At the end of each module I will ask you to reflect on your work and you reading and use the following questions as a guide for your discussion: (See the syllabus for what to think about when answering these questions. This will be a discussion of free-expression based on your reflections.    

Reading: 

• Harvey and Allard:
  • Section VI: Managing Organizational Change and Diversity: Current Issues
  • Section VII: Capstone Experiences for Understanding and Managing Diversity

Notes from the Harvey and Allard Text

Work-Life Balance Issues: Changing When and How the Work Gets Done

• “Offering workplace flexibility relates directly to the business case for diversity because such policies attract a larger and better pool of potential applicants, decrease stress, burnout, absenteeism, and turnover” (p.338)
• Implementation Gap: The resistance of organizational cultures to change.
• “Work-life as a diversity issues results from changing gender roles, new family structures, differences between generational values that conflict with traditional work schedules and older employees financially unable or personally unwilling to retire” (p. 339)
• Phased Retirement: A workplace plan that allows workers of a specified age to gradually reduce the hours that they work for their current employer.
• Maternity Leave and Promotion: “The Six Sigma Case: Promotion at the Western Company” (p. 347) is a thought-provoking situation that provides an interesting dilemma.

One Workplace Bully Is One Too Many: The Four Faces of Bullying

• Face One: Bullying  Defined as emotional abuse that causes humiliation and distress and interferes with work by harassing the victim. Bullying is a deliberate, hurtful, and repeated mistreatment most commonly by a superior to a subordinate.
• Face Two: The Bully- “Vickers (2006) found the stereotypes depicting bullies as loud and assertive to be inaccurate; bullies often operate quietly and can be jealous and lack confidence” (p. 371)
• Face Three: The Human Victims- The stereotype of victims as passive, having a low status, and not a member of the “in” group is true in some cases. Victims may have a predisposition to negativity, submissiveness, and a defeatist attitude.  However, some researchers have found that victims are more accomplished that the bully (p. 371)
• Face Four: The Organization as a “Victim”- “Porteous (2002) noted that certain organizational factors can support workplace bullyings, such as highly competitive cultures, fear of replacement or layoffs, or an authoritarian management style that abuses power by behaviors such as setting impossible deadlines and assigning un-achievable tasks or targets. Organizations without codes of conduct or policies of behavior may encourage bullying by omission”(p. 373).

Reflection Questions

What have I done here?

What have I learned from what I have done here?

What will I do differently from what I have learned here?

What will I tell others about what I have learned here?