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A P I I T
2011
Managing People &
Performance.
TAZMIR
APIIT
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Level 3 Asia Pacific University College of Information & Innovation
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................ 2
Using practical examples, critically evaluate how the increase of women in the
workplace has influenced the provision of rewards and benefits in contemporary
organizations. ............................................................................................................... 3
THE PREMISE OF CONTEMPOARY MANAGEMENT THEORIES ........... 3
WEICK AND THE PROCESS OF ORGANISING ............................................. 3
THE TREND ............................................................................................................ 4
The Career Strategy ................................................................................................ 5
AN ISSUE THAT AROSE IN RECENT TIME-Women Earn Less than Men,Especially at the Top. ................................................................................................... 6
ARE WOMEN TRANSFORMING ORGANISATIONS ? ................................. 7
Need for gender diversity in contemporary organisation .................................... 8
Sense-making and organizing ................................................................................. 9
CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................... 10
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................... 11
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Level 3 Asia Pacific University College of Information & Innovation
INTRODUCTION
Today organizations have to adjust too many dramatic changes, ranging from
fundamental restructuring to revolutionary shifts in traditional values. These
required changes are largely attributed to drastic changes in the way in which
organizations respond to the environment in which they operate. Globalization
and the resultant advancements in information technology are the two main
contributors of modern organizational structuring, both of which pertain to highly
complex communication activities and considerations that have become part of
the organizations enactment with micro (i.e. inter-organizational activities) as well
as the macro systems (i.e. transnational synergies, strategic geographic
positioning, etc.). This reflects a paradigm shift from traditionally closed
operating procedures (characterized by one-way hierarchical inter-organizational
communication) to highly flexible and innovative contemporary organizations
which. The paradox here is that organizations need existing paradigms in order to
make sense of the current situations and this can trap organizations in current
paradigms (Verwey & Du Plooy-Cillers, 2003:2). However, it is important to
consider the premise on which contemporary management theories are based.
Contemporary theories, such as that of Karl Weick, reflect a deep restructuring ofcore competencies that values an organizations sense-making processes when
they are dealing with environmental equivocality.
Contemporary management theories place emphasis on the interaction process
between all components concerned with the organization, as well as adopting a
more holistic orientation towards that way in which organizations function and are
structured. Cycan is an example of such an approach in that the manner in which
they conduct business is reflective of contemporary managerial concerns. This
assignment will critically discuss contemporary views of management and
organization theories to Cycans current company structuring and operating,
focusing on the role of the CEO (Bryan Hatting); the state of their internal
communication structures; and the holistic manner in which the organization
approaches the decision-making process. Furthermore, the role of technology and
communication within Cycan will also be analyzed in terms of how it contributes
too and affects the three areas to be discussed.
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Managing People & Performance Individual Assignment Page 3 of 11
Level 3 Asia Pacific University College of Information & Innovation
Using practical examples, critically evaluate how the increase of
women in the workplace has influenced the provision of rewards and
benefits in contemporary organizations.
THE PREMISE OF CONTEMPOARY MANAGEMENT THEORIES
Contemporary management theories recognize the importance of communication
in creating and maintaining a successful organization. Through aligning
communication and organizational goals we are now able to better interact with
all levels of a company and the context in which they exist. This section will
cover three main areas of contemporary management including Weicks theory of
organizing; the role of technology in contemporary organizations and knowledge
management.
WEICK AND THE PROCESS OF ORGANISING
Communication has been defined in a number of specific schools of thought and
its conceptualization as a term has proven to be contextual as opposed to an all-
encompassing explanation, in this vein communication will be defined as a
mode of exchange and a mode of knowledge production (Taylor & Van Every
in McPhee, 2000: 328-329). The notions of exchange and production are
evolutionary terms used to describe the transference and creation of information
in order to assess environmental interaction and the process of sense making in
organizations. Therefore, organizations are a process of communication activity in
which they are formed and reformed by communication discourse between the
context in which they operate (i.e. the global economy) and the resultant
organizational texts and culture. This dialogic process represents the double
interact that lead Karl Weick to reformulate the notion of the organization to that
of organizing.
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Level 3 Asia Pacific University College of Information & Innovation
Weicks organizing highlights the paradigmatic nature of organizations, as they
are something that people accomplish through a continual process of
communication and not defined by the positions and roles the members occupy
(Littlejohn & Foss, 2005:245). The question of dualism between communication
and organizations represents latter as a symbolically realized construction
produced by interactional process of the organizations members and the macro
system they occupy (Taylor & Robichaud, 2004). These symbolically realized
constructions emphasis the importance of interlocked behaviors as they create,
maintain, and are adjusted in accordance with the normative competencies
necessary to reduce uncertainty or equivocality (Weick in Littlejohn & Foss,
2005: 246).
