultures, languages, and nationalities consisting of more than 200 different ethnic groups. The workplace must not only reflect this reality but also accommodate this diversity. Employment equity is not just the absence of discrimination but the proactive programs to ensure that the organization’s workforce is representative of the population. This chapter emphasizes the legislation governing employment equity, and describes the organizational response to this legislation. Today, compliance with employment equity involves managing diversity with the goal of utilizing fully the organization’s human capital. Why should students care? In the field of HRM, perhaps no topic has received more attention in recent decades than employment equity. Employment equity, or the treatment of employed individuals in a fair and nonbiased manner, has attracted the attention of the media, the courts, practitioners, and legislators. It is important to know that managers (and employees) cannot do whatever they want at work, without suffering consequences. The consequences range from criminal charges, costly and time-consuming litigation, negative publicity for the organization, and a decrease in organizational morale and commitment. Therefore, following the laws and regulations is just good business. What can I do in this class? This section includes ideas for how to start and finish the class. It also contains information from the textbook that can be used as a basis for a lecture. Moreover, it contains numerous suggestions for student engagement. Depending on your class size, the nature of the students, and your desire for classroom participation, choose from these activities to enliven the classroom. Getting started Play “culture bingo.” Create a bingo chart (a 5 × 5 matrix), and in each cell put either “born in X country” or “visited X country” or “can speak X language” or “can name all continents,” and so on. Inform students that they need to find individuals in the room who fit into one of the cells. The first student to fill five cells in a row or diagonally wins! Show students how multicultural the class is, and ask them the implications for working in teams, for instance. If the class is relatively small, ask students in advance of class to bring a small dish of food that best represents their country of origin. Eat potluck and share your culture! Randomly divide the class in two. Provide a nearly identical résumé to each student. Half of the résumés should have a male name (e.g., Michael Smith), and the other half a female name (Michelle Smith). Ask students to rate the prospective applicant along a number of dimensions, including leadership, negotiations, ability to take charge, and the like. Determine whether students rated the female versus male candidate differently. You can collect the data in advance of class, or use clickers to see the results instantaneously in class. Discuss the implications of gender stereotypes in class. Read Highlights in HRM 3.2: Accessibility on page 92, and ask students whether they know the answer to the multiple-choice question about how to respond to a blind person who is applying for an interview. Use clickers, or ask for a show of hands, regarding which option is the best. Explain that there is training available through Ontario’s new mandatory accessibility standard that came into force for private organizations in 2012. Impress upon students that there is much to learn in this class on equity and diversity. Small Group Discussion: Use Discussion Question 1 on page 120 to generate a small group discussion on the myths of diversity. Here are some myths about employment equity: • It leads to hiring unqualified workers. • It causes an overnight change in the workforce makeup. • It is a plan that would make Calgary’s workforce look like Toronto’s. • This program lays off white males to make room for designated group members. • It is a program mainly for racial minorities. • Employers who implement the plan can destroy hard-won seniority provisions that protect all workers. • It is the end of hiring for white males. In groups, determine if group members share these beliefs. As HR professionals, how would you work with employees who hold these beliefs? See recommended responses in the Answers to End-of-Chapter Discussion Questions section. Employment Equity Equity, by definition, means fairness or impartiality. In a legal sense, it means justice based on the concepts of ethics and fairness. The federal Employment Equity Act recognizes four designated groups of Canadian workers: women, Aboriginal peoples, visible minorities, and persons with disabilities. Connectivity Activity: Use HRM Experience: Your Opinions about Employment Equity on page 121. (1) Status of Designated Groups Women Think-Pair-Share: Ask students to comment on Highlights in HRM 3.1: Retention Strategies on page 91. Ask students whether organizations are doing enough to address barriers that inhibit the advancement for women. Team Assignment: Use Discussion Question 3 on pages 120-121 as the basis for a team assignment: Find a male class job (i.e., a job in which the majority of workers are male) and a female class job that seem to require similar educational background