Considerations for Managing Corporate Culture, Employee Motivation and Workforce Diversity - Literature review Example

Considerations for Managing Corporate Culture, Employee Motivation and Workforce Diversity Name: University: Course Title: Instructor: Date of Submission: 1.0 Introduction Organisations exist to reimburse shareholders because of their investment and risk taking and create value to customers who are the principal source of revenue. These aspirations can be attained only if an organisation is competitive enough by churning out strategies that enable it to utilise its internal strengths while reducing weaknesses. On the other hand, it has to leverage on external opportunities and minimise on threats. In a nutshell, it means strategy and competitiveness is a two pronged approach that focuses on internal and external factors. There are numerous internal strengths that an organisation can leverage on so as to act as key success factors. These mainly fall under the domain of organisational development and behaviour and include aspects such as culture, diversity management and employee motivation. The aim of this paper is to assess and outline considerations for managing corporate culture, employee motivation and workforce diversity effectively. Based on the above thesis statement, the paper appreciates that three domains are critical for organisational competitiveness and success. I regard to considerations for managing corporate culture effectively, the paper argues that issues such as resistance to change & change fatigue and effective leadership & followership should be considered since it is these that are significant in creating a culture that moulds employee behaviour from a previous paradigm to a new thinking. Secondly, for considerations for managing employee motivation, the paper opines that it is integral to consider the whole aspect or how the organisation is organised/ structured and managed as they directly impacts on employee motivation. The section equally proposes that issues such as job satisfaction & perception and reward schemes should be considered. For consideration under effective management of diversity the paper advocates for consideration of cultural diversity, equal opportunity, affirmative action and integration of situational determinants. 2.0 Considerations for Managing Corporate Culture Effectively Culture is conceptualised in different perspectives. Nevertheless, conceptualisation of culture is grounded on parameters such as patterns of beliefs and behaviour of individuals with a certain shared cultural background that they are socialised to adhere to. According to Kochan et al.(2003, p.4) culture encompasses a learned and shared way of life such as religious belief, gender roles, norms, vices among others that impacts on how individuals relates with others, value them and perceive all phenomenon around them. The same argument can be extended to an organisation or work environment specific to organisational culture. Wooten (2010) defines organisational culture as “ the shared beliefs, principles, values, and assumptions that shape behaviour by building commitment, providing direction, establishing a collective identity, and creating a community” (p. 8). To attain such desires anchored on the realisation of the impact of organisational culture on competitiveness and success of an organisation, the answer lies on creation of values and beliefs of employees that spur productivity, team work, innovation and value creation among others (Goffee & Jones, 2005, p.1 & 2). Ackroyd & Crowdy (1990, p.7 & 8) offers a framework of how positive culture can be used to reinforce work performance and work related behaviours so enhanced value creation and competitiveness. Across his interrogation, they outline issues such as attachment to work & self image and relations with the communities. In this regard, they see culture as a framing factor that can shape individual and organisational behaviour. All the above as envisioned in corporate culture can be attained only by a leader or institution through change that galvanises or orients the thinking of employees towards a given desired direction. Therefore, to attain the required cultural change that aligns employees and subsequently the organisation to the desired direction, a leader has to take into consideration numerous factors. It is these factors that constitute considerations for managing corporate culture effectively. The first issue that should be considered is resistance to change and change fatigue. The plausibility of proposing resistance to change and fatigue is justified by the fact that it is change that can be exploited by a leader so as to galvanise new thinking, different way of operation and perception of organisational processes to a different new level that can then subsequently be replicated through socialisation processes, rewards & punishment. This calls for utilisation of both interpersonal skills such as leadership, motivation, team building and technical skills (Gill, 2011, p.65). Agboola & Salawu (2011); Chew, Cheng and Petrovic-Lazarevic (2006) observes that employees can engage in a resistance process so as to frustrate change process initiated by a manager so as to create a different culture in an organisation. These can include resignation, deviance, conflicts and poor customer service. However, if a manager succeeds to create change, the other remaining bit is to sustain change by reducing change fatigue. To address fatigue emerging as result of cultural change to the better Beudan (2006, p.6) notes that “individuals who support change might rethink their support and thus, a manager should keep them in check and that who support change at the beginning may become neutral, passive or active resisters over time and the fact that all change involves a shift of the organisation’s power structure”. Thus, these aspects should be kept in checked and reviewed constantly. Under the same theme, the second consideration for managing corporate culture effectively is adoption of effective leadership and followership. Leadership is about using people to attain desired goals through exploitation of leader’s interpersonal skills (Frankel, 2008, p.24). On the other hand, followership is anchored on the justification that it is the followers who are responsible in implementing leaders’ ideas and that they must effectively follow the leader so as to actualise his or her dreams (Lucey, 2008, p.11). 