Review The Case of the Misguided Supervisors. Use the Argosy University online library for additional research, and do the following in a Word document:
o In 1-2 paragraphs, summarize the case and your research that relates to the case.
o Create a 2-3 pages, response the following:
• Why would an organization care whether its supervisors speak in favor of or against union representation? Explain and justify your answer.
• How could the hospital in this example have prepared its supervisors to understand their proper role during an organizing campaign? Explain and justify your answer.
With your answers demonstrate that your understanding of the concepts is thorough and complete. Support your assertions with evidence, citing the appropriate sources.
You must Apply the APA current guidelines to your work and use at least three resources in your response.
Use the following file naming convention:
The Case of the Misguided Supervisors
Recently, when a union sought to organize the nurses at a California hospital, the nursing supervisors, called charge nurses, didn't understand their proper role in the process. While the union was distributing cards for the nurses to indicate their desire for a representation election, several of the charge nurses participated in the union's meetings and decided they wanted to join. Some of these charge nurses also encouraged nurses who reported to them to support the union as well.
One month before the election, the hospital discovered that charge nurses had supported the union even though their positions in the organization qualified them as supervisors. The charge nurses stopped advocating for the union, and some even encouraged nonsupervisory nurses to vote against representation. The election went ahead, and the union won representation.
The hospital challenged the election because of the pro-union activity by the nurses. However, the NLRB and the court both upheld the union.
Questions
1. Why would an organization care whether its supervisors speak in favor of or against union representation?
2. How could the hospital in this example have prepared its supervisors so they would have understood their proper role during the organizing campaign?
SOURCES: National Labor Relations Boards, "The NLRB Process," https://www.nlrb.gov, accessed May 3, 2012; National Labor Relations Board, "NLRB Representation Case Amendments Take Effect Today," news release, April 30, 2012, https://www.nlrb.gov; Duane Morris LLP, "Two NLRB Rules Effective April 30 Affect Most Private-Sector Employers," Mondaq Business Briefing, April 20, 2012, https://galenet.galegroup.com.
This assignment is designed to integrate the reflection of personal experience, and the information covered in the textbook. Using what you have learned about Juanita, answer the following questions:
o Should Juanita attempt to reduce voluntary and involuntary turnover?
o A risk of disciplining employees is that some may retaliate. To avoid that risk, what organizational policies might encourage high-performing employees to stay while encouraging low-performing employees to leave?
o To what extent are exit interviews meaningful and what kind of opinions should you attempt to capture? How are these opinions relevant to employee separation and retention?
Juanita's Story:
Juanita is meeting with her new boss, Rich Ryblessi, the Director of Regional Services. Rich highlights his concerns in the following areas: analysis and design of work, recruitment and selection, training and development, performance management, compensation and benefits, employee relations, personnel policies, compliance with laws, and strategies for supporting the mission.
At the end of the meeting Juanita returns to her office and reflects on the meeting. As best as she can determine, HR has typically been relegated to simply processing paperwork and counseling people who had questions about issues like health insurance and paychecks. And although Rich has identified many important areas for HR, Juanita senses that he really expects no more from her than he did of the previous HR Manager. However, Juanita believes she can and should contribute more to the mission and vision and can help Rich overcome a number of challenges.
Yesterday was a bit of a surprise for Juanita as she sensed a gap between what her boss said he wanted and what he conveyed as expectations and limits on her authority. It is now Day 2 and she is excited and ready to go with her early afternoon appointment with fundraising's Director of Development.
As she is reviewing past reports on fundraising efforts and success a visitor stops in to see her. When Melissa, introduces herself Juanita finds that she is the previous HR Manager who left the organization about 3 months earlier. Juanita perceives this is an ideal time to glean what she can about challenges and opportunities. While speaking with Melissa, Juanita finds out who the real workers are and who just seems to be filling a spot. She learns that since resources are limited they have struggled to find qualified and committed personnel to fill numerous important positions. Juanita finds that the people do care...a lot...about the mission but hardly think beyond their current circumstances and most are discouraged with their perceived lack of impact on their community. When Juanita questions Melissa about why she left she finds that Melissa had aspired to have greater responsibility and make a bigger impact but felt limited in her role in this organization. In a way, this confirmed for Juanita that she would definitely have to speak with Rich sooner than later to be sure she understood her authority to do all she thought she was hired to do.
As she visits with Jackie, the Director of Development, she learns that the economy has had a negative impact on their historical donor base. Cash gifts are down and have been trending down for about 2 years. Gifts in kind, like food, are up but since it is perishable they must distribute it quickly or it must be thrown away. And, since gifts are down they have had to rely more heavily on volunteers. This means their drivers and those who distribute food are less consistent and reliable. This is beginning to impact their gifts from donors since they are finding out that much of what they are giving is being thrown away.
As Juanita sits in her office at the end of the day she feels she is beginning to understand the complexity of the issues. It seems she has limited authority over areas that most HR Managers have and that the lack of cash is negatively impacting their ability to hire and retain the right people. Since she cannot control the availability of cash she will have to come up with some innovative ways to better hire and retain the right people.
While attending one of her last classes last night Juanita learned of an assignment she has related to Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO).
As she is driving home from class she realizes that her new employer would be a great source for the assignment and help her better understand how to do her job better.
When she met with Rich he never mentioned laws and regulations that may impact the organizations. And, when she thinks about it, she had assumed that since they were a non-profit doing work to alleviate hunger that they would somehow be exempt from government oversight.
Her appointment for Day 3 has cancelled so she decides to use the day to learn what she can about laws and regulations that they could be potentially violating and also try to better understand how they could use them to their advantage.
After about 2 hours of research she has learned:
o Full time employees number between 15-30 people depending on the year and workload.
o They receive both federal and state contracts. Each is for $20,000 per year.
o Periodically they hire people who serve in the National Guard and Reserves