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Justification Report 3

Includes 2.1 and 2.2 revisions

Malo Jones

ENG 315: Professional Communications

Professor M. Anderson

2/24/2015

JUSTIFICATION REPORT 1

Discrimination at the workplace

Problem Statement

During the contract signing and during the numerous meetings that you organize from time to time, you have made clear to all of us as your employees that we are all equal will all be treated fairly. Recently, there have been notable incidents of favoritism being shown to some staff members while, on the other hand, discriminating some. These practices have been a common occurrence; mostly being exercised by the supervisors and line managers in favor to their preferred staffs or intimidating and victimizing those that they do not like (Workplace Law Handbook, 2011).

In the light of trying to get to know the reasons as to why these practices of discrimination have been on the rise, it is clear that some female employees are being discriminated against. Discrimination typically begins once she does not agree to sexual passes being made unto them by their fellow male coworkers, supervisors or managers. Such moves and behaviors are considered unethical and unprofessional according to the code of ethics in any profession.

Possible solutions/alternatives

As discrimination and victimization have proven to be a major setback to the company, there is an urgent need for immediate measures to control the adverse practices. There are many methods that can be used to curb the issue. There are two major methods that that are effective and at the same time improves the working condition of all employees.

Explaining Discrimination Laws and their impacts

In the Civil Rights Act of 1964, discrimination at workplace was completely forbidden and hence became an offense when one commits it (Workplace Law Handbook, 2011). Most of the workers practicing discrimination might be doing so innocently not knowing the gravity of the offense that they keep on repeating on a daily basis. It is recommendable that since almost all employers are well conversant with the discrimination together with other laws that govern work place practices, it would be in order if a meeting could be organized for the purpose of educating all the staffs from the low to high levels of management. During the meeting that can act as a training program, the staffs in general can be made aware that it is not only wrong in the company’s level to discriminate people due to their working capacity and capability, gender, religion or personal issues but it is also illegal state wise and can lead to prosecution and conviction. For the enrichment of the discrimination laws, the HR department can come in handy. This is more so because it bears all the information about each and every staff and through the department, it is easy to keep each and every staff's records. Thus, it is easy for the department to educate the people on the laws as they are always in touch with every department and individual regardless of the position held. The HR department can give all the staff guidelines and assistance on how to file a claim directly to the employer whenever discrimination practices are exercised against them.

Continuously assessing the needs of the employees

For a long time, now, the company has had the supervisors being the only ones dealing with the employees directly. This has granted them the opportunity to over exercise their authority and has been extended to the line managers that they report to. Since the main problem lies with the junior staff whose performance determines the fate of the company, it is only wise for you as the employer to constantly and regularly keep in touch and always assess the employees’ needs. Talking to the employees and getting feedback about the day-to-day operations in the workplace can enable you to be aware of all the happenings and this will discourage discrimination in the fear that the discriminated employees might report it to you. In addition, when the employees are engaged in talks to the boss directly, they automatically start to feel valued and because they realize that somebody cares and listens to their needs and concerns. This measure has been proved in the past as having raised morale and productivity that can improve the overall performance of the company (Elias, 2013).

Criteria

The solution of explaining all the discrimination laws and their impacts can be a perfect means of solving the problem because the process is;

· Practical and accommodates all the staffs at all levels of employment hence knowledge shall be to all without pushing further discrimination

· The time required for training is bearable thus efficient by all standards

· The effects of training have long term results hence making it a durable process.

· The process is desirable as it will improve and amend the relationship between the supervisors, managers and the employees especially through the HR department that effectively plays a major role in solving of conflicts.

On the continuous assessing the needs of the employees, the solution is effective in the sense that;

· It does not require financial input since the employer just requires talking one on one with the employees

· It is efficient because the employer needs to set limited time and talk to few employees as long as he/she makes a regular exercise.

· It is durable because the employer can make it a daily habit of talking to the employees.

Methods

There are proven methods that research has shown to be both beneficial for the employer and the employee. Most importantly an employee should without fear of reprisal, have an opportunity to report any and all incidents. This can only be embraced by an interview means of research. Different interview questions shall be set that shall fit different staff members, depending with their various encounters and treatment received by the company.

Sincerely,

JUSTIFICATION REPORT 2.

Evaluation of Alternatives

a. Explaining Discrimination Laws and their impacts

Most employees are never aware or enlightened about their rights as well as other people’s rights that should not be violated. In most cases, discrimination exercises between colleagues mostly are caused by lack of proper knowledge, arrogance and ignorance. Granting employees the needed knowledge about how discrimination starts, its impacts to the offender, offended, and the entire organization can shed more light to the employees. Discrimination laws exist so that the government can be in control of discrimination practices in workplaces.

