Employee Involvement and Employee Commitment to Their Activities - Assignment Example

Topic: Short Answer Questions Student’s Name: Tutor: Date: Question 1, Emotional Labor This is a form of emotional regulation where employers expect employees to display certain kinds of emotions aimed at promoting organizational goals. The emotional display by employees aims at influencing both internal and external individuals such as organizational clients, customers, and co-workers (Glomb, T.M. et al., 2004). There are specific professions that require workers to display emotional labor at workplaces. Such professions include that of nurses other medical practitioners,stage actors, waiting staff, as well as escorts. Most employers greatly value emotional labor as it allows them, through training and supervision, to have a substantial degree of control over the emotional employee emotional displays. However, research on emotional labor indicates that it comes with some negative implications on the observer and employee as well. By large extend, research shows that employeesdisplaying positive or negative emotions may result to a subsequent change in the emotional state of the observer (Glomb, T.M. et al., 2004). Question five, knowledge work, knowledge workers, and the learning organization Knowledge work is a task distinguished by its specific information, nature, content, and requirements.Knowledge worker is a term used to refer to workers who use their knowledge as their main source of capital. Typical examples of knowledge works may include technical professional such as software engineering, architecture, engineering, and law. Jemielniak, Dariusz (2012) differentiates knowledge work from other forms of work from its primary task of applying non-routine methods of solving problems. These methods require good blending of convergent, divergent, and creative thinking skills.On the other hand, a learning organization is a term used to refer to a company useful in facilitating the learning of its members. Such companies continue totransforms themselves through creation of environment that is conducive for learning. Learning organizations are attained through pressures facing modern organizations. The idea enables organizations to remain competitive in the business environment (Wang and Ahmed, 2003). Question 7, Employee Voice By definition, it is the mutual communication held between employer and employee. It is the participation of employees greatly having some influence on corporate decision-making. Employers accord employees a voice through informal and formal means. Informal means include features such as general conversation between employer and employees, employee delivering feedback, and social meetings within workplaces. On the other hand, formal mechanisms for employee voice include communication tools as employee surveys and open-air suggestion boxes (Stone, 2005). The positive impact of employee voice is that it aims atminimizing conflict within the organization, reducing any resistance to change, and improving communication. Employee voice also encourages staff retention within an organization through motivation and fair treatment (Stone, 2005). Finally, employee voice can improve productivity through its impact on employee engagement, sharing of ideas, creativity, employee retention, and effectiveness. Question 8, Employee Involvement This implies the creation of an environment whereby workers have an impact on decisions made within the organization and actions that are likely to affect their jobs. Employee involvement increases employee commitment to their activities and thus improved productivity in organizations. It is through commitment to employee involvement that organizational leaders express their value for their employees. However, in most cases, management is reluctant in accepting employee involvement due to some reasons. Allowing employees to make crucial decisions without yet they are not responsible for the outcomes of their decisions may put the management at risk. There is also the aspect of communication complexity wherein the case when more employees have the potential and ability to input and decision-making, more communication that is critical is necessary to ensure that decisions are consistent and effective. Question 10 Employee engagement is a term used to refer to a business management concept that remains a crucial tool in organizational success. This is because an engaged employee is one fully involved and engaged in organizational activities as well as their work. Committed employees usually act in a way that takes organizational interests and goals to a better position (Macey s., 2008). Motivation on the other hand is the psychological feature that initiates in employees an action toward organizational goals and elicits. It initiates in employees the power to control and sustains certain goals oriented towards directed behaviors (Fisher, K. et al., 2009).Finally, employee motivation on the other hand refers to a reflection of the level of energy, commitment, and by large extend, the creativity that an employee exert to their areas of expertise in their workplaces. Question 14 Thompson, p., (2003) claims that organizational mismanagement of employees in terms of poor commitment to practices aimed at transforming labor, poor supervision measures, abuse, poor leadership behavior, and lack of motivation. The argument that employers expect employees to invest on themselves and their responsibilities in workplaces without any condition seems more harmful since any promise made by any employer comes with conditions. Furthermore, Thomson, P., (2003) posits that probability of employers committing themselves to the expectations of return on investment is very low and employer behavior of little commitment to training and development of skills among employees indicate fears of loss of investment after exit of employees. By large extend, organizational sustainability on employee investment seems poor and needs restructuring. Question 15 Thompson claims that human resources needs serious re-mobilization that involves increased duration of work and its intensity. It is also important to consider investing in an employee fully without considering productivity and their contribution alone. According to Thompson, P. (2003), contemporary capitalism is contrary to disconnected capitalism, as it does not demand any commitment or creativity from employees. This results in poor productivity and hence poor organizational performance. Question 16 A form of capitalism where employers have trouble in retaining their part of bargain with their employees and present economists generally with a difficulty of blending objectives and employment in line to work. It is a model that brings a combination of external shocks in the form of high competition pressures and internal problems such as increased workplace conflicts. Question 17, Advantages and Disadvantages of Outsourcing Advantages 1. Cost Savings Outsourcing functions cuts costs through employee compensation costs, expenses related to office space and other costs associated with space provision. 2. Focus on Core Business Outsourcing allows management to focus on their areas of specialization and their core business. When organizations practice beyond their areas of specialization, they experience business function that it may not be knowledgeable about and thus may take it away from its focus. 3. Improved Quality Improved quality is easily achievable through more expert vendors and processes that are more specialized. 4. Customer Satisfaction Having a vendor contract comes with an advantage as they are bound to certain levels of service and quality. Disadvantages 1. Quality Risk Outsourcing can expose an organization to potential risks and legal exposure. 2. Quality Service Without clear identification of specific measurable process for quality service reporting, outsourcing can lead to could be a poor service quality. 3. Language Barriers Outsourcing a customer call center from a country with different language may lead to customer dissatisfaction. Question 18, Casual Employment A casual workforce has many disadvantages as compared to permanent employment. For instance, a casual workforce is more prone to incidents in workplaces as workers do not work in the greater workplace environment compared to permanently employed workers. Therefore, casual workers are more likely to face communication issues and matters of workplace health and safety more than permanent employees. Furthermore, casual employees do not enjoy the same entitlements and rights as permanent employees. In essence, absenteeism among casual workers may result to reduced or no pay at all. This scenario may complete lives of employees and their ability to support themselves and their families as well. Reference Fisher, K., Marshall, M., &Nanayakkara, A. 2009, Motivational orientation, error monitoring, and academic performance in middle childhood: A behavioral and electrophysiological investigation. Mind, Brain, and Education, 3, p. 56-63. Glomb, T.M., Kammeyer-Mueller, J. &Rotundo, M. 2004, Emotional Labor Demands and Compensating Wage Differentials.Journal of Applied Psychology 89, p. 700-714. Jemielniak, Dariusz, 2012, The New Knowledge Workers, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Macey, Schneider, 2008, The meaning of employee engagement. Industrial Organizational Psychology. Stone, R 2005, Human Resource Management, 5th edition, John Wiley & Sons, Queensland. Thompson, P 2003, Disconnected capitalism: or why employers can’t keep their side of the Bargain, Work, Employment and Society, 17(2), p. 359-378. Wang, C and Ahmed, P 2003, Organizational learning: a critical review, The learning organization, 10(1), pp. 8-17. Read More