BUS 697 Excelsior College Human Resources Administration Paper

White papers date back to 18th century England, where the term was created to distinguish short government reports from longer, more detailed ones. The long documents were bound in blue covers and called “blue books” while the shorter ones were bound in white paper and called “white papers.” These became associated with high-level documents of importance around the 1780s when they were sent to members of the British Parliament; they provided members with detailed background information on voting issues and were usually read in advance before votes were cast. They are still used today, and using this technique is highly advantageous to present research and findings.

Scenario: You are the recently appointed Human Resources Director of a large manufacturing plant. Today, the president of the plant received an email alleging one of her longest-serving supervisors has been harassing one of their new employees. The specific allegation was that the supervisor has been verbally abusive and demeaning to this new staff member. The new staff member states the alleged verbal harassment is not related to any personal or special characteristic (for instance race, gender, national origin, etc.) as both the supervisor and the employee have the same characteristics, but rather the inappropriate treatment perceived by the subordinate.

The plant president is a long-term friend of the supervisor and has requested that you research, and present, to her a White Paper on how the investigation would be conducted and then, how discipline would be determined. The White Paper, to be no longer than 4 pages, should include the following:

• How would you determine whether the supervisor and/or employee should be placed on administrative leave pending the results of the investigation?Should the supervisor be placed on leave?Should the subordinate be placed on leave?Should either/both be paid if placed on leave?Should either of the employee be moved during the investigation?
• Who should conduct the investigation, and why?What criteria should be reviewed/analyzed to determine whether the investigation should be conducted in-house or by a person outside the investigation?Assuming the investigation concludes that the supervisor did indeed verbally harass the subordinate, how would the level of discipline be determined?What criteria should be reviewed/analyzed to determine the level of discipline that should be applied given the validity of the complaint? In other words, what criteria would you review before determining the level of discipline?Finally, the president has asked that you write a brief, one-paragraph email to staff informing staff of the conclusion of the investigation, and any other information that should be concluded in informing staff that the investigation has been concluded and any subsequent actions.