Modern Business Environment - Essay Example

Why should any organization spend time and other resources to improve its management of diversity I would like to begin my answer by a beautiful quote by Jimmy Carter who once said, " We have become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams". The same hold true for the modern business environment. The key to success in any modern organisation is the efficient allocation of firms assets particularly its employees skills and capabilities. One of the ways of ensuring success within an organization is diversity which needs to be exploited to the full as it has its potential advantages. However the concept of diversity goes beyond race, gender or disability and there is a marked emphasis on factors of personality and perspective. Therefore there should be an integration of diversity into training programs where awareness is created of prejudices arising from stereotypes. Diversity has thus to be absorbed within the areas of recruitment , legislation and brand equity. Many academics and business professionals have insisted that many that many organizations fail to perceive the relationship between diversity and performance and diversity issues should now be incorporated into the employee training routine. The advantages of diversity cannot be emphasised upon enough because a well planned diversity initiative can bring many positive results to an organization like improved recruiting and retention. A well planned diversity initiative will focus on the core competencies which should underline the diversity initiative. Diversity management thus has to focus upon gaining the knowledge and abilities through its labour force to enable the organization to meet its long time objectives. Diversity would thus also ensure that instead of a bored "affirmative action" plan there is an emphasis on recruitment of the most qualified people, and continuing professional development of the current employees. 2-The text talks about how the Internet has "revolutionized recruitment practice" (Cascio, 2006). Discuss some of the advantages the Internet has provided regarding recruiting. Next, turn to the darker side of the Internet's impact on recruiting and discuss some of the disadvantages/problems with using the Internet as a primary tool in recruiting (20 pts). Internet is famously known as "the network of networks" and has enormously impacted every facet of the society particularly the perception of job applications and work performance. The modern employee is no longer bound to apply through newspaper Advertisements and Xerox a bundle of documents for each application. The modern recruiter has his cell phone, lap top, palm pilot, and of course the Internet and email at his disposal to look for the best. Recruitment Services use on-line screening, and web-based hiring initiatives like the popular Monster Job search and Bright Spyre.This has led to a heavy reliance on online recruitment and manual systems are already out of the way as Recruiters are able to post job openings and job seekers can apply with electronic copies of their resumes. This is very advantageous because Applicants can be screened quickly and efficiently for their skills, abilities and work history Internet will allow the recruiter to conduct key-word searches and quickly cross reference resume information with their specific requirements. The modern candidate is able to apply from the comfort of his own house and find out about his chances of employment in good time. Online recruiting has its cost effectiveness as it cuts down postage fees for the applicant as well as the costs of the recruiter. Newspaper based advertisements can be very expensive and can not be available for more than a few days. The internet gives a chance for global/universal access to people from all walks of life and diverse and a chance to access jobs and resources beyond geographical boundaries with electronic applications. Online recruiting can allow skilled candidates from around the world to access jobs and not limit the recruiting pool from one geographical location. Online recruiting comes as a tool for providing the competitive edge for a business. However all is not well for the Online recruitment system as it has its downfalls. Recruitment may have lost its personal touch as people are judged solely by their portfolios and not their personalities. Skills are not restricted what people claim to have acquired through degrees and can be a result of their experience. And this is something which can only be judged by a face to face interview. Also whereas recruiters have a chance to recruit the "best" from all over the world this may lead to falling wages and benefits for the local workforce. Because of Forex differentials people from developing countries may be willing to do much more for much less money. Last but not the least easy access to online offers has led the modern employee to become selfish and keep browsing for new jobs even during office time. So the concept of employee loyalty is becoming a thing of the past as employees browse for better jobs and such an opportunistic attitude will eventually harm the business world. It has also let employees to "mass apply" even for jobs they aren't qualified for. On its own a company is then stumped with too much work and costs of dealing with such random applications. 3. The text discusses the importance of using selection measures that are reliable and valid. First, why is it important for selection measures to be reliable and valid Second, is it possible for something to be reliable, yet lack validity and vice versa (can something valid lack reliability) Provide an example to support your answers (20 pts). A reliable and cost effective selection measure can do wonders for a company's future. However the process has become very complicated as companies realise that the process of staff recruitment and selection bears a lot upon the job performance and organizational success of a firm. In the US a number of selection firms use strategies like collecting biographical data as a predictor of applicants' future work as well as the use of structured interviews which will inquire through a set of predefined questions already. These questions will have their certain scores etc to judge or predict performance. Also there will be certain assessment centres which will allow candidates to engage in situational exercises and think tanks where experts will evaluate and make further predictions as to their current and future work performance. Of more importance and relevant to this context are the Cognitive tests which have certain ways of testing aptitudes and achievements of the candidates. In a similar vein personality tests will judge candidates as to their performance based on their preferred activities and how these candidates perceive themselves. Most of these tests might also pose moral dilemmas to the applicants and ask them to react .Another breed of selection criteria include Realistic job previews where employers will leave the candidates in their future workplace to see whether they can adjust to it their future work environment. Why it is then that the reliability of these