Essay on Workplace Productivity

Diversity in the workplace is not a new idea or concept. From the late 1800’s to the early 1900’s the majority of people living in the United States were immigrants from other countries including Italy, Russia, and Ireland. Each of the members from these countries spoke different languages, came from different cultures, and had different customs and work ethics. Acceptance to them was fought for in the workplace in industries such as coal, steel, automobile manufacturing, and other labor forces. This type of struggle still continues today in the workplace from cultural differences, and language differences to racial and gender differences. This paper will examine the obstacles managers face when overcoming generational differences

When the employees sweat out to reach the production targets, they give their best and the mind-set or the attitude of the employees towards the organization changes. The management should set up monthly workshops to interact with their employees, thus making the employees feel that the management is well within their reach and is ready to listen to their pleas. Organizing such workshops will stimulate the feedback process which will help the management to cut down on production and sales costs in turn maximising the returns (Arnolds & Boshoff, 2002). Organizing technical trips and field tours further improves the management employee relationship as this allows the two parties to work together in a different environment and gain better ideas. The concepts of the ERG (existence, relatedness, growth) Model can be applied by recognizing individual employees who attain the highest productivity and then rewarding them with various benefits such as growth. Growth is what employees look for in any organization as the more

My target group for this assignment is African – American men. I encounter members of this group on daily basis, and would like to learn more about this particular group’s workplace experience as it relates to diversity; more precisely if they are experiencing different treatment due to their ethnicity and gender. Even though I encounter members of this group on daily basis, I do not work with members of this group and have not in my previous jobs. I have very little understanding of their views and experiences pertaining to work environment. This group differs from me in two dimensions: gender and ethnicity. This is a distinct group for this essay since I am Caucasian and female. I grew up in Albania and moved to the United States when

After couple of days of trying to understand the relationship between these two concepts, Alex understood low productivity is caused by dependencies of each production line to one another and is slowed by the bottlenecks. In few words, the difficult part for the manager is to identify the bottleneck.

Amazingly, productivity rapidly raised in the first 24 hours. The study concluded that for maximum productivity, the best worker had to be chosen to perform that task and had to be provided with training for efficient work. Every worker and his output had to be closely monitored and he had to be rewarded for greater productivity. Taylor also wanted to reduce conflicts between managers and workers by convincing them that they would benefit mutually from a rise in productivity, as this would favour society and the organisation as a whole.

The topic of minorities in the workforce and how the struggle to accomplish equal treatment in today’s workforce is nothing new to our society. For centuries we have been concerned that by bringing together our different backgrounds, skills, and experiences, as well as the many businesses of this great

Diversity in the workplace is a subject that has gained increased attention in the workplace over the past few years. After all, the impact of affirmative action and equal employment opportunity programs on the nation's work force is undeniable. Women and minorities were the first to dramatically alter the face of the economic mainstream, while gays, persons with disabilities and senior citizens followed not far behind. The result is a diverse American labor force representing a microcosm of our society - yet one that continues to struggle with its identity. Diversity as a social condition is not new to America. We were founded as a nation of Diversity. “America has always been a merger of cultures and, as such, has undergone periods of

Through that conversation, Alex realized that “productivity is the act of bringing a company closer to its goal” ( 1992). Alex thought the company’s goal is to increase efficiencies but he later realized that every company’s goal, including his plant, is to make money or to be profitable and anything that comes closer to the goal is considered as productive.

The United States is one of the most diverse nations on the earth, originally conceived so, and often described as a great melting pot, as “all nations are melted into a new race of man, whose labours and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world” (St. John de Crèvecoeur, 1782). Yet, despite the country’s diverse population, the workplace remains a place of inequality as women and minorities continue to earn less than their white male counterparts (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2011; U.S. Census Bureau, 2009) and advance less in managerial and professional positions (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2008). The question of workplace diversity is a polarizing debate with proponents of diversity measures arguing the business benefit of

Harvard Business Review September, 1996 / October, 1996 HEADLINE: MAKING DIFFERENCES MATTER: A NEW PARADIGM FOR MANAGING DIVERSITY BYLINE: by David A. Thomas and Robin J. Ely; David A. Thomas is an associate professor at the Harvard Business School in Boston, Massachusetts. Robin J. Ely is an associate professor at Columbia University 's School of International and Public Affairs in New York City. Their research and teaching focus on the influence of race, gender, and ethnicity on career dynamics and organizational effectiveness. ABSTRACT: MAKING DIFFERENCES MATTER: A NEW PARADIGM FOR MANAGING DIVERSITY DAVID A. THOMAS and ROBIN J. ELY Diversity efforts in the workplace have been undertaken with great goodwill, but, ironically, they often

Managers throughout history have been interested in studying ways to increase productivity. For example, Frederick Taylor began the movement of scientific management in the 1880’s. Scientific management looked to improve productivity through means of scientific analysis of worker’s tasks and work processes rather than the old “rule of thumb” (Taylor, 1914). Taylor believed that he could maximize worker efficiency and productivity through focusing on workers specific hand motions and patterns. After this period, beginning in about the 1930’s, managers looked to take productivity to yet another level by studying worker physiology and motivation. This new movement came to be known as the human relations movement.

The first area of focus will be how employee behavior and productivity are influenced. In the early stages of development, there were a number of studies and experiments conducted to formulate a track record of consistent findings. In one series of research experiments in particular, the Hawthorne Studies, there were researchers who went into a workplace environment to observe its workers. The focus of the study was to determine if by periodically changing external factors, such as lighting, the employees would show a difference in productivity level. At the conclusion of the experiment, the findings were that when different external variables within the work environment were altered, the variables did not seem to affect the employees as much as the concern as to what impression they made upon the researchers observing them.

In any society, how we see ourselves and how others treat us depends on many factors. Race, ethnicity, and cultural background are identifiers of individuals. Most people have confronted prejudice based on these identifiers, either personally experiencing discrimination or knowing someone who has. Beyond ensuring organizational compliance with a country’s anti-discrimination laws, it is incumbent upon managers to support diversity in the workplace and to be culturally competent.

In this case study, Liz Ames has come up against an all too common problem in business today: gender bias. Effectively managing racial, ethnic and gender diversity is not just a human resources issue; it is a serious business issue.

Every company needs to ensure that it is receiving the utmost in productivity from its employees. In the current age of technology, this productivity is partially defined not only by computer proficiency,