discrimination exists when individuals in similar situations are treated differently and when the differential treatment is based on the individual’s race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, or disability status.

states that a condition, like race, sex, or other personal                                          characteristic legitimately affects a person’s ability to perform the                                     job, and therefore can be sued as a legal requirement for selection.

discrimination occurs when an apparently neutral employment practice disproportionately excludes a protected group from employment opportunities.

suggests that disparate impact exists if a selection criteria (such as a test score) results in a selection rate for a protected class that is less than 4/5 (80%) of that for the majority group.

requires that organizations provide men and women who are doing equal                                   work the same pay

prohibits discrimination against employers 40+

makes it easier for individuals who feel they have been discriminated against to take legal action against organizations and provides for the payment of compensatory and punitive damages in cases of discrimination under Title VII

requires that employers having more than 50 employees provide up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for employees after the birth or adoption of a child, to care for a seriously ill child, spouse, or parent, or in the case of an employee’s own serious illness.

requires the federal government to base all of its own employment policies on merit and fitness and specifies that race, color, sex, religion, and national origin should not be considered.

requires that executive agencies and subcontractors of the federal government receiving more than $2,500 a year from the government engage in affirmative action for disabled individuals.

requires that federal contractors and subcontractors take affirmative action toward employing Vietnam era veterans.

was passed in 1935 in an effort to control and legislate collective bargaining between organizations and labor unions, to grant power to labor unions, and to put unions on a more equal footing with managers in terms of the rights of employees.

was passed in 1959, and was focused on the elimination of various unethical, illegal, and/or undemocratic practices within unions themselves.

grants the federal government the power to establish and enforce occupational safety and health standards for all places of employment directly affecting interstate commerce.

passed to reduce the use of illegal drugs in the workplace. It applies primarily to government employees and federal contractors, but it also extends to organizations regulated by the Department of Transportation and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The actual regulations themselves are aimed at establishing a drug-free workplace and include the requirements, in some cases, for regular drug testing.

another important early union that focused on organizing                                                     employees by industry, regardless of their craft,       skills, or                                                     occupations.

passed in 1947 in response to public outcries against a wide variety of strikes in the years following WWII. It curtailed and limited Union powers

unions organized at the level of a single company, plant, or small geographic region

including wages, working hours, and benefits, must be included as part of collective bargaining if either party expresses a desire to negotiate one or more of them

occurs during the course of a labor contract and is usually undertaken in response to a perceived injustice on the part of management

for job evaluation assess jobs, one a factor-by-factor basis, using a

                                                            factor comparison scale as a benchmark.

medical organizations that provide medical and health                                                    services to employees on a prepaid basis

prearranged plans administered by the organization that provide income to                     the employee at her or his retirement

private pension plans in which the size of the benefit is precisely known is                                   usually based on a simple formula using input such as years of service

private pension plans in which the size of the benefit depends on                                                how much money is contributed to the plan

guaranteed rights to receive pension benefits (under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) of 1974.

theories of motivation that focus on what motivates a person, rather than on how               that motivation occurs.

probably the best know of the need-based theories; this model specifies five levels of needs that are capable of motivating behavior – physiological, security, social, esteem, and self-actualization

needs, according to Maslow’s theory, are those specific needs (of those five levels in the model) that are capable of motivating behavior at any given point in time.

a need based theory of motivation proposed by Alderfer that involves three, rather than five, levels of needs, and also allows for someone to regress from a higher-level need to a lower-level need (Existence needs, relatedness needs, and Growth Needs.)

a need based theory proposed by Herzberg, which identifies motivators and      hygiene factors as two sets of conditions at work that can satisfy needs. The      research on this theory provides little empirical support for the model however.

motivation theories that focus on how a person becomes motivated and what they          are motivated to do, rather than on what motivates them

term that refers to a situation where a behavior is followed by no consequences and eventually disappears.

the combination of positive reinforcement with either punishment or extinction            so that an undesired behavior disappears and is replaced with desired behavior.

