Diversity at the Workplace and the Concept of Career Counseling - Case Study Example

Human Resource Management Name Institution Executive Summary All organizations, regardless of their size and affluence, play a substantial role in building careers for its workforce. People cannot build careers without having a place where they can exercise their knowledge acquired through education or other means, and that is why working offers such chances. Companies must meet some specifications including good working environment through the incorporation of quality and proper leadership, as well management to facilitate achievement of the objectives. Career counselling refers to a process, which aims at helping individuals to know and understand themselves, as well as the world or field of work with the intention of making a career, educational, and life decisions. Further, an organization must learn to embrace diversity in all forms to grasp opportunities that constitute diversification. The following work focuses on work related issues that arise due to lack of proper career counselling and resistance to diversity as well as poor leadership. Mark O’Brien is a 22-year-old young man who currently works as one of the store attendants in a downtown clothes store. He has worked at the shop for eight weeks now, and although he initially loved his job, the status is gradually changing and he is starting to think that he made a mistake. One of the perfect ways of overcoming this issue is to focus on the integration of career counselling as one of the most effective aspects of HRM. Table of Contents Executive Summary 2 Introduction 4 Theoretical Perspective 4 Case Study 6 Analysis 7 Solution 8 Conclusion 9 Annotated Bibliography 11 Introduction Career counselling and diversification are important in all businesses as they promote growth and present opportunities that can be of great advantage to a firm. In this context, diversification refers to the distribution of roles and skills by specialization. Human resource management, therefore, must ensure that organisations provide comprehensive information regarding careers and encourage diversity among workers. Diversity at workplace includes embracing people from various age groups, gender, and ethnicity, as well as religion differences and disability issues. For a company to succeed in its diversification, then it must incorporate it as part of its culture and fight any instances that promote otherwise. In addition, to ensure that every member of the workforce fits and loves their roles in the company, offering career advice is advisable as it prevents one from undertaking tasks against their will. The purpose of this report is to focus on utilization of a case study to understand and incorporate the concept of career counselling. Theoretical Perspective Career counselling refers to a process, which aims at helping individuals to know and understand themselves, as well as the world or field of work with the intention of making a career, educational, and life decisions. The process proves to be vital towards familiarizing employees and students with their individualized interests, abilities, and skills for utilization in the career interest inventories. In addition, the concept is valuable in the exploration of a wide assortment of possibilities or career alternatives. Career counselling focuses on goal setting, thus the approach toward the realization of greater results. Furthermore, the concept is ideal for the determination of strengths and weaknesses through working with a trained professional for aptitude and career assessment exploration. Previous researchers and practitioners have focused on execution of diverse studies on theories or theoretical perspectives of career. One of such theories is the theory of work adjustment, which is a class of theory about career development. The theory relates to the individual difference tradition of vocational behaviour (Leung, 2008). In the course of achieving and maintaining correspondence with the environment and the employee, it is critical to incorporate diverse adjustment styles to explain the facets. In this theory, career choice, as development comes out as a continual process or cycle of work adjustment relating to dissatisfaction and dis-satisfactoriness. The second theory relates to Holland’s theory of vocational personalities in the work environment. The objective of this theoretical framework is to generate a simple, as well as easy-to-understand typology framework on career interest and environments in career counselling and guidance (Leung, 2008). According to this theory, vocational interest is an expression of one’s personality. It is possible to conceptualize vocational interests in six typologies: realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional. There is also the self-concept theory of career development. According to this theory, career choice and development are vital aspects of developing, as well as implement an individual’s self-concept. From this perspective, self-concept is a product or output of complex interactions among some factors such as physical growth, mental development, personal experiences, and environmental characteristics, as well as stimulation (Leung, 2008). Gottfredon focused on the integration of the theory of circumscription and compromise. According to this theoretical perspective, career choice is a process, which requires a high level of cognitive proficiency. From this perspective, cognitive growth, as well as development is instrumental to the development of the cognitive map about occupation and conception of self, which is essential in the evaluation of the appropriateness of diverse occupational alternatives (Leung, 2008). Similarly, there is also the concept of social cognitive career theory, which focuses on stipulating mutual influencing relationship between people and environment. The objective of this theory is to generate three critical segments. In the first instance, the theory explains the development of academic, as well as vocational interest. Secondly, the