Work and Professionalism - Research Paper Example

Work and professionalism Student number Course code Word count Date of submission ABSTRACT In this age post-modernity, people desire to acquire professions or gain pay for work done. Work refers to the service that an individual provides to another for purposes of generating income for themselves. Conversely, profession describes a group of disciplined individuals whose operations respect some standards of ethics. Professionals acquire exceptional skills in widely recognized bodies of learning derived from education, training and research of higher levels. These workers and professionals work for their interests, that of the society and the government at large. This necessitates establishment of unions that represent these workers police adherence to defined ethics and policies. This paper uses the approach of post-modernism to discuss work and profession in relation to employees, employers and government legislations. INTRODUCTION AND METHODOLOGY In order to establish the detail facts on work and professionalism, this essay divides the topic into subtopics. Discussion on these smaller units is necessary to integrate and consequently, build up the wider picture on the subject matter. The objectives of the paper are realisable by the methodologies post modernism. The subdivisions of the topic include the idea of flexible work options, the balance of work and personal or social life as perceived by various stakeholders, the forms of flexibility, and finally, the intents and impacts of a given nature of work. A conclusion is drawn to outlines the objectives achieved in the paper work and the findings of the research. Methodology limitations Postmodernism fosters more personal subjection of personalities. This is because it overemphasizes on intangible thoughts or plans. Other arguments state that postmodernism lacks objectivity and, hence, not viable for serious scientific researches. Stakeholder perspectives The key stakeholders in the employment sector are the employer (management), employee and the government. Company managements are in business solely to make profits and build credibility. Expectedly, they have the necessary knowledge and legalities involved. The employees too have their priorities and expectations lined out when applying for jobs. Formation of unions enhances civilization and moral ethics in the business. The presence of the government in the business is inevitable. It incorporates legislation in the industry to warrant lawful dealings and equality. A much more detailed discussion on stakeholder perspectives is presented later on under work-life balance, to make the paper more comprehensive LITERATURE REVIEW FLEXIBLE WORK OPTIONS Swanberg, J & Simmons, L 2008, ‘Quality jobs in the new millennium’ Incorporating  Flexible Work Options as a Strategy to Assist Working Families. Social Service Review. Vol. 82, no. 1, pp. 119‐147. The authors of this journal explore the effects on job and work quality in relation to the physical health of employees. The physical health is a personal factor away from professional and work needs. Their suggestion is that the realization of a company’s goals and the productivity of the employees are dependent on the strategy that the company employs in its operations. The journal identifies employment security, co-worker support and employee motivation as determinants of productivity. The general view is that most organisations and corporations with flexible work programs are more productive in terms of the performance of their employees. They define a flexible work program as that which enables one to balance between productive work and satisfaction of social desires. In the article, respect to that flexibility is a show of the management’s recognition of the importance of all aspects of life, be it personal of social, to the stakeholders of a company. Stredwick, J Ellis, S 2005, Flexible Working Developing Practice, CIPD Publishing Sterdwick and Ellis begin by identifying the commonest practice by human resource managers, to implement flexibility, as the revision of working hours. According to Sterdwick and Ellis both small and leading organizations recognize this and prioritize it for proficient professionals. However, other strategies have their base on the sense that they have a degree of choice for suitable options of working. This book has various types of flexible work arrangements but what makes it a point of interest is the scope of advantages and benefits that it gives to the employer, employee and other stakeholders. The various orientations of achieving flexibility at the work place involve flexing time, as earlier discussed, flexing locations and flexibility in the employment structure, amongst Flexing locations are about making the work of personnel possible, not only at the workstation but also at distant locations. This is possible by telecommuting, teleworking or remotely at work centres established by the company. In telecommuting, the employees work partly at home via telecommunication while in, teleworking, all work is done via telecommunication. Remote works centres whose maintenance is by the employer. Benefits of flexibility at workplace The gains of implementing flexible work are the potential markers of a productive workplace. All stakeholders benefit from the implementation of flexible work options. Employer Helps attract, recruit and retain employees who have other life commitments or interests. The