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Differences Between Individuals In An Organization
Differences Between Individuals In An Organization
Contents
TOC o “1-3” h z u HYPERLINK l “_Toc377538425” Introduction PAGEREF _Toc377538425 h 1
HYPERLINK l “_Toc377538426” 1. Organizational Structure and Culture PAGEREF _Toc377538426 h 1
HYPERLINK l “_Toc377538427” 2. Ways of being managed PAGEREF _Toc377538427 h 2
HYPERLINK l “_Toc377538428” 3. Workplace Motivation PAGEREF _Toc377538428 h 3
HYPERLINK l “_Toc377538429” 4. Groups and Teams PAGEREF _Toc377538429 h 6
HYPERLINK l “_Toc377538430” Conflict Resolution in the Work Place PAGEREF _Toc377538430 h 7
Introduction
There are various personal perceptions that make individuals generally different from each other at the workplace. A common adage summarizes this general life phenomenon to the effect that two people giving different views of what they see on exactly the same object is no wonder. It is not any different in human resource management, since every individual’s perceptions about working experiences are expected to be different. Regarding these differences, various aspects of the organizational productivity are affected in various ways by the perception held by the distinct personalities at the organization. For instance, the organizational structure, motivation, group and ream dynamics and conflicts within the organization are affected by the different perceptions. Using theoretical perspectives, the following questions will be answered as subtopics in the development of the essay.
1. Organizational Structure and Culture
The organizational structure as well as cultural setting that an organization adopts is usually very vital in the settlement of differences and polarizations that are based on personalities. According to Dalton et al (1980, 49), it is clear that the basic importance of an organization structure is to instil uniformity and unanimity in approaching individual employees’ differences at the workplace. The author reckons that the same structure is important in exercise of power and making of decisions for the organization. Since the element of power among the management and the subordinates fuels some inequalities among the various organisational ranks, some level of inequality may infiltrate into the system. The complexity of the organizational structure as well as the assumed culture may fuel disparities or resolve them. For instance, a flat organizational structure is likely to attract homogeneity hence the feeling of equality that promotes performance. Cultural values and practices cultivated over time may play a role in eliminating individual differences for the sake of the overall objective achievement course taken by the organization.
2. Ways of being managed
The impact of individual differences to the management theory that with regard to the various perspectives of being manage can be demonstrated by classical management as postulated by Fayol (Fandt et al, 2007, p36). According to the explanation that the authors highlight about the Fuyol theoretical proposition, it is clear that there are several issues that individuals’ differences must come to terms with at the workplace. Among the most important principles highlighted by the theory, personal issues such as discipline and equity should be present in order for the organization to deliver results. Management application of tools such as division of labor and identification of command and direction are important for the management to guide the labor force towards certain goals. Authority and responsibility of the managerial team must be invested to facilitate the unity of direction and command necessary in elimination of unnecessary differences. It is therefore both an individual and group effort to be aware of the intricacies of managing an organization as Fuyol highlights, which explains the need for unanimity in initiative and control thereon (Beverly, 2011, p1).
Basing human resource management on scientific management approach postulated by Taylor, it is clear that individual differences can be managed in order for the organization to achieve maximized performance (Winslow, 1903, p25). Talylorism considers a concise study and understanding of the working experience in order to formulate decisions from an informed perspective. Increasing productivity by the reduction of unnecessary effort as a scientific application of managerial skills takes note of the weaknesses such as those caused by individual differences. Alternatively, human relations approach proposed by Mayo HYPERLINK “http://et.al” t “_blank” et.al recognizes the fact that production increases could best be explained through an analysis of human behavior occasioned by some pleasant experiences that can then be exploited in human resource management (Fendt et al, 2007, p40). The discovery of this effect became the Hawthorne effect which can be exploited in minimization of group differences that may adversely affect performance. Another approach explained by the authors (p40) that takes inherent differences and capacities into consideration is the human resources approach postulated by McGregor-Theory X and Theory Y. In the postulates contained in the theory, mangers’ perceptions and attitude on employees becomes central to the overall performance. As such, it becomes important on the leadership style that the manager puts into practice which may range from complete authoritarian (Theory X) to freedom mode in theory (Y).
