Managing Corporate Culture, Employee Motivation, and Workforce Diversity - Coursework Example

What are the considerations of managing corporate culture, employee motivation and workforce diversity effectively? Name of Student: Name of Course: Name of Instructor: Date of Submission: What are the considerations of managing corporate culture, employee motivation and workforce diversity effectively? Introduction The management of modern organizations has undergone sharp transformations as compared to the past. This is owing to the new management challenges which come up worth time. With increased competition, there is a need for organizations to come up with the most appropriate management structures which enable them to embrace sustainably hence remain relevant in the market. Some of the major management issues in the modern organizations include management of the corporate culture, employee motivation and the management of diversity. The following essay will give a deep insight into these three management functions and will borrow heavily from three course readings namely: Rethinking Organizational Behavior by Jackson, N. and Carter, P.‘Can culture be managed? Working with “raw” material: the case of the English slaughtermen’ by Ackroyd, S. and Crowdy, P and ‘Subtle (and Not So Subtle): Discrimination in Organizations’ by Dipboye, R. And Halverson, S. The arguments in these articles will form the basis for the arguments in the essay. Managing Corporate Culture Corporate / organizational culture is a set of practices, beliefs and values which an organization upholds (Brewis 2006, p.347). The type of corporate culture which an organization upholds determines the degree of success in it. The article by Ackroyd, S. and Crowdy, P titled Can culture be managed? Working with “raw” material: the case of the English slaughtermen’. The article aims at identifying the abilities of organisational human resource management to manage the corporate culture of an organisation. Key to the man argument in the paper is the analysis whether a corporate culture is a set of values and beliefs in an organisation or it is occupational culture. The article analyses a case study on slaughtermen in the abattoir environment. The nature of the occupation of slaughtermen is to slaughter animals via a process which is focussed on disassembling animal carcasses. The raw material in the slaughterhouse is animals while the output is meat. Their work is highly repetitive and considered to be dirty work by the outside world owing to the direct contact with blood and animal waste (Acroyd & Crowdy n.d, p.4). Their work environment is sometimes regraded to being lacking in morals owing to the killing of innocent animals which usually takes place in the slaughter houses. Self management is upheld is slaughterhouses as opposed to the conventional central management. New and young workers in the industry are often prone to harassment from the older staff owing to their lack of skills in performing their tasks. Given the nature of their work, it can be pointed out that the high levels of performance and commitment by the slaughtermen is based on occupational culture. Firstly, the slaughtermen are able to self manage themselves. This is appropriate in such an environment since they are able to divide tasks according to the individual capabilities of the members making up the team. Secondly, the slaughtermen have a high regard for hard work. On this point, it is important to note that hard work is one of the major factors which influence the ability of a team to be able to achieve its objectives. There exists some form if harassment in the work environment of the slaughtermen. As outlined earlier, the senior slaughtermen often exerts a lot of pressure on their juniors, hence leading to harassment. The existence of gangs in the workplace is also a source of harassment in the workplace (Acroyd & Crowdy n.d, p.6). Degradation in the workplace occurs when several individuals in the workplace gang up against a single individual. This scenario is characteristic of many team efforts and is usually associated with the slaughterhouse environment. The wars in the industry are as a result of collective demonstrations; often geared up towards campaigning for a particular course. Lastly, the slaughterhouse work environment is also associated with several set pieces; which are things likes jokes and other statements which are made on a light note (Acroyd & Crowdy n.d, p.7). The harassments, demonstrations and wars have an effect of building the team identity in the work environment. They also have an effect on maintaining the power relationships in the gangs. The group identity and the power relationships in turn lead to self organisation management structure in the work environment. As outlined earlier in the paper, a corporate culture is a set of values, beliefs and practices which are upheld in an organisation (Brewis 2006,p.347). For this reason, a corporate culture is often regarded as one which enables an employee to connect his or her inner self with the vision