Disputes in a unionized workplace

Before you start this assignment, be sure that you have read the background readings for this module.

Read the following scenario:

Jocko and Thomas are both hourly employees working as forklift drivers in a large grocery chain’s central California warehouse. Their workplace is unionized. They work in the same warehouse section under Bert, the second shift supervisor.

Jocko has always found the job difficult, because the job was fast-paced, but repetitive; and even though the forklifts and machines do the heavy lifting and moving, there were situations in which a driver had to deal with slightly misplaced pallets or otherwise use ingenuity and “muscle” to keep things moving smoothly through the shift. Jocko was small in stature and obviously not as physically strong as his co-workers. Thomas made a point of never helping Jocko with these adjustments, even though he helped other drivers when such situations arose. Jocko was gay, and he thought Thomas resented having him there – Thomas never seemed to want to talk with Jocko on breaks, for example.

Jocko thought Thomas was being a bad colleague, especially on those days when Jocko could have really used Thomas’s help. Jocko mentioned to Bert, the supervisor, that he wished Thomas would help him once in a while. After all, he would be willing to help Thomas if he asked. Bert replied that he did not think that was going to happen.

It was not only Thomas who would never help Jocko. All of the other forklift drivers seemed to look the other way when Jocko found himself in a situation where there was “muscle” needed to keep things going.

Recently, the company implemented a new stacking protocol. Soon thereafter, Jocko was not meeting his production numbers on some days. He thought it was because he could not get any help from his colleagues when needed and his supervisor, Bert, did not seem to care.

Bert, his supervisor, did carefully record Jocko’s production numbers to highlight the shifts when he had underperformed. After a while, Jocko started skipping breaks and shortening his lunch break on some days so he could spend a little more time on the forklift and try to meet his production for the shift. No one seemed to care or notice.

As Jocko came to realize that he was going to get a bad performance review if the situation continued, he asked Bert if he could order his co-workers to help him when situations arose where he needed help. Bert said he could not give Jocko any special treatment.

Jocko grew more frustrated, especially by the lack of communication and what he considered to be the stubbornness of his co-workers in refusing to help him when he needed it. He reasoned that he had a family to feed, just as they did, and he had to do something about the unfair treatment he was receiving.

Jocko told Bert that he was going to tell the union that he wanted to file a grievance, because he thought the way he was being treated was not right.

Bert told Jocko that he’d never known a grievance to work out for the person who filed it, but Jocko should do what he thought he needed to do.

Jocko felt very upset about what he perceived as Bert’s indifference. He filed a formal grievance with the union about the situation.

Prepare a 2- to 3-page (not counting title and reference pages) paper that addresses the following:

• What do you think will happen next? Why?
• Discuss the important steps in a grievance process that might take place to resolve this issue if Jocko files a grievance.

Discuss a plan of action to resolve an employee conflict in a unionized workplace.

• If you were the HR manager in this warehouse, what would you do to get to the root of the issue? Why?

Use at least two Trident Online Library sources plus any applicable background readings to help strengthen your discussion.

Do some inside research and see the what the Employee Value Proposition of Waffle House is. 

 1. At the start of your project report, provide an introduction that briefly introduces your organization and that gives the reader an overview of what you will be discussing in the rest of 

the report(the project scope). Hint: cite information from your company’s website in this section if it is your main source of information… and don’t forget to do this in APA style.

 2. Discuss 2 –3 concrete and real examples of the practices this organization has in place to support the employee value proposition. Explain the impact that you believe that EACH of these practices has on organizational outcomes(i.e. employee satisfaction can lead to higher productivity). In this section, you will need to use the resources that are provided by your employer. Note: Often times, this objective involves gathering information from your company’s Intranet or via informal interviews with colleagues / supervisors. You may need to include this information in the appendices of the paper –(i.e. screenshots or questions asked of colleagues). Please include a confidentiality clause on the title page of your project paper if you feel it is necessary. *Please see below for additional information on “irretrievable resources”.

3. Suggest 2 –3 additional organizational initiatives that your employer could potentially introduce and explain why these would be advantageous in your organization. Base these suggestions on what other similar organizations are successfully offering as EVP practices. You will need to do outside research for this objective and cite that research.

4.Discuss any examples of how your organization is currently measuring the return on investment of its current employee value practices(Objective 2)and how they are measuring this.For example, a common ROI is employee retention or employee satisfaction.Keep in mind that the ROI does not have to be measured in dollars and cents. If they are not currently measuring the ROI of the practices, provide an explanation or rationale for why you think this is.

 5.Finally, give two examples of how your organization could potentially measure two of the EVP practices you’ve discussed in the paper (either for Object 2 or Object 3 above). You will need to do outside research for this objective and cite that research.

* Take a look at the attached rubric and guidelines to ensure that you will be able to do the assignment.

* This assignment is to be written in APA Citation.

Review and reflect on what you learned in the past 8 weeks. What is the most practical and easily applied lesson you learned? What was the hardest to grasp? Why? How will you incorporate the self-awareness you have gained within this course into your current ethical practices? What else do you need to know about ethics for your future? Please correlate your thoughts to the readings from the chapter and one your personal ethics assessment results. You are encouraged to share some specific examples of your assessment results to support your opinion. However, if you would like to keep your results private, you can speak to your results in general terms. 

