Management

That’s a common expression in health care settings, and it stresses the importance of record keeping for patient care. The same holds true for management of personnel issues.

“I’ve had it with Jeremy!” Leonard exploded when Cindy returned his phone call one morning. “I’ve told him a million times how to run this report, and he won’t follow my instructions! If he makes one more mistake, that’s it—he’s out of here.”

“Whoa, Leonard,” Cindy soothed. “You know our policy advises progressive discipline. Are you documenting your issues with Jeremy? Have you tried nondisciplinary counseling or a written warning?”

“I don’t have time for all that nonsense,” scoffed Leonard. “I should be able to fire any employee Iwant!”

“If you haven’t been keeping records to back up your management of Jeremy’s performance issues, discharge is not your first option.” Cindy cautioned.

For the sake of due process in disciplinary matters, supervisors must document that an employee was informed of performance issues and given an opportunity to improve. You will find helpful information on employee versus management rights and related legal requirements in Chapter 9.

SHRM HR CONTENT

See Appendix: SHRM 2016 Curriculum Guidebook for the complete list

A. Employee and Labor Relations (required)

1. Disciplinary actions: Demotion, disciplinary termination

7. Managing teams

22. Investigations

27. Employee records

B. Employment Law (required)

19. Employee privacy

30. Employment-at-will doctrine

C. Ethics (required)

5. Guidelines and codes

6. Behavior within ethical boundaries

H. Performance Management (required)

8. Diagnosing problems

9. Performance improvement programs

I. Staffing: Recruitment and Selection (required)

14. Job offers: Employment-at-will, contracts, authorization to work

M. Workforce Planning and Talent Management (required)

3. Retention: Involuntary turnover, outplacement counseling, alternative dispute resolution

N. Change Management (required—graduate students only)

1. Stages of change management

3. Communication

4. Building trust

6. Leading change

7. Planning change strategy

8. Implementing change

Q. Organization Development (required—graduate students only)

1. Coaching

7. Leadership development

X. Workplace Health, Safety, and Security (secondary)

12. Monitoring, surveillance, privacy

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COMMONLY ACCEPTED EMPLOYEE RIGHTS

LO 9-1

Identify the commonly accepted individual rights in the workplace.

In this chapter, we will follow up on the developmental interview to continuously manage and improve employee relations. We will manage individual performance through coaching, counseling, and finally to disciplining or terminating employees who cannot or will not perform to acceptable standards. In addition to individual development, we discuss team development through positive leadership, team building, and managing change.

Licensed Video Employee Rights

In order to develop or discipline employees and develop high-performance teams, we need to understand employee and management rights to ensure that we don’t violate those rights by taking unethical or illegal disciplinary action against employees. Exhibit 9-1 provides a list of six common employee rights.1 However, before we discuss these common employee rights, we need to understand the difference between a right and a privilege.

Rights and Privileges

Individual rights are the topic of much conversation in our society today. However, how many of us actually know the difference between a right and a privilege? If we listen, we constantly hear statements such as, “I have a right to drive my car the way I want,” or “Ihave a right to go to college.” Are such statements correct? In fact both of these statements describe privileges, not rights.

Privileges are things that individuals are allowed to do based on asking permission from an authority.In simple terms, a privilege must be earned because the individual does something successfully (like passing a driver’s test or getting good grades in high school), while a right is provided to the individual by the society in which they are a member. We don’t have a right to drive, especially not any way we want. Driving is a privilege based on the individual showing that they have knowledge of the correct way to drive so that they can avoid doing harm to others.

On the other hand, a right does not require the individual to do anything in order to gain that right at that time in that society. Rights are things a person in a society is allowed to do without any permission required from an authority. Rights are bestowed upon the individual based on their membership in the society.

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Exhibit 9-1 EMPLOYEE RIGHTS

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1 Note that these three rights have limitations.

The simple way to tell the difference between a right and a privilege in an organization is this: If the employee has to request permission to do something within the organization, then the employee is attempting to exercise a privilege. On the other hand, employees do not need permission to exercise their rights.

WORK APPLICATION 9-1

Give examples of rights andprivileges where you work or have worked.

In general, employees have several rights. Because these are rights in the sense noted in the above paragraph, the individual employee doesn’t have to do anything to gain these rights. Some of these rights are part of federal or state laws, while others are simply provided by organizations because they are accepted as part of our society. Because the employee is a part of this society (the organization), they gain these rights. The organization has a duty to protect each employee’s rights. This duty, or obligation, is a societal (company) responsibility to protect the individual’s (employee) rights. The individual employee also has a duty to avoid violating the rights of other employees in the course of exercising their own rights. So rights are always balanced by duties or responsibilities.

So what do these rights allow an individual within the organization to do, and what limitations are there on the three “limited” rights that we noted in Exhibit 9-1? Let’s break down each of the six rights individually in separate sections.

Right of Free Consent

Individuals in a modern organization have the right of free consent, which is the right of the individual to know what they’re being asked to do and the possible and probable consequences of that action to the individual or others, either inside or outside the organization. People should know what they are being asked to do in their jobs; and they shouldn’t be forced, manipulated, or deceived into working in situations that could cause harm. The organization’s duty is to ensure that the individual voluntarily agrees to do a particular job or task for the organization, making them fully aware of everything involved. The organization would be violating the individual’s right to free consent if it forced the person to do something against their will or manipulated them in some way to do something that they would not do if they knew all of the circumstances.

p.306

WORK APPLICATION 9-2 and 9-3

Give an example of how your present or past employer met your right to free consent. What did you consent to do on the job?

Have you ever not consented to do something on the job? If yes, give an example of what you refused to do.

A great example of the right to free consent was shown after the Japan earthquake and ensuing tsunami in March 2011. Several nuclear reactors were damaged, and workers were needed to go into areas with significant radiation and other dangers.2The workers needed to be told about the dangers from both radiation and potentially explosive gasesthat they would encounter by taking on the job of working on the reactors. If the workers had not been told the extent of the danger, the company (Tokyo Electric Power Company) would have violated their right to free consent. For the right of free consent to be in effect, the workers would have to be given enough information so that they could understand the danger and then freely agree to do the job.

Right to Due Process

WORK APPLICATION 9-4

Briefly describe the due process rights where you work or have worked.

We have due process so that employees are not punished arbitrarily.3 If the organization contemplates a disciplinary action, the employee has a right to know what they are accused of, to know the evidence or proof thereof, and to tell their side of what happened. This is the right to due process. We will review due process and the seven tests for Just Cause a little bit later, but due process is basically the concept of providing fair and reasonable disciplinary actions as consequences of an employee’s behavior. So, the organization would have a duty to investigate any disciplinary infractions; and the employees would have a right to understand the charges against them, the evidence concerning those charges, and the reasons for the conclusions that led to any disciplinary action by the organization.

WORK APPLICATION 9-5

Briefly describe some of the life and safety issues where you work or have worked. If applicable, give an example of how someone was hurt.

Right to Life and Safety

Every employee within the organization has a right to be protected from harm, to the best of the organization’s ability. In 1948, the United Nations declared that every individual has a right to life, liberty, and security of person.4 Security of person basically means personal safety. This would obviously include individual employees at work in the organization. So the organization has a general duty to see that every employee is protected from harm when working within the organization, because the individual has a right to life and safety. We will discuss safety and health in more detail in Chapter 14.

image

Antonio Zugaldia/Flickr/CreativeCommons

Google Glass and other like technologies create a new set of privacy concerns for HR managers.

Right of Freedom of Conscience (Limited)

Employees generally should not be asked to do something that violates their personal values and beliefs, as long as these beliefs generally reflect commonly accepted societal norms. A person’s conscience determines what that person considers to be right and wrong. The organization has a general duty to avoid forcing an individual to do something that they consider to be wrong, either morally or ethically; and the individual has aright to avoid doing things within the organization that would violate their personal values and beliefs.

However, this doesn’t mean that a person can accept a job in, for example, a medical lab working on cancer cures, then refuse to work with living human cells because their moral convictions prohibit that, and then be free from any threat of termination of their employment. The organization would generally have the right in this case to terminate the worker for noncompliance with legitimate requirements associated with the job, since it would be almost certain that the individual would know of these requirements before accepting the job.

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Right to Privacy (Limited)

WORK APPLICATION 9-6

Give an example of when employees were encouraged to conduct unethical or illegal activities. Try to give an example from an organization where you work or have worked; but otherwise, give an example from another source, such as the news media.

This right protects people from unreasonable or unwarranted intrusions into their personal affairs. This general right to privacy would include the employee’s right to have their personnel files, other employee records, and/or private areas of their workplace (such as a personal locker) kept private, to an extent. The organization would have a general duty to protect individual employee privacy in most cases, whether dealing with the employee’s private life, personal history, or private areas in the workplace.

SHRM

A:27

Employee Records

However, if the employer feels that there might be a hazard to others, in keeping with all employees’ right to life and safety above, a locker or other personal space (e.g., a desk) could be searched. For example, if an employee reports to one of the organization’s managers that another employee has a weapon in a personal space (such as their locker), then the organization probably has a right to search the individual’s locker.

Another limitation on privacy is in email to and from company addresses. The employer again has a right to review any information in these types of correspondence to protect other employees and the organization.

SHRM

B:19

Employee Privacy

Right to Free Speech (Limited)

The First Amendment to the US Constitution guarantees the right to freedom of speech. What most people don’t understand, though, is that the First Amendment applies only to the government not being allowed to control free speech. In the workplace, individual freedom of speech is limited, based on many years of case law. Within the organization itself, individuals should be free to express concerns or discontent with organizational policies without fear of harm. Allowing such expression provides the organization an opportunity to see that problems exist, and it gives them the opportunity to correct these problems. Employees have legal protection to blow the whistle on an organization that is involved in illegal activities; in other words, employers can’t fire or discriminate against an employee for telling others about the organization’s illegal activities. (We will talk more about whistle-blowers in the next chapter.)

WORK APPLICATION 9-7

How do you feel about management going through your personal space (desk, locker, etc.) and monitoring the equipment (computer, telephone, etc.) you use, to see if you are using it for personal reasons?

However, many types of speech have no protection. If the individual employee exercises the right to freedom of speech, and if, in the course of that action, the employee harms the organization or other employees, then the organization has a right to discipline the employee based on the harm that the employee did to others. For example, an organization in the private sector can discipline an employee for using demeaning language toward another employee, even though the first employee might assert the right to free speech. This is due to the requirement to maintain good order and discipline in an organization so work can be produced.

In another case, a manager might verbally and publicly disagree with a corporate policy. The manager certainly has a right to do so, but the organization would also have a right to discipline or even terminate the manager because of such actions, again based on maintenance of good order and discipline in the organization. In such a case, managers are generally held to a higher standard than nonmanagerial employees. You may remember the case of the president of Chick-fil-A saying that the company supported the “biblical definition of the family unit.”5 Or you might recall Phil Robertson of TV’s Duck Dynasty “equating homosexuality to bestiality” in a GQ article.6 These men were both criticized by politicians, news outlets, gay and lesbian organizations, and other individuals over their remarks. In fact, both were boycotted and picketed by multiple groups, and Robertson was suspended from his own show for a short period. So, the organization has a right to limit the rights of the individual employee (especially high-level employees) because of the harm that they could cause to others in the organization and to the organization itself.

MANAGEMENT RIGHTS

LO 9-2

Identify the rights that management has in modern organizations.

You’ll notice that, for each of the rights that we’ve identified as limited, we’ve said the organization has a right to limit the individual employee’s rights in order to protect the firm. Organizations, like individuals, have rights within the larger society. Organizational rights tend to be based on the necessity for the organization to protect itself and its employees from persons who might do them harm, whether intentionally or unintentionally. While some of these rights (such as limiting certain discussions about work conditions and requiring civility in conversations between employees) have been weakened by recent labor rulings, organizations still have a set of rights that let them generally protect themselves and their people.

p.308

9-1 APPLYING THE CONCEPT

Employee Rights

Review the list of rights below and write the letter corresponding to each right before the statement involving that right.

a. free consent d. freedom of conscience

b. due process e. privacy

c. life and safety f. free speech

____ 1. The HR manager made me sign this form before I could start the job, stating that she had told me about the possible side effects from the lead paint removal.

____ 2. I enjoy writing negative comments online about my boss and company.

____ 3. I’m going to teach you how to use the rifle. Rule number one is to always make sure this lever is down so you don’t fire the gun by accident.

____ 4. You can’t discipline me for this minor safety violation. I’m going to the labor union to stop you from doing it.

____ 5. Let me keep working in security. I don’t want to work in the bar, even though it pays better, because drinking is against my religion.

____ 6. Get out of my locker now. You have no right to search it without my permission.

WORK APPLICATION 9-8

How do you feel about employees communicating negative things about the organization to outsiders? Should management monitor employee speech and take action to stop negative speech?

So for example, if the organization had reasonable evidence or proof that an individual had a weapon, or was harassing or bullying a coworker, or was providing organizational secrets to a competitor, we would generally have a right to investigate the individual in order to protect the organization and its other employees. Similarly, the organization has a right to determine whether or not the employee’s free speech does harm to the organization or other employees that exceeds the individual’s limited free speech rights. In other words, does the harm to the organization and other employees outweigh the rights of the individual to say what they want? So managers in the firm have to weigh the individual’s rights against the potential harm that could be done to the organization by allowing the individual to exercise those rights.