theory explains the processes and procedures individuals use to make educational and career choices (Leung, 2008). Thirdly, the theory explains the concepts relating to educational and career performance, as well as stability. The three segmental models tend to have diverse emphasis centring around three core variables in the form of self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and personal goals. Case Study Mark O’Brien is a 22-year-old young man who currently works as one of the store attendants in a downtown clothes store. He has worked at the shop for eight weeks now, and although he initially loved his job, the status is gradually changing and he is starting to think that he made a mistake. The company where Mark works deals in clothes, and sells all kinds of clothing for different age groups and gender. Additionally, the company is well known by the locals and is among the top three clothes stores in the area. Given its size, the enterprise has various departments including directors, top management, human resource professionals, supervisors and other employees). Mark belongs to the “regular employee” category, and he had no problem with the level until a couple of weeks ago. His work chores mainly include making sales for the company as well as performing some marketing tasks on several occasions. Having acquired a college degree in sales and marketing, working at the store offered Mark an opportunity to learn skills in the field. However, recent changes to events at the shop have made him start rethinking about staying at the company and even doubt his career choice as a sales and marketing representative. Two weeks back, his supervisor, Lucas McCain, did remove him from his post as a customer assistant/attendant where his role involved marketing products and convincing the customers into buying the relevant products. His new post is as a cashier, where he just receives cash, as well as goods from the client. He feels limited and less productive as he cannot participate in helping the customers choose items and instead merely receives payment for the purchased goods. Three days ago, he talked with one of his colleagues and was shocked to realise that his changed position was race-based since he was Indian. His workmate, Spencer Luis, did hear rumours that Mark was changed because of concerns that customers will shy off from talking to him regarding their purchases than they would with an American attendant. Therefore, according to Spencer, getting him to work as a cashier was mainly to limit his interactions with customers and to minimise the possibility of losing customers due to his race. Mark has kept this to himself for three days, and although he continues to go to work every day, he is, however, confused and wonders if he can quit the job and possibly change career. Mark’s friend, Elaine, did recommend that he see a career counsellor. The career counsellor would have the obligation to concentrate much of his or her attention on comprehending, as well as appreciating the life themes in Mark’s stories. The objective of this counselling approach and context would be to enable Mark to construct his career to ensure that he is happy and motivated to work for the company in diverse capacities. Analysis Following the provided case study, there appear to be various issues surrounding the problem. The employee, Mark, is an ambitious young man who holds a degree and wants to utilise his knowledge from school and make the best out of it working as a customer attendant. On the other hand, the stores’ supervisor, Lucas, is a concerned enterprise leader who wants the best for the organisation. The outcome did ensure that Lucas would take any measurement in his power to make it succeed. Based on the rumours that Spenser claims to have heard about Mark being shifted from his position due to his nationality, then, the company has not embraced diversity. Diversity will include having a workforce made up of individuals from different ethnic groups or races, age or gender offers excellent opportunities to an organisation. It is because; all these groups contribute their viewpoints and ideas that help the company, if inspected and implemented properly. For instance, instead of viewing Mark as a threat to the company sales, the supervisor should have seen an opportunity in Mark using his background knowledge to improve sales. Moreover, most people appreciate different cultures and so, having Mark as a member of customer attendant crew would most likely attract more customers as opposed to keeping them away. According to O’Brien, Sheffer, Van & Van Der (2015), diversity promotes growth in a company. Therefore, the supervisor appears to have no such knowledge of the potential Mark has that can positively influence the store's sales. The leader and the company in general lack that knowledge and that is the reason they would not want to risk the sales with an Indian guy by giving him a chance to see how he performs. In addition, considering that the employee has worked for about two months, they should have analysed his performance before getting to a conclusion about his race. It is, also, unethical to change one’s position based on conditions that are beyond one’s power such as the colour of one’s skin. Another issue is that both Mark and his supervisor, Lucas, seem to lack proper career counselling. Mark’s contemplations of changing his job based on the treatment at his workplace show that he is not sure of his sales and marketing career choice. The challenges he encounters should not deter him from pursuing his profession. It looks like he ventured into the job having not gotten enough counselling, hence, the quick judgment and contemplation of shifting the career choice. On the other hand, the supervisor appears to have no necessary knowledge in guiding careers for his juniors. Instead of encouraging and posting Mark in his area of specialisation, he instead, out of speculations, places him in a position where his capabilities will not be harnessed. Hence, proper career counselling plays a huge part in