Download as pdf or txt
Download as pdf or txt
You are on page 1of 60

Understanding Management 8th Edition

Daft Solutions Manual


Go to download the full and correct content document:
https://testbankdeal.com/product/understanding-management-8th-edition-daft-solutio
ns-manual/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

Understanding Management 8th Edition Daft Test Bank

https://testbankdeal.com/product/understanding-management-8th-
edition-daft-test-bank/

Understanding Management 9th Edition Daft Solutions


Manual

https://testbankdeal.com/product/understanding-management-9th-
edition-daft-solutions-manual/

Understanding Management 10th Edition Daft Solutions


Manual

https://testbankdeal.com/product/understanding-management-10th-
edition-daft-solutions-manual/

Understanding Management 11th Edition Daft Test Bank

https://testbankdeal.com/product/understanding-management-11th-
edition-daft-test-bank/
Understanding Management 9th Edition Daft Test Bank

https://testbankdeal.com/product/understanding-management-9th-
edition-daft-test-bank/

Understanding Management 10th Edition Daft Test Bank

https://testbankdeal.com/product/understanding-management-10th-
edition-daft-test-bank/

Management 12th Edition Daft Solutions Manual

https://testbankdeal.com/product/management-12th-edition-daft-
solutions-manual/

Management 9th Edition Daft Solutions Manual

https://testbankdeal.com/product/management-9th-edition-daft-
solutions-manual/

Management 13th Edition Daft Solutions Manual

https://testbankdeal.com/product/management-13th-edition-daft-
solutions-manual/
Managing Human Resources and Diversity • 209

CHAPTER 9

MANAGING HUMAN RESOURCES AND DIVERSITY

CHAPTER OUTLINE
Are You Ready to Be a Manager?
I. The Strategic Role of HRM is to Drive Organizational Performance
A. The Strategic Approach
B. Building Human Capital to Drive Performance

II. The Impact of Federal Legislation on HRM

III. The Changing Nature of Careers


A. The Changing Social Contract
B. Innovations in HRM

IV. Finding the Right People


A. Human Resource Planning
B. Recruiting
C. Selecting

V. Managing Talent
A. Training and Development
B. Performance Appraisal

VI. Maintaining an Effective Workforce


A. Compensation
B. Benefits
C. Rightsizing the Organization
D. Termination

VII. The Changing Workplace


A. Diversity in the United States
B. Diversity on a Global Scale

VIII. Managing Diversity


A. What is Diversity?
B. Dividends of Workplace Diversity

IX. Factors Shaping Personal Bias


A. Prejudice, Discrimination, and Stereotypes
B. Ethnocentrism

X. Factors Affecting Women’s Careers


A. The Glass Ceiling

© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
210 • Chapter 9

B. The Opt-Out Trend


C. The Female Advantage

XI. Cultural Competence

XII. Diversity Initiatives and Programs


A. Changing Structures and Policies
B. Expanding Recruitment Efforts
C. Establishing Mentor Relationships
D. Accommodating Special Needs
E. Providing Diversity Skills Training
F. Increasing Awareness of Sexual Harassment

XIII. New Diversity Initiatives


A. Multicultural Teams
B. Employee Network Groups

ANNOTATED LEARNING OBJECTIVES


After studying this chapter, students should be able to:

1. Explain the strategic role of human resource management.

The term human resource management (HRM) refers to activities undertaken to attract an
effective workforce, develop the workforce to its potential, and maintain the workforce over the
long term. These goals take place within the larger organizational environment including
competitive strategy, federal legislation, and societal trends. The organization’s competitive
strategy may include mergers and acquisitions, downsizing to increase efficiency, international
operations, or the acquisition of automated production technology. These strategic decisions
determine the demand for skills and employees. The human resource strategy, in turn, must
include the correct employee makeup to implement the organization’s strategy.

2. Explain what the changing social contract between organizations and employees means for
workers and human resource managers.

Not since the advent of mass production and modern organizations has a redefinition of work
and career been so profound. Under the emerging social contract, each person must take care of
herself or himself. Particularly in learning organizations, everyone is expected to be a self-
motivated worker who has excellent interpersonal relationships and is continuously acquiring
new skills. Employees take more responsibility and control in their jobs, becoming partners in
business improvement rather than cogs in a machine. Organizations provide challenging work
assignments as well as information and resources to enable workers to continuously learn new
skills. HRM departments can help organizations develop a mix of training, career development
opportunities, compensation packages, and rewards and incentives. They can provide career
information and assessment, combined with career coaching to help employees determine new
career directions.
© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Managing Human Resources and Diversity • 211

3. Show how organizations determine their future staffing needs through human resource
planning.

Human resource planning is the forecasting of human resource needs and the projected matching
of individuals with expected vacancies. Human resource planning begins with several questions:
What new technologies are emerging, and how will these affect the work system? What is the
volume of the business likely to be in the next five to ten years? What is the turnover rate, and
how much, if any, is avoidable? By anticipating future HRM needs, the organization can prepare
itself to meet competitive challenges more effectively than organizations that react to problems
only as they arise.

4. Describe how organizations develop an effective workforce through training and


performance appraisal.

Training and development represent a planned effort by an organization to facilitate employees’


learning of job-related behaviors. Some authors use the term “training” to refer to teaching
lower-level or technical employees how to do their present jobs, while development refers to
teaching managers the skills needed for both present and future jobs. For simplicity, we will
refer to both as training. Performance appraisal is another technique for developing an effective
workforce. Performance appraisal comprises the steps of observing and assessing employee
performance, recording the assessment, and providing feedback to the employee. Managers use
performance appraisal to describe and evaluate the employees’ performance.

5. Understand the pervasive demographic changes occurring in the domestic and global
marketplace and how corporations are responding.

The importance of cultural diversity and employee attitudes that welcome cultural differences
will result from the inevitable changes taking place in the workplace, in our society, and in the
economic environment. These changes include globalization and the changing workforce. In the
past, the United States was a place where people of different national origins, ethnicities, races,
and religions came together and blended to resemble one another. Opportunities for
advancement were limited to those workers who fit easily into the mainstream of the larger
culture. Now organizations recognize that everyone is not the same and that the differences
people bring to the workplace are valuable. Companies are learning that these differences enable
them to compete globally and to acquire rich sources of new talent. Most organizations must
undertake conscious efforts to shift from a monoculture perspective to one of pluralism.
Management activities required for a culturally diverse workforce starts with top managers who
can help shape organizational values and employee mindsets about cultural differences. In
addition training programs can promote knowledge and acceptance of diverse cultures and
educate managers on valuing the differences.

6. Recognize the complex attitudes, opinions, and issues that employees bring to the workplace,
including prejudice, discrimination, stereotypes, and ethnocentrism.

Prejudice is the tendency to view people who are different as being deficient. Discrimination
occurs when people act out their prejudicial attitudes toward other people who are targets of their
prejudice. Although blatant discrimination is not as widespread as in the past, bias in the
© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
212 • Chapter 9

workplace often shows up in subtle ways. A stereotype is a rigid, exaggerated, irrational belief
associated with a particular group of people. To be successful managing diversity, managers
need to eliminate harmful stereotypes from their thinking, shedding any biases that negatively
affect the workplace.

Stereotype threat describes the psychological experience of a person who, usually engaged in a
task, is aware of a stereotype about his or her identity group suggesting that he or she will not
perform well on that task. People most affected by stereotype threat are those we consider as
disadvantaged in the workplace due to negative stereotypes–racial and ethnic minorities,
members of lower socioeconomic classes, women, older people, gay and bisexual men, and
people with disabilities.

Ethnocentrism is the belief that one’s own group and subculture are inherently superior to other
groups and cultures, thus making it difficult to value diversity. The business world tends to
reflect values, behaviors, and assumptions based on the experiences of a homogeneous, white,
middle-class, male workforce. Most management theories presume workers share similar values,
beliefs, motivations, and attitudes about work and life in general.

7. Recognize the factors that affect women’s opportunities, including the glass ceiling, the opt-
out trend, and the female advantage.

The glass ceiling is an invisible barrier that separates women and minorities from top
management positions. They can look up through the ceiling and see top management, but
prevailing attitudes and stereotypes are invisible obstacles to their own advancement. Women
and minorities are often excluded from informal manager networks and don’t get access to the
type of general and line management experience required for moving to the top. Glass walls
serve as invisible barriers to important lateral movement within the organization.

Many women choose to get off the fast track long before they hit the glass ceiling. In this opt-
out trend, highly-educated, professional women are deciding that corporate success isn’t worth
the price in terms of reduced family and personal time. Some are opting out to be stay-at-home
moms, while others want to continue working, but just not in the kind of fast-paced, competitive,
aggressive environment that exists in most corporations. Critics argue that this is just another
way to blame women themselves for the dearth of female managers at higher levels.

Some people think women might actually be better managers, partly because of a more
collaborative, less hierarchical, relationship-oriented approach that is in tune with today’s global
and multicultural environment. As attitudes and values change with changing generations, the
qualities women seem to possess may lead to a gradual role reversal in organizations. Women of
all races and ethnic groups are outpacing men in earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Over
all, women’s participation in both the labor force and civic affairs has steadily increased since
the mid-1950s, while men’s participation has slowly but steadily declined.

8. Explain the five steps in developing cultural competence in the workplace.

A successful diversity plan leads to a workforce that demonstrates cultural competence in the
long run. Cultural competence is the ability to interact effectively with people of different
cultures. There are five steps to implementing a diversity plan.
© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Managing Human Resources and Diversity • 213

• Uncover diversity problems in the organization. Organizations can’t assess their progress
toward cultural competence without first investigating where the culture is right now. A
cultural audit is a tool that identifies problems or areas needing improvement in a
corporation’s culture.

• Strengthen top management commitment. The most important component of a successful


diversity strategy is management commitment, leadership, and support.

• Choose solutions to fit a balanced strategy. To be most effective, solutions should be


presented in a balanced strategy and address three factors: education, enforcement, and
exposure.

• Demand results and revisit the goals. Diversity performance should be measured by
numerical goals to ensure solutions are being implemented successfully.

• Maintain momentum to change the culture. Use success in the previous four steps as fuel
to move forward and leverage for more progress.

LECTURE OUTLINE

Are You Ready to Be a Manager?

This questionnaire helps students determine their understanding of human resources practices
and attitudes toward diversity.

INTRODUCTION

The term human resource management (HRM) refers to the design and application of formal
systems in an organization to ensure the effective and efficient use of human talent to accomplish
organizational goals. Over the past decade, human resource management has shed its old
“personnel” image and gained recognition as a vital player in corporate strategy. Increasingly,
large corporations are outsourcing routine HR administrative activities, freeing HRM staff from
time consuming paperwork and enabling them to take on more strategic responsibilities. Human
resources tops Gartner Inc.’s list of the most commonly outsourced business activities. All
managers need to be skilled in the basics of human resource management. Flatter organizations
often require that managers throughout the organization play an active role in recruiting and
selecting the right employees, developing effective training programs, or creating appropriate
performance appraisal systems. HRM professionals act to guide and assist line managers in
managing human resources to achieve the organization’s strategic goals.

© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
214 • Chapter 9

I. THE STRATEGIC ROLE OF HRM IS TO DRIVE ORGANIZATIONAL


PERFORMANCE

INSTRUCTOR’S NOTES_________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________

Exhibit 9.1: Strategic Human Resource Management

A. The Strategic Approach

1. All managers are human resource managers.

2. Employees are viewed as assets. In today’s brutally competitive business


environment, how a company manages its workforce may be the single most
important factor in sustained competitive success.

3. HRM is a matching process, integrating the organization’s strategy and goals with the
correct approach to managing the firm’s human resources.

4. Current strategic issues of concern to managers include:

a. The right people to become more competitive on a global basis.

b. The right people to improve quality, innovation, and customer service.

c. The right people to retain during mergers and acquisitions.

d. The right people to apply new information technology for e-business.

New Manager Self-Test: Getting the Right People on the Bus

© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Managing Human Resources and Diversity • 215

As new managers, students must learn to get the right people into their organizations. Most new
managers are shocked at the large amount of time, effort, and skill required to recruit, place, and
retain the right people. The right people can make an organization great; the wrong people can
be catastrophic. This exercise helps students better understand their ability to get the right
people in their organizations.

