The article by Arnold and Bowie delves into the current practices of MNEs (Multi-National Enterprises) and how they are guilty of facilitating inhumane working conditions and giving low salaries to the various workers that are employed at the factories that they outsource their methods of production too. They present the notion that such practices are highly unethical and need to be changed since people have the right to a decent working wage and proper working conditions (Arnold and Bowie, 227).
Flaws in the author’s logic
One of the identified flaws in the logic of the authors is that while they focus on the ethical issues surrounding sweatshops and the responsibility of multinational corporations in providing decent working conditions, Arnold and Bowie fail to take into consideration the current competitive market and the desire for consumers for low-cost products (Arnold and Bowie, 225). What must be understood is that an average consumer is influenced by a myriad of different factors that affect how they choose to patronize a particular company.
This can range from various psychological reactions such as how they think and feel about different products (i.e. brand perception) to how the market environment they are currently present in affects how they perceive a particular product or service (i.e. local culture, their family, local media influences, etc.). The current market environment that consumers are experiencing, which can be described as a recession given the low levels of economic activity within the U.S., has greatly affected how consumers perceive the things that they buy or patronize.
It should also be noted that the concept of rational behavior assumes that all consumers are rational individuals who try to use their earned income to derive the greatest amount of satisfaction/utility. In other words, consumers try to get the most out of their income through rational buying behavior which results in a maximization of total utility from the products or services used. Consumers will act in an economically competent manner in that they will not spend too much money on irrational purchases or services.
Taking these factors into consideration, if a corporation were to try to sell products within the U.S. utilizing U.S. based factories, then the cost of the products would be higher as compared to a similar company selling the same type of product yet utilizing workers from China, India or other locations that companies outsource to. From the buyer’s point of view, when presented with the same type of product yet having different prices, it is obvious that under the concept of rational behavior they would purchase the product that is cheaper yet has the same quality.
This is one of the reasons why companies continue to outsource their manufacturing departments to other countries since from a competitive perspective they need to be able to appeal to the rational buying behavior of customers (Arnold and Bowie, 232). Arnold and Bowie fail to address this and do not present a viable alternative to current outsourcing practices (Arnold and Bowie, 225). The low employee salaries and the unsafe working conditions are what make the products cheap to produce in the first place.
If American standards were to be applied in these locations, then the price of production would simply be too high. The authors mention the need for better working conditions, higher salaries, more responsible corporate practices as well as ethical methods of production yet neglect to take into consideration how companies are supposed to survive in the current market environment if they were to implement such practices ((Arnold and Bowie, 232).
It is easy to criticize the practices of companies when looking at their practices from afar, however, when an individual is experiencing the daily operations that are conducted within a multinational corporation, they would be able to see that there is a delicate balancing act in place between financial success and financial ruin. This balance is often dependent on consumer perception of a company’s products with the most likely basis behind continued patronage being the price of the product. As such, the concept of rational behavior assumes all consumers engage in rational buying behaviors which becomes the basis for any future analysis of consumer patronage towards a particular type of product or utility.
While one potential scenario that could occur under the methods suggested by Arnold and Bowie is that the price point (i.e. the price consumers would be willing to pay) would shift upwards to accommodate the increase in prices so long as more ethical methods of production are implemented, what they fail to consider is that customers have a certain “limit” to the amount they are willing to pay on particular products and services.
Consumers are inherently aware of how much in the way of marginal utility they can derive from successive use/consumption of a particular product or service. It must be noted though that the amount of marginal and total utility derived from a particular product or service differs based on each consumer group since they all have individual tastes, preferences, and ideologies. Under the concept of budget constraints, each consumer is assumed to have a fixed and finite income due to the limited amount of work in exchange for income each consumer is capable of achieving. In this case, it is assumed that there is unlimited demand for goods and services however this is offset by a limited income.
Due to the limited amount of income each consumer is capable of achieving, they must choose to obtain the best combination of goods that maximizes their total utility while at the same time remaining within a certain price range. Thus, even if a company were to advertise that it was utilizing ethical methods of production which appeal to consumers, if the resulting product is outside of their price point then consumers are unlikely to purchase it no matter how much they like the product.
Lastly, while the authors continue to delve into the duties of MNEs about CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) as well as the need to ensure the safety and security of their workers, they neglect to take into consideration the obligation these companies have to their shareholders (Arnold and Bowie, 231). When taking all the factors that have been mentioned into consideration, it becomes immediately obvious that while the arguments that Arnold and Bowie are valid from an ethical standpoint, they do not face up well when confronted with the realities of the current global economic market.
Questions
What potential alternative methods of operation could be implemented that take into account rational consumer buying behavior and ethical methods of production?
Is there a way that corporations can balance the need to operate competitively while at the same time creating better conditions for their workers? Explain.
Do you believe that corporations will shift to more expensive methods of production simply because it is unethical to continue along their current path? Explain.
Running a restaurant business effectively is not an easy task, and a manager needs to learn how to effectively govern the manner in which employees interact and behave. The manager can do this by earning the respect of both his staff and superiors. Respect does not just come easily; rather, it is earned over a period of time.
To earn employees’ respect, the manager needs to know his staff and their skills well. Here he needs to know their strengths and weaknesses. This way he will be able to delegate them to the tasks they are best suited for while ensuring they are well adapted to and trained to perform other tasks. The restaurant manager needs to accept responsibility and accountability instead of delegating them to his staff. This means that if his staff is experiencing difficulty in their tasks, he should help them out instead of scolding them. This makes their job easier and also encourages them to perform their duties well.
A manager should have reasonable expectations of his staff. If he wants them to do something outside their job description such as extra hours, he should ask them instead of commanding and be prepared to take a no for an answer. This common courtesy among colleagues earns respect and co-operation. Moreover, a manager can earn respect from his staff if he listens and takes interest in the things happening to staff outside of work. This show of compassion and understanding displays his human side and a respected manager helps employees go through rough times. He can make the workplace enjoyable. Restaurants as workplaces can be very difficult for staff that is always at the beck and call of both guests and managers. This can elicit feelings of resentment. A manager can counter that by introducing incentives to make the working environment enjoyable such as rewards, staff parties and generally making them feel they are a family.
A manager earns respect from superiors by accepting responsibility and accountability. This is by owning up to mistakes by his staff and helping his staff to do their duties well instead of blaming them This, a manager will do by communicating effectively. This means he gives information clearly, takes time to listen and clarify issues, and ‘talks straight ‘when necessary. If as a manager the superiors tell you of their plan, whether you agree or not say so and provide reasons for your answers. This shows he has opinions and is able to focus on potential results and obey orders, that is, he can take issues head-on when necessary with good judgment and is sensitively anchored in the culture of the business. Moreover, a manager should be flexible and with good judgment. Juggling tasks from financial decision-making to aesthetic and staffing in the restaurant business is not easy, and a manager who is able to do this earns respect from his superiors.
It is correct to follow the attribute that employees’ respect in a restaurant manager does not differ much from the superiors’ respect in managers, only the expectations differ. This is because both sides seem to respect a manager who is responsible, accountable, honest, strong, and intelligent, and an excellent communicator. A manager can make both sides happy by working harder than everybody else, sharing more information than needed with all, building confidence in both the workers and the superiors, maintains a sense of purpose, and adopts his approach to the requirements and style of each person be it superiors or staff.
The usage and application of the term ‘organisational learning’ are still associated with considerable confusion due to the reason that organisational learning possess the problem of trying to unify different theoretical approaches, while at the same time valuing the diversity that has evolved since its inception. (Buchel, 2001, p. 81) That’s why HP research labs initiated with theoretical literature, the concepts of organisational learning in the context of knowledge management and culture.
Before switching over to the ‘change process’, HP was unable to identify its’ flaws as a barrier to making itself among one of the leading technology centres. By the change process HP is able to point out its flaws in the light of literature, various barriers like communication barrier, cultural barrier and the barrier of sharing knowledge among its various centres. In the light of literature, communication and cultural barrier was the most significant hurdle in making progress due to which knowledge management/ sharing was slower and somewhat isolated in its’ centres.
