Chapter 16 Discussion

Chapter 15 Discussion
Concept & Brief Description: Ethics- A high performing organization meets high ethical standards. It includes honesty and fairness. if employees and the organization are going to have a good long relationship they need to follow these two aspects. If you aren't treating your employees fairly or with respect they will leave or sue you.
Emotional Hook: For me I have had times in my jobs where I feel like my employer has not been fair with me. I've never really dealt with the honesty problem but they seem to reward those that don't deserve it and give you less than what you really deserve. I actually quit one of my obs because I felt like I was doing more than the rest of the employees and getting underpaid. I was finally fed up with it and quit. I did share my opinion with my manager and boss. I felt like those that decided to do more should get paid more. I was going above and beyond and it was never noticed.
Layout: According to Charles O. Holliday Jr. '"just saying your ethical isn't very useful. You have to earn trust by what you do every day."'Posting a sheet of ethical values that the company has. The organization needs to enforce these ethics. I feel like some companies aren't extremely strict with this. Some people get punished and some don't it is very unfair and can land them in trouble.
Facilitative Questions: What has made our society so unethical? it seems like we lie and cheat our way through life and expect to be praised for it. Also how can an organization help their employees to be honest and fair with the company and other employees? But also how can you trust your employees without hovering or babysitting?

Chapter 10 Reflextion

Pay does matter.
A lot of the time we think that it really doesn't but pay keeps people doing a good job. If you don't pay well people will stop doing. I know that for me it is important to have some benefits as well as pay but I think pay is the most important for me right now especially since insurance and stuff is covered by my parents. I'm sure though that once I have to take care of that stuff benefits will be a big deal to me. So I would say both are important but I think pay keeps the employees motivated!

Chapter 9 Reflexion

Employee Development vs. Training
Personality assessment-self reflection
-this can lead to legal problems
It can seem like you are being racist or discriminating against a certain person. If you rate it more on who is qualified and have paperwork for it you won't have a problem with legal issue. You can show with the paperwork that you measured performance levels and they didn't meet them or one of the lowest or something. Sometimes it seems unnecessary to have all the legal stuff secure but it is important you never know when someone might sue you.

Chapter 8 Reflexion

Performance Appraisals:
Should you have them yearly or quarterly?
You fall into the problem of not having good feedback if you do it yearly. Also employees slack off til the last minute and then work hard so they can get good feedback or they work so hard they can burn themselves out.
If you do it quarterly there are more changes made throughout the year and people can see what they are doing wrong close to when the problem is happening. In my opinion quarterly ones are more effective.

Chapter 7 reflexion

Guest speaker:
Why do we allocate resources to training?
-Helps us to meet our department mission and focus.
-Adds value through more knowledgeable workforce and an increased ability to serve customers
-Ultimately impacts top (revenues) and bottom (Profitability) lines of the company.
Link skills and passion together then that way you will have proactive employees instead of employees that you have to tell them what to do all the time.

Chapter 15 Reflexion

HRM in a Global Environment:
There are such different needs with all the different cultures. Companies need to make sure they meet the needs where ever the business is. For example a guest speaker came to class a couple weeks ago and he explained that their business in France were so used to having a lunch stamp. The company had to make sure they provided that for all the employees in France. It is very important to keep your employees happy and meet their needs!

Chapter 14 Reflexion

Labor Unions:
You are stronger working as a whole instead of just on your own.
-What to do and what not to do to discourage Unions.
Treat people consistently
But also be flexible if you need to treat them a different way (Bend as appropriate)
Employees want to be protected
Treat employees with respect
When you treat your employees well then unions will not happen.
There are illegal things you can do:
Cannot threaten them
-But you can help them understand and educate
You can't bribe them
-know their concerns and can fix them
Can't spy
Can't Interrogate

Chapter 15 Discussion

Concept & Brief Description: Helping Expatriates Return Home. When the Expatriates assignment ends the human resource management department has to help them transition back to his or her home country. This transition can be hard because of the lifestyle they are given. This may include: maid service, limousines, private schools and clubs.
Emotional Hook: Think if you were given an assignment that took you away from your home and culture for quite some time and then were expected to end that life and go back to your country and previous life and live it like you did before.
Key Points: The two main activities that help with this change are communication and validation. It is important for expatriates to know when they begin that there will be continual change. The more the organization keeps in contact with the expatriate the more effective and satisfied they will be on returning home. Validation is giving the expatriate recognition for their overseas service. It almost seems like a duty and when they duty is over they are pleased with their work and can go right back to their old lifestyle. It is also how the employee will be able to help the organization. like what skills will they bring and what position will they fill? This skill may be learned from a culture.
Facilitative Questions: What do the organizations do if they are given lots of trouble from the expatriate when they are finished with their assignment and are transitioning home? Is there a contract that lets them know what there assignment entails? What if they commit and then if they are asked to do something they refuse to do it because they didn't know they would have to do that ahead of time?