What other rights do organizations have? In this section, we discuss six management rights; see Exhibit 9-2 for a list.

SHRM

C:5

Guidelines and Codes

Codes of Conduct

Managers of organizations have a right to create and require compliance with a reasonable code of employee conduct. The code of conduct is the organization’s mechanism for identifying the ethics and values of the firm, and it serves as a guide to individual action.7 Research shows that making a decision without using an ethical guide leads to less ethical choices,8 so ethical guidelines can have a positive influence.9

SHRM

C:6

Behavior Within Ethical Boundaries

Employees are more unethical when they believe they will not get caught and punished.10 Thus, most codes of conduct today also note the consequences that can occur if an employee does not follow the requirements in the code. A code of conduct gives an employee a practical tool for determining whether or not an action that they are contemplating is within the acceptable boundaries of conduct within their organization.

Virtually all organizations have a code of conduct. Generally, the larger the firm, the more likely the code of conduct will be in a written document or multiple documents.11 Most large companies also have a specific section of the code of conduct, or a separate document known as the code of ethics, that spells out what is and is not ethical behavior.

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Exhibit 9-2 MANAGEMENT RIGHTS

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Data and Device Policies

WORK APPLICATION 9-9

Give examples of behaviors that are not acceptable in an organization where you work or have worked.

Employers have the right to create workplace policies to protect organizational data and to maintain control of their networks and connected devices.12However, maintaining that control becomes much more difficult when many different computing devices are allowed to connect to the organization’s network.

Let’s take a look at one policy trend—the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) movement, which had been adopted by around 60% of US companies by 2014, including Carfax, Kimberly-Clark, Kraft, and Citrix.13 BYOD is basically what it sounds like: The company allows employees to bring their own laptop, tablet, smartphone, and so on to work and connect that device to the company network. There are good reasons for allowing this, but there are also some problems. Reasons for allowing BYOD include the following:14

• It may increase productivity and employee satisfaction.

• It helps in recruiting new employees.

• It can strengthen work-life balance.

• It reduces computer hardware costs for the organization.

However, these benefits come with a host of problems, including the following:

• Multiple types of security risks, including leaks, hacking, lost devices, and so on

• The mixing of company and personal information on the same device

• Employee privacy concerns

• Employees who leave the organization with company information still on their device

As a result of the above issues and others, many companies are allowing BYOD, but with restrictions. Some restrict the types of devices to those that are more secure. Many require specific security programs on all devices that will connect to the network. Some require the employee to acknowledge that if they leave the company or lose the device, it will be “remotely wiped,” deleting everything on the device.15 Having policies covering the use and management of BYOD is an absolute requirement in any organization that decides to allow such use.16 Regardless of the policies, though, the company has the right (and the obligation, for privacy reasons) to manage any device connected to secure company networks.

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image

Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty Images

An employee at De Beers, the world’s largest diamond producer, monitors mining operations to keep employees and assets safe.

Workplace Monitoring

Managers in the organization have a right to monitor the workplace to ensure that employees are acting both legally and ethically in all of the actions that they take on behalf of the organization. One form of monitoring that we discussed in earlier chapters is the website monitoring that companies may undertake in an attempt to ensure that employees and others don’t defame the organization. Companies may also do monitoring and analysis of computer and network use within the firm, video monitoring of work spaces, and recording of phone conversations and emails. Workplace monitoring provides the organization with a mechanism to protect itself and its employees from individual actions that might harm them.

SHRM

X:12

Monitoring, Surveillance, Privacy

Employment-at-Will

Currently, under common law, “employment relationships are presumed to be ‘at will’ in all US states except Montana.”17 The concept of employment-at-will allows the company or the worker to break the work relationship at any point in time, with or without any particular reason, as long as in doing so, no law is violated.18 This is one of management’s rights in organizations, meaning the employer does not have to have cause (reasons) to terminate an employment relationship with an individual worker. If an organization states that employment in the firm is at-will, then it is typically presumed that the worker has no contractual rights to a continuing job with the firm.

However, employment-at-will is in reality a fairly weak law because courts in many jurisdictions in the United States have for many years ruled that employment-at-will is limited. The courts have specifically stated that there are three standard exceptions to employment-at-will.19 Public policy exceptions to employment-at-will include such things as being terminated for filing a legitimate worker’s compensation claim, refusing to lobby for a particular political candidate just because your boss likes the candidate, or refusing to violate a professional code of ethics. In other words, if the organization were violating vital public interests, and if the worker refused to participate, then the organization would not have a right to terminate the individual’s employment based on employment-at-will.

The courts have also noted that frequently, there is at least some evidence of an implied contractbetween the employee and the employer. For instance, if the company were to note in its employee handbook that “our organization values hard work, and many of our employees who perform well have been with us for many years,” that might be considered an implied contract stating, “If you work hard, we will continue to employ you.” This implication of a contract could negate the employment-at-will rights of the employer.

A third case in which courts have ruled that there are exceptions to employment-at-will occurs when employers are suspected of lack of good faith and fair dealing in the employment relationship. In other words, if the employer does something that will benefit them significantly but will harm the individual employee, that action would create a lack of good faith and fair dealing. For instance, we might release an older employee shortly before they become eligible for a company-sponsored retirement plan in order to hire a younger (and cheaper) employee in the same position and thus not have to pay the retirement benefits. This would be lack of good faith and fair dealing, in addition to probably being against age discrimination laws.

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SHRM

B:30

Employment-at-Will Doctrine

Orientation (Probationary) Periods

Organizations have a right to set up an orientation, or introductory, period for new employees. Many of you may be familiar with the older term probationary period. This term has fallen out of favor with organizations due to the fact that courts have said that completion of a probationary period may give employees additional rights in the workplace, even if employment in the workplace is ostensibly at-will. Regardless of what it is called, the orientation period allows the organization a certain amount of time in which to assess new employees and their capabilities, before fully integrating them into the organization. The orientation period usually runs from 60 to 90 days, but it can be much longer in some organizations that provide significant training to new entrants.

SHRM

I:14

Job Offers: Employment-at-Will, Contracts, Authorization to Work

Drug Testing

As we first noted in Chapter 6, “Most employers have the right to test for a wide variety of substances in the workplace.20 The primary reason for drug testing will generally be workplace safety.” However, some states have passed laws restricting drug testing, so HR managers need to be aware of these potential limitations. Even so, drug testing is another major employer right. But always remember that drug testing needs to be done in either a universal or a random form.

WORK APPLICATION 9-10

How long is the typical orientation period where you work or have worked?

WORK APPLICATION 9-11

How do you feel about companies giving drug tests? Does an organization you work for or have worked for require drug tests?

COACHING, COUNSELING, AND DISCIPLINE

LO 9-3

Briefly describe the coaching, counseling, and progressive discipline processes and how they are used

Managing people is an important part of HR leadership,21 because engaging employees leads to high performance.22 As a manager, it’s your job to have employees meet objectives and standards23 and follow the rules.24 Your most valuable resource is your employees, and you want them to meet their full potential,25 so how you manage people will determine your success.26

Ongoing employee development has three parts—coaching, counseling, and disciplining—but not all three parts are needed in all cases. As discussed in Chapter 8, managers need to continually coach virtually all employees to improve performance. Sometimes, employees will have on- or off-the-job problems, and the manager should get them professional counseling through the HR department. Some employees will break the code of conduct, and the manager will need to take disciplinary action; in some cases, managers will need to terminate these employees. Also, if employees cannot meet job standards, they should be terminated. Kimberly-Clark improved its monitoring of employee performance to identify any laggards and prevent deadwood free-riding.27 In this section, we discuss employee development through coaching, counseling, disciplining, and (if necessary) termination.

HRM in Action Disciplining an Employee

9-2 APPLYING THE CONCEPT

Management Rights

Review the list of rights below and then write the letter corresponding to each right before the statement or situation involving that right.

a. code of conduct

b. workplace monitoring

c. employment-at-will

d. orientation period

e. drug testing

____ 7. I’m sorry, but you’ve been with us for a month and you haven’t been able to meet the standards of your job, so we are letting you go.

____ 8. Our records show that you have been using your computer for an average of an hour and a half per day on personal things.

____ 9. We seem to have a personality conflict, so you’re fired.

____ 10. As part of the selection process, you will have to pass a physical exam that includes a urinalysis.

____ 11. I found out that you paid a bribe to get that sales order with the Acamey company. Come with me to the HR department for disciplinary action.

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SHRM

H:9

Performance Improvement Programs

Coaching

Many people who hear the word coaching immediately think of athletes, but coaching is also an important management skill that is used to get the best results from each employee.28 A survey found coaching to be a key focus of business.29 It is an increasingly popular approach to building leadership skills.30 NetApp Americas CEO Mark Weber says leaders have to play the role of coach.31 Coaching is the process of giving motivational feedback to maintain and improve performance.32

SHRM

Q:1

Coaching

Coaching focuses on helping employees succeed by monitoring performance and giving feedback.33 Such feedback should be immediate, continuous, and motivational.34 It is intended to praise progress and celebrate success,35 to redirect inappropriate behavior, and to counsel employees on how to improve.36 Employees who are given more immediate, frequent, and direct feedback perform at higher levels than those who are not given such feedback.37 Studies also verify that “organizations with strong coaching cultures have higher engagement and performance.”38

DETERMINING CORRECTIVE COACHING ACTION. Coaching is needed when performance falls below aspirational levels.39 When an employee is not performing up to potential, even when acceptable standards are being met, the first step is to determine why,40 using the performance formula: Performance = Ability × Motivation × Resources. When lack of ability is holding back performance, training is needed. A good manager is also a good teacher, so when something isn’t done properly, we should teach employees how to do it correctly.41 When motivation is lacking, motivational techniques, such as coaching, may help.42 Talk to the employee to try to determine why motivation is lacking, and develop a plan together to improve performance.43 If motivational coaching does not work, you may have to use discipline,44 which will be discussed later. Finally, when resources are lacking, you should work to obtain them.

THE COACHING MODEL. Coaching is a way to provide ongoing feedback to employees about their job performance.45 However, ask managers what they tend to put off doing, and they’ll likely say that they put off advising weak employees that they must improve their performance. Procrastinating managers often hope that the employees will turn around on their own, only to find—often too late—that the situation just continues to get worse. Part of the problem is that managers don’t know how to coach or are not good at coaching,46so let’s take a look at a simple coaching model that’s designed to improve performance.47 Model 9-1 presents a four-step coaching model.

MODEL 9-1 COACHING MODEL

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p.313

Step 1: Describe current performance. Using specific examples, describe the current behavior that needs to be changed. Tell the employees exactly what they are not doing as well as they can. Notice the positive; don’t tell them only what they are doing wrong.

For example, don’t say, “You are picking up the box wrong.” Say, “Billie, there is a more effective way of picking the box up off the floor than bending at the waist.”

Step 2: Describe desired performance. Tell the employees exactly what the desired performance is, in detail. Show how they will benefit from following your advice.

If performance is ability related, training is needed. Good managers know that training is a large part of their job, and they constantly look at situations as training opportunities. If the employees know the proper way, then the problem is motivational, and training is most likely not needed. The manager may just describe the desired performance and ask the employees to state why the performance is important. So if the issue is one of ability, you might tell the employees, “If you squat down and pick up the box using your legs instead of your back, it is easier and there is less chance of injuring yourself. Let me demonstrate for you.” But if the issue is one of motivation, you might ask the employees, “Why should you squat and use your legs rather than your back to pick up boxes?”

WORK APPLICATION 9-12

Assess your present or past boss’s coaching skills. Did the boss follow the steps in the coaching model?

Step 3: Get a commitment to the change. When dealing with an ability issue, it is not necessary to get employees to verbally commit to the change if they seem willing to make it. However, if employees defend their way and you’re sure it’s not as effective as another way, explain why your proposed way is better. If you cannot get the employees to understand and agree, then get a verbal commitment.48 This step is also important for motivational issues, because if the employees are not willing to commit to the change, they will most likely not make the change.49 Simply telling employees what to do doesn’t always work; but asking questions to get the employee to say, “Yes I will do it,” improves their commitment to the desired behavior.50

So if the issue is one of ability, the employee will most likely be willing to pick up boxes correctly, and you can skip this step. But if the issue is one of motivation, then you might get a commitment from the employee by asking, “Will you squat rather than use your back from now on?”

Step 4: Follow up. Remember that some employees (those with low and moderate capability for self-control) do what managers inspect (imposed control), not what they expect. You should follow up to ensure that employees are behaving as desired.

When dealing with an ability issue, if the person was receptive and you skipped step 3, say nothing. However, watch to be sure that the activity is done correctly in the future. Coach again, if necessary. For a motivation problem, make a statement that you will follow up and that there are possible consequences for lack of progress. You may also want to set up a follow-up meeting to review progress, especially if the behavior is complex.51

SHRM

H:8

Diagnosing Problems

Counseling

When you are coaching, you are fine-tuning performance. But when you are counseling and disciplining, you are dealing with an employee who is not performing to organizational standards. Good organizations realize the need to help employees with problems.52

When most people hear the term counseling, they think of psychological counseling or psychotherapy. That type of sophisticated help should not be attempted by a noncounseling professional such as a manager.53 Instead, management counseling is the process of giving employees feedback (so they realize that a problem is affecting their job performance) and referring employees with problems that cannot be managed within the work structure to the organization’s employee assistance program.

