Case Study Example: Human Resource Management

Kareem has been working in a call center for ABC Corporation for a period of eight months before being terminated by Thomas; the call center manager. Thomas terminated Kareem on the grounds that his supervisor, Janet, had complained he was taking too many breaks to pray and leaving his cubicle. The problem with these breaks is that it interfered with the way Kareem would attend to customers; his numbers went down because he was not answering all of his calls. Upon getting fired, Kareem looked for an attorney to potentially sue Thomas for wrongful termination due to religious discrimination.

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The human resource management approach that defines ABC Corporation is not very impressive especially because the management treats the employees like robots; expecting them not to have a social life. In as much as Kareem was not meeting the expectations of the company with respect to answering enough customer calls, the mood is always tensed within ABC; with employees afraid of rubbing management the wrong way and getting fired. For instance, Kareem's close friend Kathy; had warned Kareem of his frequent breaks; telling him that she did not trust the managers within the work environment they were operating in.

It was also not very noble of Michael to inform Janet of Kareem's habits regarding taking frequent breaks to go and pray. Michael was assuming a role of oversight; one that was not his. For one employee to put in a bad word for the other is a surefire way of telling that people skills are never at work within the organization; this makes what Janet said to be relevant, i.e., Alright, but you are not going to tell anyone what I say, are you? This makes me very nervous; everyone is out for themselves here, and I cannot lose this job! All the same, there is a bit of an Irony here because Janet is worried about losing her job while she herself was the one who reported Kareem without any prior warnings.

It is very notable that there is a disconnect between the management of ABC and the employees; this is because at no one time was Kareem summoned to be warned about his habits and how they were eating into the productivity of the company. This lack of communication resultantly makes Thomas not aware of the workers he is dealing with; from the interview, it is clear that he did not even know that Kareem was Muslim and the breaks he was taking were meant for praying. With respect to the way Thomas was speaking, it is very unlikely that he would be incriminated within a court of law context.

The problem with ABC Corporation is that it has no proper and well-defined Human Resource Management department. Rightfully, any hiring or firing of employees should be within an HR Context. Besides, employees ought to be warned appropriately before being fired. During the interview, Kathy mentions that she has witnessed employees get fired for the most trivial reasons. Conclusively, it is worth mentioning that it would be nice if both the workers and the management; more so the management, would work on. For a company to make it about performance and to show employees that they are expendable is not very good; it may lead to increased turnover numbers. The employees may also choose to keep up appearances and not put the heart to their work.