Chapter 13 Reflexion

Benefits- Includes all benefits- government and company.
Discussions- Benefits are really important!

Government Mandated Stuff-

Benefits required by law- could change drastically in a year.

· Social Security- Flat payroll tax on employees and employers.

· Unemployment Insurance- Payroll tax on employers that depend on state requirements on experience rating.

· Workers’ Compensation Insurance- Provide coverage according to state requirements. Premiums depend on experience rating.

· Family and Medical Leave- up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for childbirth, adoption, or serious illness

We talked a lot about benefits and how important they are. It is so expensive to live and it seems like it is a smarter thing to do to get a job that gives good benefits rather then pays well. Pay is great but the older I get the more I see benefits can be better.

Library Day!

Today we went to the Library and learned all about how to use the libraries resources. Christy Donaldson came and taught us about it. I have never understood how to use those things before but now I can use them to write my HRM research paper as well as my English research paper. I learned a lot and was able to use the information to find stuff.

Chapter 9 Discussion

1. Dysfunctional Managers: can be toxic to the environment because a lot of the time they stifle good ideas and can drive away employees. Some of the behaviors causing this are intensity to others, inability to be a team player, arrogance, poor conflict management skills, inability to meet business objectives, and inability to adapt to change. There are programs that can help with this.
2. My experience with this has been that when I worked at a scrap booking store my manager was afraid of me because my dad was one of the owners of the company. She would always tell all the workers that they had to work hard when I was around. It made me really mad because it shouldn't matter if my dad owned the company or not. Everyone should be working hard no matter what.
3. I think in this situation it would have helped to treat me the same as all the other girls. I had an interview like all the rest, I had to be trained just like everyone else. I think it would be hard being a manager but I have seen many effective managers and I think they are that way because they are well balanced, kind but stubborn when she needed to be. I hope I can one day be able to master the art of being an excellent manager.
4. My question would be why might people not try hard when they are the manager? Don't they realize they could put their job in jeopardy. I just think you would want to work harder to keep your position because a lot of time it is better than being an employee and getting paid minimum wage.

Chapter 8 Discussion

1. Rating Behavior: there are a couple different ways to measure behavior. Critical-incident method, Behaviorally anchored rating scale (BARS), Behavioral observation scale (BOS), and Organizational behavior modification (OBM). All of these ways helps companies

2. I know that for me my employers have always just interviewed me and then as the time goes on they make the changes that are needed for the company to run the way they want. They might ask me to change some things and then see how well I do it and how well it works for both of us.

3. I think the point that I thought was the most effective is the OBM. the three things that happen in this one are:

1. Define a set of key behaviors necessary for job performance.

2. Use a measurement system to assess whether the employee exhibits the key behavior.

3. Inform employees of the key behaviors, perhaps in terms of goals for how often to exhibit the behaviors.

4. Provide feedback and reinforcement based on employees' behavior.

4. How is the most effective way to find out future employees behaviors before you hire them?

Chapter 6 Reflexion

I thought the guest speaker did a fabulous job in helping me understand proper training better. I think that a lot of companies do not train properly and run into problems. There are also those that only focus on the training and don't give that trust to their employees. They end up with robots instead of critical thinkers and problem solvers. I hope that I can have a happy medium of training when I start a business and that I can trust my employees enough so they can think on their own and be able to help the company progress.