3. Workplace MotivationMotivation at the work place is usually termed to be any psychological force that determines the direction of a person’s behavior that he or she is likely to engage in. It is clearly evident that individuals are totally different from one another regardless of the environment. With reference to the working place, individuals tend to differ depending on their status of hierarchy. Hierarchical variations play a fundamental role in enhances such changes in any given work place. Motivation in the workplace is fundamental element that initiates various changes in the work place. However, motivation in most cases exerts a positive impact in the working trend within a given organization. Changes in the working place are reflected in various theories of motivation that comprise of: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory, Macgregor’s theory X and Y, and McClelland’s theory among others.
Motivation theories may be largely grouped into five categories that attribute to changes in human behavior thus leading to various differences amongst people in the work place. These are: first, need-based theories, they explain work motivation in terms of the extent to which employees satisfy important needs in the workplace. Second, cognitive process theories emphasize on the decisions as well as choices that employees make when they allocate their efforts, third, the behavioral approach emphasizes applying principles of learning to the work environment. Fourth, self-determination theory emphasizes the significance of the distinction between motivations being driven by extrinsic factors vs. intrinsic factors. Finally, job-based theories place a source of motivation primarily in the content of jobs that employees perform in the work place.
There are so many ways in which the above mentioned motivational theories contribute to occurrence of differences between individuals especially in the work place. Need based theories may attribute to differential influence in the working place in away that, they are developed in a broader field of psychology and subsequently applied to motivation at work. By definition, a need indicates some deficient state within individual. It is clearly known that, humans need things such as water and oxygen for survival. However, psychologists have put across that, human behavior is often driven by the psychological needs parse (Kreitner 2006, p 378).
Maslow’s 1943 theory of hierarchy of needs
Psychologist Abraham Maslow clearly proposed the idea that every individual needs to satisfy the five basics of needs in his Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory.
Maslow’s 1943 theory of hierarchy of needs
3503295103505Self-actualization
Self-actualization
3503295139065Esteem
Esteem
35032956350Sense of belonging/love
Sense of belonging/love
3503295112395Safety
Safety
358648087630Psychological needs
Psychological needs
The five basic needs identified by Maslow in 1943 comprise of: Psychological needs- are the most elemental needs of human beings and these are: food, drink, shelter, and sexual satisfaction. Such needs can be satisfied in the work place by managers providing compensation system that enables employees to buy food and clothing as well as having adequate housing. Need for safety, shelter, and protection from emotional and physical harm is also essential in human life. Employers can only enhance such needs by provision of job security, adequate health benefits as well as safe working conditions. Sense of belonging is merged with social interaction for love. Such needs in the workplace can be facilitated by promoting good interpersonal relations and organize social functions, such as company picnics and holiday parties. Need for esteem can occur as either internally or externally whereby an individual aims at attaining self respect, autonomy, status, and attention. Such needs can be enhanced in the workplace by granting promotions and recognition of accomplishments. Finally an individual works to be self-actualized that involve knowing about life and its meaning in order to fit into the paradigm. Managers can satisfy such needs by giving employees the opportunity to use their skills and abilities to the fullest extent possible. The above stated hierarchy leads to differences in the workplace due to change in behavior of individuals (Britt and Jex 2008, P237).
Basing on the individual needs theory by Frederick Herzberg 1959, Herzberg formed the opinion that some of the factors relating to an individual’s job attitude could be described as being satisfiers whereas other, not necessarily opposite factors, could be described as dissatisfiers. This conclusion was consistent with the approach he had taken in mental health is not opposite of mental illness and from it Herzberg derived the basic hypothesis for the research that determined various behaviors that can make people different (Sheldrake 2003, p153). Basing on the highlighted theories above, it is clearly evident that individuals do differ in various perspectives.
4. Groups and Teams
Individual and group performance enhancement issues in management are dealt with in a manner likely to send signals of employees collective empowerment. It is important that employees feel that they have control of what they do in their work, both as groups or as individuals. Making use of the synergy from employees in a group produces more or better output than employees working separately. The importance of a team is the benefits of synergism where employees contribute different skills and talents towards the same course. Management of such increased capacity turns inadequacy that personal differences would otherwise bring to the organization. Group dynamics has several benefits than disadvantages if exploited well at the work place in form of diversity and strength.
When employees work as a group, they have the capacity to bounce ideas off one another, correct each other’s errors and bring more new ideas to bear on problems, accomplish projects beyond the scope of distinctive individuals’ efforts. The application of these benefits in the overall performance enhancement should facilitate the transformation of the organization from differences of availed by personality differences to the strength of diversified capacities. Managers should build autonomous empowered groups composed of members with complementary skills and knowledge which is equipped to handle various challenges that the organization faces on the operation path. In order to avoid the manifestation of the unpleasant differences that a diverse team has, the management should keep in touch with both the organizational objectives, employee satisfaction and the minimum input that they ought to invest. In such a perspective, the management will have tapped the overall greater good of the organization at the expense of the individual differences (Work Place Synergy, 2010, p1).
