Description

Overview

In the Course Overview and in Module 1 we discussed the impact of macro/environmental issues on HRM practices. In this module we focus on some of those specific impacts, for example, the change in demographics and related diversity implications. As rights are acknowledged and expanded on a societal level, they inevitably have a job/employment nexus. The latter impact is particularly important as employment is the gateway to a desired standard of living and basic sustainability.

For most of U.S. history there were few, if any, laws affecting employment. For the private sector, the first significant movement to legislate working conditions occurred in the 1930s with the New Deal, e.g., wage and hour regulations (FLSA) and labor management relations (NLRA). In the case of the public sector employment laws started earlier with the Pendleton Act of 1883. It wouldn’t be until the 1960s that we would see the start of a steady increase in laws affecting personnel practices and employee rights. Some would suggest an explosion of laws at the federal, state, and local levels. In the case of California, for example, federal employment laws are trumped by state laws that cover or duplicate every federal personnel law; in some cases, with more than one law covering a particular federal law, for example, the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA). California has its own version of FMLA and, in addition, has a paid FMLA law and a pregnancy disability act. Among other things, the plethora of personnel laws has necessitated the need for employment lawyers either under contract or as a unit in the general counsel’s office to support managers and their HR staff. Many of these laws will be covered in detail in the readings this week.

Laws on civil rights, Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO), and affirmative action have been around since the 1960s. A more recent emphasis is a focus on diversity; this as an outgrowth of changing demographics and suppressed rights. In the readings this week, you will have an opportunity to learn about and distinguish equal opportunity, affirmative action, and diversity. On the latter subject, diversity, we will spend time discussing the scope of this concept. For some organizations, diversity simply encompasses the traditional areas of gender, race, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and disability. For other organizations, the definition is more expansive to reflect all the ways we are different, e.g., personality, education, religious beliefs, communication style, socio-economic status, marital status, and parental status, among others. It will be interesting to hear your experience with this subject and what dimensions are covered in the organizations you are familiar with. In the case assignment this week you will have an opportunity to explore a specific employee condition (tattoos) and how it may be affected by laws on employee rights.

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Module 2: Affirmative Action