Diversity and Ethics in the Workplace - Assignment Example

Answers 1. Globalization is the process of interactional and integration of businesses, governments and people from different nations in an international scale. This interaction has taken place in three phases since the 1492 where only countries were interacting. The second phase of this process was between 1800 and 2000 with business organisations interacting. The current phase is the integration and spread of information through informational technology. The globalization process has given rise to several issues such as lack of human resources: there is an increase dependency on technology. Further, the cultural differences have constrained the organizational behavior. 2. Diversity in the context of a workplace relates to the existence of multiple differences among members of an organization in terms of age, gender, sexual orientation, career experiences and geographical differences. This diverse state has been proven to have an added advantage to a company hence its increase uptake. The diversity factor has become important in companies because of the legal structure in the operating countries that protect minority groups; pressure from competitors and the need to compete on a level ground; globalization and internal business increase that encompass different cultures; the need to have different opinions in management. 3. Ethics is the principles that guide the choice of what a person considers right or wrong behavior. Ethical behavior is there the process of applying these principles in making decisions. These choices in the workplace are unique to the individual but also are influenced by the cultural background of the individual; organizational codes of practice and policies; political, economic, legal and social developments in the world over. An ethical situation in the organization would be hiring an unqualified woman over a qualified male candidate on the basis of gender equality. We will make the decision based on whether it is right, legal, and acceptable in the organization and the severity of the consequences of the decision. 4. The corporate social responsibility of any organization is the initiatives that the company undertakes in order to protect the wellbeing of employees, the community and the environment which are required by law or otherwise. These initiatives have an impact not only on the image of the company but also on its financial performance following an increase motivation for the employee motivation and performance. Some of these activities may include 5. A learning organization is organizations that provides for an environment where employees and the managers as well van learn from each other. The main differences between this form of organization and the traditional organization are in the different functions of the organization. Unlike in the traditional form where the management gives the vision and provides the ideas to be implemented , the learning organisations has a shared vision and the management only responsibility is ensuring it is followed while all ideas are implemented at every level of organization. The traditional organization presents a hierarchy in how conflicts are solved and control given (everyone reports to management and is under the management control) while the learning organization is usually offers a flatter organizational structure (management provides empowerment to employees). 6. Organizational culture is the established values and norms that the organization applies to guide their behavior within the context of the organization. This culture also includes the standards of behaviour that the organization expects from the newcomers that come to the organization. These cultures have particular characteristics such as: strict guidelines; philosophy that summarizes the organisations beliefs; shared values; norms that spell out the standard of behavior; organizational climate that has been agreed to by each member of the organization. The culture usually develops in the steps: the organization is founded; the founder gets other members; the members create an organization; other members are brought in following the same culture of the founding members. 7. Pay and compensation is considered be an organization reward but its effectiveness in promoting performance is subjective to the organization and the individual. The general impact is that the more money is paid as salary, the higher the motivation for the employee to work harder. However, the amount of CEO pay does not usually imply the performance of the company especially if there is a disparity between their pay and the employees. Employees feel it is unfair to them thus reducing their motivation and the effectiveness of pay as an organizational reward. 8. The use of recognition rewards as a part for organizational reward system in increasing replacing financial rewards. This increase results from the increase motivation from such rewards; improved performance and loyalty; employee retention. Such programs are preferred over money because money has been found never to be enough and the more people have the more they want and the increase in payments could later harm the company’s finances. Research has also shown that employees to be willing to take a pay cut in order to pursue their passion: an indication that money is not motivation enough. 9. The definition of personality takes many forms depending on perspective that is looked at. It encompasses all the characteristics that an individual has that form the individual’s unique character. These elements include how the person affects others and how they understand themselves; the person’s inner and outer traits; the person situation interaction. The ability of people to understand themselves is referred self- concept while the person situation element refers to the external environment and the other people in which the person exist. 10. The big five personality traits describe traits that have been used to summarize the different personalities that are present in the world based on theory. These traits can be summarized as: conscientiousness; emotional stability; agreeableness; extraversion; openness to experience. All these traits have an impact on how the person performs since they are intertwined together especially at work. However, the dominant trait in performance influence is the conscientiousness because employees with this trait tend to have high performance expectations, set goals and find job fulfillment. The management needs the information and knowledge of the personality trait of the employee in order to place the employee in the cost effective department. For example, the extroverted personalities have been proven to perform better in the sale and management. 11. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), based on the theory developed by Carl Jung, resulting in 16 personalities traits. There are four main traits: introversion/extroversion which shows where one gets their energy; intuiting/sensing showing how one gets their information; feeling/thinking implying how decisions are made; judging/perceiving relating to the outside world. The use and appli8cation of the MBTI personality traits depends on the understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of each trait and a combination of the four traits. The personality test results can be used to predict job performance of a particular trait. 12. Job satisfaction relates to the pleasure that one derives from an appraisal of the persons work or from fulfilling the work itself. It includes the emotional response, meeting or exceeding expectations and the attitude towards the job itself. This pleasure is influenced and affected by the characteristics of the work, the amount of pay or remunerations attached to the position, opportunities of promotions, extent of supervision in the work position, the colleagues or team with which the individual works and the working conditions. 13. Motivation is process by which a need results in an activity that is aimed at achieving a goal. The process basically involves the identification of a need (physiological or psychological) prompting the development of a drive (physiological or psychological) that is aimed to achieving the goal/incentive (that alienate the need). The needs can either be physiological or psychological need. The physiological are needs that relate to the body and include hunger or deprivation of basic needs. Psychological needs are needs that relate to the mind such as lack of satisfaction or success. 14. Extrinsic and intrinsic motives differ depending on the source of the motive which could be either internal or external. Extrinsic motives are the external factors that are generated from the environment of the individual and are distributed by other people. They could include the work environments, benefits, and the surrounding people. Intrinsic motives on the other hand are internally generated and rely on the person’s judgements. Both the motives can operate at the same time tough research shows that extrinsic motive usually lowers the intrinsic motives. Motivators can have both motives such as is the case an athlete who strives to achieve not only as a personal achievement but also to receive the cash award and the fame that comes with winning. 15. Maslow’s theory of motivation shows there is a hierarchy of needs that each individual seeks to achieve and the person aligns their motivation based on this hierarchy. These needs, in ascending order, are: physiological needs; safety need; love needs; esteem needs; self-actualization needs. Using the theory in work motivation the hierarchical needs would be: basic needs such as pay; security in the work place through pension, insurance, work unions and employment plans; social needs within the workplace amongst the employees; esteem needs that come with status, position and title; self-actualization from professional growth. 16. Ideally, both Joe and Sam should be earning the same salary based on the equity theory. The ratio of pay to performance should be equal throughout the whole stream for the same job description. In order to reduce the inequity in the pay levels, it would be appropriate to pay both Sam and Joe based on their performance. In this case, Sam will receive a pay equal to his performance and less compared to Joe. 17. Procedural justice involves the application of fair procedures in making decisions on the workplace. The equity theory promotes that the performance and satisfaction in the job is determined by the level of equity or lack thereof. The inclusion of the procedural justice therefore, based on equity theory promotes this performance and motivation of workers. Study also shows that employees who though their pay as being fair performed better than those who did not. The justice system is also important as it reduces the discrimination tendencies in decision making thus promoting equality between the workers. Research also found that procedural justice involves the employee and the organization rather than a single individual in the company. 18. The control theory depends on the perception of the employee on how much control they have in their job and the theory implies that this perception has an impact on the employee satisfaction and absenteeism. The agency theory is founded on the assumption that the principals (management) and the agents (employees) motive are usually not aligned and the management is constantly making decisions in order to reduce these conflicts. The control theory implies that work motivation will be increased if the employee had more control while the agency theory alludes to a higher motivation in the event that conflicts are resolved. 19. Self-efficacy relates to the employees’ perception that the job or task at hand has been completed as pre the expectations. This confidence is goal commitment can be sourced from: performance attainment; vicarious experiences; social persuasion; physiological and psychological arousal. Employee efficacy and performance can be increased if previous attainment have led to success, other people’s determination have resulted in success, if the employee is persuaded that they ‘can-do’ the task and if the fulfillment of the task results in emotional pleasure. 20. The term paper will be a research on the relationship between pay/compensation and the work motivation of the top management employees. The focus will be to establish if the hypothesis that money has no material effect on the motivation and performance of employees is true. Since the topic is not a new subject, the research will take a quantitative approach and the data will be collected using the companies’ records and securities exchange, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. The research will also depend on previous research for its analysis. Read More