How Corporates Must Handle the Wave of #MeToo Allegations and Their Fallout
February 12, 2025
As #MeToo Turns Nearly A Decade Old, Time For Corporate America to Walk the Talk on D&I The viral #MeToo movement represented a “coming of age” for career women worldwide as they sought to highlight the pervasive sexual harassment and gender discrimination in workplaces the world over. The very success of #MeToo as a “spontaneous” […]
Power and Politics in Organizations Power and politics in organizations are a reality that no organization can ignore. Though the evolution of the modern corporation and the concomitant rise of the managerial class with a professional way of running the firms is touted to be one of the contributory factors for the decline on power […]
Workplace violence is easily the most misunderstood concept in the contemporary organizational context. This is because the term is misleading and whenever one mentions workplace violence, we conjure images of rioting and destruction as happened recently in the Maruti plant in Manesar, India or the Foxconn facilities in China. However, without discounting these incidents as […]
In this interconnected and integrated business landscape, aspiring leaders would be well advise to follow the simple rule that their organization is as strong as the weakest link and hence, they must ensure that all parts of the complex supply chain that make up their organization are equally strong. We can explain this by use […]
A sequence of sudden, unplanned and unexpected events leading to instability in the organization and major unrest amongst the individuals is called as crisis. Crisis generally arises on a short notice and causes major disturbances at the workplace. Leaders and managers play an extremely important role during crisis. One should lead from the front. Show […]
The previous articles in this module introduced the phenomenon of workplace violence with some contemporary examples. This article provides some pointers on how to avoid the same and prevent violent incidents from happening.
First, it should be noted that early signs of potential workplace violence should not be ignored and should not be left for another day. For instance, when workers demand higher compensation and threaten aggressively, the HR department and the Labor officer must immediately take note of the situation and try to resolve it at the earliest. Since workplace violence happens after a series of low intensity incidents that culminate in an outbreak of large-scale violence, it is better to spot the signs early and then take corrective action before it is too late.
Next, whenever workers or the unions demand more benefits or complain against the working conditions, the HR department and the Labor officer should not be complacent or dismiss the demands lightly.
In the case of the 2012 incident in Manesar (India) involving the workers of the Maruti plant, such demands were pending before the management for a long time, which tried to address them by either coercing the workers or by derecognizing the unions.
The point here is that violence manifests after all possible avenues for reconciliation are exhausted and hence, it is in the interest of both sides to not ignore the initial moves towards rapprochement. Either the best way to deal with the lurking fear of violence is to address the demands forcefully or by deploying additional security, forces instead of letting the situation go out of hand.
Third, in cases where the unions or the workers adopt belligerent stand right from the beginning, it is better to take drastic action right away instead of letting the matter go out of hand and resulting in violence. For instance, companies can threaten to close the plants and move to other states or countries to make the unions see sense and come to the negotiating table. In the recent past, there have been instances around the world where the workers started to behave violently right from the time they put forward their demands, which were first ignored and then ultimately led to avoidable incidents.
Finally, the management must be fair to workers and try to redress their grievances by recognizing the legitimate unions and then bringing them to the negotiating table.
The point here is that management must not give scope to undesirable elements taking advantage of the situation and exacerbating the same. This has been proved repeatedly in the case of management union disputes where outside elements saw an opportunity to create trouble and instigated the workers to violence. Moreover, the government has a duty towards the company and the workers as well and hence, it should play a proactive role in bringing both sides together and not let the situation go out of hand.
It must be remembered that for countries like India to grow and prosper, a healthy manufacturing base is needed that entails cooperative work environment free from violence and a cohesive organizational culture that takes into account all the needs of the stakeholders.
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