Chapter 6 Discussion

1. Advantages and Disadvantages of Interviewing. It is important to know how your employees will communicate with those around them. A lot of the business does well according to the customer service of the company so it would make sense to pick the employees that will accomplish that for the company. But then again there can be problems with interviews. Like for one it takes up time from the employer. It can be based on certain peoples biases. You can run into discrimination problems.
2. I think that only one of my jobs had a great and effective interview and that was for my nanny job. My job at the bakery and at a scrapbooking store weren't very effective. They just asked me the stupid questions that they have been asking people since they first started the company. I want to feel important and like the employer is actually thinking hard on whether to hire me or not, not just going through the motions.
3. I think it is good to have interviews but I don't think they have to be the only thing that decides if the person should get the job. Some people get nervous and may not be themselves in an interview. I think it is important to see them actually perform. I think it is important to figure out what would be the best questions to ask those that want to be hired and then figure out if you want them to answer what you want to hear or be truthful.
4. How do you have a comfortable but formal setting in a job interview? What kinds of problems do you think will occur in the company if you choose not to interview? What are your opinions on Interviews?

Chapter 7 Discussion

1. Needs Assessment- A way to figure out who needs training, what training, and how will you train. If they find these three things out they can create an effective training meeting. Sometimes new skills are learned, new equipment is installed or new technology is learned in order for the employees to perform properly.
2. In most of my jobs I was never trained and it was the hardest thing to do to read your employers mind and to be able to do it exactly the way they wanted you to do it. I would have been able to perform better and also been more comfortable at my work if I had had at least the basic training. I think that is the main reason I have quit two of my jobs was that they didn't train and expected all their employees to do a perfect job.
3. It is key to figure out what exactly you need to change. Who may need more training, what area, how can you train them and so on. You have to be paying attention though and figuring out where you want your company to go, then you will know what you want your performance to be and maybe how to get it where you want it.
4. My questions would be. How do you know what is the best amount of training? You don't want too much or lack of enough. What have been the most effective ways of training? training meeting are great but what usually gets most employees actualy up and running?

Chapter 5 Discussion

1. I got reading the chapter and thought it was very interesting. It is the 1st step in human resource planning. In personal forecasting , the HR professional tries to find the supply and demand. The primary goal is to predict what area of the company will experience labor shortage or surplus.
2. I used to work for a Bakery and I feel that there HR was not very good. Especially their forecasting. I'm sure it can be hard but it is important for a business to do well. We always had too many people or not enough. We never had the right amount. Sometimes we would have tons of leftovers and other times we were having problems selling stuff because we only had like a dozen donuts.
   
3. I think you should map out what has gone on in the future but also be flexible to change and have it not be exactly how it was last year or the year before that. I think it is also important to know that every business is going to be different and so you need to figure out a way that works for your company. Also make sure to keep records so that you can figure it out as you go or have future reference.
4. How might someone go about fixing this problem? How can someone keep from forecasting wrong and losing lots of money? How can you stay in control of your company instead of it taking hold of you?
   

Chapter 5 Reflexion

I thought it was so interesting when we talked about Temp. Workers. Some of the people in my group have been Temp. workers or have trained Temp. Workers. I think it would be hard to come in an environment where everyone knew each other and was very comfortable and you were the new awkward one. I think there are also good things about it. You are able to have a job for a bit which some people really like--probably not with the economy how it is today though. I have never been a Temp. Worker but think it would be fun and exciting to experience it at least once in my life.

Chapter 4 Discussion-accidentally did wrong chap.

My cousin works a flextime and absolutely loves it. I think that it can be a great help to many people to have the opportunity to come early and be done early or to come later and maybe stay later in the evening. I think for me this would be extremely hard because I have a hard time pushing myself to get things done early. I am a bit of a procrastinator. I also thought job sharing is a very interesting idea. I wonder if companies have jobs with these two things. What if the work doesn't get done on time or right or at all? I guess my main question us how does the company figure out who is qualified for these different flexible work schedules? I'm sure there are some people that can't have these schedules because they would not get as much as they needed to finished or they wouldn't complete their hours.

Chapter 4 Reflexion

I never thought that running a business would be so difficult until class on Wednesday. HRM really has to deal with a lot and if you don't have your business well organized and good documentation you can get in huge trouble and can get sued by a lot of angry people. I hope I can become more familiar and not so overwhelmed with Human Resource management.

Chapter 3 Reflexion

I had never really been aware of OSHA until this class. Some of my jobs have made reference to it but never really went over what it did for our company or where the paper was so I could read it if I was curious or wanted to know. I think it can be a big problem for a lot of companies if they don't go over those things with their employees.
I am much more aware of laws and stuff after learning about it in class. Now that I think about I could have gotten many people in trouble with how they ran their business or treated their employees. I think after I have completed this class I will notice more things at my work and won't let people treat me like I used to let them treat me.