Module 2 – Case
E-CIGARETTES
Case Assignment
Laura Jenkins is new to Company XYZ. She spent 20 years in
academia teaching HR Management courses. She holds a number of graduate level
degrees in Management, HR Management, and Leadership. Although she does not
have a significant amount of experience working in HR, the hiring committee was
impressed by her educational background and ability to apply the theory she
used to teach to contemporary HR problems that Company XYZ is facing. As such,
she was hired as the new VP of Talent Management. The first major dilemma she
faced had to do with a noticeable gender gap at the organization. The CEO,
Melissa Watts, was under the impression that women should dominate the
workforce because women have higher levels of emotional intelligence. As a
result, 75% of the employees at Company XYZ were women. Upon doing some
research, Laura was able to persuade the CEO to balance the gender gap. They
were able to create a plan for hiring more men to balance the gender gap. After
a couple of years, Laura started to gain a lot of popularity at Company XYZ
because of her innate ability to connect, persuade, and implement meaningful
policies.
One day, as she was finishing a meeting, she noticed one of
the new employees smoking a cigarette in his cubicle. Laura was shocked and had
to investigate the situation. As Laura approached Mario’s cubicle, she stated
that, “it is against the law to smoke in the workplace” and that he needs to
“get rid of that cigarette” otherwise there would be serious consequences.
Mario laughed and told her that he was not smoking a “real” cigarette and that
he was only smoking an e-cigarette (electronic cigarette)—which is a
battery-powered device that provides users with inhaled doses of vaporized
liquid. Laura was perplexed because she wasn’t really sure how to deal with
this new phenomenon. She told Mario that for the time being, he would have to
put the e-cigarette away and that she would follow-up up with him in the
morning.
She rushed to her office and decided to do some research on
e-cigarettes. She learned that approximately 30 states have laws prohibiting
smoking in the workplace, but most states do not specifically include
e-cigarettes. She was asking herself if e-cigarettes should be regulated in the
workplace. She decided to call her colleague (the former Dean at the university
she used to teach at and a valued member of the Society of Human Resource
Management) to ask for some advice. Her colleagues simply stated, “Laura, this
is a great question and the answer is—in the absence of legal restrictions on
e-cigarettes, employers are free to create their own policies to address their
use.” Laura thanked her colleague and decided to do some more research before
she made a final decision.
Drawing on the material in the background readings and doing
additional research, please prepare a 2-4 page paper (not including the cover
and reference pages) in which you thoroughly answer the following questions
(your paper should be in essay format where you address these questions in your
essay):
Case Study Questions
Should actual work experience in a field be a requirement
for higher-level positions? Can teaching HRM graduate courses be a substitute
for actual work experience in HRM? Justify your response.
Generally speaking, should women dominate the workforce if
they have higher levels of emotional intelligence? Justify your response.
Should e-cigarettes be allowed in the workplace? What are
the pros and cons?
What are some of the health ramifications of e-cigarettes?
What are some solutions to this case study where employees
are able to smoke e-cigarettes under certain circumstances?
Module 2 – SLP
E-CIGARETTES
Do some research and then take a stance on allowing
e-cigarettes in the workplace. Prepare a comprehensive PowerPoint presentation
with facts, statistics, and other relevant and credible information) that you
will use during your meeting with Mario underscoring your decision on
e-cigarettes. The PowerPoint will also be shared with the CEO the following
day. Also, create a memo that you will send-out to all employees regarding the
use of e-cigarettes in the workplace. You should have at least 15-20 slides.
Once you have completed the PowerPoint presentation, you will use “Record
Narration” to record your presentation using a microphone. Your presentation
should be at least 5 minutes long.
SLP Assignment Expectations
Your completion of all the steps in the exercise.
Your ability to synthesize information and present a concise
and meaningful PowerPoint and audio presentation.
The clarity and quality of your PowerPoint and audio
presentations.