5. The three broad activities of HRM are as follows:

a. Find the right people.

b. Manage talent so people achieve their potential.

c. Maintain the workforce over the long term.

B. Building Human Capital to Drive Performance

1. Human capital refers to the economic value of the combined knowledge, experience,
skills, and capabilities of employees. To build human capital, HRM develops
strategies for finding the best talent, enhancing their skills and knowledge with
training programs and opportunities for personal and professional development, and
providing compensation and benefits that support the sharing of knowledge and
appropriately reward people for their contributions to the organization.

Exhibit 9.2: The Role and Value of Human-Capital Investments

II. THE IMPACT OF FEDERAL LEGISLATION ON HRM

INSTRUCTOR’S NOTES_________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________

© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
216 • Chapter 9

Several federal laws have been passed to insure equal employment opportunity (EEO). The
purpose of these laws is to stop discriminatory practices that are unfair to specific groups and
define enforcement agencies for these laws. EEO legislation attempts to balance the pay given to
men and women and provide employment opportunities without regard to race, religion, national
origin, sex, age, or disability. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 created the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the major agency involved with employment discrimination.

Discrimination occurs when some applicants are hired or promoted based on criteria that are not
job relevant. When discrimination is found, remedies include back pay and affirmative action.
Affirmative action requires an employer to take positive steps to guarantee equal employment
opportunities for people within protected groups. Failure to comply with equal employment
opportunity legislation can result in substantial fines and penalties for employers.

One issue of concern is sexual harassment, which is a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights
Act. The EEOC guidelines specify that behavior such as unwelcome advances, requests for
sexual favors, and other verbal and physical conduct of a sexual nature becomes sexual
harassment when submission to the conduct is tied to continued employment or advancement, or
when the behavior creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment.

Exhibit 9.3: Major Federal Laws Related to Human Resource Management

III. THE CHANGING NATURE OF CAREERS

INSTRUCTOR’S NOTES_________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

A. The Changing Social Contract

1. In the old social contract, the employee contributed ability, education, loyalty, and
commitment in return for the company providing wages and benefits, work,
advancement, and training.

© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Managing Human Resources and Diversity • 217

a. Volatile changes in the environment have disrupted this contract.

b. Organizations have downsized and careers no longer necessarily progress up a


vertical hierarchy.

Spotlight on Skills: What Is Your HR Work Orientation?

The HR department typically is responsible for monitoring compliance with federal laws, and it
provides detailed and specific employee procedures and records for an organization. Every new
manager is involved in HR activities for his or her direct reports. This exercise helps students
understand their orientations concerning day-to-day work issues.

Exhibit 9.4: The Changing Social Contract

2. The new social contract is based on the concept of employability rather than lifetime
employment.

a. Individuals manage their own careers; the organization no longer takes care of
them or guarantees them employment.

b. Employees take more responsibility and control in their jobs, becoming partners
in business improvement rather than cogs in a machine.

3. Many employees are not prepared for new levels of cooperation or responsibility on
the job.

a. Employment insecurity is stressful, and it is harder to gain employee


commitment.

b. To be compatible with the new social contract, HRM is revising performance


evaluation, training and career development opportunities, and compensation and
reward practices.

Business Blooper: Walmart

Imagine getting a minimum-wage job at Walmart, and a temporary one at that. It is the day after
Thanksgiving, often the heaviest retail day of the year. You are standing, ready to greet all the
enthusiastic customers. Instead, you get trampled to death. This happened to Jdimytai Damour
at a Walmart on Long Island in 2008. Walmart spent $2 million fighting OSHA’s $7,000 fine,
causing federal employees to spend more than 4,700 hours in legal work. In March 2011, Judge
Covette Rooney upheld the fine. Why did Walmart fight the fine? They said that OSHA wanted
to define “crowd trampling” as an occupational hazard retailers are responsible to prevent.
© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
218 • Chapter 9

B. Innovations in HRM

1. Becoming an Employer of Choice

a. An employer of choice is a company that is highly attractive to employees


because HR practices focus on tangible benefits such as pay and profit sharing.

b. HR practices also focus on intangibles (e.g., work/life balance, a trust-based work


climate, a healthy corporate culture).

2. Using Temporary and Part-Time Employees

a. Contingent workers are becoming a larger part of the workforce both in the
United States and Europe. Contingent workers are people who work for an
organization, but not on a permanent or full-time basis. They do everything from
data entry to becoming the interim CEO.

b. The temporary staffing industry doubled between 2002 and 2007 and is projected
to grow into a $200 billion industry by 2010. Many companies depend on part-
time or temporary employees to maintain flexibility.

3. Promoting Work–Life Balance

a. Telecommuting is one way organizations are helping employees lead more


balanced lives. Telecommuting means using computers and telecommunications
equipment to do work without going to an office.

b. Flexible scheduling for regular employees is also important in today’s workplace,


and 55 percent of HRM professionals say they are willing to negotiate flexible
work arrangements with interviewees and new employees.

c. Work-life initiatives have become a critical retention strategy with benefits such
as on-site gym facilities, arranging child- and eldercare, and paid leaves.

IV. FINDING THE RIGHT PEOPLE

INSTRUCTOR’S NOTES_________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Managing Human Resources and Diversity • 219

______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________

Exhibit 9.5: Attracting an Effective Workforce

The first goal of HRM is to attract individuals who show signs of becoming valued, productive,
and satisfied employees. The first step in attracting a workforce is planning, predicting the need
for new employees based on the types of vacancies that exist. The second step is to
communicate with potential applicants. The third step is to select those with the best potential.
Finally, the new employee is welcomed to the organization.

In the matching model, the organization and the individual attempt to match the needs, interests,
and values they offer each other. The idea is that people can fulfill deep-seated needs and
interests on the job, which will induce them to stay with the organization.

A. Human Resource Planning

1. Human resource planning is the forecasting of human resource needs and the
projected matching of individuals with expected job vacancies. Human resource
planning begins with several questions.

a. What new technologies are emerging, and how will these affect the work system?

b. What is the volume of business likely to be in the next 5 to 10 years?

c. What is the turnover rate, and how much, if any, is avoidable?

2. The responses to these questions are used to formulate specific HR questions


pertaining to HR activities such as the following.

a. What types of engineers will we need, and how many?

b. How many administrative personnel will we need to support the additional


engineers?

c. Can we use temporary, part-time, or virtual workers to handle some tasks?

B. Recruiting

1. Recruiting, sometimes referred to as talent acquisition, is defined as activities or


practices that define the characteristics of applicants to whom selection procedures
are applied. Internal recruiting is less costly, generates higher employee commitment,

© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
220 • Chapter 9

and offers career advancement. External recruiting gains newcomers from


advertising, state employment services, online recruiting services, private
employment agencies, job fairs, and employee referrals.

2. Assessing Jobs

a. Job analysis is a systematic process of gathering and interpreting information


about the essential duties, tasks, responsibilities, and context of a job.

b. A job description is a clear and concise summary of the specific tasks, duties,
and responsibilities of a job.

c. A job specification outlines the knowledge, skills, education, physical abilities,


and other characteristics needed to adequately perform the job.

Exhibit 9.6: Sara Lee’s Required Skills for Finance Executives

3. Realistic Job Previews

a. A realistic job preview (RJP) gives applicants all pertinent and realistic
information, positive and negative, about the job and the organization.

4. Legal Considerations

a. EEO laws require that recruiting and hiring decisions cannot discriminate on the
basis of race, national origin, religion, and gender.

b. The Americans with Disabilities Act underscored the need for job descriptions
and specifications that reflect the job’s mental and physical specifications to
prevent discrimination against people with disabilities.

c. Affirmative action refers to the use of goals, timetables, or other methods in


recruiting to promote the hiring, development, and retention of protected groups.

Exhibit 9.7: PAIRE’s Recruitment and Hiring Policy

5. E-cruiting

a. Recruiting job applicants online dramatically extends the organization’s reach,


offering access to a wider pool of applicants and saving time and money.

6. Innovations in Recruiting

© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Managing Human Resources and Diversity • 221

a. Managers sometimes have to find innovative approaches to recruit the right


people. One highly effective method is getting referrals from current employees,
which is one of the cheapest and most reliable methods of external recruiting.
Other options include hiring former prison inmates, Asian, African, and Eastern
European immigrants fleeing persecution, former welfare recipients, and older
workers.

C. Selecting

1. In the selection process, employers assess applicants’ characteristics to determine the


“fit” between the job and applicant characteristics.

2. The application form collects information about the applicant’s education, previous
job experience, and other background characteristics.

3. The interview serves as a two-way communication channel that allows both the
organization and the applicant to collect information that would otherwise be difficult
to obtain. Employers cannot ask questions that violate EEO guidelines. The
interview is not generally a good predictor of job performance.

Exhibit 9.8: Employment Applications and Interviews: What Can You Ask?

Spotlight on Skills: Top Interview Blunders; Hint: Don’t Bring a Date

Understanding common blunders that tick off interviewers can make you more successful as
both a job candidate and an interviewer. According to CareerBuilder.com, most interview
blunders fall into five key categories:
Communication skills. Managers often cite poor communication skills, such as inappropriate
body language, talking too much or too little, not making eye contact, or using profanity or
street slang.
Performance. Professionalism during the interview plays an important part in the hiring decision
for most managers.
Attitude. People who show arrogance and disrespect toward the interviewer are a huge turn-off.
Appearance. In most cases, people should wear traditional, professional attire for an interview.
Proper grooming, cleanliness, and good manners are also essential.
Honesty. Candidates who lie or give the impression that they are dishonest don’t get a callback.

4. An employment test is a written or computer-based test designed to measure


particular attributes such as intelligence, aptitude, ability, or personality.

5. Assessment centers present simulated managerial situations to groups of applicants


over two- or three-days and have proven to be valid predictors of managerial success.

© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
222 • Chapter 9

6. Online checks. One of the newest ways of gauging whether a candidate is right for
the company is by seeing what the person has to say about him- or herself on social
networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. Recruiters say that if an applicant’s
online presentation raises red flags, then the person isn’t likely to even get an
interview.

Exhibit 9.9: Try Your Hand at Some Interview Brain Teasers

V. MANAGING TALENT

INSTRUCTOR’S NOTES_________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________

A. Training and Development

1. Training and development represents a planned effort by an organization to help


employees learn job-related skills and behaviors.

2. In on-the-job training (OJT), an experienced employee “adopts” a new employee


and teaches job duties. Cross-training places an employee in a new position for as
little as a few hours or as much as a year to develop new skills and give the
organization flexibility.

3. A corporate university is an in-house training and education facility that offers


broad-based learning opportunities.

4. Promotion from within helps companies retain valuable employees.

5. Mentoring and Coaching. Mentoring involves experienced employees guiding and


supporting newcomers or less experienced employees. Coaching is a method of

© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Managing Human Resources and Diversity • 223

directing, instructing, and training a person with the goal to develop specific
management skills.

B. Performance Appraisal

1. Performance appraisal comprises the steps of observing and assessing employee


performance, recording the assessment, and providing feedback to the employee.

a. Performance appraisal can reward high performers with merit pay, recognition,
and other rewards. Recent thinking is that linking performance appraisal to
rewards has unintended consequences, and that it should be ongoing rather than
once a year.

b. HRM professionals concentrate on the accurate assessment of performance and on


training managers to the use the performance appraisal interview effectively.

2. Assessing Performance Accurately

a. The appraisal system should require the rater to assess each relevant performance
dimension.

b. The 360-degree feedback is a process that uses multiple raters, including self-
rating, as a way to increase self-awareness of strengths and weaknesses and guide
employee development.

c. Performance review ranking is a method in which managers evaluate direct


reports relative to one another and categorizes each on a scale.

Exhibit 9.10: Example of a Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale

3. Performance Evaluation Errors

a. Stereotyping occurs when a rater places an employee into a class or category


based on one or a few traits or characteristics.

b. Halo effect refers to giving an employee the same rating on all dimensions of the
job even if performance is good on some dimensions and not good on others.

c. The behaviorally anchored rating scale (BARS) is a rating technique that


relates an employee’s performance to specific job-related incidents.

