Due Week 8 and worth 300 points

It is your responsibility as the HR Director of the same organization from Assignment 2 to a) create policies regarding pay and benefits for the selected job opportunity, and b) develop methods for both addressing unionization and implementing OSHA regulations. You will present your findings to the Vice President of Human Resources for approval.

In preparation for this assignment, review the following articles on contractors vs. employees and temp workers:

• Bier, Ellin & Tucker: Distinguishing Between Independent Contractors and Employees
• Murray: Difference Between Independent Contractors and Employees
• “The Expendables: How the Temps Who Power Corporate Giants Are Getting Crushed”

Create a PowerPoint presentation with fifteen to twenty (15-20) slides in which you:

1. Create a Wage and Hour standard for the job opportunity that you had selected in Assignment 2, and support your standard by using the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and Equal Pay Act to prevent any potential discriminatory impact.
2. Decide on three (3) benefits required for the job opportunity using ERISA. Propose two (2) methods that the employer can use in order to manage the fiduciary duties wisely and with the employees’ best interests in mind. Provide a rationale for your response.
3. Elaborate on two (2) rights regarding unionization that Section 7 of the NLRA guarantees. Next, examine two (2) unfair labor practices, and argue the importance of your organization refraining from using such practices during any self-organization and collective bargaining activities. Explore two (2) potential repercussions of an organization’s interference with self-organization and collective bargaining practices.
4. Propose three (3) ways to discourage employees from considering unionization. Then, compose one (1) strategy for championing a supportive and satisfying work environment within the organization.
5. Select one (1) OSHA violation case, and determine whether the resulting penalties were sufficient to deter the organization in question from repeating the same violative action. Justify your response.
6. Outline a plan for investigating workplace injuries, and formulate a policy that explains the process for filing a worker’s compensation claim within the selected organization.
7. Narrate each slide, using a microphone, and indicate what you would say if you were actually presenting in front of an audience.
8. Use at least three (3) quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not qualify as academic resources.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

• Format the PowerPoint presentation with headings on each slide and relevant graphics (photographs, graphs, clip art, etc.), ensuring that the presentation is visually appealing and readable from eighteen (18) feet away. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
• Include a title slide containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The title slide is not included in the required slide length.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

• Develop policies that are compliant with employment laws.
• Evaluate an organization’s physical environment and determine criteria that ensure occupational safety.
• Use technology and information resources to research issues in employment law.
• Write clearly and concisely about employment law using proper writing mechanic.

Select at least five (5) economic concepts covered in the first four weeks’ readings, and discuss the primary manner in which these concepts impact the world of health care economics. Some examples of selected concepts are health demand and supply, elasticity, resources, health measures, and costs.

Write a four to six (4-6) page paper in which you:

1. Assess the value of healthcare professionals and decision makers understanding the discipline of health economics.
2. Defend or critique the importance of considering the complex nature of health and healthcare when examining the economic principles related to healthcare delivery.
3. Analyze the primary potential benefits of learning about health economics related to government involvement in healthcare economics, financing, and delivery.
4. Analyze the main potential benefits of learning about health economics related to private sector government involvement in healthcare economics, financing, and delivery.
5. Use at least five (5) current references. Three of these references must be from current peer-reviewed sources to support and substantiate your comments and perspectives.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

• Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

• Explain how selected economic principles apply to the health care market and the provisions of health care services.
• Analyze the factors that are influencing the demand and supply of health care services in the U.S.
• Assess current economic trends that influence the cost, quality, and access to care.
• Use technology and information resources to research issues in health economics.
• Write clearly and concisely about health economics using proper writing mechanics.

CASE STUDY-COM425

AFTER SEPTEMBER 11th: EMOTION IN THE WORKPLACE

Though they are now several years in the past, it is clear that the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and the thwarted attack that ended in a rural Pennsylvania field are events that will live forever in our individual, national, and global psyches. Few days have taken such an emotional toll on us, and the reverberations of September 11th will doubtless continue for many years to come. In this case, we will take a brief look at the impact of these events on emotion in the workplace.

The effect of September 11th on the emotional lives of workers can be seen in both “ordinary” and “extraordinary” ways. Clearly, those who worked in the World Trade Center or the Pentagon were affected in the most direct and profound ways. Consider, for example, employees of Cantor Fitzgerald, the bond trading company that occupied floors 101–105 of One World Trade Center. More than 700 employees of Cantor Fitzgerald were killed in the terrorist attack, leaving more than 1,500 children to cope with the loss of a parent. The emotional toll for survivors at this company—and for the families of those killed—was tremendous. Emotions of grief, anger, and fear predominated. As the mother of a 23-year-old Cantor Fitzgerald employee said shortly after the attack, “Everybody says we’re supposedly at war, or we’re starting a war. I didn’t send my son to war. I sent him to work,” (Grieving for their son, 2001).

