Original
Although the importance of labor unions decreases steadily, there is still a lot of concern with different views of management, employees and their labor union. Recent national and international cases demonstrated that strikes, boycotts and other labor actions might occur every time and everywhere. How can a company deal with such employee unrests? This report discusses the difficulties a company’s management has to face and how it can overcome them to manage human resources (HR) successfully.

First of all, the author will address common union tactics and explain the term “wildcat strike”. Second, the report will continue by demonstrating current changes concerning human resources management and the trend towards contingent workers. Finally, it will show how Produkt AG could manage the current employee unrest.

Because of several cases of union tactics like strikes, boycotts and picketing in the past it can be said that managers are still confronted with the problem of dissatisfied employees. According to Ebert and Griffin, strikes are a labor actions in which employees temporarily walk off the job and refuse to work. Strikes are becoming more and more important in context of current day business life. But not all strikes are legal. The definition that lies at the base of this problem is as follows. A “wildcat strike” is defined as a strike which is unauthorized by the labor union during the life of a contract. The consequences for strikers are that they loose their status as employees and thus, the protection of the labor law.

A further problem which today’s human resources managers have to deal with is the ongoing trend to so-called contingent or temporary workers. In detail, a contingent worker is hired for something other than a full-time basis to support the firm’s permanent workforce. Examples are independent workers, contract and leased employees. Managing this new kind of employment demonstrates a great challenge for HR managers as they have to be flexible and careful when creating work schedules. This leads the reader to the question of which actions Produkt AG should take into account to manage the current employee unrest.

One possible solution might be to arrange a discussion meeting with the strikers. This could give the company the opportunity to listen to the concerns of its employees and moreover, the management would have the chance to resolve the problems by finding an alternative solution. Furthermore, the managers should tell the strikers the risks which might occur because of this illegal wildcat strike and that it would be better for both sides to find a mutual agreement. Depending on the certain problem, the company could offer better compensation systems or more flexible working hours. On the one hand, the final solution should satisfy and motivate the employees to work for the company and on the other hand, the management should offer realistic, practical and feasible suggestions. Finally, the management should work out a comprehensive and written document which demonstrates the mutual solution and publish it within the company so that every employee and manager has access to the agreement. Thus, it is easier to implement the new strategy as everyone is aware of the changes.

In conclusion, the author recommends the company to integrate the employees in as many decision making processes as possible due to the fact that this would lead to greater motivation and satisfaction. The involvement of employees is a relatively easy and cheap action with enormous positive effects and protects the company against unpleasant labor actions like strikes and negative publicity.

Korrektur
Although the importance of labor unions has decreased/is decreasing steadily, there is still a lot of concern with different views of management, employees and their labor union. Recent national and international cases demonstrated that strikes, boycotts and other labor actions might occur any time and anywhere. How can a company deal with such employee unrests? This report discusses the difficulties a company’s management has to face and how it can overcome them to manage human resources (HR) successfully.

First of all, the author will address common union tactics and explain the term “wildcat strike”. Second, the report will continue by demonstrating current changes concerning human resources management and the trend towards contingent workers. Finally, it will show how Produkt AG could manage the current employee unrest.

Because of several cases of union tactics like strikes, boycotts and picketing in the past, it can be said that managers are still confronted with the problem of dissatisfied employees. According to Ebert and Griffin, strikes are __ labor actions in which employees temporarily walk off the job and refuse to work. Strikes are becoming more and more important in context of current day business life. But not all strikes are legal. The definition that lies at the base of this problem is as follows. A “wildcat strike” is defined as a strike which is unauthorized by the labor union during the life of a contract. The consequence for strikers are that they lose their status as employees and thus, the protection of the labor law.

A further problem which today’s human resources managers have to deal with is the ongoing trend to so-called contingent or temporary workers. In detail, a contingent worker is hired for something other than a full-time basis to support the firm’s permanent workforce. Examples are independent workers, contract and leased employees. Managing this new kind of employment demonstrates a great challenge for HR managers as they have to be flexible and careful when creating work schedules. This leads the reader to the question of which actions Produkt AG should take into account to manage the current employee unrest.

One possible solution might be to arrange a discussion meeting with the strikers. This could give the company the opportunity to listen to the concerns of its employees and moreover, the management would have the chance to resolve the problems by finding an alternative solution. Furthermore, the managers should tell the strikers the risks which might occur because of this illegal wildcat strike and that it would be better for both sides to find a mutual agreement. Depending on the specific problem, the company could offer better compensation systems or more flexible working hours. On the one hand, the final solution should satisfy and motivate the employees to work for the company and on the other hand, the management should offer realistic, practical and feasible suggestions. Finally, the management should work out a comprehensive and written document which demonstrates the mutual solution and publish it within the company so that every employee and manager has access to the agreement. Thus, it would become easier to implement the new strategy as everyone would be aware of the changes.

