Bmsk5001 Developing Workplace Critical Thinking Assessment Answers

Upon the successful completion of this module, the student should be able to demonstrate the ability to:

 

1. discriminate and analyse the difference between beliefs, attitudes and values within a  workplace context;
2. critically assess their own beliefs, attitudes and value systems and their impact on  workplace behaviour;
3. apply the critical assessment of an appropriate management theory to evaluate how  someone with different beliefs, attitudes and values might interpret the theory differently.

Answer:

Introduction:

This modern day society is an era of overpopulation and limited natural resources. It is for this reason that all the people must be sensible and responsible enough to live by sharing the limited natural resources like the fossil fuels. However, the term sustainability study in an umbrella term that is not only applicable to the resources of nature but also to the sustainability of the social, economic and cultural aspects (Schaltegger et al. 2015).  This is the responsibility that has to be taken up by the young generation of the modern era. It is they who will have to pass it on to the future generations. ESD or the education for sustainable development will help people to change their thinking styles and take a good and responsible step towards having a sustainable future.

Behavior, Values, and attitudes

Sustainability will be obtained only when people can have a changed and rational thinking style.  It can be properly achieved only when there is a change in the values, thinking style, behave and attitudes of people. Sustainability is an overall concept that must be brought in terms of social, environmental, political, and economic and many other such socio-economic and cultural fronts. One of the good places for starting this sustainability is the workplace.

A sustainability within a workplace can be successful only when the concept is instilled within the organizational culture. This can be done by bringing a change in the values, attitudes, beliefs of the employees.

 Attitude is the way one reacts on seeing a person, or a thing or even a new approach. It is developed over many years. So, starting a sustainability approach will require assessing the backgrounds and the mindset of the employees. Attitude is often shaped over the experiences that they have gained through their lives. Some people might have the wrong and the irrational attitude towards that what is rational. Values are the senses or some strict principles that are present within the individuals and how they use the same for judging different things. Beliefs are something that is instilled in individuals from their childhood. It depends on many religious and cultural norms as well. They might not be logical enough and might be inculcated within any individual from some religious preaching or some past experiences that they suffered through.

It is evident that while implementing some new changes in any workplace is no easy job. This is because not every employee will accept it in a proper way. There will naturally be, many differences and conflicts within the approaches of the employees. These differences are mainly created due to the behavior, values and the attitudes of the employees. All these three principles are different for different employees and this, in turn, makes different employees have the varied opinion about the new changes that might be introduced in the organization. There are also different theories and models that can be used in this aspect (H and Handelsman 2018). 

The first is the theory of reasoned action. The reasoning sense of the employees is developed by their action. One of the major forces that act behind their action or their sense of reasoning is their intent. The intent of the employees matter a lot towards accepting any new rule that affects the take or the move of an employee’s towards the sustainability approaches. For an instance, if one of the ways of creating workplace sustainability it is to hire general employees rather than employing the specialized employees, then it might turn out to be very good news for all. They might think that this will be a fair competition among all and all of them will work and learn simultaneously. This is because the attitude of this group of employees is positive and they have a good intention. They have the intention of living and working with each other in peace and harmony. This will also increase the number of vacancies within an organization. However, the rest of the employees might feel that this is a very wrong approach and they might not support this sustainability approach. They might feel that this will bring into the picture, many incompetent employees and there will be a huge impact on the overall welfare and the productivity of the company. It can be said that in this case, the intent of the employees is not very positive. They might not see a good intention behind this.

Ryan and Deci (2017) have stated that the other theory that can be talked about in this aspect is that of the theory of self-regulation (Vohs and Baumeister 2016). This theory is evident of the fact that there has to be a motivation for creating any intent or any desire within the individuals. However the desire has to be present within the employees for accepting and working as per the sustainability strategy that is implemented within the organization. O the other hand Wang and Hou (2015) is of the opinion that, motivation is one of the major things that are to be talked about in this aspect because the desire is often created due to motivation. Employees will be able to regulate themselves in a different way only after they have received some impetus or some motivations. It will be helpful in bringing some changes in the ways in which they regulate themselves. 

Behavior, Values, and attitudes in the workplace 

One of the sustainability strategies that the workplace might develop is daily health sessions by the health experts. Some employees might be interested in this as they will have a good attitude towards exercising and it will keep them healthy. However, the past experiences might also influence this decision. There can be some employees who might have been sick or paralyzed and have grown better with due exercise and physical activities. So for those employees, this particular strategy will be more of a positive attitude or value. Some employees might be exercising every day in the morning or in the evening as an offering to the nature of God. In such cases, this will be a belief for them. So the past experiences matter a lot in shaping the minds or the movement of the individuals.