Different companies have suffered from discrimination practices that saw the company suffers immeasurable losses especially when control measures are not taken on time. Apparently, the discrimination challenge was ultimately dealt with immediately a training program was implemented where staffs were educated on discrimination in the workplace. A perfect example is the Sherry beam manufacturing factory where discrimination was the order of the day to the extent that the factory was at the brink of being shut down due to low productivity. The situation only improved when the directors of the factory arranged for numerous conferences and took it as their obligation to train the staff about discrimination. Since then, the factory has realized tremendous improvement in employee's morale, interaction in the factory, and productivity.

b. Continuously assessing the needs of the employees

Close monitoring and constant interacting with employees helps the management to be aware of the happenings that are taking place within the organization in the absence of the management team. Also, the interaction act as a motivating factor to the employees as they feel appreciated and recognized once the management creates time and engages them in social talks. These talks create a free environment that enables employees to report any issue that offends them like discrimination cases. For instance, the management of the Alpines bottling company has for a long time now been engaging its staffs in social talks when they happen to meet along corridors and also during break time like lunch hour. These enabled the management to create a free environment, and every staff felt that he/she was welcomed to the General Managers office. Unfortunately, a manager in the IT department started discriminating against a pregnant staff and always challenged her that she is slow and incompetent in her work. Luckily, the free environment that the General Manager had created solved the crisis. Other colleagues who realized the sudden change of the manager towards the pregnant lady staff approached the General Manager and alerted him to what is happening in the IT department. With such information, the General Manager was able to investigate the issue and handled the matter amicably. As a matter of fact, the other departments did not even get to know of the occurrence. This helped Alpines Bottling Company to prevent a bad practice that could have spread the entire company hence making it hard and expensive to control (Grigoroudis, & Siskos, 2010).

As earlier stated, for a solution to be effective, it must meet the required criteria that include, cost, durability, practicability, time conscious, and a motivating factor. Explaining discrimination laws and their impact can be said to be costly because a training program is needed and extra time. However, the solution is practical and accommodates all employees equally, have long term results, and a perfect motivating factor. On the continuously assessing the needs of the employees solution to discrimination in the workplace, the solution is practical and easy, no extra time is required, no extra cost is needed, and is a perfecting motivator factor. However, the solution can only have long time results just in case the management will make it a habit of interacting with their employees at all times.

Cost: at the moment, the company requires a cost considerate solution because the discrimination practices have affected the overall performance and productivity of the organization. Judging from the two solutions provided, continuous assessment of employees seems to be cost effective compared with explaining discrimination practices and their impacts. This is because the solution only requires constant interaction at the normal place of work and during free time.

Durability: the company also requires a long lasting solution so as to avoid a repeat of the same or any other related cases. In this light, explaining discrimination practices and their impacts becomes more effective compared to continuous assessment of employees. This is because, during the training sessions, the talks can be expounded to cover any other practice that can affect the employee's performance. The solution also allows all the employees to have the same information while, in assessment, the management's talk differ from one staff to the other.

Findings and Analysis

After an explanation/training session on discrimination laws and their impacts on the victims and the organization, the solution has been proved effective. The solution is known for awakening sensitive feelings that employees should have towards their colleagues. For instance the realization that disabled employees can have the probability of being weak at times as well as being slower in performance when compared employees with no disabilities. Also, that a pregnant employee can at time suffers slight challenges that can hinder their full potential. The solution has also been proven to bear long lasting results to the employees as they cannot cling to ignorance and lack of knowledge just in case a repeat is experienced. As a result, the management of training can be able justly to punish those who offend others through discrimination practices (Kosmidou, Doumpos, & Zopounidis, 2008).

A continuous assessment of employee's needs have been proven to be a major motivating factor for all employees, in general. It is a perfect strategy to keep challenging issues in control and a manner that only the management is kept updated and holds all the secretive information that the employee offers to provide. This solution has been ranked as the most effective way of dealing with the problem from its roots cause as the management has the opportunity and can take enough time investigate the issues reported

Alternatives Analyzed by Criteria

Criteria	Explaining Discrimination Laws and their impact	Continuously assessing the needs of the employees
cost	costly	No cost involved
durability	high	Moderate
practicability	high	high
Time conscious	Time consuming	No extra time needed
Motivating factor	high	high
TOTAL Feasibility* of Alternatives based on Criteria?	Moderate	Moderate to high

Conclusion

Workplace discrimination practices have dire consequences both to the victim and the company. The victim is physically and psychologically tortured while the company suffers from less motivated workforce, conflicts and low productivity. Different measures are applicable to eliminate discrimination practices within an organization. Some of these measures and solutions include; explaining discrimination laws and their impact and continuously assessing the needs of the employees. However, organizations have the mandate to evaluate the solution that best match their discrimination condition hence implement it to solve the problem in an amicable and effective manner.

References

Grigoroudis, E., & Siskos, Y. (2010). Customer satisfaction evaluation: Methods for measuring and implementing service quality. New York: Springer.