As HP has its research labs at UK, USA and Japan so HP confronted to problems with respect to the above mentioned barriers. The change process which HP labs initiated were a great effort towards an effective dialogue based process including a vast range of communication authorities like surveys and groupware. Even HP labs did not lag behind in conducting informal discussions to create an effective support system and so the proposed solution was that there should be a group of technical experts with solid managerial skills with good background of cross cultural communication techniques, required to keep track of the activities going on in all of the three centres, so that for a particular recurring problem in all centres, the solution worked out by one centre could be easily implemented for others, hence avoiding other centres to invent the wheel.
Fortunately, HP was confronted to smooth survey process followed with a two way dialogue, which otherwise is not as easy as Dr. Albert Michael has mentioned. Often the surveys concern the possibility of hiding and uncovering problems, which are quite sensitive or potentially damaging to a company. (Smith, 2003, p. 36) This cuts both ways, for the problem exists whether or not it is uncovered by a survey. HP was fortunate to reveal its’ problems by survey, therefore corrective action was initiated.
According to the Business Review vol. 5 (2006), the change process always initiate an environment of mutual growth with a new positive cultural experience, and it seems that now HP labs has prioritised the ‘cultural’ factor to be the key to success. (Albert, 2006) If we discuss this ‘cultural’ aspect in the light of literature we would see that why HP has considered culture as one of the key notions in growth is what Flamholtz (1995) has argued, that an organisational development is nothing but the development of an appropriate organisational culture within which management feels it can guide the organisation. (Flamholtz, 1995)
HP must not ignore that for a technology, culture alone cannot be taken as the key factor to success, rather technology and the manufacturing techniques employed is constantly changing so that, for instance, the manufacturing of televisions, telephones, and computers, which once were clearly separate products, is now clearly an overlapping set of processes sharing components, suppliers and customers. (Tansey, 2002, p. 39) Hence it proves that cultural techniques must be implemented not only to remove communication barriers and knowledge sharing but also to evaluate the changing attitudes and flavours of client. Only by considering these two mechanisms HP would be able to rule the market according to every region.
Therefore, the importance of culture cannot be underestimated but a technology building and providing company cannot afford to limit its’ boundaries to culture only. HP must look into knowledge management and sharing processes as an individual identity to success. In this context where HP is considering ‘culture’ above all, it should consider and analyse the role of HP central labs and should consider ‘leadership’ to be above all factors. The reason behind considering leadership is to see the management with the eyes to accommodate both sets of needs, even magnify them.
According to Fairholm (1994), “The key to a solution is in integrating the various individual needs into a cultural unity that can address and meet both group and individual core needs. Unfortunately, past managerial systems either ignored this tension or treated it as an organisational evil”. (Fairholm, 1994, p. 50) This is the main reason for why HP underwent through process change, because it identified its’ barriers which existed in sharing information and knowledge management.
Ruggles (1998) while discussing the main loopholes of cultural communication barriers with respect to literature highlights knowledge management to be the main solution but in condition when it is sharing and continuously circulating within the organisation. HP still lacks in such strategies where its’ employers are able to communicate knowledge sharing. According to McDermott (1999) the most common difficulty in changing people’s behaviour towards sharing knowledge is to change or modify their culture and habits. However I do not agree with McDermott’s perception in the following sense. “People’s attitude and work habits can be changed if they work in groups in an organisation. All the management teams from top till bottom are part of these groups. Now if these groups are identified as a group composition, many workers who belong to various cultures are combined”. (Moreland & Levine, 1992) This is what HP labs are supposed to do.
This combination of many cultural differences and similarities would allow many individual characteristics of the workers to not only share their abilities but also their demographic characteristics, opinions, and personality traits. In this manner the workers would be relevant to a group’s tasks, as well as they would find themselves in more learning environments. Such group’s performance can also be improved by altering its composition for those characteristics. Changes in the context of senior level and junior level group members would be helpful as it would be easier to share information and technicalities within group. So, HP in this manner would be able to improve its’ group’s performance by:
Not only hiring workers with desirable characteristics but also merging them up with new or junior workers,
Provide technical training to its workers in such a manner so that they would themselves be able to circulate their own discoveries, or
Merging one group with another, internal group with externals so that changes could influence workers’ performance in many positive ways (Moreland, Levine, & Wingert, 1996).
It is true that such linking of groups can improve performance, but such gains are also followed by conflicts among group members. In this aspect the best feature of promoting cross cultural communication is the esteem of cultural values that are respected by other group members and thus managed teams, could be improved by helping members learn more about one another so that they could make better use of the group’s human resources (Marquardt, 1996).
The change of HP labs from a traditional to a cultural oriented environment is no doubt the right move, at the right time but I would consider it as single dimensional due to the reason that on one hand the management personnel are putting effort to alleviate cultural barriers but on the other they are just sitting and watching their customers’ changing interests. A culture can also prevent a company from remaining competitive or adapting to a changing environment. Example is that of ‘People Express, Inc’ who built its early success on an unusual and highly decentralised form of management in which every employee was an owner-manager. Employees were encouraged and even required to perform different functions, such as a pilot also working as a ticket agent. The result was the employees tended not to get bored and learned other aspects of the business. This type of happy disorganisation worked well when the company was small but it became chaos and created substantial problems for a billion-dollar-a-year company. When People were warned about their management practices being inappropriate, the company responded with the statement: ‘This philosophy is what made us great. We’re not going to change.’ The company president still held on to this culture up to the point that People, suffering heavy losses was forced to sell out to its arch rival (Randall, 2004, p. 108).
Within the broad framework of a discourse of change, a new and recurring theme has been the need to adopt a coherent or programmatic approach, example culture change, in the case of HP. In this context HP must set its’ priority towards sharing and the use of ‘expert’ knowledge to implement change. Academics and professional managers provide a feel for how new programmes of change were, respectively, sold and accepted. (Mills, 2003, p. 84) According to Stanley M. Davis, corporate culture can be managed to deal with turbulent change:
“During the past five years I have worked extensively with senior managers of several large companies in their efforts to understand and manage their corporate cultures. My goal was to assess whether and how the culture met the company’s needs and to assist in changing it where it did not” (Mills, 2003, p. 85)
“Immense changes in the economic environment and a radical increase in competitive pressures have put a premium on strategy and a company’s capacity to implement it…. To tap this advantage, corporations have to be able to act fast. Perhaps the single most promising catalyst…has come to be recognised as corporate culture” (Mills, 2003, p. 85).
Immediate action with immediate change followed with a continuous flow that is what is required by HP and it is only possible if the senior management always determines to change according to the global requirements. It is truly said by Stankard (2002) that work in isolation is not part of an organisational system (OS). This saying goes parallel with the idea that no element of OS works alone. For example, a software organisation employs fifty programmers working in their respective territories. If the programmers do not interact with each other directly or indirectly, they are not an OS, because knowledge and solutions are not sharing within them. They are a group of programmers, and the overall result is just the sum of the individual efforts.
Similarly, salespersons – however, once high- and low-volume sales producers form into teams to share knowledge, test new sales approaches and support each other’s selling efforts, they perform as a system with the mission of expanding the sales of the whole sales force. The act of working together makes them part of a system to pursue a mission – more sales (Stankard, 2002, p. 10).
Despite making umpteen attempts of alleviating cross cultural barriers, HP still lacks in managing diversity through groups. Barsade, Ward, Turner, and Sonnenfeld (2000), prefers group diversity over individual team work and follows George’s homogeneous conceptualisation of group affect. Therefore, they consider the importance of mean level group affect, thereby considering similarities and differences in group members’ affect. They not only theorise the differences among group level but also analyses and examines as to how affective differences among group members influence group behaviour.
HP must consider group level effort and does not alone rely upon individual team members. For this the top management of HP has to construct a detailed theory of affective similarity-attraction that runs parallel with the cognitively based similarity-attraction theory. In doing so, HP would realise that among top management teams, the affective diversity of the team could serve as an important predictor of group processes, such as cooperation, conflict, level of CEO participativeness versus authoritarianism with the team. Kelly and Barsade (2001) while analysing the importance of group affect, provided a thorough review of the literature while highlighting a model of group affect, which includes multiple levels of analysis looking at group affect from a ‘bottom up’ and ‘top down’ perspective (Greenberg, 2003, p. 21).
