Human Resource Management, Essay Example

Introduction

If businesses of past eras were enabled to sidestep or abuse the rights of employees, such license is no longer remotely tolerated. Today’s business must be consistently mindful of both its ethical and legal obligations to provide a non-discriminatory working environment, and one affording opportunity and regard for the employee as an individual. These obligations are pronounced in training processes, as any failure of Human Resources (HR) to meet the ethical and legal standards jeopardizes the business itself. In training, it may be asserted, the company most directly engages with the employee, and it is then essential that HR ensure that all employee rights are addressed reasonably and in accordance with the law.

Discussion

The legal vulnerabilities of training are, in a word, many. The HR or management that fails to acknowledge a variety of essential procedures is essentially inviting legal repercussions, particularly in the more rights-conscious environment of modern business, just as such a disregard must negatively impact on the organization in the broadest terms.

On an obvious level, when training ignores physical or other disabilities of employees, it grossly violates both ethics and law. The hiring of disabled employees translates to management responsibility to acknowledge and address their needs. Similarly, training that either differentiates based on race, gender, or age, or excludes based on those factors, is in direct violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Noe, 2010, p. 393), and invites legal action.

Other potential problems exist, however, not necessarily so blatant. The lack of proper training itself may well be actionable when employees are disciplined or dismissed due to poor performance. Then, the training process may violate copyright laws, it may reveal discriminatory or discretionary information, and it must be fully tracked and documented in terms of company expense (Noe, 2010, p. 391). Some sensitivity must be in place as well in regard to potential issues not perceived by management. For example, Allstate employees found the company’s training offensive because it incorporated Scientology principles, which generated lawsuits against the firm because the employees objected to the religious component of the training (Noe, 2010, p. 394). Interestingly, this reveals how a corporate ideology may be so ingrained, management is oblivious to its wider implications.

Then, and crucial in today’s globalized markets, HR training must take into account how cultural considerations affect the processes and potentially expose the company to legal action. The reality is that learning itself, clearly the basis of training, has different meanings in different cultures. It has been noted, for example, that American trainers working in Asian markets encounter difficulties because the approaches vary significantly. Western training models are increasingly participative, encouraging interaction between employee and trainer; in Asian cultures, learning is typically more didactic, and it is expected that the “teacher” maintain a distinct authority (Crawley, Swailes, & Walsh, 2013, p. 201). The issue of training effectively aside, it is not difficult to foresee how problems here may lead to lawsuits. For example, the American trainer seeking to adopt the Asian style may easily alienate employees by going too far, and/or fail to properly train Western employees who then have grounds to object to inadequate training.

Conclusion

HR today faces two immense challenges. It is responsible for designing and carrying out the training vital to the business, yet it must also be consistently aware regarding employee perceptions and rights. The challenges are considerable, but they nonetheless reflect what is essentially the core function here. In training, in fact, HR may only be as effective as it adheres to principles of ethics and the law. Intent notwithstanding, moreover, it is essential that HR ensure that employee rights are addressed reasonably and in accordance with the law, for failures here place business at great risk.

References

Crawley, E., Swailes, S., & Walsh, D. (2013). Introduction to International Human Resource Management. New York: Oxford University Press.

Noe, R. A. (2010). Employee Training and Development, 5^th Ed. New York: McGraw Hill Irwin.