favourable nature of the work gives the employees what they desire to have for a job. In this way, the pool of potential, quality workers increases irrespective of ones disabilities. It improves the productivity of employees. With variation of working hours and location or work, the employees attend to most of their personal needs, hence, reduced employee leave-time and absenteeism. Appreciation of employees’ periods of active energy and periods of fatigue motivates the employees thereby increasing their performance and work quality. Resultantly that improves the productivity of the corporation. Telecommunication and remote work stations reduce costs on production, work space and repeated relocation of employees to work sites. Advancement of technology in the business industry attracts talent. Organizations embrace this by reviewing the modes of recruitment and work procedures. Employees The fraternity of employees increases. It allows employment opportunities for all persons who desire to work irrespective of their disability. The marker is that a better portion of the professionalism required depends on one’s mental ability. It provides time-resource for individuals to attend to personal needs thereby feeling satisfied all round in ones life. Getting all this from work gives them job satisfaction as well and results in a raised morale for better performance. Apart from overall satisfaction, it reduces stress and unnecessary burnouts. Overwhelming one system of the human body causes physical, emotional and mental stress. Neglecting other necessities of life only adds to the problem. Flexibility at work ensures a fair balance between work and recreational time. Flexibility work programmes can be temporary or permanent but can only work effectively if all the stakeholders are involved in the implementation process. Consequently, in some way it enhances unity and collective responsibility at work. Time flexing provides a great time flexibility whose achievement is by an improvement of the commuting time and reduction of lateness. WORK AND LIFE BALANCE Nelson, A Nemec, K Solvik, P Ramsden, C 2004, The evaluation of the WorkLife Balance Challenge Fund. The credibility of a corporation, in the business industry, is a factor of its performance. Quality performance is achievable when the working staffs get motivation by the productivity incentives of a corporation so as to achieve set goals. These authors write that a company must adopt strategies that have flexible work options to help the stakeholders balance between work and personal life. Apart from professional work, every individual has other responsibilities that they must address to support development in their lives. This necessitates the adjustment in the work patterns. The book describes an effective practice that promotes work-life balance to recognize the benefits that result when a person addresses all sides of life. The changing and advancing world of employment forces changes in patterns of operations amongst organizations. Changing the patterns should be aimed at helping the employees to attain a balance between. Davis JA, 2004, An occupational perspective on work-life balance, Vol. 6, no. 3. In this journal, work represents the employer while the life refers to the other responsibilities of an individual apart from work. It is a common occurrence that professional and social life sides conflict. The author writes about approaches that aim to improve a balance between work and life, they have their basis on the idea that the two should be at equilibrium and not factors competing for prioritization in a person’s life. According to Davis, performance at the workplace improves noticeably when the demands of personal life do not conflict with expected work quality. He goes on to say that realization of a state of equilibrium between the two helps one to find contentment in all parts of life. Conflicts between life and work, most commonly, results into stress and feelings of inadequacy in potential. This research shows that these conflicts are initiated by individuals pushing themselves to the limit, trying to prove their potentials to themselves, their workmates and employers. This overwhelms the body in every way thereby suppressing a development of the social or personal side. Consultants and psychologists suggest that this unnecessary conflicts and stresses are avoidable by applying the appropriate schemes. Manfred, S and Holliday, M 2004, Work-Life Balance, The Centre for Diversity Policy Research: Oxford A percentage of factors that lead to job losses are due to the inability to balance between the requirements of work and attention to personal life. Therefore, the complexion of occupation work can not be taken for granted, this is as theorised by Manfred and Holliday. The book evaluates the essence of work-life balance from the perspective of an employer, as related to its importance to an organization. The employer recognizes that employee satisfaction has a direct impact on their performance and hence, the overall productivity of the organization. Since high-level productivity and trustworthy credibility constitute the main aims and goals of a company. An employer wants to, through the best approaches, recruit the most talented and competent staff. The authors propose that in order to retain its professionals, management has to put in place strategies, policies and programmes that augment employees and make their work satisfactory for them. Work and life balance