How the Workforce Is Changing - Coursework Example

Organizational Behavior Report Customer name Subject Name Here Instructor’s Name Here May 10, 2014 Introduction There seems to be no better time like this to learn organizational behavior. The pace of change seems to be accelerating daily and a great number of transformations are also occurring in the workplace. This report sets out to discuss two major questions in the field of organizational behavior. The first section of the report will describe how the workforce is changing and at the same time identifies two major consequences of the changes for the organizations. The other question will seek to answer the question why emotional labor is an issue for those employees working in fast paced service industries. Discussion How the workforce is changing One does not have to visit a global organization so as to find employees from diversified backgrounds. The workforce has achieved a lot of change over the years. And this can be attributed to aspects such as labor shortage, aging population and immigration. In addition to these factors, the attitude of the workers has also been a major factor in the changing workforce. Organizations need to adapt all their processes such as training, recruitment and management so as to become accustomed to the changing workforce (Bratton et al. 2010). A good example of these scenarios is that in the early days most organizations view the young people as just recruits, based on these most organizations needs to broaden their view since in the global market the number of older people seeking employment opportunities and also those who are employed and may want career development seems to be on the rise (Fisher and Ashkanasy 2000). Also a great number of parents seem to be comfortable while working closer to their homes, thus employers need to view this as an emergent need so as to retain older employees and attract new ones. Also the very aspect of allowing employees to work from their homes or closer home will make the employer as well as the job more attractive to the eyes of the employees and thus attract a wide range of employees (Fisher and Ashkanasy 2000). A great number of organizations operating in the modern day business have a workforce that is multicultural this is solely based on the fact that countries are over time increasing their demographic diversity. There exist both primary as well as secondary dimensions of diversity. Aspects that are mostly considered under primary diversity are aspects such as ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, race as well as the physical or mental qualities (Kruml and Geddes 2000). Under the secondary dimensions the features included are marital status, education, work experience and religion. The number of employees in organizations has increased tremendously based on both the primary and secondary dimensions of diversity. In countries such as the US a great number of the immigrants come from Africa. Also, there has also been an increase women’s participation in the labor workforce. A great number of women now are taking on paid workforce when compared to the lower numbers that were there a few decades ago (Kerem, Fishman and Josselson 2007). In relation to gender, gender based shifts is also being experienced in certain occupations, for instance, most of the Canadian medical schools are currently graduating more women as compared to men yearly. This seemed to be a major transformation since in the 1960s, almost 90% of the medical graduate’s men and a number of journals were even debating if medical training was meant for women. In the modern days employers are experiencing shortage in terms of skilled labor in a greater number of sectors. Thus, employers will have to take on the less skilled workers and develop them as compared to hiring the experienced ones. Also hiring people from overseas also serves the intended purpose. Age differences characterize another primary diversity dimension in organizations (Kruml and Geddes 2000). The baby boomers are now in the final half of their job, while generation X are in the early stages in relation to their career development. Based on a number of authors, each of the generations was brought up with different skills, experiences and also a different set of values. And thus at each stage of their lives they are likely to have different needs to satisfy (Robbins and Barnwell 2011). Consequences of these changes in organizations Diversity in the workforce offers both challenges and opportunities in the workplace. A major consequence of this that it can act as a source of competitive advantage for a company and thus improving team work performance and decision making on the various complex tasks they are expected to perform on a daily basis. For a great number of organizations, a diversified workforce seems to be an essential aspect in offering better customer service while operating in the global marketplace (Ott, Parkes & Simpson 2008). This is closely related to the fact that when operating in global marketplaces organizations cannot be able to decide who to sell their products and services and thus they also serve a global customer base thus augmenting the need to global workers. Products and services also tend to be superior when employees from different cultures develop them. In addition to the above mentioned consequence of change in the workplace, workforce diversity also has a number of challenges. But the major one relates to women, for example, though women have been said to represent a greater portion of the workforce for over two decades, the numbers seem to be underrepresented when it comes