This bottom-up approach to change allows both more consultation and the opportunity to identify recurrent concerns held by individuals. Therefore the emergent approach, accepts the benefits of clear standards for consistency while allowing for the solution of problems at a local level. Such openness allows issues of belief and concern about the present situation to emerge during the survey.
The difference here lies in the active encouragement, which facilitates frankness about suspicions, attitudes and expectancies – not all of them positive. Beliefs that directors don’t care are not exceptional in an organisation. Opinions about stress and workloads having increased and the belief that terms and conditions are applied inconsistently are the beginnings of an agenda change that managers will need to address. We may notice, in fairness, however, that it may not be possible to address perceived inequality to the total satisfaction of the objectors. However, at least the opinions of those involved have been sought and can be included in subsequent encounters (Randall, 2004, p. 110).
HP top management team must command and control to induce a high degree of mutual influence among its managers. It must:
Set Containers
By “setting a container” we mean influencing the environment that shapes the behaviour of a system. The container is an attribute of the system that separates it from its environment. Traditional containers include such things as clear goals and expectations, project schedules, budgets, work teams, physical space, or other system boundaries. If a leader maintains the existing culture and power arrangements as manifested in the traditional containers, significant changes will not occur. New containers related to new clients, new sources of funding, or new diversity in the organisation must be recognised and set. Leaders set containers in these ways:
Set few specifications
Leaders must see planning as a process of discovery, filled with ambiguity and possibilities. Rather than instructing the agents on what to do, the leader must allow the team to see what requires attention by identifying a few essential specifications. Leaders must set general requirements for the outcome, but decisions about how to proceed are left to the team managers. In this way cultural barriers would not matter, the thing that would matter would be professionalism.
Sense of urgenc
Some organisations develop structures that speed up innovation. Peters and Waterman (1982) called them “skunkworks” because they are generally isolated from the main business to reduce the burdens of maintaining regular business practices. Skunkworks builds small containers of time, space, membership, and project focus. Small containers mean fast self-organisation. HP can speed up innovations but to the extent that it would isolate general practices the least.
Stretch boundaries
Leaders enlarge boundaries to increase creative options by performing small experiments that encourage learning. Adding new staff and assigning new roles and responsibilities also tend to stretch system boundaries and mixing them up with old employees help creating an environment of knowledge sharing.
Shrink boundaries
The leader constrains communication when an organisation is undergoing change at a rate that cannot be accommodated. Structures, like teams, reduce individual variation, build coherence, and provide frameworks for evaluation. For example, teams channel communications and reduce the number of individual contacts with the environment. By making contracts and agreements on a departmental level, time and costs associated with individual agent activity may be reduced (Olson & Eoyang, 2001, p. 34).
Authors like Armstrong & Foley (2003) believe in a recent research literature ‘Organisational Learning Mechanisms’ which states that without any of these mechanisms, learning and developing organisations like HP are unlikely to emerge. No doubt these authors are right in saying that every organisation’s success is hidden in understanding its cultural factors. Lorsch & Allen (1973) suggests ways to understand cultural behaviour and writes, “Cross cultural communications could be improved and cooperation might be achieved to some degree if rewards and incentives are associated with the aspects that determine success or failure of divisions of the managers. Similarly such divisions rather aiming to compete each other work together productively if and only if the aims and interests of the organisation are common (Lorsch and Allen, 1973).
Albert Michael mentions in his HP lab Research paper that the recent change has been an example of ‘Management Innovation’. Now, the question arises that innovation requires change, whether intentional or otherwise, in the independent causes of innovation had the effect of altering production functions. How can HP labs ignore the consequent output and cost changes with respect to market equilibrium and market forces which immediately came into play to produce a new equilibrium state? How the technological and organisational innovations came about in the first place are simply taken as causes embodied in capital assets or in the knowledge required to manage capital and labour resources? This way of thinking led to a search for the specific variables and circumstances that would cause innovation to occur and enable managers to control it (Fonseca, 2002, p. 13).
HP still requires the need for a programmed and organised change where complex responsive processes are dependant upon human communicative interaction devoid of any cultural boundaries. Establishing research foundations for creating knowledge repositories is simply not enough to create new knowledge as knowledge is only created through experience, expertise and circulating information among work groups. Central to this perspective, then, is the notion that experience is interaction and it is patterned in narrative and propositional themes to do with being together. These conversational themes are continually reproduced as habits and variations on those habits. The dynamics are such that variations are always potentially transformed into new habits. While such interaction cannot be thought of as a system, in their communicative interaction people do design systems, which they use as tools in that communicative interaction (Fonseca, 2002, p. 73).
From a complex responsive process perspective, what we perceive as organisations are temporary stabilisations of themes, that is, habits, organising the experience of being together that emerge in the process of human interaction in local situations in the living present. In order to bring closer the innovators, HP labs needs communicative interaction within organisation but not limited to organisation, that is, repetitive patterns of human experience of being together in the living present, in which themes are continually reproduced, always with the potential for transformation. This potential would ultimately provide the possibility that small differences, variations in the reproduction of habits, will be amplified into new action with new meaning. This continual interaction between humans who are all forming intentions, choosing and acting in relation to each other as they go about their daily work together, both stabilises around coherent, repetitive patterns of communicative interaction, and at the same time these patterns are potentially transformed by those same interactions.
In a sense, systems thinking involve ‘extracting’ the habitual patterns out of the process of their formation and continuous transformation and naming them as a system. This way of thinking tends to overlook the process in which the habitual patterns come to be what they are and how they are potentially undergoing emergent change in the local interactions between people in the living present. The assumption is made that it is possible for someone to step outside of their interaction and objectify the patterns of interaction. After all habits can be changed and so the whole system can be designed and controlled.
Providing opportunity for a better communicative environment does not only require dialogues, but requires transforming the quality of tacit thinking that underlies all interactions. (Isaacs, 2001) Now is the time that HP should consider and welcome transformation at every level.
References
Albert Michael, (Summer 2006), “Managing Change at HP Lab: Perspectives for Innovation, Knowledge Management and Becoming learning Organisation” In: Business Review, Cambridge: p. 17
Barsade, S. G., Ward, A. J., Turner, J. D. F., & Sonnenfeld, J. A. (2000). “To your heart’s content: A model of affective diversity in top management teams” In: Administrative Science Quarterly, 45(4), 802-836
Buchel S.T Bettina, (2001) Using Communication Technology: Creating Knowledge Organisations: Palgrave: New York.
Fairholm W. Gilbert, (1994) Leadership and the Culture of Trust: Praeger Publishers: Westport, CT.
Flamholtz, E. (1995). “Managing organisational transitions: Implications for corporate and human resource management” In: European Management Journal, 13, 39-51.
Fonseca Jose, (2002) Complexity and Innovation in Organisations: Routledge: London.
Greenberg Jerald, (2003) Organisational Behavior: The State of the Science: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: Mahwah, NJ.
Isaacs N. William, (2001) “Toward an Action Theory of Dialogue” In: International Journal of Public Administration. p: 709
Kelly, J. R., & Barsade, S. G. (2001). “Mood and emotions in small groups and work teams” In: Organisational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 86, 99-130.
Lorsch, J. & S. Allen. (1973). Managing diversity and interdependence. Boston: Harvard Business School.
Marquardt M. J. (1996). Building the learning organisation: A systems approach to quantum improvement and global success. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Mills Jean Helms, (2003) Making Sense of Organisational Change: Routledge: New York.
Moreland R. L., & Levine J. M. (1992). “The composition of small groups” In E. J. Lawler, B.
Markovsky , C. Ridgeway, & H. A. Walker (Eds.), Advances in group processes (Vol. 9, pp. 237-280). Greenwich, CT: JAI
Moreland R. L., Levine J. M., & Wingert M. L. (1996). “Creating the ideal group: Group composition effects at work” In E. H. Witte & J. H. Davis (Eds.), Understanding group behavior: Small group processes and interpersonal relations (pp. 11-35). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Olson E. Edwin & Eoyang H. Glenda, (2001) Facilitating Organisation Change: Lessons from Complexity Science: Jossey-Bass: San Francisco
Randall Julian, (2004) Managing Change, Changing Managers: Routledge: New York.