causing the issue at hand. Finally, as a leader, the supervisor should be setting a good example for other employees. Instead, he sets an example that involves discriminating fellow workmates and judging their performance based on their skin colour. In addition, the case study demonstrates the lack of effective management training and development on the issues of career counselling, thus inappropriate mechanisms towards exploitation or maximization of the relationship between the employees and the environment. Similarly, the case illustrates the lack of diverse concepts such as confidentiality, credentialing, privileged communication, and the duty to warn. Lack of these aspects would have been essential to the spread of information concerning Mark’s case. Solution From HRM perspective, it is vital to look into the presented issue and provide practical solutions that will positively influence the involved parties as well as the enterprise. HR management involves playing particular roles to ensure the company’s smooth running including guidance, developing and implementing policies, training, and career counselling. The approach will begin with a collection of comprehensive information from Mark Lucas, Spenser, and any additional source. In this scenario, the supervisor appears to have taken rational measurements to prevent a potential threat to the enterprises’ sales. In the course of verifying the authenticity of Lucas’ suggestions, it is critical to provide proof of the negative influence of the employee as a sales representative. Using the data presented, HRM should be able to make valuable steps towards reinstating Mark to his previous position or guiding him on his career. Furthermore, it is appropriate to educate the supervisor on how to encourage career growth by posting employees in positions that match their interests and specifications of their careers. The approach should enhance the awareness of the supervisor on the existing rules and regulations concerning treatment of the employees in pursuit of competitive advantage at the end of the fiscal period. Additionally, an HR manager promotes diversity and equality at workplaces and makes it become an organisation’s culture (LaMontagne, 2012). Therefore, the approach will concentrate on using team meetings, workshops, and seminars to educate the supervisor and the entire workforce of the benefits of being diverse. The educational program would involve having a thirty-minute activity that includes all members of the workforce. The activity aims at enabling employees to know each other and give their viewpoints on different matters of the company. That way, members will get an opportunity of learning from each other as well as appreciating the diverse perspectives of various individuals. The last step will involve career counselling, whereby, given that, Mark has thoughts of changing his profession, the HRM approach will encourage him to identify, and pursue his interests as a sales person. The career counselling will have to include all of the company’s workers to ensure that everyone understands and embraces their roles in the company. Individuals that perform tasks that relate to their values and interests yield better results than those that lack understanding or hold no values or interests (Glavin & Berger, 2012). Therefore, for the company and worker’s benefit, career counselling will involve helping the workforce realize their potential in their specified roles within the enterprise. Promoting careers will not only encourage the workers but will also assist the realize opportunity of growth that they did not think existed (Glavin & Berger, 2012). Hence, undertaking the measurements will help in solving the problem and possibly prevent such occurrences in the future. The career counselling to Mark will be confidential and private, thus integration of one-on-one concept. The process will follow the outline of career counselling interview. Conclusion Diversity at workplace includes embracing people from various age groups, gender, and ethnicity, as well as religion differences and disability issues. The purpose of the research paper was to evaluate and explore the concept of career counselling under the influence of Mark’s case, as well as issues affecting his inspiration and motivation towards addressing his obligations, roles, and responsibilities. The career counselling to Mark will be confidential and private, thus integration of one-on-one concept. Promoting careers will not only encourage the workers but will also assist the realize opportunity of growth that they did not think existed. Annotated Bibliography Glavin, K., & Berger, C. A. (2012). Using Career Construction Theory in Employment Counselling for Sales and Office and Administrative Support Occupations. Journal Of Employment Counselling, 49(4), 185-191. This article offers detailed information about building careers at work and provides counselling advice to managers, as well as insight on how to ensure workers remain enthusiastic about their roles. LaMontagne, R. M. (2012, January 1). Facing Ethical Dilemmas in the Workplace: A Qualitative Study of HR Managers' Perceptions of the Influences on Their Behavior and the Implications for Building an Ethical Culture in Organizations. ProQuest LLC, This article talks about how HR managers should perform their duties effectively as well as what roles they play in an organization. O’Brien, K. R., Scheffer, M., van Nes, E. H., & van der Lee, R. (2015). How to Break the Cycle of Low Workforce Diversity: A Model for Change. Plos ONE, 10(7), 1-15. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0133208 This article provided me with the knowledge of diversity while offering comprehensive information about what entails diversity, and how to implement and maintain it at work. Leung, S. A. (2008). The big five career theories. In International handbook of career guidance (pp. 115-132). Springer Netherlands. This research article was essential in identification of the career theories for effective and efficient analysis of the case study. Read More