 So, this might create a desire within them and they might agree to join in those campaigns. However, if they do not have that desire then they will not think about accepting or being part of these sustainable strategies. So, the motivations or the self-regulation have to be instilled within the employees by motivating them to take up the sustainable strategies. 

For an instance imbibing religious freedom is also one of the sustainability that the sustainable managers are taking nowadays. They might give this freedom to the Muslim women to come in the office without their burkas or hijabs. Some female employees might take this as a good intent and might accept it. They might have a good attitude towards accepting any new changes within the company. On the other hand, some employees may feel that they cannot come to work without their hijabs as it is a part of their religion. So it is their belief that has been installed within them right from their childhood through their religious preaching. In such cases, the sustainability manager must be liberal enough to allow the Muslim female employees to take this decision as per their choice. Religious freedom will help in imbibing a good cultural strategy and will also increase the overall productivity of the organization (Laschinger and Fida  2014) 

My job role and relevant theoretical models

I am working as the sustainability manager in an organization and my role s to look after the sustainable strategies of the organization. I am aware of the fact that the first thought that usually comes to the minds of people after hearing this term sustainability manager is usually that of an employee who is to look after the conservation of the environment through the various green approaches that can be taken by the company. However it is the fact that taking green approaches falls under my jurisdiction but I also make sure that I am making strategies that will look after the social, cultural and the economic well being of the employees as well.

I have the following roles to satisfy the obligations of being a sustainability manager-

I make the strategies that would help in keeping the organization cleaner and greener. However, apart from this, I also have to make many strategies for making the communication easy and comfortable. This will help me in communicating with the employees in a better manner. I make sure that apart implementing the green strategies, I am being able to pass on the information and make them available to all the employees both internal and external. I make a close connection with all of the stakeholders in my organization both within and without. I make sure that I am keeping a close contact with all the colleagues that I will be working with. I believe that unless and until I am in a close association a connection with all my colleagues and even the customers I will not be able to understand their choices or implement the strategies.

I also keep a regular track of the current practices that are being done by the company. I know that I will have to keep a constant follow up with all the current green practices that the company is following. I also look after the changing trend in their thinking pattern and the behavior of the stakeholders.

In this context, I will also talk about some of the management theories that are useful in my job role. I believe that there has to be a proper association and cooperation among all the employees and then customers. As I work in the food producing company I have to take into consideration the changing patterns of needs and demands of the employees. There are actually man different theories of management that are applicable as per my job role. One among them is the chaos theory. I feel that this theory is important because there are many situations and circumstances that arise within the company that is not within the control of anyone (Sharma et al. 2014).

 However, some of the aspects can be controlled like the quality of the product supplied, the storage facilities, the customer and the after sale services. On the other hand, Ferrell and Fraedrich (2015) are of the opinion that there are also some aspects that often arise in the company that cannot be controlled. Often there are many situations that are out of the control like some financial contingency, the increased demand of customers for a certain product. So, in such cases the manager has to make new strategies that will help in dealing with the current complicated situation. The other theory that is applicable to my position is the system theory. I feel that this is very important because often there is the need for introducing some very new systems and these systems can be implemented properly only if there are some cooperation and understanding among the employees. I often have to form proper collaboration among the employees to make them understand the new approach and the benefits of the same.

For an instance, being a sustainability manager in a food processing company, we have to offer them the bills. Many of the other works of the company are also carried on with paper. So, I thought of starting this new strategy that would help in reducing the number of papers that are used in the company.

So, once I realized that the total number of paper works we undertake on a daily basis is huge. This harms the environment a great deal. Paper is often made from trees and this large usage of papers leads to the indiscriminate felling of the trees and leads to deforestation. As a result of this, the amount of greenhouse gas in the environment is increasing day by day. Apart from this paper that is used in the day to day work of the company for billing purposes or other writing jobs, a huge amount of paper is also used for packaging the food that the customers ask for taking to their houses in the form of parcels or even the raw materials that we have to take from the customers (Rayner and Morgan 2018).

So, I developed a sustainability strategy for reducing the usage of paper by digitalizing the use of papers. In other words, I said that all the transactions will be done online. The billing information will be seen to the customers through the Smartphone apps and the other online modes and not through the papers. This decision was supported by half of the employees but not the rest. I saw that the ones who supported this decision and the young employees who are very well versed in the handling of the modern technological devices and the internet. However, the ones that did not like this strategy were the ones who were bitten aged and are not very well versed in the art of handling the digital objects. However, I felt that this is not the right time to impose this strategy because though it will be applied towards the promotion of environmental sustainability but it will not be a collective decision. I always feel that the management within any organization has to be a collective decision else it will be a failure.

