What Is The Fundamentals Of Human Resource Management?
Strategic human resource management implies proactive management of the personnel working in the organization. It can be further explained as the process of hiring, discipline, and payroll (Hendry, 2012). It also involves working with staff in a cooperative manner to increase retention, improvise the quality of the work practice and maximise the reciprocated benefit of employment for both the parties involved; employees and the employer.
There are many problems faced by workers in the workplace such as interpersonal conflicts, gossiping, harassment, discrimination, performance issues, communication problems, low motivation and other related problems. Currently, sexual harassment is one of the major issues faced by women at their workplace. Almost 95% of the women has fall victim of sexual harassment at their workplace. Sexual harassment can be explained as the uninvited sexual advances, appeals for sexual favours and other vocal or physical behaviour of a sexual nature (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2018). For example, in the company Uber; a former engineer of the company named Susan Flower had faced sexual harassment many times by the managers of HR departments. This is the reason that she describes the company as incomplete and unkind as no action has been taken by the company to eradicate this issue. Therefore women employees do not feel safe to work in this kind of organization (Kenneth, Winkler and Daniel, 2014).
There are many theories by which problems at work place can be solved such as root cause analysis and method of Kepner and Tregoe. Root Cause analysis can be defined as the analysis which aims at eradicating the main root of the problem. It includes some steps which ultimately help in solving the problem as it is backward looking detective work. The steps are problem definition, task analysis, change analysis, control barrier analysis, conduct interviews, and determine root causes, recommend corrective actions and report conclusions. These steps are helps in destroy the main root of the problem. The other method of Kepner and Tregoe can be explained as the method which helps in analysing the state of the problem (Storey, 2007). It also aims at solving the problem by proper analysing the cause of its generation. These problem solving methods helps in solving many problems at work place for example, decrease in sales, decrease in profits, decrease in demand of the products and services of the organization (Ullman, 2010). The theory called Root Cause analysis has been very helpful in case of problem like decrease in sales. This analysis checks the depth of the problem and finds main point of error from where the problem has been generated.
There are also several policies followed by human resource managers to prevent women from sexual harassment. Written policy regarding sexual harassment is the key aspect of prevention of women employees from harassment. The policy should make clear that sexual harassment will not be endured under any conditions. Many of the employers includes information regarding sexual annoyance into a general workplace annoyance which considers other types of illegal harassment for example, disability, sexual preference, harassment on the grounds of race or age (Koritsas, Coles and Boyle, 2008). On the other hand there are employers who decide that there should be stand-alone policy of sexual harassment. Therefore if sexual harassment problem is very common in the organizations then both the options are right and can be included in the policy. In anyways, it depends on employers what they want to include in the policy. In case of general policy, the terms regarding sexual harassment and the types of sexual harassment are to be clearly defined. In case the policy is extremely broad then its influence and clarity may be compromised (Hall, and Moorhead, 2011). Guidelines for employers are that they should officially introduce the policy of sexual harassment among full staff. The policy should be endorsed by the chief executive or senior executive and they should make sure that all the employees must follow the policy. The written policy should be mailed to every employee working in the organization (Einarsen, Hoel, Zapf and Cooper, 2010). The employers should provide the policy to newly recruited people as a usual part of orientation. The copy of the policy should be displayed on the main notice board and also be included in the orientation manuals of the organization. In order to sustain the policy in organizational environment, employers should take signature from the employees on copy of a policy so that the policy gets acknowledgement by every employee working in the organization.
There are many functions which have been performed by human resource manager in an organization such as knowledge of laws, manage HR department, employee relations and maintaining good working conditions. The HR manager should have all the knowledge regarding laws set by the organization. By considering these functions it can be said that it is the duty of HR manager to maintain the good working conditions in the organization. As women employees in the organization usually faced many challenges such as unequal pay and sexual harassment (Schneider, Swan and Fitzgerald, 2009). Sexual harassment can be found in many different forms such as obvious or indirect, repeated or one-off, physical or verbal and enacted by men and women against individuals of the same or opposite sex. Sexual harassment involves staring or leering, undesirable touching, suggestive comment jokes, insults or taunts related to sexual nature, presenting posters, magazines or screen savers related with sexual nature, sending vulgar text messages and emails and others. Australian organizations adhere to some rules according to which there are some circumstances under which sexual harassment is unlawful.
According to the Act of Sex Discrimination, it is unlawful when a person sexually harasses the other person in the areas such as employment, education and accommodation. Whether it is a small or large business, the employer must take the steps to prevent the employees from sexual harassment (Victorian equal opportunities and human rights commission, 2018). This further implies that the employer should proactively implement preventive measures to decrease the threat of sexual harassment. The employer should take instant action when harassment does occur. According to the Act of Sex Discrimination, a proprietor is responsible for sexual harassment if the proprietor has not taken the necessary steps to inhibit the sexual harassment in the organization. The Act of Sex Discrimination has not defined the actual steps involved in preventing sexual harassment as it depends on the nature and size of the business (McLaughlin, Uggen and Blackstone, 2012). It is not necessary that steps which are reasonable for large organization are reasonable for small organization also. Therefore the employer should decide the steps by considering the nature and size of the business which includes the following points.
