Definition of Flexibility at Work - Essay Example

The Flexible Organizations Whats In It For Me? Define "flexibility" in jobs and identify ways to foster flexibility in jobs Flexibility is allowing the employee to work outside normal schedule for the betterment of the business and the individual. Ways to foster flexibility in jobs include formal flexibility where the supervisor has discretion of allowing flexibility as per ethics code conduct of the organization or in-formal where the it’s not written, discretion may be offered. This way the employee may work how, where and when to the mutual benefit of the organization and the individual (Sloan Center on Aging & Work) Define "work-life/balance" and how it can influence workplace happiness. Work-life balance is to work combine personal matters of life like children, education, family, sports and friends in a linear schedule that the two are to equal but complement each other. It varies from the day and individual. Explore ways in which organizations apply work/life balance approaches within organizations. Ways organization explore work/life balance include; Tele-commuting, this allows the employee to work from home though technology connectivity. This suit parents with children at home. Flextime, this allows the employee to work in shifts or windows e.g. having a reporting window for the employees due to traffic jam Compressed time allows the employee pursuing studies time to compress working hours and have something to attend classes. Shared jobs, allows two or more people to share same responsibilities and work in shifts and schedules. Examine the relationship between "flexible benefits" and workplace happiness.  Cafeteria benefits allow the employee to choose benefits from array of menu benefits. First the employer must identify the benefits package. This will help to evaluate and monitor whether benefits objectives are meet in a set targets of goals. The benefits improve the employee morale, productivity and motivate the employee. The flexible benefits are synchronized with other social insurance programs that employee subscribes and the organization pays to maximize the benefits and reduce the risks of the employee. With updated communication on the benefits programs the employee confidence grows and organizations’ values are meet. The benefits choice highly influences the employee satisfaction toward the organization (Raymond A. Noe, 2011). Investigate ways in which independent, networked workplaces can enhance workplace happiness for you and employees in general. Self managed teams incorporate a wide range of benefits. With team decision making capabilities, productivity is improved, there is a high interconnection between the employees and there can be negotiated flexible benefits depending on the job roles and responsibilities. Depending on the personal life different employees have different scope of priorities. Thus a health care plan may differ according to responsibilities and personal life. A 55 yrs. old man need a cover for himself, and the wife and the rest cover channeled to other retirement plans where as a 30yr old single mum needs a comprehensive cover for herself and children. All these scenarios can be negotiated on a team level and budgeted for with little input for he management. The team can decide on the flexibility of the job apply mode of flexibility depending on the work schedules and responsibilities of each employee. The compressed work schedules can be incorporated for the employees who are furthering their studies externally. The tele-commuting can be applied for the sales and marketing workers who’s productivity is measured via the sales targets and other factors and have a little to do in daily production of the products. The team members have discretion in dealing externally with the suppliers and customers, this also increases the trust and motivation in the employees. Team members have a variety of skills that allows them to perform different tasks faster and efficient, this improves productivity and enhances morale in the organization. There is total interdependence of team members in relation, this increases communication and efficiency. The team receives and responds to feedback, thus creating high intercommunication internally and externally. Distinguish between the definitions of "control" vs. "influence" and how it could enhance your workplace happiness Control Control is a use of legitimate power to make an employee work or behave in a particular defined way. Control systems are used in military structure where the workforce is expected to meet certain special kind of discipline. Influence These are external and internal factors that make an employee behave in a particular way without being forced or coerced to achieve a certain goal. They motivate and increase morale to the employee, this increases productivity. EX12.1: Flexibility in Your Job What can managers do to give employees opportunities for some personal control over their jobs? E.g.: having a variety of tasks in a job. (Please do not use the examples identified below in other Week 12 assignments.) Allowing work/life balance in the jobs by introducing tele-commuting, flexitime, sharing