Sunday, May 3, 2020

Organisational Behaviour and Design

Question: Discuss about theOrganisational Behaviour and Design. Answer: Introduction: Workforce diversity recognizes the truth that every individual is different from other in many ways, visible or invisible. The diversity comes mainly in age, gender, sexual orientation, personal values and beliefs, personality, ethnicity, etc. Most of the contemporary business organizations face the gender and age diversity in the workforce. A diverse workforce encompasses varieties of values and beliefs and unique information. Managing diversity in workforce is one the challenging task in the present business organization. The human resource management professionals should posses the skills and knowledge of effective utilization of diverse workforce. The business organizations are changing and its not only about technology or globalization. This change will be a remarkable as the change is the human resource of an organization which will have impact on organizations values and culture. This essay aims at the study of organizational behaviour, attitudes and expectations of baby boome rs and millennial in the contemporary workplace. The study will compare and contrast with the emerging age discrimination environment in organizational and its performance consequences. Before proceeding further, it is important to understand about Baby Boomers and Millennial. Baby Boomers: The term Baby Boomers can simply explain as the person who is born after the Second World War i.e. during 1946-1964. According to a recent study, baby boomers constitute 44.6 million total global workforces. The present age group of baby boomers ranges between 52 to 70 years. This group cannot be categorized as passive unlike the generation before them, The Silent Generation. Rather, they are highly defined by their purpose with high expectations and pushing had attitude to achieve their goals. The baby boomers are the largest active workforce generation at present. Studies show that these generations recognize their strength as organizational memory, optimism and enthusiasm for long working hours (Zolkos, 2014). They are more comfortable or familiar with organizational hierarchies and taking orders on top down management systems. These generations are often associated with social and economic change. How Baby Boomers Affect Workplace: The baby boomers are extremely diligent and stimulated by promotions, benefits and reputation in work place. They are generally goal oriented and believe in long working weeks. They are extremely committed and ethical towards their job duties and responsibilities. They believe in change and reformation and are not afraid to question established authority or practices. The baby boomers are the hardest working professionals when it comes for job performance. Although most of the professionals in this generation find it hard to adapt in changing cross culture work diversity in organizations, although they are excellent team players. Also, they are less likely to adapt to the technological advancements in the organizational operations systems. Baby boomers believe in consensual and collegial leadership style in workplace (Cates, et al. 2013). They are generally motivated by financial rewards, position and recognition in the organization. The Millennials: Millennial can simply explained as an individual who is born between 1980- early 2000. According to William Strauss, a famous American historian, the millennial are the next great generation (Cahill, Sedrak, 2012). The current age group of the millennials ranges from 36 to 16 years of age. The present population size of millennials is 75 million globally. Millennials are generally high in confidence and with higher expectations. How Millennials affect Workplace: This generation is generally the only child of their parents so receiving ample attention and support for growth and development. They are generally with greater expectation and higher self confidence, adds value to any organization (Stein, 2013). The millennials are not afraid of failures and learning new skills and abilities and setting higher standards to achieve. This generation is much more flexible compared to other older generations and believe in multi tasking in life. This group are team players and grew up in the age of globalization and multi-cultures as a result it is easy for a millennials to communicate and work in cross cultural working environment (Stein, Sanburn, 2013). They are highly compatible to technology and stay connected 24*7 as a result they needs constant feedback from their superiors and subordinates. They are motivated by innovation and development, recognition and quick progress. Even though this generation are little in patience and looks for immediate feedback and results for their hard work. Millennials often engage in interactive feedback sessions for sharing ideas and reactions for organizational objective and performance (Smith Turner, 2015). Conflict of Generations in Workforce: As there is rise in multiple generations forming up contemporary business organization, difference and conflicts are common especially when it comes to managing both baby boomers and millennials. In the multi generation workplace, every generation brings special skills and abilities in the workplace. It is in the best interest of an organization to manage and utilize the multi generational workforce. Attitude Towards Job Roles and Responsibilities: One of the most common generation conflicts in organizations is probably the declining work ethics. It is often observed that the committed and workaholic baby boomers who also happen to constitute 66% of the executive ranks in business organizations globally complain about lack of seriousness and commitment in millennials towards the millennials. While younger generations, the millennials believe in more balance in personal and professional life. But according to various studies, it does not support the decline in work ethics rather its the perspective as to how hard an individual works can also be connected with how one themselves approach responsibilities also (Ng, et al. 2012). For instance, the younger millennials focuses on productive results of a task or job managing flexible time and place of work, whereas, baby boomers are more comfortable with processed oriented jobs and responsibilities. So, there is a basic difference in the attitude towards work flow process and job resp onsibility between millennials and baby boomers. Leadership Styles: One of the main factors that distinguish millennials from other generations is that they are least concerned about money and position rather they are motivated by empowerment, collaboration and transformation in work processes. As, they are not money oriented, the millennials often challenge the present leadership styles