We фку going to discuss in class :

Task1

The $50,000 Retail Worker

“One great person can easily do the business productivity of three good people.”

Looking for a job in retail? Want to avoid minimum wage employers? Head for The Container Store.® Its front-line, full-time workers are paid about $50,000 per year for starters, with the potential to earn more if they receive positive annual performance reviews. Chairman and CEO Kip Tindell says it’s central to his business strategy—hire great people, extensively train them, and empower them by paying 50–100% more than what other retailers might pay them. He calls it the “One Equals Three” Foundation Principle. “One great person can easily do the business productivity of three good people,” he says. And he believes other retailers should follow The Container Store’s lead. “Better pay,” he argues, “leads to higher profitability.” How About It? Why would CEO Kip Tindell place so much emphasis on hiring and retaining retail workers for his stores? Is the Container Store’s wage policy sustainable in the ups and downs of competitive business? If better pay leads to higher productivity, why do so many employers—think fast-food industry—stick with the minimum wage?

Task 2

Want Vacation? Take as Much as You Need. How about a job with “unlimited” vacation? Sounds unreal, doesn’t it? But don’t be too fast to dismiss the idea. Some fashion-forward employers are already doing it. Netflix is one. Netflix prizes what CEO Reed Hastings calls its “freedom and responsibility culture.” One of the things that brings this culture to life is how vacation time is handled. Hastings says this about the Netflix culture and vacation policy: “We want responsible people who are self-motivating and self-disciplined, and we reward them with freedom. The best example is our vacation policy. It’s simple and understandable: We don’t have one. We focus on what people get done, not on how many days they worked.” Netflix used to follow what Hastings calls a “standard vacation model,” but finally realized it was just “an industrial era habit.” He

wonders why employers should track vacation days when people don’t keep track of the number of hours they work? And he sets the example. “I make sure to take lots of vacation . . . ,” says Hastings, “and I do some of my creative thinking on vacation.” The Society for Human Resource Management reports that only about 1% of employers off er unlimited vacation time. Many of them are smaller organizations. Red Frog Events is an entertainment organizer with 80 full-time employees who get to take vacation when they want. The firm’s HR director hasn’t found any major abuses. Dov Seidman, CEO of the 300-employee firm LRN, also gives unlimited vacation time. He says: “People are a lot more honest and responsible when they are trusted.”

What’s Your Take? Is this approach to vacation time something that more employers should be planning? Is it the next hot thing sought by new college graduates? What are the risks and limits for employers, if any? How about the “motivation” issues? Would this be a turn-on for you, something that would keep you productive and loyal? If unlimited vacation time is such a good idea, why aren’t more employers doing it?

Task 3

Facts to Consider

Tech Industry No Role Model for Employment Diversity Fortune magazine put it this way: “White and Asian men dominate. Everyone else—women, blacks and Hispanics—is severely lacking.” Lack of diversity in the technology industry is under fire. One early Facebook employee, Kate Mosse, describes the phenomenon this way: “Culture fit’ comes to mean, subconsciously, ‘people like me’, where ‘me’ is usually a young male founder. This is how the diversity data can become so skewed towards white technical men without the companies realizing it.” Google is tackling the problem with training in “unconscious bias.” Megan Smith, Google X vice president, says: “As a manager you need to be conscious that a whole bunch of people are going to be running at you who might not be as qualified as the person who is not raising their hand.”

Here are a few recent facts: • % female in workforce—Apple 30%, Facebook 31%, LinkedIn 39%, Pandora 49%. • % nonwhite in workforce—Apple 36%, Facebook 26%, LinkedIn 35%, Pandora 15%. • African Americans hold fewer than 5% of jobs in large technology firms. • Female engineering graduates in computer and information science are paid 77% of what their male counterparts get.

Your Thoughts? What do these tech industry findings mean for you more generally? Is unconscious bias something that you might be facing now or expect to face in the future? What issues and contradictions in employer commitment to diversity have you experienced or heard about? What are the implications for job seekers, job holders, and managers alike?