VI. MAINTAINING AN EFFECTIVE WORKFORCE

INSTRUCTOR’S NOTES_________________________________________________________

© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
224 • Chapter 9

______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________

A. Compensation

1. Compensation refers to all monetary payments and all goods or commodities used in
lieu of money to reward employees. An effective compensation system is for human
resource management because it helps attract and retain talented workers and affects
strategic performance.

2. Wage and Salary Systems

a. Job-based pay links compensation to the specific tasks that an employee


performs.

b. Skill-based pay systems encourage employees to develop skills and competencies,


making them more valuable to the organization and more employable if they
leave.

Discussion Question #5: As a manager, how would you draw up a telecommuting contract with
a new employee? Include considerations such as job description, compensation and benefits,
performance measures, training, and grounds for dismissal.

3. Compensation Equity

a. Job evaluation determines the worth of jobs in the organization through an


examination of job content with the intent to pay employees fairly.

b. Wage and salary surveys show what other organizations pay in jobs that match a
sample of “key” jobs selected by the organization.

4. Pay for performance

a. Pay-for-performance, also called incentive pay, ties part of the compensation to


employee effort and performance through merit-based pay, bonuses, team
incentives, gainsharing or profit sharing.
© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Managing Human Resources and Diversity • 225

b. Incentives are aligned with the behaviors that help the organization achieve its
strategic goals.

B. Benefits

1. Benefits make up 40 percent of labor costs in the U.S. because of rising health care
costs. Some benefits are required by law such as Social Security, unemployment
compensation, and worker’s compensation. Some firms offer cafeteria-plan benefit
packages that allow employees to select the benefits of greatest value to them.

C. Rightsizing the Organization

1. Rightsizing refers to intentionally reducing the company’s workforce to the point


where the number of employees is deemed to be right for the company’s current
situation.

2. The goal is to make the company stronger and more competitive by aligning the size
of the workforce with the company’s current needs.

3. Unless HRM departments carefully manage downsizing, layoffs can lead to decreased
morale and performance.

D. Termination

1. Terminations are valuable in maintaining an effective workforce in two ways.

a. Employees who are poor performers can be dismissed. Productive employees


often resent disruptive, low-performing employees who are allowed to stay with
the company and receive pay comparable to theirs.

b. Managers can use exit interviews, conducted with departing employees, to learn
about dissatisfaction in the organization.

2. Enlightened companies try to find a smooth transition for departing employees.

3. By showing concern in helping laid-off employees, a company communicates the


value of human resources and helps maintain a positive corporate culture.

Discussion Question #6: What purpose do exit interviews serve for maintaining an effective
workforce?

VII. THE CHANGING WORKPLACE

INSTRUCTOR’S NOTES_________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
226 • Chapter 9

______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

A. Managers are learning that the differences people bring to the workplace enable their
companies to compete globally and tap into rich sources of new talent. Moreover, vast
changes are occurring in today’s workplace and consumer base. The average worker is
older now, and many more women, people of color, and immigrants are seeking job and
advancement opportunities.

Spotlight on Skills: CNN en Español

Trying to entice more Hispanic viewers in the United States, CNN’s Spanish-language branch is
adding new programs, new sets, a spiffy new studio in Miami, and a new logo. Though CNN en
Español boasts that it broadcasts from “Alaska to Patagonia,” the new focus will help North
American operations. Some estimates show the Latin population doubling again by mid-century.
New programs include a personal investment show called “CNN Dinero,” a light-night
“Conclusiones” with a news wrap-up, and three hours of news in the morning.

1. Three-generation workforce. Today’s workforce is in a state of flux as a blend of


three generations (Baby Boom, Gen-X, and Gen-Y) present new management
challenges.

2. Aging workers. In 1986, the median age of the U.S. labor force was 35.4 years. It
increased to 40.8 years in 2006 and will increase to 42.1 years in 2016.

3. Growth in Hispanic and Asian workers. The number of Hispanics in the workforce
will increase by 7.3 million between 2008 and 2018, with Hispanics making up 17.6
percent of the workforce by 2018.

4. Women outnumbering men. As of 2010, women outnumbered men in the workplace.


Yet, fewer than 16 percent of top corporate officers are females.

5. Growth in foreign-born population. Almost one in eight people currently living in


the United States was born in another country, the highest percentage since the 1920s.

© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Managing Human Resources and Diversity • 227

Exhibit 9.11: Milestones in the History of Corporate Diversity

B. Diversity on a Global Scale

1. For organizations operating globally, social and cultural differences may create more
difficulties and conflicts than any other sources. Foreign firms doing business in the
United States also face challenges understanding and dealing with diversity issues.
National cultures are intangible, pervasive, and difficult to comprehend. Many
companies have taken this challenge seriously and have experienced growth in the
global marketplace.

VIII. MANAGING DIVERSITY

INSTRUCTOR’S NOTES_________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________

A. What is Diversity?

1. Diversity is defined as all the ways in which employees differ. Many companies
once defined diversity in terms of race, age, gender, lifestyle, and disability. Today,
companies are embracing a more inclusive definition of diversity that recognizes a
spectrum of differences that influence how employees approach work, interact with
each other, derive satisfaction from their work, and define who they are as people in
the workplace.

2. Managing diversity, a key management skill in today’s global economy, means


creating a climate in which the potential advantages of diversity for organizational or
group performance are maximized while the potential disadvantages are minimized.

Exhibit 9.12: Traditional Versus Inclusive Models of Diversity

© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
228 • Chapter 9

B. Dividends of Workplace Diversity

1. Corporations that build strong, diverse organizations reap numerous dividends,


including:

a. Better use of employee talent. Companies with the best talent are the ones with
the best competitive advantage.

b. Increased understanding of the marketplace. A diverse workforce is better able


to anticipate and respond to changing consumer needs.

c. Enhanced breadth of understanding in leadership positions. Diverse top


management teams tend to be less myopic in their perspectives.

d. Increased quality of team problem solving. Teams with diverse backgrounds


bring different perspectives to a discussion that result in more creative ideas and
solutions.

e. Reduced costs associated with high turnover, absenteeism, and lawsuits.


Companies that foster a diverse workforce reduce turnover, absenteeism, and the
risk of lawsuits.

IX. FACTORS SHAPING PERSONAL BIAS

INSTRUCTOR’S NOTES_________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

A. Prejudice, Discrimination, and Stereotypes

1. Prejudice is the tendency to view people who are different as being deficient.
Discrimination occurs when people act out their prejudicial attitudes toward other
people who are targets of their prejudice. Although blatant discrimination is not as
© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Managing Human Resources and Diversity • 229

widespread as in the past, bias in the workplace often shows up in subtle ways.
Stereotyping is associating a rigid, exaggerated, irrational belief with a particular
group of people. To be successful managing diversity, managers need to eliminate
harmful stereotypes from their thinking, shedding any biases that negatively affect the
workplace.

2. Stereotype threat describes the psychological experience of a person who, usually


engaged in a task, is aware of a stereotype about his or her identity group suggesting
that he or she will not perform well on that task. People most affected by stereotype
threat are those we consider as disadvantaged in the workplace due to negative
stereotypes–racial and ethnic minorities, members of lower socioeconomic classes,
women, older people, gay and bisexual men, and people with disabilities.

Exhibit 9.13: Difference between Stereotyping and Valuing Cultural Differences

B. Ethnocentrism

1. Ethnocentrism is the belief that one’s own group and subculture are inherently
superior to other groups and cultures, thus making it difficult to value diversity. The
business world tends to reflect values, behaviors, and assumptions based on the
experiences of a homogeneous, white, middle-class, male workforce. Most
management theories presume workers share similar values, beliefs, motivations,
and attitudes about work and life in general.

Benchmarking: Google

Employees in Google’s corporate headquarters come from all corners of the world, but the feel a
little closer to home when they see familiar foods from their homelands on the cafeteria menu.
With a goal of satisfying a diverse, ethnically varied palate, Google’s first food guru and chef
designed menus that reflected his eclectic tastes yet also met the needs of an increasingly diverse
workforce. He got some of his best ideas from foreign-born employees. For example, a Filipino
accountant offered a recipe for chicken adobo, a popular dish from her native country. Google
believes food can be a tool for supporting an inclusive workplace. Google knows that when
people need a little comfort and familiarity, nothing takes the edge off of working in a foreign
country like eating food that reminds you of home.

X. FACTORS AFFECTING WOMEN’S CAREERS

A. Glass Ceiling

1. The glass ceiling is an invisible barrier that separates women and minorities from top
management positions. They can look up through the ceiling and see top
management, but prevailing attitudes and stereotypes are invisible obstacles to their

© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
230 • Chapter 9

own advancement. Women and minorities are often excluded from informal manager
networks and don’t get access to the type of general and line management experience
required for moving to the top. Glass walls serve as invisible barriers to important
lateral movement within the organization.

2. Homosexuality is another related issue. Many gay and lesbian workers believe they
will not be accepted as they are and risk losing their jobs or chances for advancement.
Gay employees of color may face a double dose of discrimination. Gays and lesbians
often fabricate heterosexual identities to keep their jobs or avoid running into the
glass ceiling they see other employees encounter.

Discussion Question #10: What is the glass ceiling, and why do you think it has proven to be
such a barrier to women and minorities?

Exhibit 9.14: The Wage Gap

3. Establishing Mentor Relationships. The successful advancement of diverse group


members means that organizations must find ways to eliminate the glass ceiling. One
of the most successful structures to accomplish this goal is the mentoring relationship.
A mentor is a higher-ranking organizational member who is committed to providing
upward mobility and support to a protégé’s professional career. Mentoring provides
minorities and women with direct training and inside information on the norms and
expectations of the organization.

B. Opt-Out Trend

1. Many women choose to get off the fast track long before they hit the glass ceiling. In
this opt-out trend, highly-educated, professional women are deciding that corporate
success isn’t worth the price in terms of reduced family and personal time. Some are
opting out to be stay-at-home moms, while others want to continue working, but just
not in the kind of fast-paced, competitive, aggressive environment that exists in most
corporations. Critics argue that this is just another way to blame women themselves
for the dearth of female managers at higher levels.

C. The Female Advantage

1. Some people think women might actually be better managers, partly because of a
more collaborative, less hierarchical, relationship-oriented approach that is in tune
with today’s global and multicultural environment. As attitudes and values change
with changing generations, the qualities women seem to possess may lead to a
gradual role reversal in organizations. Women of all races and ethnic groups are
outpacing men in earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Over all, women’s
participation in both the labor force and civic affairs has steadily increased since the
mid-1950s, while men’s participation has slowly but steadily declined.

© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Managing Human Resources and Diversity • 231

New Manager Self-Test: Are You Tuned into Gender Differences?

This exercise helps students determine how much they know about gender differences in
behavior.

XI. CULTURAL COMPETENCE

A. A successful diversity plan leads to a workforce that demonstrates cultural competence in


the long run. Cultural competence is the ability to interact effectively with people of
different cultures. There are five steps to implementing a diversity plan.

1. Uncover diversity problems in the organization. Organizations can’t assess their


progress toward cultural competence without first investigating where the culture is
right now. A cultural audit is a tool that identifies problems or areas needing
improvement in a corporation’s culture.

2. Strengthen top management commitment. The most important component of a


successful diversity strategy is management commitment, leadership, and support.

3. Choose solutions to fit a balanced strategy. To be most effective, solutions should be


presented in a balanced strategy and address three factors: education, enforcement,
and exposure.

4. Demand results and revisit the goals. Diversity performance should be measured by
numerical goals to ensure solutions are being implemented successfully.

5. Maintain momentum to change the culture. Use success in the previous four steps as
fuel to move forward and leverage for more progress.

Exhibit 9.15: Five Steps to Develop Diversity

XII. DIVERSITY INITIATIVES AND PROGRAMS

A. Changing Structures and Policies

1. Many leading companies are changing structures and policies to facilitate and
support a diverse workforce. A survey found that 85 percent of companies surveyed
have formal policies against racism and sexism, and 76 percent have structured
grievance and complaint processes.

