...Differences That Work: Organizational Excellence through Diversity Edited with an Introduction by Mary C. Gentile Forward by R. Roosevelt Thomas Differences That Work: Organizational Excellence through Diversity is a collection of 16 articles from the Harvard Business Review. Many of the articles were written over 15 years ago, but their content is still relevant today. The book does not directly tell the reader how to manage diversity in the workplace, but presents situations that compel the reader to question their own reaction if confronted with similar situations. Part I of the book offered an explanation of why diversity is becoming an increasingly important topic in the workplace. William B. Johnston, in “Global Workforce 2000: The New World Labor Market” explains that workplace diversity is not just a challenge in the United States. It is a challenge faced around the globe. Developing nations are producing educated workers faster than their economies are able to employ them. Therefore, these workers are immigrating to countries where they have the greatest opportunity. (p. 5) In order to attract the most talented workers, and stay competitive in the global marketplace, employers will have to learn to value the diverse talents that their changing workforce brings to the table. They will have to use these diverse talents to their competitive advantage instead of trying to fit all workers into the same mold. If the world (not just the United States) does not...
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...explore the work values in the hospitality context and analyze them further through the lens of generational differences on a multi dimensional level. What makes this research unique is the scope, which covers all 3 aspects: multiple dimensions of work values, importance of these work values to people across 3 generations and a focus on Hospitality industry. The author’s approach is to find and shortlist research done on identification of work values, dimensions or factors under which they exist and the importance given to them based on the age of individuals (generation aspect). Post selection of a suitable research covering these criteria, the author attempts to apply these on a sample size from the Hospitality Industry to understand and report the relevance and findings. The sole reason of attempting this study is to analytically approach the challenges faced by human resources in managing a work force that is diverse and consists of different social & demographic profiles. The author believes that understanding of this would lead to better recruitment and retention strategies of managerial workforce in the hospitality industry. Short listing of available research: a) Research on Work Values: Many studies have been conducted on identifying work values in an institution, (Elizur, 1984; Hofstede, 1980; Mok et al., 1998; Pryor, 1987; Rokeach, 1973; Sagie et al., 1996; Super, 1970, 1973; White, 2005; Zytowski, 1970, 1994). Of these, the author chose Super’s (1970) WVI – Work Value...
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...What is the difference between work and fun? In the world we live in today, gambling is a professional career to some, whilst others gamble for leisure, a combination of necessity and pure enjoyment. However there is hardly any single moment where a person just fell into being a professional gambler, but there will be some people who realized that they didn’t have any other source of income. The truth is that there are many thousands of people around the country who make a good living exclusively from gambling. It is not easy, but it can be done. In order to become a professional gambler, he/she needs to practice, practice and practice some more. He/she needs to have the rules of whatever game you are planning on playing down cold. Once he/she knows the rules, he/she needs to practice, either live or online. In addition to practice, one also needs to have discipline. Discipline comes in many forms. Can you maintain your focus so that you make the right decisions? Can you maintain and stick to a proper budget? Discipline and practice is normally not enjoyable by any party, however obliged to do in order to become skilled and successful in the profession of gambling thus should be considered as work. When you are betting on sports, the number one priority that you should have is good solid research. It is difficult enough even with the greatest knowledge and excellent research to make accurate bets at a successful ratio, without research sports...
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...ENCOUNTERING SOCIAL CLASS DIFFERENCES AT WORK: HOW “CLASS WORK” PERPETUATES INEQUALITY Using a microsociological lens, we develop a theoretical framework that explains how social class distinctions are sustained within organizations. In particular, we intro- duce the concept of “class work” and explicate the cognitions and practices that members of different classes engage in when they come in contact with each other in cross-class encounters. We also elucidate how class work perpetuates inequality, as well as the consequences of class work on organizations and those at the lower end of the organizational hierarchy. By examining microlevel interactions and how they become institutionalized within organizations as prevailing rules and practices, we contribute to both institutional theory and the sociology of social class differences. We encourage future research on social class and discuss some of the challenges inher- ent in conducting it. Several contemporary developments—includ- ing the financial crisis of 2008 (Rajan, 2010), the shrinking of the middle class (Leicht & Fitzger- ald, 2007), and the rise of the “new poor” in America (Cohen, 2010)— have reinjected the is- sue of social class differences and inequality (Stiglitz, 2012) into contemporary discourse. Within organization studies, however, social class has received only scant consideration (cf. Castilla & Benard, 2010; Dacin, Munir, & Tracey, 2010; Scully & Blake-Beard, 2006). While two re- cent exceptions...