‘Culture fit’ comes to mean, subconsciously, ‘people like me,’ where?

Task 4

Team Leader Faces Disruptive Team Member For the third time in a month, Charles walks into your cubicle and begins to rant about not getting enough support from you as the team leader. Before you can say anything, he accuses you of playing favorites when assigning projects and failing to show respect for his seniority and expertise. After giving you an angry look, he turns around and stomps off . You’ve ignored his temper tantrums in the past. Charles is a top soft ware engineer and brings a lot of technical expertise to the team. And the last time he soon returned to apologize and offer a fist-bump of reconciliation. But other team members are now complaining to you about his disruptive influence on the work culture. They’ve been on the receiving end of similar outbursts that make the workday unpleasant. For sure, Charles is a valuable talent, but his disruptive behavior is a call to action. What Do You Do? How do you handle Charles? How do you handle the team dynamics? What do you do to make sure that everyone, Charles i ncluded, achieves high performance and experiences high QWL? Which management functions are being tested here? What essential managerial skills will you need to succeed in this and similar situations?

Task 5

Ethics Check

Social Media Cues May Cause Discrimination in Hiring

Research suggests that a job candidate’s social media postings can contribute to discrimination in hiring. Professor Alessandro Acquisti and colleagues at Carnegie Mellon University distributed 4,000 résumés to job posting sites and associated them with Facebook profiles giving subtle cues—such as background photos and quotes—about the candidates’ religion (Muslim or Christian) and sexuality (gay or straight). Religious cues were significant, with Muslims less likely to be called for follow-up interviews than Christians. Sexuality cues made no difference in call-back rates.

Discrimination based on social media investigations can be unconscious rather than intentional, with the employer showing the bias without realizing it. In addition to religion and sexuality, other social media cues that increase the risk of discriminatory behavior are photos of women showing pregnancies or children, and applicants with names often associated with ethnic, racial, or religious communities.

Your Decision? Is it ethical for employers to use social media to “peek” at the personal lives of prospective candidates? Should there be laws preventing them from doing so? What about individual responsibility? The public visibility of social media postings is well publicized. Isn’t it the job seeker’s responsibility to avoid and screen out potentially discriminatory information?

Task 6

Tracking Technology Monitors Work Behavior If you put technology together with scientific management, what do you get? For many in the trucking industry, the answer is GPS tracking technology that monitors drivers to make sure they follow their engineered routes and aren’t wasting—or even stealing—company time. How far should this tracking technology go, and what ground rules should be followed? At a small pest control company, the general manager secretly installed GPS soft ware on company-issued smartphones. This allowed him to track drivers. After noticing that one was stopping regularly at a single address, the manager confronted the driver and learned he was seeing a woman. The driver was fired. That was the first anyone knew the manager was using the tracking technology. Now, the manager says: “If our drivers have to veer off , they call and say we are taking a little personal time. It is changing their behavior in a positive way.” The founder of the National Workrights Institute, Lewis Maltby, champions worker privacy. But he also says the issue is not “whether employers should monitor” but “a question of how.” The institute’s position is that employees have the right to know they are being monitored and also what the procedures are for handling alleged violations. The landscaping firm Plants, Inc., follows that advice, and all 16 employees know their company phones have mobile monitoring turned on. Still, some employees complain that their privacy rights are being violated. Employees who don’t like tracking technology have little legal recourse. Employment law professor Matt Finkin from the University of Illinois says that this is an area where “technology is ahead of the law by about a generation.” Unions are taking issue with the practice in some cases and negotiating rules of use, including disciplinary procedures. But, for now, electronic monitoring has gained a strong foothold both inside and outside the office. Your Decision? Should the use of tracking technology to monitor employee behavior be regulated by law? Or is it a practice that employers have rights to use at their discretion? Would you be comfortable being monitored when making outside sales calls, for example, or when using your company phone for private browsing and conversations? What message does the use of electronic monitoring communicate to employees? What are the limits to using technology this way, and who has rights to what in this case? How would you feel if your phone or computer had a tracking device on it that informed your parents what sites you’d visited or what people you’d called? Would it matter if they were paying for these devices? Why or why not?

