1.0 Introduction
The extent to which human resource management changes is excellent, and assessing it becomes difficult, especially during the Covid-19 crisis, which impacts all organizations worldwide. The emergence of the pandemic affects all the functions of business organizations, including their policies. Changes during the pandemic influence all the company’s human resource management practices and policies. To ensure the proper and efficient operation of the organization, there is a need for human resource managers to enforce the health and safety policies within the organizations (Li, Ghosh & Nachmias, 2020). The health and safety policies will provide a conducive and safe environment for employees to work. Ethics and HRM cannot be separated a goes hand in hand.
Occupational health and safety within the organization are vital, and there is a need to control and prevent the conflicts that come with it. The employees in the organization have the right to a healthy and safe working environment. The necessities of production and the profits do not outweigh the company’s responsibility for the health and welfare of the staff (García-Sánchez & García-Sánchez, 2020). The human resource management department within the organization needs to ensure the employees about the health and safety to motivate them to work to attain the company’s goals. Conducive working and a safer environment make the employees satisfied. However, when the environment to deliver services is unsafe, it will lead to dissatisfaction among employees, making them quit their jobs to explore new opportunities where safety is a priority. Besides compensating employees for their work, organizations must offer them occupational health and safety coverage to make them feel comfortable.
This report will highlight how the American performance polymers company violates the ethic, health and safety policies for their employees amidst the covid-19 pandemic. American performance polymers is a manufacturer of rubber gloves. Its headquarters is in Colebrook, New Hampshire. The company is a specialist in manufacturing anti-contamination gloves which customers can use in handling active radioactive substances safely. The company has been fined for violating the government Covid-19 health and safety protocols. The agency database cites instances where the company violates health and safety protocols. The company fails to make the symptomatic staff stay home despite some of them testing positive for Covid-19 and not ensuring common areas of work are cleaned regularly. From the OSHA reports, employees with the covid-19 were not allowed to make reports on their symptoms. The company did not enforce the use of masks and social distancing in the workplace. OSHA fines the company $8000 and gives the company a short period to comply and make corrections (Annmarie Timmins, 2022). As a result of the company exposing employees to the risk of contracting the infection, many employees quit their jobs since the environment is unsafe for them to work towards attaining the company goals. By exposing the employees, the company also violates ethical standards.
This report discusses the health and safety of employees and ethical standards that managers can adopt in developing better policies to guarantee the employee’s occupational health and safety policies for an effective and safer working environment. The main research questions in this report will be; why the company violates the government rules against the pandemic? Why does the company continue exposing employees to the pandemic? Lastly, which strategies will it adopt to protect its employees? The report will include the contextual background, theoretical background and managerial implications of health and safety within the organization.
2.0 Contextual Background
Every organization needs to value employee health and safety since it is a motivational factor for the employees. Ensuring that the environment employees work in is safe, and instances of health safety are well addressed will enhance productivity, boost morale and makes the employees loyal to the company. Research from the top companies in the world highlights that employees are more productive and efficient in an environment that commits to and addresses health and safety issues (Caligiuri et al., 2020). Violating ethics and ethical practices within the organization will hurt achieving the set organizational goals.
American performance polymers expose its employees by not offering them a safe working environment during the Covid-19 pandemic. The company violated all policies imposed by the government on organizations concerning the health and safety of the employees. The company did not report employees with the symptoms, working and eating areas were not cleaned regularly, lack of social distancing policies, no masking policies, and no stay-at-home policies for the infected employees (Annmarie Timmins, 2022). Further, the company did not furnish the offices to ensure proper aeration and points where employees can sanitize their hands—not following any protocol and forcing the employees to continue working within the organization put their health at risk.
3.0 Theoretical Background
Occupational health and safety not only focus on the injury but also discuss occupational illness and disease. It is common to experience employees with cuts and bruises at the workplace compared to other illnesses (Reese, 2018). Besides, analyzing the employer’s role in occupational health and safety procedures also focuses on employees’ roles in ensuring safety in their environment. The development of a theoretical framework helps analyze the organizations’ occupational health and safety with the help of different models. The first theory is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs developed by Abraham Maslow, which highlights the different human needs. The theory argues that to motivate individuals, one must first satisfy the basic needs before other needs. The basic needs include food, shelter, self-esteem and love. Fulfilling these needs motivates one to work and be productive in the workplace (Navy, 2020). The first level of Maslow’s needs involves basic needs; the second level comprises safety and security. This level involves the need for the individual to have financial security, which involves working to earn some money. The third level comprises social needs such as family, friendship and social group relationships to minimize loneliness, depression and anxiety. The fourth level comprises esteem needs, while the final stage is Self-actualization, where individuals work to achieve their full potential. In this context, OSHA reports that American performance polymers company do not provide the health and safety needs to employees, which exist in the second level of Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs. A workplace environment is unsafe, and there is no guarantee about the employees’ health, and safety affects their productivity since it lowers morale and risks their health (Sikka, Morath & Leape, 2015). Apart from affecting their performance, also it violates the human rights and federal government rules on the health and safety of employees within the organization.
Another theory in support of health and safety needs is classical deterrence. The theory holds that the punishment threat prevents any crime. This model has two significant aspects; the first deals with the wrongdoers, and the other aims to minimize non-compliance. The theory behind this model holds that if there are ways to expose wrongdoers regularly, those offenders are unlikely to break the safety and health rules. This model firmly holds for the use of severe punishment to prevent the offenders from breaking the set laws and discourage the possible offenders. Besides, it perceives that the violation cost is much higher than the compliance cost, and the probability of people complying will increase (Armstrong, Watling & Davey, 2018). The organizational structures in most organizations have an indirect role in the safety of the organizations. For firms with clear organizational structures with well-established communication and reporting channels, the safety and health issues will have more attention, thus minimizing the cases of accidents and any occupational safety challenges. American performer Polymer Company, the most prominent manufacturer of gloves, violates the government rules concerning the covid-19 pandemic. The company gets fines from OSHA for violating and being forced to make corrections.
