At this modern time, many concerns have been raised in the field of human resource management in different business in the global landscape. Many pressing issues have been addressed and given immediate and long term solutions. Perhaps, one of these issues would be the fairness and equality in the workplace. With the continued increase in the number of labor force in different companies, it is inevitable that the company employs a diverse group of individuals with varying culture and beliefs. It is a major challenge among human resource practitioners on how these problems would be confronted and to establish solutions which can end this predicament. Several factors are inevitable elements in the practice of this human resource function. These factors could include culture, government, societal norms, individual differences, corporate beliefs, and other factors which are essential in the organization. In the course of this study, an organization has been chosen to evaluate its human resource practices, especially those concerned with equal and fair treatment of the employees. Moreover, after studying those problems a series of recommendation, from internal to external factors, have been presented. Relevant data and literature have been also reviewed to provide as the backbone of the problems and solutions presented by the researcher.
INTRODUCTION
Overtime, in different companies in the global landscape, the concept of fairness and justice in the organization has been one of the major concerns of the human resources department. Many actions and practices have been questioned by employees and concerned groups regarding its fairness to all concerned. According to Schuler & Jackson (1999), fairness and justice in the workplace is associated with every HR practice. Furthermore, the human resource function has been also on the continued hype to provide solutions to these problems which confront the organization and try their best to be able to bring fairness and justice in the organization. Through the years, this issue is becoming increasingly important among human resource practitioners as it raises issues on topics such as employee evaluations, survivors and victims reactions to lay-offs, criticism as a source of unperceived fairness, drug testing, and customer satisfaction (Thayer, 1994).
Fair treatment and just systems within work environment encourages commitment of the employees to their work. When discriminatory and unjust systems and practices exist in the workplace, they negatively affect motivation of the employees, their quality of work and performance, as well as job satisfaction (Harris, 2002). The practices that violate fairness and justice codes in a workplace can be both explicit and concealed. This can create lose-lose situation, which may involve confrontations between the employees and administrators. Hidden imbalance and discriminatory practices and systems violate the sense of fair and just treatment that must be entrenched in the organizational culture. Managers and company owners must implement actions strategies that can strengthen the fairness and justice function in the workplace. This HR function is highly related to the equity theory. It is important that managers can have balanced input-outcome in the place of work, increase worker morale, and provide fair and just management and treatment (Weller, 1995).
ASSIGNMENT DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVES
As mentioned on the first part of this paper, the concern about fairness and justice in the workplace has been one of the most consistent human resource issues in different organizations. With that, this assignment is designed to provide more insights regarding the aforementioned topic through a presentation and discussion of relevant issues. It is the objective of this paper to provide relevant insights to both practitioners and employees on the underlying principles of fairness and justice in the organization and on how such application can be applied to a company of study which the researcher chose to be the basis of this study. In that case, the researcher chose Meem Inc. to be the company of focus. At the end of the study, it is the objective of the researcher to put himself in the place of the company's internal consultant and provide an evaluation of the current human resource practice in the company, analyze what re the shortcoming of the human resource department, and provide sustainable solutions which can help the company in the long run. It is also the objective of the researcher to analyze other issues related to human resource management which has an effect on fairness and justice and to identify their root causes to also come up with viable solutions. Furthermore, aside from its application in the company itself, it is also the objective of this research to discuss the latest developments and theories associated with justice and fairness in the workplace, analyze its current situation, and to pinpoint its strengths and weaknesses compared to its practice in other organizations both in the United Arab Emirates and in the global business.
MEEM INC.: HR FUNCTIONS AND PROBLEMS
As mentioned, to be able to fully understand the practice of fairness and justice in the workplace, the researcher will choose a company to study and discuss its related human resource functions and recommend solutions regarding the practice of fairness and justice in the company. Through a peek at the current human resource practices, the research is expected to come up with useful recommendations to potentially combat the current obstacles confronting the company.
Meem Inc. is a company with their main headquarters situated in Pennsylvania. The company employs an estimated number of 2,300 employees, among which, 26 are supervisors and 14 are managers. In this case, it is obvious that the ratio seems not to be on the right track. There are too many employees and the number of managers and supervisors are at a minimum. This issue can raise a lot of concern especially in terms of how close supervision can be done with that ratio. It is essential for every company to monitor the performance of the employees and evaluate their yield or benefit in terms of the organization's performance. In the case of Meem, such can be a hard function. Moreover, the human resource can also have a problem monitoring such number of employees especially because there are only few people who can render supervision on such a big number of a company's entire workforce. With that, what can be attributed as the main challenge for the company's human resource department is how to make sure that these employees achieve well supervision and leadership despite their big number, how to ensure that they exercise their rights and privileges, and more so, how can they be assured that there is fairness and justice exercised in the organization. To this day, more than anything else, the human resource function in the company is more focused on practices which can empower the entire workforce and giving them an assurance that there is employee satisfaction on the work place. Normally, this employee satisfaction would lead to better job performance and would yield into better business results. However, in the case of Meem, it can be seen that there is lack of attention given to justice and fairness, which will be given specific recommendations at the end of this study. It must be noted that the human resource department must not be entirely focused only on providing satisfaction in the workplace. Rather, they should also pay attention to the details and engineer how does satisfaction come about and its roots so that they will be able to provide such in such a way that they have not only paid attention in the bigger picture but on the smaller details as well. For instance, they should not be only concern about making the employees feel that they are satisfied in their work at Meem. The employees must be satisfied because the human resource department paid attention to human resource functions which are bound to make them better as individuals, and such functions include the practice of justice and fairness.
