“Workplaces nowadays are more open and tolerant “. Do you agree?
“Workplaces nowadays are more open and tolerant “
The statement that “Workplaces nowadays are more open and tolerant” is true and this essay explains why above statement is true. It supports above arguments with facts and shows various examples which clearly depict that workplaces today have become more open compared to past also they have become more tolerant overtime. The essay is supported by past research related to it as explained below.
Legge (n.d.) emphasized that Human resource management related policies and procedures of the firm must be in line with the company’s strategy as they can have an impact towards achieving firm’s objectives. Also these human resources policies if properly developed can be a source of competitive advantage for the firm. Furthermore these policies can be source of cultivating flexibility among employees to achieve the fundamental goals and objectives. Hence HR policies are seen as an effective tool towards achieving firm’s mission, this argument also explains the importance of human resource department in today’s dynamic world.
Each company today has an HR department and effectiveness of which will definitely impact profitability of the company. HR department particularly performs different functions including satisfying employees; today workplaces are more open as employees are given freedom. They are expected to perform but flexibility is also given to employees which are dependent upon organizations strategy (Legge, n.d.).
Furthermore Ackroyd and Crowdy (1990), argue that work related behavior is influenced by external factors that are outside of an individual’s control. Moreover they further explained that additionally all other factors are also linked with external environment. Managing an organizations culture is a critical factor and plays an important role in success of any business. It supports an organization in achieving the mission and vision of the company, hence companies business strategy and organizational culture must complement each other. Employees are always reluctant towards any change and it is clearly shown by many past researches, as the case of British airways also depicted those employees are resistant towards change. Although might be positive for the employees and the organization but still it is always resisted and is not easy to be adopted. Change is cultivated over time with effective management.
Today’s workplaces are more open and give employees a chance to select best for them. The paper was aimed at finding out the effectiveness of HR policies in managing organization culture and shows that they are an important factor and hence must be considered (Ackroyd and Crowdy, 1990).
Brewis (2007) explained that organizational behavior studies tell us how people behave in an organization and why do they behave in this particular manner. Organizational culture also gives importance to values believes and norms that are considered important in an organization and they explain why organizations behave in a particular way. This discipline i.e. organizational culture became very important in 1970s due to various reasons. He further explained culture as something that is present in each and every organization; it is unique for each company.
Management tries to change and improve the culture through various means. Culture of an organization is very complex and incorporates number of factors. Culture is considered important because it gives sense of direction to employees and as a result everyone is focused towards one direction, it also guide employees and help them understand the overall organization. Although at times it becomes frustrating as well, this is where employees feel dissatisfied and are not performing up to the mark. Adding to the above statement workplaces today are more comfortable for employees, although work is challenging but it clearly give expectations to employees. When employees clearly understand the fundamental culture of an organization they are able to perform better because they know what is happening and why is it happening. Today organizations culture is designed in a way that employees feel more open and relaxed. The prime goal of most of the companies today is to provide flexibility to the staff members. As past research has shown that increased flexibility at workplaces increase employee performance and job satisfaction. Overall employees feel more open at work place. Actually everything a business does becomes part of its culture starting from idea generation stage in the product development to market segmentation to strategic targeting to brand positioning to marketing mix is part of the organizations values and believes, which form up the culture of an organization. Since organizational culture also includes authorities and responsibilities of employees and at times long working hours are present here employees will understand that it is part of the organizations fundamental culture, similarly employee job security may also be part of the culture (Brewis, 2007).
Since any organizations culture clearly mention everything or if it does not everything is clearly observable by employees, today culture has actually played an effective role in making workplace more open for employees. It is more open because employees understand everything and work accordingly in order to be successful. Moreover the case of British airways also emphasized that culture of an organization can be formed (Brewis, 2007) hence by nurturing effective and required culture managers get the required output and employees feel more empowered.
Dipboye and Halverson (n.d.) explained what subtle discrimination is at workplace and how it impacts the working environment. Discrimination also impacts employee productivity but that is not important here. Discrimination is seen as a part of an organizations culture or organizational behavior. It has remained present from the history and still prevails in many organizations; although attempts have been made to reduce it still it has been present in many areas. This suggest that companies today since have discrimination even at subtle level they are going to impact the workplace and employees will not feel empowered and open but if we compare it with past things have changed and improved a lot hence it is believed that workplace today actually is more open for employees and all stakeholders. The question that whether workplace is more tolerant is still difficult to answer and with increased competition globalization and many other factors workplace have become more goals oriented and less tolerant towards their employees.
