•
by race;
•
by disability;
•
by age;
•
by belonging to a certain social and cultural group, etc.
Such forms of discrimination can manifested in the hiring, promotion, and dismissal from a job. All the
above given forms of discrimination, regardless of their reasons, shall be considered as serious violations
of ethical principles.
In Azerbaijan today, the most frequent form of discrimination is based on sex, with its extreme form
being sexual harassment. Very often serious contradictions emerge between
gender equality principles, as
set forth by the legislation, which made possible a mixed-gender work environment, and actual male-
female relations in the business environment. In Azerbaijan, the situation is aggravated by the fact gender
inequality and discrimination by gender are not even widely recognized. Often the same men who
reverently stand up when their female colleague enters a room would pay a woman less for the same job
as their male colleagues. Both foreign and local firms give preference to young women in their hiring,
which contradicts both ethical norms and labour code of Azerbaijan.
Sexual harassment
Sexual harassment is a form of discrimination. As a rule, the public perceives women as victims of sexual
harassment, although men are not immune to such discrimination. Sexual harassment in the work place
might take different forms: jokes of a sexual nature, verbal insults, ambiguous gestures, forced sexual
relations. There are no official statistics in Azerbaijan with respect to sexual harassment, but facts testify
to the widespread nature of this phenomenon. As a rule, victims of sexual harassment prefer to conceal
such facts, as they are afraid of bad publicity and are often not able to prove the crime. Victims also do
not believe that they will be able to defend their rights. As a result, a victim of sexual harassment is often
forced either to quit or to tolerate the humiliating conditions in the workplace.
Please compare two newspaper announcements below.
♦
Waitresses are wanted at the White Club, a prestigious restaurant. Three shifts: 11.00 - 00.00; с 13.00
- 00.00; с 17.00 - 00.00. Personnel is given a lift home by an office car.
19
♦
Dish washers are wanted at a restaurant: women up to 30 years of age of pleasant appearance.
20
The first ad looks quite serious: it states work time and some other conditions. The second ad seems, at
the very least, strange. Why should a dishwasher be young and have a nice appearance? We believe that
no comments are required here.
Now let’s discuss other cases of corporate internal problems. The illustrative examples given below are
typical of the workplace in Azerbaijan.. Some of these problems occur with considerable frequency, and
some staff members believe they can be pardoned, because “everybody does so”.
•
use of office services and properties for personal interest;
•
handling of personal business during working hours;
•
giving or taking gifts in exchange for favourable conditions or other advantages;
•
blaming other people for one’s fault;
•
misappropriation of the fruits of another’s labour;
•
faking illness in order to obtain sick leave;
•
deliberate extension of lunch time;
•
falsification of quality and quantity parameters of the work performed;
•
deliberate delay of implementation of tasks assigned;
•
hiring employees of competitors to learn their trade secrets;
•
disclosure of company’s confidential information.
19
Echo newspaper, 3 October 2003.
20
Birja newspaper 4 November 2002.
Employment and task assignment
Western companies have designed a system of human resources management, which envisions certain
criteria and rules regulating employment procedures. Both the employee and the employer agree on
ethical and other rules to be followed upon employment, promotion, dismissal, job evaluation, building
relations with other staff members, which shall be followed regardless of the colour of skin, age, sex and
views of employees. The hiring and all other phases of employment and promotion or dismissal shall be
based exclusively on the principle of profession ability. A good manager should always make
professional decisions based solely upon the skills and professionalism of a job applicant.
At the same time, employees enjoy certain rights. All these conditions shall be explained to applicants for
a job. If a proposal of
temporary employment is made, an applicant shall be made fully aware of the
temporary character of the prospective employment. At the same time, if an applicant is to pass a
probationary period, he or she shall be informed of the duration of the probationary period and what will
happen at its conclusion. If an employer does not specifically mention overtime, an employee shall be
entitled to suppose that no overtime is envisioned. Employers should also clearly understand that
efficiency of performance is closely correlated to clear understanding by the employees of the range and
volume of their assignments.
Performance evaluation
Before proceeding to discussion of performance evaluation, let’s have a look at a dilemma, which
managers face every day.
Someone by the name of Etibar has worked for one of the departments of your a company for quite some
time. He is a nice guy, but he simply fails to fully cope with his assignments. You are a human resources
manager and one day he asks you to give him a letter of recommendation, because he has found a new
job. Having familiarised yourself with his dossier, you see that his previous boss had given Etibar quite a
high assessment, while you would qualify his performance as no more than satisfactory. What kind of
letter of reference would you give Etibar?
Let’s look at international experience in this sphere. In the U.S. managers distinguish two different
approaches.
I. Formal performance assessment
Many big enterprises annually conduct a formal assessment of their employees’ performance with
relevant documents added to their dossiers. As a rule, results of this formal assessment of employee’s
skills impact salary rates. Appendix II offers a sample of such a performance evaluation.
2. Informal performance assessment
Informal assessment implies consistent recording of performance of an employee within a year. In this
case, a manager evaluates his or her subordinates’ performance on the basis of routine implementation of
tasks assigned. Routine observations are summarised in an annual assessment, therefore, every employee
strives to perform his or her tasks with maximum diligence. Such an approach also prevents possible
unjustified claims of staff members for increase of salaries.
Now let’s review our case through the prism of the two above mentioned internationally accepted
approaches. What positive results do you strive to achieve by taking this or that decision?
First of all, you can obtain precise information on professional qualities and productivity of each staff
member on a daily basis. Secondly, you are in a better position to manage your subordinates. Thirdly, this
will enable your subordinates better see their strong points and weaknesses to rectify the latter. And last,
but not least, these records can come in handy, when you are asked to produce a letter of reference for
your subordinates and to objectively judge their professional skills.