in organizations. However, they desire to be leaders to motivate others, more responsible towards society and guide organizations that are more socially responsible (Workplacetrends.com, 2016). Most millennials reject the traditional hierarchical authority in organizations and their idea of leadership and authority is more expansive. They are more comfortable with flat organizational structure, where communication and relationship bonding among employee are at its finest. In a recent survey it was observed that more than 63% of the millennials professional want to be part of an organization where the leadership style should be to motivate and inspire others. While th e younger generation believes in intergraded and corporative workforce with potential for both personal and professional growth and development, the older generation, baby boomers often complain about the lack of respect towards management and workplace (Chi, et al. 2013). The millennials wants equal respect and importance for all in workplace but baby boomers demands respect from the subordinates according to positions and authority. Traning Styles: Every individual have different preferred style of learning. Same applies for the different generations in workplace. Most of the baby boomers prefer to learn soft skills on job and hard skills through class room training programs. On the other hand the millennial prefers to learn both soft and hard skills on the jobs. The millennials have the advantage of being tech savvy so it is easy for them to adapt with transforming technological improvements in the work flow processes (Espinoza Ukleja, 2016). The baby boomers needs throughout training process to adapt new techniquel advancements. They were generally taught in a linear learning style, whereas, millennials are taught in most constructive learning process with more freedom and analytical abilities. So, there is a constant need of training and development for millennials whereas the baby boomers needs training only when there is a new and changed in work process. Managing Generations in Workplace: In the multi generational workplace, the most crucial challenge of a manager is to combine different generations and bring unique potency to workplace (Ali, et al. 2015). But with more number of millinneals taking up leadership positions, the possibility of workplace conflicts is increasing abruptly. The baby boomers who are still working are rich in practical experience but lacks technological knowledge, flexibility and compliance of millennials. As the business organizations are becoming technologically innovative and knowledge based, organizations are opting for tech savvy and flexible millennials but as there is a lack training and mentorship that millennials consider very valuable, there is a lack of coordination and conflict between generations in business organizations (Schultz et al. 2012). Business organizations have to adjust by integrating understanding, mentoring, and training and sustain to help moderate conflict between different generations and work together (Hays, 201 4). Strategic planning in management and supervisory practices are the key to sustainable growth in multi generation workforce. Although there are difference and similarities among baby boomers and millennials, an effective communication is important for well-organized management of multi generation workforce. Although some practices might require containing differences, guiding principle should be functional in spite of differences. For instance, irrespective of age all employees are bound to follow organizational policies. Moreover, agreed upon that workforces have diverse work and communication styles, it is essential to be conscious of, value, and work contained by these differences. The advantages of sympathetic and adopting styles for managing such dissimilarity will show the way to positive results, and assist leaders successfully supervise what behaviours will be reinforced or punished and what behaviours should be tolerated or rejected. Recommendations: There is no complete and successful guideline about effective management of generational difference; rather it is a learning process which changes according to change in technology, work cultures, diverse workforce and socio-cultural influence. After reviewing literature from different sources, the following are some recommendations that the author wants to suggest for effective management of gender diversity in workforce. Every generation has some unique set of skills and abilities that the others do not possess. So, it is important to set a clear goal and responsibilities for each generation are necessary to resolve conflicts without hampering enthusiasm. The management should strategically mentor and include different generations to guide and motivate others. As each generation has unique skills and abilities, the management should start recognizing them and utilize to educate and upgrade the individuals who lacks them (Dwyer Azevedo, 2016). Also, employees perform well when included rather than excluded. So, inclusion is equal to team work which leads to organizational proactiveness. The management should present a clear picture about the organizational goals and what is the role of each individual in organizational success. The employees should feel and see the importance of him in the organization and what can be achieved. Employees trends to perform harder when they understand organizational goal and how organizational achievement can lead to success of personal objectives (Wesolowski, 2014). Conclusion: In the contemporary age of globalization, multigenerational employees bring a varied range of challenges and scopes. It is the duty of contemporary managers to take the initiative to assists organizations to rise above growing challenges and bring potential organizational performance and achievement for sustainability and growth. Irrespective of age, all employees should be encouraged to recognize and value others values and beliefs and the management should assists for better communication among different generations which will ultimately decrease the gap and focus on common values and expectations. A further study on managerial strategies for diverse generational workforce will be of enormous significance for the field of study. Reference: Ali, M., Metz, I., Kulik, C. T. (2015). Retaining a diverse workforce: The impact of gender-focused human resource management: Retaining a diverse workforce.Human Resource Management Journal,, n/a. doi:10.1111/1748-8583.12079 Cahill, T. F., Sedrak, M. (2012). Leading a multigenerational workforce: Strategies for attracting and retaining millennials.Frontiers of Health Services Management,29(1), 3. Cates, S. V., Cojanu, K. A., Pettine, S. (2013). Can you lead effectively? 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