Religious Discrimination and 9/11

Not too long after 9/11, I began collecting data on discrimination based upon religion.  As one might expect discrimination against Muslims increased, but also of those who were perceived to be Muslim such as Sikhs.  Sikh men often wear a turban and have a beard.  Since that time, we have struggled with how to accommodate those who have clothing or other indications (crosses, yarmulkes, head scarfs) that indicate their faith.  As we remember those public safety officers who died in 9/11, we know that public safety agencies have particularly struggled with accommodation.  

Countries, because of their constitutions, have taken different approaches.  France, defined in its constitution as a secular republic, and a policy of laicism, supports religious neutrality by its public servants.  Canada, with its Charter of Rights, has hesitantly at first but regularly sought to accommodate minority religious groups in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Sikhs in the 1990s and now in 2016 Muslim women who wish to wear the hijab (head scarf).  One of policy reasons for accommodation is that the RCMP needs to have officers who represent the different publics.  The United States has taken a different approach, one that involves the courts.  In Kimberlie Webb v City of Philadelphia (2009), the court ruled the city didn’t have to accommodate a Muslim police officer’s desire to wear a head scarf while on duty.  Allowing her to wear it would affect the appearance of neutrality and impartiality and the ability of the public to identify her as a police officer.  Beards on male officers have caused equal controversy.  The courts in the United States have ruled that safety outweighs any religious accommodation.  Religious wear cannot harm the employee’s own safety or others.  It’s a matter of common sense. 

Whether you think more about including or excluding definitely depends upon circumstances, but in public organizations, we need people who speak different languages, are of different ethnicities and races and of different religions.  Employers who think more about a faith-friendly workplace think more about inclusion than exclusion.  It’s part of what David Miller describes as the "faith at work” movement.  Miller characterizes the faith at work movement as a quest for integration of work and faith.  Because the people of the United States are some of the most religious people in developed countries, many employers see the value of religion as creating a strong work ethic, moral grounding and a platform for business ethics that will help guide decisions in the workplace rather than a legal issue. 

Does that sound reasonable to you? For assistance in devising a workplace that is accommodating, consult Management.Vision

For more information

RCMP allows Muslim women Mounties to wear hijab http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/rcmp-diversity-policy-hijab-1.3733829

See my work on religious diversity

“Religious Diversity in the Workplace” Handbook of Work and Quality of Life: Ethical Practices in Organizations, edited by Nora Reilly, M. Joseph Sirgy, and C. Allen Gorman; New York: Springer Publishers, 2012.

Approaches to Religion in the Workplace and Quality of Worklife: Religious Expression in the Workplace The International Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Society

Volume 1, Issue 3, 2011 pp.145-158.

"Policing In A Westernized Arab Country: Comparisons With the United States" NEASCU Clipboard. (Spring 2010).

“Accommodating Islam in Law Enforcement.” Law Enforcement Executive Forum.  May 2005.

“Diversity in Religious Practice: Implications of Islamic Values in the Public Workplace.”  And Akhlaque Haque.  Public Personnel Management. 32 (June 2003): 315-331. 

“Accommodating Islamic Religious Practices in the Workplace.”  And Akhlaque Haque.  PA Times. November 2003, p. 5.

New On-line HR course for government and nonprofits

PPM 632 Human Resource Management

for Public, Nonprofit, and Health Organizations

On-line (3 credits)

Class Begins Thursday, Sept 1, 2016

Managing human resources in any organization is one of the top management responsibilities whether you are in a public, nonprofit or health organization.  Yet it is fraught with fads.  Ever wonder why a policy is written in a particular way?  Ever wonder how you motivate employees?  We'll answer these questions and more and help you figure out whether the latest fad or gimmick is going to last.  

This course is designed using a competency based approach.  A particular emphasis is placed on understanding motivation; equal employment opportunity law; wage systems; and succession planning.

Who should take this course?

Consider this course if you are or intend to be a manager. Most people will not be working in HR, but you will be supervising others sometime in your career.

Technology needs: Course conducted using the university’s web-based educational delivery system called “BlackBoard.”  Access to a high-speed internet connection is required. 

Books: Books include Drive, Daniel Pink; Getting to Yes, Fisher and Ury; Dresang, Dennis, Personnel Management in Government Agencies and Nonprofit Organizations.

Cost:  $1140 plus $139 in fees

Course Instructor: Carolyn Ball, PhD, Associate Professor, USM, Muskie School of Public Service, has taught HR for over 23 years and has worked in the field.  She has written several scholarly articles on workforce issues, in particular on workforce diversity and discrimination.

