Research Assignment

Your research assignment is as follows:

1. Pretend you are the HR Manager of a company and the CEO meets with you to get your opinion on a situation that has developed involving an employee. (Choose one of the situations below). You answer the CEO that you will go do some research and get back with her later, then you leave to do some research.

2. Research the issue in the library databases. Look for anything applicable to the situation, but focus on HR Law cases that are very recent. Take good notes as you go.

3. Prepare a research paper in APA format that contains the following:

a. A transmittal memo (Google this for a template). Pretend that the instructor (me) is the CEO of the company. Make up names for any individuals (employees, etc.) that you need to refer to in your document.

b. A title page

c. 10-15 pages of body text (double-spaced, Times New Roman, 1" margins, etc.).

d. At least 10 references that are journal articles (don't use websites, except for government ones, and you should have no more than one or two of those, if any).

4. You can submit your paper early if you wish. When ready, submit in blackboard.

Hint... Find a copy of the 5th edition of the APA Style Guide. There is a sample research paper toward the middle of the book that you can use as an example to follow. If you use Microsoft Word to handle your references and such, I will not check them very closely, as long as you have all of the information required in each source. If you do them by hand, I check to make sure they are perfect.

I also use Microsoft Word to check grammar and style, as well as spelling. See the video I posted in the Learning Resources of Blackboard on this subject.

Remember... Your goal with this paper is to demonstrate that you can a) write a research paper correctly and b) research an HR topic using the correct databases. For these, you will probably want to use Lexus-Nexus as well as other legal references, in addition to the normal academic journal databases.

Situation #1

A recently hired female employee was seen entering the men's restroom during the lunch break. Although only a few people noticed, it was brought discretely to the CEO's attention, who immediately brought the matter to you.

You checked your records and discovered that the person checked "female" on the employment application, but her spouse's name is Katherine. You begin to suspect that the gender that she presents may not be the same has her biological gender (she may be male biologically, but presenting as a female).

The employee works on an assembly line, has a good work history (though short), and seems to get along well with her co-workers. To make matters worse, the company recently established a fitness center with separate showers for each gender. The company is now faced with a dilemma regarding where this employee is to use the restroom, showers, etc.

Your task is to research the problem and make recommendations to the CEO and others on the company leadership team. What do you think would be the best course of action, and how do you think the courts would rule should the issue appear before them?

Situation #2

The company you work for sells a number of different products, but each product is handled by a single sales person whose compensation is based on the amount of sales for their product.

A company based in a very fundamental Muslim country (i.e. Tehran, Iran) has expressed interest in one of your products, which is handled by a female employee who happens to be of Jewish ancestry and is very outspoken regarding middle-eastern issues (she's pro-Israel). The company that wishes to purchase this product from your company has made it clear that they will only deal with male sales personnel and that no Jewish person is permitted to be involved with their product.

The amount of the contract is more than $20M (twenty million dollars), and the amount of money that would go to the sales person from the transaction would be 10% of that ($2M). Your company is faced with a problem regarding who should represent the company.

Reassigning the product to a male non-Jewish sales person is possible, but it would result in the woman employee not receiving the $2M just because she is female and/or Jewish, which is unfair. On the other hand, not reassigning the product would result in the company losing the sales completely. What do you think would be the best course of action, and how do you think the courts would rule should the issue appear before them?