of an organisation; hence leading to the realisation of the corporate common vision (Rose 1990, p.118). For this reason, it is important for the management of an organisation to manage culture effectively so a s to ensure that the organisation has an organisational culture which leads to the achievement of its goals and objectives. The corporate culture is strongly related to the real subornation of labour which is necessary for the thriving of capitalist organisations (Jaffee 2001, p.104). Real subordination enables an organisation to use managerial strategies to extract and control work leading to the so called surplus value from input. Formal subordination leads to the loss of control and ownership of the production means. Subordination of labour comes about as a result of increase in employee motivation which is a direct effect of a good corporate culture. For this reason, the corporate culture is essential in the achievement of crucial concerns in labour. Looking at the slaughterhouse case study, it can be acknowledged that the slaughtermen’s high commitment and performance is due to a great occupational culture. The employees have over time developed an appropriate culture which has had a positive impact on their commitment to their work hence their performance. If I were the manager with direct, legal, responsibility for these employees in this slaughterhouse, I would use my position to develop a works ethics policy in conjunction with the employees which would govern the health and safety issues such as medical care, sanitation, personal hygiene and basic standards and also on food hygiene. I would put in place a standards committee comprised of various stakeholders to govern the policy. In order to ensure that the changes are implemented and accepted in the workplace, I would use the corporate culture already in place to my advantage; self management and involving the employees in the decision making process. This point would be considered greatly since implementing change in a self managed workplace is a hard task. From this, it can be acknowledged that every workplace is different from the other in terms of complexity and cultural space hence the need for the stakeholders involved to take consideration of the variables so as to come up with the best strategies for implementing their goals. Employee Motivation The motivation of an employee influences his or her commitment towards working towards the achievement of an organization’s goals. For this reason, the organization has the responsibility of ensuring that its employees are well motivated so as to ensure that there are concerted efforts towards achieving the shared goals and objectives of the organizations (Knights & Roberts 1982, p.48). For the purposes of understanding this topic, the following book chapter from the book Rethinking Organisational Behaviour, Second Edition. London: Prentice Hall by Jackson, N. and Carter, P. Titled. Chapter 8 ‘The Self’ will be analysed. The main argument in the book chapter is on the self. The chapter seeks to related the life part of the individual self and work. In so doing, the authors argue that a happy and motivated self leads to a good performance. Strong religious belief often provides a meaning for people’s lives. Religion has a significant impact in the shaping of the lives of humans and societies; thus giving meaning to life. The belief in the supernatural being God, who has a divine purpose for each and every person on the planet is the basis of meaning of life; living so as to achieve something. Under religion, there are various values which are upheld under various sects (Jackson & Carter 2007, p.176). These values give meaning to life. This explains the reason as to why societies which do not uphold religion are associated with a shallower meaning of life. Religious implications on peoples’ relationship with work are something to ponder about. Although religion still has a significant influence on this relationship, it can be acknowledged that the ‘self’ is influenced by many other factors apart from religion. One of the factors which give meaning to the modern life is work. Owing to the fact that this world has turned to being a capitalist planet, every person is focussed on getting a piece of the planet; hence giving much value to work and employment as determinant of the meaning of life. This notwithstanding, it is worth noting than humans are spiritual beings in nature; hence the satisfaction of the inner self which is achieved through such practices as religion has a significant impact on giving meaning to life. According to Jackson & Carter (2007, p. 180), organizations perceive employees to e resources which should be used optimally by an organization. In line with this argument, it can be acknowledged that many organizations in the modern world view employees as assets to an organization; whose full potential should be exploited to the fullest. By doing so, organizations strive to ensure that they get the manpower, skills, knowledge and experience of the employee to their advantage. Rarely