and technical skills. (For example, compare female-dominated police dispatchers with male- dominated radio technical supervisors or female-dominated health technicians with male-dominated transportation workers.) Then, using an Internet salary compensation index, calculate the pay rates. Are there differences? How would you account for these differences? See recommended responses in Answers to End-of-Chapter Discussion Questions. Aboriginals Making Explicit Real-World Links: Review Case Study 2: Outreach Efforts on pages 122‒123 to learn how Manitoba Hydro is innovative with its employment equity programs especially geared to Aboriginal peoples. See recommended solutions in the Notes for End-of-Chapter Case Studies section. Persons with Disabilities Think-Pair-Share: Provide students with a copy of Figure 3.1: Representation of Designated Groups in the Labour Force on page 94, or put it on your slide deck or prezi presentation. Ask students what this figure means (note how the percentage of people with disabilities is 12.4 percent of the population, but has only 1.3 percent representation in the workforce), and if they would hire someone with a disability. People with disabilities face attitudinal barriers, physical demands that are unrelated to the actual job requirements, and inadequate access to the technical and human support systems that would make productive employment possible. About 70 percent of disabled people need some kind of workplace accommodation, and in 80 percent of cases the cost is less than $500. Why is there such aversion to hiring disabled people? Think-Pair-Share: In an open discussion, ask students whether hiring a disabled person generates more costs to an organization, and, if so, what are those costs? Probe students to give examples of any experiences they might have had working with a disabled individual. Do any students have disabled parents? Develop some insight about any perceptions about the work ethic of disabled employees. Do they work as hard as able-bodied employees? Or do they expect a lighter load? Research, in fact, shows that disabled people are just as motivated and perform just as well as their nondisabled counterparts (e.g., Ren, Paetzold, & Collela, 2008). Small Group Activity: State instructions and expectations for a small group activity (5–6 students). Response should be done on PowerPoint if all groups have laptops; limit the number of slides (5–8). In each small group, ask students to brainstorm and generate all the reasons why they should hire a disabled employee, and all the reasons why they should not hire a disabled individual. As a group, develop a few overheads to list the advantages and disadvantages of hiring disabled individuals and to uncover any bias the exercise exposed in the group. How do you change organizational culture to be more inclusive of the disabled? Visible Minorities Making Explicit Real-World Links: See Highlights in HRM 3.3: What’s in a Name? on page 93 to see how Metropolis, an immigration and diversity research network, demonstrated that if an applicant’s name sounded foreign, then he or she has less of a chance of getting a job interview, although that person’s credentials would be identical to other individuals with English-sounding names. Debate: Provide students with Ethics in HRM: Ethics: Equality or Equity on page 94 to learn how the federal government ran advertisements that specifically requested that minorities “only” apply. Half of the students should be assigned to argue that this is a form of reverse discrimination and should be illegal. The other half should take the position that this is justified to right the balances of discriminated groups. Get students into smaller groups before the debate with others who have their same position in the debate. Give them time to generate some ideas to support their own side. In the debrief, focus on the rationales provided by students. Small Group Discussion: Use Discussion Question 5 on page 121 to generate small group discussion on the impact of age discrimination. See the recommended responses in the Answers to End-of-Chapter Discussion Questions. (2) Benefits of Employment Equity Employment equity makes good business sense and it helps to avoid costly human rights complaints. It broadens the base of qualified individuals for employment, training, and promotions. It is an enhanced means to attract and retain the best-qualified employees with resulting greater access to a broader base of knowledge, skills, and an improved corporate image of diverse interests in the community. The Legal Framework (1) The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms The Constitution Act of 1982, which contains the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, is the cornerstone of equity legislation. The Charter guarantees fundamental rights to every Canadian. Call-Out Question: Ask students to discuss their expectations of how these fundamental rights impact on the management of organizations, and their opinions on whether individuals or groups, such as organizations, should have the governing rights to these fundamental freedoms. (2) Canadian Human Rights Act (CHRA) Prohibited grounds of discrimination include