Expectancy and reinforcement theory is another model that influences occupational health and safety. This theoretical framework argues that the behaviour of individuals is influenced by the consequences that follow their behaviours. In an organization, employees can respond positively or negatively to their behaviour. When employees are well-taken care of by the management, they tend to respond with positive rewards such as productivity, morale and efficiency at the workplace (Beus, McCord & Zohar, 2016). In the case of American performance Polymers Company, the management did not motivate the employees by providing a conducive and safe working environment during the emergence of the covid-19 pandemic, putting their employees’ health at risk for violating all the set rules and regulations. Going through all these theories will give a precise analysis of what is happening within the company.
4.0 Managerial Implications/ Recommendations
Looking at the occupational and health policies of the organizations, it is evident that it plays a significant role in attracting, retaining and motivating employees to work. American performance Polymers Company needs to ensure that the health and safety of its employees are well-addressed. Improving the health and safety conditions of the staff will enhance job satisfaction and productivity (Bhavya & Satyavathi, 2017). The first implication of occupational health and safety to the organization is that the managers should develop a policy that takes care of employee safety and health by providing comprehensive medical cover. Medical covers will enable them to work well without any doubt of what will happen in case of an accident or injury during the line of duty. Also, the company should offer training to the employees on health and safety precautions and their importance to make them more careful when handling machines or radioactive substances (Leso, Fontana & Iavicoli, 2018). The use of labels and signs is an effective way to communicate important health and safety information. It is simple and uses pictures highlighting the proper procedures and precautions employees need to follow to minimize the possibility of injuries and accidents.
Similarly, it is essential to reward all employees for safe behaviour within the organization. Rewarding employees effectively promotes and encourages workplace health and safety (Guest, 2017). Employees will ensure they follow the safety policies set in place all the time, making a difference in the organization and reducing the cases of accidents and injuries at the workplace. Besides, the company should be flexible and assess what other companies within the industry are doing about occupational health and safety. It will be able to find out the need for a safer environment and develop strategies to ensure it attains its goals while concerned about the staff. Rewarding employees who follow the health and safety precautions will enable the company to impact them with the safety culture. Therefore, all employees will be committed to ensuring that all the safety measures in place should be followed in return for a reward. Therefore this reward strategy will motivate them to enhance their work productivity and reduce possible accidents and injuries.
The second implication that the American performer’s polymers company needs to adopt is to follow the federal government procedures and protocols of safety amid the pandemic. Also, the company should comply with the OSHA regulations, which ensures that all employers follow all the safety and health standards to avoid incurring costs through fines (Bakhsh, 2021). During the pandemic, the company needs to cultivate a culture of safety where employees with Covid-19 symptoms should report to the management—making the reports; the company will be able to take precautions to prevent the spread. All the employees with the symptoms should be sent home until they get well. In the organization, the managers should adopt government rules and enforce them. The rule of social distancing and masking up at the workplace should be implemented. These rules will make the workplace safe for all employees. The company also should ensure that all employees wash and sanitize their hands and tools of work to reduce the chances of spreading the virus. Besides, the company should organize how to fumigate the offices to ensure all the covid-19 virus cannot survive within the offices. Moreover, the company management should fully furnish the offices to ensure that it is free from any hazard that is likely to cause harm or injuries to the employees.
Moreover, the company should investigate the possible health hazards that may result in serious accidents (Strauch, 2017). Investigations will help the company discover why and how the incident happened and derive measures to prevent it from happening. To be successful with investigations, the company management should be supportive and ready to conduct such investigations. Once the investigations are done, maintaining records of all the cases is essential. The records will aid in identifying the trends of unsafe workplace procedures that expose employees to health and safety hazards. The company can host a website to store the records for easy checking and reference.
5.0 Conclusion
This report analyses how the American performance polymers company violated all the federal government rules against the covid-19 pandemic. The company did not provide a safe working environment to their employees. The employees were at risk of contracting the virus by not following health and safety precautions. It is evident that to enhance compliance, the relevant authorities fined the company. The report utilizes theoretical frameworks to discuss the challenges the company is facing and form the basis of recommendations. The theories include Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, classical deterrence and expectancy and reinforcement theory. Occupational health and safety have severe implications for how the employees at the workplace behave. When health and safety are granted, they will be more productive and loyal, and their morale will be high. The management should adopt the recommendations and develop effective strategies to ensure that safety and health precautions are a priority at the workplace.
References
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Caligiuri, P., De Cieri, H., Minbaeva, D., Verbeke, A., & Zimmermann, A. (2020). International HRM insights for navigating the COVID-19 pandemic: Implications for future research and practice. Journal of international business studies, 51(5), 697-713.
García-Sánchez, I. M., & García-Sánchez, A. (2020). Corporate social responsibility during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity, 6(4), 126.
Reese, C. D. (2018). Occupational health and safety management: a practical approach. CRC press.
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Sikka, R., Morath, J. M., & Leape, L. (2015). The quadruple aim: care, health, cost and meaning in work. BMJ quality & safety, 24(10), 608-610.
Navy, S. L. (2020). Theory of human motivation—Abraham Maslow. In Science Education in Theory and Practice (pp. 17-28). Springer, Cham.
Annmarie Timmins, N. (2022, April 25). Four companies were accused of violating COVID-19 Health Protocols and fined by OSHA. Retrieved November 25, 2022, from https://newhampshirebulletin.com/2022/04/25/four-companies-accused-of-violating-covid-19-health-protocols-fined-by-osha/
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