B. Expanding Recruitment Efforts

© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
232 • Chapter 9

1. A new approach to recruitment means making better use of recruiting strategies,


offering internship programs to give people opportunities, and developing creative
ways to draw on previously unused labor markets.

Exhibit 9.16: The Most Common Diversity Initiatives: Percentage of Fortune 1000
Respondents

C. Establishing Mentor Relationships

1. One of the most successful structures for eliminating the glass ceiling is the
mentoring relationship. A mentor is a higher-ranking organizational member who is
committed to providing upward mobility and support to a protégé’s professional
career. Mentoring provides minorities and women with direct training and inside
information on the norms and expectations of the organization.

D. Accommodating Special Needs

1. Many top managers are often unaware of the special needs of employees who are
single parents, are non-English-speaking, or have elderly parents. Alternative work
scheduling may be important for these groups of workers. Another issue is that
racial/ethnic minorities and immigrants have had fewer educational opportunities
than other groups. Some companies work with high schools to provide fundamental
skills in literacy and math, or the provide programs within the company to upgrade
employees to appropriate educational levels.

E. Providing Diversity Skills Training

1. Most of today’s organizations provide special training, called diversity training, to


help people identify their own cultural boundaries, prejudices, and stereotypes and
develop the skills for managing and working in a diverse workplace. Working or
living within a multicultural context requires a person to use interaction skills that
transcend the skills typically effective when dealing with others from one’s own in-
group. The first step is typically diversity awareness training to make employees
aware of the assumptions they make and to increase people’s sensitivity and
openness to those who are different from them. The next step is diversity skills
training to help people learn how to communicate and work effectively in a diverse
environment.

F. Increasing Awareness of Sexual Harassment

1. Sexual harassment creates an unhealthy and unproductive work environment and is


illegal. As a form of sexual discrimination, sexual harassment in the workplace is a
violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Sexual harassment in the classroom is a
violation of the Education Amendment of 1972. The following categories describe
various forms of sexual harassment.

© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Managing Human Resources and Diversity • 233

a. Generalized. This form involves sexual remarks and actions not intended to lead
to sexual activity.

b. Inappropriate/offensive. Though not sexually threatening, it causes discomfort


in a coworker and limits the offended person’s freedom and ability to function at
work.

c. Solicitation with promise of reward. This action treads a fine line as an attempt
to “purchase” sex, with the potential for criminal prosecution.

d. Coercion with threat of punishment. The harasser coerces a coworker into


sexual activity by using the threat of power to jeopardize the victim’s career.

e. Sexual crimes and misdemeanors. These acts, if reported, would be considered


felony crimes and misdemeanors.

2. The Supreme Court has held that same-sex harassment as well as harassment of men
by female co-workers is just as illegal as harassment of women by men. Companies
have been swift to fire employees for circulating pornographic images, surfing
pornographic Web sites, or sending offensive e-mails.

XIII. NEW DIVERSITY INITIATIVES

A. Multicultural Teams

1. Multicultural teams are made up of members from diverse national, racial, ethnic,
and cultural backgrounds. These teams provide even greater potential for enhanced
creativity, innovation, and value in today’s global marketplace. Diverse teams tend
to generate more and better alternatives to problems and produce more creative
solutions than do homogeneous teams.

2. Multicultural teams are more difficult to manage because of the increased potential
for miscommunication and misunderstanding. Multicultural teams typically have
more difficulty learning to communicate and work well together, but with effective
cross-cultural training and good management, the problems seem to dissipate over
time.

B. Employee Network Groups

1. Employee network groups are based on social identity, such as gender or race, and
are organized by employees to focus on concerns of employees from that group.
The idea behind network groups is that minority employees can join together for
mutual support and to extend member influence in the organization. Network
groups pursue a variety of activities, such as meetings to educate top managers,
mentoring programs, networking events, training sessions and skills seminars,
minority intern programs, and community volunteer activities.
© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
234 • Chapter 9

2. Employees, not the organization, form network groups, and membership is


voluntary; however, successful organizations support and encourage network
groups. Although network groups seem to be in direct opposition to the trend
toward multicultural teams, the two mechanisms actually work quite well together.

Answers to Discussion Questions


1. Assume it is the year 2020. In your company, central planning has given way to front-line
decision making, and bureaucracy has given way to teamwork. Shop floor workers use
handheld devices and robots. A labor shortage currently affects many job openings, and the
few applicants you do attract lack skills to work in teams, make their own production
decisions, or use sophisticated technology. As vice president of human resource
management since 2008, what should you have done to prepare for this situation?

This question should get the point across that the field of human resources is always changing.
One of the things that should have been done is human resource planning. You should have kept
in touch with changes that were occurring and projected the human resource needs in advance.
This way you have the right skills and the right mixture of people in your workforce. This would
have to be accomplished through effective recruiting and selection techniques. Another vital
thing you should have done is provided training and development for your people so that they
had the skills to work in teams, make decisions, and use sophisticated technology. Having made
this investment in people, you would also want to have provided the compensation, including
benefits, needed to maintain this effective workforce.

2. Which selection criteria (personal interview, employment test, assessment center) do you
think would be most valuable for predicting effective job performance for a college
professor? For an assembly-line worker in a manufacturing plant? Discuss.

Because college professors must present vast quantities of complex material to students within a
limited time, communication skills are very important. The personal interview is a good
indicator for measuring such skill and for ascertaining the professor’s vision for the class and for
the profession. The pencil-and-paper test would be a weak predictor of effectiveness because
college professors have high intelligence levels, expertise in their particular areas of study, and
an understanding of what is expected as the proper response to personality inventories. In a
modified version of the assessment center, professors may be observed in the classroom situation
and assessed according to their communication and interpersonal skills, both in lecture
presentation and in response to student questions and problems.

The information obtained through personal interview for an assembly-line worker in a


manufacturing plant is practical in the exchange of information regarding the applicant’s
background and expectations and the job requirements. Beyond that point, the personal
interview may fail to accurately assess the potential of the worker as a result of flaws in the
system, such as prejudice on the part of the interviewer, or the individual’s skill in providing
answers the interviewer wants to hear. A performance test in which the skills needed on the
© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Managing Human Resources and Diversity • 235

assembly line are simulated would be the best predictor of actual job performance for an
assembly-line worker. For management personnel, paper-and-pencil tests measuring
intelligence, aptitude, and ability are good indicators of potential within a manufacturing plant,
because answers provide important information on skills and intelligence in crucial areas, such as
mathematical skill in calibrating machinery. Aptitude tests and personality inventories are also
excellent sources of information in putting together strong teams. The assessment center is
probably the most valuable tool in predicting effective job performance. Simulation of line
problems and development of communications and negotiating skills are just an example of the
valuable information that can be acquired through assessment centers.

3. How do you think the growing use of telecommuters, temporary and part-time workers, and
virtual teams affects human resource management? How can managers improve recruiting
and retention of these employees?

Telecommuters perform their jobs in part at the company, as well as in other locations. Human
resource managers must ensure that productivity and quality of work will be preserved in this
type of work arrangement. Temporary and part-time workers are people who work for an
organization, but not on a permanent or full-time basis. This category of workers also includes
contracted professionals and leased employees. One important effect is that companies are not
obligated to pay these employees fringe benefits or other costs associated with permanent
employees. Virtual teams affect human resources management because they are geographically
dispersed throughout the globe. There are advantages and disadvantages to the creation of
virtual teams. Human resources management may indeed perform a balancing of tradeoffs of
increasing costs for recruiting and selection versus the concept of a virtual team and the benefits
derived by members’ contribution.

Managers can improve recruiting and retention of these different types of employees through a
sound and equitable wage structure. Job satisfaction, achieved through redesign of jobs,
stimulating employee behavior, and the creation of work environment that promotes job
satisfaction, all effect human resources management.

4. One human resource manager recently got a thank-you note on her iPhone that said “Thx 4
the Iview! Wud ♥ to wrk 4 u☺.” The manager had like the candidate’s interview, but after
getting the note, she put him in the reject pile. Do you think it was fair for the manager to
automatically reject the candidate? Should “textspeak” be considered acceptable workplace
communication? Discuss.

The answer to this question may depend to some extent on the culture of the company in
question. It is much more likely for this type of communication to be accepted in companies
with younger management, especially the newer Internet companies and personal technology
companies. Companies with older management, or those in more traditional fields or with a
more traditionally professional culture will be less accepting of “textspeak”.

5. As a manager, how would you draw up a telecommuting contract with an employee? Include
considerations such as job description, compensation and benefits, performance measures,
training, and grounds for dismissal.

© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
236 • Chapter 9

The job description for a telecommuter should, in addition to the details of what work is to be
done, include specific language regarding the frequency and amount of time to be spent on site
over a given period, as well as any meetings or other routine activities the employee must attend.
Compensation and benefits should be directly tied to productivity because there is no way to
effectively monitor the amount of time a telecommuter spends on work activities. Performance
measures, like compensation, must be directly tied to productivity. Training requirements should
be explicitly detailed, including the types of training required and the location and dates for the
training, and the potential for future training requirements must be left open. Again, any grounds
for dismissal in addition to standard company policies on the matter should be explicitly stated
and directly tied to productivity.

6. Is it wise for managers to consider a candidate’s postings on social networking sites such as
Facebook as grounds for rejection before even interviewing a promising candidate? Is it
fair? Discuss.

Social networking sites such as Facebook can provide managers with important information
regarding a candidate’s activities. A candidate’s open admission of excessive drinking, drug use,
or sexual exploits raises serious questions about that person’s maturity and judgment. The
overall presentation of Facebook postings gives managers helpful clues about a candidate’s
personality and values, and can help them assess the extent to which a candidate might fit the
organization’s culture. It is certainly fair for managers to consider online information that is in
the public domain; i.e. that is available to anyone who logs on to the website. If managers are
using questionable means to access information that is not available to the general public, then it
may not be fair for them to use that information in assessing a candidate’s fit with the
organization.

7. Explain how a manager’s personal biases and stereotypes may affect an organization’s
success in creating a workplace that is culturally competent.

Prejudice is the tendency to view people who are different as being deficient. Discrimination
occurs when people act out their prejudicial attitudes toward other people who are targets of their
prejudice. A stereotype is a rigid, exaggerated, irrational belief associated with a particular
group of people.

Cultural competence is the ability to interact effectively with people of different cultures.
Managers whose personal biases affect their behavior and decision making will be less adept at
interacting effectively with people of different cultures. To be successful managing diversity,
managers need to eliminate harmful stereotypes from their thinking, shedding any biases that
negatively affect the workplace.

8. Shelley Willingham-Hinton, president of the National Organization for Diversity in Sales and
Marketing, was quoted in the chapters as saying, “Our country’s consumer base is so varied.
I can’t think of how a company can succeed without having that kind of diversity with their
employees.” Why should corporations have workforces that mirror the country’s diverse
consumer base?

Vast changes are occurring in today’s workplace and consumer base. The average worker is
older now, and many more women, people of color, and immigrants are seeking job and
© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Managing Human Resources and Diversity • 237

advancement opportunities. The differences people bring to the workplace enable their
companies to compete globally and to tap into rich sources of new talent. Corporations that truly
value diversity will recognize pay inequality and discrimination in the workplace and make
progress toward eliminating them.

9. Evaluate your own experiences so far with people from other backgrounds. How well do you
think those experiences prepared you to understand the unique needs and dilemmas of a
diverse workforce?

In addressing the question, students should clearly demonstrate their understanding of the unique
needs and dilemmas of a diverse workforce. Answers should include both the needs and
dilemmas of a diverse workforce for which their experience did prepare them and the needs and
dilemmas for which it did not.