Emotions were less potent—but still very real—for workers far removed from the tragedy. In the weeks and months following the attacks, workers were advised that there was a “new normal.” In the new normal, Americans were supposed to remain on ‘high alert’ yet return to regular day-to-day activities. This proved difficult for many workers. As one report advised its readers, “If you have found yourself staring out of the window wondering what you are doing with your life or wishing you were at home with your family and ducking off early or even contemplating career change, then be reassured that you are not alone,” (Harnessing the wave of emotion, 2001). The “new normal” was impossible to achieve in light of the emotions that flowed freely in workplaces the world over.

Thus, the events of September 11th provided fertile ground for both ordinary and extraordinary emotion in the workplace.  These emotions were the result of direct coping with disaster and grief and with the “ripple effects” felt throughout the nation and the world. Let’s look at the emotions that might have been experienced by these hypothetical workers in the weeks and months following the terrorist attacks:

•       Consider Dan, a New York City firefighter.  He “signed up” for a job of high risk and high stress, but no one anticipated the possibility of losing so many brave colleagues in one fateful morning. Dan had many close friends killed in the WTC attacks.  Months after the attack, Dan was still involved in recovery work at ground zero.  And years after the attack, Dan still suffered from depression and recurring nightmares.

•       Consider Julia, an agent who works at the gate for a major U.S. airline. The airlines, of course, were shut down for days after the attack and lost an incredible amount of business because of trepidation over air travel. Thus, although Julia still has her job, many others at her airline were laid off during this time period and have yet to be rehired. Julia also encounters emotion in the day-to-day activities of her job. Passenger emotions run the gamut from fear of flying to irritation with delays to resentment of passenger screening.

•       Consider Amal, a systems analyst working in a government office near the Pentagon.  Amal was born in the United States, raised in the suburbs, and educated in American schools. But Amal is of Arab descent and is a Muslim. Amal—like most Americans—feels great grief and anger about the terrorist attacks. But Amal must also deal with the furtive glances of coworkers, with the suspicion of others on the street, and with the possibility of very real discrimination inside and outside of the workplace. These concerns have only increased during the Iraqi war.

•       Consider Esmeralda, who works in a small, family-owned greeting card store in the Midwest. For many reasons—electronic mail, the slowing economy—Americans are sending fewer greeting cards. Thus, the store Esmeralda is working for is being shut down and Esmeralda will lose her job, her health benefits, and contact with close colleagues and friends. Although Esmeralda knows that there are many who are “worse off” than she is, this thought gives her little comfort.

•       Consider Glenn, who works in an insurance office in suburban New Jersey. Glenn’s mother died of cancer on September 13, 2001. Glenn was confronted by a complex mix of emotions at the time: grief over his mother’s death; sadness over the terrorist attack; resentment that his personal suffering is overshadowed by national sorrow; guilt for feeling that resentment. And Glenn is largely suffering in silence and without support as individuals deal with their personal places in the national tragedy.

These cases, although hypothetical, are based on very real situations and very real emotions.  And although the events of September 11th serve as both an impetus and backdrop for the consideration of Glenn, Amal, Dan, Esmeralda, and Julia, their stories illustrate the widespread prevalence of emotion in the workplace.  Understanding and coping with that emotion is the next important step.

Discussion Questions

1. Think about your own experiences in the days, weeks, months, and years following September 11, 2001. What emotions did you and your friends and family experience?  How were these emotions handled in the workplace? Do these emotions continue to affect you? Do you think they continue to affect organizational life?
2. How do the specific individuals discussed in this case exemplify types of emotions discussed in this chapter? Do any of these cases illustrate “emotional labor” in the classic sense of the term? Do these cases illustrate the emotion that emerges from workplace relationships? Do these cases provide new ways of thinking about emotion in the workplace that have been downplayed by research and theory on workplace emotion?
3. Is burnout a likely outcome for any of these workers? If so, how would you analyze the causes of that burnout? Are there strategies that would be effective in coping with burnout? How would these strategies differ for different individuals?
4. Include at least 2 outside sources.

1) Chipotle’s model of local sourcing and delivering “food with integrity” challenged the traditional quick-service model of centralized preparation common at McDonald’s and others. How can Chipotle now balance the need to control critical operations through centralized preparation with the desire to differentiate itself in the competitive fast casual restaurant market? Can Chipotle continue to compete effectively using its past positioning as “fresh and local”?

2) Some argue that Chipotle, like many growing firms, focused on growth over attention to store-level operations, which increased operational risk, as many processes were not standardized. Which standardized processes, both in operations and sourcing, are important to the Chipotle model and need to be addressed to reduce risk?

3) Chipotle’s operations led to a reputational crisis that caused customers to become wary of eating its food. Other companies in similar situations have made great efforts to communicate how the product was different and safer. In Chipotle’s case, its burrito looked no different after all of its food safety changes. How could the product and process be altered to communicate the new focus on safety? Could this change be demonstrated?

4) Chipotle gave away millions of free meals to attract customers. Was it enough to rebuild trust? What other things would you recommend the company do to rebuild trust with customers?

5) Chipotle has inspired many copycats. Given how sensitive restaurants are to notoriously fickle consumer tastes, how likely is it that the challenges facing Chipotle would drive consumers away from its menu to copycats offering other food types?

6) In the Internet age, details about what Chipotle did and the narrative it created to explain its actions will be available forever. What did the company do well and what could it have done better?