Task 1 Essay Example for Free

Task 1 Essay Second it will discuss the definition of Constructive Discharge and its relevance to this claim. Third it will provide the specific areas under the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Fourth it will offer recommendations and supporting legal references. Fifth it will recommend proactive steps to avoid future legal issues in relationship to the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. And finally any references used in this research will be provided. A. Definition of Constructive DischargeSummary of Claim and history:In January 1, 2013 a new policy was implemented to support exponential company growth. This policy impacted all production employees. The impacted employees were notified of the changes two months in advance of the January 2013 implementation to allow for assimilation and training on the new shifts schedules and there impacts. Production employee schedules were shifted from a Monday through Friday schedule, 8 hour shift to a Monday through Sunday schedule, 12 hour shift, four working days can occur any day of the week. This schedule requires all production employees to work on holy days regardless of religious affiliation as the production now runs seven days a week. Office staff members were not impacted by this policy change. AA23 quit on January 2, 2013 after new policy was in effect. There was no reason given in the resignation as to why AA23 was resigning or that it was related to having to work on holy days. AA23 filed a Claim #1-2013 with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on February 3, 2013. Toy Company was notified via our legal department on March 10, 2013. Constructive discharge is when an employee resigns from their job because the employer makes conditions so bad or lets bad conditions continue; that a reasonable employee would also have resigned in the same conditions. If proven it is treated as an unlawful firing. There are rules that an employee must follow in order to make a claim of constrictive discharge. First they must provide written notification of the cause of their resignation. The employer than has 15 days to provide a written response to the allegations. This type of claim is very difficult to prove; especially in Washington state which is an â€Å"At Will† state. â€Å"At Will† means that the either the employee or the employer is free to sever a working relationship for any reason; as long as the separation was not due to discrimination. Or there was a contract in place that overrides the â€Å"At Will† mandate. There are two main considerations when working with a constructive discharge claim. The first is regarding whether other production employees felt compelled to resign. The second is whether Toy Company’s intent was to force AA23’s resignation with the new production work schedule (Finnegan, 2013). The following assumptions are being made at this time: 1) there haven’t been any other resignations reported that are related to this issue. 2) The documented intent of the schedule change was created to address increased demand not to create religious discrimination. ) The claimant filed the claim with EEOC. 4) The claimant didn’t follow the company procedures to report and resolve issues. B. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (relevant areas)Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was created to address the civil rights conflicts that were occurring during this 1960†™s. It is considered one of the most important pieces of legislation related to Civil Rights. This act was setup to address discrimination of protected classes (e. g. African Americans, Asian, Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, and women). The part of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that applies to employment decisions; mandates that employment decisions not be based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin (Gmoez-Mejia amp; Cardy, 2013). † Discrimination is about the making of distinctions; in the context of human resources, it is about the making of distinctions among people. There are two type of discrimination. Disparate treatment is when an employee is treated differently because of his protected status. Adverse impact is when the same standard is applied across the board; however it impacts a protected class more (Gmoez-Mejia amp; Cardy, 2013). In the case of #1-2013 adverse impact could apply to the shift changes that were implemented in January 2013. As the shift changes applied to all production employees. This could be construed as unintentional discrimination. However we haven’t had any other complaints to date. The company must reasonably accommodate religious beliefs or practices; unless it creates undue hardship (e. g. costly, compromises workplace safety, decreases workplace efficiency, infringes on the rights of other employees, or requires other employees to do more than their share of potentially hazardous or burdensome work). There are several ways to make accommodations (e. g. flexible scheduling, voluntary shift substitutions or swaps, job reassignments, and modifications to workplace policies or practices) (Religious Discrimination, 2013). C. Recommendations for Toy Company response. The facts before us are that Toy Company provided information on the new schedule several months before it