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rough_draft-_age_disc..docxRunning head: AGE DISCRIMINATION
AGE DISCRIMINATION
Diversity Management Project - Rough Draft
ABRSTRACT
Employee discrimination has legal ways of dealing with it. While there are laws on employee discrimination above forty against other elements such as sex, religion and race, age discrimination for being young is particularly sensitive when the manager is the target for discrimination. This proposal looks at the probable impacts of the same and various alternatives that can be used to tackle the problem. Finally, it includes an implementation plan of dealing with the menace and calls upon employees and the management to be responsible and well behaved for maximum productivity. Comment by Jeri Retzlaff: Memo format required, remember you are role playing that you are sending this to a key decision maker to the company. Review Module 8 video for details. Comment by Jeri Retzlaff: “menace” is a strong term for a person, perhaps it is okay to use, it did strike me a bit odd to have that here though.
Introduction
When a manager is disrespected due to his or her age, s/he feels demotivated and might even quit. Often, one is tempted to punish employees, which is a vengeful way of dealing with the matter. This method could demotivate them and lead to hatred besides the disrespect. Instead, going for strategically charismatic methods to best the confidence and respect results to better productivity and higher morale.
Problem Statement
Due to the manager being younger than the other employees, there is a high tendency of disrespect amongst employees. The problem is manifested in several ways. Failure to listen to the manager is just but one of them. While listening from verbal instructions is a problem, following guidelines laid down as part of the job as part of job requirements is also a problem. Finishing assignments on time is also compromised since the assumed ability of a younger manager to reprimand and/or punish is taken to be low. The disrespect and failure to follow the set guidelines has negative impact on the work performance of the organization as a whole. Deadlines are not met, tasks are taken with less seriousness, and the quality of work as well is compromised. Coming in late and the heavy workloads that result to the reluctant and laid back behavior of the disrespectful employees means that the few that have respect and thus try to run the matters of the organization find it far much harder. This as well spills over to the implication of having a disorganized and a team without cohesion. On part 0of the disrespected manager, the working environment is extremely hostile and hard to work in. Concentrating is hard and there is no passion for the work at all. Working is accomplished because it is a duty. This reduces the level of commitment and enthusiasm on part of the manager due to the general harshness of the working environment. Comment by Jeri Retzlaff: Since you are such a strong student…let me get picky Often people use “this” as a pronoun instead of the antecedent it is like the word “the”. Here’s what Grammarly says about “this”: “Though the preceding sentence may seem to indicate what this refers to, avoid using this as a pronoun subject of a sentence for formal writing. Often, the antecendent is not as clear to the reader as the writer intended. In addition to possible loss of clarity, using this as a subject invites overly simplified or wordy writing. This may be used as a determiner to a subject instead.” Comment by Jeri Retzlaff: Just a typo, be sure to do a full review on your final version.
The immediate measures in place include verbal; warning, written warning and finally firing in case of disrespect. While the measures are the traditionally accepted ones, they have the negative effects of first of all, being ignored or meeting a negative reaction such as situations where the employees can gang up against either the manager or the management. In case of extreme situations, firing is the final solution. Firing comes along with giving the employees their benefits and besides, the process of filling the void left could be hectic and expensive. The disrespect in this case thus would result in increased inconvenience with more costs of hiring and firing. The clients as well are getting less quality work not to mention the low morale amongst the employees that adhere to rules.
There is therefore a need to control the situation before it escalates to levels that are either hard to contain or whose measure to contain would result to more adverse effects to the organization. That is, enhancement of prevention measures before harsh corrective measures interfere with the situation badly.
The goal(s) of the proposal
This proposal aims at offering solutions to the problem stated. The solutions are ways of getting the employees to respect the manager who is younger than they are. By so doing, other goals that will be achieved will include enhancing team work, having heightened and improved morale amongst employees and captivating a positive attitude that will result to increased productivity and thus coincidentally increased customer satisfaction.
Alternative solutions to the problem
· The most tempting solution to such a problem is punishing those that are disrespectful. The whole bit of disrespect is painful and punishing thus feels like a viable option that not only corrects but also offers the psychological revenge. Punishments include rotating employees and giving the disrespectful unfavorable duties and hard tasks to accomplish.
· Before this however, offering warnings bother verbally and if need be, through official writing is not only easy to administer but also cost effective. Few details ad procedures are involved thus saving time as well.
· In case of extreme situations, firing the most notorious is taken as the last option. While not all employees can be fired at the same time, using one or a few of them would be good enough to serve as an example and serve as a real impactful warning to the rest that might have a similar problem of disrespect or those that had the potential and/or intentions to do so.