Smith J. Frank, (2003) Organisational Surveys: The Diagnosis and Betterment of Organisations through Their Members: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: Mahwah, NJ.
Stankard F. Martin, (2002) Management Systems and Organisational Performance: The Quest for Excellence beyond ISO9000: Quorum Books: Westport, CT.
Tansey D. Stephen, (2002) Business, Information Technology and Society: Routledge: New York.
Thompson L. Leigh, Levine M. John & Messick M. David, (1999) Shared Cognition in Organisations: The Management of Knowledge: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: Mahwah, NJ.
According to Barry and Shaw (2013), one of the six key points of a responsible business is customer satisfaction. This is achievable through monitoring of the production process. Organizations have the responsibility of giving safe goods to customers despite the presence of any regulations in the industry (Gray, 2012). The organization should consider factors that affect marketability of the product, such as the costs involved, any warranties, which may be implied on the product and the quality of the product as customers are concerned with the product and the quality of the products they buy.
Organizations should manage and monitor their production processes to avoid products with defects being sold to customers. Products with defects occur as a result of mismanagement of the production process, therefore, firms should monitor the employees producing these products by ensuring that they have the necessary qualifications for the production process (Barry & Shaw, 2013). Employees in the manufacturing process should have enough expertise to detect and predict any problems that may arise in the production process (Gray, 2012).
The promotion of business safety may be enhanced by investigating on the customers’ complaints, as this will help in finding out the experiences of customers with the products. An organization should regard customers as a valuable source of information about the product so that the organization should develop a proper framework of handling customers’ complaints (Gray, 2012).
For example, early this year, I bought a home theatre from Sony Electronics and upon using it for one day, I realized that two of its external speakers were not functional. This was a result of poor wiring in the speaker. Even after complaining about the product’s problem, the organization did not solve it.
Self-interest
As presented in the case of the tragedy of commons, it is true that individuals pursuing their self-interests and profit making can worsen work relations. Therefore, it is a responsibility of the individuals involved in protecting the overall objectives of an organization, which includes the protection of the employees against engaging in self-interest activities. To achieve this, management and public need to be alerted of the major immoral actions done by organizations when they expose the customers’ welfare. Tragedy of the commons gives a reason of rejecting Adam Smith’s reasoning that self-interest results to benefits in the organization (Barry & Shaw, 2013).
This happens majorly because of two key concerns. Firstly, some individuals believe in prudential reasoning arguing that rational self-interests can supersede individual’s moral responsibilities. This argument acknowledges the likely justification of neglecting personal moral responsibilities when pursuing self-interests that can harm people (Gray, 2012). Secondly, other people regard prudential reasoning as significant to business and moral ethics, and they consider that no one is responsible to assist others in pursuit of self-interests (Barry & Shaw, 2013).
Implication of self-interest to Moral Legitimacy of Capitalism
Self-interest should not be used against any employee. Instead, amplifying the cost of self-interest makes it easier in reducing the damages that may be caused to other people. In the business environment, people tend to put a lot of value on obedience to the top management, which results to hurting others. The rationality should be emphasized when dealing with morality in changing people’s personalities to be morally upright (Barry & Shaw, 2013).
References
Barry, V. & Shaw, W. (2013). Moral Issues in Business (12th Ed.). New York; NY: Wadsworth Cenage Learning.
Gray, J. (2012). Moral Issues Related to Consumers. Cambridge.CA: Springer.
Many organizations recruit a diverse group of employees to accomplish duties assigned. Occasionally, employers look for specific values in the employees during recruitment process. These values vary in individuals, hence when combined can result into fully-fledged team that would work towards achieving the set objectives of the organization. Among the values include respect, teamwork, integrity, passion, customer focus for execution and many more. All the values are useful but the most significant to me is respect. Precisely, respect entails a sense of self-esteem whereby before taking action in anything, one puts considerations of the implications that are bound to accompany the act (Holderness 26). In artistic issues, respect is of high value because it will mold an individual to demonstrate high level of integrity in execution of tasks.
Significance
With the advent of technology, the social network has grown big and therefore most of tasks are accomplished through the internet. Many organizations and students use the internet daily to advertise and carryout assignments. It is therefore in order for the users to uphold respect so that they get the best without infringing the stipulated guidelines pertaining their use. It is through this that I find value of respect being of explicit importance in my life. Through respect, thinking ability is at the spur of growth since new ideas will be built based on self-principals and not through copying and reproducing other people’s work. On this note, economy of one’s country or state is bound to grow since new ideas will bring in more innovations that are key to the economic stability.
There are rules and regulations in every sector or organization, therefore one’s conduct should conform to what the organization stands for. To meet the standards, respect is the key towards complaisant. For instance, being respectful will prevent me from being prosecuted because of using someone’s work without consent from the person (Woker 41). For example, failure to observe the intellectual property right might lead to prosecution in the law court and later imprisonment, therefore bringing to halt one’s ambition. It is through these key scenarios that I find the value of respect to be very important in my life because it shapes how I see and relate to my other colleagues thus ensuring peace exist at all times.
Future prospects
The value of respect is strong and is bound to make impacts in one’s future life. Growing up with respect prepares one for future crucial roles that need to be handled very cautiously. Firstly, being respectful means that you recognize and treasure other people therefore you will always act in a good way not to hurt others. This implies that in future, I stand a very big chance to lead others in issues to do with governance or social. Secondly, innovations will be steered up since the ability to think and design one’s own policies will increase. Upholding respect will mean that I use other people’s work with precaution and where need be, seek permission before adoption. This will not only improve my accountability to issues, but will also refrain me from illegal acts that otherwise would cost my life either through imprisonment or through ill reputation.
Works Cited
Holderness, Mike. “Moral Rights and Authors’ Rights: The Keys to the Information Age.” The Journal of Information, Law and Technology 4:64. 1998. Print.
Woker, Tanya. “Principles of copyright in intellectual property law: An overview. Critical Arts.” A South-North Journal of Cultural & Media Studies 20(1):35-46. 2006. Print.
Respect is perceived to the value attached in dignifying oneself and others (Business Lobby Team par.1). In our daily lives, we have to deal with other people at one time or another. Respect comes into perspective when we have to relate with our peers and colleagues. Respect also involves giving dignity to oneself as well as other people’s privacy, views, philosophies, abilities, beliefs and personality differences.
This paper outlines the importance of respect at the workplace and how an employee can earn respect in a diverse working environment. Besides, it discusses how an individual can show respect to colleagues and other employees at workplace.
Why is respect important?
People respect themselves when they feel that they are equally respected by others. When we are respected by other people unconditionally, there is a higher likelihood to be positively influenced by those who respect us.
Workplace relationships play a major role in ensuring that organizational goals are met. For an organization to work towards certain goals, relationship between managers and other employees as well as the relationship among other colleagues is of great importance. Relationship in various work places is enhanced by several aspects. These aspects include mutual respect, integrity and honesty (Mayhew par. 2).
The resultant effect of effective workplace relationship is cooperating towards a common goal. This is an important aspect that enhances profitability in any organization. Mutual respect initiates collaborative teamwork which in turn helps to push the organization policies towards the set goals (Mayhew par. 3).
Mutual respect among colleagues in an organization enhances productive working relationship. People become more open to each other and thus communication between employees is improved both vertically and horizontally. This move promotes a work environment that is flexible and results in improved productivity (Webster par. 3).
Mutual respect is a key aspect that enhances knowledge transfer between workers in an organization. When employees respect each other, they develop mutual trust and allow information to flow. It also enhances work relationships and at the same time helps employees to work as a cohesive team.
It becomes easy to solve problems when knowledge is effectively transferred from one person to another. Respect comes out as a prerequisite in actualization of the above mentioned components of knowledge transfer particularly in cases where ideas have to be created and shared among employees. In a workplace environment, the attitude of the group towards knowledge transfer should entail respect among each other.
In terms of sharing knowledge, it is worth to mention that positive sharing can only occur where members have respect for each other. In other words, a good workplace relationship is required for effective sharing of knowledge and skills. People will pay attention to information being passed on by persons they respect. In addition, willingness to contribute towards knowledge and information sharing occurs when people show mutual respect within small or large teams (Levine par.5).
