Unintended Consequences at the Workplace - Essay Example

Unintended Consequences Women in Workforce Case Study: “Quotas arent the best way to get more women into boardrooms” In this case study, there is a realization in that there are more men than women in the boardrooms are. As such, this call for a change whereby, women are also represented in the boardroom, and in particular, the big companies. Over the years, men have dominated the boardrooms of various organizations; thus, diminishing the prospects of women working as directors of various companies. While women are supposed to work their way to the top, this is often not the case due to dominance in the workforce by their male counterparts. As such, various commissions have been formed and which proposes mandatory quotas to ensure women are in boardrooms of various organizations. This measure is seen as a step to bring about gender balance in the boardrooms. In a country like UK, the decision to use mandatory quotas is influenced by the rate at which women continue to lose their jobs compared to men. In addition, reasons put forward for implementing boardroom gender quotas include the need for diversity in these boards as a way of improving corporate performance. On another note, the incidences of corruption and other risks have been associated with male atmosphere, compared to women in leadership positions. As a way to improve efficiency and have more women in leadership positions, the use of quotas is viewed as a viable means to increase women representation in leadership positions. To date, the use of quotas to increase women in leadership positions have been rolled out in countries such as France, Spain, Belgium and Italy. In this case study, the decision that was taken, was arbitrary because the parties involved in finding solution to the shrinking of women from the field of employment, was to impose quotas that could enable women to rise to higher positions in their workplace. This decision was arrived at because, it was viewed unanimously that women working in large organisation were not able to seek higher positions on a voluntary basis because of the evident male dominance in the field of employment (Watson, 2012). The unintended consequence of the decision to use quotas to force women into boardrooms In any organization, taking a leadership role is not an easy task because, there are numerous issues involved in the decision making process. In addition, during the process of the decision-making, a leader has to balance cognition, emotion and motivation while dealing with the prevailing problem. In essence, this is a process that requires skills, experience and a consensus from all persons involved in the decision making process. As an effective leader, a person can reconcile the decision making process with the likelihood of unintended consequences by being more thorough during the process of making decisions that impacts on an organisation’s operations (Carr, 2010). First, as an effective leader, it is important to anticipate the barriers that can affect negatively on the action taken during the decision making process. Before deciding on an action, it is important for a leader to assess the idea fronted. This involves looking at whether that particular idea is good or bad for an organization in the end. In addition, being an effective leader, requires a person not to rush into a decision since, rushed decisions often result in unintended consequences. As a leader, it is also important to acknowledge the difficulties involved in the decision making process. This ensures that a person takes time and consult others before taking action and thus; avoiding unintended consequences (Carr, 2010). Further, leaders should avoid acting on unconfirmed information. As such, before making any decision, it is important for leaders to obtain concrete information regarding the planned action. This in turn, helps to avoid unanticipated consequences in the future due to acting on wrong information. In addition, before making a decision, it is important for a leader not to get excited in the process and forget to act on the important issues just because he or she is excited about the positivity of the decision at hand. Further, an effective leader should not be preoccupied with the fear of failure. This is because, accepting failure enables a person to rectify areas of weaknesses and thus; improve on their competency level. As such, a leader can gain experience from previous failures and be able to anticipate consequences of their actions (Carr, 2010). On the other hand, because of a rush to have more women in a leadership role, the introduction of quotas has not met its objectives. This is because, there are a number of factors that the decision to introduce quotas did not take into consideration. A key issue in this sense is that not many women have the qualification to work as a director. This means that even with the quotas, still, there will be no women in the boardroom because most of them lack the required qualifications. On another note, undertaking effective decision making requires collaboration. Making decision that impact on the lives of many people or workers is not easier. As such, it is important to involve others in the decision making process. As an advantage, involving others in the decision-making process enables a leader to obtain different opinion on how an issue can be solved to achieve better results. Further, involving others in the decision making process enhances consensus building (Blachflower, 2010). This ensures that a decision arrived at is inclusive and there is no one affected by the decision. Collaboration is important in the decision-making process because, it helps to avoid conflicts in case a new change is implemented. With regard to the case study, the process lacked collaboration since it was decided by a few people in a boardroom to change how big firms in the identified countries in the case study manage their affairs. Instead, the Commission should have consulted the firms considered to have their boardroom dominated by men to listen to their views with regard to the issue of male dominance in their boardrooms. This could have helped to avoid the unintended consequence of introducing quotas where the system turned unsuccessful since men still dominated the boardrooms. This problem requires collaboration between the Commission and executives of the blacklisted firms on a way forward to have boardroom gender balance (Blachflower, 2010). In addition, reconciliation is always important during the decision making process in order to help avoid any unintended consequences. Reconciliation is important because it helps in settling old scores and starting new on a level playing ground. While men are seen to dominate the workforce, this should not deny them the chance to vie for the vacant positions at work; however, to allow women more position, reconciliation is important. This is because both genders may feel they have a right to occupy the vacant positions. In this sense, both genders can be reconciled and made to realize that there is a need of gender balance at work place currently women need to be given more positions since they are the minority. The decision making process often places leaders in a difficult spot with regard to taking an action that will not result in unidentified consequence in the future. This forces leaders to balance a number of issues in order to arrive at the right decision. The balancing effect ensures that leaders are not bias in the decisions that they make since a one-side decision may lead to unanticipated consequences (Blachflower, 2010). Conclusion Reflecting on the case study, the unintended consequence of introducing forced quota for women to get boardroom position never materialized. This is because the board that reviewed this issue never considered the number of women with the right qualification to join boardroom in the large firms in UK and other countries mentioned in the case study. This shows that the unintended consequence was a result of a rushed decision probably influenced by emotions and the inspiration to have women hold higher position in the field of employment. While affirmative action is a noble idea, the board that reviewed this problem should have taken time to study thoroughly where the problem is before taking the decision of imposing quotas on large firms to have women directors in their boardrooms. The prospects of promotion often come, but in most instances, and not realized by the Commission, most women are not always available to take up the positions due to family commitments. References Blachflower, D. (2010). The law of unintended consequences. New Statesman, Vol. 139(4992), 17. Carr, E. (2013). The law of unintended Consequence. Grain Magazine, Vol. 40(2), 96. Watson, E. (2012). Quotas arent the best way to get more women into boardrooms. Retrieved from http://www. theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/mar/18/quotas-women-boardroom-equality. Read More