Conflict Resolution in the Work PlaceConflict exists when two or more parties disagree about something. These parties are independent, meaning that the resolution of the conflict to mutual satisfaction cannot occur without some mutual effort. Conflicts do occur in the work place due to communication mess-ups, poor working conditions, and lack of motivation factors among others. In workplace conflict resolution can be enhanced through negotiation. Negotiating a resolution to conflict starts with all the relevant information about the past on the table and ends with a clear definition of what the future could be. According to Scott (2009, p47) conflict can only be managed through teamwork in any given workplace.
References
Beverly, A. (2011) Guide to Making the Most of Management Theory of Henry Fayol, [online] Available from: <http://www.business.com/guides/making-the-most-of-management-theory-of-henri-fayol-26666/> [accessed 19 May 2011]
Britt, T. W. & Jex, M. S. (2008) Organizational psychology: a scientist-practitioner approach. New York: John Wiley and Sons
Dalton, D. R., Fielding, G. J., Porter, L. W., Spendolini, M. J., & Todo, W. D. (1980) Organization Structure and Performance: A Critical Review, Academy of Management Review, vol. 5 no. 1 pp. 49-64
Fandt, P. M., Goodman, S. H., Lewis, P. S. & Michlitsch, J. F. (2007) Management: challenges for tomorrow’s leaders. Mason, OH: Thomson Higher Education
Kreitner, R. (2006) Management. New York: Cengage Learning
Scott, V. (2009) Conflict Resolution at Work for Dummies. Washington, DC: For Dummies
Sheldrake, J. (2003) Management theory. London, UK: Cengage Learning EMEA.
Winslow, T. F., (1903) HYPERLINK “http://books.google.com/books?id=Am4I-N4XN2QC&pg=PA3” l “v=onepage&f=false” Shop management, New York, NY: HYPERLINK “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Society_of_Mechanical_Engineers” o “American Society of Mechanical Engineers” American Society of Mechanical Engineers
Work Place Synergy LLC. (2010) Synergy: Joint Work and Cooperative Action Will Produce Better Outcome, [online] Available from: <http://www.workplacesynergy.net/> [accessed 19 May 2011]
step 3 Identify Mission, Vision, Values, and Goals
PROJECT 2 STEP 3
step 3: Identify Mission, Vision, Values, and Goals
Now that you’ve identified the key facts about your organization, turn your attention to your organization’s mission, vision, values, and goals. Taken together, these elements can help drive organizational decisions, positively impact employee performance, and influence many of the other organizational components you’ll be examining for this report.
The mission, vision, values, and goals should be reviewed periodically to determine whether adjustments are needed in light of key environmental factors or changes in the organization’s performance or capacity.
Follow the steps below to analyze your organization’s mission, vision, values, and goals:
Find your organization’s mission and look at whether and how it has changed over time. If it has changed, what process changed it?
Analyze the extent to which your organization’s mission (1) is well understood, (2) continues to inform key decisions, and (3) is well aligned with what the organization is actually doing.
If your organization does not have a formal mission statement, read deducing a mission.
Analyze your organization’s vision and core values. Consider whether the vision and core values are in alignment with and supportive of the organization’s mission. Are the vision and core values widely understood and accepted within the organization?
If you cannot find formal statements about your organization’s vision or core values, read Deducing Vision and Core Values.
Next, determine whether your organization practices strategic goal setting. Analyze whether these goals are explained clearly and whether they make sense given the organization’s mission, vision, and values. In other words, look for alignment of mission, mission, values, and goals.
mission, vision, values, and goals=
Mission and vision both relate to an organization’s purpose and are typically communicated in some written form. Mission and vision are statements from the organization that answer questions about who the organization is, what it values, and where it’s going. A study by the consulting firm Bain and Company reports that 90 percent of the 500 firms surveyed issue some form of mission and vision statements (Bart & Baetz, 1998). Moreover, firms with a clearly communicated, widely understood, and collectively shared mission and vision have been shown to perform better than those without them, with the caveat that these statements related to effectiveness only when strategy, goals, and objectives were aligned with them as well (Bart, Bontis, & Taggar, 2001).
