Legislation Regulation And Policy Questions - Assignment Example

Name: Professor: Course: Date of Submission: Manage Performance: Legislation, Regulation and Policy Questions Like an assessment for instructed learning, the performance management process is a statutory organization instrument for ensuring effectiveness at individual and organizational level. This underscores the realization that without assessment and feedback there lacks a basis for focused improvement. Because performance management is often ingrained in human resource management (HRM)functions, it is increasingly becoming a regulation issue that has to be performed in accordance with conventional HRM laws. Particularly, performance management strategies must in addition to enhancing performance through continual assessment, not be abused as yardsticks for discriminatory employee firing instrument. The performance management discourse should also include the assessment of compliance of attraction, recruitment and employment of new employees to enhance concomitant processes. This task explores the underlying lines of laws, regulations and policy provisions in form of specific questions to detail the HRM practices. QUESTION 1: ASSESSMENT OF THE PERFORMANCE OF A REGIONAL PERSONEL MANAGER, JULIE As the regional manager, Julie executed her mandate in implementing the forced redundancy provision for employers, although in a manner that raises concerns over the legal provisions on carrying out the process. Julie did not act properly in handling the redundancies in different ways including poor selection of the employees for the forced send off process. She selected John for the forced redundancy on the basis that he was closest to retirement than any other member of the workforce. Arguably, the agreement on the choice and application of criteria for selecting employees for redundancy represents the most challenging part in the implementation of the forced redundancy human resources practice. Regardless of the criteria, chosen employment laws demand that the process must be objectively fair and consistently applied (Banfield and Kay 347). The criteria selected must be free from direct or indirect discrimination including on basis of sex, race, sex orientation, disability, age, religion or belief. According to Davies (157), if an employer retires an employee before the statutory age of retirement, this may amount to unfair dismissal and age discrimination depending on the procedure followed to implement such a decision. In this case, Julie’s actions amount to age discrimination because John was selected for forced redundancy based on age though his performance was at the same level as the young employees. In addition, it is not clear whether he was given a six months notice as required by the law as well as providing him with an opportunity to exercise his right to accept or deny the early retirement (Craig 208). On the other hand, she also discriminated Sue on the grounds of a majority race, a criteria amounting to reverse discrimination in the process of executing forced redundancy in the workforce. Under the employment law, an employee is either discriminated against or not, and all races are equally protected from illegal discrimination. Julie’s actions of discrimination against Sue could only be justified if she was acting on a court order to remedy racial discrimination in the workplace (Kerley 234). However, if Julie can prove her actions as an affirmative action plan in a court of law then she may not be liable to Sue for reverse discrimination as asserted by the complainant. In the case of Trang, Julie is justified for forced redundancy selection criteria because she applies evident poor performance to dismiss Trang but not any other factors that amount to the breach of the employment laws. Owing to the violations of some of the employment laws in executing the forced redundancy strategy, Julie requires counselling on the different forms of discrimination in human resource management. This would enable her to executive future human resource strategies without exposing the organization and herself to court actions because of violating employment laws on discrimination. The counselling process should aim at boosting her capability to implement human resource strategies in an objectively fair and consistent manner as well as justifying affirmative action plans in a court of law. QUESTION 2: ASSESSING THE PERFORMANCE OF A REGIONAL OPERATIONS MANAGER, THOMAS Employment laws exist to ensure that all individuals have the right to compete for all work opportunities without bias because of their race, skin colour, religion, disability, age, and national origin (Arthur 104). All job seekers are protected from all forms of discrimination with a strong emphasis on creating a levelled ground for all in the process of recruitment and hiring. Based on the claims and observations made by the regional personnel manager on the failure to achieve workforce diversity, it is clear that the recruitment process in the organization involves illegal selection criteria. The claims that there might be a gender, racial or cultural biasness in the interviewing process if justified may amount to illegal practices regarding the interview approach applied by Thomas and Roger. Standard interviewing techniques require reliance on job descriptions, measuring of candidates against essential job requirements, and watching out for stereotypical assumptions. The standard interviewing technique plays a critical role in minimizing all forms of discriminatory practices during the interview process (Arthur 105). Although, the different