TYPES OF PROBLEM EMPLOYEES. How people feel determines how they behave,54 so emotions often lead to performance-related problems from counterproductive work behavior.55 Problem employees have a negative effect on performance.56 Good human resource management skills can help you avoid hiring problem employees,57 but even so, you will most likely have to confront problem employees as a manager.58 Problem employees display behavioral and performance-related issues. They do poor-quality work, they don’t get along with coworkers, they display negative attitudes, and they frequently don’t show up for work.59 Recent research has verified again that low performers weaken companies and drive out high performance coworkers. Among the findings were:60

p.314

• Low performers hurt workplace morale.

• Low performers stifle innovation.

• Low performers in management positions directly affects attrition.

There are four types of problem employees:

1. Employees who do not have the ability to meet the job performance standards. Having such employees on staff is an unfortunate situation, but if such employees cannot do a good job even after receiving extra training, they should be dismissed. Keeping an individual who cannot do a particular job not only harms the organization; it also harms the individual employee. Continued inability to perform will always lead to frustration, and frustration ultimately leads to lower job satisfaction and employee engagement.

2. Employees who do not have the motivation to meet job performance standards. These employees often need discipline.

3. Employees who intentionally violate the rules or the code of conduct. As a manager, it is your job to enforce the rules through disciplinary action when employees intentionally violate rules, regulations, or procedures.61

4. Employees with problems. These employees may have the ability to do their job, but they have a problem that affects their job performance. The problem may not be related to the job. It is common for personal problems, such as child care problems and relationship/marital problems, to affect job performance. Employees with problems should be counseled before they are disciplined.

Exhibit 9-3 lists some problem employees you may encounter as a manager. It is not always easy to distinguish between the types of problem employees. Therefore, it is often advisable to start with coaching/counseling and change to discipline if the problem persists.

Exhibit 9-3 PROBLEM EMPLOYEES

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WORK APPLICATION 9-13

Identify a problem employee you have observed on the job. Describe how the person affected the department’s performance.

PERSONAL PROBLEMS AND PERFORMANCE. Most managers do not like to hear the details of their employees’ personal problems, in many cases because they don’t know what to do about those problems. Taking action on such personal problems is not a requirement. Instead, the manager’s role is to help employees realize that they have problems, to show them how those problems affect their work, and to get the employees back on track so that they can perform at an acceptable level.

The manager should not give advice on how to solve personal problems such as relationship difficulties. When professional help is needed, the manager should refer the employee to the human resources department for professional help through the employee assistance program.62 Employee assistance programs (EAPs) provide a staff of people who help employees get professional assistance in solving their problems. Most large businesses have an EAP to help manage employees’ personal problems. EAPs are valuable employee interventions that have savings of about $4 for every $1 spent of these programs,63 so they are more of an investment than an expense.

To make the referral, a manager might say something like, “Are you aware of our employee assistance program? Would you like me to set up an appointment with Jean in the HR department to help you get professional assistance?” However, if the employee’s job performance does not return to standard, discipline is appropriate because it often makes the employee realize the seriousness of the problem and the importance of maintaining job performance. Some time off from work—with or without pay, depending on the situation—often helps the employee deal with the problem.

A manager’s first obligation is to the organization’s performance rather than to individual employees. Not taking action with problem employees—because you feel uncomfortable confronting them, because you feel sorry for them, or because you like them—does not help you or the employee.64 Not only do problem employees negatively affect their own productivity, but they also cause more work for managers and other employees,65 as noted at the beginning of this section. Problem employees lower morale, as others resent them for not pulling their own weight. Thus, it is critical to take quick action with problem employees.66

Disciplining

Coaching, which includes counseling, should generally be the first step in dealing with a problem employee. However, if an employee is unwilling or unable to change or a rule has been broken,67discipline is necessary.68 Managers can’t allow employees to engage in counterproductive work behavior,69 to violate significant organizational norms,70 or to show other deviant behavior.71Discipline can also be appropriate if an employee is guilty of doing personal tasks (many employees spend hours per day on the phone and computer for personal reasons) while on company time.72Many organizations have found it necessary to fire employees for inappropriate use of time and resources.73 You don’t have to be liked to be an effective manager; sometimes you have to be the bad guy.74 It’s the manager’s job to enforce the rules,75 but you need to enforce them consistently (remember the OUCH test),76 without favoritism77 so you may have to discipline your friends.

DISCIPLINE. Discipline is corrective action designed to get employees to meet standards and the code of conduct. The major objective of coaching, counseling, and disciplining is to change behavior.78Secondary objectives may be to let employees know that action will be taken when standing plans or performance requirements are not met, and to maintain authority when challenged. Narcissistic employees often cause problems,79 and so do narcissistic abusive supervisors.80 Generally, abusive supervisors81 who yell82 and hold grudges83 encounter more discipline problems among their subordinates than do nonabusive supervisors.84

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The human resources department handles many of the disciplinary details and provides written disciplinary procedures. These procedures usually outline grounds for specific sanctions and dismissal, based on the types of violations. Common offenses include theft, sexual or other types of harassment, verbal or substance abuse, and safety violations.85 However, in unionized environments, you have to be careful because some union contracts allow employees to delay or block disciplinary action.86

But how do we know as managers that we are being fair in applying discipline? Let’s take a look at one mechanism for determining whether or not to discipline an errant employee and what level of discipline is appropriate—Just Cause.

JUST CAUSE. Just Cause is actually a set of standard tests for fairness in disciplinary actions—tests that were originally utilized in union grievance arbitrations. However, many companies other than unionized companies have adopted tests for Just Cause in their own nonunion disciplinary processes to try to ensure fairness and due process in applying discipline with their employees. Just Cause standards try to ensure that we investigate any disciplinary infraction fully and fairly and provide disciplinary action that matches the level of the offense.

The seven tests for Just Cause are as follows:

1. Did the company give the employee forewarning or foreknowledge of the possible or probable disciplinary consequences of the employee’s conduct?

With this test, we basically want to determine whether or not the employee was given any knowledge beforehand that the action was prohibited. If they were told in some form, such as through the employee handbook or a posting in the workplace, then we meet this first test for Just Cause.

2. Was the company’s rule or managerial order reasonably related to (a) the orderly, efficient, and safe operation of the company’s business and (b) the performance that the company might properly expect of the employee?

Here we want to find out whether the rule was reasonable. We look at orderly, efficient, and safe operations to see whether the rule or order is reasonable or not. We also look at whether or not the employee should be expected to act in a certain manner in order to follow the rule or order. If the rule was reasonable and the employee should have been expected to act a certain way, then we have met the second test.

3. Did the company, before administering discipline to an employee, make an effort to discover whether the employee did, in fact, violate or disobey a rule or order of management?

Test 3 deals with investigation of the alleged infraction. The supervisor needs to investigate what happened and why it happened. If, upon investigating, the supervisor finds that there is reasonable evidence that the individual did violate the rules, then we’ve passed the third test.

4. Was the company’s investigation conducted fairly and objectively?

In test 4, we’re looking for evidence that the investigation was conducted in the same manner as any other investigation into similar circumstances would have been. Are we utilizing facts, figures, and knowledge of the events (the OUCH test), or is the supervisor basing the investigation on some emotional reaction to the supposed infraction? If we determine that the investigation was conducted in a reasonably fair and objective manner, we meet the fourth test.

5. Upon investigation, was there substantial evidence or proof that the employee was guilty as charged?

Test 5 asks whether or not we have substantial evidence or proof of guilt on the part of the employee. Substantial evidence (some companies refer to the legal term “clear and convincing evidence,” which means “substantially more likely to be true than untrue”87) is a large body of circumstantial information showing that the individual probably committed the offense. In a disciplinary action, we don’t have to meet court standards of proof of guilt. We only have to have a substantial amount of evidence that the infraction was committed. If we have proof, then we meet this test; but if we have substantial evidence, we still meet the requirements of test 5.

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SHRM

A:22

Investigations

6. Has the company applied its rules, orders, and penalties evenhandedly and without discrimination to all employees?

Test 6 tries to identify whether or not the rule is applied in an equitable manner. If the company punishes one person for an infraction with a written reprimand and punishes another person for the same infraction with a disciplinary discharge, then the company may not have been evenhanded in its disciplinary action. Does this mean that we have to punish every person in the exact same way for the exact same infraction? The answer is no—and that is where we get into test 7.

WORK APPLICATION 9-14

Assess how well your boss and the organization you work or worked for follows the Just Cause standards.

7. Was the degree of discipline administered by the company in a particular case reasonably related to (a) the seriousness of the employee’s proven offense and (b)the record of the employee’s service with the company?

Test 7 is where we are allowed to provide a different punishment to different people based on past history. It says that the discipline has to be related to the seriousness of the offense but that we also have to take into account the employee’s past record. So if we have two employees who have committed the same infraction and one of the employees has never been in trouble while the other has repeatedly committed the same infraction, then we have the flexibility to provide a different punishment for the two different offenders.

GUIDELINES FOR EFFECTIVE DISCIPLINE. Exhibit 9-4 lists eight guidelines for effective discipline.

PROGRESSIVE DISCIPLINE. If discipline is deemed necessary after going through the Just Cause standards, what type of discipline is warranted? Most organizations today have a series of progressively more severe disciplinary actions that they typically use to deal with minor disciplinary infractions. Progressive discipline is a process in which the employer provides the employee with opportunities to correct poor behavior before terminating them. Many organizations have a series of progressively more severe disciplinary actions.88

Progressive discipline is typically used only in cases of minor behavioral infractions such as arriving late to work89 or insubordination with a superior. The progressive disciplinary steps are (1) informal coaching talk, (2) oral warning, (3) written warning, (4)suspension, and (5) dismissal. The first four steps are commonly followed for minor violations,90 but for more important violations, such as stealing, steps may be skipped. Be sure to document each step.91 If problem employees don’t change behavior, they should be fired to avoid more problems.92

Exhibit 9-4 GUIDELINES FOR EFFECTIVE DISCIPLINE

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9-3 APPLYING THE CONCEPT

Guidelines for Effective Discipline

Identify which guideline is being followed—or not being followed—in the following statements. Use the guidelines in Exhibit 9-4 as the answers, writing the letter of the guideline (A–H) on the line before the statement involving it.

____ 12. “Are you kidding me? Can you really fire me just for being late for work once?”

____ 13. “I didn’t know that I’m not supposed to make a personal call while I’m working. Can’t you let it go this one time?”

____ 14. “Some days, my boss comments about my being late, but other days, she doesn’t say anything about it.”

____ 15. “Let’s get back to the way things were before I had to discipline you, OK?”

____ 16. “Let’s go to my office so that we can discuss your rule violation now.”

____ 17. “I missed it. Why was the boss yelling at Rita?”

____ 18. “The boss comes back from break late all the time and nothing happens to him; so why do I get in trouble for being late?”

____ 19. “When I come to work late, the manager reprimands me. But when Latoya is late, nothing is ever said.”

____ 20. “The boss gave me a written warning for being late for work and placed it in my permanent record file.”

In some limited cases, we may add a sixth option between suspension and dismissal. We will discuss this option shortly. On the other hand, suspension may not appear in the progressive discipline process—as at Walmart, where any employee with more than three unauthorized absences in 6 months is disciplined with a warning and those with seven unauthorized absences are fired.93 Let’s briefly discuss each step in progressive discipline.

Step 1: Informal coaching talk. As we noted, the first step in progressive discipline is an informal coaching talk. In an informal talk, the supervisor may see an employee coming in late to work and just ask them what is going on and why they are late. Typically the manager won’t even write down a recording of such conversations for their own use, although they can do so in the critical incident file (Chapter 8). They’re just in an information-gathering and recognition mode at this point, and they hope to avoid any further disciplinary problems.

WORK APPLICATION 9-15

Assess how well your boss and the organization where you work or have worked follows the eight guidelines for effective discipline.

Step 2: Oral warning. In the second step, the supervisor formally tells the employee that their behavior is currently unacceptable and also tells them what they need to do to correct the behavior. In this situation, even though the supervisor does not write a report for the individual to sign, they will keep a formal record in their own files of this conversation. The oral warning is the first of our formal methods of disciplining an employee.

Step 3: Written warning. The third step is a written warning. In this situation, the supervisor writes up the facts of the situation (typically organizations have a standard form for documentation of written warnings). They identify the unacceptable behavior for the individual and identify ways to correct the behavior. The supervisor then speaks with the employee using the written document to assist the employee in correcting their actions. Typically here, we ask the employee to sign the written warning, acknowledging that their actions are under review and not currently acceptable. This signed paper (documentation) is then put into the employee’s permanent file.94

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Step 4: Disciplinary suspension. As a fourth step, we may move on to a disciplinary suspension of the employee for a period of from one day to typically a maximum of one week. Though most companies use an unpaid suspension, some companies have experimented with a paid day off to allow the employee to think of the suspension not as punishment but as time to figure out whether or not they wish to continue working for the organization. There is some evidence that these paid suspensions work, although the conclusions are slightly mixed.

