Employee Relations Report: Seniority, Ability, and HR Manager's Role

This report presents a case study analysis concerning employee relations within the Picasso Company's Gun factory, focusing on the selection of a junior machinist, Mary, over a senior employee, Elder, for a first leader position. The core issue revolves around the conflict between seniority and ability as criteria for promotion, and the role of the HR manager in justifying the decision. The report delves into the collective bargaining agreement, emphasizing the importance of skills and qualifications in addition to seniority. It reviews relevant literature, highlighting that organizations sometimes promote employees solely based on seniority, which may hamper the quality of work. The author argues that skills should be given equal priority and that Elder's complaint was unjustified. The action plan includes justifying Mary's selection based on her self-starter qualities, proving the selection didn't breach the contract. The conclusion supports the factory manager's decision, emphasizing the importance of skills and qualities in the job vacancy, not violating U.S. employment laws.

EMPLOYEE
RELATIONS
Full Consideration of Seniority and Ability

INTRODUCTION
• The report addresses the case of full consideration of
seniority and ability.
• The report includes the case analysis describing the role of
HR manager in consideration with the case.
• The literature review of the case as it relates to the
consideration of the skills and capable qualities required
for the vacant position or the promotion criteria.
• Both seniority and skills are important aspects to
differentiate among the more deserving individual.

ROLE OF THE HR MANAGER
• As a human resource manager, the roles and
responsibilities here includes providing a justification
case for the selected candidate.
• The selection of Mary was done on the basis of the skills
and qualifications she own.
• And selection of a deserving candidate is not considered
as the violation of the agreement (Hautz, et al, 2019).

DESCRIPTION OF THE CASE
• The case is about the Picasso Company’s Gun factory .
• It includes three shifts of the machinists, represented by
the Lodge 821 of the International Association of
Machinists and the Aerospace Workers.
• There was a vacancy of first leader position for which
two employees were selected.

DESCRIPTION OF THE CASE
• One was a senior and the other a junior machinist
however the manager selected the junior machinist for
the role on the basis of the skills required.
• The senior considered it as a disrespect and filed a
complaint against the factory for the breach of the
collective bargaining agreement.

DESCRIPTION OF HR MANAGER
ROLE
• It is role of the HR manager for the recruitment and
selection of the employees (Kangisser, & Choi, 2019).
• Here in the context of the case the selection of Mary
being a junior or a second class machinist is the main
issue.
• Convey the benefits and the responsibilities associated
with new role of the vacant position which also contains
the pay raise (Saha, 2018).

DESCRIPTION OF THE
MANAGER ROLE
• As per the collective bargaining agreement the selection
of any candidate should be based on the qualities, skills
and the seniority of the employee (Ginnett, 2019).
• The selection of the candidate is not against the
agreement as the criteria considered for the selection
are valid according to the contract or the agreement
provided (Yoon, 2019).

LITERATURE RELATED TO THE
RESEARCH
• According to the author here, organisations do promote
employees only on the basis of seniority (Horak, & Yang,
2019).
• Eventually, several times this hampers the quality of
work required for the vacant position (Cusin, & Goujon,
2019).
• To avoid the same the HR managers tend to hire the
employees with adequate skills appropriate for the
position.

LITERATURE RELATED TO THE
RESEARCH
• The equal priority must be given to the quality and skills
required for the role which benefits the organisation
(Tung, et al, 2018).
• At times the employees with less seniority possess
higher amount skills and qualities required for the vacant
job position.
• The employers must consider the same and should treat
it as breach of agreement of collective bargaining (Saha,
2018).

LITERATURE RELATED TO THE
RESEARCH
• In the context of the case the complaint filed by Elder is
totally unjustified as Younger was more talented in terms
of the vacant job position.
• The complaint filed by Elder is completely not
considerable as qualities and skills are paramount
requirements (Ning, 2018).
• The complaint filed by Elder was out of the insecurity of
ego as being a senior he was not given the position.

A SELECTED PLAN OF ACTION
• The action plan consists of the actions leading to the
justification that considering a second class employee for
a leading position is not the only criteria (Razak, Sarpan,
& Ramlan, 2018).
• Mary had the quality of the self starter which was the
primary requirement of the position.
• Though Elder did had qualities but was required to be
told what to do next.

A SELECTED PLAN OF ACTION
• The action plan consists of the justification of the
contention of case and proving that the selection of Mary
is not against the contract of collective bargaining.
• Also it consists the justification that seniority is important
but along with the appropriate skills just seniority is not
considered for the job vacancy or the promotion (Ulrich,
& Dulebohn, 2015).

CONCLUSION
• The case study concludes that the decision of the factory
manager was based on the requirements of the job
vacancy.
• The deserving got the opportunity to represent their
skills and qualities.
• Which was not against the contract of collective
bargaining considered by the U.S. employment laws.

REFERENCES
• Cusin, J., & Goujon-Belghit, A. (2019). Error reframing: studying the promotion of an error
management culture. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 1-15.
• Ginnett, R. C. (2019). Crews as groups: Their formation and their leadership. In Crew resource
management (pp. 73-102). Academic Press.
• Godard, J. (2019). Labor and Employment Practices: the Rise and Fall of the New
Managerialism. The Palgrave Handbook of Management History, 1-20.
• Hautz, W. E., Schubert, S., Schauber, S. K., Kunina‐Habenicht, O., Hautz, S. C., Kämmer, J. E., &
Eva, K. W. (2019). Accuracy of self‐monitoring: does experience, ability or case difficulty
matter?. Medical education.
• Horak, S., & Yang, I. (2019). Whither seniority? Career progression and performance orientation
in South Korea. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 30(9), 1419-1447.
• Kangisser, S. J., & Choi, Y. M. (2019, July). The Role of Building Construction Project Planning in
Accommodating Ergonomic Considerations of the Aging Workforce. In International Conference
on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics (pp. 15-26). Springer, Cham.

REFERENCES
• Ning, W. (2018). How HR Systems Affect Employee Outcomes: An Integrative
Perspective (Doctoral dissertation).
• Razak, A., Sarpan, S., & Ramlan, R. (2018). Influence of Promotion and Job Satisfaction on
Employee Performance. Journal of Accounting, Business and Finance Research, 3(1), 18-27.
• Saha, P. (2018). Internship Report On HR policy & practices Of Dutch–Bangla Bank Ltd.
• Tung, C. Y., Yin, Y. W., Zhou, Y. P., Chang, C. C., Lin, P. Y., & Liu, C. Y. (2018). An analysis of
healthy workplace accreditation and health promotion efforts based on employees'
perspectives. Archives of environmental & occupational health, 73(5), 322-329.
• Ulrich, D., & Dulebohn, J. H. (2015). Are we there yet? What's next for HR?. Human Resource
Management Review, 25(2), 188-204.
• Yoon, S. J. (2019). The Organisational Culture of the Chaebol and Workplace Inequality:
Stunted Mobilities of Korean Chinese Employees in a Beijing Subsidiary. Journal of
Contemporary Asia, 49(1), 78-103.