A mission statement communicates the organization’s reason for being, and details how it aims to serve its key stakeholders. Customers, employees, and investors are the stakeholders most often emphasized, but other stakeholders, like government or communities (relating to social or environmental impact), can also be discussed. Mission statements are often longer than vision statements. Sometimes, mission statements also include a summation of the firm’s values, or beliefs in which the organization is emotionally invested. The Starbucks mission statement, for example, has described four guiding principles that also communicate the organization’s values (Starbucks, n.d.):
creating a culture of warmth and belonging, where everyone is welcome.
acting with courage, challenging the status quo and finding new ways to grow our company and each other.
being present, connecting with transparency, dignity and respect.
delivering our very best in all we do, holding ourselves accountable for results.
A vision statement, in contrast, is a future-oriented declaration of the organization’s purpose and aspirations. The mission statement lays out the organization’s “purpose for being,” and the vision statement then says, “based on that purpose, this is what we want to become.” Strategy should be directly based on the organization’s vision, since the strategy is intended to achieve the vision and thereby satisfy the organization’s mission. Typically, vision statements are brief. Sometimes the vision statement is also captured in a short tag line, such as Toyota’s “Let’s Go Places” statement that appears in most communications to customers, suppliers, and employees. Similarly, Wal-Mart’s tag-line version of its vision statement is “Save money. Live better.”
Any casual tour of business or organization websites will expose you to the range of forms that mission and vision statements can take. To reiterate, mission statements are longer than vision statements, often because they convey the organization’s core values. Mission statements answer the questions, Who are we? and What does our organization value? Vision statements typically take the form of relatively brief, future-oriented statements and answer the question, Where is this organization going? Increasingly, organizations also add a values statement, which either reaffirms or states outright the organization’s values that might not be evident in the mission or vision statements.
Roles Played by Mission and Vision
Mission and vision statements play three critical roles: (1) communicate the purpose of the organization to stakeholders, (2) inform strategy development, and (3) develop the measurable goals and objectives by which to gauge the success of the organization’s strategy. These interdependent, cascading roles, and the relationships among them, are summarized in the figure below.
Key Roles of Mission and Vision
First, mission and vision provide a vehicle for communicating an organization’s purpose and values to all key stakeholders. Stakeholders are those key parties who have some influence over the organization or stake in its future, including employees, customers, investors, suppliers, and institutions such as governments. Typically, these statements are widely circulated and discussed often so that their meaning is broadly understood, shared, and internalized. The better employees understand an organization’s purpose, through its mission and vision, the more able they will be to understand the strategy and its implementation.
Second, mission and vision create a target for strategy development. One criterion of a good strategy is how well it helps the firm achieve its mission and vision. To better understand the relationship among mission, vision, and strategy, it is sometimes helpful to visualize them collectively as a funnel. At the broadest part of the funnel, you find the inputs into the mission statement. Toward the narrower part of the funnel, you find the vision statement, which has distilled the mission in a way that it can guide the development of strategy. In the narrowest part of the funnel, you find the strategy—it is clear and explicit about what the firm will do, and not do, to achieve the vision.
Vision statements also provide a bridge between the mission and the strategy. In that sense, the best vision statements create a tension and restlessness with regard to the status quo. They foster a spirit of continuous innovation and improvement. London Business School professors Gary Hamel and C. K. Prahalad (1993) describe this tense relationship between vision and strategy as stretch and ambition. Indeed, in a study of CNN, British Airways, and Sony, they found that these firms displaced competitors with stronger reputations and deeper pockets through their ambition to stretch their organizations in more innovative ways.
Differences Between e-business and Traditional business
E-commerce (BUSN 300):
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HYPERLINK “http://businessresources.over-blog.com/article-differences-between-ecommerce-and-traditional-commerce-86252759.html” o “Differences Between eCommerce and Traditional Commerce” Differences Between e-business and Traditional business
Because of the expanded fame and accessibility of Internet access numerous traditional business are considering e-business as a legitimate and productive sales channel. Nonetheless, e-business and traditional trade are altogether different, and it’s essential to weight painstakingly the differences in the between of e-business and traditional business with a specific end goal to choose in the event that it would be a solid match for your business or only an costly mistake (Hong & Cho, 2011).
Direct Interaction
Traditional business is regularly based on face to face collaboration. The client has an opportunity to make inquiries, and the business staff can work with them to guarantee an agreeable exchange. Frequently this gives deals staff an open door for upselling or urge the customer to purchase a more extravagant thing or related things, expanding the shop benefits. Then again, e-business does not offer this advantage unless peculiarities, for example, related things or live visits are actualized (Standing, Standing, C & Love, 2010).