was implemented. AA23 or any other employee didn’t inform Toy Company of any issues with the new schedule before the implementation at the beginning of 2013. When AA23 resigned AA23 did not document the reason for the resignation as due to scheduling impacts impacting religious beliefs either in writing or in person to the appropriate Human Resources personnel. Since this schedule change impacted all production employees it clearly was not created to personally force AA23 to resign. The EEOC will likely find in favor of the company and not send the case to trial. However it is in our best interest to work with AA23 and try to resolve this case through conciliation. This will require us to enter mediation with the EEOC, AA23, and company representatives. C1. Three legal references that support recommendations 1. In Liebermann V. Genesis Health Care – Franklin Woods Center (2012), Grace Liebermann worked at Genesis Health Care. Ms. Liebermann started working there in August of 2010. Ms. Liebermann constantly stated that she Jewish and needed to leave early on Fridays. Genesis agreed with the understanding that she would work a full 40 hours a week. Almost immediately her schedule became an issue. She repeatedly emailed her supervisor to leave earlier and earlier on each Friday. Each time attributing to her daycare’s adherence to the Sabbath. The court ruled in favor of the defendant; due to the fact that her issue was due to daycare requirements not religious requirements. This supports our claim because AA23 has not previously stated any issues due to religious observances. 2. In Pennsylvania State Police V. Suders (2004), a formal complaint was filed by Suders citing that she was subjective to sexual harassment by her supervisors. Suders’ hostile work environment claim was untenableas a matter of law, the District Court stated, because she â€Å"unreasonably failed to avail herself of the PSP’s internal procedures for reporting any harassment. †¦Resigning just two days after she first mentioned anything about harassment to Equal Employment Opportunity Officer Smith-Elliott, the court noted, Suders had â€Å"never given [the PSP] the opportunity to respond to [her] complaints. † Ibid (Pennsylvania State Police V. Suders, 2004). As with our claim Suders never notified the State Police of the se xual harassment issues by utilizing the available internal grievance procedure provided by her employer. This supports our claim because AA23 has not previously stated any issues due to religious observances. It also supports our position that this is not a constructive discharge case because As with Suder and the PSP, Toy story didn’t specifically single out AA23 with the new schedule policy to force her to quit and no other employees have complained let alone quit. 1. In Johnson V. Lancaster-Lebanon Intermediate Unit 13 (2012), Barbara Johnson brought charges of disability discrimination and hostile work environment. Johnson had epilepsy and was asked to provide additional information from her neurologist to ensure that she would be able to manage volatile situations in here classroom. After she was not able to provide that information an additional meeting was setup to discuss the schools concerns over this issue. The plaintiff choose to resign and treat it as a constructive discharge. The defendant requested a summary judgment which was granted due to insufficient support for her claims with the court determining that just because she was uncomfortable and was being asked to provide more information than other employees it did not mean she was constructively discharged. AA23 may have felt uncomfortable with the new schedule and may have even felt harassed; but AA23 didn’t follow internal procedures to report her concerns. A reasonable person would not have expected that a change in the work schedule for the whole production area was created to force AA23’s or anyone’s resignation. C2. Recommend steps to avoid future legal issues around Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 1. Review internal grievance policies and procedures. i. Ensure that all complaints are put into writing ii. Ensure that all complaints are responded to with 48 hours. Either to start an investigation or to provide a response. iii. Provide anonymous reporting phone number 2. Train all managers and supervisors on internal grievance polies and procedures. 3. Post grievance polies and procedures all general work areas and online on Toy Company internal employee site. 4. When considering schedule or other changes include make sure decisions are informed through the lens of the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and other appropriate acts. Include HR personal in these discussions to ensure compliance with laws. D. ReferencesFinnegan, S. 2013). Constructive Dishcarge Under Tittl VII and the ADEA. The University of Chicago Law Review, 561-562. Grace Liebermann V. Genesis Health Care Franklin Woods Center, CCB-11-2770 (District Court of Maryland 2013). Johnson V. Lacaster-Lebabib Intermediate Unit 13, 11-cv-01598 (District Court for the Eastren District of Pennsyvania 2012). Pennsylvania State Police V. Suders, 542 US 129 (Supreme Court 2004). Religious Di scrimination. (2013, 03 24). Retrieved from U. S. Equal EMployment Opportunity Commision: http://www. eeoc. gov/laws/types/religion. cfm | | |

