Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Legally valid but ethically questionable

The employment legislation is now becoming a crucial issue, to my mind, as Juncker's goal is to get everyone employed and productive according to his own words. Yet, the liberty given to employers in view of no duty to provide reasons for dismissal may give rise to precarious employment and this is not a business attractive factor to a socially responsible business.
Corporate social responsibilities are nothing new, the European Union still proposes them as recommendable corporate practices and as it treats its own staff with high paying and satisfying jobs. Does this provide a good enough example, or are businesses still shocked as they see short-term measures and cost management as the focal aspect of day to day management, without having a long term vision? It does make people living on low wages feel a bit jealous and rightly complain to be honest.
There is also a compelling issue of creating over-ambitious job descriptions and this is common amongst recruitment agencies, sometimes leading us to think that managers are really dreamers who pass on "bloated" job descriptions, to attempt to match their vision of an ideal candidate within a market that is full to the brim with unemployed youth, creating an unemployment difficulty and an issue of under-employment. Is this approach too conservative when we consider basic psychology and theories of cognitive psychology that lead us to think that only "practice makes perfect", therefore the perfect human resources practitioner who does not fail in forecasting individual performance just by looking at a resume or Curriculum Vitae is only a myth. Under-employment is also common, unfortunately, due to the common business practice of employing graduates at clerical levels or as assistants, and this is only possible due to the gaps between demand for labour and its supply.
Corporate governance broadly refers to the mechanisms, processes and relations by which corporations are controlled and directed. Governance structures identify the distribution of rights and responsibilities among different participants in the corporation (such as the board of directors, managers, shareholders, creditors, auditors, regulators, and other stakeholders) and includes the rules and procedures for making decisions in corporate affairs. Sourced from Wikipedia [online]. What is missing is perhaps increasing business consultancy with the increasing availability of Master's in Business Administration graduates. A recent poll carried out through social media indicates that "work that pays" and "work-life balance" are amongst the most commonly important factors for people who seek jobs in the late 2000s, as we have accepted the fact that we moved out of the Middle Ages quite a while ago. Nevertheless the "de minimis" administrative services that seem to discourage job mobility and increasingly give an impression that nationalism and protectionism underpins public policy gives rise to a concern, as the people seem to divide into two ends of a continuum, the hyper-globalists - those who are in favour of globalization and integration of cultures and technologies, and the individualists - those who start off by seeking their psychological needs and how well they are met by society. On which end of the continuum would you place yourself?
Drawing up psychological profiles of typical managers only restricts our view of matters to judgment, and, does not necessarily provide a holistic view of management. All too commonly, it seems easy for managers to resort to "not in my backyard", and is this position taken as a result of uncertainty, or out of fear?

References
1. Corporate Social Responsibility as a European Commission Strategy available online.
2. Tanti and Dougall Associates, Employment and Industrial Relations available online.
3. Sweden to test 30 hour week available online.
4. National Employment Policy available online. Online articles
1. Article titled Abuse of Power: When Companies Become Bullies, available online. Flexi Bundle

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