In case of large organizations, the employer should conduct formal information sessions and some training sessions to create awareness among employees regarding the policy of sexual harassment. In case of small business organizations, the employer should make copies to make sure that every employee gets to know about the policy being followed in the organization (Storey, 2009).
In case of large organization, it also depends on the availability of resources in the organization. It might possible for the large organizations to send each and every employee for the training regarding sexual harassment but in case of small organizations there are limited resources and it is not possible to send each employee for the training. Small organizations can circulate the copies of written policy of sexual harassment and then prepare the questionnaire to develop the understanding among employees regarding the same (Söchting, Fairbrother and Koch, 2004).
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Example of a case ( P&O Ports Australian Company) In a food services company, a woman worked as catering assistant in a canteen in which employees of the offender company used to eat. One day in the evening an employee of the offender’s company showed his privates to her and seized her vagina before she would do something. The women filed a complaint against the company regarding sexual harassment. According to Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, it was found whether the company will be liable to take the action against the employee or not. From the point of view of Tribunal, investigating about the physical attack and recommending a disciplinary action against the employee were not enough to discharge its vicarious liability. |
Employers should take strong steps to inhibit the organization from sexual harassment. There is a strong need for making the policy regarding sexual harassment for location like where employees need to work in close physical proximity.
However it is impossible to ensure the employers that they will not be answerable for the sexual harassment as it totally depends on the courts. Courts take decisions on the basis of cases they come across but they can suggest and guide the employers on what legal obligations should they follow to prevent sexual harassment. Employers can take several actions mentioned below to evade the liability for sexual harassment (Yagil, 2008).
To protect the organization from sexual harassment, the employer should implement the policy made in regards with sexual harassment and evaluate its effectiveness which contains the steps such as Obtain top level support which includes the employer should obtain top level management support from the chief executive officer and senior management to implement the strategies to eradicate the sexual harassment. The next step is written policy of sexual harassment. Here, the employer should prepare a policy regarding sexual harassment by consulting with employees and relevant unions. Employer should officially introduce the policy of sexual harassment among full staff. Employer should distribute the copies in all over the organization and should ensure that the policy should be easily accessible on the website of organization. The written policy should be mailed to every employee working in the organization (Salin, 2008). The employers should provide the policy to newly recruited people as a usual part of orientation. In case of small organizations, employers should take signature from the employees on copy of a policy so that the policy gets acknowledgement by every employee working in the organization.
Third step is that the employees should be given regular training and information on sexual harassment. The employers should organize training sessions for all the employees and management on sexual harassment and organizational policy. The training must increase the understanding of sexual harassment under the act of Sex Discrimination. Regular training should be provided to the employees. The employer should train the managers of all line as per their role to ensure prevention from sexual harassment. Anti-sexual posters can also be displayed on the common notice boards (Koritsas, Coles and Boyle, 2008).
The next step includes encouraging right conduct by managers. Here, line managers should comprehend the need to model right standards of professional conduct for all times. The employers should ensure the right selection criteria which means the employer should recruit the people who have the ability to deal with issues such as sexual harassment. The selected people should have the understanding and knowledge of full policy. The employer should regularly evaluate the performance of the managers (Hershcovis and Barling, 2010). The next step includes positive workplace environment. Under which following things need to be considered such as offensive, explicit or pornographic calendars, literature, posters should be removed from the workplace. The employer should develop the policy which prohibits the use of vulgar email, screen savers and internet websites. It is advisable that regular audits should be conducted by the medium and large employers to examine the incidence of sexual harassment in the organization.
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Example of a case (An Australian Organization) A lawyer (respondent) sexually harassed one of the clients of his employer under the organization. The employer was an Aboriginal corporation, was a small organization and Federal Magistrate Rimmer believed that it had made its anticipations of employees clearly in regards with sexual harassment. Therefore they did not find the employer to be liable. The employer cleared its liability by introducing an appropriate complaint tackling process. The directors should orally inform all the employees that sexual harassment would not be endured in the office premises. The employer should conduct workshops regarding sexual harassment and discrimination. In addition to this, number of warnings had been given by the employers to the respondents about his unacceptable behavior. |
The employer can prevent the organization from sexual annoyance by making the employees clear that sexual harassment will not acceptable in the organization in any case. This can only be possible when there is clear policy describing terms and conditions about sexual harassment. This policy should be communicated to each and every worker in the organization. In addition to this, it is important to maintain the discipline in the workplace (Black et al., 2011). Only a written policy will not work in preventing the organization. A non-implemented policy is of no use therefore it should be communicated to the employees by distributing the copies of the policy. Sometimes implementation also doesn’t work therefore the employers must communicate the whole procedure that how one can file a complaint regarding other of sexual harassment in the organization (Harzing and Pinnington, 2010).
