The major source of conflict between employees, supervisors and HR departments arises from responsibilities division which is related to the line of authority. In some instances, the supervisors who also add up as operations managers may have more control on employees than the HR department and even more influence on staffing and workforce planning. A conflict may arise if the HR department feels that supervisors are overstepping their mandate while dealing with employees (Crawford, 2014). The supervisors may also feel that they do not have control over their juniors which causes conflict. Employees conflict with HR department and supervisors if they feel these staffs are not performing their roles effectively so that their functioning is affected (Leonard & Trusty, 2015). From a Christian point of view, such conflict should be addressed through respect and understanding that no one is greater than others.
Managers should be given more autonomy in making personal decisions, since this provides flexibility so that such decisions are made in line with requirements of a specific department. Managers who have been given the autonomy in making their decisions tend to be more cautious since there are aware that they will be held accountable for the outcomes (Rapp, Agnihotri, & Baker, 2015). Such autonomy ensures that managers only hire qualified employees after understanding their capabilities. The managers can use their freedom to seek assistance from other operations managers and supervisors in developing standards for appraisal, by which they can assess the employees’ performance. Involvement of managers, departments and even supervisors can lead to more effective and accurate decisions. The autonomy also means they can develop compensation plans that abides to prevailing laws and policies and for which they can be held accountable. Giving autonomy to managers in decision making involves moving away from centralization in the same, which is ineffective since important information can be lost in the chain (Gilbert, 2017). The managers should be honest in appraising and compensating employees by observing merit and avoiding favoritism in their decision making.
Employers may want to fire employees with large family responsibilities such family members with serious health conditions due to potential poor performance at the workplace. Such employees would need flexible work arrangements that will allow them to have time for caring for the sick. In fact, such arrangements may not be predictable so that absenteeism becomes erratic and cannot be accounted for (Greer & Fannion, 2014). The employer may feel that the individual is not being productive since their tasks are performed poorly or not performed at all. The result is unexcused absences that are likely to negatively affect the operations of the organization. When such employees suspect that they will be hired they are likely to seek legal redress since Federal Family and Medical Leave Act allows a person an unpaid leave of 12 weeks (Cihon & Castagnera, 2011). The managers should give the employee sufficient time to care for the sick since it is an obligation of every Christian to care for the weak in the society.
Discrimination refers to an unjust treatment of a given group of people more so on the basis of their age, race and gender. On that basis reserve discrimination is also discrimination since it involves unjustly dealing with or treating a person from a majority group due to their inherent characteristics (Wilkins, 2015). Preventing discrimination is best done through promoting equality in employment and sensitizing that any form of discrimination is prohibited by the law including against members of advantaged or majority group (Daniels, 2016). The Bible calls on all Christians to deal justly with other members in the society.
References
Crawford, E. R., Rich, B. L., Buckman, B., & Bergeron, J. (2014). The antecedents and drivers of employee engagement. Employee engagement in theory and practice, 57-81.
Leonard, E. C., & Trusty, K. A. (2015). Supervision: concepts and practices of management. Nelson Education. 532
Gilbert, M. H., Gilbert, M. H., Dagenais-Desmarais, V., Dagenais-Desmarais, V., St-Hilaire, F., & St-Hilaire, F. (2017). Transformational leadership and autonomy support management behaviors: The role of specificity in predicting employees’ psychological health. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 38(2), 320-332.
Rapp, A., Agnihotri, R., & Baker, T. L. (2015). Competitive intelligence collection and use by sales and service representatives: how managers’ recognition and autonomy moderate individual performance. Journal of the academy of marketing science, 43(3), 357-374.
Cihon, P. J., & Castagnera, J. (2011). Employment & labor law. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.165
Greer, S. L., & Fannion, R. D. (2014). I'll be gone, You'll be gone: Why American employers underinvest in health. Journal of health politics, policy and law, 39(5), 989-1012.
Daniels, S. (2016). Reverse Discrimination: The Just Solution. Behaviorists for Social Action Journal, 3(1), 9-13.
Wilkins, C. L., Wellman, J. D., Babbitt, L. G., Toosi, N. R., & Schad, K. D. (2015). You can win but I can't lose: Bias against high-status groups increases their zero-sum beliefs about discrimination. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 57, 1-14.
