Assignment:
Please respond to the following discussion questions you can ask technical questions or respond generally to the overall experience. Be objective, clear, and concise. Always use constructive language, even in criticism, to work toward the goal of positive progress.
Discussion 1
Values and Ethics in a Diverse Environment
Workforce diversity has become a common term in the modern organization leadership and management processes as factors such as globalization has increased peoples' movement from one region to another. According to Valentine (2014), workforce diversity is regarded as the difference in terms of variation among individuals within an organization. Different aspects used to define an individual also describes the different from others. Aspects such as race, ethnic group, nationality, age, tenure, gender education level etc., Differentiates an employee from others.
On the other hand, diversity does not only encompasses how individuals perceive themselves, but also how they perceive others. These perceptions directly influence employee interactions, and in turn human resource need to effectively deal with issues such as communication to ensure effective and productive contribution of all the workers. In the coming years, diversity is expected to increase significantly (Kuratko & Hoskinson, 2015). It is inevitable for organizations that focuses to remain success to adopt successful diversity management in their workplace.
This essay addresses the issue of values and ethics in a diverse environments, focusing on ABC Company, an international organization dealing with mobile phone manufacture and services.
Maintaining ethical values and ethical practices has become an important undertaking in organizations today. Diversity training has become a trending thing in an effort to align employees' efforts within an organization's to ethical accepted practices and value. Being an international corporation, ABC Company has experienced the merits and downsides of employee diversity. This includes hiring employees from different background, as well as investing in different nations with varying business culture. Not only has diversity challenged the management to perform, but also enabled the entire workforce to embrace each other in terms of abilities and differences in achievement, race, religion, gender etc. within my workplace diversity has been live and continues to exist (Henriksen Jr & Trusty, 2005). This includes differences in employee's educational level, skin color, religion, status among others. However, these identities have not prevented the ABC organizations from achieving is goals and objectives; credit to the human resource management department.
Workplace ethics and values are established at the help of ABC organization. The two aspects define what the organization regarded as key or important with reference to all the employee behaviors from the top level to the lowest ranked worker. Despite being hard to control the actions of every employee, ABC has adopted the values and ethics which have in turn defined the employee expectations. Some of the areas that the company has established focus include; accountability, honesty, reliability, respect etc. The company bylaws, vision and mission statements and policies all define the company value and ethics.
Barriers to Establishing and Maintaining Of Positive Values and Attitudes toward Diversity Observed Ranging from organizational, interpersonal, interpersonal and group perspectives, different obstacles or barriers faces positive maintenance of values and attitudes towards diversity. One barrier is the lack of a defined or code of ethics within the organization as well as lack of personal value clarification.
With increasing diversity, organizational leaders and the management team are purported to identify a specified code of ethics which acts as the guide for its employees. Lack of a defined code of ethics within ABC Company was a primary barrier to establishing as well as maintaining positive attitudes and values. The generation gap has also threatened the organization's ability to support positive value and attitudes. This was a case when there was a diversified in terms of age among the employees. There is also the ethnic and cultural differences, language and communication.
With different barriers impacting the establishment of values and attitude towards diverse workforce, some barriers is related to workforce diversity, but somewhat hard to differentiate them (barriers). One such barrier that arises from workforce diversity entail the lack of employee involvement. Workers should learn how to work alongside each other as well as value their contribution. However, when they choose to overlook their colleagues, this becomes a major barrier to value and ethics delivery (Schoeman, 2014). There is also the barrier of resistance to change. When the workforce is against any change implementation, there is an overall challenge to the realization of positive values. Other barriers that are workforce diversity related entail; harassment, inequality discrimination and lack of funding.
Barriers arising from workforce diversity towards successful ethics and value implementation within an a organization can result to employee turnover, poor performance and decreased financial return which in turn is essential for curbing such barriers. One of such barriers is lack of employee involvement, which can eliminate or contained by the adoption of different measures (Barsky, 2010).
One strategy that would yield positive results includes; establishing occupations or activities for the employee/team, which would take them out of their usual environment. Secondly, the leadership should involve the front line employees (Barsky, 2010). They should then dig deep as well as listen intently, be dedicated to act on feedback obtained, treating the employees like the customers and finally establish a culture of trust as well as give the employees the tools they demand in order to be successful.
