Organize some social functions at times suitable for children as well as adults and specifically invite the employees' family members. Introduce awards for managers or supervisors nominated by employees for having provided an environment where both employees' work productivity as well as their personal needs are addressed and enhanced. Organize award ceremonies for those employees who are playing an important role in changing the workplace culture. Finally, allow people to have pictures or other personal objects in their work area (Workplace culture, 2009).
Developing and valuing a workplace culture does not happen overnight and requires commitment from both employers and employees. It is important to build consensus for culture change from the top down as well as the bottom up. Education about the importance of work-life balance, the benefits provided by work-life balance policies and the role of workplace culture is necessary to convince managers and front-line employees of the importance of a supportive 'work-life balance' culture (Workplace culture, 2009).
Organizational culture consists of shared beliefs and values established by leaders and then communicated and reinforced through various methods, ultimately shaping employee perceptions, behaviors and understanding. Simply, a company's structure and design can be viewed as its body, and its culture as its soul (Neal et. al., 2008).
Because industries and situations vary significantly, it would be difficult and risky to propose a one-size-fits-all culture template that meets the needs of all organizations. Nonetheless, research does propose that if an organization's culture is to improve its overall performance and effectiveness, that culture must be strong and must provide a strategic competitive advantage. In addition, its beliefs and values must be widely shared and firmly upheld (Neal et. al., 2008)
An organization that develops and maintains a strong organizational culture may realize benefits such as enhanced mutual trust and cooperation, fewer disagreements and more efficient decision-making processes, an informal control mechanism, facilitation of open communication, a strong sense of identification, and a shared understanding.
Finally, regardless of whether supporting evidence exists to establish a definitive link between culture and effectiveness, valuing different viewpoints and styles as well as developing concrete ways to facilitate organizational learning from differences can prove to maximize organizational structure, procedures and processes (Neal et.al., 2008, p. 34).
Diversity Training
There has always been a tremendous amount of controversy over the term "diversity training" and just how effective it is. For that matter, there is also much debate over the word "diversity" and what it really means. Not all, by far, are in favor of diversity training. As a matter of fact, TIME magazine came out with a significant article a couple years ago that described a study which proved diversity training did not work at all. More on that later. Of course, there have been studies which say just the opposite and praise the effectivity of sensitizing people to the cultural and ethnic differences between them.
Many companies hold training sessions regularly to ensure employees are up to speed in this area of the work lives. It has become essential to prove the fact that they are much attuned to diversity and have programs to prevent any racial, sexual, cultural, or ethnic harassment.
Critical Measures, a company that specializes in diversity training defines diversity this way:
"diversity includes, but goes well beyond, race and gender. To us, diversity includes age and generational differences, disability, religion, language, national origin, culture and cultural norms, marital status, sexual orientation, union and non-union, differences in personality style and many other characteristics. In short, diversity is any difference that can make a difference at work" (Our approach to diversity training, n.d., para.1)
The debate is, "does diversity training make us more, or less, sensitive to diversity?"
Does keeping it "on the front burner" make the situation better or worse? When we start including marital status, differences in personality, union and non-union, in mandatory diversity training in the workplace, have we gone too far? Or not far enough? Is HRM overstepping their bounds? Are they bringing people together to understand cultural differences -- or forcing eveyone's beliefs on everyone else? Experts and studies show evidence both ways.
The training company, Critical Measures, will tell us that, "New research shows that most human bias is unconscious. Teaching people about the nature of bias helps them move beyond guilt to understanding. We discuss how personal, cultural and organizational biases can affect recruitment, hiring and retention decisions/practices."
TIME magazine, on the other hand reported the results of a major decades-long study concerning...
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