to women holding senior positions (Robbins and Barnwell 2011). The number of women in leadership positions needs to be looked at so as to solve this challenge. Diversity issues, for example, organizational politics and perceptual distortions tend to offer an adequate explanation of the main reason behind this disperencies (Huczynski and Buchanan 2010). Somehow diversity also tends to have an influence on the development of teams as well as potential of conflict among employees in an organization. Thus, there seems to be an urgent need for organizations to address all the possible problems and at the same time adapt to the emerging workforce needs. Why emotional labor is an issue for employees in fast paced service industries Emotional labor is a term used to refer to the control of an individual’s behavior in the aim of displaying the right and appropriate emotions for a certain scenario. This solely means that an individual needs to suppress or evoke certain kinds of emotions in the aim of conforming to set social norms (Hellriegel and Slocum 2010). In most service industries it is usually a requirement for the employees to act in a friendly, positive and empathetic manner while working so as to make the customers feel welcome and wanted. It is highly acknowledged that employees usually finds jobs and duties that involve emotional labor as to be more satisfying as compared to jobs and duties that involve less or mo emotional labor. Emotional labor jobs usually attract employees whose personal qualities are more suited to working more with the general public and, afterward, these groups of employees have a better fit when it comes to personal qualities and job demands (Daft and Noe 2001). The fit between the two usually leads to higher job satisfaction. Emotional labor seems to be an issue for employees working in fast paced service industries since it has a number of negative impacts. It is acknowledged that there seems to be a correlation between the emotional state of an individual and their physical state. Research suggests that labors to suppress negative emotions and also display positive emotions usually lead to physiological responses that foreshadow somatic illness. The illnesses usually range from lower immunity level of cardiovascular illnesses and to cancer (George and Jones 2007). Emotional labor also seems to be an issue since it causes burnout and job dissatisfaction. Additional impact on the psychological well being of an individual includes depression, poor self esteem, role alienation, cynicism and self alienation. Authors such as Whartin 1999, offers a major reason as to why the rule governing the service providers is usually problematic. For employers to ensure quality of service offered they usually put in play behavior scripts and the service providers are supposed to follow. Based on these the service providers are supposed to interact with the customers on spontaneous intuition, but based on the script that has been drawn up by the employer (Daft and Noe 2001). Additionally, another major result of emotional labor is separation between oneself and the work role. At the same time as the workers in assembling lines are usually estranged by their bodies, the service providers also become estranged to their actual feelings. It is believed that a greater number of the negative consequences that are closely associated with emotional labor can trace its roots to this estrangement (Champoux 2011). This form of estrangement is usually depicted in form of inauthenticty and dissonance, and this is usually the end results of surface acting. Conclusion The changing workforce being an emergent trend that needs to be studied to enhance the understanding of organizational behavior. The workforce has achieved a lot of change over the years. And this can be attributed to aspects such as labor shortage, aging population and immigration. In addition to these factors, the attitude of the workers has also been a major factor in the changing workforce. Organizations need to adapt all their processes such as training, recruitment and management so as to become accustomed to the changing workforce. Employees in the fast paced service industry are expected to be nice and this ability usually requires incredible efforts of the employees. Thus, emotional labor needs to be taken critically since it is said to affect customer loyalty satisfaction and individual job satisfaction. Bibliography Bratton, John, Sawchuk Peter, Forshaw Carolyn, Callinan Militza and Corbett, Martin. 2010. Work and organizational behaviour. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Champoux, Joseph. 2011. Organizational behaviour: integrating individuals, groups and organization. New York: Routledge. Daft, Richard and Noe, Raymond. 2001. Organizational behaviour. Texas: Fort Worth. George, Jennifer and Jones, Gareth. 2007. Understanding and managing organizational behaviour. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall. Hellriegel, Don, and Slocum, John. 2010. Organizational behaviour. Boston: Cengage Learning. Huczynski, Andrzej & Buchanan, David. 2010. Organizational behaviour. England: Pearson Education Ltd. Ott, Steven, Parkes Sandra & Simpson, Richard. 2008. Classic readings in organizational behaviour. Belmont: Wadsworth. Robbins, Stephen and Barnwell Neil. 2011. Organization theory: concepts and cases. Sydney: Prentice Hall. Kerem, Ein, Fishman Joshua, and Josselson, Ruthellen. 2007. “The experience of empathy in everyday Relationships: Cognitive and affective elements.” Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 18: 709- 729. 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