The Strategic

Role of Human

Resource

Management

Behavioral Objectives

Summarize the basic Equal Employment Opportunity laws regarding age, race, sex, national origin, religion, and handicap discrimination.

Explain the basic defenses against discrimination allegations.

Present a summary of what employers can and cannot do with respect to illegal recruitment, selection, and promotion and layoff practices.

Explain how to set up an affirmative action program.

These slides should be able to:

1964 Civil Rights Act

The section of the act that says an employercannot discriminate on the basis of race,color, religion, sex, or national origin withrespect to employment.

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Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)

The commission, created by Title VII, isempowered to investigate job discrim-ination complaints and sue on behalf ofcomplainants.

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Equal Pay Act of 1963

The Equal Pay Act of 1963 (amended in1972) made it unlawful to discriminate inpay on the basis of sex when jobs involveequal work, equivalent skills, effort, andresponsibility, and are performed undersimilar working conditions.

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Sexual Harassment

The EEOC’s guidelines on sexual harassmentstate that employers have an affirmative dutyto maintain a workplace free of sexual harassment and intimidation.

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Adverse Impact

Adverse impact “refers to the total employ-ment process that results in a substantially different rate of hiring, promotions, or other employment decisions which worksto the disadvantage of members of a minority or other protected group.

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How Can Adverse Impact Be Proved?

1. Disparate Rejection Rates

2. Restricted Policy

3. Population Comparisons

4. McDonnell-Douglas Test

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Bona Fide Occupational Qualification

Title VII provides that “it should not be anunlawful employment practice for an employer to hire an employee…on the basisof religion, sex, or national origin in those certain instances where religion, sex, ornational origin is a bona fide occupationalqualification reasonably necessary to thenormal operation of that particular businessor enterprise.

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Discriminatory Personnel Management Practices

Care must be taken when engaging in the following practices:

RecruitmentWord of MouthMisleading InformationHelp Wanted Ads

Selection StandardsEducational RequirementsTestsPreference to RelativesHeight, Weight, and Physical CharacteristicsArrest RecordsDischarge Due to Garnishment

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Avoiding Discrimination Lawsuits Through Dispute Resolution

Step 1 First the employee discusses the problem with a supervisor,who may consult other members of the management team who mighthave handled similar problems.

Step 2 The employee may contact a divisional personnel consultantfor a case review if he or she is dissatisfied with the results of thefirst step. The employee is then informed and advised on plausiblealternatives.

Step 3 If the employee believes that company policy is not beingfollowed, he or she may then request a corporate-level review of thecase, and a corporate consultant will review the case with manage-ment. The employee is then notified of the decision in writing.

Step 4 Finally, a senior management review committee may be askedto review the case. At Aetna the committee itself comprised the senior vice president of the employees’ division as well as the vicepresidents of corporate personnel and corporate public involvement.

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Managing Diversity

Five sets of voluntary organizational activities are at the heart of anydiversity management program:

Provide strong leadership

Research: Assess the situation

Provide diversity training and education

Change culture and management systems

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Equal Employment Opportunity Versus Affirmative Action

Affirmative action goes beyond equal employment opportunity by requiring theemployer to make an extra effort to hire andpromote those in the protected group. Affirmative action thus includes specificactions (in recruitment, hiring, promotions, and compensation) that are designed to elim-inate the present effects of past descrim-ination.

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Affirmative Action: Two Basic Strategies

Good Faith Effort Strategy

Quota Strategy

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Affirmative Action: A Practical Approach

Six main areas for action:

1. Increasing the minority of female applicant flow.2. Demonstrating top-management support for the equal employment policy; for instance by appointing a high- ranking EEO administrator.3. Demonstrating equal employment commitment to the local community, for instance by providing in-house remedial training.4. Keeping employees informed about the specifics of the affirmative action program.5. Broadening the work skills of incumbent employees.6. Institutionalizing the equal employment policy to encourage supervisors’ support of it for instance by making it part of their performance appraisals.

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