It is advisable to have conventional procedure to tackle with the problem of sexual harassment when it occurs. The employer should make an internal system to deal with the complaints regarding sexual harassment or should adopt the existing procedure for the same. The employer should make sure that the policy made by them is clearly defining the steps that what should one do in case they are sexually harassed (Gidycz, Orchowski and Berkowitz, 2011). The employers should make sure that the employees who filed a complaint would not be victimised. The employees must know the following points.
How they can deal is the situation related to harassment arises. They should not feel pressurized while pursuing this option. They should not go directly to the offender and deal with him by themselves (Ullman and Townsend, 2009). They should first inform to the authorize person who actually liable for dealing with the issues like sexual harassment. Employee should file a complaint by following the procedure available in the organization.
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Example of a case (Evans v Lee and Anor) The manager has sexually harassed his one of his female client while providing banking services. While detecting about the steps being taken for preventing sexual harassment, the bank gave several evidence that they have scheduled training on sexual harassment after every six months. The commissioner have also been told and provided with evidence of circulated videos, letters, an instruction, a brochure and an article related with sexual annoyance. The commissioner has also been told that there is a system of auditing in which managers make sure that they discuss about sexual harassment after every six months. But later on they came to know from staff that there has been no training and sessions on sexual harassment. The working staff also does not feel that they should take any action against this kind of annoyance. The commissioner has also found that there has been no auditing done by the managers at the branch where the harassment had taken place. |
The employers can also boost the employees that will help them to avoid sexual harassment at the workplace. For instance, sometimes the employees are already been aware of inappropriate behaviour in the office premises before the management. The employees can be encouraged to inform the concerns about uninvited behaviour before it creates a serious issue against sexual harassment.
References
Australian Human Rights Commission, 2018, Preventing sexual harassment: All reasonable steps [Online]. Available from https://www.humanrights.gov.au/publications/chapter-6-preventing-sexual-harassment-all-reasonable-steps-effectively-preventing-and#fnB30 [Accessed 28 March 2018].
Black, M.C., Basile, K.C., Breiding, M.J., Smith, S.G., Walters, M.L., Merrick, M.T. and Stevens, M.R., 2011. The national intimate partner and sexual violence survey: 2010 summary report. Atlanta, GA: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 19, pp.39-40.
Einarsen, S., Hoel, H., Zapf, D. and Cooper, C. eds., 2010, Bullying and harassment in the workplace: Developments in theory, research, and practice. Crc Press
Gidycz, C.A., Orchowski, L.M. and Berkowitz, A.D., 2011. Preventing sexual aggression among college men: An evaluation of a social norms and bystander intervention program. Violence against women, 17(6), pp.720-742.
Hall, D. and Moorhead, A.A., 2011. Sexual Harassment Policy.
Harzing, A.W. and Pinnington, A. eds., 2010, International human resource management. Sage.
Hendry, C., 2012. Human resource management. Routledge.
Hershcovis, M.S. and Barling, J., 2010. Comparing victim attributions and outcomes for workplace aggression and sexual harassment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 95(5), p.874.
Kenneth, M., Winkler and Daniel H., 2014, Sexual Harassment Update: Uber’s Latest Controversy and the EEOC’s Renewed Focus on Workplace Harassment Policies and Training, Available from https://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.atlantabar.org/resource/resmgr/section_newsletters/L&E/SexualHarassmentUpdate.pdf [Accessed on 28 March 2018]
Koritsas, S., Coles, J. and Boyle, M., 2008, Workplace violence towards social workers: The Australian experience. British Journal of Social Work, 40(1), pp.257-271.
McLaughlin, H., Uggen, C. and Blackstone, A., 2012. Sexual harassment, workplace authority, and the paradox of power. American sociological review, 77(4), pp.625-647.
Salin, D. 2008, Organisational responses to workplace harassment: An exploratory study. Personnel Review, 38(1), 26-44.
Schneider, K.T., Swan, S. and Fitzgerald, L.F., 2009, Job-related and psychological effects of sexual harassment in the workplace: empirical evidence from two organizations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 82(3), p.401.
Storey, J., 2009, Human resource management: A critical text. Cengage Learning EMEA.
Tracy, S.J., Lutgen-Sandvik, P. and Alberts, J.K., 2009, Nightmares, demons, and slaves: Exploring the painful metaphors of workplace bullying. Management communication quarterly, 20(2), pp.148-185.
Ullman, S.E. and Townsend, S.M., 2009, Barriers to working with sexual assault survivors: A qualitative study of rape crisis center workers. Violence Against Women, 13(4), pp.412-443.
Ullman, S.E., 2010. Talking about sexual assault: Society’s response to survivors. American Psychological Association.
Victorian equal opportunities and human rights commission, 2018, Sexual harassment in the workplace, [Online]. Available from https://www.humanrightscommission.vic.gov.au/the-workplace/sexual-harassment-at-work [Accessed 28 March 2018].
Yagil, D., 2008, When the customer is wrong: A review of research on aggression and sexual harassment in service encounters. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 13(2), pp.141-152.
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