...upcoming presidential election, the subject of what to do with our Social Security is definitely on everyone’s mind. Social Security is a crucial portion in any business compensation package. It is something that we cannot do without, or can we? So what’s wrong with our Social Security program? Talk to several different people and you most likely will not get the same answer. As the following pages unfold, you will have a snapshot on the background history of the program, a view on what is wrong, and some possible solutions. The need for economic security can be traced back to the early Greek civilization, who stockpiled olive oil as a way to secure their future. The groundwork for a public system of economic security could be seen during the late 1700’s, as Thomas Paine, a Revolutionary War figure, published a business proposal depicting the need. The Civil War era saw the creation of pension plans (mainly military). It wasn’t until 1906 that “old age” was added to the means of obtaining a pension. Significant events in our history were a preview for the creation of our Social Security program, as we know it today. President Roosevelt signed the executive order for the Social Security Act, on 14 August 1935. As Richard Henderson states in his book titled Compensation Management in a Knowledge-Based Word, the passage of the Social Security Act in 1935 guaranteed some amount of income to workers reaching retirement age and to workers...
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...What's wrong with these employees? - Job dissatisfaction by D. Keith Denton Newspaper headlines tell of a growing disenchantment with work, even within organizations many had thought of as well run. Perhaps of even greater concern is the fact that this is occurring not only among employees but also among middle managers, the traditional backbone of American business. Engaging the work force will be a key component of future competitiveness. One example of this disenchantment was noted in a recent Wall Street Journal article (Faludi 1990). Nordstrom, a high-service, high-performance company, is struggling with employee problems. Among the "Nervous Nordies," as employees like to call themselves, there is growing dissatisfaction. The article notes that Nordies are "under increased pressure to work many hours without pay in an environment of constant pressure and harassment that incites employees to prey on each other." This is according to 500 complaints filed with the workers' union and interviews with several dozen employees in stores from Seattle to Los Angeles. The Washington State Department of Labor and Industries concluded that the agency systematically violated state law. They ordered Nordstrom to pay back wages estimated at $30 to $40 million. The article goes on to note that in the high pressure for sales there is a "Darwinian struggle" where thousands have thrived but many other thousands are unhappy. Among other things, complaints include employees having to punch...
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...compensated to highly? Many potential causes of overpayment have been identified: CEOs with too much power, inattentive boards of directors, conflicts of interest by compensation consultants, the use of stock options--the list goes on. Some studies show the average CEO was paid $10 million to $15 million in 2005. This includes their salary, bonus, stock option gains, stock grants, and various executive benefits and perquisites. Are rank-and-file workers underpaid? Everyone, I suppose, feels a little underpaid. Some data sources indicate the average American worker was paid about $40,000 in 2005. Anyone working in the technology sector knows this average pay level would barely hire a below-average administrative assistant in any of the technology hot spots in the U.S. And the average CEO pay has been earned by more than a few average technology company workers who had stock options in the right company at the right time. So, are CEOs overpaid compared to average workers? If you read the media stories this year, and in recent years, you might think that they are. Some interest groups have determined that the ratio of CEO pay to average worker pay is an appropriate measure of this problem. Some Web sites allow you to calculate how underpaid you are compared with your CEO. According to these sources, chief executive pay is between 250 and 500 times that of the average worker. Who are these CEOs who are supposedly paid hundreds of times more than the average worker? In most analyses...
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...upcoming presidential election, the subject of what to do with our Social Security is definitely on everyone’s mind. Social Security is a crucial portion in any business compensation package. It is something that we cannot do without, or can we? So what’s wrong with our Social Security program? Talk to several different people and you most likely will not get the same answer. As the following pages unfold, you will have a snapshot on the background history of the program, a view on what is wrong, and some possible solutions. The need for economic security can be traced back to the early Greek civilization, who stockpiled olive oil as a way to secure their future. The groundwork for a public system of economic security could be seen during the late 1700’s, as Thomas Paine, a Revolutionary War figure, published a business proposal depicting the need. The Civil War era saw the creation of pension plans (mainly military). It wasn’t until 1906 that “old age” was added to the means of obtaining a pension. Significant events in our history were a preview for the creation of our Social Security program, as we know it today. President Roosevelt signed the executive order for the Social Security Act, on 14 August 1935. As Richard Henderson states in his book titled Compensation Management in a Knowledge-Based Word, the passage of the Social Security Act in 1935 guaranteed some amount of income to workers reaching retirement age and to workers...