· The final method is use of reward. Reward system is a positive discrimination method that favors through merit. Rewarding loyal employees, the hardworking, productive and respectful employees makes the rest try to follow suit so as to benefit from the rewards too.
Evaluation of the alternatives Comment by Jeri Retzlaff: Nice clear evaluation provided to help support your suggestion.
There are three alternatives to controlling the problem. All these alternatives have various implications especially on the effects on the employees as well as the logistical and procedural implications of each. Punishment of such as relocating employees to harsher or harder tasks can easily be taken to be discrimination and a vengeful act rather than a corrective measure. The overall image of the manager and the management could thus be tarnished before the other employees who might then go-slow on work in support of their college.
A similar method that uses authority as well just like punishment is firing (DiPlacido, 2006). Firing has implications in terms of involvement of the management in the decision and it isn’t always that the overall management sides with a single manager. Another problem that might arise in this case is when the individuals to be fired are exceptional talents and especially if they are experts of various departments that would be deprived off invaluable personnel in case the culprits are fired. This is not withstanding the costs o0f hiring and firing and probable involvement of labor unions in case the employees belong to one which further complicates the firing process. If unable to prove a case of disrespect and then such an employee files a case of inappropriate firing and wins the case, the particular individual can only make the others to be more determined at being disrespectful despite the fact that the whole saga would make the manager in question look worth the disrespect.
Warning can be argued to be cost effective especially if it is verbal. It at least doesn’t involve any procedure actually. Written warning as well is closely similar in terms of cost and protocol and is rather a bit more effective. However, they are likely not to have a huge impact especially if the warning is verbal which might not have any evidence in case it might be needed for any evidence later on.
Reward is the best method since it promotes productivity by encouraging employees to work harder and be at their best behavior (Fitzwater, 2009). Those not rewarded work harder for the reward. Rewards range from a simple ‘thank you’ upon accomplishment of tasks, showing respect and cooperation and meeting deadlines. Further reward methods include promotion, gifts and prizes where need be, considering hard working and well behaved employees for training and development opportunities.
The final method that can get the employees to show respect is by demonstrating through performance that the manger is an expert at his/her role, which the employees can’t fill. Demonstration of experience and expertise at handling difficult situations and making excellent ‘life saving’ decisions in complicated situations builds the reputation of the manager irrespective of age in a similar way that professionals such as doctors and lawyers have due to their qualifications as experience. This isn’t as cost involving as firing and the use of reward system where even the protocol of management and at times the board might be called upon.
The choice of method thus remains to be use reward to encourage the employees work harder and behave better. Once in a while though, in circumstances that must necessitate firing, this method can be employed in extreme circumstances.
Implementation plan of chosen alternative
The plan involves a schedule that is split into various durations of the short term and the long term. In the short run, the first month will be split into four weeks. Assignments will be given to employees for each day of the work and the performance of the employees noted for every week. By the end of the first month, the first to third performers get the opportunity to get to paid for trainings and workshop.
Set weekly and monthly targets for the employees upon which to gauge the performance. Use performance contracts as well to promote hard work and commitment amongst those that wouldn’t be fascinated or encouraged by the idea of reward system.
Between the second and the sixth month, the best performers on average will be promoted with a strong indicator of behavior being more emphasized just as the element of hard working. Salary increment based on this first half of the year, the six month period, will also be accorded to the top ten performers of the company and an upward revision of the job group for the individuals too.
Challenges in implementing this plan would first of all come from the management which/ or among which, there might be members that would go for other methods of solving the problem. Not all employees would be motivated by rewards. As pointed out earlier, this can be tackled through use of performance contracts and demoting those who do not meet the requirements.
Conclusion
It is very discouraging to have employees being disrespectful to a leader such as a manager. It is more painful if the reason is as unreasonable as age – being younger than the employees. The overall productivity nosedives and the morale go down. It is therefore important to ensure that the situation is corrected. An appropriate correction method is necessary so as to balance the respect and needs of the employees with the organizational goals and objectives. The method arrived at needs to be easy to implement and beneficial to all the parties involved. Rewarding well-behaved employees boosts productivity and reduces chances of employee turn over and firing as well. It is a duty to all employees and the management to not only show but also understand that disrespect to leadership of an organization especially based on age is first of all unethical and secondly, a case that leads to dismal performance. Thus, everyone needs to look up to meeting the goals and vision of an organization without having the sideshows hampering them from performing their duties.
References
Cameron, J., & Pierce, W. (2002). Rewards and intrinsic motivation resolving the controversy. Westport, Conn.: Bergin & Garvey.
DiPlacido, P. (2006). Employee motivation. Columbus: Ohio Distributive Education Materials Lab.
Fitzwater, T. (2009). The manager's pocket guide to employee relations. Amherst, Mass.: HRD Press.
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