Offense or Defense

Using a niche service provider, Zforce Government Solutions (ZGS), this case provides the reader with a first-hand examination of the organizational issues resulting from ineffective recruiting, retention, and succession planning, allowing for the acknowledgment of the coherent, interdependent, and interrelated relationship between the aforementioned topics. This case study performs a revelatory assessment of ZGS's application of Harvard's Soft HRM model and fundamentals of key issues reflecting organizational mismanagement of human talent, where human talent is vital to organizational continuity. Written from the vantage point of a previous ZGS senior management employee, this case study utilizes a qualitative research approach, with empirical data gathered from four in-depth interviews conducted with previous ZGS leadership employees. Ultimately, the case study is intended to induce reader-reflection on the various components of importance in talent management, which play a significant role in accomplishing employee loyalty and employee retention.

Skating on Thin Ice at Enti

This case study highlights how various human resources management (HRM) policies and practices at ENTI, a Palestinian non-governmental organization (NGO), can be deconstructed as depersonalized forms of 'workplace bullying' which exert a totalitarian form of control and domination over employees. It further examines how external sociopolitical forces at the macro level can be held responsible for management's autocratic regimes, where employees are closely monitored and psychologically controlled. In pursuit of explaining the complex dynamics of employee relations, workplace bullying, and HRM, the case utilizes an interpretative inquiry based on critical theoretical lens of Foucault's disciplinary power frameworks. HRM in rhetoric is a management responsibility which is primarily concerned with employees, their welfare, growth, and development. However, this case reveals the complete opposite, in the form of startling, critical insights from an under researched sector, that of the (NGOs) which have been historically envisaged as altruistic organizations and ideal workplaces.

A Critical Narrative of Employee Well-Being and Control Paradox in Higher Education

The case presents a detailed snapshot of a staff employee well-being initiative developed and implemented by the Human Resources (HR) department in August 2014 at the Online Learning Unit (OLU) of J.M. College located in southwestern Georgia. The case is an auto-ethnographic account of how implementation of an employee quality of life (QOL) initiative combined with surveillance techniques resulted in a negative toxic culture of employee resentment, hostility, and poor performance. Using modern surveillance theories of synoptican, actor-network theory (ANT), and surveillance capitalism, the case shows how the original Foucauldian theory of panopticon has re-invented itself into a panopticon of technology dominated by a culture of capitalism and profit-maximization. The case uses pseudo names to protect privacy and maintain confidentiality of the institution and characters. The case accurately details events in a chronological manner focusing on the main character's thoughts and actions.

The Outsourcing Dilemma of SMEs

It is far from uncommon for entrepreneurial SMEs to rely on outsourced labor, especially in knowledge-intensive industries. There is a plethora of benefits to doing so – quick and cost-effective access to highly skilled, self-motivated workers is certainly appealing, especially for resource-limited enterprises. That being said, outsourcing may also raise a range of issues, including loss of control, limited retention of knowledge, and communication challenges, as well as to exert unsustainable levels of pressure on a typically weak or non-existent HRM function of such organizations. This case study considers the case of five small Latvian tech firms and their relationships with outsourcing work to freelancers. The authors raise questions about the feasibility of effective HRM practices and potential for meaningful business growth, and observe how SMEs mediate their inherently precarious relationships with freelancers by bringing desired individuals into the orbit of the organization through relationship-building.

Emergency in the ER

Like many healthcare providers, Shepherd's Grace Hospital struggles to appropriately staff their Emergency Room. Electing to follow employment trends, the hospital has engaged with a staffing agency for four traveling nurses. The purpose of this case is to explore the challenges of bringing contingent workers into an organization and how these short-term employees are viewed by the others more permanently embedded in the organization and the community. Also of importance is how social and psychological capital develop within an organization and how these roles can conflict when translated into a leadership role. This case follows four days of events for a traveling nurse, a traditional nurse, the Director of Nursing Services, the Director of Human Resources at the fictional Shepherd's Grace Hospital in the real city of Little Rock, AR. Upon conclusion, readers are asked to analyze the actions of these four characters along with the interactions of their circumstances (personal, professional, and geographic) to make decisions for how the hospital should move forward.