Kosmidou, K., Doumpos, M., & Zopounidis, C. (2008). Country Risk Evaluation: Methods and Applications. Berlin: Springer US.

JUSTIFICATION REPORT 3

Table of Content

i. Executive summary

ii. Introduction

iii. Summary of the report

iv. Recommendations

v. Conclusion

vi. References

i. Executive Summary

Discrimination practices within the workplace are known to have negative effects on employees. For instance, an employee can become mentally disturbed due to workplace discrimination that can lead to stress and or depression.

Discrimination practices are triggered by tribal, religious, and political differences. Other causes are; place of origin, gender, and ill will resulting from promotion at work, pregnancy conditions in female workers and because of cultural differences. The management within an organization is responsible for maintaining a discrimination-free workplace. Thus, the management must seek to eliminate discrimination practices whenever an issue arises or is detected within an organization.

ii. Introduction

At the place of employment, workers are expected to perform their organizational duties and tasks. Organizations are supposed to ensure the work environment will provide employees an safe, efficient, and effective place to complete their duties. However, within organizations everywhere numerous discrimination practices affect the general welfare of employees.

In the first part of the report involves details on how the discriminated employees have been affected both physically and psychologically by the bad practices. The report also highlights how the organization has suffered poor performances as a result of the practices. The first part of the report also suggests at least two possible solutions through which the company’s management can deal with the discrimination challenge facing the organization already. In addition, the report provides the criteria the organization should use to decide on which solution correlates with the discrimination. For the sole intention of measuring/gauging the discrimination level and rate within the organization, the report provides possible methods through which management gets vital information concerning the issue.

The second part of the report contains the evaluation of the solutions provided in part one for the purpose of determining the reasons as to why an organization should apply one of them or both. This part focuses on the criteria of the first two. A solution must be met for it to be applicable. In this case, cost and durability of the solution takes center stage. After the solutions are analyzed using cost and durability aspect, the report provides a finding of which solution matches most than the other. The second part of the report basically emphasis on the need for evaluation and thorough analysis during the search for a solution to discrimination practices. This is because they are the pillar in the determination of an effective solution that can only work for the best of the employees and the organization.

iii. Summary of the report

According to the report, the main problem is the denial of employees’ rights in their employment through discrimination. Discrimination practices can make the workplace a living hell, while employees still need to meet the standard of expectations and help the organization progress to the next level of success. Legally and on the basis of humanity, the two cannot go together. It is a violation of human rights. As researchers have realized, the main causes of discrimination in the workplace has been reported to be; gender difference, pregnancy cases, differences in religion, tribe, political stands and opinions, race, cultures and origin.

Lack of knowledge, arrogance and lack of integrity seems to contribute to discrimination practices within a workplace. It is unfortunate that the employees especially those suffering from discrimination happens not to be aware of how they can handle the matter. In most cases, they suffer in silence or share with their colleague friend who also cannot offer much help. Despite the fact that the management or the HR department is there to handle such cases, most employees bares with them, a fear aspect that if they report the discrimination practices against them, they cannot have enough proof to argue their case and will only make matters worse. The issues and failures are reflected on the general performance of the organization. Employee morale drops to a low, and different motivational strategies fail. Although, the management grants incentives and pay raises, the victimization continues. The victimized employees feel rejected. Also, the organization starts falling in profit margin, failure of meeting deadlines a thing that the employees could without discrimination practices in their midst. This is the main reasons that make the top management realize that there is a problem despite the employees' silence.

As their only source of livelihood, employees need a workplace that maintains a positive atmosphere. Facing their fears of the unknown and reporting the matter can help but only if the management handles any volunteered information in discreet. This can with time create employee's confidence and thus offer to report issues that can interfere with the good working environment that the management has provided for their welfare. The management on their part, they are required by the law to prevent any form of discrimination and report such cases to the authority. However, the management can opt for ways that cannot harm the image and brand of the organization (Whittington, Delaney, & Feller, 2011).

Whenever there is a problem, searching for different ways through which the problem can be solved amicably is the next step to healing. This is because it is the first step to stopping the practice. Before embarking on the possible solutions, a criterion is determined through which the best solution should fall in or closely relate with. Upon the things considered important for the solution to bare are; cost effectiveness, practicability, take considerable and manageable time, have a motivation aspect, and bare long term results in the organization. In this report, two alternatives were found most efficient depending on the sensitivity of the matter and the protection of the brand name. As a result, solving the issue internally suited the organization since the problem can be handled and dealt with completely, employees get motivated and emotionally healed from their trauma’s, company's code of ethics get upraised and the company name remains untarnished. To do this, explaining the laws that forbid discrimination practices to the employees was an option. This is because through this solution means, employees will understand the law properly in terms of their rights and what they are not supposed to discriminate each other against and the punishment levied against each offense by the federal government (Paludi, & DeSouza, 2011).