So, I made sure that this strategy will be imposed after a certain time when each and every employee within the organization is well versed in the skill of hailing the digitalized paper works. So, I arranged for training sessions and campaign session and I made sure that all the employees are getting proper training from it.

I saw that this decision was really very well accepted by all the employees working within my organization. Douglas McGregor’s theory of X and Y has been very influential for me in my work organization. This theory is very natural and is applicable to almost all the manager who is working in different management positions and in different organizations as well. Theory Y believes that the employees are very responsible and they are ambitious (Gurbuz et al. 2014). So, they do not insult the employees rather try to motivate them at each and every instance. However, the believers of theory X are of the belief that the employees are irresponsible and so they take the undue advantage of their power and try to dominate them. However, I have seen that most of the employees resent the managers who follow the theory X. They are always in favor of someone who believes in them and gives them time to learn and to improve. I also developed the strategy of starting then usage of telecommunication so that there can be a huge reduction in the carbon footprint produced by the organization. I knew that it was a very new approach and it will surely need some time to make all the employees get used to it. It might also require them to take part in some of the other training campaigns and might likely hamper their production.  

I saw many of them were worried. However, I encouraged them and said that I know they are all capable of working very hard and learn the new and the innovative things. I made it a point to cheer them up constantly. I saw that they were really very happy to see that their management has a huge belief in them. So, they took this as an opportunity and worked hard for improving their regular production on one hand and to learn this new sustainable strategy on the other.

So, I have selected Douglas McGregor as the theorist for this discussion because I feel that I have been largely influenced by the idea developed by him. By following the y theory I have been able to make the strategies very easily understood by all the employees and I have also been able to see the desired results.

I believe that sustainability is an all-pervasive concept and it is not just the process of keeping the environment clean by reducing the carbon footprint. I always make sure that I am looking after the social, cultural and the economic well being as well.

Being a sustainability manager in this modem day scenario is not an easy job. I feel this because sustainability is an all-around concept and it has to be done in terms of environment., society, economy, culture and many other such platforms of the society. I have seen that the purchasing behavior of the customers varies greatly as per the values, attitudes and the behavior that is inculcated within the customers.

One of the biggest work culture practices is to take care of the customers and to work as per their choices. This will help in creating the customer loyalty and the customers will keep on coming back rather than switching to other alternatives. However, the values, attitudes, and behaviors are some of the most essential things that are to be taken into account in this aspect.

Being a sustainability manager in a food producing company I have seen that much of customer choices in buying the food are determined by their values, customs, and beliefs. I feel that customer relationship is one of the important workplace activities. Taking the views of the customers is one of the most important strategies that have to be taken for implementing the social and the cultural sustainability. However, these choices also vary as per the geographical locations of the customers.

I have seen that many of the food choices vary because of the value that had been instilled within the customers from their childhood, They have got these values from their fairly, religious preaching or any other such platforms. So, these values lie deep within them and are often hard to give up. A good example can be the consumption of beef among the Hindus. As there are many Hindus in living in the UK and they often visit the outlets of our food chains like then restaurants and the supermarkets, I have seen that the amount of beef consumption varies.

There are a certain group of customers who do not like to consume beef as they believe it to be some sort of holy sin. It is as per their religious values, that they cannot consume beef. However as had been discussed earlier in the easy values are something that is deeply rooted within any individuals right from their childhood wither by their parents, their families or even from any religious preaching. So, they often prefer the other meats over beef. However, values often undergo many changes as well. Particularly the young people and the teenagers have an urge to consume the different kinds of food. After having stayed in the UK for so many years their food habits have changed and they are now trying to consume a wide variety of foods. So there is a change in their values and in turn over their attitudes and their buying behaviors as well. So, it is evident that the values might also undergo a sharp change with the change in behavior and attitude and also because of the change in the geographical locations as well. So, taking this into consideration an organization must produce varieties of food and must use proper labeling over the meat items so that all the customers are well informed (Johnson et al. 2018).

Another example that can be cited in this context is the concept of e purchasing or the electro in purchasing. The method of purchasing on the internet or by using the electronic gadgets was not really very used to the concept in the earlier days. People often preferred going out to the physical stores and continue shopping. They had this belief (values) that the products available at the physical store will be more authentic and it will also give them a chance to try out those clothes. They were not really very sure about the product true or the quality that will be available on the online sites.  In the present context in see that many of the employees in my organization are getting used to the e purchases and they also favor this electronic means of communication for interacting with the customers (Johnson et al. 2018).