race, religion, sex, age, national or ethnic origin, physical handicap, and marital status. See Figure 3.2: Prohibited Grounds of Discrimination in Canada on pages 97‒100 for a comparative listing of prohibited grounds across all Canadian jurisdictions. Employers are permitted to discriminate only if the employment preference is based on a bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ), which is a justifiable reason for discrimination based on business reasons of safety or effectiveness. Think-Pair-Share: Ask students to identify an example of a bona fide occupational qualification that they have been aware of in HR practices of employment, promotion, or layoff, which they felt was justified by business requirements. Alternatively use Discussion Question 4 on page 121 as a basis for this think-pair share: List as many jobs as you can in which you could hire only male applicants, based on a BFOQ. See the recommended responses in the Answers to End-of-Chapter Discussion Questions. Clickers: Generate multiple-choice questions based on Figure 3.2 on pages 97‒100 to demonstrate to students the grounds upon which an employer cannot discriminate, as well as the complexity in working for an organization with offices across Canada. Students tend to be quite surprised by some of the provincial laws! Case Study: Get students into groups and ask them to respond to Case Study 1: Fighting Fires on page 122. Recommended solutions to the questions are found in the Notes for End-of-Chapter Case Studies. Pay Equity Pay equity, an amendment in 1978 to the Canadian Human Rights Act, makes it illegal for employers to discriminate against individuals on the basis of job content. The primary goal of pay equity is to eliminate the historical wage gap between men and women. By definition, pay equity means equal pay for work of equal value. There are two principles: pay equality (male and female workers must be paid the same wage for doing identical work), and equal pay (equal pay for work of comparable worth). Group Discussion Question: Ask student groups to discuss their experiences with pay equity. Have any students experienced, or been aware of personally, situations where there was not pay equity for identical or similar work roles? How do they feel about the pay inequities that exist? Are they ever justifiable? Making Real-World Links: Statistics Canada provides information regarding the number of professors and average salary of professors who are employed, by rank, across Canada (http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/81-595-m/81-595-m2009076-eng.pdf). Put these statistics in a chart to show that there are far fewer women who hold full professorships, but a nearly equivalent number who hold assistant professorships. Then, show how for each rank, men earn slightly more than women professors. Ask students for some possible reasons for this finding. An additional/alternative option is to collect your own data from your department, faculty, or business school (as long as it is sufficiently large), and graphically depict the number of male versus female professors by rank. Group Assignment: Outside of class, ask students to compute the above graphs using Statistics Canada data found online, and provide a short written commentary. Think-Pair-Share: Have students generate reasons why women should make less income than men, and why women should make more income than men. Should women make more income than men for a few years, a decade, or a generation to right the imbalances that have occurred in the past? Would this be a form of reverse discrimination? The Employment Equity Act (1995) Employers and Crown corporations with 100 employees or more that are regulated under the Canada Labour Code must implement employment equity and report on their results. The Implementation of Employment Equity in Organizations Successful implementation of an employment equity program will incorporate strategic planning into the overall business strategy. The implementation process involves six steps: senior management commitment data collection and analysis employment systems review establishment of a workplan implementation evaluation, monitoring, and revision Think-Pair-Share: Have students review Highlights in HRM 3.4: Requirements for the Federal Contractors Program on page 103 for the steps required to ensure employment equity via the Federal Contractor’s program. Group Exercise: Divide the class into groups so that there is at least one group per step in the equity implementation process. Assign each group to one step. Use Case Study 3: Women on the Right Track at CP Rail on page 123, and ask each group to evaluate their activities in light of their assigned step. For instance, one group may be assigned the step ‘Senior Management Commitment.’ This group could spend time looking at their notes/textbook and evaluating whether there was senior management commitment at CP Rail, and whether more was necessary (e.g., the case mentions senior female involvement, not senior male involvement). Ask students to present a description of each step and how it relates to this mini-case. This will encourage collaborative learning. See the recommended solutions in the Notes for End-of-Chapter Case Studies. Step 1: Senior Management Commitment Senior management must place the responsibility for employment equity in the hands of a senior manager, a joint labour–management committee, and an employment equity advisory committee with mechanisms for union consultation. Making Explicit Real-World Links: Go to http://www.monster.ca to find jobs related to diversity (e.g., diversity consultant, diversity trainer, manager of diversity, etc.) to demonstrate to students that organizations are increasingly hiring senior-level staff to focus on diversity issues; many students fail to realize that such jobs exist! Step 2: Data Collection and Analysis Profiles of the internal workforce are required to determine where the organization stands in terms of internal and external workforce distributions. Stock data shows the status of designated groups in occupational categories and compensation levels. Flow data provides a profile of the employment decisions affecting designated groups. Flow data indicates the distribution and movement of designated groups in all aspects of the employment process—applications, interviews, hiring decisions, training and promotion opportunities, and terminations. Confidentiality and a clear commitment at senior levels to the concept of employment equity are crucial to creating a climate of trust in the management of the program. Self-identification of employees as members of a designated group must be voluntary. Providing focused employment equity training to managers and recognition of management contributions to these programs will help to encourage participation and confidence in the program. Think-Pair-Share: Ask students to consider the ramifications of requiring compulsory identification of membership in a designated group in an organization. What are the difficulties in asking for voluntary self-identification? How could the data reported misrepresent the organization and its employee membership? Call-Out Question: Draw from Highlights in HRM 3.5: Suggestions for Inclusion on page 106. Ask the students what they think they should do when they work with “a person who is blind” and “a person who is deaf.” Some ideas for respectful and appropriate behaviour are found in Highlights 3.5. All information from the self-identification forms are cross-referenced to the National Occupational Classification (NOC) manual created by Statistics Canada for use in statistical analysis. Underutilization is a term applied to designated groups that are not utilized or represented in the employer’s workforce proportional to their numbers in the labour market. Concentration is a term applied to designated groups whose numbers in a particular occupation or level are high relative to their numbers in the labour market. Step 3: Employment Systems Review Systemic Barriers in Employment Practices Systemic discrimination is the exclusion of members of certain groups through the application of employment policies or practices based on criteria that are not job related. Example: Employers post job vacancies internally within an organization or rely on word of mouth to fill vacancies, as this recruitment strategy is likely to produce similar candidates to those in the organization’s workforce. An approach that includes outside recruitment would encourage less systemic discrimination. In-Class Group Discussion: With students formed into small groups, ask each group to identify one example of a possible systemic barrier from their own workplace experiences. Ask students to perform the test for identifying systemic barriers provided in the text (top of page 108) and to report on their test results to the rest of the students, or to prepare a group report. If the group identifies that a systemic barrier does in fact exist, also ask them to provide some suggestions for special measures to correct the imbalances in organizations. Special Measures and Reasonable Accommodation Special measures are initiatives designed to accelerate the entry, development, and promotion of members of designated groups from among the interested and qualified workforce. Accommodation of the special needs of employees is considered reasonable as long as it does not cause “undue hardship to the employer.” Reasonable accommodation is an attempt by employers to adjust the working conditions or schedules of employees with disabilities or religious preferences. Making Explicit Real-World Links: Ensure that students understand what “reasonable accommodation” means by reviewing Highlights in HRM 3.6: Participation in the Federal Public Service on page 109. Making Explicit Real-World Links: Review precedent-setting cases in Canada in Highlights in HRM 3.7: The Duty to Accommodate on page 110. Step 4: Establishment of a Workplan The workforce analysis and the review of the employment systems will provide the employer with a useful base from which to develop a workplan. Step 5: Implementation Strategy implementation must be customized to the needs, circumstances, and individuals within each organization. It becomes a “living document,” modified as needed to reflect changes to the internal and external environment. Step 6: Evaluation, Monitoring, and Revision Annual progress reports provided