IOP 3702 ASSIGNMENT 1

Question 1 As the Human Resource (HR) officer you are confronted by a shop steward who complains about the lack of fairness in the decision making process regarding policies and practices in the organisation. Defend your viewpoint by referring to the following: (a) The concept of fairness. (5) Fairness has no single meaning – different sets of values will influence each definition of fairness. It will also have different implications for how personnel decisions are to be made (Coetzee & Schreuder, 2016). We should therefore anticipate that unions and management may have differing views regarding the fairness in decision-making processes, relating to personnel (Coetzee & Schreuder, 2016). Whereas the shop steward may deem the decision-making process (specifically referring to policies and practices) unfair, as the HR officer you will have a differing view of what fairness entails. From the HR officer’s point of view, personnel decisions will be made with employees’ best interests in mind and decision-making methods will be unbiased ensuring that unfair discrimination is avoided. The HR officer will have an ethical and moral obligation to ensure fair personnel decisions, and fair and equal treatment of employees in the work environment. Procedural fairness in the selection process (principles which are relevant to all personnel decisions, beginning with the selection of job applicants) relates to the following: Objectivity Consistency in the treatment of all applicants Freedom of the selection procedures from any form of manipulation, including adherence to deadlines of application etc Selection process must be developed and conducted by professionals Confidentiality of data to be maintained Information must be quantifiable, thereby ensuring objectivity and allowing for comparisons between individuals on the basis of ‘scores’ achieved All information used must be directly related and unquestionably relevant to the decision being make – IOP3702 – Assignment 01 () (b) The principles of distributive fairness. (5) According to Lilly (2017), distributive justice is primarily concerned with the fairness of decision outcomes and reward allocation norms. Distributive justice is the perceived fairness of the decisions made in an organisation. Also, the perceived fairness in the distribution of rewards – how employee effort is rewarded (Coetzee & Schreuder, 2016). Therefore, in the employment relationship context (with its economic exchange foundation), the effort-pay equation is central. Distributive justice, in the organisational and employment relations context, refers to the individual employee’s preference for a situation of perceived fairness in so far as it relates to his / her input / reward ratio compared to that of relevant other employees. In other words, the perceived fairness of the decisions made in an organisation. Also, the perceived fairness in the distribution of rewards – how employee effort is rewarded. The HR officer can assure the shop steward that not only the Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997 and the Basic Conditions of Employment Amendment Act 11 of 2002, but also any applicable union agreements must be considered in the determination of a compensation strategy. Furthermore, as mentioned above, The HR officer will have an ethical and moral obligation to ensure fair personnel decisions, and fair and equal treatment of employees in the work environment based – among others - on the principles of procedural fairness. Question 2 You are the Industrial and Organisational (IO) psychologist and have been asked to develop a new selection strategy for psychomet