In the past discrimination was very high in workplace mostly against women and other minorities. However after civil rights legislation discrimination actually started decreasing in U.S. but still it has not been eliminated from workplace. Women and minorities are still impacted by discrimination against them in the working environment.
Taylor (2002) further explained this phenomena and explained that a survey was carried out which clearly showed that 2203 respondents were surveyed in the year 2002, out of the total sample half of them said that they faced discrimination again black at the workplace. Now since 2002 is a long time ago and if same poll is carried out again literature shows that results will be much improved. Hence we can claim that workplace today compared to past are more open but not fully open yet (Dipboye and Halverson, n.d.).
As mentioned although discrimination has reduced after the employment of civil rights in the society Dipboye and Halverson (n.d.) hence with the passage of time things have improved and workplace became more open, friendly and challenging as well. Also perceived discrimination is different from actual discrimination and both of them have improved significantly compared to past years. They also came up with a model to control discrimination at workplace which if applied it might further make workplace more open and equal for employees.
Gabriel (1997) explained a situation which is very common i.e. when an employee of the organization meet with top level manager of the organization. Often times accessing top level management or leaders are in accessible in many organizations. Although the trend is gradually changing and organizations are becoming flatter in terms of their structure. Many layers of employees are reducing in modern times in order to improve effective communication across the organization. In addition to organizations becoming more flat, they are also becoming more decentralized again for effective communication and also for effective decision making. This again supports the argument that workplaces have become more open and more flexible. With decentralization comes the responsibility on the lower level and hence workplace have became more challenging.
He explained that many people working in the organization see top level employees as not humans since they are never able to reach to them since Gibriel wrote this paper in 1997 and now things have changed a lot, as just mentioned companies have become more flat in structure and more decentralized now employees are able to get to the top level more easily comparatively.
Anna’s story in the paper explained the similar phenomena that in the past it was quite difficult to get to your top boss and interact with him, organizations were very rigid at that time. Similarly Bob’s case is also mentioned in the paper which further support the above argument. Overall leaders are of different types and there leading abilities are different. Leadership styles have changed over time and with this have come more open working environment for subordinates and all employees generally. Hence again workplace culture have become more open and more tolerant. With increased communication between upper and lower level comes the tolerance as employees are able to communicate becomes of flat structure; organizations have become more tolerant towards employees (Gibriel, 1997).
Jackall (1988) argues that authority and advancement in career is part of decision making in an organization. Decision making comes with experience and which in turn comes with and is closely linked to authority level. Most of the decisions at managerial level are more or less same and are part of normal routine however some are complex too. People are more fearful in making decisions even today and they are more reluctant in decisions making, due to presence of various risks.
By these risks we mean that the risks involved with decisions, in case the decision was wrong then its consequences will have to be seen and will have to be faced. Here risks can be business risks i.e. related to general environment or may also be related to default of the firm (Jackall 1988).
These risks were present in the past and are still present. Since business does not operate in vacuum they are open to these risks and can be faced at any time. Recently businesses have started going global and have expanded abroad. With this expansion risks have also gone up and decision making have become more complex and more demanding. This suggests the workplace have not become more open over time but on the hand businesses have expanded and hence gave more power to employees who are able to make decisions and hence it can be argued that businesses and their working environment became more open (Jackall 1988).
Jonnergard and Stafsudd (2010) explained that gender neutral policies have implications in the working environment. They did a study to find out how performance evaluations mainly by MBO (management by objectives) appear to be neutral but in fact it is impacted and dominated by the male members in the society. Women mostly face promotional issues in the working place. Phenomena referred as “glass ceiling”; is common in most of the organizations.
Women are looked upon as minorities and are not promoted equally as male members or male employees in the company. Although performance evaluations are shown to be very neutral for both genders still some kind of discrimination is present which restrict women empowerment in organizations. Women work hard and enjoy most of the benefits equally as men but they are not promoted equally as men instead performance evaluation techniques give dissimilar results for both the genders (Jonnergard and Stafsudd, 2010).
Bauer and Baltes (2002) also explained that women have significant disadvantage when it comes to performance evaluations and promotions of the employees in the companies. Moreover most of the industries are also male-dominated which again restrict female promotions this is the reason why females are mostly not seen on the upper level of the companies. Now again this discrimination against females was higher in the past and has actually decreased overtime, now women are much more empowered and much more motivated, although subtle discrimination is still present. In indicates that compared to past workplace is more open for women but not equally open as for male members. This indicates that yes workplace is more open nowadays. It has become more challenging and more open comparatively. Condition of women at workplace was more miserable in the past compared to today.