10. What is the glass ceiling, and why do you think it has proven to be such a barrier to women
and minorities?

The glass ceiling is an invisible barrier that prevents women and minorities from advancing to
top management positions. As corporations grew, a monoculture developed within the top levels
of management whereby white male managers hired and promoted employees who mirrored
their own looks, actions, thoughts, beliefs, and backgrounds, and with whom they felt
comfortable. The experiences of women and minorities were considered different, incompatible,
and in the eyes of some, inferior. There developed a concern or a firm belief within these
monocultures that these groups would not “fit in” with the dominant culture. As a result, women
and minorities moved to a certain level within the company, but further progress was blocked.
The women’s movement, the Civil Rights movement, and actions by the courts are slowly
forcing cracks in the glass ceiling. Many companies are taking the lead in opening new
opportunities for women and minorities; however, some companies have alternative barriers in
place, simply replacing the glass ceiling with “glass walls,” which bar important lateral
movement necessary for top management preparation.

11. Why do you think a large number of women are opting out of the corporate world? Discuss
whether this trend is likely to continue over the next ten years.

Women are opting out of the corporate world because they see that they must sacrifice their
personal lives with their families, their health, and face a high stress level. They want time with
their children. Women are generally less interested in attaining power and status than men and
find climbing the corporate ladder less appealing. Some women still want to work but prefer
jobs that are less fast-paced and competitive. Another view is that because women are not
getting promoted into top management positions, they simply quit. It is likely that this trend will
continue over the next 10 years, although it may slow down as more single women from a
generation that is waiting longer to marry begin to rise to higher-level positions.

12. How can organizations strike a balance between respecting and meeting the needs of a
diverse workforce and shaping a high-performance corporate culture where shared values
contribute to the accomplishment of strategic goals?

One good way to strike such a balance is by creating multicultural teams in the organization.
© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
238 • Chapter 9

Multicultural teams are made up of members from diverse national, racial, ethnic, and cultural
backgrounds. These teams provide even greater potential for enhanced creativity, innovation,
and value in today’s global marketplace than traditional cross-functional teams. Multicultural
teams also help to create fairness and equity in the work environment. Multicultural teams
generate more and better alternatives to problems and produce more innovative solutions than
homogeneous teams. A team made up of people with different perspectives, backgrounds, and
cultural values creates a healthy mix of ideas, which sometimes encourages people who have
previously been reluctant to contribute to speak out. This type of diversity can stimulate a
healthy level of conflict that leads to greater creativity and better decisions.

A disadvantage of a multicultural team is that they are more difficult to manage because of the
increased potential for miscommunication and misunderstanding. Multicultural teams typically
have more difficulty learning to communicate and work well together, but with effective cross-
cultural training and good management, the problem seems to dissipate over time.

TEACHING NOTES FOR LEARNING EXERCISES


Self Learning: How Tolerant Are You?

Student survey answers will vary.

Total Score
0–14: If you score 14 or below, you are a very tolerant person and dealing with diversity
comes easily to you.
15–28: You are basically a tolerant person, and others think of you as tolerant. In general,
diversity presents few problems for you; you may be broad-minded in some areas and
have less tolerant ideas in other areas of life, such as attitudes toward older people or
male-female social roles.
29–42: You are less tolerant than most people and should work on developing greater tolerance
of people different from you. Your low tolerance level could affect your business or
personal relationships.
43–56: You have a very low tolerance for diversity. The only people you are likely to respect
are those with beliefs similar to your own. You reflect a level of intolerance that could
cause difficulties in today’s multicultural business environment.

Group Learning: An Ancient Tale

Students read the Introduction and Case Study presented in the exercise, then form groups to
discuss their answers to six questions asked in the exercise.

Additional Material
The case study or tale has implications regarding the impact of the organization on the
individual, the ability to protect him- or herself in the organization, and how to manage the

© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Managing Human Resources and Diversity • 239

organization to accomplish objectives which are in the best interest of the organization as well as
the participants.

Role-Play Option
If you want to bring life to the case, you could ask students to perform role-plays; to act out, for
example, a scene between the Lord and the Princess, between the Princess and the Godfather, or
the Princess and the Knight. I have used this with much success in class.

Group Discussion Format


One suggestion is to use a group discussion format for the case as follows:
1. Prior to class, assign members to read the case and answer the questions at the end of
the case.
2. Divide class members into groups of four to eight members.
3. Assign each group to discuss the five questions and to arrive at a consensus decision.
This should take about 10-20 minutes.
4. With the entire class, have each group report their responses to the questions, noting
especially the criteria for making their decisions.
5. After each group has made a presentation, follow the Class Discussion guidelines
which follow to highlight the implications of the case for individuals within
organizations.

Simulated Court Trial


Another way (optional) of stimulating discussion on “An Ancient Tale” is through the use of a
court trial.
1. Prior to the class in which the story will be discussed, assign individuals to play the role
of each of the seven characters and “defense attorneys” for each character (Princess,
Lord/Husband, Dragon, Vagabond, Sorcerer, Godfather, White Knight).
2. Instruct each role player to be prepared to explain in the next session why he/she (or
his/her client) is not responsible for the death of the Princess (who will be brought back
from the dead to defend herself).
3. Select an articulate student (or have the instructor) perform the role of prosecuting
attorney (have this individual prepare arguments as to why each person should be held
responsible for the death of the Princess).
4. On the day of the trial, a jury is selected (volunteers) along with a jury foreman, and the
classroom is arranged in the following manner:

Defending Attorneys
Class
Prosecuting Attorney

The trial proceeds in the following manner:


1. The defendant and “defense attorneys” for each character proclaim the defendant’s
innocence (two minutes per character).
2. After each character proclaims his/her innocence, the prosecutor presents the case for
their guilt. The prosecutor will present the case for guilt after each character’s defense
(two minutes per character).

© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
240 • Chapter 9

3. After all the characters have been tried, the jury retires (maximum period – 10 minutes)
and passes a verdict on each separate defendant. The jury foreman announces the
verdict on each character with a brief explanation.
After the trial, discussion follows.

Class Discussion
After the trial or after each group has made their presentation, the following questions can be
raised with the entire class.
1. What are the criteria by which we find people responsible for their actions in
organizations? Many would argue that the Princess is guilty because individuals must
assume personal responsibility for their actions. Others would argue that individuals have
responsibilities to perform (the Husband, the White Knight, the Godfather) and that when
they fail to perform those responsibilities, they are guilty for failures in the organization.
2. How likely are individuals in organizations to pass responsibility off onto someone else?
The Princess will probably argue her innocence because others in the case (the
organization) failed to perform their roles. It is very common in organizations to “pass the
buck.”
3. If individuals fail to accept responsibility for others (such as the Knight, the Godfather, the
Vagabond failing to accept responsibility for the Princess’ welfare), what will be the
consequences for the individual? For the organization?
4. What are the value issues underlying the jury’s decision on guilt? Some will decide that the
individual (Princess) is responsible; others will decide that the organizations are
responsible. These decisions come from the values held by the jury members.
5. When relating the case to organizational processes, one class made the following analogy:
“The Princess is a manager who is not being paid attention to by her manager (the Lord).
The Vagabond (an executive headhunter) calls upon the manager and she leaves the
organization in hopes of a more profitable job. The headhunter takes her money (the fee)
and leaves her without a job. She turns to some friends in other organizations (the
Godfather and White Knight), but they give her no help in finding work. Finally, in
desperation, she turns to the government (the Sorcerer) agency to help her find work. The
government agency places her on welfare (the Dragon) and she loses her desire to work.”
Ask students to comment on the analogy.
Another frequent occurrence is students blaming the Princess, but when it comes to
recommendations for change, they say the Lord has to do things differently. It is important
for them to understand that the person who needs to change his behavior is likely the one
responsible – since he could have prevented it most.
Another issue here is how responsible the Chief Executive Officer (Husband/Lord) is for
what goes on in the lower levels of the organization. Delegation, responsibility, and
accountability are important to discuss with this.

Action Learning: Interview Questions

Students meet with four of five people who have recently gone through job interviews, asking
them what questions they were asked and looking for similarities among the questions, and
which questions they found uncomfortable or invasive. They then discuss the results in groups
in class and present their findings to the entire class.

© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Managing Human Resources and Diversity • 241

TEACHING NOTE FOR ETHICAL DILEMMA


Sunset Prayers

1. Continue the current policy that leaves it up to the Muslim workers as to when they leave the
assembly line to perform their sunset rituals.

This is not a good course of action. With an increasingly higher percentage of assembly-line
workers leaving the line to perform sunset rituals, production will likely be negatively impacted.

2. Try to hire the fewest possible Muslim workers so the work line will be efficient on second
shift.

This is also not a good course of action. First, it would probably qualify as discrimination based
on religion. Second, the Muslim Somali temporary workers are saving Frank a substantial
amount of money in wages and benefits, which may be largely what keeps him in a competitive
position.

3. Ask the Muslim workers to delay their sunset prayers until a regularly scheduled break
occurs, pointing out that North Woods is primarily a place of business, not a house of
worship.

This may be the best of the three alternatives. Having a large number of workers leaving the
assembly line at the same time could be considered an unreasonable accommodation. Frank
might be able to convince them to have a smaller number go at sunset each day while the others
wait for a scheduled break, and rotate who goes at sunset and who waits so that everyone gets to
go at sunset at least once or twice a week. Frank may also be able to adjust the scheduled break
so that it is closer to the actual sunset time, thus accommodating the request as closely as
possible.

CASE FOR CRITICAL ANALYSIS


Commonwealth Worldwide Chauffeured Transportation

1. What kinds of employees would you suggest Dawson Rutter hire next? Why?

Since there are plenty of people needing jobs, some of them are likely to be well-educated people
with experience in service industries where customer service was the highest priority. These are
the people Rutter should hire next so that he can begin to build a team of drivers who can
converse intelligently with his clients and who will carry out his vision for exceptional customer
service. To do so, Rutter will need to offer an attractive compensation package – one that is
likely to be considerably better than what the typical limo driver gets.

2. Which of the three broad HRM activities (finding people, managing talent, or maintaining
the workforce) would you invest in most heavily in order to begin building the human capital
Commonwealth needs? Discuss.

© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
242 • Chapter 9

The heaviest investment at this point should be in finding people. Commonwealth needs to
identify and attract a team of drivers who can enact Rutter’s vision for exceptional customer
service. Managing talent should be a close second in terms of investment, because
Commonwealth will need to work hard to ensure that the right level of customer service is
achieved and maintained, in order to grow the company to what Rutter wants it to be.

3. Suggest at least one idea for training, one for performance evaluation, and one for
compensation that might be used to develop and maintain a committed corps of limo drivers?

Commonwealth’s drivers should receive extensive training in the most likely local topics of
discussion for their respective locations, such as sports teams, arts and entertainment
opportunities, restaurants, educational institutions, political figures and activities, and other
information about which their clients might want to know.

Performance evaluation for drivers should be primarily designed to assess drivers’ excellence in
customer service – perhaps by addressing specific behaviors considered to be essential for
customer satisfaction. If specific drivers are assigned to each client company, then performance
evaluations could include an assessment of those drivers by the client as well as by
Commonwealth.

Compensation should include both skills-based and pay-for-performance plans. The skills-based
pay might be used to encourage drivers to branch out into marketing and client management
activities, and the pay-for-performance part of the plan could be used to encourage excellence in
customer service by providing the highest rewards to those drivers who provide the best
customer service.

ON THE JOB VIDEO CASE


Barcelona Restaurant Group: Managing Human Resources

1. List the three main activities of human resource management (HRM) and identify which
activity is examined at length in the video.

The three activities and goals of human resource management are (1) finding the right people, (2)
managing talent, and (3) maintaining an effective workforce over the long term. The video on
Barcelona Restaurant Group deals primarily with finding the right people. In particular, the
video focuses on the process of recruiting and selecting candidates. It is clear in the interviews
that Lawton believes finding the right people is the human resource activity most critical to
Barcelona’s success—a perspective no doubt related to the industry’s high turnover.

2. Of the various steps in Barcelona’s employee selection process, the job interview is the most
brief. Do you agree with the company’s approach to interviewing? Why or why not?

For most firms, the selection process involves multiple tools for assessing the “fit” between the
job candidate and the organization. While Barcelona makes use of recruiters, interviews, and
various employment tests, the company places little significance on the interview, allowing no
more than 20 minutes per candidate. According to COO Scott Lawton, interviews provide little
© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Managing Human Resources and Diversity • 243

dependable information about the fitness of the applicant. Lawton says he doesn’t get anything
out of the actual conversation with candidates, and he notes that many impressive interviewees
over the years “ended up being a dud.” As a result, only 10 percent of Barcelona’s job applicants
are refused during the interview stage of selection.