Lower Costs
E-business is typically much less expensive than keeping up a physical business in a similarly prominent area. Contrasted and expenses, for example, business space rent, opening an online business could be possible at a small amount of the cost for not exactly $100 every month. This can demonstrate precious for little entrepreneurs who do not have the startup cash flow to lease prime retail space and staff it to have the capacity to offer their sell.
Reach
With an online shop you can work with anyone living in a nation you are capable and eager to send letters to, not at all like conventional business where you are limited to individuals who really gone to your shop. This additionally opens the way to numerous different types of advertising that could be possible completely on the web, which frequently brings about a much bigger volume of offers and even pedestrian activity to the business. An online business has no ability cutoff points, and you can have the greatest number of customers as your stock can serve (Standing, Standing, C & Love, 2010).
Returns Rate
In a traditional business, the client will be buying the item in individual, which has a few advantages for both him and the business. The client will have the capacity to touch and check the things, to verify they are suitable, and even attempt them on, which diminishes the quantity of returned things or protestations because of a thing not being as publicized on an index. Then again special pamphlet. Expect an altogether higher rate of profits in the event that you begin exchanging on the web.
Credit Card Fraud
The remote way of business makes considerably harder to recognize extortion, which means business can lose cash because of misrepresentation. While conventional trade is not completely secure, it is simpler for a business orderly to confirm that the individual purchasing something is the manager of the Visa, by requesting photographic ID. Be that as it may, the battle against card misrepresentation is well in progress, and banks and mindful business holders cooperate to check that all card utilization is real (Tran, 2010).
Selling online means adapting better approaches for managing clients, showcasing your items and satisfying your requests, however the profits are extraordinary. You can keep your expenses lower, achieve a more extensive crowd and work together every minute of every day, having sufficient energy to concentrate on enhancing your items and administrations and your client encounter as opposed to being on the business floor sitting tight for customers. A few items offer preferable online over others: selling jewelries for money online is much simpler than attempting to offer houses or autos. In any case, having an online business can expand the clients on your conventional trade too, as individuals are presently ready to discover you online and see what items you are putting forth.
Definition of E-marketplaces
This is considered as a virtual marketplace whereby the buyers and sellers can meet and conduct their different business of transactions. Client can exchange their goods and services for money over an online platform (Tran, 2010). It has made it easy for them to be able to meet their buyers and sellers in the easiest ad cost less platform as compared to traditional business.
Structure
The type of business in undertaken over the internet via structure called B2B business structure. This is also known as business to business online platform. The other name of this structure is e-biz. As opposed to other type of e-biz, e-marketplaces has one of the best structures whereby business can share their products and service online hence able to meet their current needs and demands via the internet (Zhang & Bhattacharyya, 2010).
Economics
E-marketplaces is one of the cheapest business platforms in the world. The cost is distributed right from one business considered as the seller to the other that is considered as the buyer, in this case. The seller can meet the buyer via the internet. Hence, the only cost of the platform for both cases is the development of an online platform such as a sales website where the two can meet with easy. Hence, this makes e-marketplaces the cheapest business platform to venture into. In addition, both the seller and the buyer share the cost of business as both sides earn other online benefits.
Infrastructure
Though the platform shares a very complex infrastructure, it has the best business to business platform. The infrastructure comprises of electronic networks, the hardware such as computers, mobile phones, and software. Despite the infrastructure seems too complicate in its formalities it offers the most secure business arena
Impacts
The impacts of e-marketplaces are varied (Hong & Cho, 2011). However, the following are the main impacts: it can offer an easy and reliable online platform to sell and buy goods and services at the door step as well as with all the safety and convenience. Therefore, it is a cost protector. The other case is that it offers a timely arena to do business.
References
Hong, I. B., & Cho, H. (2011). The impact of consumer trust on attitudinal loyalty and purchase intentions in B2C e-marketplaces: Intermediary trust vs. seller trust. International Journal of Information Management, 31(5), 469-479.
Standing, S., Standing, C., & Love, P. E. (2010). A review of research on e-marketplaces 1997–2008. Decision Support Systems, 49(1), 41-51.
Tran, T. (2010). Protecting buying agents in e-marketplaces by direct experience trust modeling. Knowledge and information systems, 22(1), 65-100.
Zhang, Y., & Bhattacharyya, S. (2010). Analysis of B2B e-marketplaces: an operations perspective. Information Systems and E-Business Management,8(3), 235-256.