To register: Registration is easy; tel: 207-780-5230 or https://usm.maine.edu/reg/generalregistrationinformation   Students enrolling in this class must hold a bachelor's degree. For more information on the course, contact the instructor at Ball@maine.edu

JULY 4TH, OTHER HOLIDAYS, PAY AND EMPLOYEE EXPECTATIONS

Have we forfeited supervisory and administrative responsibility 

by giving too many holidays with pay?

Who doesn't love a holiday off.

This year the 4^th of July holiday was easier for employers to schedule since it fell on a Monday, but you may have had people call in sick or take another day off causing some disruption.  One year I called in sick the day after the 4^th of July.  This is a no no.  According to policy I was to bring in a note from my doctor or lose out on the pay.  It was doubly embarrassing because I worked for Human Resources! 

When I worked at a university as a professor whether employees had Martin Luther King day off varied from year to year.  Some years classes weren’t scheduled so professors didn’t come in.  On other years, support staff had the day off, but classes were running.  A newly merged YMCA-YWCA closed for Martin Luther King day in keeping with the YWCA mission to end racism.  Later years, it remained open but had special events to honor MLK.  Many employees take the week of the 4^th off for summer vacation so it is a planned vacation.  A lot of governments give the day off Thanksgiving even though it is not a scheduled holiday.  Watch next year to see if your governor gives state employees these days off.  For some nonprofits, those with pools or camps, its full steam ahead on the 4^th. No day off.  These decisions show the many issues nonprofit and government employers face when it comes to a holiday.  

A town manager I know presented the cost of giving an extra day off to employees.  With spreadsheets and query programs, you can figure out exactly how much it costs in wages and benefits to give employees an extra holiday.  Even with the cost most nonprofit and government employers no longer bother to force their non-exempt employees to do without pay if they are sick the day after a holiday.  They bite the bullet and eat the cost.  

Others have opted for Paid Time Off (PTO) combining sick, vacation, bereavement, other leaves, and sometime holidays.  Rolling in holidays allows employees to choose what holidays are important.  (Employees with children in school may want Columbus Day off when their kids are off but others don’t care.)  PTO avoids a managerial problem of having to actually supervise employees and a bureaucratic problem of ensuring employees are using their sick time for sickness or family sickness.  The downside is that when an employee leaves they are owed for time unused whereas when leaves are separate, employees are only owed only for vacation time.  (Of course, some employers also pay out unused sick time but that isn’t required.)

Employers justify giving, say, the day after Thanksgiving or the day before Christmas assuming that very little work is actually done.  I think they are right.  Except those working in healthcare, nonprofit and government employees are very lucky to have these extra days.  

Is this a good enough reason, low productivity, or are we opting out of managing employee expectations, managing employee sick time at the expense of taxpayers, members, clients?  What do you think?  By the way, my employer, a hospital, did pay me without requiring a doctor’s note.  The town council approved a day off after Thanksgiving.

If you would like a review of your policies for compatibility with your mission and with your finances, please contact us at

Management.Vision http://management.vision/

Words Matter. Definitions Matter

Words matter. Definitions matter. Have you ever said one thing only to be completely misunderstood? That's why all legislation has a series of definitions right up front. You have definitions in many of your policies even though you don't have a definitions section. Even with definitions, employees can be confused. When do I have enough time to go on vacation?

My Dad was a veteran and the family decided to get a maker for his grave. I think I, my brother, and our spouses all imagined a marker you would put on a pole.  My brother received the package from Veterans Affairs, Memorial Program Service, but hadn't opened it up before he visited me. His wife thought it was quite heavy and large but didn't think too much about it. This Memorial weekend we opened the package ready to go to the cemetery. Imagine our surprise when we received a large brass plaque, one to place on a grave stone or to put directly in the ground. We had to laugh on this Memorial weekend. Have you had an experience where words mattered? Funny or serious?

Comparing Presidential Leadership to Nonprofit Leadership

Is it Image, Issues or Ideology that Makes a Great Leader?

We are past the half way mark in the primaries/caucuses for both parties.  Perhaps we can compare our nonprofit leaders with how voters think about political candidates, our political leaders. Mid-century political scientists developed a formula to predict the vote based upon three factors: how voters evaluated a candidate's image, issue positions, and the voter’s political party or party identification. 

Warren Bennis, Leadership author

The formula doesn't work as well in the 21st century since more of us identify as Independents, but it's a good exercise in looking at leadership from different perspectives.  Leadership and management theorists have had an equally tough time figuring out how to assess a great leader.  Right now management literature emphasizes leadership style. 

Let's take a look at the formula and apply it to our nonprofit managers.  When we think of candidate image we often think about whether he or she is charismatic, inspiring, likable, trustworthy. Those are characteristics we might ascribe to the president or director of our nonprofit, too. Nowadays, we seem to focus on the negative characteristics but for the exercise think about the positives.