Instead of trying to judge the candidate’s personality and work attitudes during an interview,
Barcelona uses interviews to provide applicants with company information and to set up a series
of assessments that ultimately reveal the proper match between the company’s needs and the
employee’s expertise.

3. Identify Barcelona’s three-stage process for matching job applicants with its organizational
objectives, and explain how each stage reveals the fit between job applicants and the needs of
the restaurant.

The video highlights Barcelona’s three-stage selection process:

(1) The interview – managers at Barcelona use interviews to give candidates information about
the company and to set up a series of employment test and assessment exercises. COO Scott
Lawton says that interviews do not reveal much useful information about job fit. As a result, only
10 percent of candidates are refused at this stage.

(2) The “shop” – this employee assessment activity requires that candidates dine at a Barcelona
restaurant, observe their experience, and write an essay that grades the presentation of food and
performance of the wait staff. According to Lawton, sending applicants on a shop provides
significant insight into candidates’ thought processes, perception, attitudes, education, skills, and
work ethic. The activity also reveals if the potential hire is paying attention to the kinds of details
that are important at all the Barcelona restaurants. This selection activity eliminates
approximately 60 percent of applicants.

(3) The “trail” – this assessment asks candidates to pretend that they have been with the company
for six months, and it asks applicants to take command of the floor, talk to the staff, engage
customers, and demonstrate their abilities. Top managers observe the candidate and make a
decision whether to hire the person. This assessment reveals the personal, technical, and people
skills of the applicant. Only one in four candidates who performs a “trail” can expect to be hired
at Barcelona.

BIZFLIX VIDEO CASE

Played
Video Case Synopsis

Ray Burns (Mick Rossi) does prison time for a crime he did not commit. After his release, he
focuses on getting even with his enemies. This fast-moving film peers deeply into London’s
criminal world which includes some crooked London police, especially Detective Brice (Vinnie
Jones). The film’s unusual ending reviews all major parts of the plot.

© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
244 • Chapter 9

These scenes begin with a close-up of a photograph of an ape that Riley (Patrick Bergin)
carefully examines. They follow Detective Brice’s order to Riley to kill the person who will not
give them money. He shoots him in a pub. The scenes end after Ray Burns accepts Riley’s offer.
He walks away while saying, “All right. Let’s rock and roll, man. All right. Thanks, Riley”.
Riley says, “Thank you, Ray.” The film cuts to Terry (Trevor Nugent) talking to Nikki (Meridith
Ostrom) before Ray’s arrival.

Video Case Discussion Questions and Suggested Answers

1. This chapter emphasized a strategic approach to human resource management. Detective


Brice outlines a strategy in the opening of these scenes for the job he describes to Riley.
What are the key parts of that strategy? What are the human resource implications of the
strategy?

The goal is to get the heroin shipment at Docklands customs that is coming from Holland.
They must do it before Wednesday when Detective Brice and his men will raid customs.
Brice describes the strategy as “mess it about a bit” so it does not look like an inside job.
Riley must now recruit a team who can carry out this strategy.

2. Riley’s next step is to recruit Ray Burns. Which recruitment guidelines and activities does he
follow? Give examples from that portion of the film scenes.

Riley describes the scope and schedule of the activity to access the heroin shipment. He
leaves the recruitment details to Ray Burns, a person with whom he has worked before. Riley
trusts Burns’ judgment. Burns describes who he will recruit: Terry and Nathan (Sean Power),
a new person with whom he has not worked.

3. Does Riley give Ray a “realistic job preview”? Use examples from the film scenes to support
your answer.

Riley gives Ray scant information about the assignment. He does not comment on the nature
of security at the facility or possible difficulties in accessing the shipment. The incomplete
information could lead to faulty planning for this mission. See the Played scene in Chapter 7
for the results of this recruiting effort.

© 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
Hoc quisquam ferat? ut tibi tuorum
Sit major numerus togatulorum,
Librorum mihi sit minor meorum?
Triginta prope jam diebus una est
Nobis pagina vix peracta. Sic fit,
Cum cenare domi poeta non vult.

In translating, I attempt only to present the general purport.


“During the time in which I am in your company, Labullus,
and while escorting you homeward I am listening to your
chattering, and am expected to give attention and praise
to whatever you may be saying or doing, how many
verses do you think could I have produced? Do you not
realize how grievous a loss it is [to both author and public]
that what Rome reads, what the stranger asks for, what
the knight does not scorn, what the Senator cherishes as
a possession, what the lawyer praises, what the poet
eagerly seizes, that all this should perish [i. e., fail to come
into existence], O Labullus, through your fault? Yet is not
this the case? Is it a thing to be approved that simply to
swell the number of your followers, my literary productions
should be diminished? During a whole month I have
hardly been able to complete a page. This is the inevitable
result when the poet is tempted to dine away from home.”
The interpretation placed by Schmidt on these and similar verses,
that the damnum stood for a pecuniary loss to the author, and that
productions which secured for themselves popular favor brought,
therefore, to their authors pecuniary gain, is upheld by Becker. He
maintains that authors were evidently attracted to Rome by the
prospects of such receipts, and that, to a considerable extent at
least, they depended upon the same for their support. “It is not easy
to believe,” Becker continues, “that a needy author like Martial,
always in want of money, would have been willing to permit Tryphon,
Secundus, and Polius to make profits out of his productions without
arranging to secure any portion of these profits for himself.”[213] Birt,
who, as we have before seen, is a firm believer in the conclusion that
Roman writers secured compensation for their work, is of opinion
that this compensation must usually have taken the shape of a
præmium, as Martial puts it, a round payment or honorarium, made
probably on the delivery of the manuscript, rather than that of a
royalty.[214]
One of Martial’s references to the customary præmium occurs in
these verses.[215] The poet has been protesting against the weary
and unprofitable role of a client or follower. He asks that Rome may
spare him from any such thankless and trivial tasks as those which
come upon the weary “congratulator,” who, for his dreary service,
earns through the day at best but a hundred miserable pennies
(plumbeos), while Scorpus (the gladiator) carries off in an hour, as
victor, fifteen sacks of gleaming gold. Then follow the lines:

Non ego meorum præmium libellorum,


(Quid enim merentur?) Appulos velim campos,
Non Hybla, non me spicifer capit Nilus,
Nec quæ paludes delicata Pomptinas
Ex arce clivi spectat uva Setini.
Quid concupiscam quæris ergo?—dormire.

“As a reward (præmium) for my books (for what, indeed, are they
worth?) I ask not for the Appulian fields; neither Hybla nor the fruitful
Nile attracts me, nor the luscious grapes which from the Setian
hillside hang over the Pontine marshes. You ask what do I then
desire; I reply—to sleep.”
These lines should, of course, be interpreted in connection with the
poet’s other utterances, which, as we have seen, are not marked by
any lack of appreciation of the importance of his literary productions.
It seems probable that the query, “what, indeed, are they worth?” is
meant as a mere façon de parler, and is intended to be answered
with a full appreciation of the inestimable value of his poems to the
reader and to the community. I judge further that the poet in naming
the attractive things of this world which he would not demand as his
reward, while, of course, speaking with a certain hyperbole of
phrase, is at the same time making a kind of undercurrent of
suggestion that fruitful hillsides, or even great provinces, would not,
in fact, be a disproportioned reward for talents and services like his.
The lines remind one of what Dickens (in his sketch of the election of
a beadle) describes as the “great negative style” of oratory. “I will not
speak of his valiant services in the militia, I will not refer to his
charming wife and nine children, two at the breast,” etc. The
important detail in the lines, however, for our present purpose is the
reference to a præmium or compensation of some kind or amount as
naturally to be looked for and to be depended upon for successful
literary production. Taking this reference in connection with others of
similar purport, it is, I think, safe to conclude that, notwithstanding
the lack of protection of the law, Martial and other writers of his time
who were not too rich to require such earnings or too proud to
demand them, earned money with their pens, or rather with their
styli.
I add references to a few other instances of payments or returns to
authors.
One of the earliest is mentioned by Suetonius.[216] Pompilius
Andronicus, the grammarian, sold his treatise for 1600 sesterces.
This sale must have comprised the original manuscript, together with
such author’s and publishing “rights” as existed. The younger Pliny is
quoted by Birt[217]—as saying that Pliny the elder had, while in
Spain, declined an offer from a certain Lucinus of 40,000 sesterces
(about $1800.00) for his commentaries. Lucinus was not a publisher,
but apparently some enthusiastic admirer of the author.
In another epigram[218] Martial makes a curious slap at two
contemporary poets:

Vendunt carmina Gallus et Lupercus.


Sanos, Classice, nunc nega poetas.

“Gallus and Lupercus sell their poetry. Now deny, O Classicus! that
they are real poets (or poets in their right minds, or poets of common
sense).”
As Haenny suggests (citing Schrevel), no one dares to deny the
sanity of a poet who can get money for his productions, but one
might question the sanity of the publisher who pays the money.
Haenny thinks that Martial is sneering at the practice (unworthy of
poets) of writing for gain. Such a position seems to me entirely
inconsistent with Martial’s other expressions. It seems to me much
more likely that Martial is sneering at the idea that these particular
writers have produced any poems that are worth money. Lupercus is
probably the same person whom Martial rebuked for trying to secure
his, Martial’s, poems without paying for them.
In one epigram[219] Martial advises a friend, who comes to him for
counsel concerning a profession for his son, by no means to permit
him to become a poet. If the boy has money-making desires, let him
learn to play on the cithara or the flute. If he seems to have real
capacity, he might become a herald or an architect.
In another[220] he points out that no money can be obtained from
Phœbus or from Thessalian songs. It is Minerva who has wealth—
she alone lends money to the other gods. In a third[221] he
complains that in writing poetry he may give pleasure to his readers,
but he does so at a serious sacrifice to himself, for if he chose, in
place of giving his time to verses, to serve as an advocate, to sell his
influence to anxious defendants, his clients “would become his
purse.” As it is, however, he must console himself with the thought
that his readers are benefited although the poet works practically
without recompense.
Later, the poet likens his literary work to a die or a cast from a dice-
box, the result of the labor being at best an uncertainty.[222]
It was through patronage that literature became remunerative, and
fortunately for the authors the patronage of literature became, under
Octavius, fashionable. I have already referred to the familiar name of
Mæcenas, whose influence in interesting his fellow-patricians and
the young Emperor in the literary productions of the capital was most
important. The fashion of patronage thus initiated continued to a
greater or less extent until the days of Hadrian. As Simcox expresses
it, the poets got into the habit of expecting to be treated “as semi-
sacred pensioners, as they have been at the courts of the princes of
the heroic age of Greece and Scandinavia—as they are still at the
courts of certain princes in India who trace their descent up to the
heroic age.”[223] In the age of Anne, English poets passed through a
somewhat similar experience, and during the reigns of the first two
Georges, they were not infrequently haunted by the same
expectations. The bitter line, as paraphrased by Johnson, after his
experience with Lord Chesterfield, commemorating the evil of the
poet’s lot, has become proverbial

“Age, envy, want, the patron and the jail.”