matter to employers because it improves quality of management and provision of quality public services. Accordingly, human resource management contributes by training its employee on work-life balance principles the finds problem solutions to conflicts of work and life. Swanber, J James, J & Werner, MS 2008, ‘Workplace flexibility for hourly lower-wage employees: a strategic business practice within one national retail firm’, The Psychologist Manger Journal, Vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 5-29. As viewed from the perspective of an employee, this article explores the relationship between paid work and unpaid work, otherwise referred to as ‘secondary responsibilities’, or personal life can be treated as a personal issue. From the journal, the employed individual, irrespective of work position, the balance is not just about equally dividing time between work and life. A strong working programme gives them satisfaction with their efforts to the job and it is about control and choice making to manage lifestyle and work. Since this work-life programme has direct impacts on the life of the employee, the article’s view is that the subject must be involved in the decision making processes. These processes comprise of the strategies suggested for adoption, the appropriate approaches of implementation, the roles each person has to play and provision of training necessary for the success of it all. Emphasis is that a work and life relationship that gives more attention to work that the other responsibilities, expectedly, results into overwork and neglect of the social. This kind of imbalance comes about when there no strategy that gives attention to the real problem that is according to the study. This, once again, emphasizes the need to choose the appropriate approach for installing a suitable work to life integration plan. Henderson, Y 2005, The legal perspective on work-life balance, Department of Consumer and Employment Protection: Australia. The government too has its own analysis of the subject and has defined systems or methodologies of handling the area under discussion. Henderson discusses government perspective as a legal stand and incorporation of the essence of the unions is complementary. These unions are the organizations to which employees or employers are members. They are established to represent and fight for the legal rights of its members. It is also these unions that define the policies and ethics of conduct, and monitor adherence to them by the stakeholders in the industry of operation. The author writes that a government needs the workforce of its bureaucrats, the self-employed and NGO workers for its development, as theorized by Henderson. If the government is to hold on to most of working individuals in the civil service, then it has to ensure protection of the human rights to curb violation of these at the work places. This is for its own benefit and as required by international tools that advocate for rights protection. FORMS OF WORK PLACE FLEXIBILITY Grawitch, MJ Barber, LK & Maloney, P 2009, Work Flexibility Comes in Many Forms, Vol. 3, no. 10 Flexible work is a sensitive topic everywhere including the Australian government. The journal explains how employees are able to work at ease with time and location and that the benefits that it has for the employer too make it an approach worth adopting. However, work flexibility comes in different forms or types but for maximum productivity, an organization has to choose the right work flexibility options. From the publication, a flexible work practice could either be numerical, location, temporal, functional or financial. All of these are offered to potential and talented employees. Numerical Flexibility Work flexibility is defined in terms of the number of hours a day or numbers of days a week that an employer works. Flexibility on the number of hours worked is in relation to the part-time and job-sharing work options. Employers who have access to this kind of options can work for more than one organization in a day for a number of hours of their choice. They are thus not compelled to work particular rigid number of hours in a week. For employers who have adopted this kind, they have access to individuals who want to work part-time and in the same momentum, the company can easily scale employees down when necessary. Flexibility on the number of days, on the other hand, has basis on individuals working on a compressed week so that they spend more hours a day at work for fewer days a week. Location flexibility This is defined by where a person works for payment. This location is mostly away from the offices. These arrangements depend on technology so that one can work from home so they do not have to commute to workplaces daily. The employees, thus, save money on commuting and are most at ease and comfortable with work. For employers, cost is also cut down on a number of things including structures and the necessary equipments needed for work. However, this form may not be accessible to all individuals. Temporal flexibility This kind implies that the work option adopted by the company may be permanent or temporary. It can be discussed in the sense that the employees are contracted on temporary basis. On the contractual basis, the arrangements are such that the company implementing this employs casual labour, use of agency workers and outsourcing as models of achieving their set objectives. Temporary flexibility can also be about potable