approach applied by Thomas and Roger may not directly amount to common forms of discrimination stipulated under the employment laws, their actions at least lead to elimination of some candidates who may not be interested in their choice of game used as part of their interview questions. The questions on cricket and rugby most probably result in elimination of competent people who may not necessary be funs of the selected games. This may amount to discrimination based on culture since the type of game an individual finds interest in may be influence by a given culture. Therefore, their choice of interview approach does not provide all individuals with an equal opportunity to become part of the organizations’ workforce thereby contributing to the failure to achieve workforce diversity as asserted by the regional personnel managers. Their interview approach favours individuals interested in their games of choice. In addition, their questions do not relate to the job requirements or skills needed to perform any of the activities in the organization’s operations. The interview technique could be managed through setting of a standard approach with limited deviations and training of the individuals involved in the interviewing process to limit cases of discrimination and ineffectiveness in the recruitment process. According to LeGault (52), individuals involved in the hiring process must be trained on interviewing techniques, keeping notes, relying on job descriptions, evaluating candidates against essential job requirements and limiting stereotypical assumptions. QUESTION 3: STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF PERFORMANCE AS A RELIABLE INDICATOR OF GENDER BIAS Statistical analysis of performance indicators forms reliable indicators of true bias because the differences may be vital for the discovery of lack of levelled grounds in the working environment. According to Philips and Gully (78), no consistent differences in analytical skills, motivation, and problem-solving ability, competitiveness, learning ability or sociability have been established between men and women. Gender effects on performance may however be due to different interests, self-beliefs when performing traditional gender-role jobs or differences in leadership style. Analysis of performance indicators may be a reliable tool in identifying the reasons behind the drop in performance in one gender than relying on such statistics to make promotion or remuneration decisions in the workforce. The poor performance reported among women can be interpreted as signs of lack of a levelled ground in the working environment since female and male staff members have very limited differences, if any in the performance of their job roles. Job performance often depends on the workplace conditions including the job satisfaction and equal treatment of individuals by the management (Davies 158). In this case, the disparities in performance between male and female workers can be attributed to stereotypical factors in the workplace where male workers are more motivated to perform their roles. The differences may arise from gender differences in allocation of assignment where the female workers may be allocated to jobs traditionally considered for men thereby affecting performance. In some cases, female workers may feel that some prerequisite requirements in the workplace or the performance are designed illegitimately to limit their ability to advance within the workforce thereby undermining their performance. Furthermore, there are vital indicators of inequity in job promotions as may be discerned from routine appraisals, and the frequent retirement interviews, which prove to be apparent in women’s perceptions. This implies that the performance indicators may provide a good ground for identifying gender bias in the workforce. Since the performance assessments have been applied to create gender wage disparities in the organization, proper measures are necessary to ensure that factors leading to the gender performance disparities are addressed before being applied in changing the wage structure. This is important to ensure that the performance assessments are not used to aggravate the issue of gender discrimination in the workplace. The key performance indicators should be applied in a working environment where a levelled ground for all is created in the workforce. Assessment of performance in a working environment characterized by gender discrimination generally translates into gender disparities in the performance since discrimination greatly influences the performance of individual employees. In this case, statistical analysis of performance forms a reliable indicator for potential gender and other forms of workplace bias. Work Cited Arthur, Diane. Recruiting, Interviewing, Selecting & Orienting New Employees, 4th ed. New York: AMACOM, 2006. Print. Banfield, Paul and Rebecca, Kay. Introduction to Human Resource Management. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. Print. Craig, Ronald. Systemic Discrimination in Employment and the Promotion of Ethnic Equality. Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2007. Print. Davies, Alex. Workplace Law Handbook 2011: Employment Law and Human Resources. London: Workplace Law Group, 2011. Print. Kerley, Peggy. Employment Law for the Paralegal. Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning, 2001. Print. LeGault, Anneli. Fairness in the Workplace. Canada: CCH Canadian Limited, 2002.Print. Phillips, Jean and Gully, Stanley. Organizational Behaviour: Tools for Success. Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning, 2011. Print. Read More