References
Barsky, A. E. (2010). Ethics and Values in Social Work?: An Integrated Approach for a Comprehensive Curriculum. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Henriksen Jr., R. C., & Trusty, J. (2005). Ethics and Values as Major Factors Related to Multicultural Aspects of Counselor Preparation. Counseling & Values, 49(3), 180-192.
Kuratko, D. F., & Hoskinson, S. (2015). The Challenges of Ethics and Entrepreneurship in the Global Environment (Vol. First edition). Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Schoeman, C. (2014). Ethics Can?: Managing Workplace Ethics. Randburg, South Africa: KR Publishing.
Valentine, S. (2014). Organizational Ethics and Stakeholder Well-being in the Business Environment. Charlotte, North Carolina: Information Age Publishing.
Discussion 2
The navy has approximately 600,000 members both officers, and enlisted in both its active and reserve components. While the racial/ethnic composition of the Navy has not changed much over the last two decades, there are no acts of discrimination against anyone wanting to serve in the US Navy (Diversity & Inclusion, 2010). People's motives for serving vary, and there are many different obstacles that contribute to the level of success that can be attained based on one's racial/ethnic composition.
Kamarck, in an article titled. "Diversity, Inclusion, and Equal Opportunity in the Armed Service: Background and Issues for Congress," defines diversity as, "the variation of traits within groups of two or more people, and may include both visible (sex, age, race) and invisible (knowledge, culture, values) traits." The Navy employs a very diverse population, and as a result often has to implement measures that address all the barriers to communication and diversity. Two barriers that arise from work force diversity are preconceptions, and prejudice.
Preconceptions, or lack of knowledge has to do with the grouping of things or people (Shockley-Zalabak, 2016), and is something that I, and other minorities have to deal with regularly. Early in my career, I transitioned from one department to another where they previously had a Jamaican who was the lead petty officer (LPO). The complaint against him was that He was selfish, and only looked after his own well-being. When it was my turn to become LPO I was being sidelined, because it was feared that history would repeat itself. The chief and the office were not willing to let me prove myself, instead I was being judged by the actions of my predecessor, who was a fellow countryman.
The act of prejudice is based on a number of factors that include origin, religious practices, age and ethnicity, and occurs when people use themselves as the standard to judge others (Shockley-Zalabak, 2016). My last command had a fair mix of nations; however, the Filipinos were second in numbers only to Caucasians. An egregious act of prejudice occurred when a Filipino who was out of standard was selected as the junior sailor of the year. This guy was clearly overweight, yet he was selected. His success was attributed to the fact that he worked in supply where there is a large contingent of phillipinoes, and his immediate supervisor was the department head, and also Filipino. They pride themselves as being the best, so this was another crowning moment, however, undeservedly.
The Navy has several active components that are responsible to ensure that the message of diversity and inclusion gets around. Some of the offices set up to manage this are the Office of Inclusion and Diversity, whose mission is to shape policies, and address the culture as it relates to diversity and inclusion. They advise the entire hierarchy of managers to include the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO). They seek to promote a culture that harnesses the strength that diversity brings by liaising with enterprise and communities, they develop and implement strategies that ensure that measure are enacted. Each command also has a designated command managed equal opportunity (CMEO) officer, who is responsible for the handling and investigation of any acts of prejudice, stereotyping, and anything else that does not align with the Navy's core values.
The text describes ethics as, the choices individuals make when applying their values in specific behaviors and choices (Shockley-Zalabak, 2016). Policies cannot force people to act ethically. Ethics has to do with an individual's own consciences as it relates doing the right thing whether, or not one is being monitored. A good hallmark of good leaders is that their words and their actions align, they are truthful, trust worthy, and are not afraid to render a just due. So while preconceptions and prejudice are more likely caused by workforce diversity, ethics is primarily up to an individual.
References
Krsty N, Kamarck (2017) Diversity, Inclusion, and Equal Opportunity in the Armed Services: Background and Issues for Congress.
Navy Diversity and Inclusion. (n.d.).
Shockley-Zalabak, P. (2016). Fundamentals of organizational communication: Knowledge, sensitivity, skills, values. Boston: Pearson.