Homophobia at Klein Corporation

Assignment 1: Homophobia at Klein Corporation

LaToya Ballard

Strayer University

Professor Wells

Week 6

Homophobia in the workplace is in the present times are seen as hate crimes and counter-productive for any business to engage in due to potential productivity issues such as personal relationships and rapport amongst colleagues being a few examples of what homophobia can lead to. There is a freedom of sexuality in this country and thus any employee should be treated as equals to others due to that freedom, regardless of their sexual preference or orientation. Throughout analyzing homophobia at Klein Corporation, a sexual harassment policy will be composed, three elements of this policy that I believe would have the greatest impact at Klein Corporation, and why I feel that strongly about those three policy elements. Also up for discussion will be whether or not I believe that men and women should have equal treatment in sexual harassment issues and two examples that support san belief, four ways that businesses can balance the need for increased productivity with the needs and concerns of the employees, the significance of the way in which Ellen’s boss addressed the issue during her performance evaluation, and three recommendations on how Ellen should proceed after listening to the criticisms from her supervisor and peers. Finally, I will hypothesize three ways in which I would handle the situation depicted in the case study if I were Ellen’s boss.

Compose a sexual harassment policy for Klein Corporation that would address harassment issues for all employees. Next, select three (3) elements of this policy that you believe would have the greatest impact at Klein Corporation. Justify your response.

Klein Corporation goes by core values to be a place of business and upholding a sexual harassment free workplace. Harassment is a form of gender discrimination and harassment of any kind is against the law in a workplace environment. The purpose of the policy presented is to enforce existing laws that protect men and women associated with Klein Corporation from any form of harassment. Sexual harassment is defined as “harassment (typically of a woman) in a workplace, or other professional or social situation, involving the making of unwanted sexual advances or obscene remarks” (Roberts & Mann, 2015). Harassment in many situations involve unwelcomed sexual comments, some which can invoke employment status comments or creating an uncomfortable, or hostile working environment, male or female. Harassment can be touching, stalking, vulgar comments or jokes, or constantly asking someone (again, male or female) for dates, either at work or off work. “Victims of sexual harassment have the right to sue both the company and the perpetrator by contacting the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or a state agency (Barak, 2016). For that reason and to protect all employees, Klein Corporationaims to thwart sexual harassment or harassment of any kind. Everyone involved with the company from management to employees are expected to help make sure that the Klein Corporation is free from harassment of any nature, especially something very serious like in the sexual nature. If an employee feels like he/or she has been victims of sexual harassment, they are to report this kind of behavior to our Coordinators John Harvey, Miami, FL., 305-430-6543 or Amy Whiteside, Chicago, IL., 312-823-7608.

If those two employees are not available, then talk to your chain of command and if that is not good enough, contact the company’s president and inform him or her on what is going on and where you are with the process. Swift actions can and will also be taken if someone witnesses sexual harassment and those who do are encouraged to report such action to management. All harassment complaints will be thoroughly investigated and kept as confidential as humanly possible, while the approach taken will be a serious one. Klein Corporation has a strict policy as well for employees who intimidate other employees and are not in agreement with employee retaliation for reporting anti-company behavior. Disciplinary actions on the other hand will be given out to employees who falsely accuse others of misconduct in this form, especially. Immediate and swift action will be taken by Klein Corporation if sexual harassment did occur in order to put a stop to the harassment as quickly as possible. Klein Corporation will use all means and resources necessary in order to find out if or if the harassment is still going on in order to end it by all means. Klein Corporation will do what is best for the company and take action on any employee that violates this policy, which employment termination is possible.

Give your opinion as to whether or not you believe that men and women should have equal treatment in sexual harassment issues. Defend your answer with two (2) examples that support your rationale.

Men and women should always have equal treatment in any issue, let alone sexual harassment issues. That is simply the case because this is an issue that can affect both men and women and happen to both genders as well. For example, men in many cases have received discrimination in the form of sex from their female bosses, which shows what sexual harassment is like for men in a lot of cases. Likewise, females have also faced hostile working environments from their male counterparts in form of demanding sex for favors, promotions, etc. Those are the reasons why both women and men receive equal protection under the law when it comes to these kinds of personal issues.

Suggest four (4) ways that businesses can balance the need for increased productivity with the needs and concerns of the employees. Support your rationale.

One way in which businesses can have an effective balance between the need for increased productivity with the needs and concerns of the employees is to create a positive workplace environment. A second way would be to promote a culture of respect. Those two ways involves building positive values and an open-minded foundation to build upon. Values are essential for teamwork, excellence, and respect for one’s self and peers. This is primarily how a great company attracts good and reliable employees, especially for a good period of time. Another way to balance those two distinct needs would be to become more transparent and committed to providing just compensation and reward systems for those employees who are exemplary in those areas in which the company is too. That helps in motivating employees too in order to keep a hardworking set of employees around for a great period of time and sometimes, employee appreciation goes a long ways in form of just compensation. Finally, another way to balance out those needs would be to set up company gatherings. A lot of people do not hang out or see many of their colleagues after-hours, so with the company promoting more collaboration both inside and outside of the workplace via fun gatherings, company function and sponsored events, it would go far in fostering better collaboration perhaps on the job.

Evaluate the significance of the way Ellen’s boss addressed the issue during her performance evaluation. Next, provide three (3) recommendations on how Ellen should proceed after listening to the criticisms from her manager and peers. Justify your response.Given your personality, hypothesize three (3) ways that you would handle the situation depicted in the case study if you were Ellen’s boss. Provide support for your methodologies.

If there were three recommendations on how Ellen should go forward in this case would be to call a CEO, file a harassment suit against those individuals, if needed, and/or ask for a transfer to another location with a different set of workers after listening to those vulgar comments and criticisms from her manager and peers. Calling a CEO in this case would or could be seen as acceptable due to workplace retaliation in this case, which the harassers employed upon her. The manager did not seem to do much, even though he let her discuss the issue, which he is lawfully required to do. He did not do enough to protect the victim of harassment and therefore, another supervisor should have been consulted. Filing a harassment suit is another possibility for Ellen if she felt that the workplace did not do enough to protect her from her colleagues. Finally, a transfer if necessary should have been another option for Ellen, as it is clear that the present location might not be the right fit for her. A transfer might give her a fresh start around much better people, which can only help her productivity at the end of the day. If I were Ellen’s boss, I would have (1) changed who she would work with due to retaliation concerns (remove her from the current team), (2) I would have written those guys up and placed in a workplace confidential file, and (3), might have fired them because using that language, one never knows you they are around, which could affect the bottom line depending on where you are or who you’re talking to.

References

Barak, M. E. M. (2016). Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. Sage Publications.

Roberts, B. S., & Mann, R. A. (2015). Sexual harassment in the workplace: A primer. Akron Law Review, 29(2), 5.