In Rome when, in the decline of the literary interests of the Court,


the hopes of patronage were finally abandoned, the profession of
poetry seems for a time to have been practically given up.
Juvenal takes as the subject of his seventh satire the poverty of
men of letters. He complains that the Emperor is their sole stay, and
that authors can make no money and have as a dependence only
the unprofitable patronage of the great. The poets who recite their
verses, the historians, the lawyers, the rhetoricians who act as
instructors for the young, are made to pass in turn before him, and of
each the condition arouses the compassion of his irritable muse. In
this satire we find references to the practice among poets of giving
public readings of their productions. “Macalonus will lend you his
palace and will provide some freedmen and some obliging friends to
applaud. But among all these, you will find no one who will furnish
you with means to pay either for seats in the parquet or orchestra, or
even for places in the gallery.”[224]
Or again, it is Statius who gives a reading of his Thebaïd.
“All the city comes to hear the reading. The audience is
enthusiastic and applauds vociferously. But Statius would
have died of hunger if he had not been able to sell to the
actor Paris his tragedy of Agave. Paris distributes military
honors and puts on the fingers of poets the ring of
knighthood. What the nobles do not give, an actor may
bestow.”[225]
The author of the dialogue on the decadence of oratory (attributed
to Tacitus) makes mention also of these public lectures or readings,
and of what they cost to a certain Bassus, for hiring a hall, for
programmes, and for outlays in getting an audience together.
Rogare ultro et ambire cogitur ut sint qui dignentur audire; et ne id
quidem gratis. Nam et domum mutuatur, et auditorium exstruit, et
subsellia conducit, et libellos dispergit.[226]
Apart from the use of authorship as a profession, it was of course
pursued by many as an agreeable means of beguiling leisure, the
results being harmless for posterity if not entirely so for the
neighbors of the writer. In this respect, Rome, in the third century,
was not very different from London or New York in the nineteenth.
The dilettante tragedian frequently restricted his literary ambition to
securing a hearing for his productions before an audience, whether
public or private, and did not venture to plan for his works any wider
publication.
There are not a few references to banquets at which the guests
paid for their dinners by listening, with due appreciation, to the latest
tragedy of their host.
In some instances at least the guests must have found occasion
really to value their literary as well as their gastronomic
entertainment, as not a few works which had been left by their
authors uncopied and uncared for, have been preserved for posterity
only through the care of admiring friends.
Donatus says that Virgil had planned before his death to burn his
Æneid, unwilling that it should be published without further revision,
and that the work was only saved by the commands of
Augustus.[227] Other writers, either by reason of dread of critical
opinion or from an extreme standard of thoroughness, kept their
manuscripts in their desks for a number of years after completing
them. As Catullus says, after publication there can be no thought of
further emendation. He speaks of one of Cinna’s volumes as given
to the world after the ninth winter (edita nonam post hiemem).[228]
This term of nine years happens to coincide with the advice of
Horace, that a literary work should be held back for nine years—
nonum prematur in annum,—for the word once published can never
be recalled.[229]
Pliny permitted his friend Saturninus to help him with the revision of
his Schedulæ, but is not even then assured that he will be satisfied
to permit them to come before the public: Erit enim et post
emendationem liberum nobis vel publicare vel continere—“and after
the revision of the books it still rested with us to decide whether to
publish them or to hold them back.”[230]
Fronto, who was tutor to Marcus Aurelius, had written a pamphlet
against a certain Asclepiodotus, and had arranged with a publisher
for the issue of an edition. Hearing later that Verus (the adopted son
of Antoninus Pius) was friendly to Asclepiodotus, he hastened to the
publisher’s office to cancel the publication, but finds, to his regret,
that he is too late, a number of copies having already gone out to the
public, curavi quidem abolere orationem, sed jam pervaserat in
manus plurimum quam ut aboleri posset.[231]
According to Birt,[232] the oldest book-shop—that is, retail book-
shop—known to have existed in Rome was that in which Clodius hid
himself (58 a.d.). Later, we find the stalls of the bibliopoles placed in
the most frequented quarters of the city, by the Janus Gate of the
Forum, by the Temple of Peace, on the Argiletum, in the Vicus
Sandalarius, and on the Sigillaria. Martial speaks in fact of the street
Argiletum as being chiefly occupied by booksellers, with whom,
curiously enough, he tells us, were associated the fashionable
tailors.[233] It would be pleasing to think that there was ever a time or
a city in which the buying of books was as much of a fashionable
diversion as the buying of clothes.
Both Horace and Martial speak of the book-shops as having
become places of resort where the more active-minded citizens got
into the habit of meeting to look over the literary novelties and to
discuss the latest gossip, literary or social. On the door-posts or on
columns near the entrance were placed the advertisements of recent
publications and the announcements of works in preparation. Martial
gives us the description as follows:

Contra Cæsaris est forum taberna


Scriptis postibus hinc et inde totis,
Omnes ut cito perlegas poetas.

····

De primo dabit alterove nido


Rasum pumice purpuraque cultum
Denariis tibi quinque Martialem.[234]