OTHER OPTIONS BEFORE TERMINATION. Next, we have a couple of limited options we noted at the top of this section—options that would typically not be used but might be valuable in certain cases.

SHRM

A:1

Disciplinary Actions: Demotion, Disciplinary Termination

We can sometimes demote an individual to a lower position in the organization. In some cases, this may be valuable because the employee may be overwhelmed at the higher-level position. In general, however, demotion creates even more job dissatisfaction within the individual employee, and we may see their performance deteriorate even further.

Alternatively, we may choose in some cases to transfer an employee from one part of the organization to another. The only time when you should use a transfer as a progressive discipline measure would be when you know that there is a personality conflict between the employee and another employee in the unit or between the employee and their supervisor. Transfers should never be used simply to get rid of a problem employee from your department or division. If this is the reason for the transfer, the manager should not transfer the employee but should correct the problem behavior.

WORK APPLICATION 9-16

Describe progressive discipline where you work or have worked.

Step 5: Termination. The last resort is discharge. If the employee’s behavior does not improve over time as a result of verbal and written warnings, suspensions, demotions, or a transfer, we may be forced to let the employee go. However, if we followed the progressive discipline process, we will have sufficient evidence to limit the employee’s opportunity to bring an unlawful termination lawsuit against us.

THE DISCIPLINE MODEL. You should follow the steps of the discipline model below each time you must discipline an employee. The five steps are presented here and summarized in Model 9-2.

Step 1: Refer to past feedback. Begin the interview by refreshing the employee’s memory. Ifthe employee has been coached/counseled about the behavior, or if they have clearly broken a known rule, state that fact.

For example, refer to your prior coaching by saying, “Billie, remember my telling you about the proper way to lift boxes with your legs?” Or if there has been a rule violation, say, “Billie, you know the safety rule about lifting boxes with your legs.”

Step 2: Ask why the undesired behavior occurred. Giving the employee a chance to explain the behavior is part of getting all the necessary facts before you administer discipline. If you used prior coaching and the employee committed to changing the behavior at that time, then ask why the behavior did not change. If the behavior had changed, discipline would not be needed. Again, be sure to describe specific critical incidents to support your contention that behavior has not changed at all or has not changed enough to be at standard.

MODEL 9-2 THE DISCIPLINE MODEL

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For example, if there was prior coaching, say, “Two days ago, you told me that you would use your legs, rather than your back, to lift boxes. Why are you still using your back?” Or if there has been a rule violation, say, “Why are you breaking the safety rule and using your back, rather than your legs, to lift the box?”

Step 3: Administer the discipline. If there is no good reason for the undesirable behavior, administer the discipline. The discipline will vary with the stage in the disciplinary progression.

For example, if there has been prior coaching, say, “Because you have not changed your behavior, I’m giving you an oral warning.” If there has been a rule violation, say, “Because you have violated a safety rule, I’m giving you an oral warning.”

Step 4: Get a commitment to change and develop a plan. Try to get a commitment to change. If the employee will not commit, make a note of that fact in the critical incidents file or use the procedures for a written warning. If you have developed a change plan for the employee in the past, try to get the employee to commit to the plan again. Or develop a new plan, if necessary. A statement such as “Your previous attempt has not worked; there must be a better way” is often helpful. With a personal problem, offer professional help again. Offer recommendations for change and develop a plan to improve.95

For example, if there has been prior coaching or a rule violation, say, “Will you lift with your legs from now on? Is there a way to get you to remember to use your legs instead of your back when you lift?”

Step 5: Summarize and state expected follow-up. Summarize the discipline and state the follow-up disciplinary action to be taken. Part of follow-up is to document the discipline. At all stages, get the employee’s signature verifying the disciplinary action taken. If necessary, take the next step in the discipline model: dismissal.

For example, if there has been prior coaching or a rule violation, say, “So you agree to use your legs instead of your back when you lift. If I catch you again, you will be given a written warning, which is followed by a suspension and dismissal if necessary.”

WORK APPLICATION 9-17

Assess how well your present orpast boss used the discipline model with employees.

Terminating

Unfortunately, the coaching, counseling, and disciplining process will not always work to make a problem individual into a productive employee. Because this is the case, HR managers have to understand the process of termination, which is the final disciplinary step. We do not want to terminate individuals employed by the organization because, as we noted in Chapter 1, turnover is extremely expensive for the organization. We also need to insure that if we do decide to terminate an employee, we are treating them the same way as others who have committed the same types of infractions and have similar disciplinary histories. Otherwise we are violating the last two Just Cause tests. However, if an individual cannot be made into a productive member of the workforce, we have no other choice, and there is a benefit to turnover when you replace poor workers with better job matches.96

SHRM

M:3

Retention

First, let’s take a look at some of the offenses that might be cause for dismissal immediately upon completion of an investigation of the facts. Then we will discuss the dismissal process for nonmanagerial employees, managerial employees, and executives.

GROSS NEGLIGENCE AND SERIOUS MISCONDUCT. Organizations are generally allowed to set up their own rules, listing violations that are grounds for immediate termination without progressive discipline. For example, many firms list stealing money or other assets from the organization as cause for immediate dismissal. In companies that promote open and honest communications, there might be a rule that anyone caught lying will be fired.

Two of the more common situations in which we might immediately dismiss employees would be in cases of gross negligence or serious misconduct. What constitutes gross negligence or serious misconduct? Gross negligence is a serious failure to exercise care in the work environment. It is a reckless disregard for circumstances that could cause harm to others—a lack of concern for safety or life. So if in the course of work, someone failed to exercise care in a way that would be likely to hurt or kill others, then they would be guilty of gross negligence. For example, if an employee who was an electrician left a live high-voltage electrical line dangling into a hallway, they would be guilty of gross negligence because the live electrical line could seriously injure or kill someone who happened to come by and contact it.

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Serious misconduct is a little different from gross negligence. Where negligence is a failure to take care, misconduct is intentionally doing something that is likely to harm someone or something else. So, serious misconduct is intentional behavior that has the potential to cause great harm to another or to the company. An example of serious misconduct is bringing a weapon to work. This intentional action has the potential to cause great harm to others. One example that resulted in termination is the case of a police officer who, while intoxicated, engaged in a conversation with a group of men in public in which he used obscenities and racial slurs, showed his badge, and told the men to “stop blowing weed in my face,” all while being filmed with a smartphone.97 These types of incidents could be cause for termination of the individual responsible—of course only after an investigation to ensure that they actually did what they are accused of.

WORK APPLICATION 9-18

Give examples of reasons why employees can be terminated where you work or have worked.

TERMINATION OF NONMANAGERIAL EMPLOYEES. If employee offenses do not fit into the gross negligence or serious misconduct categories, should we still consider dismissal? Well, there are certainly times when we have to dismiss employees from the firm, such as when they fail to perform their job satisfactorily even after being thoroughly trained, or if they continually disregard rules or policies. But here, too, we have to make sure we follow the OUCH test, unlike the sheriff who terminated a deputy who attended a cookout and “liked” on Facebook the sheriff’s opponent in an upcoming election.98

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©iStockphoto.com/Zinkevych

Losing a job is difficult, but in some cases, people go on to more satisfying jobs.

Why do we need to dismiss employees who perform poorly or don’t follow reasonable rules? Again, it is because these types of behavior can be contagious in the organization, especially in the lower ranks of employees, and we can’t afford to have a large number of our employees failing to do their jobs correctly. In some cases, it only takes a few individuals to hurt or even destroy job satisfaction and employee engagement throughout the company. As managers in the organization, it is our job to make sure that this doesn’t happen, so we sometimes have to go through a termination process.

One of the things that we have to be concerned with is the legal risk to the organization when an employee is terminated. Employment-at-will can mitigate these risks, but it doesn’t completely eliminate them. As a result, we would usually want to use Just Cause procedures to analyze the situation and to make a determination concerning whether or not an employee’s action was sufficiently harmful to the organization to result in termination.

Once the initial determination is made (usually by the individual’s immediate supervisor), we usually want to subject the evidence to a review by another organizational manager. This individual may be the next person up the chain of command from the supervisor, it may be the company’s legal counsel, or it may be an HR representative. Regardless of who it is, the second reviewer will make an attempt to ensure that the supervisor’s decision was made in an objective fashion (following the OUCH test) and not based on an emotional reaction to the employee or to something they did.

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MANAGERIAL OR EXECUTIVE EMPLOYEES. What if the individual to be terminated is a manager or executive in the firm? Do we need to handle this process differently than we would with a lower-level employee? The answer is yes, because management in the organization typically works under different circumstances than do the lower-level employees. The basic process of analyzing the individual’s actions using Just Cause procedures should still be followed. However, in many cases, managerial employees will be hired through a contractual process. If the manager has a contract with the organization, that contract will typically identify when the manager may be terminated by the firm.

However, even managerial employees who are not under contract may need to be dealt with in a slightly different manner than one would deal with a normal employee. For one thing, managerial employees are usually held to higher ethical and behavioral standards by the firm than are lower-level employees.99 So an action that might not cause a lower-level employee to be terminated could quite possibly create a termination situation for a managerial or executive employee. As would happen in any other case, a judgment concerning the individual’s actions will have to be made, and an appropriate level of reaction by the firm will be identified.

There is one more thing that makes managerial terminations different from others. In reality, in most cases when a managerial worker has failed to perform successfully or has committed a disciplinary infraction that would cause termination, they are usually given the option to resign rather than face termination by the organization. Whether this is right or wrong, it is a common practice in most industries. The only time that this would typically not happen is in a case where circumstances are so egregious that the organization is forced to terminate the individual in order to avoid other more serious consequences, such as lawsuits against the organization for the individual’s behavior. You may remember that the founder of Uber, Travis Kalanick, was basically forced to “resign” as CEO because of a list of scandals at the company.100 He would likely have been terminated if he had not chosen the option of resignation.

In public companies, the board of directors must agree to dismissal of executives. Another factor that must be considered is the fact that in many cases, company executives will have a noncompete clause as part of their employment agreement. This matters because in some situations, if a noncompete case goes to court, the judge will determine whether or not the company is allowing the former executive the opportunity to make a living. If the judge feels that the noncompete clause makes it impossible for the former executive to become gainfully employed, the noncompete clause may be removed from the employment agreement. So we have to be very concerned that if we terminate a managerial-level employee, that executive will bring knowledge about our operations to a rival firm, which then will compete more effectively against our company.

One last concern in termination of managerial or executive employees is the fact that these employees typically have access to company files, records, and computers and may have broad knowledge of the firm’s operations. Because of this, there’s the potential for managerial or executive employees to be able to harm the organization if they know they’re going to be dismissed. So, managerial and executive dismissals must include the concern that company files and records be protected to an extra degree to avoid potential sabotage or misappropriation of information.

Coaching, Counseling, and Discipline May Differ Globally

Do coaching, counseling, and discipline work the same way around the world? Not always. Much of the process of employee development will vary based on national culture, including behavioral norms. A recent article notes that “It is clear cultural competency will be a prerequisite for managers in the future.”101 We must keep this in mind if we wish to become successful coaches, counselors, and disciplinarians.

There are certainly cultural issues that need to be understood in global coaching and counseling sessions. For instance, in high power-distance cultures, it may be impossible for the manager to ask a lot of questions of the employee about what they might think of a situation. In these societies, the manager (coach) is considered to have more and better knowledge of what is necessary in an organizational context than the employee does. So if the manager asks the employee what they think should be done, the manager will quite likely lose the respect of the employee.

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However, the most important thing in any successful interaction between the coach and the recipient of coaching is probably an understanding of the individual, not the culture that the individual comes from.102 This is because no matter what culture a person belongs to, individual personalities may or may not adhere to cultural norms and values. Therefore, two of the most significant issues that the coach needs to attempt to determine are the individual’s personality type and their motivators.103Once we know the individual, we can add in the cultural context to understand what is likely to happen based on a specific set of coaching actions. From these pieces of information, a good coach can design a program that will improve performance.

LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT

LO 9-4

Identify the factors that positive leadership takes into account to be successful.

Leadership is a topic of great interest to both scholars and managers,104 and leadership is ranked in the top five skills that companies value in new hires.105 Why? Because leadership is an important factor contributing to organizational success.106

WORK APPLICATION 9-19

Assess the leadership skills of your present or past boss. How effective was the boss at influencing employees to achieve the organization’s goals?

Leadership

Leadership is the process of influencing employees to work toward the achievement of organizational objectives. It is commonly believed that success or failure is based on top management leadership. Do you believe Apple would be the company it is today without its co-founder Steve Jobs or Microsoft without Bill Gates? Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett is best known as the investment guru, but his management record is just as good. Buffett has more than 60 operating units; he buys companies and turns them around and makes good companies even better.107

Over the past 50 years or so, leadership has been one of the most widely taught subjects in business schools around the globe.108 Also, business sections of bookstores are full of books on the latest leadership gimmicks and fads,109 unfortunately most are not based on scientific research like the theories you will learn in this book. In a survey, managers were asked to agree or disagree with the following statements; here is the percentage of “agree” answers.110

• My company screens external candidates on the basis of leadership ability— 77% agreed.