jobs or compressed hours. Flexitime allows the managers to give the employee time to study and work, this motivates workers that they can get a promotion because of upgrading there education profiles. Tell-commuting allows the employee work from home, this is by means of connecting though technology meaning that the personal and work time have been blurred to one. This means that the employee can respond to emails at night or weekend thus increasing productivity. Allowing compressed time manager allows the employee to work for same hours in few days per week, this will give employee to attend other personal matters as diem fit. Manager can share jobs between two people and insures that both parties know their responsibilities and work. (Monster, 2014). BD12.1: Case Study: Work/Life Balance at the ABC Corporation What role, if any, does work/life balance play in the success of an organization. Explain. Roles of work/life balance play Decision making decentralization, the decisions are made faster regardless of the location on the employee. The manager can give directions even by a video link. Formalization level is low, there is autonomy and heterogeneity, behavior and skill flexibility; this make organization better in increasing motivation, productivity, potential and commitment to the organization thus fulfilling the fundamentals of the success organization (Carolina Machado, 2014) If you were the CEO of the ABC Corporation, how would you evaluate if valuing work/life balance is a "positive" for the corporation? As CEO, I will measure the performance of the employees, compare them, rate them individually to ascertain and evaluate each employee behavior, attributes and skills. Further, I will setup a Management by objectives (MBO) to evaluate top to bottom employees to measure there specific goals as they have set out with there line managers, managers gives rating feedback to monitor the goals achivements (Raymond A. Noe, 2011) What ethical considerations exist that may drive the organization to be more work/life balanced? Organization Culture, employees take what is acceptable and norm not from the manager but from there actions that turn to company traditions and values. Thus if the company adopts the flexitime culture the employees will know when to report on duty and what time. Flexitime can be adapted in case of heavy traffic jams and the organizations introduces a reporting window (Dessler, 2013). Ethic codes and policies of the organizations, developing a code of conduct and codifying them bring in a well balance flexi working conditions. This code may include the legal and the values of the organization (Dessler, 2013). Do you believe that the balanced work/life plan at the ABC Corporation would work well if the CEO was not one of its primary supporters? Explain your position. If the CEO John S did not support the flexi job plan it would not have worked because the evaluation done by Management by objectives is top to bottom approach thus he could not have been able to set objectives of his managers. What role does Human Resources play in making sure work/life practices are effective? Explain. To establish compensation packages of employees and establishing equity in the pay, also making sure that all the legal requirements are meet; organizations don’t have a free hand to establish packages of there staffs (Dessler, 2013) . Codifying and drafting the code of conduct to make sure that the values and goals of the employee are entrenched to there behavior and objectives of the organization. This promotes work ethics and boosts morale, motivation and productivity of the workers. Benefits plan, flexitime study plan works both ways as a benefit to the employee thus employer gives time for the workers to study. Also vacation plans can be incorporated as a person is on holiday, works remotely. How does the concept of work/life balance support workplace happiness? The a goal oriented organization, managers set goals and strive to achieve them, the goal outcome is beyond the managers control but invest in the process, work on it flawlessly and leads to the organization success (Rao, 2010) BD12.2: Independent, Networked Workforce How could employees use this information to enhance their happiness on-the-job? Please give specific examples. These are self-organized groups in organizations that are free from the management, lead by team-advisors. Members have discretion of work assignments, methods, schedules and training. The team help in various tasks including budgeting, interviewing, discipline and evaluation of performance. This increases the happiness by increasing employee participation, productivity and reduced costs (Jon M. Werner, 2012) Examples of this are; With employee decisions making the revenue increased gradually from $15 to $150 in 1982 to 2010 respectively at Johnsonville Sausage in Sheboygan, Wisconsin . The productivity increased by 40% and reduce costs in warranty by 75% at Timken’s Faircrest Steel plant in Canton, Ohio (Jon M. Werner, 2012). Would you consider reorganizing your work to be more independent and/or networked? If so, how? Do away with the middle managers and rename the supervisor position