WDW College Program

As a part of the Spring Advantage program my school semester is almost over but I still have about 3 months left to enjoy my time in Disney World. I was the only one out of my room mates who took classes this semester and even though I had double of the work I really enjoyed the classes I was taking. This was mainly due to the teacher I had who made these four hour classes actually enjoyable.

One of the topic that stood out to me was Employee Rights. We had spent a lot of time going through the legal context of everything that has to do with the rights of being an employee. We also got into protective laws that have been put in place such as the Privacy Act of 1974 that gives you the right to view your personal file at any given time, or the Employment-at-Will right which allows employers to discipline or discharge employees at their discretion.

At Disney every kind of employee wether you are part time, full time or a college programmer you have a contract that you sign with Disney that tells you what can and can’t be done during your employment with the company. Although all three contracts are different they  all have to abide by state and national labor laws.

The article I have found of this topic using our library data base was Employee rights protection and financial performance, by Peter K.C. LeeAntonio K.W. Lau T.C.E. Cheng. This article goes into depth about the abuse that some companies can put on their employees. As stated in the article “However, many organizations still adopt irresponsible employee practices and some of such practices have led to disastrous outcomes.” many company’s try to squeeze their way through the system and can even get away with it. At Disney they try their hardest to not to make this an issue also added to the fact that the union that the full time works have will not let that happen. It is a enormous company and peoples actions can fall through the cracks but as an employee we need to keep ourselves updated with the rights that we do have to prevent any unlawful actions.

Throughout the whole semester I’ve learned and acquired experience both, personally and professionally. This has helped me grow as a person and understand certain codes and ethics that should be used in the workplace with both, guests and co-workers. But one of the many things I learned that I found very interesting was in my Human Resource Management Class. I learned about the fundamentals of Human Resource management, how the department operates and what are responsibilities of this department.

The Human Resource Department focuses on the well being of the employee and the impacts that this has in the company as a whole. They focus on the psychology, the Human social behaviours (sociology) and the work design (how the work should be done). Also, they focus on legal compliance (laws). We were taught about the 4 functions of Human Resources. these are staffing– selection, recruiting, strategic HR planning. Training and Developement- employee training. Motivation– benefits, rewards, compensation. The last of the 4 functions of hospitality is Maintenance- safety and health, labor, communication employee relations.

I found an article on academicjournals.org which explains more in depth what human resource management entails. It goes on to explain the importance of the HR-line. it says that staff functionaries perform three main roles; The advisory or counseling, service and control roles. This article also explains the role of the managers in the HR line and how they should complete a task to ensure a good job performance. What I have learned in class as well as this article are a great tool to help guide anyone interested in the Human Resource Department since this is an area that is of great importance in any company. This department is of vital importance in any enterprise and in part it’s a main source and what keeps a business going in order for it to evolution and turn into a better place for both the guest and and their employees.

Article found on:

http://www.academicjournals.org/article/article1380791883_Qadeer%20et%20al.pdf

This semester has been full of new excite experiences, also some experiences has been pretty difficult to engage and manage. However, all these experiences good and not so good have been very rewarding for me in so many ways. In my Human Resources Management class, we have learned about many different concepts of HRM, such as, Ethics in business. At work, as well as in class I have learned a lot about how important is to use good ethics in everything that people do because at the end of the day the reputation we build is the most important thing in any business or in a personal life. For example, I have made my best to keep my good reputation at work , as well as, in class by practicing good ethics and being respectful, responsible when it comes to make decisions. I always try to give my best on following the rules as they are set up, so that way my managers and leaders can see my ethical behaviors. In class, I always do my assignments on time and do my best when it comes to research my work because it is not ethical to plagiarize someone else work.

“Ethics can be defined as a set of rules or principles that decides what is right or wrong as decisions are made”, in business, ethic is a practice of ethical judgment by managers as they are making decisions. For example, recently I made a presentation in class about McDonalds practicing good ethics, and I found many interesting things that this company does to keep their ethic active. McDonalds practice ethics in many different ways, for example, by working with various charities, McDonald’s appears to have a relatively large Corporate Social Responsibility that involve themselves with communities and charities outside of the company. This makes them appear like a company who like to involve themselves with their customers and communities, this make them appear ethical and socially active.

The article that I read from the Academic Journal states something similar like McDonalds do about practicing good ethics. In the article “Eastern Perspective of Corporate Social Responsibility: An Exploratory Study” emphases about Corporate Social Responsibility  (CSR) as to an important role in big brands such as McDonalds, Steakhouses, and others . This article states that ” Corporations acquire resources form their surroundings, process them and run  their business by selling their products. But this is not always simple. The processing of resources generally fabricates harmful and disastrous impacts on society”. Basically this social responsibility, is to create a green planet for us and for our future kids and grandkids. Because big corporation use a lot of our resources in the planet, it’s very important that they have created this program to help the community and try to keep a healthier and safest planet.

The main purpose of CSR is to keep society greener, also is defined by the people as their norms, beliefs, values and living standards. Therefore, Organizations are not the exceptions, they are also part of our society and they should take care of it just like everyone else. By making ethical decisions about our society we can make this place a better world.

Overall, as I  mentioned before ethics can be defined as a set of rules or principles that decides what is right or wrong as decisions are made. In other words, if everyone including corporations that operate worldwide make the right decisions on protecting our society and follow the rules as ethic states, we can have a better environment to live in.

Reference

• http://www.academicjournal.org/journalAJBM/article-full-text-pdf/CA8CC2921269

In my Human Resources Management class, a concept that caught my attention was training and development. During training, this is to educate and guide a person. However, during development, it is to see how much you have utilized and evolved in what you have been trained for. In a company, this is what brings success, when workers are trained properly and increasingly developed.

In the article “Training Versus Development” by Willam Fitzgerald, it doesn’t talk about training AND development as a whole, but rather the difference between the two. Although, both are important they highly compare. The article defines training as “the acquisition of knowledge and skill for present tasks and a tool to help individuals contribute to the organization and be successful in their current positions. The article now determines development as “the acquisition of knowledge and skill that may be used in the present or future and the preparation of individuals to enrich the organization in the future.” Development in an employee will always happen after they are trained.

The workers are essential to a company. Establishing yourself and advancing is fundamental in order for people to meet new obstacles and ensure long term stability in the organization. In the article, development is looked more as a long term focal point which can take a couple of years rather than training, which is considerably short term, as in a year or less. Training should never take that long.

Training and development is highly crucial to a company. If workers are not trained properly, they cannot develop properly either. I believe this concept is top priority in a business and should not be ignored.

Reference

(GoogleScholar) http://lms.powercam.cc/sysdata/user/42/irisli/blog/doc/6aaf13ba58c720ef/attach/160.pdf