offices set in particular areas for specified periods to provide services closer to the public. Functional flexibility This form is analogous to the flexibility in when an employees work. It focuses on the adjustable schedules so that an employee can opt to work when their potential and performance capabilities are at the peak. For the employees, this type almost gives them total power of choice so that they have control over when to work and when to divert their attention to demands of personal life. Employers, on the other hand, get enhanced productivity and performance of their employees. Stredwick, J & Ellis, S 2005, Flexible Working Developing practice, CIPD Publishing: Generally, contracts involve outsourcing, in sourcing, remote sourcing or home sourcing. In this publication, outsourcing refers to work that is contracted to an outside firm or individual who is not permanently employed by the firm that is contracting. The arrangements of this are due to the temporal flexibility of work that the organization adopts for business operation. The authors explore the areas of business that are necessary for outsourcing as well. The book postulates that the necessity of outsourcing a particular project depends on its maturity and leverage. Outsourcing has the benefit of enhancing competitive advantage when the internal capacity of a company is constrained while public demand is in the increase. Additionally, apart from potential savings on various costs, it enables the firm to access skills not available from its own employees. The employees of the contracting firm will also gain experience when working alongside the contracted entity so that they will not have to contract in the future. Duening, TN Click, RL 2005, Essentials of Business Process Outsourcing, John Wiley and Sons: Hoboken It explores insourcing as the practice of delegating operations to an internal entity within the production company. This entity that is subcontracted, in most cases, is a detached body with specialization in a particular section of the production process. According to the book, employment of this specialized internal entity is a business decision to make sure that the company has control over the crucial production areas. Nevertheless, insourcing may also refer to a company contracting another within the same country. For the employees, this mode ensures that the jobs are handled by themselves and that in some sense helps them gain more experience yet gives a feeling of security as well. Rolf, HP 2007, Home sourcing: An Evaluation and Future Outlook, The University of Arizona: Arizona This author discusses home-sourcing in reference to how employees carry out their job duties from their homes. This, of course, involves the use of technological advancements that support telecommunication and telecommuting. As noted, it benefits both the employer and the employees. Some of these gains are increase in productivity, reduced turnover and better quality of customer service. Even though it has demerits as well, the advantages outweigh the drawbacks and that is a sign that the use of this strategy is headed for increase as suggested by Rolf. The commonest benefits of home sourcing are elimination of costs on expenditure towards transporting the high ranking officials amongst others. CONCLUSION After a detailed discussion, the objectives were achievable because of the approach employed. According to the discussion, every qualified individual has a right to work, paid or unpaid, a right to occupation and the right to choose where to do it. In the paper, the flexible work options are clearly outlined followed by their benefits to both the employer and the employee. Even with all those options, there was a necessity to discuss the different perspective of the need to balance between work demands and those of a person’s personal life; this included the government’s contribution of protecting human rights. The available forms of work flexibility we also discussed and the recommendation is that if a corporation is intending to adopt these, them care must be taken to ensure that the right mixture of these options are employed. Conclusively, the factors that affect work or profession have been lined out and the subject picture is clear. REFERENCE LIST Davis, JA 2004, An occupational perspective on work-life balance, Vol. 6, no. 3. Duening, TN Click, RL 2005, Essentials of Business Process Outsourcing, John Wiley and Sons: Hoboken Grawitch, MJ Barber, LK and Maloney, P 2009, Work Flexibility Comes in Many Forms, Vol. 3, no. 10 Henderson, Y 2005, The legal perspective on work-life balance, Department of Consumer and Employment Protection: Australia. Manfred, S and Holliday, M 2004, Work-Life Balance, The Centre for Diversity Policy Research: Oxford. Nelson, A Nemec, K Solvik, P Ramsden, C 2004, The evaluation of the WorkLife Balance Challenge Fund. Rolf, HP 2007, Home sourcing: An Evaluation and Future Outlook, The University of Arizona: Arizona. Swanberg, J & Simmons, L 2008, ‘Quality jobs in the new millennium’ Incorporating Flexible Work Options as a Strategy to Assist Working Families. Vol. 82, no. 1, pp. 119‐147. Stredwick, J & Ellis, S 2005, Flexible Working Developing practice, CIPD Publishing: Swanber, J James, J & Werner, MS 2008, ‘Workplace flexibility for hourly lower-wage employees: a strategic business practice within one national retail firm’, The Psychologist Manger Journal, Vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 5-29. Read More