• My company devotes significant resources to leadership development— 63% agreed.

• My company is effective at building a leadership pipeline—71% agreed.

• My company evaluates employees on their leadership potential—87% agreed.

People tend to use the terms manager and leader interchangeably. However, managers and leaders differ.111 Leading is just one of the five major management functions that we originally noted in Chapter 1. Management gives position power and is broader in scope than leadership, but leadership is critical to management success.112 A manager can have this position without being a true leader. There are managers—you may know of some—who are not leaders because they do not have the ability to influence others. There are also good leaders who are not managers. An informal leader, for example a member of an employee group, is a case in point. You may have worked in a situation (or been on a sports team) where one of your peers had more influence than the manager.

Apple’s Steve Jobs was viewed as a leader in his ability to influence others to make great products, but he was not viewed as a good manager. Chief Operating Officer (COO) Tim Cook did most of the management at Apple; and as CEO today, he is viewed as both a good manager and a good leader.113In fact, Cook was given the title “The World’s Greatest Leader” by Fortune in 2015.114

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SHRM

Q:7

Leadership Development

Situational Management

There are several leadership theories, which are beyond the scope of this book. Here we focus on one: “how to” lead effectively as a situational manager. Management is typically understood as taking place in a situation,115 so leaders need to change their behavior to meet the situational characteristics.116This is often called contingency leadership or situational leadership.117 Hewlett-Packard (HP)CEO Meg Whitman says that she is a big believer in situational leadership.118 Duke Universitybasketball Coach K says you have to adjust your leadership to the composition of your team.119 But it is not easy, as managers are expected to treat followers uniformly and consistently, while considering individual needs and sometimes making exceptions.120 Thus, leaders need to use situational control.121

Leaders have to take into account a variety of contingency factors. There are many contingency factors in modern organizations. Some of the common contingencies that we deal with in leadership include the leader’s personality characteristics and style, follower ability and motivation, and the complexity of the situation, among many others.

We use models to represent the world of managers,122 and there are many academic models of leadership.123 But before you learn about the situational management model and how to use it with individuals and teams, complete the self-assessment to determine your preferred management style.

According to contingency theorists, there is no best management style for all situations.124 Instead, effective managers adapt their styles to individual capabilities or group situations.125

USING THE SITUATIONAL MANAGEMENT MODEL. A leadership model is a short (one-page) summary of the theory to be used when selecting the appropriate leadership style for a given situation.126 Now let’s learn how to use the situational management model, which promotes positive leadership, to select the most appropriate management style in a given situation; see Model 9-3.

Employee capability. There are two distinct aspects of employee capability:

• Ability. Do employees have the knowledge, experience, education, skills, and training to do a particular task without direction?

• Motivation. Do the employees have the confidence to do the task? Do they want to do the task? Are they committed to performing the task? Will they perform the task without encouragement and support?

Employee capability may be measured on a continuum from low to outstanding. As a manager, you assess each employee’s capability level and motivation on a scale from C1 to C4; see Model 9-3.

Employees tend to start working with low capability, needing close direction. As their ability to do the job increases, managers can begin to be supportive and can probably cease close supervision. As a manager, you must gradually develop your employees from low to outstanding levels over time.

Manager/employee interactions. Managers’ interactions with employees can be classified into two distinct categories of behavior:

• Directive Behavior. The manager focuses on directing and controlling behavior to ensure that tasks get done and closely oversees performance.

• Supportive Behavior. The manager focuses on encouraging and motivating behavior without telling the employees what to do. The manager explains things and listens to employee views, helping employees make their own decisions by building up their confidence and self-esteem.

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9-1 SELF ASSESSMENT

Your Preferred Management Styles

Following are 12 situations. Select the one alternative that most closely describes what you would do in each situation. Don’t be concerned with trying to pick the right answer; select the course of action you would really use. Circle a, b, c, or d. (Ignore the C ____ preceding each situation and the S ____ following each answer choice; these will be explained later in this section in “Apply the Most Appropriate Management Styles,” on p. 328.)

C ____ 1. Your rookie crew seems to be developing well. Their need for direction and close supervision is diminishing. What do you do?

a. Stop directing and overseeing performance unless there is a problem. S ____

b. Spend time getting to know them personally, but make sure they maintain performance levels. S ____

c. Make sure things keep going well; continue to direct and oversee them closely. S ____

d. Begin to discuss new tasks that are of interest to them. S ____

C ____ 2. You assigned Jill a task, specifying exactly how you wanted it done. Jill deliberately ignored your directions and did it her way. The job will not meet the customer’s standards. This is not the first problem you’ve had with Jill. What do you decide todo?

a. Listen to Jill’s side, but be sure the job gets done right. S ____

b. Tell Jill to do it again the right way, and closely supervise the job. S ____

c. Tell her the customer will not accept the job, and let Jill handle it her way. S ____

d. Discuss the problem and solutions to it. S ____

C ____ 3. Your employees work well together and are a real team; the department is the top performer in the organization. Because of traffic problems, the company president has approved staggered hours for departments. As a result, you can change your department’s hours. Several of your workers are in favor of changing. What action do you take?

a. Allow the group to decide the new hours. S ____

b. Decide on new hours, explain why you chose them, and invite questions. S ____

c. Conduct a meeting to get the group members’ ideas. Select new hours together, with your approval. S ____

d. Send out a memo stating the hours you want. S ____

C ____ 4. You recently hired Bill, but he is not performing at the level expected after a month’s training. Bill is trying, but he seems to be a slow learner. What do you decide to do?

a. Clearly explain what needs to be done and oversee his work. Discuss why the procedures are important; support and encourage him. S ____

b. Tell Bill that his training is over and it’s time to pull his own weight. S ____

c. Review task procedures and supervise his work closely. S ____

d. Inform Bill that his training is over and that he should feel free to come to you if he has any problems. S ____

C ____ 5. Helen has had an excellent performance record for the last 5 years. Recently, you have noticed a drop in the quality and quantity of her work. She has a family problem. What do you do?

a. Tell her to get back on track and closely supervise her. S ____

b. Discuss the problem with Helen. Help her realize that her personal problem is affecting her work. Discuss ways to improve the situation. Be supportive and encourage her. S ____

c. Tell Helen you’re aware of her productivity slip and that you’re sure she’ll work it out soon. S ____

d. Discuss the problem and solution with Helen and supervise her closely. S ____

C ____ 6. Your organization does not allow smoking in certain areas. You just walked by a restricted area and saw Joan smoking. She has been with the organization for 10 years and is a very productive worker. Joan has never been caught smoking before. What action do you take?

a. Ask her to put the cigarette out, and then leave. S ____

b. Discuss why she is smoking and what she intends to do about it. S ____

c. Give her a lecture about not smoking and check up on her in the future. S ____

d. Tell her to put the cigarette out, watch her do it, and tell her you will check on her in the future. S ____

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C ____ 7. Your employees usually work well together, with little direction. Recently, a conflict between Sue and Tom has caused problems. What action do you take?

a. Call Sue and Tom together and make them realize how this conflict is affecting the department. Discuss how to resolve it and how you will check to make sure the problem is solved. S ____

b. Let the group resolve the conflict. S ____

c. Have Sue and Tom sit down and discuss their conflict and how to resolve it. Support their efforts to implement a solution. S ____

d. Tell Sue and Tom how to resolve their conflict and closely supervise them. S ____

C ____ 8. Jim usually does his share of the work with some encouragement and direction. However, he has migraine headaches occasionally and doesn’t pull his weight when they happen. The others resent doing Jim’s work. What do you decide to do?

a. Discuss his problem and help him come up with ideas for maintaining his workload; be supportive. S ____

b. Tell Jim to do his share of the work and closely watch his output. S ____

c. Inform Jim that he is creating a hardship for the others and should resolve the problem by himself. S ____

d. Be supportive but set minimum performance levels and ensure compliance. S ____

C ____ 9. Barbara, your most experienced and productive worker, came to you with a detailed idea that could increase your department’s productivity at a very low cost. She can do her present job plus this new assignment. You think it’s an excellent idea. What do you do?

a. Set some goals together. Encourage and support her efforts. S ____

b. Set up goals for Barbara. Be sure she agrees with them and sees you as being supportive of her efforts. S ____

c. Tell Barbara to keep you informed and come to you if she needs any help. S ____

d. Have Barbara check in with you frequently so that you can direct and supervise her activities. S ____

C____10. Your boss asked you for a special report. Frank, a very capable worker who usually needs no direction or support, has all the necessary skills to do the job. However, Frank is reluctant because he has never done a report. What do you do?

a. Tell Frank he has to do it. Give him direction and supervise him closely. S ____

b. Describe the project to Frank and let him do it his own way. S ____

c. Describe the benefits to Frank. Get his ideas on how to do it and check his progress. S ____

d. Discuss possible ways of doing the job. Be supportive; encourage Frank. S ____

C____11. Jean is the top producer in your department. However, her monthly reports are constantly late and contain errors. You are puzzled because she does everything else with no direction or support. What do you decide to do?

a. Go over past reports, explaining to Jean exactly what is expected of her. Schedule a meeting so that you can review the next report with her. S ____

b. Discuss the problem with Jean and ask her what can be done about it; be supportive. S ____

c. Explain the importance of the report. Ask her what the problem is. Tell her that you expect the next report to be on time and error-free. S ____

d. Remind Jean to get the next report in on time, without errors. S ____

C____12. Your workers are very effective and like to participate in decision making. A consultant was hired to develop a new method for your department using the latest technology in the field. What do you do?

a. Explain the consultant’s method and let the group decide how to implement it. S ____

b. Teach the workers the new method and supervise them closely as they use it. S ____

c. Explain to the workers the new method and the reasons it is important. Teach them the method and make sure the procedure is followed. Answer questions. S ____

d. Explain the new method and get the group’s input on ways to improve and implement it. S ____

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To determine your preferred management style, circle the letter you selected for each situation.

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Now add up the number of circled items per column. The column with the most items circled suggests your preferred management style. Is this the style you tend to use most often?

Your management style flexibility is reflected in the distribution of your answers. The more evenly distributed the numbers, the more flexible your style. A total of 1 or 0 for any column may indicate a reluctance to use that style.

As a manager, you can focus on directing (getting the task done), supporting (developing relationships), or both.

Management styles. Based on the employee capability level and the type of behavior they need, we select the most appropriate management style for the situation; see Model 9-3 and the list below for a description of each of the four management styles.

• An autocratic style is highly directive and low in supportiveness. Using the autocratic style is appropriate when interacting with low-capability employees. Give very detailed instructions describing exactly what the task is and when, where, and how to perform it. Closely oversee performance and give some support. The majority of your time with the employees should be spent giving directions and supervising their performance. Make decisions without input from the employees.

• A consultative style involves highly directive and highly supportive behavior, and it is appropriate when interacting with moderately capable employees. Give specific instructions and oversee performance at all major stages of a task. At the same time, support the employees by explaining why they should perform the task as requested and answering their questions. Work on building relationships with the employees as you explain the benefits of completing the task your way. Give fairly equal amounts of time to directing and supporting employees. When making decisions, you may consult employees individually, but you must retain the final say. Once you make the decision, which can incorporate employees’ ideas, you should direct and oversee employees’ performance.

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MODEL 9-3 SITUATIONAL MANAGEMENT

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• A participative style is characterized by low directive behavior and high supportive behavior, and it is appropriate when interacting with employees with high capability. Spend a small amount of time giving general directions and a great deal of time giving encouragement. Spend limited time overseeing performance, letting employees do the task their way while focusing on the end result. Support the employees by encouraging them and building up their self-confidence. If a task needs to be done, don’t tell them how to do it; ask them how they will accomplish it. Make decisions together or allow employees to make decisions subject to your guidelines and approval.

• An empowering style requires providing very little direction or support to employees, and it is appropriate when interacting with outstanding employees. You should let them know what needs to be done and answer their questions, but it is not necessary to oversee their performance. Such employees are highly motivated and need little, if any, support. Allow them to make their own decisions, which can be subject to your approval. Other terms for empowerment are laissez-faire and hands off. A manager who uses this style lets employees alone to do their own thing.

APPLY THE MOST APPROPRIATE MANAGEMENT STYLES. As part of Skill Builder 9-3, or on your own, return to 9-1 Self-Assessment (p. 325), where you determined your preferred management style. Identify the employee capability level for each of the 12 items and indicate the capability level by placing a number from 1 to 4 on the line marked “C” before each item. The number 1 indicates low capability, 2 indicates moderate capability, 3 indicates high capability, and 4 indicates outstanding capability. Next, indicate the management style represented in each answer choice by placing the letter A (Autocratic), C (Consultative), P (Participative), or E (Empowering) on the line marked “S” following each answer choice. Will your preferred management style result in the optimum performance of the task?

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Let’s see how you did by looking back at the first situation.

1. C ____ 1. Your rookie crew seems to be developing well. Their need for direction and close supervision is diminishing. What do you do?

a. Stop directing and overseeing performance unless there is a problem. S ____

b. Spend time getting to know them personally, but make sure they maintain performance levels. S ____

c. Make sure things keep going well; continue to direct and oversee them closely. S____

d. Begin to discuss new tasks that are of interest to them. S ____

WORK APPLICATION 9-20

Assess how well your present or past boss was at using the appropriate management style for your capability level and those of a couple of other employees.

