Exam 1 Flashcards
Challenges for HR
Supply versus demand for labor Aging workforce Increased gender and racial diversity More dual career couples and single parents Increasing benefit costs Decreased employee tenures Internationalization of workforce
Key Issues for HRM in Hospitality
Leveraging Human Resources is managers’ biggest concern (for both restaurants and hotels)
Industry employs large numbers of lower-skilled workers
Low-skilled workers have significant impact on customer
Industries pay less for higher levels of skill
Very high turnover (and sometimes, too low)
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
Establishes a national minimum wage
Guaranteed time and a half for overtime in certain jobs
Greatly limited employment of minors
Who is covered by FLSA
Who is covered by the law?
Employees covered by the law are called non-exempt
Employees not covered by the law are called exempt:
Status depends on job responsibilities and salary
Those paid less than $23,600 are automatically non-exempt
Those paid more than $100,000 are automatically exempt
Are two or more people supervised?
Does the person have authority to hire and fired?
Roughly 20% of jobs are exempt
Tipped employees
Employers may consider tips as part of wages
Employer must pay at least $2.13/hour in direct wages
Employees must retain all of their tips
Consequences of violating the law
Owe employees back pay
Starbucks example
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act
What it does:
Forbids discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin
Age Discrimination Act adds Age over 40 as a protected class
Equal pay act says men and women must get equal pay for similar work
Who is covered:
Employers with 15 or more employees
Exceptions:
Bona fide occupational qualifications
Valid seniority system
Valid, job related test results
National security
Executive Order 11246
What it does:
Required government contractors to implement affirmative actions plans to increase the participation of minorities and women in the workplace if a workforce analysis demonstrates their under-representation
Who is covered:
Contractors and subcontractors with 50 or more employees and contacts of $50,000 or more with the federal government
Common myths:
Affirmative action requires quotas
An employer can remove an employee from a job and replace that employee with a minority or female
Employers are required to hire unqualified employees
Process for setting up affirmative action plan
- Look at composition of relevant workforce as opposed to your workforce (utilization analysis)
- Set up goals and how long to achieve
- Make an action plan as to how you’re getting there
Immigration Reform and Control Act
Made it illegal to knowingly hire illegal immigrants
Required employers to determine their employees’ immigration status
Granted amnesty to certain illegal immigrants who entered the United Stated prior to 1982
Prohibits discrimination on the basis of national origin or citizenship
Allows an employer to hired an equally qualified American citizen over an alien
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
What it does:
Prohibits discrimination against a qualified individual with, or with a perceived, disability
Employer must make “reasonable accommodations” to allow disabled individuals to perform the work
Who is covered:
Employers with 15 or more employees
Includes employment agencies and labor organizations
Findings about this act:
One fifth of accommodations cost nothing
Half cost less than $500
Median cost is $240
But some costs can be significant
Vagueness is a major concern for many employers
Definition of disability
Any physical or mental impairment affecting one or more life activities
Includes chronic diseases, mental conditions, blindness, mental retardation, mobility impairments, etc.
Definition of reasonable accommodations
Adjustments or modifications provided by an employer to enable people with disabilities to enjoy equal employment opportunities
A deaf applicant may need a sign language interpreter during a job interview
An employee with diabetes may need regularly scheduled breaks
A blind employee may need someone to read posted information
An employee with cancer may need leave to have radiation treatments
Definition of undue hardship
When providing the reasonable accommodation would result in significant difficulty or expense, based on your resources and the operation of your business
Test in court:
Part I: Can the organization afford to make the accommodation?
Part II: Is the accommodation of reasonable societal benefit?
Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993
What it is:
Employers must provide 12 weeks for unpaid leave for family and medical emergencies
Employer must guarantee the same or a comparable job upon the employee’s return
Protects employee benefits while on leave
Protection from retaliation for using this benefit
Who is covered?
Employers with 15 or more employees
Includes employment agencies and labor organizations
Types of lawsuits
Disparate treatment and adverse impact
Disparate treatment
Discriminated based on protective class (knowingly) Prima facie case: Person is a member of protected class and qualified for job, was turned down and someone else was hired
Adverse impact
Company didn’t mean to discriminate, it just ended up doing so through systems in place
Prima facie case: Statistical discrepancy in hired group vs non hired group in companies over 15 employees (4/5 rule and statistical analysis)
4/5ths rule
A test has disparate impact if the hiring rate for the minority group is less than four-fifths (or 80%) of the hiring rate for the majority group
Divide hiring rate of minority by hiring rate of majority. If this is less than 80%, you have adverse impact
Statistical testing
Uses probability theory to determine adverse impact. This analysis uses the difference between the expected representation (or hiring rates) for minority groups and the actual representation (or hiring rates) to determine whether the difference is greater than would occur by chance.
If the significance test shows a low “p-value” (usually that means the probability of that occurring by chance is less than 5%), then you conclude a difference exists
Basically less than 5% percent chance that this would occur by chance, then this is adverse impact
Regression Analysis
Determines the (linear) effect of certain variables (your independent variables) on an outcome of interest (your dependent variable) Analyses informs you of the estimates size of the effect, and the probability that the effect size you observed occurred by chance. Determines the effects of each variable, after controlling for the (linear) effects of all the other variables in the regression equation.
Types of harassment
Quid pro quo and hostile work environment
Quid pro quo
It occurs when (1) job benefits, including employment, promotion, salary increases, shift or work assignments, performance expectations and other conditions of employment, are made contingent on the provision of sexual favors, usually to an employer, supervisor or agent of the employer who has the authority to make decisions about employment actions, or (2) the rejection of a sexual advance or request for sexual favors results in a tangible employment detriment, a loss of a job benefit of the kind described above.
Hostile work environment
Refers to a situation where employees in a workplace are subject to a pattern of exposure to unwanted sexual behavior from persons other than an employee’s direct supervisor where supervisors or managers take no steps to discourage or discontinue such behavior.
Strategic fit
Refers to picking HR policies
Environment fit: Choose HR practices that fit different contextual circumstances
Organizational fit: Choose HR practices that fit with organizational strategy
Internal HR fit: Choose HR practices that work well with each other
Performance is measured in terms of
Task performance
Organizational citizenship behaviors
Counterproductive performance
Overall performance ratings
Performance is determined by
Motivation, ability, opportunity
Performance: high complexity
Determined by motivation * ability
Performance: medium complexity
Determined by motivation + ability
Performance: low complexity
Determined by motivation or ability
