Hurricane Rita: Case Study Disaster
1. Hurricane Rita affected a vast number of external environment factors as this natural disaster triggered the process of massive destruction that resulted in the serious hindrances of the functioning of the city infrastructure. It deeply influenced the situation in the labor market, as well as the legislative framework of Lake Charles. The performance of the communal services decreased as well, as the trucks that had to clean the debris left out after the hurricane caused the traffic jams. There was a significant tension in the work of the communal services of Lake Charles as the repair crews and the emergency services had an immense scope of tasks that could not be postponed. The changes in the legal environment that were triggered by Hurricane Rita embraced the new frameworks of scheduling and wages. The financial environment was subject opt changes as well, as according to the case study, the minimum-wage jobs became non-existent, and average workers started getting higher salaries.
2. Hurricane Rita had a deep impact on the functioning of the city infrastructure and communal services, thus affecting the labor market as well, human resources field in particular. It is evident from the case that the situation of local businesses and entrepreneurship worsened in general terms. The predominant majority of the business enterprises operating in Lake Charles area faced the problem of underemployment, as there were no enough human resources to fill in the existing gaps in the quantity of companies’ staff. Therefore, the framework of human resources changed significantly, as the managers had to utilize all means to recruit new professionals. To exemplify this statement, it is possible to refer to the fact that HR managers started hiring the workers regardless of their professional expertise and relevant working experience in the respective field. Also, the level of remuneration changed dramatically, as low-qualified workers started earning higher minimum average wages per hour. These HR policies were predetermined by the fact that the companies needed to hire new professionals immediately to start the process of recovery and to get back on the market without any prolongations. Thus, HR managers had to seek for all existing human resources in the area and offer them higher salaries without paying due regard to the expertise of the candidates. Although it could trigger bigger troubles and underperformance, the companies had to take that step to save their position in their respective market niches by all means.
3. It might be true that such HR situations might be typical when it comes to the cases of such disasters like that of Hurricane Rita. The companies can issue leniency policies in terms of professional background of the potential employees who seek for new jobs in these organizations. In the times of natural disasters, it often happens that the economic situation deteriorated significantly as the normal functioning of the area becomes disrupted (Azimi & Shirazi, 2014). Thus, as there can be a severe lack of the workers and the area can suffer from …
