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CHAPTER 6 Human Resources Management 223

U.S. Congress has responded by enacting a panoply of women must be treated equally to men in hiring and
laws protecting the rights of employees to work in safe on the job. Under this law, a high-performing woman
environments, take unpaid leave for family or medical must be given the same opportunity for job
reasons, not be discriminated against because of advancement as an equally high-performing man.
disability, and receive 60 days notice if the plant where Affirmative action takes this concept a step further and
they work is going to close. states that organizations must take special steps to
recruit, hire, and promote individuals from
LEARNING OBJECTIVE 8 underrepresented groups. Under an affirmative
Analyze the difference between equal employment action plan, a business may give a high-performing
opportunity and affirmative action, the impact of woman preference in obtaining promotions over an
this difference on workplace diversity, and recent equally high-performing man. The idea behind such
developments in affirmative action and workplace an approach is to help women obtain supervisory jobs
diversity.
of the kind they ordinarily have not had, where they
Equal employment opportunity laws require that all have been underrepresented. In two important 2003
employees be treated equally in the workplace. Title VII cases, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the general
of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, for example, states that concept of affirmative action.

Chapter Questions strip club on Saturday night; the employee works
only Monday through Friday. Is this discharge
1. How have increases in technology impacted the
lawful? What different factors control this
conduct of human resources management in the
determination?
United States?
13. Why was the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
2. Why have labor unions experienced such a decline
so controversial when its enactment was being
in private sector membership? Why do you think
considered by the U.S. Congress? Should the
the same dynamics have not occurred in the
FMLA’s coverage be expanded? What are the pros
public sector, that is, the government? Why would
and cons of such expanded coverage?
there be differences between the two sectors?
14. Describe the differences between equal
3. What government information sources are
employment opportunity and affirmative action.
available for human resources planning? How
How have these concepts been applied in recent
would you use or apply these resources?
U.S. Supreme Court decisions to college and
4. How can the Internet help employers with
university admissions?
recruiting employees? Give some examples of the
15. The tragic events of September 11, 2001, have
most useful Internet sites in this regard.
impacted many things in the United States. How
5. Why are recruitment interviews often viewed as
have they impacted human resources
being a bad selection device? What can be done to
management, especially in the area of workplace
overcome the problems involved with interviews?
diversity?
6. Is employee seniority a good criterion on which to
base employee compensation and other rewards?
Give the pros and cons of using seniority. Interpreting Business News
7. Describe some different types of employee
compensation, and discuss their effectiveness. 1. There continues to be a major controversy
8. What are stock options? Why has there been so regarding the lack of African American coaches in
much recent controversy regarding their use? the National Football League. Since Art Shell
9. Why might employees be better off having a became the first African American NFL coach (for
defined benefit pension plan as opposed to a the Oakland Raiders) in 1989, there have been only
defined contribution plan? a handful of other African Americans holding these
10. What is the doctrine of employment-at-will? What prestigious posts. NFL teams argue that they don’t
are the arguments that the application of this discriminate in hiring coaches and only try to hire
doctrine is good for U.S. business? the best possible coach for the team (equal
11. What topics are employers required to bargain employment opportunity model). Various groups,
over with unions? Give some examples of such though, argue that teams should be very proactive
topics. in trying to hire African American coaches and
12. Employer X fires employee Y for being seen by generally have more diverse front offices
various people entering an adult entertainment (affirmative action model). Some observers have

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