THE TREND
Women stand at the fore front of disruptive change in the political, social, economic,
and technological sectors of most counties. Dr. James CantonsThe Extreme Future
notes Women will comprise a high percentage of new workers and leaders, forever
changing the politics of boardrooms and markets. According to a US Census report,
nearly one-third of all married women in the US make more than their husbands.
More than 25% of working wives earned more their husbands in 2007 (up from 20%
in 1983). Furthermore, women are earning college degrees at a faster pace than men.
Between 2000 and 2001, women earned 57% of all undergraduate degrees.
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Level 3 Asia Pacific University College of Information & Innovation
The Career Strategy
Progressive women need to develop critical career strategies in a holistic fashion.
Balancing work and family is difficult. In general, some men are already taking this
transition personally. Some men are opting for the domestic life while their wives
become the principal breadwinners. Therefore, society watches gender role reversals
and wonder how it will endrelational success or failure?
For working women, any results are often problematic anyway. Yenissei Alonso and
Vickie Brent, authors of the article Women in the Workplace, argue that women still
deal with institutional barriers that keep them from being successful. For example,
women in general are making less than their counterparts doing the same job with thesame experience.
Alonso and Brint note, Since nearly half of the workforce is comprised of women, it
stands to reason that woman should be enjoying the same success as their male
counterparts in terms of advancement opportunities and earning capacity. Princeton
researchers in a 2003 study concluded that college-educated women who hold higher
expectations for their potential mate may lower their chances for getting married. In
fact, some men may be uncomfortable with having a woman who has more educationand makes more than them, postulate some theorists.
Sue Means is a professional engineer in a highly competitive consulting industry. She
sees challenges for professional women. She notes that men are treated differently.
Means explains, Some of my colleagues talk about how pretty I am. They comment
on my clothes and make suggestions regarding what I should wear. That would not
happen to a man.
Liza Fuller is a government program manager with a decade of experience in handling
difficult environmental issues. She exists in a mostly male dominated industry. Fuller
notes, Women are still expected to work harder than men to prove themselves and
avoid criticism. Attractive women still get grief about being promoted for reasons
other than their own merit and its not fair.
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Level 3 Asia Pacific University College of Information & Innovation
Furthermore, Canton suggests that the most educated, skilled, and experienced
employees will be in high demand. Therefore, professional women need better
strategies. Means recommends prioritizing whats important: I let go whats not
important. Most women get overwhelmed with trying to manage all of the household
and family responsibilities while working at the same time. You need to be realistic
about what you can do. Its a balancing act. Some women feel that they can have it
all without any drop off. Fuller disagrees: There is always a sacrifice because you
spend more time away from your family. Although there will be an ever increasing
number of opportunities for women in the workplace, women must analyse every
career move in a holistic fashion if they want to keep that delicate balance.
AN ISSUE THAT AROSE IN RECENT TIME-Women Earn Less thanMen, Especially at the Top.
In most jobs, the gapbetween mens and womens earnings narrows greatly when you
adjust for factors like career path and experience. But at the top of the income scale
jobs paying more than $100,000 the salary gap between equally qualified men
and women is still vast.
Below is a look at the median pay of men compared with women in each of the 90
jobs examined, with each dot representing a different job. The diagonal line represents
where the dots would lie if men and women earned exactly equal pay. Notice how
many of the dots fall below that line, indicating that women earn less than men.
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Level 3 Asia Pacific University College of Information & Innovation
ARE WOMEN TRANSFORMING ORGANISATIONS?
"In the future, institutions will be organized according to the networking model (as
opposed to the pyramid structure)," she said. "The top responsibility of managers will
be creating a nourishing environment for personal growth, providing holistic
development and motivation. The management style of women is ideally suited to
these people priorities."
According to the National Foundation for Women Business Owners, women business
owners are more likely than all businesses to offer flextime, tuition reimbursement
and job sharing. Women business owners tend to share their business' profit with
employees at a much earlier stage than other businesses: nearly twice as many
woman-owned firms employing fewer than 25 employees (14%) have set up such
programs compared to all small firms with 20 or less employees (8%).
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Level 3 Asia Pacific University College of Information & Innovation
Involvement in the professional development of employees is another area where
women-owned businesses differ in the benefits opportunities provided. Twenty-one per
cent of women-owned businesses offer tuition reimbursement programs, compared with
only 8 per cent of all small businesses.
"The employee benefits offered by women-owned businesses make it evident that
these firms are not only a powerful economic force, but are also an important and
influential social force," says Ivan Milojevic.
"At every stage in their businesses, even when the organisations are young or small,
women business owners provide their employees with a comprehensive package of
benefits which set the standard for the rest of society."