Please provide 1-2 examples to support your viewpoints that other learners will be able to assess and debate within our weekly discussion forum.

Any papers/assignments should at a minimum contain 3-5 pages of content (double spaced), include a properly formatted cover page, and a reference listing page with at least three (3) NEW references properly listed at the end of your work. Providing additional references to your assignments demonstrate your desire to conduct additional research on the topic area and can improve your research skills. 

With all assignments, include properly formatted in-text citations within the body of your work for each of your listed references so the reader can ascertain what is your original thought or ideas and what portion of your work is taken from credible sources to support your work. It is really important to identify work from other sources to ensure that proper credit is provided to researchers in the field.

Upon hearing the stories of sometimes horrific atrocities clients or client families have experienced, you as a social worker may find yourself confronting existential questions such as Why? For example, Why do horrible events happen to good people? Why do people abuse their children?

Trying to make sense of such trauma is not easy, and you may seek answers to these existential questions your whole life. And yet, there are opportunities for growth despite trauma for both clients and social workers. This is known as post-traumatic growth, where a renewed sense purpose or a more profound outlook on life is the by-product.

In this Discussion, you work to seek meaning from the trauma your clients experience and the subsequent healing you help your clients achieve in your social work practice.

To prepare:

• Read about trauma-informed social work, and read this article listed in the Learning Resources: Vis, J.-A., & Boynton, H. M. (2008). Spirituality and transcendent meaning making: possibilities for enhancing posttraumatic growth. Journal of Religion & Spirituality in Social Work, 27(1/2): 69–86. http://dx.doi.org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1080/15426430802113814

Post:

• In 1 sentence, identify an existential question with which you have grappled in relation to a client who has been traumatized.
  • Reflect on your fieldwork, or perhaps identify an existential question that might arise in working with the client in the case study you have selected throughout the course.
• In 3 to 4 brief sentences, describe where there is potential for growth for the client as a result of the trauma.
• In 3 to 4 brief sentences, explain where there is potential for growth for you, the social worker, as a result of listening to the client’s stories and bearing witness to their trauma.
• Describe any challenges you may experience between the meaning you hold based on your personal beliefs and working within the client’s potentially different belief framework.

HA3110D – Quality Improvement and Risk Management

Discussion 03.2: Performance Factors

Discussion Topic

Task: Reply to this topic

Four performance factors can be measured for any healthcare activity: structure, process, outcome and patient experience. Imagine you are a leader at the fictional Metro Health Clinic and have been assigned to determine what data will be used to measure the rate of issues identified in the case study. Carefully read the case study and measure development tutorial, then complete the worksheet.

Read the case scenario and complete the performance measure development worksheet. Initial post due Thursday.

Case Scenario

Having just moved to Metro City, you are a NEW patient at Metro-Health Family Practice Clinic. Because it is in the center of the city, off the main transit routes, Metro-Health is hard to find and identified only by a small sign in front of the building. Once inside the door, you become faint and need a wheelchair. There is no staff available and no wheelchairs in sight. After a few minutes you are able to walk with the help of your family member and find the desk marked “check-in.” After waiting in line for 20 minutes, you are directed to the “registration desk” because you are a new patient.

The registration clerk is very kind and considerate of your needs and provides you a chair. The clerk has numerous questions but is taking time to explain the process and allows you to ask for clarification. This process takes another 20 minutes; however, you can review the information thoroughly and ensure its accuracy.

You are immediately placed in a comfortable room and asked if you want your family member in the room with you. The assistant closes the door and takes your blood pressure, temperature, and respirations. Assuring your privacy, she tells you the results and explains what she is doing. She leaves the room and almost immediately the physician enters.

The physician greets you warmly and asks about your history of high blood pressure, why you are here today and that you to tell her about the dizzy spells you are having. She carefully goes over your medications, the dose, timing, and any side effects. During this process, the doctor discovers you are taking two highly potent and expensive medications to lower your blood pressure. She discontinues one and prescribes a far less expensive generic brand of the other drug.

You get your prescription filled, and after a week you are feeling less tired, have experienced no dizziness, and your family member who takes your blood pressure reports it as within the acceptable limits. You then receive a phone call with a survey asking about your clinic visit.

Directions

This case study provides several opportunities to measure performance in the four categories–structure, process, outcome, or patient experience.

Because a percentage clearly communicates the prevalence, or “how often it happens” based on a population (also known as rate), we will need to determine a numerator (the top part of a fraction) and a denominator (the bottom part of a fraction).

As the manager at Metro-Health Family Practice Clinic you assure the organizational goals are met. They include the following.

Safety – falls

Being visible in the community – finding the facility, advertising

Ease of registration process – patient perception

Physician timeliness – patients wait no longer than 10 minutes

Providing efficient, cost effective care – patient perception

Keep these goals in mind to set up performance measures for Metro-Family Practice Clinic. Post an initial copy of your worksheet with performance measure by Thursday. By Sunday, respond to at least two (2) other students in at least 100-150 words with suggestions on how to improve performance.