An organization where everybody is respected enjoys significant benefits in its operations. In order to achieve a collaborative workforce, employers are expected to undertake extensive training of employees. This practice promotes mutual respect in an organization. It also helps to align the goals of employees to an organization.
Respect makes it easy to identify employees based on the position they hold. In addition, it increases their commitment in maintaining high quality work. Mutual respect helps to recognize the talent of employees and the contributions they make in the organization. The overall goal of respect is to increase a firm’s profitability. This can be realized if there is workplace respect. In the event that high performance is needed, diversity should be integrated in the goals of an organization.
In other words, a diverse workplace is highly likely to produce the much needed work balance and productivity. Instead, mutual respect in an organization should be based on the ability of an individual to respect the skills of other people. In addition, it is imperative to mention that mutual respect is an integral parameter that can only be experienced in a diverse work environment. Moreover, respect helps in breed profitability in an organization.
In addition, respect helps to foster cooperation, collaboration and synergy. All these ingredients are highly beneficial especially in establishing workforce that can ascertain the significance of performance, productivity and quality of goods and services. Respect at the workplace also facilitates the transfer of knowledge between different people in an organization.
In most cases, employees who accord respect to their fellow workers finds it easy to respect other members of the management team with high levels of knowledge and skills. As a result, it becomes less cumbersome for employees to get additional skills from their superiors. It is worthy to note that the workplace training can easily achieve the expected outcomes if the trainees are willing to respect the expertise of the mentor or trainer.
Finally, respect helps to reduce or eliminate possible conflicts at the workplace. Incidences of the workplace conflict are likely to increase if employees fail to respect one another. This is because employees who lack respect are likely to involve themselves in behaviors that portray lack of respect to both the person and to the contribution made by other employees in an organization.
Having conflicts at the workplace is likely to cause negative impact on an organization for instance by reducing employee morale, job satisfaction and productivity (Norville 112).
How to gain respect in a diverse workplace
Workplace diversity is based on principals that call for equal opportunities in employment. Diversity at the workplace is caused by inherent differences like ethnicity, age, gender, cultural background, physical ability and sexual orientation. Managing diversity and gaining respect in a diverse workplace involves the ability to recognize individual differences in a given organization.
This help employee to realize their full potential and also enables the organization to realize the set goals and objectives. Respect in a diverse workplace can also be realized with the help of managers especially when they are able to establish and maintain appropriate work environments.
In this case, the similarities and variation of the employees should be valued in order to enable them make maximum use of their potential in order to benefit the organization. This helps an organization to achieve the set goals and objectives (Esty, Richard and Marcie 96).
Respect in a diverse workplace can also be realized by recognizing the contribution made by employees from different backgrounds. This is from the fact that employees can bring in fresh perceptions and ideas that facilitate product development. The ability of an organization to manage diversity successfully helps to nurture innovation and creativity which improves the competitive power of the organization.
In addition, having respect in a diverse workplace helps an organization to build strong relationships with different people. It also becomes quite easy for an organization to make improvement on its services and other programs that enhance the contribution made by employees. An inclusive and supportive workplace environment can be created when employees in an organization work as a team.
Besides, a cohesive workforce will demonstrate the much needed respect towards clients. Increased productivity and greater levels of creativity can also be achieved if respect is maintained in a diverse workplace. Therefore, effective implementation of diversity strategies in the workplace helps to improve employee retention, reduces expenditure and enhances productivity (Esty, Richard and Marcie 99).
Workplace diversity is a term that is used to mean differences in physical characteristics as well as variations in working styles. It also encompasses differences in one’s philosophy as compared to philosophies held by other colleagues. The Workplace diversity includes cultural diversity.
The latter is defined as human differences that play an important part in the culture of an organization (Mayhew par.2). Respect in workplace is also two pronged. This implies that for one to earn respect in the workplace there is a need to show respect for themselves and others as well.
In order to maintain self respect, it is important to refrain from engaging in direct confrontations whenever there are personal differences. Therefore, peaceful problem solving skills would be the best way to deal with situations that trigger anger and hatred.
As mentioned earlier, different people have various personalities, abilities, and beliefs that make them unique. In order to earn respect from these people, there is a need to respect them in spite of their diverse attributes. The greatest challenge arises in terms of the approach to use in order to take care of each person’s views irrespective of their emotional, economic, and social aspects in life.
Balovich (par.1) indicates that for an individual to show respect to others, it is necessary to recognize that they are worthy to be accorded that respect. In addition, in order to take care of the diversity of other people at work, one must refrain from making sentiments and utterances that may depict a negative image of themselves towards others. Similarly, they should refrain from commenting negatively against other people’s attributes.
The question on how leaders should show respect to their juniors and vice versa will also arise. For team leaders to earn respect from their juniors, it is important for them to keep away from making negative or demeaning comments against their juniors. If team leaders feel that their juniors have done less satisfactory job, they need to guide them learn how to achieve better results.
On the other hand, individuals at the workplace should not allow to be demeaned when their work is relatively satisfactory. In the case of employer’s attitude towards workers, there are instances when the employee is criticized and silently agrees to the comments of the team managers just because of their status. This phenomenon may leads to lack of respect to the top level of management (Balovich par.2).
Mayhew (par. 3) observe that employers should organize training on the subject of respect at the workplace in order to achieve a collaborative team of workers. The training should target the need of promoting respect among all employees irrespective of diversity of personal attributes and status.
If employees in an organization are focused towards a common goal, mutual respect will be developed regardless of their statuses, position and the roles they play in achieving the organization’s goals. As a result, their differences in terms of philosophical views at work do not matter so long as they deliver their duties as expected.
Organizational culture plays a major role in ensuring that employees respect and get respected by others. Business Lobby Team (par. 5) provides indicators that show that the workplace environment upholds the aspect of respect in the workplace diversity.
These indicators include giving credit facilities to employees when they make positive achievement or when an individual or a team meets an objective. Recognizing people’s hard work usually enhances a positive relationship between managers and colleagues. As a result, it helps in forging a common goal.
Another indicator is when employees are accountable for their actions and do not blame others. Hence, an individual earns respect by avoiding confrontation with other colleagues that may have been caused by either commission or omission. Respect at the workplace is also demonstrated when employees work towards a common goal and avoid being distracted by their differences.
Employees who respect an organization’s structure encourage mutual respect among themselves. In this regard, employees should not use the organization structure as a weapon against others. Other indicators that show that people in an organization uphold mutual respect is when they talk positively about their work, colleagues and have a positive focus for the organization rather than expressing distrust (Mayhew par. 4).
How to show respect
There are different ways of showing respect at the workplace. On of the simplest way to show respect at the workplace is by being courteous, empathetic, kind and polite. Managers can show respect to employees by encouraging them to share their opinions and ideas. In some cases, employees may be shy to communicate their opinions and ideas.
Managers should assist such employees to express their ideas by promising high levels of confidentiality and commenting on their ideas with sincerity. In addition, managers can also show respect to employees by being ready to listen to their complaints. Managers should avoid interrupting employees when they are making complaints or suggestions.
Respect in the workplace can also be realized when every member in an organization is ready to use good ideas from other workers to help improve performance. Using ideas from other people is a form of expressing respect to people who create good ideas. It is necessary for employees to inform the managers whenever they use ideas from their co-workers. This helps the management to acknowledge the contribution made by employees.
Members in an organization can also show respect for one another by avoiding insults or despising their co-workers. Employees should also avoid criticizing, judging and patronizing their fellow employees or managers. Avoiding such actions is an acceptable way of showing respect at the workplace.
As mentioned earlier, for individuals to demonstrate respect to others, they must first respect themselves. In order to show respect to others especially at workplace, one important aspect is to recognize achievements, contributions and abilities of other colleagues without considering their personal or cultural attributes.
Quite often, when individuals’ capabilities are assessed, their diversity should not be put into consideration. It is therefore important for people to recognize and appreciate other people’s abilities and skills without considering their race, gender or color (Business Lobby Team par. 4)
Keeping promises is an important and sure way to show respect. Although it is closely related to being honest, keeping promises may include being reliable and punctual. When people depend on the reliability of others at workplace, it means that there is adequate respect among all of them.