Moreover, another problem which is posed as a threat in the human resource department of Meem is the diversity in the workplace. Workplace diversity, being a people-related business issue, calls for the attention of human resource practitioners to be very much involved in integrating solutions in shaping the organization's agendas and effectiveness of the people it employs (Jackson, 1992). In the case of the company of study, their human resource department is also concerned on how they can manage organizational workforce diversity so that everyone can perform in accordance with each other with one common goal in spite of variances in culture and perspectives as influenced by their nationality. Diversity in the labor force of Meem is best reflected by the employees who were from varying nationalities which also connotes varying culture, tradition, and perspective on organizational issues and perspectives. Overtime, the managers and supervisors of the company are concerned on how they are going to manage a diverse group of people from different nationalities such as Americans, African-Americans, and even Asians. With people working on one company from different locations, their major concern is to establish company rules and policies which in the end will prove to be fair and just for all nationalities without bias to just one and discrimination among others.
Two years after the company was established, they decided to perform an organizational evaluation to review their business performance in the past two years. In the said review they were able to find one crucial thing which serves as one of the basis of their current operations: the company's workforce is its backbone and foundation and therefore also their key to successful business performance. This finding motivated the company's human resource departments, as well as its managers and supervisors, to delve into issues concerning the workforce and pay immediate attention to them. With that, fair and just practices have been some of the issues pinpointed and given immediate attention by the management. They realized that if they will not implement measures towards fairs and just practices in the workplace, they will lose their workforce and will end up without gaining anything at all in the performance of business.
Several aspects in the human resource functions have been assessed and reviewed in the study and some of the findings will be discussed below. The first issue which has been raised involves the maintenance of the employee's files, an issue which also involves the process of applicant selection and screening up to the process of orientation and training. Another main point which was stressed out in the said assessment is government accountability. This is mainly concerned with policies of the government affecting internal operations such as equal employment opportunities, protection of the environment, health and safety of the workforce, and community relations. Furthermore, the liability of the organization including gaining and sustaining a competitive edge against others in the same industry, social awareness, and management of other assets in such a way that it is just and fair for everyone concerned especially the employees. On the other hand, specific emphasis has been also placed on evaluation of their internal strengths and weaknesses and also threats. Such evaluation puts into consideration just and fair practices as a foundation of building their strength and also analysis of where did they fail in terms of establishing a fair and just workplace.
To this day, Meem is in perpetual pursuit of the abovementioned in order to provide the employees with a better working environment where everyone gets equal opportunities in their jobs. Still with regards to fairness and equality, other problems have been identified such as cultural diversity, complaints regarding the leadership skill of the managers and supervisors, benefits of employees such as those related to continuous education and training, and matters related to promotion and appraisal.
At the end of this paper, recommendations will be given as part of combating the abovementioned problems and also a spart of the company's pursuit to build a better organization where the employees are treated with equal opportunities in ways which are just and fair for both the organization itself and the entire working populace.
LITERATURE REVIEW
In the current practice of human resources management in different companies, the practitioners realized that there is an immediate and compelling need for innovative approaches to the pressing problems which are currently confronting the society, especially the work force of the organization. The practice of organizational justice and fairness has been important because it is conceptually rich and integrative and provides serviceable recommendations to managers (Cropanzano, 2001). The concept of organizational justice and fairness holds the notion that every employee, despite their cultural and individual differences, are entitled of the same status and treatment especially when it comes to matter like task assignment and promotion. According to Lind & Tyler (1988), organizational justice is an area of psychological inquiry which aims to focus on perceptions of fairness in the workplace
Taking the word in its traditional form, fairness or equality in the workplace can be referred to as "rights-based, liberal, rooted in legal compliance, based upon equality through 'sameness' and merit with a focus on non-discrimination and geared towards increasing the proportion of women and other under-represented groups in the senior roles of the organization" (Cornelius, 2002).
There are two basic principles of justice and fairness which should be kept in mind by the human resource practitioners. The first principle holds that each person has the same indefeasible claim to a fully adequate scheme of equal basic liberties, which scheme is compatible with the same scheme of liberties for all. Moreover, the second principle of justice as applied to the human resource management practice is that social and economic inequalities are to satisfy two conditions: first, they are to be attached to offices and positions open to all under conditions of fair equality and opportunity; and secondly, to the greatest benefit of the least advantaged person (Rawls, 2001).
