Gender Issues in Work Environment - Coursework Example

Gender Issues ID] [Lecturer] Outline: This essay takes a look at the gender issues which happen within the lengths and breadths of a working environment and where interaction levels are at an optimum level amongst the employees. The different interpretations, understandings and ideologies of gender communicative abilities and the like have been addressed within this paper. The tangent of delegation and the role of conflict within the work environment as per the relation of gender perspective are highlighted upon as well. Gender is a word, which describes the characteristics and attributes that are culturally accredited with women and men. It is pretty different and distinct from sex, which in its own entirety means the physical characteristics that make up one biologically either a male or a female. Structuralists have been in agreement with seeing the gender as a product of universal cultural laws and customs of the languages that shape up a cultural utterance and assertion. Consequently, structuralism accounts for the gender that focuses on the traditional contour of the male hero as somewhat of an “active subject” and the heroine (from the female sex) as rather “passive object” of narrative action. Thus drawing for a communication difference scenario between men and women, one comes to an understanding that the two communicate in quite varied ways. This is because it is an inherent feature of their make-up, the composition in which they have been made. While men tend to be open and blunt about their thoughts, actions and perceptions, women, on the other hand are more inclined to take it the soft way. This is because they perceive things pretty easily as compared to men who usually are hard and stubborn in their undertakings. Because of this men are known to be violent even within their communicative regimes while women are more sedate and sober when it comes to conversation and the like, all under the heading of communication. (Ridderbusch, 2006) Furthermore, men are known to be dominant over their clan while women are known to be subversive within their own rights – yet raising no qualms about their dealings and the ways in which they go about conducting themselves. It is a known fact that within the communicative aspects, men are open to defend their own selves in the wake of differing reactions, afterthoughts and attitudes while women, for the large part, remain confident of their own disposition by remaining quiet and diffident. This is not because they are afraid of coming out clean and clear as per the issue at hand but because they like to remain light on every aspect on which their attention is hailed as supreme right from the onset. It is difficult to make out what women usually would come up with in the case of extreme circumstances. They are easier to cry and weep while it is a well known fact that men usually do not cry unless special circumstances prevail upon their nature. The role of assertion within men is generally more as compared to women. Men feel more asserted as per their points of views while women remain placid as the same is an intrinsic part of their character. They like to take things easily and slowly yet their role is to analyze each and everything as and when it happens. The definitive differences between men and women make them so unique and interesting to discuss that a number of philosophers and gender researchers have done a number of similar studies since time immemorial. Men have always been known to make sure they remain dominant over the women even in their communicative aspects, where their voice is much more overriding as compared to the fairer sex. Women, on the different perspective have known to remain under the able guidance or significance of the male gender. Men get to the point quickly and tend to be active and open when in public while women take the backseat when the focus is on them and their personality. This however does not by any stretch of imagination mean that women are shy when it comes to their issues. It is just their nature that they like to remain on the back foot more often than not. Thus the differences are pretty easy to gauge and one could literally write a book on the above-mentioned varied ways. Gender issues have remained a significant aspect for a long time now. The need of the hour is to analyze how gender communicative aspects and more than anything else the differences have made the much intended varied changes to the way philosophers and gender researchers have looked upon the gender constructs which seem to be developing more and more now. However with the changing world order and the women folk getting their due share in the modern times, one can be pretty sure that the differences between men and women as per their communication regimes would minimize and there would be a balancing act at the end of the day. Gender communication has come to the fore more and more with the passage of time since acts of sexual discrimination have increased and hence marred the basis of any organizational culture in essence. (Mirza, 2005) This has played a destructive role at influencing the employees in a negative manner and especially the women fraternity. The have felt left out in the whole equation and much needs to be done in order to address this issue once and for all. Sexual discrimination or gender discrimination has put organizations in a fix since they have unable to find out the ways under which they can cope with the menace and consequently shun the individuals from the organizational realms as they act as disruptive influences towards building a positive and friendly workplace environment. Within the work environment, gender issues are important since they form the cornerstone of any organization in essence. If the employees have basic differences amongst their own selves, it is very difficult to extract work out of them. Also it would mean that they have certain biases against each other which will hamper the working methodologies of the business processes. There would be red tape issues within the policy drafting schemes of the organization and hence the aspect of delaying work would creep in all of a sudden. The work environment would start to deteriorate and people would create rifts amongst each other. There would be lobbying within the office domains and certain groups would be developed. The buzzword within such work environments is nothing else but workplace politics – a form of grapevine which essentially mars the whole process of communication in the first place. (Peters, 2002) Within the reigns of gender communication, people factor has played an important role within any organization mainly due to the fact that it is the ultimate resource which brings about completion of work and duties. Within the organizational ranks, managing people has gained an even more significant position. It is significant to understand that having the most sought after employees and workers in the market is necessary since they will give the most productivity in the toughest times possible. It really does not matter whether these employees and workers are males or females. Managing people within any organization is indeed one of the most difficult tasks that there could be. Diversity of these people makes it even harder. (Cody, 1995) There is so much to understand in the wake of their differences and styles that they bring to the table that the organizations face problematic situations whenever they hire new employees or retain old ones in the face of a changing culture. Such is the nature of this quagmire that organizations are known to wilt under pressure from different quarters when it comes to having a clear cut understanding of the way both genders would react to a ‘change’ scenario and as to what their reactions would be in the wake of closing certain offices and more than that putting an end to their jobs. The element of downsizing is a similar implication for the very same process that has been discussed here. Hence from an office standpoint, there are certain instances when