On the other hand, being reliable may be interpreted to mean respect for work and roles. In workplaces, the management team always gauges employees’ commitment to work by the respect they have accorded themselves particularly regarding knowledge on their areas of jurisdiction as well as their reliability.
Keeping the word of mouth goes hand in hand with being a hardworking person. Everybody who is worthy being respected respects a hard-worker. In this regard, meeting deadlines for duties assigned, going an extra mile to achieve the set goals and also engaging in learning of various aspects are some of the attributes that demonstrate that a person is hard-working.
Being kind and a source of inspiration to people enhances respect between people. When people share challenges and problems, they do this with the hope of finding a listening ear. Being there to listen to fellow’s problems reassures them and in turn respect is given back. This can be shown through empathizing with people facing different challenges, helping them out, assisting them solve problems (Business Lobby Team par. 4).
Quite often, we express our emotions through the word of mouth. It is necessary to consider what we say in the presence of others will result to lacking respect to oneself or lacking respect to them. It is therefore important to express oneself through talking with humility and gentleness.
Besides, it is important to communicate clearly and straightforward in order to show respect to others. This goes hand in hand with being honest and always telling the truth. Sometimes speaking about issues that one has little information on may make other people disrespect them.
Appearance and personal grooming are important tool that can show respect. First time appearance is enough to show whether you respect others, authorities and even one self. In workplaces it is important to adhere to codes of dressing and general conduct for one to be regarded as respectful.
Taking care of ones appearance does not necessarily mean wearing official outfits but means being presentable to fellow workers and also to seniors. Good appearance is necessary to every person if they mean to show respect and should be upheld regardless of the roles one has in the workplace or status. Respect ought not to depend on wage or age bracket.
Respecting managers/managers respecting employees
Morris (par. 2) illustrates that a successful manager ought to earn respect from the team he/she leads. On the other hand for managers to earn respect from their juniors they must show respect back. Some of the things that managers can do to earn respect include inspiring people by encouraging humor in the workplace. Also, managers should allow all employees to have equal opportunities to excel and gain experience. This can be achieved through enforcement of guidelines that should apply equally to employees without favoritism.
When a good example is set by team members and leaders, the managers will earn respect from their subordinates. This may include getting involved in production directly, willingness to go an extra mile in achieving goals and encouraging workers to perform their duties (Monica par.3)
In addition, managers can earn respect from their juniors due to their ability to solve problems. Managers should iron out conflicts arising in the workplace as first as possible and though the use of conflict resolution measures that maintain respect for other employees. Morris (par. 4) indicates that employees accord more respect to managers who are able to resolve conflicts promptly and fairly.
Managers can also earn respect from employees if they share information with them especially when dealing with a difficult issue. On this case employees are able to share their views and at the same time understand manager’s line of thinking.
Listening to employees’ views will always make them feel valued, dignified and respected. In this was managers can learn important aspects in the workplace that may be important to them to help them in solving problems or strategic planning (Heathfield par.5).
Other modes that managers can use to show respect to their employees include establishing trust, collaboration, kindness and giving feedback to concerns raised by employees. On the other hand, employees ought to show their managers the same amount of respect. When employees adhere to their respective duties as stipulated in an organization, managers will equally feel respected.
In addition, employees should show respect to their managers by positively inspiring other employees through the promotion of good working relationship. Other aspects that show respect to managers is to accept positive criticism aimed at improving working relationships between them and their fellow subordinates and management as a whole.
In addition, sharing important information that is crucial in the running of the organization demonstrates respect towards work and top level management. This kind of communication can be enhanced by creating communication channels that promote sharing of knowledge and information.
The reason why employers hire employees is to perform specific functions in an organization. These functions are usually linked to the operations of the organization. These operations are expected to help the company to provide value-added services or products to customers.
The employees are compensated for the work done through remuneration. This can either in the form of a salary, retirement benefits, health benefits or a bonus. In order to achieve this, the employees should be willing to respect their managers. Similarly, managers should also respect the employees since workplace respect provides mutual benefit to the parties involved (Taiwo 107).
Employees can express their respect to the managers by observing the following. Firstly, employees should always act in a professional manner. Employees should understand the main reason why they were selected for a given position in an organization. The managers and other superiors expect the employee to be aware of his tasks and perform them well for the good of the organization.
Employees can also express their level of professionalism by ensuring that they dress appropriately, reporting for work early and completing the assigned tasks on time. Secondly, employees can express their respect to their managers by showing their desire to raise their performance level.
Employees can improve on their performance by operating consistently. This means that employees should not be reminded of their duties by the managers. Being a performance employee was requires them to act like initiators and problem solvers. To achieve this, employees should be able to come up with ideas that aid in providing solutions to some of the problems or challenges that might be affecting the organization (Taiwo 109).
On the other hand, employers can show their respect to employees by acknowledging the opinions from the employees. This should be done even under circumstances where the ideas from the employees are not feasible. Managers should be willing to communicate the level of the contribution made by employees, and if possible they should appreciate the job done by employees using reliable methods. Managers should understand that praising employees can provide significant benefit to the company.
Another way of showing respect to employees requires the managers to respect the subordinates and the peers. Managers should also ensure that every person in an organization is treated with respect, irrespective of the position he or she holds. A respectful workplace is likely to raise the morale of employees and consequently realize an increase in productivity. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the managers to ensure that the concerns of the employees are addressed appropriately (Taiwo 109).
Respect between colleagues
Every person in an organization has a valuable role to accomplish. Hence, it would be difficult to accomplish organizational goals without the input of all employees. If a person views others and treat them with respect irrespective of the roles they play in an organization, objectives will be met quite easily.
For colleagues to have mutual respect, they have to accommodate their colleague’s different views to work and avoid condemning them for what they are or for their belief systems. In order to promote respect at workplace, each person must cultivate a culture that upholds the much needed respect (Heathfield par 3).
Several aspects of organizational culture are important in promoting respect among employees. These include a culture of accommodating everybody irrespective of their differences, defining personal rights, responsibilities and the authorities in the organization, defining an appropriate code of conduct in an organization, promoting accountability, encouraging discussions and team work development as well as enhancing formal communication channels and forums such as meetings, use of emails and newsletters (Business Lobby Team par.5).
In view of the above methods of promoting respect among colleagues at workplace, there are some aspects are within the confines of the management while others are initiatives that employees develop on a regular basis. For instance, the management in consultation with the employees should come up with codes of conduct, detailed roles of each employee and accountability measures. This forms part of an organization’s culture where every employee is aware of the accepted norms.
The management should devise avenues where individuals can raise their concerns. Therefore, each employee should be given due attention and also be able to give the same attention to other colleagues.
When the term disrespect at the workplace is mentioned, an individual is compelled to think about serious acts of violation such as racial discrimination and sexual harassment among others. It is important for working teams to understand that there are other behavioral patterns among employees that have a great impact at the workplace relationships, productivity and general wellbeing.
Negative behavioral patterns such as gossiping, rumor mongering, talking to each other at loud and irritating voices as well as withholding vital information tend to promote a disrespectful workplace (Byres par. 4).
There are a number of things which can be done to earn respect between colleagues. These include the following. First of all, it is necessary to develop acceptable work ethic. This requires the employee to report on time, doing the expected thing and being ready to help others whenever they need any help.
Employees should also be excited and appreciate the job. To achieve this, employees should avoid making complains about work problems and work towards finding solutions that can provide mutual benefit. Respect between colleagues can also be realized by being honest and trustworthy and avoiding any discussions that relate to the personal life of other people. Following all the rules and regulations and acting professionally at the workplace also helps to earn respect between colleagues (Taiwo 111).
Respect in the work place training
Respect at the workplace is an attribute that can be acquired over time. Sometimes it does not come out naturally. This is because some aspects at the workplace are closely related to code of conduct and sometimes ties with an organization’s culture. An employee is considered to be respectful when he or she observes positive workplace ethics that largely promote favorable working relationships.
There are some cases when employees might feel harassed at places of work. Harassment at the workplace can be in the form of discrimination in terms of the amount of training which employees are accorded. Therefore, it is important for an organization to organize training sessions that are fairly distributed among various levels of workers at workplace.