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...Yisi Zuo SOC 101 Gender Differences and Social Work Intervention in China Introduction Professional activity is one of the most important human activities in modern society; its effects permeate all areas of personal, family and social life. As China's market economy development and social transformation, and increasingly fierce competition in the labor market, unemployment and the rising threat of job flows down, various pressures caused by occupational activities are turned into a widespread social phenomenon. Social development is sustainable, inappropriate occupational stress is not only not conducive to human physical and mental health, family harmony, organizational effectiveness, from a long-term point of view to harmonious and sustainable economic and social development will have a negative impact. Occupational stress mechanisms, manifestations and reaction of certain differences exist in different populations. From a gender perspective, we can see that female occupational stress problem is very prominent. Thus, gender differences in occupational stress is becoming a psychology, sociology, economics, management, organizational behavior, and other subjects of concern to many disciplines. In view of this, angles of social work, this paper, combined with the gender difference in occupational stress survey data, create female occupational stress management and mitigation of social work intervention mechanisms with a view to achieving ease female occupational stress and...
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...What are the differences in how bottleneck and non-bottleneck work centers are scheduled under TOC? Why are these differences desirable? The theory of constraints scheduling involves the preparation of an exact schedule of jobs for bottleneck work centers, and sequencing the non-bottleneck work centers by a priority-sequencing rule. Any resource whose capacity is equal to or less than the required demand is referred to as a bottleneck. As a consequence the basic principle of TOC systems is that only those work centers that are bottlenecks are of critical concern in scheduling. This is because the bottleneck work centers limit all of the production output of a plant. Further output past the constraint of the bottleneck can be attainable only by improved utilization of the bottleneck facilities, using approaches such as reduced downtime, improved productivity, and reduced changeover times. The objective of TOC scheduling is to maximize throughput. Because the bottleneck resources limit throughput all the efforts are focused on maximizing capacity utilization in these work centers. Therefore, TOC scheduling systems focus on the identification of bottleneck work centers, and the scheduling of these work centers. 2. Why should buffers be located in front of bottleneck work centers under TOC scheduling? How should the size of the buffers be determined? The buffers are located in front of bottleneck work stations because they are a safety net of product stored just in case the...
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...NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR ADVANCED EDUCATION PROGRAM POSITION PAPER Class: Advanced Accoutancy 55B Course: Culture of regions & people in the world CODE: SSCI165 ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- TOPIC: The work culture differences between two represent of Eastern culture and Western culture: Japan and the USA Talking about Japan and America is as people talk about two cultures representative of the East and the West. Two cultures were not standing characteristics sometimes conflicting, embodied in every aspect of life. We always remember the Japanese samurai culture and a multi-cultural country, open and hospitable. Opposition things that make human culture become more remarkable. In this paper, we will explore features that rival in terms of work culture. Although they are individual country, each country will not put up with the general characteristics of the local culture. We will explore the culture of this country both in the cage culture of the East and the West. About how to express thoughts, Westerners respect frankness. They did not hesitate to express personal political opinions. The Eastern enhance dexterity, soft, avoid conflicts of opinion. When solving problems, Westerners appreciate the final result, so they are ready to cope with problems hindering, remains on achieving goals quickly. The Eastern respects implementation process. Inherently dislike confrontation...