The American Dream in Lorraine Hansberrys A Raisin in the Sun and Arth

Centuries ago, Americans were fighting for their freedom from Britain. Then, the American dream was to have freedom. To American then, being free and having their own individual country was enough. Up until a few decades ago, African Americans were fighting to have equal rights. They thought this was all they needed and they would be truly happy. Somewhere over the course of time; happiness had a new meaning for all Americans. Now material possessions are what it takes to be happy. The American dream is to be rich. A Raisin in the Sun, written by Lorraine Hansberry, and Death of a Salesman, written by Arthur Miller, both address the American Dream. Both plays discuss the desire for wealth and how the desire may lead to one’s downfall. However, each play is very different in addressing issues such as race and feminism. A Raisin in the Sun and Death of a Salesman have the same major theme of the American Dream, but address other issues differently along the way. A Raisin in the Sun is about an African American family in Chicago. Living in the same old broken down house is Lena Younger, who is the mother to both Beneatha and Walter, who also live in the house. Walter is married to Ruth and is the father of Travis. As the play begins, the family is about to inherit an insurance check for 10,000 dollars. This money comes from the death of Lena’s husband. Each member of the family wants to do something different with that money. Lena wants to buy a bigger house in a nicer area, and Ruth agrees with her. Beneatha wants the money to go to tuition for medical school. Walter wants to invest the money in a liquor store, so he can own the store, and become successful and rich. He is tired of just being a cab driver. However, Lena inten... ...e almost called Mr. Linder and made that deal with him when he found out that he lost the money, but his family was there to help him figure out that that would not be the right thing to do. On the other hand, Willy’s relationship with his family is what led him to suicide. The role of woman is also handled differently in the two plays, along with the role of age and race. The two plays had similar points, but were also quite different. Works Cited Cleage, Pearl. â€Å" Black Issues Book Review†. Playright’s Choice 3 (1995): 20- 23. Evans, Everett. â€Å"What’s Hot on Stage†. Houston Chronicle. 28 Oct 1994: Pgs 10- 12. Laban, Linda. â€Å"Raisin in the Sun Raisin’s in the Rounder†. Boston Globe. 5 Apr 2001: pgs 8-11. Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun. New York: Penguin Books, 1992. Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. New York: Penguin Books, 1949.