means rewarding a behavior only sometimes, but not others (it can be applied                       to punishment as well, but the reward case is simpler)

partial reinforcement schedules where behavior is reinforced as a function of the             passage of time. A schedule where someone was rewarded every ten minutes as           long as they were exhibiting desired behavior would be an example.

partial reinforcement schedules where behavior is reinforced as a function of how many times the behavior occurs. Example – rewarding someone every fifth time a desired behavior occurs

interval schedules where the amount of time that must pass before a reward is                                     given is constant over time

interval schedules where the amount of time that must pass before a reward                     is given can change from one reward period to another

ratio schedules where the number of times a behavior must occur before it is                  rewarded remains constant over time.

ratio schedule where the number of times a behavior must occur before it is                    rewarded changes over time.

the person’s perception of the probability that an increase in effort                                    will result in an increase in performance – ranges from 0 to 1.0.

the person’s perception of the probability that improved performance will lead to certain outcomes. Operationally, this is the viewed as the correlation coefficient indicating that as performance improves, the chances of gaining outcomes can either go up (positive correlation), remain unchanged (zero correlation), or go down (a negative correlation).

concerned with a person’s perceived inputs to a (work) setting and the outcomes they receive from that setting. The theory suggests that everyone calculates the ratio of inputs to outcomes, almost the way one would consider a return on any investment.

addressed potential conflicts of interest among different groups of stakeholders in an organization. The name of theory, and some of its basic principles, is derived from the fact that in most modern organizations, the individuals who own a firm do not actually run it on a day-to-day basis. Problems arise when the interests of the owners (principles) conflict with the interests of the managers (agents).

the motivation to do work because it is interesting, engaging, or possibly            challenging, rather than because someone is rewarded us to do the work

an indication of the likelihood of long-term survival of the firm.                                       Performance at this level generates profits for potential profits sharing, and                    determines the company’s stock price.

involves a work-simulation situation in which the job is performed under conditions that closely simulate the real work environment.

involves systematically moving employees from one job to another

was developed to increase the total number of tasks workers perform based on the assumption that doing the same basic task over and over is the primary cause of worker dissatisfaction.

attempts to increase both the number of tasks a worker does and the control the worker has over the job

an alternative to job specialization that takes into account the work                                       system and employee preferences; it suggests that jobs should be                                 diagnosed and improved along five core dimensions (skill variety, task                              identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback).

presumed to affect how the model works for different people (people with strong desire to grow, develop, and expand their capabilities expected to respond strongly).

arrangement in which the employee works the required number of hours                                    (typically 40) but does so in less than five days. For example – 4 ten hour                                   days work schedule is fairly common.

reward individual performance on a real-time basis (instead of increasing a person’s base salary every year, this method gives an individual some level of salary increase or financial reward in conjunction with outstanding performance in close proximity to when that performance occurred.

a team- and group-based incentive system designed to share the cost savings from productivity improvements with employees.

an incentive plan established to give senior managers the option to buy the          company’s stock in the future at a predetermined fixed price.

are typically offered to all the employees of a firm rather than just executives, and serve more as a retention tool. Under these plans, employees are entitled to stock only if they remain with the company for a specified amount of time. If they leave before that time, they have no rights to the shares of stock.

group level reward systems in which employees are                                                  gradually given a major stake in the ownership of a corporation

program developed to improve group or firm level productivity. This approach incorporates ideas from goal setting, with incentives for improvement, and is based on a model of motivation similar to expectancy theory.

occupational skin diseases or disorders, dust diseases of the lungs, respiratory conditions due to toxic agents, poisoning, disorders due to physical agents, disorders associated with repeated trauma, and other categories of occupational illnesses

experts who carefully study the workplace, try to identify and isolate particularly            dangerous situations, and recommend solutions for dealing with those situations.

authorized the U.S. government to create and enforce various standards regarding occupational safety and health.