to employees communicate initiatives and achievements. Interim reports on special projects heighten program visibility and acceptance, as well as promote management commitment and accountability. Only through monitoring can an employer determine whether goals are being attained and problems resolved, whether new programs are succeeding, and whether strategies have been effective. Sexual Harassment Many of the prescriptions for sexual harassment in this section are also applicable to other forms of harassment, like that for race or religion. Sexual harassment is the unwelcome advances, requests for sexual favours, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature in the working environment. Pre-Class Assignment: Ask students to find out whether their university or college has a sexual harassment policy for students. Invite them to bring it to class and then evaluate it using Highlights in HRM 3.9: Basic Components of an Effective Sexual Harassment Policy on page 113. Making Explicit Real-World Links: Review Highlights in HRM 3.8: The Cost of Sexual Harassment on page 112, and note the size of awards given to victims. Pre-Class Work: Request that students bring in a newspaper or magazine article highlighting an issue of sexual harassment for class discussion. Case Study: There is a very engaging case study published by Harvard Business Review called the Case of Hidden Harassment. You can download the case, and teaching notes, and use them in class. See the full citation in the Recommended Reading section. Small Group Activity: Use Discussion Question 6 on page 121 to generate small group discussions on harassment. See recommended responses in the Answers to End-of-Chapter Discussion Questions. Managing Diversity Diversity management is the optimization of an organization’s multicultural workforce in order to reach business objectives. Managing diversity is a broader, more inclusive concept, which encompasses factors such as religion, personality, lifestyle, and education. Diversity management is voluntary, whereas employment equity is not voluntary. Creating an Environment for Success Making Explicit Real-World Links: Review The Business Case: The Economic Values of Diversity on page 115 as an example of the benefits of having a diverse workforce. Making Explicit Real-World Links: Read Reality Check: Diversity Management Achievements at RBC on page 116 to see how RBC manages diversity. See Figure 3.4: Why Diversity? on page 118 to determine the primary reasons that business will incorporate diversity into their business strategies. Think-Pair-Share: Use Discussion Question 2 on page 120 as the basis for this think-pair-share. See the recommended responses in the Answers to End-of-Chapter Discussion Questions. FINISHING CLASS Class discussion: Bring copies of the Small Business Application on pages 118‒119 to class. After the students read it, ask them to list how small businesses achieve a diverse and inclusive workforce and the extent to which it is different for small versus large organizations. Case Study: Get students into groups working on Case Study 3: Women on the Right Track at CP Rail on page 123. Ask the students to present to one another in class. Recommended solutions are found in the Notes for End-of-Chapter Case Studies. Review the learning objectives. Create a multiple-choice style quiz based on the lecture material to check learning. Use clickers if they are available. Provide students with a “one-minute” paper and ask them to respond to the following questions: (1) What is the most important thing I learned today? (2) What question do I have that is left unanswered? Collect the one-minute papers and take up any unresolved issues in the following class. Ask students a provocative question, such as: Is it harder to be a woman in an organization than a man? If the developed world still has not sorted out employment equity, how long will it take for developing nations? Use this as a basis for discussion on the online discussion board for your class. Additional teaching resources Recommended Reading Amoroso, L.M., Lloyd, D.L., & Hoobler, J.M. (2010). The diversity education dilemma: Exposing status hierarchies without reinforcing them. Journal of Management Education, 34(6), 795–822. Bell, M., Ozbilgin, M.F., Beauregard, T., Surgevil, O. (2011). Voice, silence, and diversity in 21st century organizations: Strategies for inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender employees. Human Resource Management, 50(1), 131–146. Ren, L. R., Paetzold, R. L., & Colella, A. (2008). A meta-analysis of experimental studies on the effects of disability on human resource judgments. Human Resource Management Review, 18(3), 191-203. Thomas, D. (2004). Diversity as strategy. Harvard Business Review, 82(9), 98–108. Niven, D., Wang, C., Rowe, M.P., Mikiko, T., Vladeck, J.P., & Chester, G.L. (1992). The case of hidden harassment. Harvard Business Review, 70(2), 12–23. Instructor Manual for Managing Human Resources Shad Morris, Monica Belcourt, George W. Bohlander, Scott A. Snell, Parbudyal Singh 9780176570262, 9781337387231, 9781285866390, 9780357033814, 9781337387231, 9781111532826, 9780176798055, 9780176407292, 9781285866390, 9781111532826