3.0 Considerations of Managing Employee Motivation Effectively Jackson and Carter (2007, p.180) postulates that “human beings are regarded principally as resources to be used as efficiently as possible”. Additionally, they observe that current management discourses posits that employees are manipulable (p.175). However, there is the new paradigm that this cannot be attained without motivation. The present realisation is that employees’ needs goes beyond economic remuneration and thus, there is a need to offer various psycho-social rewards so as to enhance performance (George et al, 2007, p.136). Such aspect adopts interpersonal skills/ people’s skills/ soft skills instead of the ‘stick and carrot’ approach that is strictly geared towards an exchange relationship that rewards or punishes performance on a monetary basis (Bruce & Nyland, 2011, p. 385). Therefore an appropriate motivation scheme should integrate financial benefits and psycho-social benefits. Kakabadse et al. (2004, p.72) outlines numerous themes within the motivation domain that can act as an informative basis for a manager or human resource managers on how to motivate their employees and thus constitutes areas for consideration in effective management of employee motivation. According to them, to enhance motivation and performance, employees should be critically engaged in planning & designing of business plans, creation of flexible work schedule, commensurate reward for work done, appropriate employment relations, assurance in their job security, giving attention to the employee’s social, physiological, esteem, psychological and self –actualization needs. This can only be achieved through proper human management strategies and holistic organisational development (Weightman, 2004, p.3). As seen motivation management and scheme is a diverse discourse and involves numerous considerations. From a holistic perspective, the uttermost consideration of managing employee motivation effectively lies of linking motivation with how organisation is managed. Factors to consider in relation to organisational management include organisation structure, employee responsibilities, management hierarchy (Bennett, 2002, p.431). The realisation should be premised along McGregor’s observation that “average person is lazy, lacks ambition, prefers to be led and dislikes responsibility” (Roberts, 2007, p.48). Therefore, organizational structure and development put in place should be queried by managers or human resource manages in regard to how they help in reinforcing the same or discouraging the same. For instance, (Roberts, 2007, p.52) notes that well informed job design can enhance motivation and satisfaction. These include task identity, task significance and skill variety. The second consideration for effective management of employee motivation falls within the domain of job satisfaction and perception. Under this, one of the considerations is the perceived ease of movement. If alternatives or opportunities which are lucrative are available in another organisation as compared to the current one, the employee will have a reduced motivation as that form the basis for cross comparison and thus reducing his or her motivation to work for the company. Under the same perspective, we have perceived desirability of movement. This is tied to job satisfaction. If an employee is not satisfied by the responsibilities, duties, reward and organisational structure, he or she is likely to be less motivated (Long, Perumal and Ajagbe, 2012, p.629). Absence of motivation tied to the above perceived ease of movement and perceived desirability normally leads to higher levels of absenteeism. Secondly, it leads to high levels of employee turnover (Howarth, 2005, p.3). The other aspect of consideration is the reward scheme availed by an organisation so as to motivate employees. The premise for such proposition is to please the economic/ monetary need of an employee. To attain such ambitions a manager should ensure a balance efficiency, effectiveness and marketplace viability so as to ensure “value exchange” between employer and employee (Alliance for work-life progress, 2006). In this regard, management should be in a position to address compensation issues such as fixed pay, variable pay, long and short term incentive pay. These are meant to pay for time, talent, effort and results. The second aspect is work-life which helps employees achieve success. This group includes work flexibility, financial support, culture change interventions and paid and unpaid time off among others. Benefits are the third element group & social insurance and pay for time not worked. They are meant to address financial risks and supplement cash compensation. The last is development and career opportunities so that employees can further their skills and also for organization to attract new talents (Jiang et al., 2009, p.179; Alliance for work-life progress, 2006). 4.0 Considerations of Managing Workforce Diversity Effectively The diversity concept emerged in 1980s as appreciation for the need to embrace diverse demographical trends and the realisation that heterogeneous groups can outperform homogeneous ones (Konrad, 2003, p.5). Moreover, irreconcilable difference pegged on diversity rather than principles is likely to minimise performance (Horwitz & Horwitz, 2007, p.988). Jayne and Dipboye (2004, p.410) observes that the issue of workplace diversity has evolved over the years based on the need to protect minority employees from work related oppression and discrimination based on issues such as ethnicity, race, gender, age, sexual orientation and religious belief. Dipboye & Halverson, (2004, p.133) offers parameters such as age, sex, disability, religion, race or ethnicity as the cornerstone of diversity management. On the other hand, Kochan et al. (2003, p.4) see cultural diversity as significant part of diversity since it is one of the source that makes individual