Setting up Performance Measures

When setting up a performance measure, we rewrite the measure in terms of the data that will be used to calculate the measure.

The basic elements of a performance (quality) measure include:

The population or group being measured (all patients seen in our clinic)

What is being measured (falls).

Over what time frame (days, weeks, months, years).

With this information, clinical quality measures can be developed for virtually any aspect of healthcare. As well, by writing the performance measure this way, we know what data to use to answer our question.

Let’s use the first example on the work sheet: “What is our rate of falls.” Here are the steps we will use.

Define the population: total number of patients we see in the clinic.

What are we measuring: falls.

Over what time frame: we will use a month.

Remember, we are setting up a performance measure so there are no “numbers” yet, that will come later based on our data.

We go about figuring out the monthly fall rate by comparing the number of falls to our total number of patients. Like this:

      Number of falls in month            =        Numerator

Total number of patients (in the month) =  Denominator

                        When multiplied by 100 = % (percentage or rate) of falls

Again, we are setting up performance measures, not the actual rate in numbers because we do not have the data (numbers) yet.

EXAMPLE

Safety Measure: You want to know the percentage of falls when entering your facility in the past month.

Numerator = number of reported falls

Denominator = total number of patients

When multiplied by 100 = % (percentage or rate) of falls

In a word document, complete the following and submit to the discussion (you may copy and paste into the discussion):

Community Visibility Measure: Percentage of patient complaints “not able to easily find the facility.”  

Numerator =

Denominator =

Name one thing that might be done to improve visibility:   

Registration Process Measure: Percentage of patients waiting longer than 20 minutes to be registered.   

Numerator =

Denominator =

Name one thing that might be done to improve patient wait time.

Physician Timeliness Measure: Percentage of patients waiting to be seen in the exam room more than 10 minutes. 

Numerator =

Denominator =

Name one thing that might be done to improve physician timeliness.

Scoring Guide 

Criteria  

1. 

Work addresses each measure.

2. 

Numerators and denominators have been identified for each measure.

3. 

Initial post includes suggested improvement response.

4. 

Initial post is submitted by Thursday at 11:59MT.

5.

Reply to at least two other students by Sunday.

Rating Scale: 25 Points Total 

5

Work meets or exceeds criterion at a high level of competence.  

Discussion Assignment

Before beginning work on this discussion forum, please review the link Doing Discussion Questions Right, the expanded grading rubric for the forum below, and any specific instructions for this topic.

Before the end of the week, begin commenting on at least two of your classmates’ responses. You can ask technical questions or respond generally to the overall experience. Be objective, clear, and concise. Always use constructive language, even in criticism, to work toward the goal of positive progress. Submit your responses in the Discussion Area.

Introduction

There will be two discussion questions listed below. By the due date assigned, respond to one of the discussion questions and submit your response to the Discussion Area. Use the lessons and vocabulary found in the reading. Support your answers with examples and research and cite your sources using APA format.

Discussion Question 1:

Analyze a court case for Lockout/Tagout or Blood-borne Pathogens.

Discussion Question 2:

Analyze an article from Harvard Business Review for the best employee termination practices.

To support your work, use your course and textbook readings and also use the South University Online Library. As in all assignments, cite all sources in your work and provide references for the citations in APA format.

It is of 5 slides with in-text citation (120 words each) and 1 reference slide.

Everything in APA Format

Due by friday 12pm EST.

Training Program on Conflict Resolution

Due to a recent increase in the number of cases involving interpersonal and interdepartmental conflict in your organization, HR has decided to develop a training program on conflict resolution. Prepare a PowerPoint presentation with speaker’s notes that is supported with credible sources of research and includes each of the elements listed below:

• Develop a professional slide presentation with speaker’s notes.
  • Include a cover slide and a slide with references.
• Examine HR’s role in conflict management and resolution.
• Identify the process managers and employees should follow to contact HR for cases involving conflict.
• Evaluate three strategies HR will use to resolve issues involving conflict. 
• Determine the expected benefits/outcomes of having HR involved in resolving interpersonal and/or interdepartmental conflicts.
• Go to the Strayer University Online Library and locate at least three quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and similar websites do not quality as academic resources.

When complete, your training program should include:

• 10–12 slides, excluding the cover slide and references. 
• Speaker’s notes for each slide, explaining your strategy and choices.

Read Case Study 4-1, “Salting,” on pages 155-156 of your textbook. Then, address the following:

1. Explain how the company’s treatment of both the “covert” and “overt” salts applications for jobs compares to the recommended counter-salting steps for employers.
2. Would either the “covert” or the “overt” salts in this case satisfy the NLRB ruling that applicants for employment must be genuinely interested in seeking employment before claiming protection under the NLRA?
3. Does the company’s opposition to becoming a union shop indicate that there was anti-union animus in refusing to consider the “overt” salts for employment?

Your response should be a minimum of 150 words per question. All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations in APA format.