it is best to choose different people for the various jobs that are assigned in the working environment. This holds true for the rationale that a single person cannot and will not be able to do his work as well as the additional burden that is thrust upon him with zeal and enthusiasm. Hence the need of the hour is to understand that employees and workers need a manager to comprehend their shortcomings in the field of work and thus be assigned tasks and responsibilities in line with the same. These managers need to keep a close check on the way gender communication attributes are dealt with, within the organization. The need for recruiting able and established staff is very much there since every organization or company for that matter wants to achieve efficiency and effectiveness when it comes to getting the things done in a quick manner. There are instances when employees have been known to prolong things just because they do not feel to be in the mood to do so. This is a definitive statement on the part of the employees that they were recruited wrongly at the time of their hiring and the organization did indeed make a mistake in choosing such a worker over other options that were available to it around the world. It has been seen that at times the top line personnel present in offices delegate jobs and assignments to their sub-ordinates without even thinking that the same might not be the correct manner and mode of action as to go about carrying out the tasks and responsibilities. Gender communication comes into the fray since at times; women are given the tasks of men and vice versa. This holds true in cases where men could do the outdoor tasks better and more productively than females yet the same are allotted to the females for unknown reasons. They think that delegation would prosper a sense of getting more work within the sub-ordinates who themselves are pretty much occupied with their already assigned tasks and jobs. This is hence not the correct manner in which things should be done and hence a need has to be chalked out to ramify the very same problem. A conflict within an organization can take place due to differing personalities of the employees or in their attitudes that lead in their linkage with each other. This could also happen due to their norms and behaviors which might not be liked by any one party (person) and thus lead to a conflict of thoughts, ideas, actions and eventual behaviors towards each other. There is a degree of power when we speak of the manager in terms of the same over his subordinate or the employee who is working under him in a direct or an indirect capacity. Thus, people factor has been at the core essence of any organization mainly due to the fact that it is the ultimate resource which brings about completion of work and duties. People factor within any organization gains an even more significant position as the business can move from a position of stability to one of a complete unstable stance as it acquires different means of gathering the market and its driving factors that come along with it. (Mccluskey, 1997) Consequently the gender issue gets its resolve from the fact that people work as a team rather than working alone yet they perform their own respective tasks and duties in their own capacities within the office environment for which there is no direct or indirect connection as concerns the groups and teams that they are working under from time to time. The manager thus chalks out a plan to review each and every sub-ordinate’s performance and then allot him the potential duties which may or may not be linked to their strengths over a given period of time. Hence gender issue certainly takes its roots from this scenario and employees feel somewhat at ease whilst carrying out their jobs and assigned tasks. The ramifications of the issue of diversifying work and making people accustomed to management tactics only helps the corporate ladder as much as the employees, specialists and top management themselves. Thus a clear understanding has to be the guiding force to tell one and all in this situation as to the rationale behind doing the same. The end result is achieving success for the company or the enterprise that they all strive to be a part of and not to forget their individual growth that will take them up the ladder of expansion and development over the years. The right kind of assessment that is needed to keep a work environment geared up towards achieving its objectives is through measuring its motivational levels. This could be sampled through at different stages of the employee composition and the results would be apparent to one and all. Thus unity of purpose and a sense of direction could be ascertained from such an exercise since a work environment could be best judged by the manner in which it exploits its undertakings – a fact that is closely monitored by their approach towards the works and tasks and the same being in line with their respective motivational levels. The assessment could be finalized if the team is ticking all the boxes which are constructed in the wake of finding out the problems which the team might engulf into with the passage of time. (Author Unknown, 2008) A work environment could be best explained through its mannerisms and this is a measure of its development towards a high performing unit. This indeed is the order of the day on any given day and it must be hailed by all and sundry as far as the undertakings of a work environment is concerned. Thus the assessment that is correct under these settings would look to find out the factual basis of the employees’ performance levels and check whether or not these are in line with the demands that were given out to the whole work environment when it was put in place. If the same are being met considerably well then this means that the employees are achieving their objectives and the goal is in sight that needs to be achieved over the course of the long term strategy. However if these objectives are not being met, then this would mean that the leadership is not being exercised in the right manner which could gear the work environment into performing at their optimum levels as well as both the male and female members are simply not in the right frame of mind as per going through their intended lines of action and tasks. In the end, it would be correct to state that a work environment which is often marred with disputes and tensions is a work environment which will not foster productivity at all within the organizational domains. It is in the best interest of the company to bolster tolerance and acceptance levels for the gender communication regimes so that the end result is one that benefits not only the employees but also the organization in particular. Gender communication is indeed beneficial towards their work philosophies because it teaches the employees that no particular gender is above the other one and that men and women need to work hand in hand for their eventual growth. This indeed would rule the roost for any organization at any given day and bring laurels within its regimes all said and done. (Payne, 2001) References Author Unknown. (2008). He said, she said: Gender communications at the office. Ceridian Connection, Found Online at: http://www.ceridian.com/myceridian/connection/content/1,4268,15157-66893,00.html Cody, Michael J. (1995). Gender, Power, and Communication in Human Relationships. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Mccluskey, Karen C. (1997). Gender at Work. Public Management, Vol. 79 Mirza, Patrick. (2005). New life for pregnancy discrimination claims. Found Online at: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3495/is_7_50/ai_n14814432?tag=content;col1 Payne, Kay E. (2001). Different but Equal: Communication between the Sexes. Praeger Peters, Carole C. (2002). Gender in Communication: Micropolitics at Work. Found Online at: http://www.aare.edu.au/02pap/pet02184.htm Ridderbusch, Katja. (2006). Bridging the Gender Gap. Handelsblatt, Found Online at: http://www.connieglaser.com/articles_handelsblatt.html Word Count: 2,610 Read More