to team leader. The role of team leader is budgeting, interviewing, discipline, performance evaluation, training and work scheduling. The employee will be trained on the benefits of the program and his roles and participation. Then provide necessary skills for each team to manage its affairs this include training on budgets and planning. Increase the interconnection of workers by empowering workers to organize themselves. Would the above changes enhance your personal well-being? If so, how? Personal well-being improves dramatically with this model. The teams are self-managed, increased satisfaction with morale booster of cluster teams that communicate effectively thus increaser in productivity resulting to increase in motivation. The team arranges for the training programs and work-schedules thus flextime can be implemented easily. Each team has decision making power, output is affected as decisions are made by the team even without the supervisor, thus increased in time management. JA12.1: Flexible Benefits Pay Off Explain the purpose of flexible benefits from the standpoint of (A) the organization and (B) the employee. A) Organization The organization recognizes the different needs of their employees thus instead of designing a single fit for all benefits for employees, the organization provides the different benefits schemes. B) Employee This is to employee freedom to tailor their benefits to suit there personal need. A single mom of 32 Years would like to forfeit her vacation and contribute more to her kid educational scheme, where as a 55 old male worker would take all his vacation days to enjoy himself with his wife (Luis R.Gómez-Mejía, 2012). Give one (1) specific example of a benefit that you would select as part of your flexible benefits program. Explain the purpose of selecting this benefit now. Retirement benefits scheme This would give both the young willing to invest there money on other programs to contribute less than the older employees who would like to contribute more for the retirement plans. Give one (1) specific example of a benefit that you would not select as part of your flexible benefits program right now. Explain why you wouldnt select this benefit now. Social Security This is a legal benefits that provides that all the workers be provided by Social security, this gives workers a basic security level. How would your selections support your personal well-being? Basic labor law of standard social security program would have been meet. Having personalized benefits will suit my needs. Like having a life insurance program for a young person is key incase of accidents unlike for the older people who a holiday plan is more of a priority. Making sure that the benefits will motivate me on my work to achieve the basic well-being. EC12.1: Control, Influence, and Happiness Distinguish between the terms "control" and "influence" Control To use the legitimate power over an employee to have him behave in a particular way and do work in a particular way, controlling normally involves coercion. Influence These are external and internal factors that make an employee behave in a particular way without being forced or coerced to achieve a certain goal. Identify a work situation that you cant control, but you can influence, which could lead to your greater happiness. Downsizing this is a situation that is organization controlled and it aimed at reducing workforce thus reduce costs, he factors are internal and after downsizing new opportunities crop up as restructuring takes effect. You can influence by changing the positions in the organizations or by voluntary leaving to pursue your other goals. (Jon M. Werner, 2012) How could you influence this situation to foster happiness for you? New positions crop up after downsizing its an opportunity to move up the ladder, you can voluntary leave the organization if you are not happy with it and you will be compensated on gratitutes depending on years of service. You can influence as a HR manager have minimal lay off and focus on individual and organization performance practice in particular individual development, MRO feed backs and coaching, training and mentoring (Jon M. Werner, 2012) . Bibliography Carolina Machado, C. M. (2014). Work Organization and Human Resource Management. Switzerland : Springer International Publishing. Dessler, G. (2013). HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall. Jon M. Werner, R. L. (2012). Human Resource Development. Mason: Cengage. Luis R.Gómez-Mejía, D. B. (2012). MANAGING HUMAN RESOURCES. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall. Monster. (2014). Work-Life Balance. Retrieved November 11, 2014, from Monster: http://career-advice.monster.co.uk/in-the-workplace/work-life-balance/what-does-flexible-working-really-mean/article.aspx Rao, S. S. (2010). Happiness at work. New York: McGraw Hill. Raymond A. Noe, R. A. (2011). Fundamentals of Human Resource Management 4th Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Sloan Center on Aging & Work. (n.d.). WHAT IS WORKPLACE FLEXIBILITY? Retrieved November 11, 2014, from The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation: http://workplaceflexibility.bc.edu/ Read More