Week 7 - Conflict

Week 7 – conflict

Conflict is a disagreement or an argument between two parties, usually when people have different opinions or interests. Conflicts can arise from anywhere between two people to two different countries.

During my time working at Waitrose, a conflict arose between my team of colleagues due to clashes in personality. Some people were very bossy and opinionated and tried to control their colleagues even though they were on the same level of the work hierarchy. Others believed that the way they were being treated was unfair. This conflict had an effect on the way our team worked as we were unable to successfully work together. It also demotivated employees and made us less inclined to work hard.

To overcome this conflict our manager set up activities, such as team building, extra training days, and other events outside of work. We had a few events like dinners and parties; these successfully helped to overcome the conflict as it was a relaxed environment in which we could all relax and get to know each other better. After these events our team became friendlier and not just work colleagues.

One study on conflict was ‘Sources of Power’, carried out by John French and Bertram Raven in 1959. They identified five bases of power:

1. Legitimate – This comes from the belief that a person has the right to make demands, and expect compliance and obedience from others.

2. Reward – This results from one person's ability to compensate another for compliance.

3. Expert – This is based on a person's superior skill and knowledge.

4. Referent – This is the result of a person's perceived attractiveness, worthiness, and right to respect from others.

5. Coercive – This comes from the belief that a person can punish others for noncompliance.

French and Raven (1959)

By being aware of these five sources of power people can gain a better understanding of why they are influenced by someone, and decide whether they want to accept their power or not. For example, if an employee is getting orders from someone other than their boss, they may decide that they have no authority to give those orders and decide not to follow. It can also give people a better sense of their own power and help them to build leadership skills.

http://www.nhs.uk/news/2012/02February/Pages/stress-sick-days-economic-downturn.aspx

The NHS report that work-related stress has soared by 40% and absentee rates by 25% during the recession. During the recession, participants generally reported a poorer status in six out of the seven areas assessed (job demands, job control, peer support, relationships, job role and changes at work). There was no significant difference in managerial support before compared with during the recession. This article shows that during the recession people were very worried about the security of their jobs, putting a lot of stress on them to work hard and prove that they deserved to keep their job. However, this had an even worse effect as with higher work-related stress rates, comes higher absentee rates. This article shows a high correlation between work-related stress and work absences, however, it may be unreliable as a different number of people were used before the recession to the study after the recession.

In conclusion, all organisations and businesses are likely to experience conflict of some sort, whether it’s between two people or between two parts of the organisation. However, conflict can easily be overcome by using different management techniques and team building exercises.

References:

French and Raven (1959) [online] Sources of Power. Available from: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_56.htm [Accessed on: 30/04/12]

Mullins, L.J. (2010) The Nature of Leadership. 9th ed. Great Britain: Financial Times Prentice Hall.

 NHS (2012) [online] Workplace Stress. Available from: http://www.nhs.uk/news/2012/02February/Pages/stress-sick-days-economic-downturn.aspx [Accessed on 30/04/12]

Week 18 - recruitment

The recruitment site which I am going to analyse is Fish4Jobs. This is a website which employers post their job vacancies and potential employees can enter their details and CV to apply for the job. When you have entered your details, the website provides jobs which you may be interested in and jobs which are in your local area. It is a very useful website as it is easy to use, and can be done in the comfort of one’s own home.

This is what the home screen of Fish4Jobs looks like:

The home page of this website is very eye-catching as it has a bright colour scheme. At first glance it looks very simple to use as you only have to fill in 3 boxes to start your search (keywords, distance, and location). It is also very simple as the home page does not contain much information; just the key tools that a person would need to start their search. It also shows the different categories of jobs available, which is useful if you are not sure what keywords to start with. The main thing that caught my eye with this website is the advert at the top. Nowadays a lot of young people are looking for jobs, and young people are very familiar with using new technology, therefor I think it is a very good idea to use Apps on mobile phones to encourage them to use the Fish4Jobs service.

Once you have entered your keyword, location, and distance, the website comes up with a list of job descriptions and some more filters if you want more specific search results. Overall the layout of this website is very simple and would be easy for most people to use.

One e-recruitment campaign that caught my eye was an advert to work for the Marussia F1 team; this advert was on the Monster recruitment website. I think this job would interest a lot of people as it seems like a fun and ‘cool’ job to do; the heading for the different jobs available is even named ‘cool jobs’. This campaign also contains multimedia videos which give an idea of what the jobs involve and adds more excitement to the campaign. I think the main reason that this campaign caught my interest was  because the job advertised was made out to be a really ‘cool’ job that is in high demand.

 

“Ability tests are proven methods for assessing critical qualities for job success such as solving problems, communicating effectively as well as innovation and creativity. It’s for these reasons that employers use such tests widely” Anon (2011).

After completing some of the aptitude tests on the SHL Direct website I believe that they are not a good idea. Some of the questions seemed quite difficult and may put potential employees under unnecessary pressure. Some may feel that after seeing these questions they actually do not want to apply for the job at all. I think the best way is to instead, ask for a CV first, and if the person meets the requirements, invite them to an interview. From the aptitude tests you cannot get a true representation of a person’s skills and personality, these are much better shown by interviewing them in person.