tests is important Firstly this is because employers go through a lot of trouble and expense to arrange these tests/procedures and sometimes will also have to hire large amounts of personnel just to analyse this data. Although the use of biographical data can to some extent predict a person's performance for example the tendency to speak or deal in a certain way and has been used as a fairly reliable predictor of work performance there is always a risk of misjudging a person based on what is written on paper. It seems that the only way to judge a person is to interact with them for a while and judge their behaviour. In the US Cognitive job interviews have proved popular and people are most likely to be put in selection and training works for a deeper evaluation of their attitudes. The tests like the popular "Big Five test" (see below) may even be accurate in a sense however they are easy to tamper with too generalised. So sometimes even reliable tests can be "unreliable" because they tend to ignore the individual and stress on the group they belong to. 4-Are employees a source of sustainable competitive advantage for an organization Why or why not Sustainable competitive advantage is essential for the improvement and appraisal of a firms competitive position in the market and will enable a firm to survive against competition in the long run.Academic opinion has often spoken strongly in the favour of the achieving sustainable competitive advantage through an emphasis upon employee based management involving an increased contribution of employees in problem-solving and decision-making. Firms have to recognise that employees are an important asset and where as data and technology is susceptible to theft and piracy a good employee is one of the most important assets of a firm.The employees will be central to a company's competitive advantage. If the employee force is well qualified,trained and experienced this will play a critical role in the effective development and execution of strategies. It has to be recognised that the employees are the most important stakeholders of a company and therefore their role in corporate governance and achieving the sustainable competitive advantage which is the need of every modern firm.A firm has to realise that every employee is important and not just the top executives of the firm who are often given the discretion to withdraw large amounts of remuneration for themselves. As important stakeholders if these employees will be able to share a company's fortunes and achievements. 5-Personality measures have often been used as predictors of employee performance. Choose any occupation (or job) and discuss whether or not each of the Big Five personality dimensions could help predict employee performance in the occupation (or job) you have chosen (25 pts). Based on the psychological model devised by the eminent psychologist Goldberg it is said that the "Big five" personality traits are inherent in the population.This holds particularly true for achievement and work perfomance.The Big Five personality test (Goldberg 1981, 1993) identifies these five personality types as Extroversion (activity, sociability and emotional expressiveness), Agreeableness(trust, modesty), Conscientiousness(impulse control) Neuroticism(emotional stability) and Openness (complexity). These five dimensions have been used to account for variance in employee behaviour as well and their use of screening candidates for team building, selection, job analysis, training programs, coaching, is well known. However I would like to show some of the weaknesses in this test based on the example of a hypothetical advertisement firm called AD-WISE. Supposing the employers of the firm would like to measure the intensities of the firm under this test. Questionnaires are accordingly distributed .The employees sense that if they choose certain options they might be selected for high profile jobs.Therefore anyone with a little understanding of this test shall be able to get desired results. The test itself asks questions which ask you to agree disagree or give a medium response.The test ignores the influence of cultural and social influences on decision making.So two employees from different cultures in AD-WISE will be feeling these problems.Last but not the least at the end of this test the employer might actually be baffled by the diversity within all five traits especially when all these different employees will have different levels of intensities. At the end if all these scores are computed the employer might be stuck defining different personalities and may have to go to the cost and expense of certified professionals.This is a problem where the firms are small and don't have enough funds to cover such consultancies. Many psychologists have even gone to the extent of saying that like the twelve zodiacs these traits are too generalised. So it might not be possible to see a similarity in two employees with similar scores due to their cultural or skill differences. Last but not the least using this test to judge employees brings with it the risk of a "Monotonous Selection" where there is not even a high level of reliability in the data and a tendency to cluster some candidates into certain categories which may result in a good team but there will be a risk of missing out "diversity" in the employee base which accounts for different approaches, decision styles and intensities and can always be a cause of innovation. References 1. Gordon, J. (2005), "Diversity as a business driver", Training, ISSN 0095-5892, Vol. 42 No.5, pp.24-9. 2. Hall, B. (2005), "Sales training makeovers", Training, ISSN 0095-5892, Vol. 42 No.5, pp.15-22. 3. Mitchell, J.A., Elliott, P., Galbraith, E., Folsom, A. (2005), "Making the exemplary normal", Training & Development, ISSN 1535-7740, Vol. 59 No.6, pp.40-51. 4. Wade, J. (2005), "Survival of the fittest", Risk Management Magazine, ISSN 0035-5593, Vol. 52 No.6, pp.10-15. 5. Compton, R.L., Morrissey, W.J. & Nankervis, A.R. 2002, Effective Recruitment and Selection Practices, 3rd edn., CCH Australia Pty Ltd., Australia. 6. Goldberg, L. R. (1981). Language and individual differences: The search for universals in personality lexicons. In Wheeler (Ed.), Review of Personality and social psychology, Vol. 1, 141-165. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. 7. Goldberg, L. R. (1990). An alternative "description of personality": The big-five factor structure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59, 1216-1229. 8. Goldberg, L. R. (1993). The structure of phenotypic personality traits. American Psychologist, 48, 26-34. 9. Harris, J. R. (2006). No two alike: Human nature and human individuality. WW Norton & Company. 10. Van Dyke, T., Strick, S. (1988), "New concepts to old topics: employee recruitment, selection, and retention", Hospitality Education and Research Journal, Vol. 12 No.2, pp.347-60. 11. Wiesner, W., Cronshaw, S. (1988), "A meta-analytic investigation of the impact of interview format and degree of structure on the validity of the employment interview", Journal of Occupational Psychology, Vol. 61 pp.275-90. _______________________________________________________________ Read More