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Article Review
Lawsuit Claims Google Failed to Prevent Sexual Harassment
Daniel Cooper
Entrepreneur 2, March 2018
The chapter your article addresses: 8
News article
a. Introduction:
Google Company has attracted negative media attention mainly due to the weaknesses in its internal culture. For instance, it was sued by a female employee for wrongful termination, discrimination, and sexual harassment. According to Cooper, the worker had complained several times to the human resource (HR) manager; however, no action was taken by the organization. The case demonstrates that women who work in departments that are dominated by men have a higher probability of being subjected to discrimination. For instance, they may face verbal or physical abused by their male peers. Moreover, her male coworkers attempted to drug her when she was at work by spiking her beverages. Finally, the male supervisors had refused to approve her work that led to poor appraisal reports. Consequently, the human resource company fired the woman due to her low performance. For this reason, the human resource department has to comply with the law by changing its internal culture of discriminating women.
b. Recommendation:
The Google Company should establish an organizational culture that treats both genders equally that might enhance diversity and stop cases of sexual harassment. For instance, it should sensitize the department on the need of gender equality through training. Moreover, it should form an ethics committee that will implement a code of ethics that stipulates the punitive measures for the employee found guilty of prejudice. The firm should also eliminate the gender pay gap present in the company that may indicate that it values both sexes the same. Additionally, the firm should employ organizational psychologists who may compel the employee to explore their underlying biases and overcome them. The company should investigate the reasons for a poor employee performance before firing them to avoid litigation. Finally, the company should increase the diversity in the male-dominated department by hiring more women workers. For this reason, the company has to develop an internal organization culture that upholds the dignity of women and allows them to establish their career by providing a supportive environment.
c. Rationale:
The organizational culture of a company influences the individual and collective behaviors of the employees. The failure of the human resource department to punish the perpetrators of sexual discrimination and harassment fostered an organizational culture that indicated that the company did not value women who were in male-dominated professions such as Engineering. For this reason, it may be necessary to demote or fire the human resource manager and replace him with a candidate who values the rights of female workers. Moreover, the elimination of the gender pay gap may make the company attractive to female workers who may enhance its capacity to attract and retain female workers in professions that are dominated by men. A code of ethics creates the references for the expected behavior of the employees. Consequently, it may be used to change the internal culture of the company especially if the employees are trained on how to adhere to it.
d. Conclusion:
The main problem associated with the recommendation is that
it may increase the human resource cost of the organization. For instance, the
company may be compelled to hire more female workers to increase the diversity
of the workforce. Moreover, implementing the code of ethics is an expensive
process that requires training the employees, investigating violations and
implementing the appropriate reprimand measures. However, the problem may be
solved by allocating more funds to the human resource department since the
technique may improve the performance of the departments that were dominated by
men in the long-term.
Work Cited
Cooper, Daniel. “Lawsuit Claims Google Failed to Prevent Sexual Harassment.” Entrepreneur, 2 Mar. 2018, www.entrepreneur.com/article/309861.