The Different Methods and Styles of Leadership

In a seminal and much-cited article on the subject of lead-ership, Lewin, Lippitt, and White (1939) coined the term demo-cratic-style leadership to refer to a method of managing that involved give and take between leaders, or managers, and the people whose jobs they were guiding. Later identified with group leadership, democratic leadership was valorized vis-a-vis auto-cratic leadership on one side and laissez-faire leadership on the other. One may readily infer the bias in favor of democratic leadership style from the mere naming of the other style terms. The autocratic style of leadership has been linked to the so-called scientific management methods envisioned by Frederick Taylor, who in the early part of the 20th century was influen-tial in devising a strategy of workplace behavior meant to elim-inate uncertainty and chaos in the workplace. The problem was that managers tended to leave employees out of the policy-imple-mentation equation. Supposedly, scientific management would eliminate the adversary relationship between labor and manage-ment. Instead, â€Å"science, the impartial arbiter, would decide† (Kanigel, 1996, p. 45). Yet â€Å"science† inevitably meant top-down, hierarchical management practices: â€Å"Taylor's experts and engineers did the thinking, while you were consigned to mindless doing† (Kanigel, 1996, p. 51). Laissez-faire leadership, as the term implies, fully em-powers the group members. The actual leader recedes, but the group is responsible for its decisions. One trouble with that style is that the leader also withdraws as a resource, unless the group specifically asks for help, and intragroup rivalries and compe-tition can develop that can limit group effectiveness (Lewin, Lippitt, & White, 1939). There may be no shared vision about the group's objective. One may also infer the potential for the tyranny of the majority, a term attributed to Tocque-ville in his 1839 book Democracy in America. That idea also sur-faces in democratic-style management, but a leader changes the anarchic process by guiding the group away from internal power plays and toward unified group objectives. After World War II, influential management philosophy shifted toward ideas of democratic-style leadership with the work of W. Edwards Deming, whose famous Fourteen Points of man-agement included calls for management, not labor, to assume re-sponsibility for quality and for managers to act as leaders who clearly articulated work objectives and supported labor in im-plementing them (Walton, 1986). Yet Deming's management ideas were more wide-ranging than leadership per se, and the style associated with group dynamics is the focus of this research. Democratic-style leadership is consistent with management theory that views workers, or members of the leader's group, as resources rather than as drains or something to be coped with or otherwise got over. Even where some hierarchical struc-tures are in place, communication processes are meant to travel up, down, and laterally within an organization, and management practice diffuses decision-making events â€Å"throughout the organization. Even important decisions involve input from employees at all levels† (Hamiton & Parker, 2001, p. 58). The democratizing influence of such practice implies that communication will be interactive, not simply a matter of transmission of messages (commands) from managers to employees. The implication, too, is that such communication must take place in an environment of openness, honesty, and shared confi-dence (Hamilton & Parker, 2001, p. 58), which tends to yield cooperation and productivity. Because enterprise activity is necessarily collaborative, communication effectiveness is of paramount concern. Openness for leaders involves disclosure (sharing) of information with subordinates plus the reception or feedback from them. The authors of the best-selling One Minute Manager valorize simple, direct, and honest explanation of what is expected by management of workers, together with regular follow-up and evaluation of performance, and a commitment on the part of management to both people and results (Blanchard & Johnson, 1981, p. 8). That is, the more a manager facilitates subordinates' work (p. 19), the more likely the workers as members of the leader's group are to be productive and to produce high-quality work. Leadership that focuses on facilitating rather than defining the details or methods of the work of employees starts with making clear â€Å"what our responsibilities are and what we are being held accountable for† (p. 27). Realism about goals feeds realistic work habits and attention to achievement of those goals. As leaders, managers must both permit and enable disclosure and/or feedback by group members in an environment of psycholo-gical safety (Hamilton & Parker, 2001), which is also a hallmark of democratic systems. Equally, managers must be alert to non-verbal as well as verbal cues that may supply information about a group's performance and attitude. Hamilton and Parker give the (nonverbal) example of the prestige attached to corner offices as having the potential to affect the quality of workplace morale. Time management, too, sends messages about the kind of equality associated with democracy: Being late for meetings may stigmatize employees (Hamilton & Parker, 2001, p. 160) but send the message that some people (for example, managers) who are late when others (for example, secretaries) are on time are en-titled to be so. To be effective, democratic styles of leader-ship lead by example, with leaders asking nothing of subordi-nates that they are not equipped to do themselves.

Kill A Mockingbird, By Harper Lee - 1394 Words

Growing up is one of the most exciting processes that everyone will face in their life span but at the same time, it can also be one of the crudest and devastating. Children experience the world differently than adults because of the fact that most children have a blanket over their head to protect them from the dangers of the world. In their protective world, a child will most of the time only experience the joy and contentment. Once that blanket if lifted, the resentment and the unfairness will be shown. Throughout this process, many lessons are learned and the real world will be seen by the children. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout and Jem are each five and nine years old, and as the continues, these two children began to†¦show more content†¦But Atticus taught Scout a lesson instead. He told her that to interact with other people better, Scout needs to â€Å"consider things from his point of view until [she] can climb into his skin and walk around it .† (39 Lee) Atticus is trying to teach Scout that there is more than one view of a situation due to the fact that everyone is different. She immediately starts to try this out by walking into her brother Jem’s shoes, but fails. Over the time of around 10 chapters, Scout finally starts to understand this tip during Tom Robinson’s trial. When he gave his testimony, Scout thought â€Å"’that Mayella Ewell must be the loneliest person in the world. She was even lonelier than Boo Radley.’† (191) Scout has begun to show maturity and is walking in someone else’s shoes. She is beginning to connect to Mayella. All of this lesson has lead Scout to more mature thinking and better understanding to the thoughts of other people. Secondly, Scout learns about prejudice and how everyone should equal because humans are humans, no matter what the color of their skin is or how rich that person is. In the novel, when Scout invited Walter Cunningham to lunc h. When everyone was eating, Walter poured a generous amount of syrup on to his vegetables, and Scout started to judge Walter. When Calpurnia called Scout out to discuss about this issue, Scout told