HOW LAWSUITS FILED AGAINST PUBLIX CAN AFFECT EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION

Introduction
Publix is the sixth largest supermarket chain in the United States and the largest employee-owned supermarket chain in the country, it is a privately-held company which operates stores in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee. This supermarket chain was founded by George W. Jenkins in 1930 in Winter Haven, Florida, and currently operates 1073 supermarkets, 8 distribution centers and 5 manufacturing facility employing in excess of 162,000 employees.
(figure 1.) Store Locations * Florida - 755 * Georgia - 180 * Alabama - 55 * South Carolina - 48 * Tennessee - 35 | Distribution Centers * Boynton Beach, FL * Miami, FL * Deerfield Beach, FL * Orlando, FL * Jacksonville, FL * Sarasota, FL * Lakeland, FL * Lawrenceville, GA | Manufacturing Facilities * Atlanta, GA - Bakery Plant * Deerfield Beach, FL - Dairy Plant, Fresh Foods * Jacksonville, FL - Fresh Foods * Lakeland, FL - Bakery Plant, Dairy Plant, Deli Kitchen, Fresh Foods, and Printing Services * Lawrenceville, GA - Dairy Plant |

Publix Supermarket’s sales in 2012 were $27.5 billion this represented increase of 3.8 percent over 2011 sales and placed net earnings $1.6 billion, up 4% from 2011. Publix’s sales for the first half of 2013 were $14.5 billion, a 5 percent increase from last year’s $13.9 billion.
In pursuit of achieving its mission statement “Our Mission at Publix is to be the premier quality food retailer in the world.” Publix has focused on delivering customer value and customer service. They have enjoyed much success in this regard with the following being touted as among its achievements in this regard on the company’s website: * Scored higher than any other supermarket for customer satisfaction in a national survey conducted by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (1995-2013) * Highest rank among supermarkets in RealPeopleRatings.com, conducted by Corporate Research International (2007-2009) * Ranked as one of BusinessWeek magazine's list of the top 25 Customer Service Champs (2007-2010) * Awarded the "Customers' Choice Award" by the National Retail Federation Foundation (2010)
Publix is a company that is viewed as a very good company with regard to its customers, employees and the wider community, it enjoys high customer and employee loyalty and are regarded as good corporate citizens, particularly with regard to promoting environmentally sustainable practices and charity.

LEGAL WOES
As with every large corporation Publix Super Markets Inc. has been faced with its share of legal challenges to its modus operandi. For this paper I will focus on three class action lawsuits that have been filed against the company, two of which they have settled out of court and the third is ongoing.
In 1995 eight women, current and former employee, sued Publix claiming that the chain clustered women in what was considered typical jobs for women (e.g. cashier, delicatessen, and bakery jobs) and denied them promotions and equal pay to men. The U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission joined the sex discrimination law suit later that year and in March 1996 United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area.
..... Click the link for more information. District Judge Henry Adams rule that the case could move forward as a class action lawsuit. Publix's argument that women are overrepresented o·ver·rep·re·sent·ed adj. Represented in excessive or disproportionately large numbers: "Some groups, and most notably some races, may be overrepresented and others may be underrepresented"
..... Click the link for more information. in traditional female jobs because they choose to work was rejected by Justice Adams, the court held that "Publix does not post job openings. Instead, it relies on the `tap on the shoulder' system in which managers subjectively determine which of their employees should be chosen for the position.” The decision to grant the suit class action status meant it was the largest sexual discrimination law suit ever granted to that point of time. On the 30th December 2000 Publix agreed to pay $81.5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit which covered about 150,000 past and present female employees. The settlement was one of the largest ever in a sexual discrimination suit.
On March 25th 1999, Justice Adams was again involved with litigation connected to Publix, when he granted class-action status to a suit filed in April 1997 on behalf of 13 former and current Publix’s employees. The initial suit alleged that Publix fired an unusually high number of blacks and consistently overlooked or denied them promotions to blacks when compared to whites. By his ruling Judge Adams paved the way for nearly 50,000 former and current black employees of the supermarket chain to seek damages. On 29th December 2000 Publix agreed to pay $10.1 million to settle claims the company discriminated against employees based on race, there was however no admission of culpability.
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In April 2012, a class action lawsuit was filed in federal court in Panama City, Florida against Publix, by four department managers asserting they were improperly paid overtime (Castoro-Harrigan, et. al v. Publix, United States District Court, Northern District of Florida, Case No. 5:12-cv-113). This suit will extend to all present and former assistant managers, department managers and assistant department managers who worked for the store in the past three years.
At the root of complaint is the assertion that Publix failed to properly include the value of quarterly and year-end bonuses in the calculation of the manager's overtime. Additionally the managers asserts that they should be paid at a rate of “time and one-half” for their overtime hours, not the “half time” fluctuating work week method used by Publix. This suit is currently ongoing.