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...development planning is for individuals as well as the organization. Human resource manager must foster a career development planning environment to satisfy both the individual and organization needs to maintain a health work force and longevity of one’s organization. It’s the Individuals responsibility to formulate and implementing the career development plan, but they need to receive support from the organization in doing so. Google’s approach as a corporation leaves it up to the employees to knows what what’s out there and available to them for a successful career path. Self-reliance and the urgency is the approach Google would like to see in its employees an opportunistic attitude that will drive an individual approach towards his or her successful career path. Some of the development tools that Google offers are GoogleEDU. GoogleEDU, “the search engine’s two-year-old learning and leadership development program, offers classes for new managers and executives to help them adjust to the Google culture and manage Google’s staff in a professional manner. This is a formalizing learning opportunity that teaches employees what they need to know to keep productive and allows creativity. The development tool also, enhances each employee's current performance and increases support in the overall business strategy. Google has also implemented Project Oxygen in an effort to analyze why people leave Google. People typically leave a google for one of four reasons, or a combination...
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...my move from AVP to VP. Vice presidents were a rare breed those days, so becoming one did call for a celebration. I took the opportunity and decided to voice my concern. "What next? Does the organisation have a plan for me?" "As in?" "Now that I have been promoted, will I continue doing the mortgage role for another two years or is there any plan to move me to some other role?" He smiled. I guess my anxiety was obvious . "Do you know Ravi, who all love you?" I had a blank reaction to this question . "Remember" , he continued, "Your family and parents are the only ones who love you. They will do things selflessly for you. Not only that, they will always have your best interests in mind. Everyone else will only do what suits them." "But what's the relevance?" I was a bit confused. "If you think anyone is managing your career for you, you are mistaken. Others will only do what fits in their scheme of things and not necessarily what is good for you. Very few people will put your interests before themselves." I didn't take long to understand what he was saying. The cold, hard truth is, one has to look after oneself. No one else will. This is the reality of corporate life. Bosses, human resources teams, mentors and godfathers, among others, will come and tell you they are really looking out for your rocking future....
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...Case analysis on ‘Human resource strategy and productivity at Wal-Mart’ Course: MGT 489 # 7, Fall 2015 Submitted To Dr. Muslima Zahan Assistant Professor Submitted By |Name |Student ID | |MD. Zahid Hossen |111 0104 030 | |Mehedi Hasan |121 0212 030 | |Mohammed Irfan |121 0823 030 | |Nujhat Nakiba Khushbu |123 0279 030 | School of Business and Economics North South University Date of Submission: 13/10/2015 Letter of Transmittal October 13th, 2015 Dr. Muslima Zahan Assistant Professor Strategic Management (MGT 489) School of Business North South University Subject: Submission of the case analysis on “Human resource strategy and productivity at Wal-Mart” Madam, We would like to thank you for assigning us with this course-work for the course of strategic management. This case study has given us the opportunity to combine our theoretical...
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...Explain whether Jake's actions are in or out of his scope of employment. Jake’s actions are within the duty of care of his job, he is an auto mechanic technician and he takes pride in doing his job to the fullest degree. Auto mechanics “performs basic care maintenance, such as oil changes and tire rotations, diagnose more complex problems, and plan and execute vehicle repairs.” (Automotive service technicians, n.d., (¶ 1) There was a breach of duty, due to the overtime that Jake worked because of the free oil change promotion offer by the owner of the car dealership. Jake hurt his thumb while working on a car; he said, “I tried to tighten my thumb with a torque wrench.” (Drama of Law, n.d.) The overtime that Jake worked caused him to be overly tired and not as alert as he normally would which caused him to injury his thumb while working on a vehicle. This injury occurred while Jake was at working fulfilling his job duties as an auto mechanic. Herman is offering free oil changes to all previous customers to bring in business for his car dealership. Jake who is the newly appointed service manager is doing a complete work up on all the cars that come through his garage, along with the free oil change. What Jake is doing is apart of his job and when car owners normally go in to have their oil changed there are other services included. An oil change includes “fluid levels checks and top up of the brake fluid, antifreeze, power steering and essential cheeks of the lights,...