When the Process Fails

Details of a sexual harassment investigation were shared with members of the community by the employee who initially filed the related complaint and were subsequently leaked to the local media. Such details are regarded as confidential personnel matters, and parties to an investigation are encouraged not to discuss details in order to ensure full and impartial fact gathering. With that said, parties to complaints of this nature are not obligated to hold details in confidence – largely because it is their personal story. The broad distribution of details led to workplace protests, expressions of distrust of leadership, impassioned calls for greater transparency in handling of sexual harassment complaints by Human Resources, and a demand for review of sanctions levied on parties found responsible for violating policies. Leadership responded by convening a task force to examine current policies, to research best practices in sexual harassment response and prevention, and to recommend a plan of action.

Strategic Decision Making

Digital technologies are changing the nature of work. Through a case, this study demonstrates the adoption of new forms of work in an organization. The HR department of the information technology firm XYZ often finds it a challenge to place resources with the right technical skill set in their projects within the timeframe specified by the clients. The fact that most skilled workers would retire in the next 10 years posed a different issue. The production of error free monthly reports of resource allocations was another challenge. Drawing from ecology theory, this study expands existing theories of strategic decision making in the context of innovation adoption. The study contends that the innovation of platform sourcing by creating a sustained competitive advantage can solve the challenges. The study adopts the lens of work design to understand the effect of technology on individual outcomes and support the implementation of the innovation.

HR

This case study follows the career of Robert Peters (pseudonym), a middle level manager who faces numerous challenges as a team manager during his fledgling years. He is constantly questioning his role as the managerial representative who has to take care of his team members, their interests, and professional welfare. Scenarios such as the ethicality of senior management in ordering their lower level managers to spy on the employees during unfolding of trade unions activity, employees' rights during various change processes, disciplinary actions taken on employees which may lack human compassion, and issues pertaining to equity due to bias and nepotism are explored. This is an effort to understand the unequal quotient between labor and management, hidden depths in human resources (HR) role and functions, and ethical dilemmas which HR managers confront during their corporate career. This case study will enable readers to critically reflect on the responsibilities of HR, including its challenging role as the intermediary between the labor and management.

Whither Bir Zeit University?

Since its founding under the Israeli occupation, Bir Zeit University has been the catalyst for educating the Palestinian ‘generations of occupation'. Its mission was to empower those who were bereft of their basic human rights and to reclaim and develop the Palestinian national identity by resisting the stultification of Palestinian youth. Following the Oslo Accords, Bir Zeit University has experienced several important developments, namely exponential growth in enrolment, unnecessary programmatic expansion, introduction of super-size classes, and irresponsible staffing decisions. Against this background and a growing financial crisis, this case study examined how managerialism has succeeded in subduing Bir Zeit University to its syllabus, specifically how cultural and structural changes have led to compromising the work conditions and relationships of faculty members. Hence, this case study bids the question—Whither Bir Zeit University?—to those who care to question the present state of affairs as well as anyone ready to search for answers.

Bipolar Tension and Employee Relations Challenge at a Higher Education Institution

This is a case of employee relations challenge at ASE, a Palestinian higher education institution (HEI). It reflects on real narratives and experiences of an accumulative and an endured conflict between ASE's labor union and its top management due to rigid administrative policies and pitfalls while transitioning through a strategic reform. The case urges readers to revert to the roots, envisage, and analyze 'internal employee relations under crises' from a dialogical and a sociopolitical perspective based on ideas drawn from the Habermas's 'Theory of Communicative Action' (TCA). HEIs are envisaged as sovereign workplaces that function on pluralistic values generating positive dialogue communication between all stakeholders and subsequently healthy employee relations. This case examines different episodes where ASE's management utilized autocratic leadership for utilitarian drivers causing employee exclusion and mounting tensions on campus. Consequently, several forms of overt resistance prevailed including strikes, apathy, and work interruptions.