MGT 300 - Final Exam

Top Performing Companies

• Made effective use of performance reviews

• Emphasized management development techniques

• Encouraged candid feedback

Effects of Feedback

• Getting feedback is essential to figuring out how to improve

• People want feedback about how they are performing

Top 3 Problems with Performance Appraisals

1. Communication problems

2. Reporting and evaluation problems

3. Perceptual problems/expectations

Communication Problems

• Recipient problems

  • Positive self-illusions

    • We only want to hear and selectively recall positive information about ourselves – maintains our self-esteem

• Sender problems

  • Illusion of transparency

    • We think everyone knows what we are talking about

  • Sugarcoat negative information

    • Poor performers given more positive ratings when face-to-face versus phone message

3 Purposes of Performance Appraisals

1. Evaluation

2. Coaching and Development

3. Rewards

Best Performance Appraisal Practices

1. Ask questions and get their perspective

2. Provide positive feedback first

3. Provide negative feedback second

4. End with actionables; focus on the positives going forward

Human Resource Management (HRM)

• Processes of coordinating, managing, and allocating human capital to achieve organizational goals

• Manages staffing

• HRM’s role has grown because of

  • Changes in law that rewrite old workplace practices

• Increased recognition of employees as a valuable resource

• Changing social and demographic trends

Title VII

• Prohibits discrimination in hiring, firing, compensation, apprenticeships, training, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment based on

  • Race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status etc.

  • Private-sector, state & local govt. employers with 15+ employees, federal govt. as an employer

  • No retaliation

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)

Enforces anti-discrimination, anti-harassment, and other employment related laws

Disparate Treatment

• “Intentional” discrimination

• Employees in protected classes are treated differently, often unfavorably

Bona fide Occupation Qualification (BFOQ)

• Legal, intentional discrimination

• Policies directly related to the job

Affirmative Action

• Employment activities designed to “right past wrongs” by increasing opportunities for minorities and women

• Requires targeted, deliberate recruiting efforts

• Beneficial for organizations to achieve diversity goals

• Reverse discrimination – Discrimination against whites or males in hiring or promotion

Equal Pay Act 1963

Men and women are paid equally for performing equal work

Fair Minimum Wage Act 2013

Federal minimum wage is $8.20 per hour

Occupational Safety & Health Act (OSHA) 1970

• Establish minimum health and safety standards

• Document work-related injuries & illnesses

• Occupational Safety & Health Administration

Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) 1967

• Prohibits discrimination in employees over 40 years old

• Restricts mandatory retirement

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) 1990

• Cannot discriminate present, prior, or perceived disability

• Reasonable accommodation

Pregnancy Discrimination Act 1978

• Amendment to Title VII

• Form of sex discrimination

• Cannot refuse to hire based on pregnancy

Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act (HIPPA) 1996

• Switch health insurance when changing jobs regardless of preexisting health conditions

• Prohibits plans from dropping ill employees

Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act 2010

Employers with 50+ employees must provide health insurance

Family & Medical Leave Act 1993

12 weeks of unpaid leave for medical and family reasons, i.e. childbirth, family emergency, etc.

Management-Employee Issues

• Management’s responsibility to produce a profit sometimes means making hard decisions, which aren’t always popular with employees

• Employee-management issues require open discussion, goodwill, and compromise

Union

• An employee organization that has the main goal of representing members in employee–management bargaining over job-related issues, responsible for:

  • Minimum-wage laws

  • Overtime rules

  • Workers’ compensation

  • Severance pay

  • Child-labor laws

  • Job safety regulations

Why join a union?

• Collective bargaining to change unfair employee treatment!

  • Poor management/employee relations

  • Negative organizational climate

  • Poor work conditions

  • Secure job security

Labor Relations

• Right-to-work

  • State laws that ban employers from demanding their employees to join a union or pay union dues as conditions of employment

  • Employees are free to choose

Sexual Harassment

• Unwelcomed verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature that creates a hostile work environment

  • An intimidating or offensive work environment that interferes with a worker’s performance

• Quid pro quo

  • “This for that”

  • Submission/rejection is used as basis for organizational rewards and decisions

• Violations can be extremely expensive for businesses

Violence & Bullying

• Occupational Safety & Health Administration reports

  • Physical violence account for almost 15% of all workplace deaths

  • Homicide is the #1 cause of death for women in the workplace

• Conduct that is threatening, humiliating, or Intimidating

Interviews are weak predictors

• People interviewing are often untrained

• Traits that improve interview performance (height, physical attractiveness, sociability, ingratiation, manipulativeness) do not necessarily lead to better job performance

• Interview performance is affected by many perceptual biases

  • Similar-to-me effect

  • Primacy or first-impression effects

  • Self-fulfilling prophesies

  • Halo effect

Unstructured interviews are very popular for assessing “fit”

• People believe they are good judges of character

• Interviewing helps concoct a story around the person and the hiring decision

• Applicants like to feel that they have had a voice in the process

Problems with “fit”

• “Fit” is a feeling or non-conscious judgment we make

• Selects for attractive, tall, extroverted, likeable people who match a stereotype

• Often indistinguishable from bias, prejudice, or whim

• Simple behavioral mimicry (people like me) contributes substantially to interview performance

“Fit” is pattern matching

• Matching the stereotype

  • Hiring people who look the part

  • People who look like prior successes

  • People who you get along with