This can be done regularly through scheduled training for all employees or through trainings organized for specific teams. In addition, training sessions focusing on teams’ interaction forums like team building can be used as avenues for training.
It is important for employees to understand that the most serious negative actions like gender discrimination, sexual harassment, and racial discrimination often result into a less dignified place of work.
Other minor acts such as gossiping, rudeness towards fellow workers, ignoring or withdrawing important information also contribute to a disrespected workplace. In addition, employees should learn the importance of respecting themselves at place of work. This kind of respect should also be extended to the organization and its management as a whole (Heathfield par. 5).
Some of the acts of disrespect toward fellow employees at the workplace may amount to criminal acts that can be grossly prosecuted. Employees should also be well equipped with information on what may amount to crime against fellow workers. These acts should be dealt with by the legal system of an organization. However, the management should introduce and implement disciplinary measures against employees who show acts of disrespect that are considered to have enough substance to warrant such actions.
Training on respect in the workplace acts as a way of demonstrating the desired qualities of a given organization. Training also helps to realize good relationships between different members of an organization.
Respect is also critical especially when there is a need to ascertain productivity and overall values of an organization. Workplace training also helps employees to be equipped with practical skills that help employees to identify violations and unproductive behaviors that hinder employees from completing their tasks.
Conclusion
Respect is a prerequisite in effective relationships at workplaces. It is important for an organization to incorporate respect within its cultural practices such that old and new employees are incorporated in the adopted culture. As discussed in the essay, respect at various places of work can only flourish when both sides maintain a dignified and respectful relationship.
Hence, an individual has to show respect to others so that the same amount of respect can be given back. In addition, before employees can be able to show respect to others, they have to exercise respect among themselves. Respect also contributes towards the productivity of workers. The wellbeing and performance of an organization can also be replicated by the same effect.
Therefore, it implies that there is a significant relationship between the extent to which organizations uphold the value of respect and in relation to performance. Although there is need to conduct training sessions that can enhance and assist in building respect at workplace, there is minimum financial investment for a company to uphold a culture of respect yet it pays a part in contributing to overall performance.
Managers play a significant role in ensuring that the culture of respect prevails at workplace. It is easy for respect to be promoted when managers first demonstrate respect towards their juniors. In addition, communication structure in a company affects how employees uphold the value of respect. When communication structure allows managers to pass information to their juniors and vise versa, employees are able to maintain the value of respect towards fellow employees and also to their managers more conveniently.
Training is important in enhancing the culture of respect in an organization. The management should engage in forums aimed at promoting respect among employees. Some of these activities include team based groups activities such as team building days, appreciation parties as well as extracurricular activities like games and competitions.
These are forums that improve the workplace relations since people are able to interact and share their views freely irrespective of their job status, race, physical characteristics and so on. Therefore, the latter are important tools that are crucial in promoting a respected workplace atmosphere.
Revision and opinion about respect in the workplace
The importance of mutual respect among employees and managers cannot be overemphasized. Respect is contagious and yields good working relationships. Mutual respect is a source of motivation and leads to positive productivity. Besides, daily challenges and lack of morale may make employees engage in acts that demonstrate lack of respect to management or fellow employees.
Although respect emanates from an individual, there are factors that may cause an employee to act in a disrespected manner. These factors may include the level of job satisfaction, employees’, and level of motivation.
According to my view, respect is a reward of a favorable working condition and sometimes triggered by aspects such as remuneration as well as fringe benefits and bonuses adopted by an organization. In addition, respect does not have monetary value or any direct influence on the budget. However, it has enormous contribution to the workplace relationships and leadership development.
Respect quotes
Some valuable quotes on respect include “respect others to be respected, respect is the foundation stone of organizational effectiveness because it encourages us to recognize the skills and experience of every individual” (Learn Quote: Promoting respect in the workplace par. 2).
Works Cited
Business Lobby Team. How to promote respect in the workplace. Business Lobby. 2011. Web.
Balovich, David. Respect in the workplace. 2006. Web.
Byres, Nicole. Cultivating culture of respect in the workplace. 2012. Web.
Esty Katharine, Griffin Richard and Hirsch, Marcie. Workplace Diversity. Holbrook, Mass: Adams Publ, 1995. Print.
Heathfield, Susan. How to demonstrate respect at work. Web.
In the years since the Oscar for Best Picture was given to Wings in 1929, only seven comedies have won Hollywood’s highest award. Comedies come in different forms, and the winner in 1934, It Happened One Night, was a screwball comedy, defined as a combination of farce, witty repartee, and romance. The 1938 winner, You Can’t Take It With You, was the film version of a successful Broadway play.
In 1960 The Apartment won the Oscar, the first American comedy of any kind in over thirty years to do so, and it is categorized as a comedy/drama. Six years earlier Tom Jones won but that is a British comedy. Annie Hall, 1977’s winner, is a romantic comedy, Forest Gump is another comedy/drama and the 1998 winner, Shakespeare in Love, is a romantic/drama/comedy. In eighty years, therefore, comedy wins on average once per decade, and then only in a watered-down form.
The Golden Globe awards, on the other hand, divide the Best Motion Picture category into the sub-categories of drama and musical/comedy, and in that second category, many of the great comedies produced in the past fifty-five years have been acknowledged. However, the selectors are journalists who cover the American film industry for publications outside North America. For that reason, the focus of this essay will be on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from whom, in the words of comedian Rodney Dangerfield, comedy gets no respect — even though, as will be argued, comedy deserves to be taken seriously.
Part of the reason for comedy’s neglect can be found in the history of comedy on film. The earliest comedies were made just for laughs. Mack Sennett, for example, produced one- and two-reel slapstick comedies in record time by “discarding any idea of plot, character or motivation” (Sennett 2). The Keystone Kops series consisted of chases, fights, and pratfalls which delighted audiences of the day.
Charlie Chaplin, a seminal figure in the development of comedy, came out of the Keystone studios to make his own short films and soon “progressed from burlesque and slapstick to romantic sensibility” (Sennett 3) through his Little Tramp character. Once the silent era passed Chaplin extended his range in films such as Modern Times (1936) and The Great Dictator (1940) by expressing what appeared to be his social conscience. Modern Times, for example, contains striking images of a machine-dominated society in which Chaplin is shown working on an assembly line against the clock, only to be swallowed by a giant mechanism and spat out. Those images have lived on into the present time.
In Dictator, he was one of the first in Hollywood to ridicule Hitler and Nazism. He himself denied he had any interest in making films with a message but that “there is a healthy thing in laughing at the grimmest things in life” (Gehring 10).
What makes comedies of this era less than art is best seen in Chaplin’s comedies which, even at their most serious, were gag-based. There was little concern with plot, character, or coherence. In Modern Times he made a short-lived attempt at originality but soon lapsed into shtick; or, as critic Theodore Huff said, the film “gets back to the old Chaplin comedy pattern,” abandoning the theme of workers being dehumanized by the machines they operate; in fact, Huff regards the last two-thirds of the film as “a sort of anticlimax to the opening idea” (252-253).
This was permissible in that era since most comedies were even less coherent, readily giving up plot and character for the sake of a snappy line. In addition to that, Chaplin’s films are egocentrically structured, with him dominating every scene. However, for the contemporary viewer who has been exposed to much more variety in comedy, such a tight focus on the main character becomes tedious. These factors have made comedy the black sheep of the cinematic family in the Academy’s eyes, even today when comedy has evolved well past that point.
The star-centered comedic tradition continued in the Marx Brothers’ zany, anarchic comedies in which their on-screen personas reduced all other actors to foils. For people who grew up with those comedies and who accepted their conventions, the Marx Brothers are hilarious. One of those people is Woody Allen who, in his early films, showed the same inability to resist a good line and the same reluctance to give one to a secondary character.
His 1973 film, Sleeper, is a classic example of a comedy that should get no respect. Peter J. Bailey, writer of a full-length study on Allen tries to prove Sleeper is not just a film, one of those “in which the fulfillment of their comic design exhausts their aesthetic purposes” (30), but that it is deserving of closer scrutiny; after that, he hardly mentions it again. The fact is that Sleeper is a satire without a center, a vehicle for Allen’s shtick and for taking potshots at his contemporaries, most of whom have by now been forgotten.
