WHEN IS UNEQUAL TREATMENT FAIR?
Vignettes #1-4are based upon actual situations. The following descriptions of how each problem was resolved written by Powell. They are not all necessarily the best answers; they simply reflect what happened. Student suggestions to scenarios are posted with an asterisk and prof radhakrishnan’s suggestions are in bold
1. Per company policy, a pay differential was offered for working the off-shift hours. The manager arranged for the employee who was pursuing her undergraduate degree to go to school in the morning and then work the off-shift hours. This was very satisfactory to the employee, as daytime classes were less expensive, more classes were available, and her pay increased. None of the staff complained that they would have taken the off-shift if they had known that extra money was involved.
**The student could take classes on the weekend, or work on nights s/he does not have classes.
** Explain to the employee who was hired for original hours that the job conditions have changed and that is quite normal for jobs nowadays. Besides, it is only for one week for every 2 months.
**Offer incentives to those who are able to work these hours be motivated to work
--Pay overtime to those who will work these ‘off-peak hours’ (similar to original solution);
--Paid dinner breaks for those who work these ‘off-peak hours’;
--Transportation home (e.g., company would pay for the taxi to transport the employee who relies on public transportation and is unable to get home at that hour using public transportation),
--Security (The company could pay for additional security (e.g., guard, video cameras) to resolve the older employee’s concerns (or schedule two people to work at the same time during those hours) etc.
--Parents with childcare needs would be given a month to make childcare arrangements for the evening and if they couldn’t find childcare, they had to demonstrate proof of having tried to find childcare and only then would the two single employees would do the shift for the parents. Prof’s suggestion: Perhaps the company could pay for and/or initiate on-site childcare?
**Prof’s suggestion: It seems like all these additional costs (childcare, taxi, additional security) would end up being more expensive than just hiring an additional staff member just to do the shift until 7:30PM.
2. There was no easy solution for this problem for the current year. Upper management agreed to have only three people on staff during this time period and to give these three people two extra compensation days if they volunteered to work this week in place of vacation. The two employees who were planning the ski vacation and the one employee whose original plans were unknown agreed to this arrangement. To avoid this problem in the future, employees were given numbers and the list was published showing who had #1, who had #2, etc. Employees with higher numbers would not have the time off unless those with lower numbers gave up their slots (i.e., used all their vacation time prior to the holidays). If someone left the unit, the incoming replacement person would be given the highest number available. (Prof’s suggestion: but this may emphasize seniority indirectly and eventually disadvantage visible minorities or certain groups – e.g., younger workers) There were no complaints about the vacation policy the following year.
**Decide on vacation request based on a first come first served basis (can disadvantage some based on those who didn’t know about “asking first” prof)
**Decide based on purpose (use supervisor’s judgment of whose needs are more important but need to explain to employees how need vs. equity vs. equality norms were applied: prof)
**Decide based on whoever had the least amount of vacation until this time (i.e., those who their vacation last year during Christmas & New Year would not be able to take their vacation this year)
**Decide based on random draw
**Provide additional time off for those who will volunteer (esp people in options e, f) to work during the week b/w Christmas and New Years.
**Those who call in sick need a doctor’s note
**Give bonus to those who are not sure of their plans (and to the single people going to ski vacation, who can take the vacation later in the winter) or who would like to take time off at another holiday (e.g., Ramadan, Divali)
3. The manager agreed that the holiday schedule was not fair to these two employees, even though it followed official banking holidays. The employees were given assignments that could be completed at home but were due right after Easter and Christmas. Because this meant working the equivalent of Good Friday and Christmas, they were granted two additional personal days to be used for Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah. No problems developed among the staff.
**Everybody gets 2 additional paid personal days so that they can use it as they wish and this would enable the Jewish employees to use those as holidays. However, everything has to be ‘arranged’ in advance so there is no ‘surprise’ and people can accommodate each other’s celebrations (i.e., increase flexibility)
**The two Jewish employees will have Yom Kippur & Rosh Hashanah as additional holidays & the other employees would get two unpaid holidays
**Explain that bank holidays are out of your control Prof: this is a cop-out!
4. Marie’s arrangement was granted with a slight adjustment. Her work-week went down to 30 hours (three 10-hour days in the office); benefits (**and/or pay) were prorated accordingly. Although a few staff members initially resented this arrangement, they acquiesced when they realized that working 30 hours meant reduced benefits. Marie readily accepted this arrangement, and her work improved in both quality and quantity.
**Fairness based on input bec. Marie is the best analyst, give her ‘extra’ flexibility else she may leave (but how will it be perceived in terms of fairness by other employees? Prof, also need to address the other employee’s similar request that was denied a year ago to avoid lowering company morale).
**Everybody in the office is allowed flexible hours – they can also work outside the office. But everyone is also required to be in the office during certain peak hours.
**Marie works 10 hours for 4 days
Learning Points during discussion:
1. People judge fairness via three principles: equity, equality and need principles. The Equity principle determines outcomes or rewards based on input. So in the vacation scenario above, people who have spent the longest time in the job will get the most amount of vacation. The equality principle suggests that everybody gets the same no matter what their input is. So all employees get the same number of vacation days no matter how many years they have worked with the company. The need principle determines rewards based on needs. So those who need more vacation will get more.
2. Many of today’s managers came up through the ranks when it was expected that you “paid your dues,” which meant giving up most if not all of your life for the company. Since they never asked for and, more important, never expected any favors, they do not consider those who request special arrangements as valued employees.
3. We live in a world of rules and policies. Although many managers believe that following the rules protects them from discrimination suits, the resulting inflexibility and rigidity can lead to dissatisfied employees. The idea that rules were made to be broken shouldn’t go so far as to have employees think that everything is at the whim of management, but that rules will be applied according to the merits of the situation.
4. As with most diversity and personnel issues, communication is the biggest component. Being fair does not always imply treating everyone equally; people can accept others being treated differently if they understand the reasoning.
5. Human resources personnel play an important role in this regard. They should tie the issues of managing diversity to the needs of the business such that managers can make decisions without becoming caught up in the notion that all employees must be treated equally for them to be treated fairly.
Vignette #5 (Sing’s Restaurant) was suggested by a student of MGTC23L01 for the Fall 04 Term.
5. Sing’s defense of hiring only Chinese servers to preserve the authentic nature of the restaurant has to be supported with two types of data. He must demonstrate that authenticity is related to the sales figure of the restaurant. To do so, he must first collect customer ratings of authenticity of the restaurant (with and without Chinese waiters). Second, he must correlate these authenticity ratings with restaurant sales. He may also be required to show that non-Chinese servers sell less and that they do so because they are perceived as less authentic to the Chinese restaurant. (Same argument for Themed restaurants)
Beware also of using irrelevant proxies for hiring – e.g., using ethnicity of waiters as a proxy for language skills. Use a test of language rather than ethnicity to make hiring decisions.
***The defense is not legally good because not all his customers are Chinese. He should have made language skill as the hiring requirement.
Prof’s note: Still, he has to prove that Chinese language skill is needed to perform the job well. Similar case can be made against Hooters’ hiring requirement of breast size & gender.
**Student Suneela’s note: Some research shows that sales were increased when Chinese salespeople served non-English speaking clientele.
Sample Question: How will you contest a rejection letter that states that you were not hired for the position because you did not fit with the organization?
Sample Question: Should Shakespeare parts be played by White actors to maintain his original intentions?