Problem Statement
In this paper I will examine how these lawsuits could affect the motivation of the Publix employees, and steps that can be taken to decrease the impact of such litigation on employee motivation.
In considering how employee motivation will be affected we must understand that opinions are formed and subsequent behavior is dictated by perception. “Perception is the process by which people select, organize, interpret, retrieve, and respond to information from the world around them.” Because perceptions are influenced by many factors different people will tend to view the same event differently, their subsequent behavior will be guided by their perception.
“Motivation refers to forces within an individual that account for the level, direction, and persistence of effort expended at work.” In considering how people are motivated several theories have been put forward which can be placed into two broad categories name content and process theories. Content theories are focused on individual needs and aim to explain an individual’s behavior at work based on pathways to need satisfaction and on blocked needs. The process theories on the other hand look at the thought processes that motivate an individual and influence their behavior.
In looking at the possible impact on motivation these lawsuit can have, I have chosen to apply the process theory, posited by J. Stacy Adams, the Equity Theory of Motivation

Literature Review

To research this topic I relied on material gleaned from the following sources -: a) Goodman, D. J. (201 I). Promoting Diversity and Social justice: Educating People From Privileged Groups (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge. In this book Goodman investigates the promotion of diversity and by extension social justice through the provision of education. She present characteristics of the privilege group and highlights how their behavior center on micro aggression and entitlement among other things. She highlights why the underclass might not challenge the status quo and indicates that the privileged class needs to be aware of how their behavior hurts them in the long run before change can be effected.

b) Mohammad Saeid Aarabi, Indra Devi Subramaniam & Abu Baker Almintisir Abu Baker Akeel, Relationship between Motivational Factors and Job Performance of Employees in Malaysian Service Industry, Asian Social Science; Vol. 9, No. 9; 2013, Canadian Center of Science and Education.

The authors of this article looked at the recent developments in service industry that have increased the need for motivating employees. They study the factors that affect motivation in and its association with job performance in Malaysian servicing organizations. They found that job performance was a dependent variable base on motivation through which included payment, job security, promotion, freedom, friendly environment and training. This study found that intrinsic motivational factors are considered more important compared to extrinsic motivational factors such as payment, job security, and friendly environment.

c) SUSHIL KUMAR AND MOHIT BHATARA, Motivation of Human Resources in Corporates, Volume 2, Issue. 4, Oct. 2012, Golden Research Thoughts.

This research paper was a quantitative analysis on the role salary and the availability of opportunity plays in determining how motivated employees are among the several factors that were highlighted the need for the recognition of professional capacity and efficiency of individuals was identified.

d) ROBERT M ANTHONY, A Challenge to Critical Understandings of Race, Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 42:30021-8308.

This Article looks at whites’ privileged placement within American culture and attempts to address the tendency to incomplete understandings of how social constructions are generated when doing critical race assessments and why they are used by racial identity groups in the process of making social comparisons. It looks at the notions of white normativity and white privilege, and the links that covert forms of racism are linked to these concepts. However it indicates African Americans are likely to embrace a societal privileged norm if they are included e.g. they are willing to endorse linguistic unity in the use of “English Only” rules in the workplace as whites, while Hispanics were more unlikely.

e) Federman, Brad, Employee Engagement: A Roadmap for Creating Profits, Optimizing Performance, and Increasing Loyalty, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 2009.

This book looks at the reasons why employee engagement is a necessary aspect in the optimization of performance. It highlights the dangers of generalization and the sets out a case for effective communication to achieve performance and loyalty.

f) John R. Schermerhorn, Jr., Richard N. Osborn, Mary Uhl-Bien, James G. Hunt, ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR, 2012, John Wiley & Sons.

This book is an organizational textbook that provides the information on the theoretical foundation of Organizational behavior including motivation and performance.

Analysis

jtsb_489 260..282
The lawsuits brought against Publix by former and current employees have one underlying the theme, that of discrimination. Firstly sexual discrimination where female employees were not promoted offered job or paid at the same rate when compared to their counterparts; secondly there is the element of racial discrimination cited in the second suit used in this paper where black employees were not promoted at the same rate of white employees and were fired in disproportionately for breaches to company policy and finally the is the suit that is ongoing that has its nexus in wage discrimination where the employees divisional managers and assistant managers alleged that their rate of pay for overtime work is not consistent with other worker even though their hours (overtime) are similar.

