Introduction
Managing people is a complex task as there are no specific rules that could make sure that people would behave in the most appropriate manner (Henry, 1995). The behavior of the individual is difficult to predict and with organizations increasingly focusing on diversity in the workforce, this is creating more difficult for organizations to manage people. With more people belonging from diverse background in organizations today, it has resulted in increasing complexities in managing people (Foot, & Hook, 2011). Therefore managing workforce or people at the organization have become much more complex than it used to be few years back. Also with too much advancement today, an employee represents the overall organization and when an organization is representing the organization he needs to make sure that the overall organizational image is not hurt (Jackson, Schuler, & Werner, 2009).
This report analyses the problem that have emerged as John, a manager at the Inverness Housing Trust has posted a link regarding the gay marriage at BBC and has commented y marriage as ‘an equality too far underneath’. In his response, two of the employees of the organization have disagreed. In response to their disagreement, John has further defended his position. This report therefore analyzes the three problems related to the discipline involved in this scenario and then the report identifies factors that could influence the decision taken by the company against such acts. Then the report provides three procedural steps that need to be taken by the company while proceeding further along with the importance of each step. Finally, the report concludes the overall topic.
Three potential problems that are related to the discipline involved in the scenario are:
- The company is a trust and employees are the ones that represent the company. When the religion offers the freedom and considers this as a fair and equal treatment then Mr. John should not make such comments and posts particularly when he is the representative of a trust and people will not consider as a positive move and may consider this as the comments from the company. Therefore this has been one of the disciplinary problems.
- It is important that employees of the organization treat each other member of the organization with respect and dignity. However in this scenario, this is not the case. Mr. John would definitely have signed code of conduct in which he would have signed the clause related to making sure that the organization and its employees should be treated fairly. Thus this is the other disciplinary issue.
factors that could influence the decision taken by the company
Factors that could influence the decision taken by the company are:
- Such comments may hurt the organizational image and thus punishment should be given to avoid such cases in future.
- The period of service of Mr. John should be considered as he has been representing the organization for 19 years.
- The consequences and impact of the action of Mr. John.
- Previous record of Mr. John and whether he has any such records or not that harm the organizational image.
Organizations in order to manage people and make sure that such instances do not occur again need to take action against Mr. John. Three procedural steps that should be taken by the company are:
Step I: First of all, the management should ask Mr. John the reason and whether he would like to say something to the management or he would still defend his position. This step is important as it would allow Mr. John to clarify his position and whether he is apologetic for his position or not.
Step II: In this step, the management should consider the situation from all the perspective and the impact of the action taken by Mr. John. Then identify different punishments that can be taken along with their impact on the organizational culture and other employees of the organization. This step will be important in order to make sure that proper rules are followed and actions are taken against those that ruin the organizational image.
Step III: Management should take the actions and make sure that everyone in the organization as well as other stakeholders that have been influenced by the actions taken by Mr. John are aware of the punishment. This would help the organization in improving the organizational image if it has been hurt by the act of Mr. John.
conclusion
Managing employees is an important aspect of the organizational success. Managing people is a difficult task and management needs to reward employees that help in improving the organizational performances and organizational image. Similarly, employees should be punished that ruin or hurt the image of the organization (Henry, 1995).
References
Foot, M. & Hook, C. (2011). Introducing Human Resource Management. 6th ed; Pearson Education; Oxford
Henry, C. (1995). Human Resource Management: A Strategic Approach to Management. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Jackson, S., Schuler, R., & Werner, S. (2009). Managing Human Resources. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.