The hero, Miles Monroe, jokes his way through the film and occasionally gives his female lead, Diane Keaton a good line that is recognizably his. Sleeper is now seen as a step toward Allen’s best comedies such as Annie Hall and Manhattan. The fact remains that Sleeper quickly took its place among the hundreds of slapdash, sophomoric comedies made in the spirit of the late Max Sennet, and which made comedy only slightly more respected than pornography in cinematic circles.
Gag-based, comedian-centered films largely disappeared after the Sixties when comic actors such as Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis, Danny Kaye, and Red Skelton were swept aside by a new generation of comedians, and not a moment too soon. In the late 80s, Ted Sennett took another look at Jerry Lewis’s most successful comedy, The Nutty Professor, made in 1963, and found it depressing, calling it “glum and dispirited,” and that “both sides of the hero’s split personality are off-putting” (228). The same can be said for many of those comedies, and the fact that the appeal of these comedians faded so suddenly, and that their films turned from hilarious to painful, shows how quickly that kind of comedy becomes dated.
The self-deprecating hero who emerged in the 1960s took comedy a step closer to in-depth characterization which is considered to be the basis of more durable comedy. According to Sennett, this was partly due to Peter Sellers’s portrayal of Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther films and Woody Allen’s persona as an “intellectual nebbish” (232) which established itself even in his amateurish early films and grew in sophistication and strength along with his later films.
Censorship restrictions had eased by this time, giving comedy writers much greater scope and resulting in a string of films that mocked American institutions and traditions. By the 1970s the range of comedy had expanded to the point where films as sophisticated and funny as the 1972 film by Peter Bogdanovich, What’s Up, Doc, a spoof of and a homage to the screwball comedies of the past, and the raucous Animal House of 1978 were enjoying success at the box office.
That the Academy ignored Animal House is understandable. Not only has it been credited with starting the “gross-out” genre of comedy but the film makes no pretension to cinematic art. Bogdanovich’s film, however, might have rated a mention. After all, the director was regarded as a Hollywood wunderkind after The Last Picture Show had been nominated for an Oscar 1971; but comedy was still regarded as a disreputable form by the Academy’s membership.
Over the past forty years, comedy has taken its place among other genres as legitimate cinema yet, not counting the 1960 winner, The Apartment, a throwback to the fifties, only three comedies have won the Oscar for Best Picture in that time. The simplest way to explain that deficiency is to take Mel Brooks’s 1974 comedy, Blazing Saddles as a test case. Should it have been at least nominated for Best Picture? It was nominated in the Best Actress (Madeline Kahn) in a Supporting Role, Best Editing, and Best Music, Original Song categories.
In 2006, Blazing Saddles was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” (Wikipedia, Blazing Saddles). It has therefore been recognized as a major film but when it was first released there was no question of it being given the award for Best Picture. It would be interesting to learn which criteria the Academy applied in its selection process, but it has revealed only the most basic ones: to be selected a film must be made in America, it cannot be an animated feature, it must be over 40 minutes in length, and must have played in theaters for at least a week (IMDb). In other words, Blazing Saddles was eligible.
The other criteria used by the selection committee for this prestigious award remains shrouded in mystery but attempts have been made to infer them from past winners. Emanual Levy came up with the following list of reasons why some films win: ad campaigns, studio politics, a nominee’s personality, popularity in the industry, emotional and political factors, the “validity” or “morality” of off-screen personalities, and whether a nominee was denied a well-deserved award previously (262).
There seems to be no set of agreed-upon esthetic criteria for judging films. Admittedly Blazing Saddles lacks the elements usually found in classic films such as a great love story or stupendous special effects, but it performs a great and lasting service to lovers of comedy by destroying the clichés perpetuated by Hollywood, including the Hollywood Western, for which alone it deserves an award. Satire often bites the hand that feeds it, and Blazing Saddles is primarily a spoof of Hollywood movies. Perhaps that is the primary reason for the Academy’s aversion to comedy: it is irreverent, even dangerous, as likely to attack Hollywood as any other American institution.
A good example of a dangerous film is Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 “black comedy,” Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. It had to be made over the objections of the Motion Picture Association of America whose president expressed reservations about a satire that targeted the US president and military (LoBrutto 232).
The film was nominated for four Oscars, including Best Picture but lost to My Fair Lady, once again showing Hollywood’s preference for lighter entertainment. Since its release, Dr. Strangelove has been honored as one of the greatest comedy films of all time and the 15th best film of all time (Wikipedia, Strangelove). Then why was it not good enough to be Best Picture of 1964?
Dr. Strangelove was one of the first films to challenge Hollywood’s tightly controlled system by crossing the boundaries of tasteful satire. The film contains sexual and scatological references (General Buck Turgidson, for example, and Colonel “Bat” Guano), it ridicules the ruling elite, it puts Major “King” Kong at the controls of a B-52 carrying twenty megaton hydrogen bombs, the equivalent of thousands of Hiroshimas, and it makes comedy out of nuclear winter, life in mine shafts and the return of fascism, ending with the unforgettable image of Kong riding a thermonuclear weapon like a cowboy on a bronco.
Some critics were appalled, but philosopher Lewis Mumford spoke for many people when he wrote that “this film is the first break in the catatonic Cold War trance that has so long held our country in its rigid grip” (qtd. in LoBrutto 248). If that grip had never been broken, it would have suited Hollywood because Kubrick’s satire raised the bar for the whole movie industry and thus put pressure on the movie industry to abandon the old for the new.
The “Metropolis of Make-Believe,” says Richard Maltby, wanted to control its output because they had to protect and promote Hollywood’s most valuable possession: the idea of Hollywood. Well into the 1950s Hollywood produced films that propagandized in the service of that idea, a Hollywood that was the creation of its own press and public relations corps. This was done to conceal the industry itself, diverting the public’s attention away from the “routine, mechanical, standardized aspect of the industry’s central operations” (Maltby 18-19).
These industry-tested audience responses and engineered their product so as to elicit the desired responses from that audience, “making it laugh or cry at the appointed times.” In order to achieve its ends, Hollywood favored what is termed the “classical” film. Hollywood defined classically as adhering to its ideal of “decorum, proportion, formal harmony, respect for tradition, mimesis, self-effacing craftsmanship, and cool control of the perceiver’s response” (Maltby 16), but of course, this approach limits creativity and innovation.
Once Dr. Strangelove poked a hole in the dam, there was first a trickle, then a flood of innovation which, coming on the heels of the end of the studio system, resulted in films that could not have been imagined in the 1950s. The Graduate, for example, showed a married woman committing adultery without dying for her sin, as Elizabeth Taylor had done in the 1960 film, Butterfield 8 just seven years earlier. These films made money and so Hollywood had to produce them but they did not have to like them.
In many ways comedy has been its own worst enemy, at least in getting the respect it deserves from its own capital, but then the writers and directors of great comedy do not depend on Oscars to keep them hard at work. The Golden Globe’s list of winning and nominated comedies shows that as a genre it is as diverse and dynamic as the list of dramas. The quality of the writing, direction, and acting in the best comedies is at least equal to that in the dramatic category, these comedies have durability and the power to entertain and instruct, and are therefore deserving in every respect to be included in the Academy’s March line-ups.
However, to Hollywood comedy is dangerous, increasingly so as one comedian after another strips away the disguise under which the movie industry has gone about making its money. Until Hollywood comes to terms with comedy, it is unlikely that the Academy Awards speeches will have the audience rolling in the aisles.
Works Cited
Anonymous. IMDb Awards. Web.
Bailey, Peter J. The Reluctant Film Art of Woody Allen. Louisville: UP of Kentucky, 1998.
Gehring, Wes A. American Dark Comedy: Beyond Satire. Westport, CT.: Greenwood Press, 1996.
Huff, Theodore. Charlie Chaplin. New York: Henry Schuman, 1951.
LoBrutto, Vincent. Stanley Kubrick: A Biography. New York: Donald I. Fine Books, 1997.
Maltby, Richard. Hollywood Cinema. London: Blackwell Publishing, 2003.
Sennett, Ted. Laughing in the Dark: Movie Comedy from Groucho to Woody. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992.