Moreover, in a study conducted by the Manchester Business School, they were able to identify that some of the issues related to justice and fairness in the workplace affecting the human resource landscape include gender and diversity, workplace stress, dignity at work, voce representation and trade unions, and pay, working time, and other components of the human resource management. Furthermore, according to Colvin (2007), one central issue nowadays is the growing variation in terms of employment conditions with stress on considerations such as the impact of new patterns of work and employment relations. In this area, much attention has been given and dedicated to the existence, consequences, and the related causes of the growing inequality in the organization and its economic outcomes on the work force of the company. On the other hand, very little attention has been dedicated to the employees' access of justice in the workplace such as being able to resolve labor disputes and some misunderstanding with the unions and other groups of concerned employees.
The concept of organizational diversity has gained frequency in business magazines, popular media, and global organizations during the start of the twentieth century. Overtime, its applications and practice has also been of central concern among human resource practitioners (Stockdale & Crosby, 2001). Lewan (1990) stated in the feature article "Diversity in the Workplace" that "leadership by human resources professionals could turn the "perceived disadvantage" of diversity into an organizational strength.
The overt practice of exclusion, being a matter of formal and informal policy and the perception that some employees were not treated as an integral part of the organization, is considered to be currently one of the most significant problems facing the diverse workforce in various companies. Although diversity in groups vary as being dependent both on country of origin and culture, some of the common problems include exclusion from job opportunities, networks of information, team membership, investments in the human resource, and their actual involvement in the decision-making process (Mor Barak, 2005).
Diversity management has also been said to be one of the latest developments in the sequence of modern approach strategies which are aimed to have the excluded minority or groups be better represented in employment opportunities of different companies. The rationale which operates behind this concept would most probably be being able to improve organizational competitiveness and efficiency, as being motivated by business purpose and advantage in the market. This practice would most probably entail the recognition of cultural differences and making practical allowances for such differences in the policies of the organization (Wrench, 2007).
RECOMMENDATIONS
After having evaluated various literatures and theories which are associated with the practice of fairness and justice in the workplace, the researcher will now present a series of recommendations, provided that he is an internal consultant of the human resource department of Meem Inc. the first recommendation would most probably be to add or increase the number of managers and supervisors which are employed buy the company. As discussed earlier, there is a relatively large number of employees being supervised and managed by a very minimal number of officers. If such is the case, there will be no ample time to evaluate and monitor the performance of each employee. More so, there will also be no time to make sure that each employee has been given fair and just treatment because of their relatively large number. Aside from that, the second recommendation would be to enact and implement policies which will eradicate the problems which were brought about by diversity in the workplace. As explained earlier, the employees came from different countries and even continents with varying traditions and culture. The management must implement policies which are common to all without bias and without having to cause discrimination with anyone in the workplace. The third recommendation would deal with the accountability of the government. As an internal consultant for the company, I would suggest that a commission would be established to manage specifically the problems associated with just and fair practices in the organization. This commission would be more concerned with reviewing external policies or policies from the government and its immediate effect to the organization. The commission must be very much aware that the policies of the government are implemented within the organization to make sure that they are being just and fair to everyone. Moreover, I will also assure that everyone gets compensated equally, on the basis of work and accomplishment as what would be reflected on their evaluation performance and not on the basis of race, color, origin, religion, gender, or other aspects which will show bias in the organization. As an internal consultant in the organization, I will also assure that the staffs which are concerned with the hiring, screening and accepting process will not show any discrimination towards the applicant. Everyone must be treated with equal opportunity regardless of culture or country of origin. As an internal consultant, I will also make sure that the voices of the employees will be heard. Each will be given a chance to voice out their suggestions and even violent reaction to the management. More so, these opinions must be given corresponding responses so that the employees can feel that they are given attention in the business performance of the company. More than anything else, as an internal consultant of the company, I will recommend that the human resource department act on the best of its ability without bias, prejudice and discrimination towards building a better and stronger work force which in the end will reciprocate to a better and more profitable Meem Inc.
CONCLUSION
With what have been presented and discussed above, it can be realized that the human resource function is indeed an integral part of every operating businesses and not just on Meem Inc. One of these functions, fairness and justice in the workplace, is one which needs the attention of human resource practitioners. The human resource department, above all, should be concerned on how they can effectively and efficiently managed the work force of the company especially taking into consideration the fact that these employees are the backbone and the foundation of the business performance of the organization. Depending on the company and the culture of its employees, there are vbarying policies and practices which can be implemented in the workplace to avoid issues of prejudice and discrimination and to give the employees equal opportunities in terms of work. No employee should be treated differently, no employee should feel that he is out of the context of the organization simply because he is out of the norms or practices in the country of the business. The employees nowadays are ore intelligent and they are also more sensitive towards how they are treated by the company in which they work fpr. With the emergence of this group of employees, the human resource management department should be more wary on how they treat their employees so that the company can yield the best of the benefit from these employees. An equal and just treatment of the entire workforce is necessary for every organization so that the work force can feel that they are treated the same in all levels, and therefore, they can also exert the same efforts in their performance at work. To yield the best effort and results from the labor force, the company should as well exert the best of their efforts for the ethical treatment of these employees.
