An Interview on a Difficult Human Resource Issue

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Table of Contents

Institution and Interviewee
Difficult Situation
Difficult HR Issue
HR Manager’s Decision
Decision Guide for Difficult HR Issues
References

Institution and Interviewee

The interview was conducted at a hospital located in one of the neighborhoods in the city. A non-profit institution, the hospital provides healthcare to the local community and has been in operation since the early 1980s. It has grown from a small clinic to a large hospital with a bed capacity of more than 2000, serving over 40,000 patients every year. Currently, the hospital has 13 different departments, each headed by a departmental director who reports to the organizational deputy chief executive. One of these departments is HR, which is tasked with managing the affairs of the employees, resolving conflicts, and continuously improving the workers’ welfare to achieve high levels of satisfaction.

The interviewee is currently one of the four assistant directors of HR and is in charge of nurses in the institution. In addition to being a nurse manager with 23 years of experience, she is also a human resource practitioner (HRP) and is now the head human resource manager in the nursing section. Based on the organizational structure, the interviewee’s roles and responsibilities are wide and varied and include several groups of interlinked activities such as nurse selection, recruitment, training, orientation, compensation, safety, and performance appraisal (Berman et al., 2022). In addition, she is responsible for nurses’ transfer, promotion, suspension, retention, and termination.

Difficult Situation

The interview was conducted on a face-to-face basis inside the interviewee’s office at the hospital. It took 2 hours to complete the interview which was conducted in the evening hours on a weekday. From the interview, it was learned that in the hospital, nurses make up the largest proportion of workers at 60% of the total workforce. Therefore, she manages more than 300 employees in her HRP position. The job is regarded as one of the most difficult in the institution as it involves solving daily conflicts that occur among the nurses and between them and other employees (Stone, Dulebohn & Lukaszweski, 2020). She notes that the work has been made difficult by recent changes such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the pressures it placed on the workers, increasing diversity among the workers, economic challenges, and other issues (Collings et al., 2021). Although she notes many cases of difficult situations, the interviewee cites a situation she faced in 2020 during the height of the pandemic as the most difficult human resource issue in her career.

During this period, the hospital was overwhelmed with a large number of patients seeking medical care, owing to the high infection rate in the city. She notes that at one point, they were forced to recall every nurse back to work, sparing only those who were on medical and maternal leave. All others were called in and had to work for more than 12 hours a day per person daily. In particular, the number of COVID-19 patients was high among the people aged 40 and above, who needed special care during the period. At the same time, the hospital was facing a problem since its workers, especially the front-line nurses were increasingly acquiring the disease, and more than 15 succumbed, and others were hospitalized.

Difficult HR Issue

To compensate for the lost employee hours, the hospital established an emergent policy that allowed it to hire student nurses, including a large number of foreigners studying and living in and around the city. A large number of people from African nations, the Caribbean, Asia, and South America applied and were recruited. This situation increased the cultural, social, and ethnic diversity among the nurses. As the interviewee notes, the hospital was not focused on managing diversity at the time, owing to the urgent situation.

However, a conflict arose after the entry of the new workers. She notes that cases of discrimination and bullying were reported by the new nurses. At least four nurses from different countries reported that they had been physically, mentally, and verbally bullied by other employees. The HR office received complaints of various forms of abuse that amounted to physical, mental, and verbal discrimination against the new lot of nurses admitted during the period.

HR Manager’s Decision

After receiving the complaints from the new nurses and the issues raised by the seniors, the interviewee established a team of 6 senior nurses and two staff members from the HR department. In a meeting, they resolved to take strict measures to cope with the situation. First, they summoned the nurses identified as having discriminated against the young entrants. In total 7 senior nurses were summoned and grilled to examine the motives behind their actions. They reported that they were uncomfortable with the new group and that the hospital had failed to conduct a comprehensive orientation of the entrants. In addition, they stated that they wanted roles and responsibilities clearly defined and the communication channels opened for them to raise their issues. The team decided to suspend the 7 nurses for a month without pay, which was also accepted by the local union.