The history of corporate culture has shown that there was a structural element in corporations that perpetuated discrimination, so much so that the federal government saw it fit to enact laws (Equal Pay Act of 1963, The Civil Rights Act of 1964 specifically . Title VII, and amendments to Title VII afterwards such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972, Americans with Disabilities Act, passed in 1990, and the Civil rights act of 1991) to ensure that discrimination was curtailed.
The institutionalized structure of discrimination has its genesis in the roles miniorties played in the early history of this nation, Robert M. Anthony in his article “A Challenge to Critical Understandings of Race” attributes the perpetuation of this structure to the notions of white normativity and white privilege, which I would extrapolate to include gender.
Notwithstanding the fact that there are numerous legislations aimed at curtailing discriminatory behavior such behavior still exists and can have a serious impact on employee motivation and performance.
J. Stacy Adams argues in his equity theory “that any perceived inequity becomes a motivating state of mind” which will dictate a person’s behavior so that they restore or maintain equity in a given situation. The perception of the litigants in all the Publix cases cited was an element of unfairness in their working conditions vis-à-vis the privileged class be it men, whites, non-management workers. Adams argues that this perceived inequity will lead to feelings of being under-rewarded and affect the employees view of Organizational justice (how fair and equitable people view workplace practices) and Distributive justice (degree to which all people are treated the same under a policy).
KUMAR and BHATARA in their article “Motivation of Human Resources in Corporates” stated a key motivational factor for employees was “the recognition of professional capacity and efficiency of individuals”
The fact that the Publix organization had such negative factors that could have affected motivation meant that the performance of the dissatisfied class of workers was not maximized. The Integrated Model of Motivation established a clear linkage between the effort, performance and rewards relationship. See figure 2.1

Figure 2. 1
The perpetuation of this type of discriminatory environment can lead to performance issues which can affect a company’s overall goals.

Solutions
The solution to the problems highlighted in the paper lie with the willingness of the organization break away from the structural discrimination that existed when the company was formed and as it grew and minimize the discrimination through the implementation of systems that level the playing field by providing promotions and payment based a fair performance based scheme that is disseminated throughout the organization. An effort must be made also to make their management pool more reflective of the national population and the communities which they serve. With regard to the ongoing overtime dispute there should be an effort made to full compensate the managers in questions for their time through the use of intrinsic or extrinsic rewards or some combination of the two.
The company should also pursue a policy of ensuring the minority community (Females and Racial Minorities) are fully integrated into the corporate culture through ongoing outreach to the affect groups until they are fully assimilated in the organizational culture.
Reflection
Through the research and compilation of the assignment, I gained some insight to what many consider institutionalized discrimination, even given the laws that exist on the books there is still some undercurrent of it. This has caused me to review my outlook, to ensure that I am not taking for granted my expectation that this pattern of behavior has been eradicated. Given the number of high profile women and minorities one can see on a daily basis it is easy to forget that this equality has not fully trickle down, I must continually work to ensure that my decision are fair and just and that none of my preconceptions interfere with my judgment.

References

a) Goodman, D. J. (201 I). Promoting Diversity and Social justice: Educating People From Privileged Groups (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.

b) Mohammad Saeid Aarabi, Indra Devi Subramaniam & Abu Baker Almintisir Abu Baker Akeel, Relationship between Motivational Factors and Job Performance of Employees in Malaysian Service Industry, Asian Social Science; Vol. 9, No. 9; 2013, Canadian Center of Science and Education.

c) SUSHIL KUMAR AND MOHIT BHATARA, Motivation of Human Resources in Corporates, Volume 2, Issue. 4, Oct. 2012, Golden Research Thoughts.

d) ROBERT M ANTHONY, A Challenge to Critical Understandings of Race, Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 42:30021-8308.

e) Federman, Brad, Employee Engagement: A Roadmap for Creating Profits, Optimizing Performance, and Increasing Loyalty, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 2009.

f) John R. Schermerhorn, Jr., Richard N. Osborn, Mary Uhl-Bien, James G. Hunt, ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR, 2012, John Wiley & Sons.

g) http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/blog/publix-unpaid-overtime-class-action-what-is-chinese-overtime-09916.html

h) http://www.progressivegrocer.com/inprint/article/id2735/artimages/PG/PG052012_table38.pdf

i) http://www.publix.com/about/FactsAndFigures.do

j) http://www.publixstockholder.com/servlet/ProxyServlet?path=/stockholder/NewsItem.do&newsReleaseItemPK=6355

k) http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/31/us/national-news-briefs-10.1-million-settlement-offered-in-race-bias-suit.html?ref=publixsupermarketsinc

l) http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/articles/overtime/overtime-pay-laws-rules-47-17666.html#.Umag0i7D_4g

m) http://blogs.ajc.com/business-beat/2012/04/20/publix-sued-over-overtime-pay

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[ 2 ]. http://www.publix.com/about/FactsAndFigures.do
[ 3 ]. http://www.publixstockholder.com/servlet/ProxyServlet?path=/stockholder/NewsItem.do&newsReleaseItemPK=6355
[ 4 ]. http://www.thefreelibrary.com/FEDERAL+COURT+CERTIFIES+LARGEST+EVER+CLASS+ACTION+IN+PUBLIX+SEX...-a018082157
[ 5 ]. http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/31/us/national-news-briefs-10.1-million-settlement-offered-in-race-bias-suit.html?ref=publixsupermarketsinc
[ 6 ]. http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/articles/overtime/overtime-pay-laws-rules-47-17666.html#.Umag0i7D_4g
[ 7 ]. http://blogs.ajc.com/business-beat/2012/04/20/publix-sued-over-overtime-pay/
[ 8 ]. H. R. Schiffmann, Sensation and Perception: An Integrated Approach, 3rd ed. (New York: Wiley, 1990).