The second part of the formula is issues. We vote for the candidate who takes issue positions we favor.  In politics we often split issues down to the economy and foreign policy. It's not that you and I have to know the details of a candidate's immigration policy, position on more or fewer troops in Syria, or position on job creation.  It's whether we agree or disagree in general with the most prominent policies being discussed by the candidates. Applying it to the nonprofit executive, the focus he takes on the budget and fund raising or the kids, the members, the day-to-day operations of the nonprofit meshes with what you value. Ignore some of those minor disappointments or disagreements for the purpose of this exercise.

The third part of the formula is party identification, your ideology.  You might know whether your president or director is a Republican, Democrat, or Independent and you might agree or disagree.  This third part, translates better as her vision, a belief in the mission and vision of the nonprofit.  The director walks the talk. She seeks input. Or she emphasizes the need to run the organization like a business with standardized policies and places less emphasis on the actual mission.  The organization is well managed and not chaotic and that is what is important in her vision.  If you share a similar ideology, you’re more likely to think of the exec as a leader.  

Put the three parts of the formula together.  Think of your boss. What characteristics do you like/dislike, her image? What goals or policies are in the strategic plan that you like or don't like, the issues?  What is her belief in the mission and vision, her ideology?  In this formula, you’ll consider her a great leader if the image she portrays, the issues she prioritizes, and her ideology match what’s important to you. Now would you vote for her if you had a chance?  Is there something missing from the formula? 

For a great author on leadership, see the works of Warren Bennis. Two of my favorites are On Leadership and Why Leaders can't Lead

See how the candidates size  up on the issues 

Could you become a citizen?

I recently had the honor of attending a citizenship ceremony.  It was absolutely wonderful. There were 26 future citizens from 12 different countries.  A chorus from a local high school sang a serenade of three patriotic songs.  It made me tearful and proud.  Of course, the chorus sang the Star Spangled Banner as the audience and new citizens sang.

Bangor High School Chorus

One of the judges told about his family's emigration from Italy to the United States and how it affected his life.

What I found most surprising was the oath.

Getting her citizenship certificate

"I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God."

I had no idea as a native born that the Oath placed an emphasis on your support of the military, defending the United States.  The Oath values, not democracy, equality, freedom, liberty, but your general support of the Constitution.  Take a look at the words, "defend the Constitution and the laws...against all enemies", "bear arms", "perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces",

Mary Calder, citizen

My friend became a citizen is in her early 60s (I'm in my 60s too) so she's probably not going to join the military.  She's a nurse so she is definitely serving her new country.

If you were writing the oath, what would you put in it?  What would you emphasize?

Management.Vision emphasizes practical and proven methods to ensure a better work environment.

Right to Privacy of Government Employees

Snooping on the San Bernardino Shooter as a Public Management Responsibility

The IPhone and San Bernardino shooter controversy has an important facet that is not as often discussed. The news has focused on the Apple’s desire to protect the privacy of its customers.  However, Sayed Farook was not an Apple Customer.  The customer was San Bernardino County.  The County gave its permission to the FBI to investigate his phone.   Does a public employer have the right to snoop in a public employee's desk, phone, computer?  Should I even call it snooping?

In some ways, public employees have more protections of their privacy than private sector employees.  The Fourth amendment gives public employees rights against unreasonable search and seizure and by extension a reasonable right to privacy.  In the case of a phone issued by San Bernardino to conduct public business, Farook, had little expectation of privacy.  The Courts balance “[public] employees’ legitimate expectations of privacy against the government’s need for supervision, control, and the efficient operation of the workplace.” (O’Connor v Ortega 1987). The phone was to be used for government business so it makes sense that the County would supervise and control the Iphone.

If you look at the government’s motion [for Apple] to comply, it is strictly about its authority under the All Writs Act to obtain compliance. Apple’s response indicates that it doesn’t support terrorists, it has complied thus far, and it needs to protect the privacy of its customers by not creating a backdoor means to open the iPhone.  The fact that the phone is owned by a government entity is not mentioned in either party's proceedings.

Although it is interesting for us to speculate whether we agree with the position of the government or with Apple, a manager needs to consider what responsibilities and rights he or she has to investigate a public employee's workplace.  I suspect that the FBI also went through Farook's work computer, work phone (land line) and desk as well as the provided cell phone. The Courts tend to favor balancing tests, is it reasonable vs an employee’s right to privacy.  Your best bet then is to consider whether the search is work related and not excessively intrusive (Quon v Ontario 2010).  Is it reasonable to search a public employee’s electronic communication? The Supreme Court said yes to search a pager and employers whether public or private have been able to investigate an employee's download habits that yield visits to porn sites.

For the government's and Apple's position, go to http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Passcode/2016/0219/Read-DOJ-s-motion-to-compel-Apple-to-crack-the-San-Bernardino-iPhone

If you would like a consultation, please contact me at Ball@maine.edu