Apart from this, the interviewee and her team embarked on strict measures to educate the new nurses and reeducate the seniors in matters relating to ethical codes and laws that barred acts of discrimination of any kind. Workshops were held over three weeks. In addition, nurses were allowed to communicate freely and take common activities such as visiting the hospital gym in the evening. Seniors were asked to work with the new nurses and indeed supervise them in the workout activities. In addition, new codes of ethics were published and provided to each employee via email and also pinned on each department’s notice board. The warning was included, which made everyone aware that anyone involved in any kind of discrimination would not only be sacked but also face legal consequences. The actual anti-discrimination laws of the state and the US, in general, were included in the memo sent along with the updated codes of ethics.

The reason behind the decision was to ensure that everyone was educated about the issue of discrimination, the need to avoid it, and the consequences of discriminating against others. Moreover, roles and responsibilities were clearly defined to ensure that conflicts were reduced (Collings et al., 2021). The reason for involving the employees in exercises was to reduce physical tension and burnout, which was suspected to cause conflicts in the workplace (Amsler, Martinez & Smith, 2020). It was also meant to ensure close interactions between the two groups outside their workplaces, which would improve the relationships. The manager used the codes of ethics to make sure that everyone was aware of what was expected of them at any time and the consequences of breaking the rules.

Decision Guide for Difficult HR Issues

Based on the hierarchy of priorities, the decision guide for difficult HR issues appears useful in this case. First, the most critical aspect of the issue is that it was of both legal and ethical aspects (Collings et al., 2021). Ethical issues concern professional, organizational, and personal levels (Berman et al., 2022). The involved nurses had violated the ethical code of respect at personal, organizational, and professional levels. Secondly, the guideline is useful as it outlines the nature of the discrimination such as bullying, and the level that the vice falls, including the level of priority in managing the conflict.

Moreover, the decision clearly defined the national and state laws that incriminated discrimination in the workplace. As discussed in class, the decision involved legal issues regarding workplace discrimination and bullying. Specifically, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 illegalizes any act of discriminating against anyone based on sex, color, religion, race, ethnicity, and national origin (Choi, Poertner & Sambanis, 2019; Triana et al., 2021). In employees bullying the young nurses had violated this statute.

Secondly, the current organizational policies demand that every employee be treated with respect, regardless of their background, employment position, and other factors (Choi, Poertner & Sambanis, 2019). Third, the issue concerned organizational culture in which education and reeducation of nurses reflected the tradition of instilling values and morals among the workers (Berman et al., 2022). In my view, the manager took the most correct measures and I would also use the same approach. The manager’s decision conforms to the legal ethical and moral aspects as learned in class. In this case, the guidelines for difficult HR situations can be applied in multiple situations (Berman et al., 2022). For instance, it can be applied in a public service situation where conflicts arise due to employee differences. In my case, conflicts always arise in my workplace as a city employee because of diversity. However, with effective codes of ethics and educating employees, we have always managed the situation.

References

Amsler, L. B., Martinez, J., & Smith, S. E. (2020). Dispute system design: Preventing, managing, and resolving conflict. Stanford University Press.

Berman, E. M., Bowman, J. S., West, J. P., & Van Wart, M. R. (2022). Human resource management in public service: Paradoxes, processes, and problems (7th ed.). Sage Publications.

Choi, D. D., Poertner, M., & Sambanis, N. (2019). Parochialism, social norms, and discrimination against immigrants. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(33), 16274-16279. Web.

Collings, D. G., Nyberg, A. J., Wright, P. M., & McMackin, J. (2021). Leading through paradox in a COVID‐19 world: Human resources comes of age. Human Resource Management Journal, 31(4), 819-833. Web.

Stone, D. L., Dulebohn, J. H., & Lukaszweski, K. M. (2020). Diversity and inclusion in organizations. IAP.

Triana, M. D. C., Gu, P., Chapa, O., Richard, O., & Colella, A. (2021). Sixty years of discrimination and diversity research in human resource management: A review with suggestions for future research directions. Human Resource Management, 60(1), 145-204. Web.

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