Noon and Blyton (2006) explained that actual realities of work place. They explained that it is true that most of the people work to earn money and economic value attached with the work is the ultimate reason of working for most of the people. It is also argued that people work to increase their work purchasing power. Work is necessary for most of the population hence people not always face comfortable work environment. At times environment is not that comfortable or open, but even in presence of discrimination people work because they cannot do with it.
Noon and Blyton (2006) further explained that work is seen as a duty and it is paid. Laws have come up to make workplace more open although it has become more challenging. Work in addition to fulfilling economic value also provides satisfaction to employees. It explains them that they have self worth. Work is a central activity; in any person’s life and play an important role. It is fundamental in everybody’s life. This shows the importance of work and work place in the eyes of employees. Due to its huge importance workplaces have became more open and challenging in recent times compared to past.
Watson (2003) explains that ethics are not considered important in the past researches. Although ethics are important in workplace but in the past a lot of research has not been done on this topic specifically. This article talks about mangers and workplace where they make ethical decisions frequently. Recently ethics have become very important related to work place and they way employees are treated by employers. Compared to past today ethics are part of any organizations, and employers are bounded to follow ethical choices in organizations. Since moral issues have became important, workplaces and their general environment today has became more open and more tolerant. Employees have laws that clearly demonstrate ethical way of treating employees at workplace hence the above argument is supported.
Watson (2003) further explained that most of the people are not willing to appreciate a business that does not treat its employees equally. Hence treating employees ethically have become more important in today’s world. In modern days success of a business is dependent upon the way it treats its employees, if it treats them ethically business is going to be more successful. When organization will be more profitable its fundamental reason of existence will be fulfilled. Workplace is complex and involves various factors that impact it and its performance. It is complex because different people from different backgrounds are present at one common place; each one of them has different values and believes. Additionally organization itself has a unique culture which is depicted by polices of the company.
All these together make up the overall workplace which is diverse. Incorporating such diverse employees and policies make workplace difficult to manage, here ethics play important role. Ethics of an organization make sure that employees are treated ethically in order to be successful in today’s dynamic world Watson (2004).
Conclusion
Now we have proved why we think that workplace today have become more open and tolerant. In the past it was next to impossible to communicate directly with upper level management in the organization. Moreover discrimination against women and other minorities was also at maximum, women were not prompted. Gender equality was not present and performance evaluation of both the genders was not same hence women were not able to be promoted equally. Organization structure had many layers in between and decision making was mostly centralized.
However as shown above now all of these factors have changed i.e. discrimination has decreased, organizations have became flat, decision making now is mostly decentralized (but varies with the company’s strategies) hence workplace today have become more open and tolerant for employees. Also various laws have been introduced that ensure that environment is more open and comfortable for employees for example civil rights law. Lastly ethics today have pushed organizations to be more ethical i.e. according to the law in order to be fair towards employees. Hence all of these facts suggest that workplace today has became more open compared to past. It has also became more tolerant and challenging at the same time.
References
Ackroyd, S., and Crowdy, P. A., (1990) “Can Culture be Managed? Working with “Raw” Material: The Case of the English Slaughtermen”, Personnel Review, Vol. 19 Iss: 5, pp.3 – 13
Bauer, C.C. and Baltes, B.B. (2002) Reducing the effects of gender stereotypes on performance evaluations. Sex Roles, 47,9–10, 465–76.
Brewis, J., (2007) “Culture” Introducing organizational behavior and management, chapter 9.
Dipboye, R. L. and Halverson, S. K. Subtle (and not so subtle) discrimination in organizations. The dark side of organizational behavior. Jossey- Bass.
Gabriel, Y., (1997). Meeting God: When Organizational Members come face to face with the Supreme Leader, Human Relations, Vol 50, No 4.
Jackall, R., (1988). Looking up and looking around. Moral Mazes. The world of corporate managers- twentieth anniversary edition. Oxford university press, New York.
Jonnergard. K., and Stafsudd. A., (2010). Performance Evauations as Gender Barriers in Professional Organizations: A study of Auditing firms. Gender work and organization. Vol 17 No. 6.
Legge, K., “HRM: A critical analysis” in Storey J. (Ed). New perspectives in Human Resource Management”, Personnel review Vol 15 No. 3
Noon, M., and Blyton, P., (2006) The realities of work. The meaning of work. Third edition.
Taylor, H. (2002) Workplace discrimination against and jokes about African American, gays, Jews, Muslims, and others. The Harris poll No 60.
Watson, T. J. (2003) Ethical choice in managerial work: The scope for moral choices in an ethically irrational world. Human Relations pg 167