different as it is the encapsulating factor in socialisation. Diversity is all about differences in the workforce. Business organizations must embrace inclusion as the key to enable them benefit from it. These differences are informed by workforce background, ideas, opinions, personality, and uniqueness. Workforce diversity is thus reflected in both primary and secondary dimensions of diversity (Coffey, n.d, p.4). The primary dimensions of diversity (represented by the inner circle in figure 1) include such attributes as an employee’s age, gender, race, sexual orientation, disability and ethnic heritage among others. Secondary dimensions (represented by the outer circle in figure 1) are those attributes that determine an employee’s work performance, such as work experience, organizational role and level, religion, communication style and education among others. Figure 1 below is a representation of the primary and secondary dimensions of diversity. Figure 1: Dimensions of workforce diversity Source: Coffey, n.d, p.5 Dipboye & Halverson, (2004, p. 132 & 134) indicates that while organizations have placed various mechanisms so as to manage diversity, discrimination at work place is still a problem. Therefore, Jayne & Dipboye (2004, p.410) urge for paradigm shift in conceptualisation of diversity in an organisation away from a narrow legal focus to a more holistic framework that captures a broad array of human differences. Hence, Schermerhorn et al., (2012, p.42) indicates that all these parameters have to be managed so as to create a productive work environment free of cultural conflicts and other diverse aspects such as gender, race, sex, religion, physical challenges and embracement of key defining aspects such as equal employment opportunities and affirmative action. Now, let assess these framing factors and the need to be considered within a diversity policy framework so as to create a truly diverse workforce that is effective, productive, creates value and enhances competitiveness of a business. The first aspect that should be considered in managing diversity is cultural diversity. In this context cultural diversity implies diversity derived as a result of social construction/ socialization process and religious beliefs. The essence within this context, as expounded by Konrad (2003, p.7) is to destruct identity groups since these are the grouping that are used to discriminate others at work place. The reasoning of this approach is anchored on the fact that managers should not lay much emphasis on trying to include all, but to curtail the activities of those who try to balkanise the workforce based on parameters such as ethnicity, sex, gender, physical challenge and religion. Tacheva (2007, p.60) that such approach creates a culture within the work environment that does not condone discrimination and this likely to be transferred to new employees. The second consideration is to address equal opportunity for all irrespective of their background. In this regard it appreciates other factors such education, life experiences, personality, marital status, family obligations, socio-economic backgrounds and religious beliefs among others. The Australian Government, Department of Immigration and Citizenship regard workplace diversity as a concept that enables them to recognize uniqueness, promote inclusion and look into the future. Closely related to equal opportunity a point for consideration under diversity management is the affirmative action. Affirmative action is concerned with realizing parity in a diverse work environment (Coffey, n.d, p.4). For instance, an organization can deliberately decide to hire qualified under represented individuals in an organisation such as disabled or women so as to create inclusive and gender sensitive firm. The third aspect that should be considered in managing workforce diversity effectively is the situational determinants. Situational determinants such as business culture, organization’s business strategies and business environment together with the workforce and their job description to a greater extent are a precursor of the chances of business success in a diverse workplace (DeAnca & Vazguez, 2007, p.121). Therefore, contextual issues relating to situational determinants should be addressed. In a nutshell, all the above aspirations or considerations if taken to account will lead to a diverse workplace if free from discrimination, oppression, stigmatization and favouritism resulting from employees’ demographic differences such as age, sex, race and religion (Strachan, French & Burgess, 2010). 5.0 Conclusion The aim of the discourse was to assess and establishes the various considerations of managing corporate culture, employee motivation and workforce diversity effectively. To analyse the discourse, the paper took a three pronged discourse where the three domains are addressed independently within the paper. The first instance relates to considerations for managing corporate culture. The paper found out that this is an important deliberate tool in encapsulating and directing the behaviours of employees towards a desired position for competitiveness of an organisation. The realisation is that for this to be attained, a manager has to create and sustain change overtime through aspects such as reward, punishment, motivation, and teamwork. To attain the identified goals it is the onus of the manager to consider issues such as resistance to change & change fatigue and lastly, effective leadership and followership. Secondly, the paper assesses considerations for effectively managing motivation in an organisation effectively. The paper proposes that a manager should consider issues such as the general organisational structure, satisfaction & perception of the employees and reward schemes available in the organisation. The plausibility of this argument is rooted in the fact that these are significant domains that enhances motivation. Lastly, the paper analysed considerations for managing workforce diversity. In this regard, the paper proposes that issues such as equal opportunity, affirmative action and situational determinants should be addressed. 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