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...Society as we know it today has grown from a number of complexed changes and events throughout history. The aim of this essay is to explore and outline a number of key differences from the 1500-1800 time period to today’s modern world, a summary of Blainey’s (2001) work will help give an idea of how life was in that earlier time period and allows us to reference it against what we know as today. Particular differences will be outlined between the two time lines with focus on war, the roles of animals and work structure. These differences will highlight how society has changed from a localized unit to a global unit. Society on a global scale was mostly Agrarian in structure whilst some nomadic style hunter gathers or pastorals groups (Blainey (2001, p.410) still existed in the early 1500’s-1800’s. Life revolved around food, the production of food was what made up day to day life, the average house hold didn’t have enough land to produce what was needed and many people worked at neighbouring farms and meals themselves were used as partial payment. Food was almost the be all and end all it determined wealth, stature and even if and when young single women could marry, Blainey (2001, p.412) explains that if a harvest was plentiful the woman may marry however if the harvest was lean the wedding would be postponed. Work on the farm was predomitdly carried out by the woman and elder children, duties such as fetching fire wood, collecting water from the well, spinning yarn, cooking and...
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...in response the following question: “Why are gender and difference issues so important in understanding the potential for skills training, and work and learning in both Canada and the ‘economic south’?” The lives of women in the recent past have changed dramatically. There are more women now who are educated than ever before, and a great percentage of them have forged ahead in the labour market. The pace of change is improving at fast rate with both developed and developing countries working towards bringing around a change. But despite the numerous developments in this area, there still exists the issue of gender gap that limits the progress of women workers in the paid workforce. This paper discusses the topic of gender differences in OECD countries and how it affects the process of work and learning of women in both Canada and the economic south. In almost all the OECD countries, women participation in the workforce has steadily increased. There are more women participating in the all kinds of jobs and they continue to enter the workforce in rising numbers. But still gender inequality continues to persist and is a topic that dominates the sad plight of women. There are OECD reports that Scandinavian countries have the lowest ratio of such issues due to well-equipped infrastructure that supports child-care and family-friendly workplaces. Though this seems like a rather outdated subject, the gendered work, wage gap, inequality are still rather the most pressing...
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...Running head: Teamwork and Cultural Differences 1 Teamwork and Culture Differences Diversity with Sensitivity Argosy University July 29, 2013 Com 105 Teamwork and Cultural Differences 2 Introduction Teamwork involves people working together in groups in order to achieve a goal. Teamwork and effective communication is extremely important when it comes to a business and the success to a company. When working in teams, people are able to share ideas and work together to accomplish more than they could by themselves. However, culture differences and personality differences can often cause a challenge. When working together, a person may not have an understanding of another person’s culture, which can have a negative impact on a business. Since companies are more global today, diversity and multicultural communication has become a crucial part of business success. Teamwork and Team Building Teamwork and team building is vitally important in any multicultural and global society. In today’s day, the workforce is becoming more diverse, meaning that people from different cultures are required to come together to work as a team. Teamwork in the workplace often contributes to success in a company. Teamwork enables people to come together to accomplish tasks faster than finishing projects individually. Also, when cooperating with each other, employees are able to share ideas and responsibilities with one another, which usually reduces...
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...Altruism, Affiliation and Anxiety in the workplace: A review of generational differences in work attitudes. Madeleine Fogarty Melbourne University Abstract Popular books and articles claim that there are significant differences between the generations in attitudes to work. However, there are relatively few empirical studies that support this claim. This review examines the reasons for the dearth of empirical work, reports on the US and Australasian findings published in the past decade, and suggests a taxonomy of ambition, altruism, affiliation and anxiety to synthesise the diversity of previous research and reach a coherent conclusion: all are on the rise for Gen Y. Directions for future research and recommendations for organisations are discussed. News articles regularly demand that we pay attention to the different needs of the next generation and their attitudes towards work. Last week the Sydney Morning Herald claimed that “Generation Y . . . has high expectations of their employers, seek out new challenges, are not afraid to question authority, value teamwork, seek the affirmation of others, crave attention and want to be included and involved” (Zavos, 2010). Other stereotypes of Gen Y, including Myers & Sadaghiani (2010), pitch them as self-centred, unmotivated, disrespectful and disloyal. There have been many articles and books in “popular literature” that describe differences between the generations, including Strauss & Howe (1991), Howe, Strauss...