In conclusion, the author recommends for the company to integrate the employees in as many decision making processes as possible due to the fact that this would lead to greater motivation and satisfaction. The involvement of employees is a relatively easy and cheap action with enormous positive effects and protects the company against unpleasant labor actions like strikes and negative publicity.

Ganz hervorragend- größtenteils Native Speaker Level.

Original
Dear Mr. Mair,

in response to your inquiry of 1 June 2006 I want to thank you that you chose my agency to help you understanding the differences between “insider trading” and “whistle blower”. I’m glad to give you the following advice and recommendation.

First, this letter will gives you a brief explanation about economical ethics. Thereafter the letter stresses the connection between “insider trading” and “whistle blower”. After that the letter shows you a few examples of wrong ethical behaviour. As you know, as specialist I made of lot of experiences on that. Finally the letter gives you some advice how to solve your current problem.

Ethical behaviour is a definition for what is right or wrong. It’s not the easiest to find the right ethical way in our world of hectic and pressure.

Unethical behaviour means that the behaviour of employees or employers does not conform to the social accepted norms in a company. There are a lot of unethical things people can do. Unethical behaviour means for example: sexual harassment, insider trading or rejection of minorities.

We speak about insider trading when employees abuse internal knowledge about a firm to get a personal profit. It often happens in the bank industry for example.

A whistle blower is an employee who notices a case of unethical behaviour and tells it to the supervisor. There a many reasons for being a whistle blower. Often employees want to get more attention and sometimes employees have a right feeling in ethical behaviour.

Now it’s time to give you a few examples of my experiences with unethical behaviour. When I was consultant of the “Austrian’s Volkbank” the CEO asked me for help. One of Volkbank’s employees abused the trust of his managers in a very bad way. He opened credit accounts with wrong identities and transacted the borrowed money to a Swiss account. For sure, he was the owner of this account. I suggested the CEO to introduce a new security principle to avoid such cases of criminal abuse.

When I was consultant of Voest Stahl AG the management told me that the costs of office equipment increase dramatically. They ask me how the can achieve dropping the costs of it. I recommended that they should personalize the purchasing of these materials. It was a pity to introduce new blanks and “red tapes” but in fact the costs dropped extremely.

The most important way to avoid unethical behaviour is loyalty and ethical education. It starts by the attitudes of the management and end’s by the satisfaction of each employee.

I hope the above information proves useful to you. If you have any further questions, don’t hesitate to contact me and my agency again.

Yours sincerely,


Korrektur
Dear Mr. Mair,

In response to your inquiry of 1 June 2006, I want to thank you that you chose my agency to help you understand the differences between “insider trading” and “whistle blower”. I’m glad to give you the following advice and recommendation.

First, this letter will give you a brief explanation of economic ethics. Thereafter, the letter stresses the connection between “insider trading” and “whistle blower”. After that, the letter shows you a few examples of wrong ethical behaviour. As you know, as a specialist I have gained a lot of experience in this area. Finally, the letter gives you some advice on how to solve your current problem.

Ethical behaviour is a definition for what is right or wrong. It’s not the easiest to find the right ethical course of action in our hectic world of __ pressure.

Unethical behaviour means that the behaviour of employees or employers does not conform to the socially accepted norms in a company. There are a lot of unethical things people can do. Unethical behaviour includes, for example: sexual harassment, insider trading or rejection of minorities.

We speak about insider trading when employees abuse internal knowledge about a firm to get a personal profit. It often happens in the bank industry, for example. Specifically, people use information that has not been made available to the general public yet for investment or disinvestment purposes on stock exchanges.

A whistle blower is an employee who notices a case of unethical behaviour and tells it to the supervisor or a public authority. There are many reasons for being a whistle blower. Often employees want to get more attention and sometimes employees have a good sense of ethical behaviour.

Now it’s time to give you a few examples of my experiences with unethical behaviour. When I was a consultant of the “Austrian Volkbank”, the CEO asked me for help. One of Volkbank’s employees abused the trust of his managers in a very wrongful way. He opened credit accounts with wrong identities and transacted the borrowed money to a Swiss account. __He was undoubtedly the owner of this account. I suggested for the CEO to introduce a new security principle to avoid such cases of criminal abuse.

When I was a consultant of Voest Stahl AG, the management told me that the costs of office equipment had increased dramatically. They asked me how they could reduce these costs. I recommended that they should personalize the purchasing of these materials. It was a pity that new blanks and “red tape” had to be introduced, but in fact, the costs dropped extremely.

The most important way to avoid unethical behaviour is loyalty and ethical education. It starts with the attitudes of the management and ends with the satisfaction of each employee.

I hope the above information proves useful to you. If you have any further questions, don’t hesitate to contact me and my agency again.

Yours sincerely,

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