• As a rookie crew, the employees’ capability started at a low level, but they have now developed to the moderate level. If you put the number 2 on the Cline, you were correct.

• Alternative (a) is E, the empowering style, involving low direction and support. Alternative (b) is C, the consultative style, involving both high direction and high support. Alternative (c) is A, the autocratic style, involving high direction but low support. Alternative (d) is P, the participative style, involving low direction and high support (in discussing employee interests).

• If you selected (b) as the management style that best matches the situation, you were correct. However, in the business world, there is seldom only one way to handle a situation successfully. Therefore, in this exercise, you are given points based on how successful your behavior would be in each situation. In situation 1, (b) is the most successful alternative because it involves developing the employees gradually; answer (b) is worth 3 points. Alternative (c) is the next-best alternative and is worth 2 points, while (d) is worth 1point. That’s because it is better to keep things the way they are now than to try to rush employee development, which would probably cause problems. Alternative (a) is the least effective and is worth 0 points. That’s because choosing that option would mean you are going from one extreme of supervision to the other, and the odds are therefore great that this approach will cause problems that will diminish your management success.

The better you match your management style to your employees’ capabilities, the greater are your chances of being a successful manager.

TEAMS AND ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE

LO 9-5

Briefly discuss the stages of the change process, and how we can overcome our own and others’ resistance to change.

Modern companies must be designed to utilize teams, and they are constantly faced with the need to change. Therefore, companies are adopting team-based organizational designs.127 Why are teams an absolute requirement in today’s firms? The answer lies in complexity of the environment. In a massively changing, technologically shifting world, no single individual has all of the skills necessary to meet those challenges. A strong team of people with complimentary skill sets, however, can provide the company with all of the necessary skills. Teamwork skills are based on your ability to work well with others (human relations skills, Chapter 1), by developing relationships.128 Necessary business competencies include team skills,129 as the ability to work collaboratively is an important skill company recruiters seek in job applicants.130

In addition to teams, disruption of historical business processes is an ongoing issue, requiring almost constant change management efforts in most companies today. Progress is impossible without change,131 and change continues to get faster.132 Managers have to be change agents, individuals who lead change efforts on behalf of the organization andwho do not allow others to remain in the past, using old techniques and technologies. So let’s take a quick look at how modern managers lead others in facing these two issuesnow.

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SHRM

A:7

Managing Teams

Building Effective Work Teams

Although firms are relying on team creativity to innovate change,133 some US workers do not like having to work in teams due to the individualistic nature of American culture. But today, we usually don’t have any choice, either as leaders or as followers, about whether or not we work in teams. The major reason is that in most cases, you can’t succeed without an effective team effort, and organizations are using teams to create competitive advantage.134 Square and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey says that he focuses on building teams.135 You can improve important teamwork skills and your ability to develop and build teams.136

Advances in information and telecommunications technologies are allowing new ways of structuring, processing, and distributing work and overcoming the barriers of distance and time with global virtual teams.137 The members of global virtual teams are physically located in different places but work together as a team. Multinational corporations developing new global products, such as GE, Disney, and Google,138 and those with 24/7/365 tech support, such as HP and IBM, and small businesses, such as N2 Publishing and Bumble online dating service, have global virtual teams.139

Organizations need team members who can work well together. Group process, also called group dynamics,140 is about how members get along, not how they do their work. Relationships affect our behavioral interactions in groups,141 and group process affects team performance.142 Thus, firms are working to improve team dynamics through organizational development (OD).143 Team building is probably the most widely used OD technique today,144 and its popularity will continue as more companies use work teams due tothe complexity of the work environment.145 The goals of team-building programs varyconsiderably, depending on the group’s needs and the change agent’s skills.146Some typical goals are as follows:

WORK APPLICATION 9-21

Assess how well your present boss is or your past boss was at developing employees to perform as an effective team.

• To clarify the objectives of the team and the responsibilities of each team member

• To identify problems preventing the team from accomplishing its objectives

• To develop team problem-solving, decision-making, objective-setting, and planning skills

• To develop open, honest working relationships based on trust and an understanding of group members

Team-building programs also vary in terms of agenda and length, depending on team needs.

SHRM

N:6

Leading Change

Managing the Change Process

Change happens at the individual, team, or organizational level, and it impacts all aspects of organizational life.147 Change is critical for firm performance and survival.148 Adapting to dynamic environments has been identified as a major element in maintaining competitiveness149 with appropriate strategies.150 Any company that fails to change its business model,151 and embrace change will be overtaken by it.152 Research supports the idea that companies that change regularly outperform those that don’t.153 Thus, top managers are inclined to change in order to obtain a competitive advantage.154 John Chambers, Cisco’s former CEO, said that his most important decisions are about adjusting to change.155 So your ability to be flexible enough to change with the diversifying global environment will affect your career success.156

SHRM

N:1

Stages of Change Management

People go through four distinct stages when facing change, so we need to manage change through each stage. The four stages of the change process are denial, resistance, exploration, and commitment. They are presented in Exhibit 9-5 and are described using HP as an example below. Notice that the stages in Exhibit 9-5 are laid out in a circular formation because change is an ongoing process, not a linear one. People can regress, as the arrows show.

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Exhibit 9-5 STAGES OF THE CHANGE PROCESS

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WORK APPLICATION 9-22

Identify a major change. Assess how well your present or past boss was at managing change through each of the four stages of change.

1. Denial. Changes are often difficult to understand or accept.157 So when people first hear that change is coming, they may deny that it will affect them.

2. Resistance. Once people get over the initial shock and realize that change is going to be a reality, they often resist the change. This stage is so important that in the next subsection, we will present seven ways to help overcome resistance to change.

3. Exploration. When the change begins to be implemented, employees explore the change, often through training—and ideally, they begin to better understand how the change will affect them.

4. Commitment. Through exploration, employees determine their level of commitment to making the change a success. Commitment is necessary to implement the change, but some employees will continue to resist the change.158

SHRM

N:8

Implementing Change

Overcoming Resistance to Change

Let’s face it. As stated by J.C. Penney’s chairman Michael Ullman, “only a baby with a wet diaper likes change.”159 We don’t want to change our habits and routines.160 Some people deliberately attempt to kill good ideas161 and block change efforts.162Most change programs fail because of employee resistance to change.163 Because resistance to change is one of the most difficult factors in successful change implementation, let’s start by discussing our own resistance to change, followed by overcoming others resistance to change.

SHRM

N:4

Building Trust

OUR RESISTANCE TO CHANGE HABITS. Do you really like your daily routine disrupted?164 Are you bound by your habits of repetition?165 If you can’t change your mind and embrace change, you cannot change anything.166So the aim is to cultivate a mind-set that embraces change in ourselves and others.167 Easier said than done, right? Well the first step is to realize we need to take a positive attitude about change. Let’s face it, if we know we have to make a change, resisting it doesn’t help—so accept it and move forward. As Nike says, Just Do It!

Have you ever wondered why people do illogical things? It helps to realize that our brains cling to habit at the exclusion of all else, including common sense. Or our feeling and habits overrule common sense. So to make a change we have to change our thoughts and habit, or make the change a habit to make it successful.168 The reason most people don’t keep their New Year’s resolution is they don’t make it a habit. If you say you will exercise more, but don’t make a scheduled time to work out (routine habit), you won’t work out. When we change our habits, we change our lives. Developing a habit takes conscious planning and effort—schedule time to work out. A habit has three parts, and here are three examples listed A−C.

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Cue —reminds you to (or not to) do the behavior. (A). Running shoes left near your bed. (B.) Phone dings. (C.) Feel sad.

Routine —do the behavior. (A.) Run first thing in the morning. (B.) Check your phone. (C.) Eat and/or drink.

Reward —reinforce doing the behavior to make it a habit. (A.) Endorphin rush, feel good about yourself and healthier, weight loss and more energy, healthy breakfast. (B.)Words with the caller. We crave the ding and the rush of endorphins it promises—that is why most people are addicted to their phones and have to multitask (Chapter 5). (C.)Temporary escape from sadness, which often doesn’t work and can lead to other problems and bad habits.

Let’s be realistic. If we try to change a habit, we will most likely slip and not exercise or cheat on our diet. The question is, “How do you handle the slip?” Are you going to give up and go back to your old habits, or will you get back to your new routine? Caution—once you slip, and the more often you slip, the easier it is to go back to your old habits.

Think about it. What is your usual attitude about and level of resistance toward change? Are there any good habits you should develop, or bad self-destructive ones you should drop or replace? Will you work at being more positive about accepting change and consciously develop habits to succeed? Skill Builder Exercise 9-4, Developing a Habit (p. 341), can help.

OTHERS’ RESISTANCE TO CHANGE. Here we focus primarily on overcoming others’ resistance to change, but these seven tips can also apply to ourselves. Companies do create newhabits with changes; they are commonly called procedures and rules for completing new tasks.

1. Develop a positive trust climate for change. Develop and maintain good human relations. Make employees realize you have their best interests in mind and develop mutual trust.169Constantly look for better ways to do things. Encouraging employees to suggest changes and implementing their ideas are important parts of continuous improvement.

2. Plan. Implementing changes successfully requires good planning. You need to identify the possible resistance to change and plan how to overcome it. View change from the employees’ position. Set clear objectives so employees know exactly what the change is and how it affects them.170 The next four steps should be part of your plan.

3. Clearly state why the change is needed and how it will affect employees. Employees want and need to know why the change is necessary and how it will affect them, both positively and negatively.171 So you need to communicate clearly what you want to do.172 Employees need to understand why the new, changed method is more legitimate than the existing method of doing things.173 Be open and honest with employees. Giving employees the facts as far in advance as possible helps them to overcome fear of the unknown.174

4. Create a win-win situation. We have a desire to win.175 The goal of human relations is to meet employee needs while achieving departmental and organizational objectives. To overcome resistance to change, be sure to answer the other parties’ unasked question, “What’s in it for me?” When people can see how they benefit, they are more willing to change.176 If the organization is going to benefit from the change, so should the employees—so provide incentives for change.177

5. Involve employees. To create a win-win situation, involve employees. A commitment to change is usually critical to its successful implementation.178 Employees who participate in developing changes are more committed to those changes thanare employees who have changes dictated to them. To get employee involvement and commitment to change, phrase your own ideas as if they were someone else’s.179

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WORK APPLICATION 9-23

Assess how well your present boss or your past boss used the seven ways to overcome resistance tochange.

6. Provide support and evaluation. To overcome resistance to change, employees need to know that managers are there to help them cope with the changes. So, relationships matter.180 Managers need to make the learning process as painless as possible by providing training and other support. To ensure that the change is implemented and that employees don’t regress to old habits, performance appraisals (discussed in the next chapter) need to be tied to successful implementation of the change.181

SHRM

N:7

Planning Change Strategy

7. Create urgency. When you decide on a change, you have to move fast.182 Many people procrastinate on making changes. A feeling of urgency is the primary driver toward taking action. If something is perceived as urgent, it is given a high priority and is often done immediately.183

SHRM

N:3

Communication

As a manager of change, you must anticipate whether resistance will be strong, weak, or somewhere in between. Resistance will be lower if you use the seven methods for overcoming resistance to change. Did you ever hear of BlackBerry (this is the word people used to use to refer to a smart phone) and Nokia? They are the former best-selling cellphone companies. But they didn’t create urgency or implement the other six tips effectively to make the necessary changes to maintain market leadership as Samsung Galaxy and Apple iPhone are now top sellers.

TRENDS AND ISSUES IN HRM

LO 9-6

Discuss the process of providing corrective feedback and identify the problems created by modern social media at work.

In this chapter’s trends and issues, we are first going to review the process of providing corrective feedback—a form of feedback to resolve problem behaviors—and then look at the harm that can be done in the workplace by ready access to social media.

Good Feedback Makes a Good Manager

As you can easily see by reading this chapter, feedback is one of the most critical managerial obligations. Whether we are coaching, counseling, or disciplining an employee or providing feedback to other parts of the organization, good quality feedback is a requirement for maximum effectiveness and efficiency. Let’s explore the general process of providing feedback and give you some hints for providing feedback in difficult situations. You probably noticed a pattern in the corrective feedbackprocess in each of the sections in this chapter where it was discussed: identify what is happening and what is wrong with the current performance; provide information on desired performance; get a commitment to change; follow up. Let’s look at how to use these in a little more depth, because giving corrective feedback is not easy the first few times you do it.

You, as the manager or supervisor, will be the one tasked with starting the feedback conversation. Do not go into the act of providing feedback by accusing the employee of intentionally failing to do what they needed to. Talk with them; see what is going on; ask about issues or problems that you may not know about; but initiate the conversation as soon as possible after you notice something is wrong. Once the conversation starts, you may be faced with a number of reactions, from crying, to anger, to denial that they are at fault and attempting to deflect blame, or just refusing to listen. How should these and other negative responses be handled?

