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Employee Employee Stakeholders and Stakeholders and Workplace Issues Workplace Issues

Search the WebThe Department of Labor maintains an online Corporate Citizenship Resource Center at: www.ttrc.doleta.gov/citizen

16-22

Chapter Sixteen Objectives• Identify the major changes occurring in the

workforce today• Outline the new social contract between

employers and employees• Explain the employee rights movement• Discuss the employment-at-will doctrine• Discuss the right to due process and fair

treatment• Describe the actions companies are taking

to make the workplace friendlier• Elaborate on the freedom-of-speech issue

and whistle blowing

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Chapter Sixteen Outline

• The New Social Contract

• The Employee Rights Movement

• The Right to a Job/Not to Be Fired Without Cause

• The Right to Due Process and Fair Treatment

• Freedom of Speech in the Workplace

• Whistle Blowing• Summary

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Introduction to Chapter Sixteen

• Consider how global competition has reshaped the social contract between organizations and their workers

• Consider the trend of expanding employee rights– Right not to be fired without just cause– Right to due process and fair treatment– Right to freedom of speech within the

workplace

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The New Social Contract

BusinessOrganization’sExpectations

Employee’sExpectations

Understandings

16-6

Social Contract

Reasons for the Change in the Social Contract

• Global Competition• Technology advances• Deregulation

16-7

Social Contract: ChangesOld Social Contract New Social Contract

Job security Few tenure arrangements

Life careers with one employer Few life careers; changes common

Loyalty to employer Loyalty to self

Paternalism Relationships far less familial

Sense of entitlementPersonal responsibility for one’s job future

Stable, rising income Pay for “value added”

Focus on individual accomplishments

Focus on team building and projects

16-8

Social Contract: New View

16-9

Employee Rights Movement

For nonunion workers, employee rights issue continues to be a problem . . . That is, the employees’ desires to be treated with dignity and respect, to have a right to due process,privacy, freedom of speech, and safety, and even a right to a job.

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Employee Rights Movement

Sources of Employee Rights• Statutory rights• Collective bargaining rights• Enterprise rights

16-11

Employee Rights Movement

Models of Management Morality and their Orientation Toward Employees

Moral Amoral Immoral

End Law Means

16-12

Right Not to be Fired Without Just Cause

Employment-at-Will Doctrine• Public policy exceptions• Contractual actions• Breach of good faith actions

16-13

Right Not to be Fired Without Just Cause

1. Stay on the right side of the law2. Investigate complaints in good

faith3. Deal in good faith with employees4. Fire only for good cause

Management’s Response

16-14

The Right to Due Process

Types of Due Process• Substantive due process

– Right to fair treatment

• Procedural due process– Right to a fair system of decision

making

16-15

The Right to Due Process

• Procedure • Visible• Effective• Institutionalized

• Equitable• Easy to use• Apply to all

employees

Employee Constitutionalism

16-16

Alternative Dispute Resolution

Common Approach• Open door policy• Three concerns

– Process is closed– One person review– Bias in favor of managers

16-17

Alternative Dispute Resolution: Ethical Ways

for Due Process

Peer Review PanelPeer Review Panel—Fellow workers in the same job family and at a grade level equal to or higher than the employee with a grievance

Peer Review PanelPeer Review Panel—Fellow workers in the same job family and at a grade level equal to or higher than the employee with a grievance

Hearing procedureHearing procedure—permits employees to be represented by attorney or neutral party

Hearing procedureHearing procedure—permits employees to be represented by attorney or neutral party

OmbudspersonOmbudsperson—A “troubleshooter” investigates and helps achieve equitable settlements for employee complaints

OmbudspersonOmbudsperson—A “troubleshooter” investigates and helps achieve equitable settlements for employee complaints

16-18

Whistle Blowing

(Has certain rights)

CorporatCorporate e

EmployerEmployer

CorporatCorporate e

EmployerEmployer LoyaltyObedienceConfidentiality

PublicPublicPublicPublicEmployeEmployeee

EmployeEmployeee

CorporatCorporate e

EmployerEmployer

CorporatCorporate e

EmployerEmployer

Whistle blowingWhistle blowingWhistle blowingWhistle blowing

EmployeEmployeee

EmployeEmployeee

Responsibility Responsibility

(Has certain rights)

(Has certain rights)

16-19

Consequences of Whistle-Blowing

• Increased criticism of work• Less desirable work assignments• Pressure to drop charges against the

company• Heavier workloads• Loss perquisites• Exclusion from meetings

16-20

Whistle-Blowing

Seven Stages of Life of a Whistle-Blower

• Discovery of the organizational abuse• Reflection on what action to take• Confrontation with superiors• Retaliation against the whistle-blower• Long haul of legal action• Termination of the case• Going on to a new life

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Whistle-Blowing

Examples of Government Protection

• Civil Service Reform Act• Whistle-Blowers Protection Act of

Michigan• False Claims Act

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Management’s Preemptive Responses to

Whistle-Blowing• The company should assure employees

that the organization will not interfere with their basic political freedoms.

• Grievance procedure should be streamlined so that employees can direct complaints and not “blow the whistle.”

• Review the organization’s concept of social responsibility so that it is not simply corporate giving to charity.

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Management’s Preemptive Responses to

Whistle-Blowing• Formally recognize respect for the

individual consciences of employees.• Realize that dealing harshly with

whistle blowing can result in adverse public reaction.

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• 1978 Civil Service Reform Act

• Alternative dispute resolution (ADR)

• Collective bargaining

• Due process• Employee

constitutionalism

• Employee rights• Employment-at-

will doctrine• Enterprise rights• False Claims Act• Good faith

principle• Hearing

procedure

Selected Key Terms

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Selected Key Terms

• Implied contracts• Ombudsperson• Open-door policy• Peer review panel• Private property

• Public policy exception

• Social contract• Statutory

rights• Whistle-blower