References:

Marussia F1 e-recruitment campaign (2012) [online] Avaiable from: http://monstercooljobs .com/marussiaf1team/UK-EN/ [Accessed on: 18/04/12]

Anon (2011) [online] Available from: http://www.shldirect.com/practice_tests.html [Accessed on: 18/04/12]

Week 17 - Equal Opps and Diversity

The difference between equality and diversity

Equality and diversity are often mistaken to have the same, or a similar, meaning. However, this is not the case; “Equality is ensuring individuals or groups of individuals are treated fairly and equally and no less favourably, specific to their needs, including areas of race, gender, disability, religion or belief, sexual orientation and age,” Anon (2009). To ensure there is equality in all businesses and organisations the Equality Act was renewed in 2010, which states certain rules which a company must obey.  

Diversity has a very different meaning; this means difference, and people can have many differences, e.g:

·        Race

·        Culture

·        Gender

·        Sexual Orientation

·        Age

·        Marital Status  

·        Religion

·        Ethnicity

·        Disability

·        And more …

A successfully diverse workforce is one that contains people at all levels who have a range of different characteristics and who have been recruited on the basis of their abilities and competence to do the job. (HR Services Partnership, 2010).

In conclusion to the difference between equality and diversity, this shows that equality is legislation put into place to ensure that all employees are treated fairly and diversity is putting this into action in the workplace.

Age legislation came into force in 2006, as an employer what impact might this have - brain storm some ideas.

·        Age discrimination legislation makes employee benefits such as life cover, income protection and private medical insurance less sustainable in the future – Helen Pow (2007).

·        Employers will have to state clear rules on their equality policies concerning age.

·        They will have to review their recruitment process to make sure people of all ages have an equal opportunity.

·        Consultancy Watson Wyatt recently surveyed 130 UK companies and found that 50 per cent believe the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations Act 2006 is threatening the future of protection insurance in the UK – Helen Pow (2007).

What stereotypes do we tend to hold about younger and older people?

Younger People	Older People
Likely to have less experience in terms of working full time, and in terms of working with new people	May be harder to train as they are less willing to accept change and adaptation – set in their own ways
May be less willing to do hard work because of the times they have been brought up in – expect everything to be simple because of technology but this may not be the case	May not be as familiar with new technology, therefor also harder to train and may work slower
May have more of a social life so less focused on work	May not have the skills which a younger person would have – less able to do the work required of them

Suggest two ideas as to how organisations can attempt to change these attitudes.

1.  They could attempt to change these attitudes by including different activities in their training schemes. For example; for the older employees they could do a special course on computer skills and how to use the Internet properly.

2. They could encourage employees to interact with each other so that age does not seem an issue. For example; social events, or, relating to the first point, they could set up a scheme whereby the younger workers help to teach the older ones computer skills and how to use other technology.

By doing this the skills of the younger and older workers can be combined to maximise productivity out of the whole work force.

Visit one organisational website to benchmark practice in relation to equal opportunities, for example British Airways, Sainsbury’s, Asda or B&Q and explain the most innovative practices.

How have B&Q put into practice equal opportunities?

One of B&Q’s policies is to “Eliminate discrimination and promote equality of opportunity in employment regardless of age, gender, colour, ethnic or national origin, culture, religion or other philosophical belief, disability, marital or civil partnership status, political affiliation, sexual identity or sexual orientation.”

They have put this into action in many different ways but the two which I think are the most innovative are: “B&Q's workforce spans a huge age range from 16-96” and “We were well ahead of the 2004 Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), e.g. we changed our store layouts, introduced induction loops and Braille signage in customer toilets”.

The first practice shows that they are not discriminative towards age as they are able to work with people of all different ages. It also shows that they are able to adapt to the needs of these different age groups and are able to successfully train them to the standard of which they need.  The second practice shows that they are not discriminative toward disabilities; and again, they have been able to change and adapt to suit everybody’s needs.

The way that B&Q have been able and willing to change shows that they appreciate and value their workforce, and are happy to have diversity within their organisation.

Conclusion

Since the renewing of the Equality Act in 2010 there has obviously been more of an importance put on equality and diversity within businesses; these changes ensure that businesses and organisations treat their staff fairly and equally. It also ensures that people have equal opportunities when trying to find a job, as workplaces are becoming more and more diverse. This is also shown by the way businesses, such as B&Q, have made significant changes to adapt to different people’s needs.

References

Anon (2009) [online] Available from: http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/equality-diversity/about/equality-diversity [Accessed on: 18/04/12]

HR Services Partnership (2010) [online] Available from: http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/advice-support/workforce-development/hr-employment-practice/diversity-equal-opportunities [Accessed on: 18/04/12]

Helen Pow (2007) [online] Available from: http://www.moneymarketing.co.uk/analysis/employers-concerned-at-effects-of-age-legislation/147979.article [Accessed on 18/04/12]