Human Resources and Annual Operating Plans-Role in Ethical and Legal Decisions

Being a defendant in a high profile, high stakes lawsuit is a worst-case scenario for a Human Resources Director and company executives. In the Discussion this week, you examined a case in which the Human Resources Director disagreed with the organization's CEO regarding potential ethical and legal matters. In many cases, unethical and illegal behavior flows, at least in part, from a failure to properly adhere to the implementation of the Annual Human Resources Operating Plan's required policies or practices, or failure to have any plan whatsoever. Every year, thousands of lawsuits and criminal complaints are brought against companies for engaging in unethical and/or illegal behavior at the operating level.

For this Assignment, conduct research using a variety of sources, including media, to identify a company involved in a legal dispute. Next, specifically, you must search the Lexis/Nexis database in the Walden Library to find the state or federal court case in which that company lost that lawsuit or should never have had that lawsuit that is related to HR practices or policies involving unethical or illegal practices and retrieve the case summary.

To complete this Assignment, in a 4- to 5-page paper respond to the following:

• Introducing the use of HR Operating Plans to address organizational behavior or practices, e.g., organizational ethics, or hiring practices based on federal mandates, and to ensure that organizations are guided to do the right things and understand the need for regulatory compliance, etc.

• Briefly review the key points of the case found in the Lexis-Nexis database.

• Explain how greater involvement by the Human Resources Department or Division and diligent adherence to the Annual Human Resources Operating Plan (or having a plan in the first place) might have systematically prevented the lawsuit or reduced its impact

• Be specific in providing details from the case and mapping those to arguments for why a thoughtful Annual Human Resources Operating Plan would have made both a short-term and a long-term difference.