Birt finds evidences that before the close of the first century, the
book trade in Rome and through many portions of the Empire had
developed into large proportions. Each week the packets from
Alexandria brought into Rome great cargoes of papyrus from the
paper-makers of Alexandria. These papyrus rolls, first stored in the
warehouses, speedily find their way to the workrooms of the
publishers, where hundreds of skilled slaves follow with swift pens
the rapid dictation of the readers, who relieve each other from time to
time. Others occupy themselves with the work of comparison and
revision, while a third group, the glutinatores, cover the completed
manuscripts with appropriate bindings. In the book-shop, taberna,
are attractively presented for the attention of the scholars, the
dilettanti, the real collectors, and their fashionable imitators, the
collections of the accepted classics and of the latest literary
novelties. Here a cheap edition of the Æneid is sold for school use
for a few pennies; there great sums are expended for a veritable
“original” text of some work by Demosthenes, Thucydides, Cato, or
Lucilius[235]; while a third buyer is placing a wholesale order for a
“proper assortment” of literature to serve as an adornment for a new
villa.
From the Roman bibliopoles large shipments of books are also
regularly made to other cities, such as Brundisium, fasces librorum
venalium expositos vidimus in Brundisio,[236] or Lugdunum[237]
(Lyons), or Vienna (in Gaul).[238]
It seems also to have been the practice (which has not been
abandoned in modern times) to ship off to the provinces the over
supplies or “remainders” of editions of books which had in the capital
gone out of fashion. Aut fugies Uticam aut vinctus mitteris
Ilerdam.[239]
Notwithstanding this extreme activity of the business of making and
selling books, Birt is inclined to conclude that the lot of the poor
student must have been a difficult one.
Such libraries as existed in Rome and Italy had not been instituted
with reference to the work of students, as had been done with the
collections in Alexandria, and the Roman State appears in fact to
have given very little attention to the requirements of higher
education.
An author, named Diogenian, writing in the time of Hadrian,
undertook to supply the needs of the impecunious student of
philology, the πένης πεπαιδευμένος of Lucian, with his book entitled
περιεργοπένητες, which was so comprehensive in its information as
to enable its fortunate owner to “do without any other work on its
subject.”[240]
Birt concludes from certain references that the leading publishers in
Rome had during the beginning of the second century organized
themselves into an association for the better protection of their
interests in literary property, and that each member of such
association bound himself not to interfere with the undertakings of
his fellow-members. As Roman literature increased in commercial
importance, some such arrangement or undertaking was, of course,
indispensable, as in connection with the cheapening rates for the
labor of slave copyists, indiscriminate competition could only have
resulted in anarchy in the book-world, and have retarded indefinitely
the development of literature as a profession. Birt evidently had in
mind the existence of some such Publishers’ Commission as was
instituted by the book-trade of Leipsic in the 17th century, but it is not
likely that the Roman association succeeded in securing any such
definite and effective organization.
It is on record, however, that the publisher Tryphon claimed to
possess a legal control over the writings of Quintilian, while there is,
unfortunately, nothing to show by what means he was enabled to
retain such control.[241] Tryphon took credit to himself for having
persuaded the reluctant Quintilian to permit the publication of certain
works which would otherwise have been lost to posterity.[242]
Quintilian refers to Tryphon as a trusted friend, on whose judgment
he relied.[243] Tryphon was also one of the numerous publishers of
Martial.[244]
The name of the librarius Dorus, mentioned by Seneca as a
contemporary of his own, is worthy of note because he was one of
the earliest buyers of publishing rights or copyrights. Seneca
understands, namely, that Dorus had purchased from the heirs of
Atticus and from those of Cicero the publishing rights and the
“remainders” of the editions of Cicero’s works.[245]
An ownership was claimed by the State in the Sibylline books, but
this was of course never exercised in the form of a publishing right. It
is related, however, that the duumvir Attilius suffered the punishment
of death, adjudged to a parricide, because, being charged with the
custody of the Sibylline books, he suffered Petronius Sabinus to
copy some portions of the same. This might be called an
infringement of a copyright vested in the State, but in the regard of
the Roman law the deed was evidently considered simply as a
sacrilege.[246]
Suetonius relates, in his Life of Domitian, an instance in which the
Emperor administered, on the ground of certain objectionable
passages in a work of history, a penalty so severe that it is difficult to
accept the report as accurate. He says: Hermogenem Tarsensem
occidit propter quasdam in historia figuras; librariis etiam qui eam
descripserant cruce fixis. “He killed Hermogenes of Tarsus on
account of certain expressions in his history; even the booksellers
who had circulated the work were crucified.”[247]
If the account is correct, we have in this instance a very early
application of the present usage in regard to the circulation of so-
called “libellous” matter. The bookseller of to-day no longer dreads
capital punishment at the hands of an irate monarch, but it is
perfectly possible for him to be forced into bankruptcy through the
penalties collected on account of the circulation (however
unwittingly) of volumes containing statements called by the law
“libellous.”
The principal customers of the booksellers were the schoolmasters
and the so-called “grammarians.” To these should be added, from
the beginning of the first century, an increasing number of libraries.
The first public library in Rome is said to have been founded as early
as 167 b.c., but it was not until the reign of Augustus that the Roman
libraries became important and that in the other cities also libraries
were instituted.
There was a library attached to the temple of Apollo on the Palatine
hill in Rome, which Simcox refers to as an humble imitation of the
Museum of Alexandria, but I do not know the date of its founding. It
is noted of Tibullus, who was usually indifferent to fame, that he
consented to send to this library a copy of his collected writings, and
there are other references from which it appeared that, either from
public spirit or from a desire for public appreciation, authors made a
practice of presenting copies of their books to this Palatine library,
and that in this way a considerable collection was brought together,
of which the public had the benefit; but it is certain that there was no
municipal or imperial enactment prescribing such presentation
copies, and it does not appear that any of the emperors took any
such active interest in furthering the development of literature and of
the literary education of the public as had been shown by the
Ptolemies of Alexandria.
In Rome there were, according to Birt, twenty-nine public libraries
founded between the reign of Augustus and that of Hadrian, while
there are various references to the public libraries of the smaller
cities. Aulus Gellius[248] speaks of the library in Tibur (the modern
Tivoli) in Herculis Templo satis commode instructa libris. Comum
(the modern Como) possessed a library given to it by Pliny.[249] The
Roman Athens had a public library connected with the College of the
Ptolemies, and the Emperor Hadrian founded a second.[250] Strabo
speaks with appreciation of the library of Smyrna.[251]
It appears probable that, at least for the first three or four centuries
after Christ, the larger proportion of the books contained in the public
libraries (as in the private collections) were in Greek. Cicero speaks
more than once of the fact that the Greek books were comparatively
plenty, while those in Latin were scarce.[252] Juvenal’s character, the
impecunious Cordus, “possessed but few books, and those in
Greek.”[253] Suetonius, in speaking of the restoration by Domitian of
the public libraries which had been burned by Nero, states that the
Emperor collected from all sources trustworthy texts and forwarded
them to Alexandria for use in the production of the many copies
required.[254] It is evident, in the first place, that at this time (about 90
a.d.) the supply of skilled copyists in Rome was still inadequate for
any such extended undertakings, and secondly, that there was
question merely of works in Greek, for Latin texts would hardly have
been sent to Alexandria.
Even without the aid of scholarly government supervision and of
liberal government appropriations, the public libraries of Rome and
of the leading cities of the provinces must have been of no little
importance in furthering the literary interests of the time, while they
rendered to posterity the important service of preserving not a few
works which would otherwise apparently have perished entirely. For
this latter service we are indebted, however, not only to the libraries
but to the vanity of the authors, who for the most part took pains to
place in one or more of the public libraries copies of their writings as
soon as published. Of certain works of which the originals have
disappeared, such knowledge as we have comes to us only in the
fragments given in the school readers, which for each generation of
young students were made up of extracts from the books of the
previous generation of writers.
Some of these “classical” readers of the period of the early Empire
were copied for use in the monastic schools of some centuries later,
but these were in large part speedily superseded by the collections
of legends and breviaries which came to be accepted as the proper
literature for the monastery and the convent.
In addition to the “grammarians” buying books for their professional
needs, and the city libraries purchasing for the public welfare, there
were, during the first two centuries, an increasing number of private
collectors, not a few of whom, however, bought books, not from any
scholarly interest, but simply because it became the fashion to do so.
Seneca speaks of great collections of books in the hands of men
who had never so much as read their titles.[255] Such purchases
must nevertheless have been important for the encouragement of
literary work in Rome. Many of the public baths were furnished with
libraries[255]; a country house could not be complete without a
library, says Cicero[256]; each one of the villas of Italicus, according
to Pliny, had its library[257]; Trimalchio, says Petronius,[258]
possessed no less than three. A statue of Hermes, found in Rome,
bears an epigram which speaks of βύβλοι in the grove of the Muses,
and which undoubtedly had been intended to be placed in the library
of some country villa.[259]
Among some of the larger private collections referred to are those
of the grammarian Epaphroditus, who possessed 30,000
volumes,[260] and of Serenus Sammoaicus, who is credited with over
60,000 volumes.[261]
The impecunious Martial, on the other hand, tells us that his own
collection comprised less than 120 rolls.[262]
We have already referred to the practical interest taken by Martial in
the details of bookselling. We find him quoting the authority of the
booksellers against certain critics, who were not willing to rank
Lucian as a poet of repute, and showing that after thirty years or
more there was still a steady demand for Lucian’s poetical works.
Martial takes the ground that continued popular appreciation is
sufficient evidence of literary repute, whatever the critics may say to
the contrary.[263]
The same satirist refers more than once to many amiable and
deserving authors, who, despite their talents, succeeded in reaching
no public at all other than the unhappy guests who learned from
experience to dread the admirable dinners which had to be paid for
by listening to literary productions. The practice of recitations on the
part of the host must have been quite general, if when no such
performance was intended it was considered desirable to mention
the fact in the invitations. Martial quotes himself as promising to
Stella in inviting him to dinner, that under no provocation will he be
tempted to recite anything, not even though Stella should recite his
own poem on the “Wars of the Giants.”[264]
Martial explains the inferiority of the literary production of the reign
of Domitian by the fact that there was no Mæcenas to give
encouragement to authors. All the great poets of the Augustan age
had, as he recalls, been placed in easy circumstances (as far as
they were not so already) either through the direct bounty of
Mæcenas or as a result of his influence over the Court. According to
the view of Martial, literature possessing any lasting value is
impossible without the leisure and freedom from care which comes
from an assured income. Mæcenas, and the fashion of subsidizing
literature initiated by him, appear in a crude way, in presenting
encouragement for literary work, to have supplied the place of a
copyright law.
There may, of course, often have been question as to what
constituted a “proper compensation” for a poetical effort. Tacitus
speaks of a certain Roman knight, C. Lutorius Priscus, who had won
some repute from a poem on the death of Germanicus. He
thereupon composed another poem on the death of Drusus (son of
Tiberius), who was at the time seriously ill, but who was perverse
enough to recover. Priscus had, however, already read his poem
aloud, after which he was promptly put to death under a vote of the
Senate, whether on account of the badness of the poem, or because
he had prophesied the death of the Prince, Tacitus does not
state.[265]
Juvenal joins with Martial in characterizing the writing of poetry as
an unsatisfactory profession, and hints more strongly than Martial
that the profession was spoiled by amateurs. He suggests as a
further ground for the absence of first-rate poetry, that all the
subjects had been exhausted, meaning, of course, all the
mythological subjects. He arrives at the conclusion that poetry and
literature in general are dying, and considers this is not to be
wondered at, since even if a man of letters makes a sacrifice which
ought not to be required of him, and turns schoolmaster, he will be
grossly underpaid, and often not able to recover the beggarly
pittance which will be due him.[266]
This inadequacy of the legitimate returns for literary work was
doubtless considered by Martial as a sufficient justification for
utilizing his unquestioned literary cleverness in ways not always
legitimate, for, as has been pointed out by Cruttwell, Simcox, and
others, not a few of the epigrams look like demands for blackmail.
“Somebody”—the poet declines to know who the somebody is—“has
given offence”; if the poet should discuss who, so much the worse
for somebody. He is full of veiled personalities of the most damaging
kind. He deprecates guessing at the persons indicated, but they
must have recognized themselves, and have seen the need of
propitiating a poet who was at once politic and vindictive. He insists
repeatedly upon his successful avoidance of all personal attacks,
while he had been lavish of personal compliments. He tells us
himself that these were not given gratis, and when somebody whom
he has praised ignores the obligation he receives, the fact is
published as a general warning. We cannot doubt that when Martial
wrote that “there were no baths in the world like the baths of
Etruscus,” and that “whoever missed bathing in them would die
without bathing,” he expected to be paid in some form or other for
the valuable advertisement he was giving to Etruscus.[267] In like
manner, when he answers numerous requests for a copy of his
poems with a reference to his bookseller, adding a jocose assurance
that the poems are not really worth the money, it is fair to assume
that the bookseller had paid something for the manuscript or that the
author had some continued interest in the sales.[268]
In being obliged by the narrowness of his means to watch thus
closely the sales of his booksellers, and in believing himself
compelled to pick up sesterces by writing complimentary epigrams or
threatening abusive ones, Martial may well have envied the assured
position of his contemporary Quintilian, who received from the
imperial treasury as a rhetorician a salary, which, with his other
emoluments, gave him an income of 100,000 sesterces (about
$4000). Quintilian appears to have been the first rhetorician to whom
an imperial salary was given.
It is evident that at this time the art of the rhetorician or reciter was
still one of importance. The great books of the Claudian period were
evidently written to be recited or to please a taste formed by the
habit of recitation.[269] After the reign of Claudius the noteworthy
works, with the exception perhaps of the Thebaïd of Statius, were
certainly written to be read. How many readers they found is a more
difficult thing to determine. There was certainly, on the part of some
writers at least, no lack of persistency. Labeo, the jurist (who died 13
a.d.), is credited, for instance (or should we say debited?), with the
production of no less than four hundred works.[270]
The average editions of works addressed to the general public are
estimated by Birt to have comprised not less than five hundred
copies, and in many cases a thousand copies.[271] Pliny, writing
about 60 a.d., makes reference to a volume by M. Aquilus Regulus
(a memoir of his deceased son), of which the author caused to be
made one thousand copies for distribution throughout Italy and the
provinces. Pliny thinks it rather absurd that for a volume like this, of
limited and purely personal interest, the piety and the vanity of the
author should have caused an edition to be prepared larger than that
usually issued of readable works.[272] Birt is of opinion that there is
sufficient evidence in the references of Horace, Propertius, Ovid,
Martial, and others, to show the existence of a well organized system
for the distribution and sale of books, not only in Italy, but throughout
the distant provinces of Gaul, Britain, Germany, and Scythia. Such a
distribution, even if restricted to the larger cities, would have been
impracticable with editions of much less than one thousand
copies.[273] In support of this view regarding a widespread
distribution of books, Birt quotes a passage from Pliny concerning
the service to literature rendered by Varro.
“Varro was unwilling that the fame of great men should
perish, or that the lapse of years should cause the
memory of their deeds to be lost. He took pains, therefore,
in the almost countless volumes of his writings, to
preserve for posterity sketches or studies of more than
seven hundred men who had won renown. Such a device
might well have aroused the envy of the Gods, for these
portraitures were not only thus ensured a permanent
existence, but they were distributed to the farthest corners
of the earth, so that the names of these heroes of the past
would, like those of the Gods themselves, be known in all
lands.”[274][275]
Varro, who was a contemporary of Cicero, appears to have
interested himself not only in biography, but in almost every
department of research. He is credited with forty-one books on
antiquities, seventy-six books of edifying dialogues, fifteen books of
parallel lives of illustrious Greeks and Romans, twenty-five books on
the Latin language, nine books on the “seven liberal arts,” fifteen
books on civil law, thirty political memoirs, twenty-two books of
speeches, one hundred and fifty satires, and a number of minor
works.[276] Such industry and versatility have few parallels in the
history of literature, although it is to be borne in mind that the author
was favored with length of days, and was able to be active in literary
work as late as his eighty-second year. It is evident, however, that
there must have been some measure of appreciation on the part of
the public and the publisher to have encouraged him to such long-
continued production.
Possibly the earliest instance of any practical interest taken by the
imperial government in furthering the distribution of literature for the
higher education of the public, is presented by an edict of the
Emperor Tacitus (275 a.d.), ordering that every public library
throughout the Empire should possess not less than ten sets of the
writings of his ancestor, Tacitus, the historian. His reign of two
hundred days was, however, too brief to enable him to ensure the
execution of his decree. It seems probable that if the aged Emperor
(he was in his seventy-fifth year when he came to the throne) had
been able to carry out his plan, posterity would not have had
occasion to mourn the disappearance of so large a portion of the
writings of the great historian.
Tacitus, the historian, was born about 60 a.d., in a small town of
Umbria. His father was of equestrian rank and a man of importance,
and it is interesting to note that the son, instead of being sent to
Athens for his education, as was so frequently done with well born
youths of the preceding generation, received his university training at
Massilia (the modern Marseilles), which by the close of the first
century had become an important centre of literature and education.
The supremacy of Athens in influencing the higher education of Italy
had come to a close, and the centre of intellectual life was moving
westward. Tacitus was evidently a man of no little versatility of
power. Before achieving lasting fame through his histories and
essays, he had won distinction as a lawyer and as an orator, and
had served with dignity and success as prætor and consul. He is
spoken of as a graceful poet, and was believed also to have been
the author of a clever volume of Facetiæ.
His History was published some time during the reign of Trajan, in
some thirty books, of which less than five have been preserved. His
second historical work was published a few years later, in sixteen
books, under the title of Annals, and of this about nine books have
been preserved. The frequent references to these two works and to
the well known essay on the Germans, in the writings of the
contemporaries and successors of Tacitus, show how important a
position they occupied in the literature of the Empire, and show also
that copies of them were distributed widely throughout the known
world. We have unfortunately no details whatever concerning the
method of their publication, and no references to the publishers to
whose charge they were confided.
If Tacitus had only, like Martial, been an impecunious writer, we
should probably have found in his correspondence with his friend
Pliny, or in other of his writings, some mention of his publishing
arrangements and of the receipts secured through the sale of his
works. It is evident, however, that his official emoluments were
sufficient to free him from any necessity of making close calculations
concerning earnings by his pen, and it is even possible that he
permitted the fortunate publishers, whoever they were to reserve to
themselves the profits, which ought to have been considerable,
arising from the sales of these important and popular works.
Notwithstanding the gradual decline of Athens towards the close of
the second century as a centre of higher education, Greek continued
to be throughout the Empire the language not only for many
philosophical and scholarly undertakings, but for not a few works
planned for popular reading. I mentioned that Massilia (Marseilles)
had been selected as the place where the young Tacitus could
secure to best advantage a refined education, but Massilia, although
a thousand miles from Greece, was a Greek city. It is probably not
too much to say that throughout the Roman world, wherever a town
came into distinction in any way as a place of intellectual activity and
of literary life, it would be found to have possessed a large Greek
element. The Greek brains must have served as yeast for the
intellectual substance of the Roman world.
Suetonius, writing, about 150 a.d., his work Ludicra, comprising
treatises on the sports and public games of the Greeks and Romans,
gave the work to the public in both Greek and Latin. The Meditations
of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, written about 170 were issued only in
Greek. Simcox says:
“From the reign of Hadrian onwards until the translation
of the Empire to the East, the intellectual needs of the
capital, such as they were, were supplied by the eastern
half of the Empire; all the upper classes learned Greek in
the nursery, and it was the language of fashionable
conversation ... all people who professed to be serious
entertained a Greek philosopher. Their only reason for
keeping up Latin literature at all was that the cleverest
people who had received a literary education wished to be
poets or historians or orators, an ambition which was
sustained by the competitions endowed by Domitian and
by the professorships which were founded by his
predecessors and successors.”

You might also like