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...survey by well structured questionnaire through convenience sampling. Survey has been conducted across a sample of 100 employees. We have selected six various organizations of Multan as sample case including HBL, Bank Al Habib, Toyota Motors, Mehran Traders and Packages Limited and data has been collected from the employees of various department of the above mentioned organizations. We have taken five major factors (work load, satisfaction, job insecurity, creativity and counterproductive work behavior to measure the influence of organizational environment on the performance of employees. The mean analysis of employees suggests that organizational environment has a strong influence on the performance of employees. It is very interesting to know that there exists no significant difference between both male and female employees respondent. Both male and female employees suggests that creative environment enhance the performance while some male employees suggests that job satisfaction enhance the performance while some female respondents suggests that counter productive work environment decrease the employees performance. Overall research suggests that organizational environment influence the performance of...
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...Analysis of Factors Affecting Work Life Balance among University Teachers: the case of Pakistan Noor Fatima: Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology, Pakistan. noor_e_fatimah@hotmail.com Dr Shamim A.Sahibzada: Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology, Pakistan. shamim@szabist-isb.edu.pk Abstract Balance in work and family life is an emerging challenge for both employees and employers. The present research categorises selected variables as work and family related factors to study work life balance. This paper analyses the determinants of work and life imbalance with respect to male and female university teachers. A total of 146 teacher’s responses from both private and public sector universities are included in the study. Statistical analysis reveals that partner support, colleague support and job resources are positively associated with the work life balance whereas unfair criticism at job is negatively associated with work life balance. Independent sample t-test is used to analyse the effect of independent variables on work life balance with respect to male and female university teachers. The variables, partner support, childcare responsibilities, elder dependency, and colleagues support have different effect when analysed by male and female university teachers as independent samples. Keywords: Work life balance, University, Teachers, 1. Introduction Work/life is commonly referred to as work and family. To balance between...
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...material will not be covered on the exam. Carefully review the take home points in each chapter. Keep in mind that most gender differences are small and that there is a great deal of overlap between women and men. Thus, when I ask about differences, it is in the context of many similarities and small mean differences. Chapter 7: Communication The text provides 3 reasons why children prefer to play with others of the same sex. Be familiar with them. How do girls tend to play with each other in same sex groups? How do boys tend to play with each other in same sex groups? How do girls tend to talk to each other in same sex groups? How do boys tend to talk to each other in same sex groups? What -- if anything -- is different in children’s cross sex play and talk compared to same sex play and talk? Are girls more likely than boys to engage in relational aggression? What do meta-analysis findings suggest? What gender similarities and differences have been found in how adults interact? What factors determine what types of differences are found? You are not responsible for the section discussing online communication (p. 229). The text provides a long list of differences in how men and women in the US typically use language in natural conversations. Be familiar with them. What factors influence the likelihood of these differences occurring? Under what circumstances are men most likely to interrupt? Under what circumstances are women most likely to...
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...ENTREPRENEURIAL INTENTIONS AMONG SME OWNERS. PROBLEM STATEMENT: The role of national culture is important in verifying the behavior of people in all parts of life. This behavior likewise guides people towards picking between doing work or beginning an individual business. Small work has been seen urgent to explore the influences of society on improvement of entrepreneurial intentions of citizens in the nation. Society incorporates uncertainty avoidance, power separation, and individualism versus collectivism, gender differences and long term orientation versus short term orientation Our study will note that social components for example uncertainty avoidance, power distance, individualism & collectivism and male dominancy are effecting unfavorably on the development of entrepreneurial intentions in Pakistan. BACKGROUND: The force of progress has sway all business substances from little to extensive. Each substance needs to handle with gigantic innovative, geological, political, economical, legitimate and social change. Despite the fact that the dynamic environment has come about as most amazing test for the countries, they have some way or another figured out how to support the chances with clear dreams, dedicated workers, durable organizational society, group introduction and unwavering strategies. In this way it has been checked through examines that countries attain focused focal point by constantly battling with the change which influences distinctive parts...
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