Being a sustainability manager; one has to often analyze the changing trends in the buying behavior of the customers. I have done the same for my organization. I have seen that in the modern times a large number of people are placing the orders online and they are comfortable enough in buying food products from the online sites and not only from the brick and mortar stores. The attitudes of the consumers are also changing in the modern days. It is because they have been able to enjoy the facilities that they are enjoying through the electronic purchases. So, there is a change in the attitudes of both the buyers and the sellers. I have seen that most of the employees in my office are getting more and more comfortable in accepting the orders online and also in engaging with the customers. However, some of the aged employees might find it tough to manage the entire process online but they are also equally interested I learning the same. So, there is sharp change on the attitude and the behavior of people with the time and their surroundings and the buyer behavior can change easily after being influenced by factors like the age, geography, government policies and others.

As a part of the sustainability measures, I have also tried to implement the zero gender discrimination in my organization. I felt that girls from all the religious sects are to be included in the workplace. Many of the employs had a good intent towards this. They thought that this will help in reducing the gender biases (Cundiff and Vescio 2016). Women will surely get a better chance of getting good income opportunities. So, this group of employees had a good and fair attitude in accepting this strategy.

On the other hand, some of the employees, particularly from the Islamic background and the orthodox Hindus, were of the belief that women must not be allowed to take up the maximum number of seats in the organization. On the other hand, Stokes et al. Lichy (2016) are of the opinion that these employees are not to be blamed in this scenario because it is the value that they have instilled in themselves from their family backgrounds and their childhood. However when they were told about the gender discrimination aspects and how their one step or one change in attitude will be successful in solving the problem, there was a change in their behavior. I remember that when I joined the organization a fresher I saw many of the seniors were coming to office late. They were actually very reluctant in maintaining the office decorum or the rules. However, I was a bit shocked after seeing this. Right from my childhood I always have been taught to maintain n the office decorum and to be punctual in the office. So, I made sure no matter whatever the situation is.

I am always coming to the office on time. This was the value instilled within me. However, as days passed by, I thought that there are people who are coming late to the office and there is no such harm that is being caused to them. So, I thought that I would be doing the same. So, I realized that in this case, my values were actually undergoing a change due to the surroundings.  However, I could not really adapt to this malpractice as I felt that this is going beyond the office ethics and I could not do this at any cost. I was always driven by the intent that I have to set a good example for my colleagues and my future subordinates or my teammates. So, I always had the good intent.

However, I saw many of my colleagues getting influenced by the change that they were seeing around them. This change was not positive all the time. Many of the employees who were punctual on time were having a change in their behavior as they were getting influenced by the culture and the people around them (Hennes et al. 2018).

The other strategy that was introduced in the organization was equal pay to all the employees' irrespective of their gender. Many of the employees were very delighted after hearing this strategy as they had a good intention. They intended to work in an unbiased situation where there will be no discrimination. On the other hand, some of the employees resented this strategy. As per their opinion, they never faced any rule like this in their previous workplaces. So, this is the situation where the attitude of people was varying due to the past experiences. However, this attitude can be changed by giving them proper knowledge and training regarding the gender inequality. They are to be motivated in order to understand the gravity of the situation. Motivation is one of the means that can be instrumental in changing the behavior or the attitudes of people.

Conclusion

So, it can be concluded that the values, attitude, and behavior vary from person to person. They play a major role in the workplace culture of any organization. Values are already instilled within the individuals from their children from any religious teachings, or from any family members or any other such things. They play a major role in determining the attitude of an employee. At the same time, it affects the behavior of an employee as well. However, all these are subjected to changes. The value and the behaviors often change after the employees meet with people of other couture or are working within a dynamic geographical and cultural scenario. It is the duty of a sustainability manager or a manager, in general, to make sure that they are implementing strategies for bringing about positive changes in the attitude or the behavior of employees. There are some values that often go beyond the office ethics or are not good enough for the office. For an instance unequal pay of the male and female employees. So, employees having a favorable or a supportive attitude towards this must be trained and taught about the evils of gender discrimination. They must be taught about the principles of women empowerment and the aspects of working in a just unbiased ambiance. It is through these training and discussion sessions that there can be sea changes within the already existing normative values or belief of the employees and thus, they will have a positive attitude and a changed behavior. 

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