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...management 101 Organization Practice The irrational side of change management Most change programs fail, but the odds of success can be greatly improved by taking into account these counterintuitive insights about how employees interpret their environment and choose to act. Carolyn Aiken and Scott Keller In 1996, John Kotter published Leading Change. Considered by many to be the seminal work in the field of change management, Kotter’s research revealed that only 30 percent of change programs succeed. Since the book’s release, literally thousands of books and journal articles have been published on the topic, and courses dedicated to managing change are now part of many major MBA programs. Yet in 2008, a McKinsey survey of 3,199 executives around the world found, as Kotter did, that only one transformation in three succeeds. Other studies over the past ten years reveal remarkably similar results. It seems that, despite prolific output, the field of change management hasn’t led to more successful change programs. It also hasn’t helped that most academics and practitioners now agree on the building blocks for influencing employee attitudes and management behavior. McKinsey’s Emily Lawson and Colin Price provided a holistic perspective in “The psychology of change management,”1 which suggests that four basic conditions are necessary before employees will change their behavior: a) a compelling story, because employees must see the point of the change and agree with it; b)...
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...| CEO Compensation | | | | Jade Duan | 5/12/2012 | | INTRODUCTION Over the past a few decades, executive pay has risen dramatically in the United States. As of 1960, the average CEO at a large corporation made approximately $190,000 (equivalent to approximately $1.3 million today). The 1990s saw one of the greatest wealth transfers in history, as CEO pay skyrocketed. S&P companies CEO pay went from 1993 average of $3.7 to $17.4 million in 2000 [1]. In 2010 the highest paid CEO was Viacom's Philippe P. Dauman at $84.5 million in 9 months [2]. Motorola CEO, Sanjay Jha, pay package rose to $47 million in 2011, almost four times of his 2010 pay about $13 million [3]. As CEO compensation continues to soar while workers’ pay stalls, today, the average CEO makes 411 times more than the average worker (Figure 1). The explosion in executive pay has become controversial and criticized. The idea that stock options and other alleged pay-for-performance are driven by economics has also been questioned. Figure 1. Ratio of average CEO Pay to average production worker compensation in America Observers differ as to whether this rise is a natural and beneficial result of competition for scarce business talent that can add greatly to stockholder value in large companies, or a socially harmful phenomenon brought about by social and political changes that have given executives greater control over their own pay. "Today the idea that huge paychecks are part of a beneficial...
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...The problem to be investigated is looking into shades of gray when it comes to ethical behavior. For years, companies have been operating within the law yet displayed very questionable behavior. Companies like Goldman and Sachs utilizing questionable trading techniques in order to gain a financial profit while leaving behind companies in the dust and eliminating hundreds if not thousands of jobs in the process. Ethics is more than doing what’s right or wrong. It’s a way of life and how we can have an effect on others. Question 1: Go back through the case and make a list of each action or practice that could be called a gray area. The Layering Strategy: This was formulated in the late 1920 as a way to utilize one company’s money to invest in another. In the case of Goldman, he used his own customers to make money. He created an investment company and buys 90% of the shares in that company with its own money. Because the shares have sold so well, the public wants a piece of the company. So, the shares that Goldman initially bought for, say, $100, it is able to turn around and sell to the public for $110. He would then continue the cycle with another company and the price would climb. The Laddering Strategy: In 1990, the birth of the Internet age just started its peak. Goldman found another way to capitalize on this boom. Much like Goldman’s layering strategy, the Laddering strategies end result is also a crash. With the laddering strategy, this was reserved for Goldman’s...