do these organizations give equal measures of rewards to the employees. Jackson & Carter give an account of living wage which is the minimum amount of remuneration which a human can survive in a specific region. in exploiting the human resources, organizations fail to reward their employees with a living wage; hence ensure that the employee remain at their organizations for sustenance. Under such a situation, the employees’ commitment to work is low and they are unable to find meaning in work since their efforts are not met by an equal pay. This explains he reasons as to why rewards and remuneration remain to be key factors in employee motivation. In conventional management, individuals are perceived to be manipulable and passive. Under this management approach, the self is perceived to be simple and easily knowledgeable (Jackson & Carter 2007, p. 175). However, contemporary social theory outlines that every self is different from the other and one which cannot be easily understood ; hence the need for organizational management to take time to fully understand the selves in the organization before they come up with strategies of motivating them. Personally, I feel that myself is complex as explained by the contemporary social theory. Sometime I don’t even understand my own self. I believe that there is a deeper meaning to life; whose full realizations is met when one understands his or her own self. For this reason, my motivation in the workforce would be to feel as part of the larger organization since from this, I would be contented that my concerns are opinions are highly regarded by my employer. According to Jackson and Carter,‘motivation to work is not about the desire to work, but about the desire to gain whatever incentives to work are available’ (Jackson and Carter 2007, p. 190). On this point, it can be acknowledged that employees are normally more focussed on the reward which exists after the fulfilment of a specific action. For this reason, the desire to work is not the basis of motivation, but the work- reward psychology mechanism. Jackson and Carter also point out that ‘motivation to work is inseparably the province of the self. This means that it is not possible for one person to motivate another’ Jackson and Carter 2007, p.191’. On this point, the authors outline that motivation is as a result of the satisfaction of the self. For this reason, the authors conclude that it is not possible for one person to motivate the other since the issue is about providence to the self whose non-existence alludes lack of motivation. As result of this, Jackson and Carter point out that ‘motivation cannot be managed when the principal objective of those who seek to manage it is to satisfy their own desires’ (Jackson and Carter 2007, 191)’. On this, it can be appreciated that the province to the self cannot be realised if the person responsible for motivation in an organisation is focussed on satisfying his or her selfish intentions; hence neglecting the needs of the individual selves in the organisation. Jackson and Carter also state that ‘‘it is not possible to separate out a worker from a person – people come as total packages and can only be understood as such. This also means that whatever is done to someone at work is done to them as a person’(Jackson & Carter 2007, 193). Explaining this statement, it can be appreciated that the self is made up of various elements in one package. All the elements in the single package are interrelated hence the need to take care of all of them equally so as to bring out the best from an individual. Managing Diversity With increased globalization, organizations have been compelled to source for human resources from various parts of the world so as to meet their workforce needs (Konrad 2003, p.6). As a result of this, modern multinational companies are normally comprised of a diverse workforce which has posed various challenges to human resource management. For this reason, the management of organizations has been forced to come up with appropriate measures of enabling them to manage diversity effectively. On diversity management, this essay will discuss chapter 5 of the book ‘The Dark Side of Organizational Behaviour’ titled ‘Subtle (and Not So Subtle) Discrimination in Organizations’. The main argument of the book chapter is on inequality in the workplace. The authors focus on discrimination in the workplace and use the United States situation to analyse the trends and make appropriate arguments. Linking it with the sub topic under discussion, it is worth noting that the book chapter provides a platform for the linking of the relationship between various managerial practices such and culture management and discrimination. The authors define unfair discrimination as discrimination which is based on factrs which do not account for the competency or suitability of an individual to perform a certain task (Dipboye & Halverson 2004, p.131). Although most developed societies have formal norms of equality and anti-discrimination, Dipboye and Halverson argue that inequality (and discrimination) is still widespread in the workplace. Taking the employment of women as an example, the percentage of women CEOs in the fortune 500 companies is 4% (Dipboye & Halverson 2004, p.135).In 2001, women’s weekly earnings were 0.76 that of men. The gap between the women and men managers is widening in 70% of all industries (Dipboye & Halverson 2004, p.135). According to Dipboye & Halverson, there exists two types of discrimination namely blatant and subtle discrimination. Blatant discrimination is open discrimination against which charges can be presses such as racial discrimination. On the other hand subtle discrimination is as a result of an individual allowing him / herself to feel discriminated. It is as a result of submission. According to Ackroyd and Crowdy, workplace sub groups are powerful in shaping the organisational culture (Acroyd & Crowdy n.d, p.6). The groups are responsible for the creation and development of values, practices and beliefs in an organisation, hence the need for their appropriate management. On the other hand, Dipboye & Halverson acknowledge that group pressures have an impact on influencing discrimination which is a part of corporate culture. The need to belong is key to group pressures hence the need for the development of an appropriate corporate culture (Dipboye & Halverson 2004, p.147). It is important senior managers to exhibit behaviours which either contribute or combat discrimination in the workplace (Dipboye & Halverson 2004, p.146). This aids in transformational leadership in the organisation. Senior managers should be selected so as to be representative of the demographics in an organisation. An all-inclusive senior management ensures that all the parties in an organisation are equally represented; hence being able to combat discrimination problems. The employment of women so as to get a source of cheap labour for organisations as illustrated by (Dipboye and Halverson 2004, p. 147) is not an example of a diversity policy since it is not based on the good will of integrating women into a workforce. For this reason, there is a need for the management to strike out a good relationship between corporate culture and diversity in organisations. Drawing from Dipboye and Halverson, the organisational culture should stress the need for a team spirit aimed at enhancing positive discrimination in an organisation (Dipboye and Halverson 2004, p. 152). Therefore, it can be acknowledged that there is a strong relationship between corporate culture and diversity in organisations. From Dipboye and Halverson arguments, it can be appreciated that equal opportunity missions can enable discriminatory behaviour in the organisation since they lead to the employment of people with a certain characteristics owing to the specific selection method used for all the applicants. Conclusion The essay has been able to give a deep insight into various considerations in the management of an organization with respect to the management of corporate culture, the motivation of employees and the management of diversity. It was identified that the corporate culture is comprised of values, beliefs and practices which are collectively upheld in an organization. The corporate culture has an important role of influencing the success of an organization. On the other hand, it was identified that employee motivation influences his or her performance. On this point, the essay discussed about the self, whose understanding enables an organization to motivate its employees effectively. Lastly, the essay gave a deep insight into the management of diversity. It was acknowledged that diversity is a major challenge to modern organizations owing to growing globalization. For this reason, the management of organizations should come up with amicable solutions to its management in organizations. From the essay, it has come out strongly that the management has the fundamental role of enabling organizations manage their corporate cultures effectively, motivate their employs and manage diversity well. References Acroyd, S., & Crowdy P., n.d. Can Culture Be Managed? Working With ‘Raw’ Material. Personnel Review, pp. 3- 14 Brewis, J. 2006. ‘Culture’ in Knights, D. and Willmott, H. (Eds.) Introducing Organisational Behaviour and Management London: Thompson. Dipboye, R. And Halverson, S. (2004) ‘Subtle (and Not So Subtle): Discrimination in Organizations’ in Griffin, R. and O’Leary-Kelly, A. (Eds.) The Dark Side of Organizational Behavior, Wiley, San Francisco. Jackson, N. and Carter, P. (2007) Rethinking Organisational Behaviour Second Edition, Prentice Hall, London. Jaffee, D. 2001. Organization Theory: Tension and Change McGraw Hill, Boston. Knights, D. and Roberts, J. 1982 ‘The Power of Organization or the Organization of Power’ Organization Studies. Vol.3, No.1, pp. 47-63 Konrad, A. 2003. Special Issue Introduction: Defining The Domain Of Workplace Diversity Scholarship’ Group & Organization Management 28 (4): 4-17. Rose, N. 1990. Governing the Soul: The shaping of the private self, London; Routledge Read More