Electronics Use in Organizations and the Great Resignation
Instructions
You are required to respond two of the three questions provided. All of your responses should be written in short essay format, adhering to the word count provided. Be sure your answers clearly address all aspects of the question.
Questions (Choose two out of three) (825 words each)
1. You are the HR manager of a non-unionized company. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, all work performed by employees occurred in the office using company laptops and company-issued phones. The company had clear policies stipulating that these devices were to remain onsite. When the company sent employees home to work virtually during the pandemic in 2020, however, employees took their company-issued laptops and phones home with them. For the first few months of virtual working, the focus of the company was crisis management and keeping the business afloat. HR attended to only the most severe issues, and any proactive HR work was set aside to respond to operational issues generated by pandemic conditions.
As the new virtual mode of working became more settled and routine, you recognized some ongoing issues with employee use of company electronic equipment and devices, including extensive use of such equipment for personal matters, both during and after office hours. Furthermore, employees are freely discussing company information and venting work frustration on social media, including some badmouthing of supervisors and the company’s response to the pandemic. Prior to the onset of virtual work, cases like this would have led to discipline and even dismissal, but during pandemic conditions, they were handled inconsistently and on an ad hoc basis. Now that pandemic restrictions have lifted, senior management is considering a permanent transition to virtual work. Critically discuss why the electronics use situation needs to be addressed promptly, and propose a plan on how you would systematically deal with these issues (e.g., what policies and procedures are needed, and how they can be implemented effectively).
2. The years 2021–2022 have been characterized as the “Great Resignation.” Record numbers of employees left their jobs and transitioned into completely new careers. See the following related news article: After the Great Resignation, where did all the Canadian workers go?
a. How can effective employee communication help an organization identify the risk factors for a high number employee exits and mitigate those risks?
b. Choose ONE of the areas of work listed in the article above (healthcare workers, personal support workers, teachers, restaurant servers, airline employees). Discuss the main causes of stress in this line of work. How could organizations and/or managers from your chosen example reduce the employee turnover rate?
3. What are the advantages of mutual gains bargaining? What are its challenges? Research an organization that has adopted mutual gains bargaining (or labour-management cooperation, generally). What has made the non-traditional labour relations approach successful or unsuccessful? What could be done to further improve the relationships and outcomes? (Note that other terms for the mutual gains approach include collaborative approach, win-win approach, problem-solving approach, principled negotiations, interest-based negotiations, and integrative bargaining.)
Human Resource Management
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Human Resource Management
Answer 1
Human resource (HR) managers execute significant duties and responsibilities in an organization, including recruitment, determining employee compensation, promoting worker relations, and enforcing the firm’s practices and policies (Schwind et al., 2022). In particular, the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to the transition from working in the offices into working from home. In the scenario at hand, being an HR manager of a non-unionized firm means that one has significant responsibilities to ensure that employees are treated and compensated well. Before the coronavirus, the company policies were clear that all phones and laptops provided by the firm were to be used only at the workplace and that no employee was allowed to go home with them. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic things changed and the company allowed workers to go with laptops and phones at home so that they could work virtually. Nevertheless, the primary issue was drawing the line between personal and work-related usage of the company’s electronic devices and equipment. For sure, it can be challenging to control how employees use company-issued laptops and phones while at home. For instance, some workers are likely to use these electronic devices on social media to communicate with their friends or hold various discussions. In that light, it is time that the HR manager propose an effective plan to deal with this issue.
The new virtual mode of working is something the company should continue to embrace due to technological advancement. In fact, since the company is considering a permanent transition to virtual work, it would be good for the HR manager to develop proper solutions for the problems at hand. Besides, the use of company-issued phones and laptops for personal reasons while working from home is a controversial topic that requires critical thinking to avoid demotivating employees and reducing productivity, particularly because they are not supervised. Effective policies can be established to govern the appropriate utilization of these electronic devices (Marett, Xiao, & Kim, 2023). In particular, the company should create webpages on different social networking platforms and encourage workers to raise issues they encounter while working and recommend appropriate solutions. In this digital era, employees should be allowed to interact freely on the Internet. However, they should be