Patricia Aburdene and John Naisbitt, authors ofMegatrends for Women(1992), agree
that the trend is toward a women's leadership style, based on openness, trust, on-going
education, compassion and understanding. Women are more likely to succeed because
women admit they need help and surround themselves with good people: they are
cautions, strategic risk takers, whose resourcefulness and resolve increase as
circumstance become more difficult (this from a study by Avon Corporation and an
American based research firm).
Need for gender diversity in contemporary organisation
While organizations need to take a stand on gender equality on their turf, there is
much that women themselves can do to help themselves.
Generally speaking, it is believed that women need to assert themselves more and be
better negotiators to reach senior leadership positions. It is also advisable to find
mentors and learn from experience sharing, adapt their style to the needs of the
organisation, build skills to become more self-confident and make conscious choices
that enable them to achieve success. Accepting opportunities with inherent risks and
networking with others will also enable women to enhance their career prospects.
At Epact, we have come a significant distance in our gender diversity journey and
have been introducing strategies that drive inclusiveness.
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Level 3 Asia Pacific University College of Information & Innovation
These include offering incentives to our head hunters for diverse hires including
women candidates and extending this incentive plan internally to our employee
referral program as well. We have also set up GenWIN - a formal network of women
that fosters personal and professional development via experience sharing, networking
and providing targeting development programs. We are soon launching an exclusive
mentoring program that pairs high potential women employees with Vice President
and above level leaders to build positive professional relationships and create career
opportunities.
Epact has also deployed flexible work practices that provide employees with a range
of benefits such as work from home, extended maternity leave, opportunities for
spouse, sabbaticals and re-entry programs, an ombudsperson policy, focus on security,
health camps, among others.
However, these are just levers that can help increase the number of women in an
organization. It is imperative for organizations to first fully understand and embrace
the gender diversity agenda and become committed to drive it through all available
and potential channels.
Sense-making and organizing
The equivocality experienced in the process of organizing results in the
organization explicitly comprehending problematic circumstances into words that
serves as the basis for action, a process known as sense-making (Weick &
Sutcliffe, 2005: 409). Sense-making starts with chaos, and an organizations
ability to create systems for meaningful action (in response to chaos) acts as a
precursor to its adaptability. Adaptability is determined by the nature of
communication held by its members as they attempt to order the intrinsic flux of
human action to channel it towards certain ends (Tsoukas & Chia in Weick &
Sutcliffe, 2005: 410). This highlights the role of the communicative individual
within the system of organizing as he/she contributes towards the shared
understanding that permits collective response to equivocality.
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CONCLUSION
The future is bright for working women as never before. In fact, women will drive
most institutions toward major changes in the near term. However, this assignment
demonstrated that the road to success for most professional women isnt easy. They
must deal with troubles to a certain degree. However, the demands of their
professional life have not kept up with the heavy demands of a family and personal
life. Therefore, women must develop career strategies in a holistic manner that
maximizes their efforts. In turn, society must learn how to embrace womens power in
the future if global outcomes of hopes to continue to compete.
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REFERENCES
BAHOUTH, S.B. 1994. Technological readiness as a business strategy. Industrial
Management & Data Systems. Wembley: 1994. 94(8): 5-8 p.
HATTINGH, B. 2000. Cycan leadership solutions: a detailed profile of Cycans
executive coaching programme. 50 p.
LITTLEJOHN, S.W. & FOSS, K.A. 2005. Theories of human communication.8thed. Belmont: Thomson-Wadswoth, pp.388.
MCPHEE, R. D. 2000. The emergent organization: communication as its site andsurface. Management Communication Quarterly, 14(2): 328-334.
ORTENBLAD, A. 2001. On differences between organizational learning andlearning organization. The Learning Organization, 8(3): 125-133.
TAYLOR, J. R. & ROBICHAUD, D. 2004. Finding the organization in thecommunication: discourse as action and sensemaking. Organization, 11(3): 395-413,
VAN EVERY, E.J. & TAYLOR, J. R. 1998. Modeling the organization as asystem of communication activity: a dialogue about the language/action
perspective. Management Communication Quarterly, 12(1): 128-147.
VERWEY, S. & DU PLOOY-CILLERS, F. 2003. Strategic OrganisationalCommunication: Paradigms and Paradoxes. Heinemann, South Africa. 283 p.
WEIK, K.E. & SUTCLIFFE, K. M. 2005. Organizing and the process ofsensemaking. Organizational Science, 16(4): 409-451.
WEICK, K.E. 1996a. Drop you tools: An allegory for organizational studies.Administrative Science Quarterly, 41(2): 301-313.
WEICK, K.E. 1996b. Preparing your organization to fight fires. HarvardBusiness Review, 74(3): 143-148.
WEICK, K.E. 2005. Organizing and the Process of sensemaking. OrganizationalScience, 16(4): 409-451.