First, as we noted earlier, stick with the facts. Don’t allow your emotions to control your response to the employee. Recall the information on emotional intelligence, or EQ, in Chapter 7, and remember to “understand and manage” your emotions. Second, remember that feedback is an attempt to make the employee better at what they do, not an attempt to belittle them. Explain the issues clearly and make sure the employee knows that you are working to help. Third, do not allow the employee to deflect responsibility because of their emotional reaction to the feedback. For instance, if the employee cries, provide emotional support; but do not back off from the facts of the situation. If they yell, let them know that the only reason that you are providing feedback is that you want them to do better. You have no intention of harming them unnecessarily.

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The key to good feedback is control. You have to control your emotions. You have to control the message to the employee. And you have to control their response so that they do not avoid taking responsibility for their actions. So preparation for the meeting is key. A SHRM and Harvard Business Review paper notes that “You’ll feel better prepared if you do your homework in advance and ground your assessments in observations, data, and concrete examples.”184 Good quality feedback is an absolute necessity if you are going to get the best performance out of your employees, and that is why you are there as a manager!

Social Media and the Web Continue to Create Managerial Nightmares

Employee use, and employer monitoring of social media continues to be an issue for many organizations. While, as we noted in the first part of this chapter, employees are concerned with an expected right to privacy, employers must be concerned with both the individual and collective employees as well as the well-being of the organization as a whole. The result of all of the rights, obligations, expectations, and so on, is a delicate balancing act on the part of management.

Nearly every person who has an email account, much less a social media account, has at some point sent something that they almost immediately regretted. One columnist noted that “People were snapping at each other long before the Internet. Email and texting have only made it easier: We can now respond instantaneously, much faster than our rational brain can intervene.”185 This is a problem that we have never faced before. In an age of instant communication, we don’t always think about the damage we may be doing to ourselves or others when we rip off what we consider to be a witty zinger, or a heartfelt complaint—and then the repercussions start rolling in. We can also communicate with thousands or even millions of people (think of any viral video you have seen) whom we don’t know and who don’t know us, and that may also do harm that we didn’t intend.

The problem for the organization comes when—in the eyes of the employer—the individual employee does potential or actual harm to the company or other employees within it. In one well-publicized case, Yelp terminated a young employee who wrote an open letter (one that anyone on the Web could read) to the company CEO telling him how poorly paid and badly treated she and her coworkers were.186 The letter provided anyone who read it with a picture of Yelp that was less than flattering. In another case, employees of a DirecTV contractor (Mastec in Coral Gables, FL) were given incentives to push customers to pay for phone installations that they felt were unnecessary in an attempt to deceive those customers. When the company ignored them, they contacted the local TV news and were interviewed by a reporter. And then the company fired them.187

The actions that the company can or cannot take are not always clear based on law and existing precedent. In the Mastec case, the employees filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board, or NLRB188 (we will discuss this topic in detail in the next chapter) claiming that they were engaged in “protected concerted activity” in connection with the company’s policies. The employees initially lost, but when they appealed to a federal Circuit Court, the court agreed that their treatment had violated labor laws. But in other cases, companies have prevailed in disciplinary actions. If the company spells out in policy when, how, and why they monitor things such as email, and what the potential consequences are to the employee who violates the rules, monitoring is generally legal—at least under federal law. State laws vary widely on this topic. And “Just because you can legally monitor e-mails doesn’t mean that you should or that it is good management practice.”189

So managers have to continue to make judgment calls on when and how to intervene when employees have done potential harm to the company. Management is also responsible for keeping up with changing regulatory guidance and legal changes. And, most of all, managers are responsible for the protection of the company and all of the employees therein. If you as a manager were to come across evidence that one employee was harassing others—whether the reason is religion, race, sexual, or anything else—you would be obligated to act to protect those individuals and the organization.

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DIGITAL RESOURCES

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Employee Management*

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Discipline in the Workplace

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To Post or Not to Post

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Employee Rights*

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Drug Testing

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Employer Rights, Employee Privacy and Aids

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Motivating Employees

* premium video only available in the interactive eBook

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CHAPTER SUMMARY

9-1. Identify the commonly accepted individual rights in the workplace.

The commonly accepted employee rights of individuals within the workplace include the following:

1. Right of free consent—the right of the individual to know what they are being asked to do, and the consequences of doing it

2. Right to due process—a right to not be punished arbitrarily or without reason. Generally, we use the seven tests for Just Cause to protect this right.

3. Right to life and safety—the right of everyone in the organization to be protected from harm while working

4. Right of freedom of conscience—a general right to not be forced to violate the individual’s personal values and beliefs on the job

5. Right to privacy—a right to protection from unreasonable searches or intrusions into their personal space at work

6. Right to free speech—freedom to express their opinions or concerns within the organization, without fear of harming their work relationship

9-2. Identify the rights that management has in modern organizations.

1. Management first has a right to create and enforce an employee code of conduct.

2. Management has the right to create workplace data and device policies to protect data and to maintain control of its networks.

3. Managers also have a right to monitor the workplace to protect the organization and its employees.

4. The organization can also identify the relationship with workers as one of employment-at-will, which basically allows either party to break the relationship at any time, even without stating a reason.

5. Management also has a right to set up an orientation period and require that new employees attend such orientation.

6. Finally, management has a right to test for drugs in the workplace. In each case, these rights are offered based on the need for managers to be able to protect the organization and the employees from unnecessary danger or harm.

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9-3. Briefly describe the coaching, counseling, and progressive discipline processes and how they are used.

Coaching is designed to give employees feedback to improve their performance over time. This feedback in general should be designed to improve the employee’s motivation to perform for the organization. The coaching process occurs in four basic steps: describing what is presently being done by the employee; describing what the manager wants the employees to change about the way they perform; get a commitment to change; and follow up to ensure that the employee is behaving in the desired manner.

The management counseling process is designed to provide employees with feedback so that they understand that their performance is not currently at an acceptable level, and it’s designed to provide them with guidance on how to improve their performance over time. The purpose of management counseling is to get employees back on track with their work so that they can perform at an acceptable or even exceptional level.

Progressive discipline is usually used for minor disciplinary infractions within the organization. It provides progressively stronger sanctions against an employee who continues to behave in an unacceptable manner in the organization, based on rules or policies. The sequence of progressive discipline is as follows: (1) informal talk, (2) oral warning, (3)written warning, (4) suspension, (5) in some cases, demotion or transfer, and (6) dismissal.

9-4. Identify the factors that positive leadership takes into account to be successful.

The first factor is employee capability, which consists of the ability and motivation to do the job (going from: low, moderate, high, to outstanding). Next, we have to classify manager−employee interactions into directive behavior, which focuses on controlling employee behavior, and supportive behavior, which focuses on encouraging behavior without directly controlling that behavior (high- or low- directive and supportive behavior). Finally, we take into account management style, which can be autocratic (used with low-capability employees; managers use high directive and low supportive behavior), consultative (used with moderate-capability employees; managers use high directive and highly supportive behavior), participative (used with high-capability employees; managers use low directive and high supportive behavior), or empowerment (used with outstanding-capability employees; managers use low directive and low supportive behavior).

9-5. Briefly discuss the stages of the change process, and how we can overcome our own and others’ resistance to change.

The four stages of the change process include denial, resistance, exploration, and commitment. Denial is frequently the first reaction when people hear that changes are going to be made in the workplace. Once employees understand that the change will affect their work, resistance to change often occurs. Next, as the change is implemented, employees may begin to explore how the change affects their work and how they can adapt to the necessary changes. Finally, through the exploration stage, the employees determine their level of commitment to the change process. Recall, however, that the change process is ongoing, not linear.

To change anything, we have to change our thoughts and habits, or change our behavior so that it becomes a habit. Developing a habit takes conscious planning and effort, and a habit has three parts.

Cue−reminds you to (or not to) do the behavior.

Routine−do the behavior.

Reward−reinforce doing the behavior to make it a habit.

There are seven major methods to overcoming resistance to change:

1. Develop a positive trust climate for change.

2. Plan the change.

3. Clearly state why the change is needed and how it will affect employees.

4. Create a win-win situation.

5. Involve employees.

6. Provide support and evaluation.

7. Create urgency.

9-6. Discuss the process of providing corrective feedback and identify the problems created by modern social media at work.

Provide feedback by initiating a conversation, but do not accuse the employee of intentionally failing to do something. Ask about problems or issues and follow the general guidelines in the feedback model. Stick with the facts, and don’t respond emotionally. Remember that feedback is designed to make things better. Don’t allow the employee to deflect responsibility for their actions. And finally, maintain control or your emotions, your message, and the process by preparing ahead of the feedback session.

The major problem with social media is the ability to instantly communicate without rationally analyzing what we should say. Other problems include the ability to communicate with very large groups of people who may not know what we intended to say, or the background on which our communication is based. Open letters, able to be read by anyone, can paint a harmful picture of the company, and the company has to respond because of that potential harm. In addition, laws in this area are constantly changing, so managers have to continually make judgment calls on when and how to intervene when employees put out potentially harmful information.

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KEY TERMS

coaching 312

discipline 315

employee assistance programs (EAPs) 315

employment-at-will 310

gross negligence 320

Just Cause 316

leadership 323

management counseling 313

privileges 304

progressive discipline 317

rights 304

serious misconduct 321

stages of the change process 330

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KEY TERMS REVIEW

Complete each of the following statements using one of this chapter’s key terms.

1. __________ are things that individuals are allowed to do based on asking permission from an authority.

2. __________ are things a person in society is allowed to do without any permission required from an authority.

3. __________ allows the company or the worker to break their work relationship at any point in time, with or without any particular reason, as long as in doing so, no law is violated.

4. __________ is the process of giving motivational feedback to maintain and improve performance.

5. __________ is the process of giving employees feedback (so they realize that a problem is affecting their job performance) and referring employees with problems that cannot be managed within the work structure to the organization’s employee assistance program.

6. __________ provide a staff of people who help employees get professional assistance in solving their problems.

7. __________ is corrective action to get employees to meet standards and the code of conduct.

8. __________ is a set of standard tests for fairness in disciplinary actions—tests that were originally utilized in union grievance arbitrations.

9. __________ is a process whereby the employer provides the employee with opportunities to correct poor behavior before the individual is terminated.

10. __________ is a serious failure to exercise care in the work environment.

11. is intentional employee behavior that has thepotential to cause great harm to another or to the company.

12. __________ is the process of influencing employees to work toward the achievement of organizational objectives.

13. are denial, resistance, exploration, and commitment.

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COMMUNICATION SKILLS

The following critical-thinking questions can be used for class discussion and/or for written assignments to develop communication skills. Be sure to give complete explanations for all answers.

1. Do you think that organizations should provide more rights or fewer rights to employees than those listed in the chapter? If more, what would you add? If fewer, which rights do you think are unimportant?

2. Should companies make a strong attempt never to violate the privacy rights of an employee? Why or why not?

3. Do you think codes of conduct have any effect on employees’ activities? What would make them more or less effective in an organization?

4. Is employment-at-will fair, or should companies have to have a legitimate reason to discharge their employees? Justify your answer.

5. Should coaching, counseling, and discipline processes be utilized by the firm, or should we just terminate the employment of workers who are not doing their job? Explain your answer.

6. Is it really necessary to follow all of the Just Cause standards rigorously, or is it a waste of time? Explain your answer.

7. Do you feel that progressive discipline processes actually work to improve employee performance in most cases? Why or why not?

8. In your opinion, should there be any situations in which you might not immediately terminate a worker’s employment as a result of gross negligence or serious misconduct? Explain why you feel this way.

9. Do you think leadership can be learned, or is it just a personal characteristic that some people have? Why do you think this way?

10. What are some of the methods you have seen managers or others use to overcome resistance to change? Were these methods successful? Why or why not?

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CASE 9-1 BALANCING RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES

Nancy Chandler has been employed by the DEG Corporation, an online textbook sales company, as a sales representative for two years. Her sales manager, Clyde Dodd, informed her when she started to work that the company’s established email communication and Internet system is to be used by employees for “business reasons only.” The company’s email system policy states:

The DEG Corporation’s communication system provides internet access and e-mail services for the sole purpose to conduct our business and is not to be used for any personal or non-job related purposes. DEG Corporation has an established policy of monitoring employees’ use of the internet and e-mail system in communicating with customers for evaluation of employees’ customer relations performance and for identifying training and development needs for sales representatives.

The DEG Corporation also has a nonsolicitation policy as follows:

The DEG Corporation prohibits the solicitation, distribution and posting of materials on or at Company property by any employee or non-employee without the express permission of management. The sole exceptions to this policy are charitable and community activities sponsored by the DEG Corporation management.

The management of the company is aware that on occasion, employees send out email messages to other employees announcing party invitations, charitable fundraising events, and selling Girl Scout cookies. Yet, no employee has been reprimanded or disciplined for these occasional uses of the company’s email system.

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Recently, Nancy has become actively involved with a group of disgruntled employees who have an interest in forming a union and organizing the company’s 30 sales representatives for collective bargaining purposes. During her unpaid lunch period, Nancy sent out an email correspondence to the other sales representatives announcing an upcoming union organizing meeting to determine the level of interest in forming and joining a labor union. The company intercepted her email correspondence; and her manager, Clyde Dodd, issued Nancy a written warning informing her that any further violations of the company’s email system and nonsolicitation policies will be considered grounds for termination of her employment.

