Legal Risk incorporating the issues of discipline, separation and conflict
Legal risk refers to the substantial legal consequences that results from actions that are attributed to the management process. Management of legal risk refers to the process of controlling such risks, preventing them from arising or efforts aimed at mitigating their effects through assessment processes, control and decision making. The process of assessing risk requires definition of significant risks which are then measured with clarity. After the assessment, these risks can then be accepted since they have become tolerable, lessened, mitigated or eliminated altogether where this is deemed sensible or proportionate (Moorhead, 2015). Such risks arise when the managers are dealing with employment separation, conflict resolution or upholding progressive discipline in an organisation. Employment separation broadly refers to the management of employment termination which can be either voluntary like resignation or retirement or involuntary such as layoff, discharge, business closure, disability or even death. Discipline refers to giving to employees the expectations, policies, rules and procedures and then working together with the employee to instil a behaviour that is consistent with the expectations in the organisation. Conflict management refers to recognizing and solving disputes effectively in a rational and balanced manner.
The management of these issues may result to legal issues. Employees can be a source of risk and a means to address risks, which depends on whether they are good or bad in following policies of an organisation. Apart from business reasons to have an effective termination process, there are many legal risks that can arise when an organisation terminates an employee. There are various practical and legal concerns which depend on the mode of separation. Depending on a particular situations, an employee may decide to take legal actions against the managers involved in the termination process, the organisation or the co-workers of the terminated employees (Moorhead, 2015). There are many reasons why an employee may take such actions, so managers should have a laid down plan and implement the termination with a lot of care. Such causes may be related to final pay for employees who are discharged or who resign where the employer fail to address the rights of employees or the organisation fails to honour their obligation for unemployment compensation.
The policies relating to progressive discipline are not mandated by the federal government or state laws. However, there may arise legal issues when such policies are being applied that may include whether the said policies can affect the will of the employee to remain in employment, what should happens if the employer faults in remaining disciplined and what checklist are necessary to ensure the maintenance of unbiased implementation of the discipline program. The important issue is whether the discipline policy outlines what should be done so that an employee who is terminated without proof of misconduct does not file discrimination charge. In short all the employees who are found to have been involved in misconduct should be given same treatment unless there reasons to suggest a different discipline. Conflict management on the other hand involve the various measures of handling personal grievances and cases of conflict between groups of various employees. In case of a mediator is needed, their role is to know whether to intervene or not. It may be difficult for a mediator to assist individuals or groups who want to assert their legal rights of employment (Acas, 2009).
Moorhead, R. (2015) .Legal risk: definition, management and ethics. University of Birmingham. 1-26. Retrieved from: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/laws/law-ethics/research/papers/erc-executive-report-legal-risk-definition-management-ethics.pdf
Acas, (2009).Managing conflict at work. Retrieved from: http://www.acas.org.uk/media/pdf/h/5/Managing_Conflict_at_Work_December_2009.pdf