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...Week 7 Course Project Raquida Edwards Magras Raquida123@live.com Keller Graduate School of Management Professor Walter Brey October 15, 2015 HRM 594 Introduction In the past and even in current times, workplace issues were very prominent. Some were discriminatory actions against a certain group or person because of age, race, gender, religion, and other characteristics. Some were wrongful acts against the employee or employer. The list just goes on and on. To prevent those things from happening and alleviate the issues, laws were put in place to protect employees and employers. The laws were also put in place to create a safe work environment for everyone. The laws have not completed mitigated the issues, but they have minimized significantly. Many of the laws that are now in place were put in place because of employees and/or employers that went through situations and no law was written to protect them. Laws are now also in place to protect employees when they are not at the workplace for different reasons beyond their control. An example of this is the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA). This act was put in place to protect service members’ jobs when they have be called up to serve their country. In the past, employers could have terminated the employee, but because of this act, employers must keep the employee’s job for the time they leave until they come back. If the employee’s position is no longer available, for...
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...low interest loans (sometimes disguised as bonuses) that were never approved by the Tyco board or repaid. Some of these "loans" were part of a "Key Employee Loan" program the company offered. They were also accused of selling their company stock without telling investors, which is a requirement under SEC rules. Koslowski, Swartz, and Belnick stole $600 million dollars from Tyco International through their unapproved bonuses, loans, and extravagant "company" spending. Rumors of a $6,000 shower curtain, $2,000 trash can, and a $2 million dollar birthday party for Kozlowski's wife in Italy are just a few examples of the misuse of company funds. As many as 40 Tyco executives took loans that were later "forgiven" as part of Tyco's loan-forgiveness program, although it was said that many did not know they were doing anything wrong. Hush money was...
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...Women vs. Wal Mart Ethical Case Analysis Key Ethical Issue The main ethical issue in the Women and Wal-Mart case is its discrimination of women in the workforce, and how they go hand in hand with the utility, rights, and justice arguments of discrimination. The Utilitarian arguments claim that discrimination leads to inefficient use of human resources. This applies to the Wal-Mart case because they were not getting full use out of their employees because they would often times promote a man instead of a woman, even if she had more experience and was better qualified. Studies conducted by a statistical expert that the six women hired, Richard Drogin, revealed that a much larger amount of men were receiving promotions at every level in the Wal-Mart workplace, even though women’s performance ratings were higher than men’s. Wal-Mart was clearly not promoting or giving benefits to these women because of their gender, and they were stuck underneath the “glass ceiling.” The Rights-based arguments claim that discrimination violates basic human rights. In this case, Wal-Mart didn’t view women to be equal to men because men were receiving the promotions when it should have been the women, as stated before. A Kantian argument also states that a person would not want to be discriminated on the basis of their characteristics that do not affect the person’s ability to perform a job, in this case, being a woman. Wal-Mart is not viewing their male and female employees as equals, as...
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...which prohibits the distribution of bribes and other favors in the conduct of business. 2. Should laws be flexible? * Rules and Regulations provide a framework to any system. I believe that Laws should never be bounded by situations they should be equal for everyone under any circumstances. Flexibility would only make the system vulnerable. 3. Are our laws fair? * There are, of course, abuses and mistakes by judges and juries, and procedural mishaps occasionally tip the scales of justice in the wrong direction. Sometimes—as in George McGovern’s case—innocent parties are forced to bear the cost of defending themselves in court. On the whole, however, the U.S. legal system is remarkably fair. 4. Do people consider laws fair? * I think most of the people consider that a United States law is not fair. 5. In the United States legal decisions are based on the rule of law. What is the rule of law? * Predictability and Fairness. How do we know what’s legally “fair” and what isn’t? Granted, depending on who’s enforcing the rules of the game, just about anything can be “fair” and just about anything can be “foul.” Legal tradition in the United States, however, rests on the principle of the rule of law—the principle by which government legitimately exercises its authority only in accordance with publicly declared laws that are...
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