Task 7

Best Employers for Work–Life Balance It’s easy to find the results from surveys on the Internet of the 10 best or top 100 companies to work for in a particular area, and it is well worth your time and effort to follow these companies (particularly as graduation approaches!). When the job search site Indeed.com surveyed employees of large firms to find the best places for work–life balance, Colgate-Palmolive (back-up child care centers) and Wegmans topped the list. Other top-ranked employers included American Express, Coldwell Banker, Johnson & Johnson, and Motorola. Complaints about those that didn’t make the list include: • P oor vacation coverage—many employees say they have to work while on vacation.

• L ack of flexible schedules—flextime that allows one to balance work with family and leisure activities is highly valued. • Inadequate staffing—some employees feel overworked because their employers don’t hire enough workers. • P oor support of working moms and dads—employees with children want on-site child care, part-time work options, and maternity and paternity leave. • Lack of lifestyle perks—things such as gym memberships or concierge services such as dry cleaning pick up/delivery are valued.

How About It? Mike Steinerd, director of research for Indeed.com, says: “Work– life balance feeds passion for the workplace and contributes to a better overall work environment and morale.” Given the importance of these issues to workers today, why aren’t all employers on board? What holds some back, and what causes others to step up with a lot of work–life balance support? How important are these issues to you? What is on your checklist of “must haves” for your next job as it pertains to work–life balance?

Employees

Task 8

Management Style Under Scrutiny You’ve been at Magnetar Logistics Solutions for nine years and earned a reputation for leading a team that gets done what you say it will get done when you say it will be done. Now your sales team is close to landing a new 10-figure contract with an established client, Peterson Warehousing, Inc. You brought Peterson on board six years ago and have since grown and nurtured the relationship, and gotten to know this client in depth. One of the reasons you’ve achieved so much over the years is that you’ve always trusted your team members and given them the room and support they need to operate in their own way. They’ve repaid you by coming through time and time again with top quality solutions that always matched clients’ needs. But Peterson is a diff erent case—at least it seems that way to you—it’s your baby and it’s a big account. You know Peterson better than anyone else, and now you’re facing a very hard deadline in only weeks, which will determine whether you get the new contract.

At this point, you’re doing a lot of close supervision on this project and not giving team members very much space to operate. There are many complexities with Peterson that you’re worried the team will overlook but that you are on top of. The team as a whole is starting to feel the impact of your switch in management style.

What Do You Do? 1. W hat are the consequences of your shifting management style midstream on this project . . . for success with the client? . . . for your team? . . . for your reputation as a successful manager? 2. I s a hands-on Theory X approach the best way to go here, or have you made a miscalculation? 3. Should you back off and return to the Theory Y assumptions that worked well in the past? 4. Is it too late to revert to your normal approach? 5. H ow can you infuse your Peterson expertise into the project while still keeping team members motivated and satisfied with your leadership?

Task 9

Facts to Consider

Generations Diff er When Rating Their Bosses Would it surprise you that Millennials have somewhat diff erent views of their bosses than their Generation X and Baby Boomer coworkers? Check out these data from a Kenexa survey that asked 11,000 respondents to rate their managers’ performance: • Overall performance positive—Boomers 55%, Gen Xers 59%, Millennials 68% • P eople management positive—Boomers 50%, Gen Xers 53%, Millennials 62%

• W ork management positive—Boomers 52%, Gen Xers 55%, Millennials 63% • K eeping commitments positive—Boomers 59%, Gen Xers 60%, Millennials 65% • O utstanding leader—Boomers 39%, Gen Xers 43%, Millennials 51%

Your Thoughts? A Kenexa researcher says that Millennials are “more willing to take direction and accept authority,” whereas “as we grow older, our ideas become more concrete and less flexible.” Does this seem like an accurate conclusion? How can these generational diff erences in evaluating managers be explained? And, by the way, what do these data suggest if you are managing people from these diff erent generations?