Also, during training programs, the company’s code of ethics can be made clearer because practicing discrimination practices is both unethical and unprofessional. The training program also enlightens the employees on ways through which they can report discrimination practices either happening to them or to their colleagues instead of keeping it as a harming secret. The organization shall benefit as an entity because the experts can provide and advice on systems that can help the organization detect discrimination practices in their early stages so as to avoid a repeat. From all these reasons, the solution appeared workable to the organization as there are many benefits to be gained and the solution meets criteria's like durability, practicability, and motivating aspect. However, there are few disadvantages in the sense that; extra training time is needed hence interfering with either working time or employee’s free time. Also, the solution needs resources to fund or purchase equipments needed and also compensate the experts.

The second alternative solution option requires involvement and commitment on the part of the top management where they are supposed to keep on constant access to their employees. This solution is applicable the employees need to be free with the management so that they can act as informers of what is happening and also can approach the management in case they want something implemented. Constant access to employee's needs allows dialog and improves communication strategies within an organization. Also, constant access helps the management to detect changes in behavior and hence they can be able to search for the real cause of the behavior changes (Paludi, & DeSouza, 2011).

The second solution appears to meet numerous criteria’s like it is a perfect motivating factor, and it does not require extra time for the solution to be implemented. Also, the solution is practical and easy to carry out as it only requires constant communication. The solution does not require any extra resources as the management interacts with employees during their own time. However, the solution bares a challenge in the sense that for long term results to be realized, the management requires to have long term commitments by making it a habit of keeping in touch with all their employees equally. They should make sure that they interact with all employees and that they are aware of what is all the undertakings that are always taking place within the organization (Elias, 2013). The management should also make sure that they engage all the employees with friendly talks that are organizationally related for the constant interact always to remain relevant and helpful. They should keep on offering guidance and counseling talks to their employees whenever they come across so that the employees can perceive the management as their mentor and as people whom they can approach with either a personal or a work-related problem.

An evaluation analysis is important. It helps an organization to look at their needs and the solutions available. The needs and the solutions are matched for the purpose of applying the most suiting and applicable solution. In such cases, the utmost goal of the organization is to handle the challenge at hand. The organization should utilize a respectable and a proven to be effective approach. The approach should be in a manner that resolves the issue. From the two solutions provided, the analysis proved that constant accessing of employees need in the organization by the management is the most efficient way to curb and eliminate workplace discrimination practices, the solution ranged from having moderate to high impacts towards all the issues raised as well as solving the problems that discriminated employees go through. The analysis and findings on the explaining of discrimination laws to the employees and their impact ranged moderately. The solution means had aspects that could solve the problem, but extra resources and time are needed.

iv. Recommendation

A discrimination-free workplace is a healthy and conducive working environment that makes all employees equal. The management must put all efforts and strategies in place to ensure that discrimination does not even have a chance to be introduced within an organization. This is because its impacts are immeasurably adverse both to the employees involved and the entire organization. In cases where discrimination practices are a reality, well researched and analyzed measures can be used to stop the practice. However, the measures should not cause more harm to the organization and the already victimized employees. This is in terms of holding any information provided by the employees with utmost secrecy and handling the matter professionally.

As much as there are different measures to solve discrimination practices, any measure that involves dialog can be more effective since it embraces an opportunity for a healing process to be realized. Dialog also allows the offender to learn from mistakes and grants an opportunity for the offender to make peace with the offended. Having laid such a strong foundation for the curbing process, other measures can then be applied though not a must. It always depends on the gravity and implications that the discrimination practices have already caused.

v. Conclusion

The effects of discrimination are hazardous both to the organization and victimized employees. It is in the jurisdiction of the management to control and stop discrimination practices. However, the employees particularly have the mandate and right to report discrimination practices against them to someone within their chain of command or key personnel. Silence towards discrimination practices on the part of the employees regardless of the reason only makes the matter worse and encourages the perpetrators to continue with their heinous crimes. Making the offenders realize their mistakes is the first step to stopping the practice. Apparently, for the management to be sure of the practices reported to them, research can be done. A questionnaire form and interview sessions can help in getting the necessary information. Any decision that the management takes towards discrimination practices determines the fate of the practices within the organization. As a result, caution must be observed from all perspectives (Elias, 2013).

References

Elias, S. M. (2013). Deviant and criminal behavior in the workplace. New York: New York University Press.

Paludi, M. A., Paludi, C. A., & DeSouza, E. (2011). Praeger handbook on understanding and preventing workplace discrimination. Santa Barbara, Calif: Praeger.

Whittington, R., Delaney, P. R., & Feller, A. L. (2011). Wiley CPA examination review: 38th edition, 2011-2012. Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley & Sons.