Questions

1. Should Nancy Chandler have a reasonable expectation of a right to privacy in this case? Explain your answer.

2. If Nancy Chandler has not received any prior, formal disciplinary action, is there “Just Cause” for the company to impose a written warning for this offense? Explain the reasoning for your answer to this question.

3. Assuming that Nancy Chandler, as well as the other sales representatives, are “at-will” employees and she is discharged for this infraction of the company’s rules, what possible recourse might she have to challenge the termination?

4. Considering the facts in this case, should the company review and revise these two policies? Explain what, if any, revisions should be made to the email system and nonsolicitation policies.

Case created by Robert F. Wayland, University of Arkansas at Little Rock

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CASE 9-2 OFF-DUTY MISCONDUCT

The small Southwestern city of Happy Hollow, with a population of approximately 17,000 people, is a modern bedroom community that is located just a 15-minute drive away from a major city. Happy Hollow maintains a fire department with one fire station serving an area of 12 square miles. It is staffed with 15 full-time firefighters and 15 volunteer firefighters. The International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) represents all permanent, full-time employees of Happy Hollow’s fire department.

Four years ago, Tim Nelson was hired as a firefighter and licensed paramedic for Happy Hollow’s fire department. Previously, he worked for 3 years as a firefighter for another small city. After getting off work at 4:30 p.m. one evening, he joined a friend at a restaurant in the major city a 15- or 20-minute drive from where he lives and works. Nelson and his friend had dinner and several drinks at the restaurant and stayed there until after midnight, when Nelson drove the friend home and then started on the drive to his own home.

Upon receiving calls at 12:43 a.m. about someone driving erratically in a pickup truck at a high rate of speed, Happy Hollow’s police department dispatched a police officer to investigate. Officer Brian Jones observed someone driving the described truck at an excessive rate of speed. He followed for approximately one-half mile while observing erratic driving before stopping the truck. Officer Jones detected a strong odor of alcohol coming from the pickup truck when he approached it. Officer Jones then recognized the driver as firefighter Nelson, who appeared fatigued, with red, watery eyes. He noticed that Nelson had difficulty performing the simple task of retrieving his driver’s license and proof of insurance coverage, and his speech was slurred. Officer Jones concluded that Nelson appeared to be intoxicated. Meanwhile, another Ford pickup truck and a second city patrol vehicle driven by Sgt. David Martinez arrived on the location. The driver and passenger in the other pickup advised the police officers that the truck driven by Nelson had sideswiped their vehicle before being stopped by Officer Jones, and they also said that Nelson had failed to stop after the accident. The collision caused damage to both trucks, ripping the mirrors from the passenger side of the truck driven by Nelson and the driver’s side of the other truck.

Officer Jones determined that there was probable cause for arrest and advised Nelson that he was being arrested for driving under the influence (DUI) and leaving the scene of an accident. Upon arrival at the police station, Nelson elected to refuse to submit to a Breathalyzer test for measuring his blood alcohol. He was cited for a DUI and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in property damage to another vehicle. He was booked into jail and stayed for a few hours before he was released on bond.

Firefighter and paramedic Tim Nelson was subsequently placed on administrative leave with pay while the matter was being investigated. Following a 3-day investigation, the fire department held a predisciplinary hearing where Nelson had an opportunity to further describe his version of what had happened leading up to his early-morning arrest. Nelson described feeling a sudden jolt when his truck hit something while he was driving home, but he claimed that he did not know what he had hit or if he had hit anything at all. Nelson acknowledged that he had too much to drink that evening and that he should have had someone drive him home. He said that although the incident had occurred while he was off duty, he was willing to do anything necessary to keep his job.

Fire Department Chief Calvin Moore pointed out that he had known that Nelson had been previously arrested for a DUI while working as a firefighter for the other small city but that he had hired Nelson as a firefighter for the Happy Hollow Fire Department anyway. Chief Moore explained that he had already given Nelson a second chance when he hired him, and he was unwilling to give Nelson a third chance. Chief Moore stated that Nelson had violated several rules and policies of the fire department and had failed in his obligation to the public as a firefighter and paramedic by not stopping to check to see if he had injured anyone in the collision that he caused that night. The incident also garnered significant media attention, including reports in Happy Hollow’s local newspaper and on at least one news report from a local television station—thus potentially undermining the public’s trust in the Happy Hollow Fire Department. For these reasons, Chief Moore informed Nelson that his employment was being terminated “for cause.”

The union filed a grievance alleging that Nelson’s punishment was too severe since the incident occurred while he was off duty. The union requested Nelson’s reinstatement with punishment, such as a reasonable suspension without pay and a warning. The city’s management responded that they had a duty to ensure the public trust in the fire department. They also said that the city’s rules and policies, as written in the union–management labor agreement, stated, “Employees shall conduct themselves off duty in such a manner as to show respect as a member of the fire department. Conduct unbecoming a member of the Happy Hollow Fire Department will be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including dismissal.”

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Questions

1. May an employer take disciplinary action (including discharge) against an employee for illegal off-duty misconduct?

2. Which particular employee rights discussed in the chapter may be asserted by the employee and his labor union representative in this case?

3. What rights does the city management have in this case?

4. When conducting an investigation of an employee’s off-duty misconduct, what are important factors for the investigator to consider before recommending disciplinary action?

5. When considering disciplinary action for an employee’s off-duty misconduct, what difference would it make if an employee is or is not represented by a labor union?

Case created by Robert Wayland, University of Arkansas at Little Rock

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SKILL BUILDER 9-1 COACHING

Objective

To develop coaching skill using the coaching model

Skills

The primary skills developed through this exercise are as follows:

1. HR management skills—Conceptual and design

2. SHRM 2016 Curriculum Guidebook—L: Training and development

Procedure 1 (2–4 minutes)

Break into groups of three. Make some groups of two, if necessary. Each member selects one of the following three situations in which to be the manager and a different one in which to be the employee. In each situation, the employee knows the standing plans; the employee is not motivated to follow them. You will take turns coaching and being coached.

Three Problem Employee Situations

1. Employee 1 is a clerical worker who uses files, as do the other 10 employees in the department. The employees all know that they are supposed to return the files when they are finished so that others can find them when they need them. Employees should have only one file out at a time. The supervisor notices that Employee 1 has five files on the desk, and another employee is looking for one of them.

2. Employee 2 is a server in an ice cream shop. The employee knows that the tables should be cleaned up quickly after customers leave so that new customers do not have to sit at dirty tables. It’s a busy night. The supervisor finds dirty dishes on two of this employee’s occupied tables. Employee 2 is socializing with some friends at one of the tables.

3. Employee 3 is an auto technician. All employees know that they are supposed to put a paper mat on the floor of each car so that the carpets don’t get dirty. When the service supervisor got into a car that Employee 3 had repaired, the car did not have a mat and there was grease on the carpet.

Procedure 2 (3–7 minutes)

Prepare for coaching to improve performance. Each group member writes an outline of what they will say when coaching Employee 1, 2, or 3, following the steps below:

1. Describe current performance.

2. Describe desired performance. (Don’t forget to have the employee state why it is important.)

3. Get a commitment to the change.

4. Follow up.

Round 1 (5–8 minutes)

Role-playing. The manager of Employee 1, the clerical worker, coaches that employee as planned. (Use the actual name of the group member playing Employee 1.) Talk—do not read your plan. Employee 1 should put themselves in the worker’s position. Both the manager and the employee will have to ad lib. The person not playing a role is the observer. This person makes notes as the observer for each step of the coaching model listed above. The manager should coach the employee and try to make positive comments and point out areas for improvement. The observer should give the manager alternative suggestions about what could have been said to improve the coaching session.

Feedback. The observer leads a discussion of how well the manager coached the employee. (This should be a discussion, not a lecture.) Focus on what the manager did well and how the manager could improve. The employee should also give feedback on how they felt and what might have been more effective in motivating change. Do not go on to the next interview until you are told to do so. If you finish early, wait for the others to finish.

Round 2 (5–8 minutes)

Same as Round 1, but change roles so that Employee 2, the server, is coached. The job is not much fun if you can’t talk to your friends. As the supervisor, coach Employee 2. Again, the observer gives feedback after the coaching.

Round 3 (5–8 minutes)

Same as Rounds 1 and 2, but change roles so that Employee 3, the auto technician, is coached. As the supervisor, coach Employee 3. Again, the observer gives feedback after the coaching.

Apply It

What did I learn from this exercise? How will I use this knowledge in the future?

______________________________________________________________________________________

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SKILL BUILDER 9-2 DISCIPLINING

Objective

To develop your ability to discipline an employee using the discipline model

Skills

The primary skills developed through this exercise are as follows:

1. HR management skills—Conceptual and design

2. SHRM 2016 Curriculum Guidebook—L: Training and development

Note that this is a continuation of Skill Builder Exercise 9-1. Coaching didn’t work, and you have to discipline the employee.

Procedure 1 (2–4 minutes)

Break into groups of three. Make some groups of two, if necessary. Each member selects one of the three situations from Skill Builder 1. Decide who will discipline Employee 1, the clerical worker; Employee 2, the ice cream shop server; and Employee 3, the auto technician. Also select different group members to play the employee being disciplined and the observer.

Procedure 2 (3–7 minutes)

Prepare for the discipline session. Write a basic outline of what you will say to Employee 1, 2, or 3; follow the steps in the discipline model below.

1. Refer to past feedback. (Assume that you have discussed the situation before, using the coaching model.)

2. Ask why the undesired behavior occurred. (The employee should make up an excuse for not changing.)

3. Administer the discipline. (Assume that an oral warning is appropriate.)

4. Get a commitment to change, and develop a plan.

5. Summarize and state the follow-up.

Round 1 (5–8 minutes)

Role-playing. The manager of Employee 1, the clerical worker, disciplines that employee as planned. (Use the actual name of the group member playing the employee.) Talk—do not read your plan. Both the manager and the employee will need to ad lib. As the supervisor, discipline Employee 1.

The person not playing a role is the observer. This person makes notes on the five steps of the discipline model above. For each of the steps, try to make a statement about the positive aspects of the discipline and a statement about how the manager could have improved. Give alternative things the manager could have said to improve the discipline session. Remember, the objective is to change behavior.

Feedback. The observer leads a discussion of how well the manager disciplined the employee. The employee should also give feedback on how they felt and what might have been more effective in motivating change. Do not go on to the next interview until you are told to do so. If you finish early, wait until the others finish or the time is up.

Round 2 (5–8 minutes)

Same as Round 1, but change roles so that Employee 2, the ice cream server, is disciplined. As Employee 2, put yourself in the worker’s position. As the supervisor, discipline Employee 2. As the observer, give feedback.

Round 3 (5–8 minutes)

Same as Rounds 1 and 2, but change roles so that Employee 3, the auto technician, is disciplined. As Employee 3, put yourself inthe worker’s position. As the supervisor, discipline Employee 3. As the observer, give feedback.

Apply It

What did I learn from this exercise? How will I use this knowledge in the future?

______________________________________________________________________________________

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SKILL BUILDER 9-3 SITUATIONAL MANAGEMENT

Objective

To learn how to use the situational management model to develop skill at selecting the most appropriate management style in a given situation

Skills

The primary skills developed through this exercise are as follows:

1. HR management skills—Conceptual and design

2. SHRM 2016 Curriculum Guidebook—L: Training and development

Assignment

As stated back in the chapter subsection on Situational Management, select the most appropriate management style for each of the 12 situations in Self-Assessment 9-1, using the situational management model. Be sure to fill in the C _____ (1-2-3-4) and S _____ (1A-2C-3P-4E) lines as instructed in the text on p. 328, in “Apply the Most Appropriate Management Styles.”

Apply It

What did I learn from this exercise? How will I use this knowledge in the future?

______________________________________________________________________________________

Your instructor may review the situational management model, complete more of the situations in class, and/or ask you to do this Skill Builder in class by breaking into groups of two or three to select or discuss your answers. If so, the instructor will provide you with any necessary information or additional instructions.

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SKILL BUILDER 9-4 DEVELOPING A HABIT

Objective

To develop a new habit.

Skills

The primary skills developed through this exercise are as follows:

1. HR management skills—Conceptual and design

2. SHRM 2016 Curriculum Guidebook—L: Training and development

Assignment

Realizing the importance of having a positive attitude and thoughts about a change, select a new habit you want to develop, such as A. better study habits or B. losing weight. Now set an objective, for example: To study nine hours a week or To lose five pounds by June 30. Next develop a cue, routine, and reward like the examples below.

Cue−reminds you to (or not to) do the behavior. A. Set a schedule of study in your appointment book/calendar to remind you it’s time to study. B. Put a note about diet on fridge.

Routine−do the behavior. A. Study on Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday from 6:00 to 9:00. B. Drink water (no sugar/diet drinks) and no snacks—eating between meals.

Reward−reinforce doing the behavior to make it a habit. A and B. Feel better about yourself. A. Better grades. B. Special snack on Sunday. Lower weight resulting in looking and feeling better.

Let’s be honest. We will most likely slip and miss a study session or cheat on our diet. The question is, How do you handle the slip? Are you going to give up and go back to your old habits, or will you get back to your new routine? Caution—once you slip, and the more often you slip, the easier it is to go back to your old habits.

Apply It

What did I learn from this exercise? How will I use this knowledge in the future?

______________________________________________________________________________________