Reference no: EM132286692

Question: Organizations and organizational psychologists have only recently begun to see conflict as a natural process in organizational functioning rather than as something to avoid or reduce. In the 1950s, with the publication of Lewis Coser's The Functions of Social Conflict (1956), organizations came to perceive conflict as something that could be beneficial when addressed in the right way. Conflict may be beneficial to job performance and an organization's operations (functional) or stress-inducing and harmful (dysfunctional) depending on the degree of conflict and factors related to the conflict, such as globalization and culture.

Stop and think: How do your own beliefs, cultural background, life experiences, attitudes, values, and biases influence your work performance? If your work colleagues or supervisors did not share your beliefs, cultural background, life experiences, attitudes, values, or biases, would this create conflict? With this in mind, what impact can globalization have on organizations, employee attitudes, and behavior?

Globalization requires understanding of different cultural patterns (individualism versus collectivism) and how to (a) apply goal setting and reward systems, (b) increase effective communications, and (c) provide performance feedback. I/O psychologists need to have the skill set to support global leaders, employees, and organizations and well as conduct global activities (e.g., assessing/training people all around the world for one company). There is a growing need to leverage practices globally while at the same time being sensitive to cultural differences. Today's leaders need to recognize and leverage the new world of connectivity and transparency to find new ways and methods of delivering individual, team, and organization interventions.

To prepare:

• Review the "Diversity, Technology, and Globalization Case Studies" document located in this week's Learning Resources and select one of the following case studies: Affirmative Action, Preferential Treatment, or Technology and Globalization.

Case Study: Affirmative Action

A middle-aged, Hispanic employee reassures an Asian colleague that the quality of her performance does not matter because her work will be accepted regardless of its quality. The Hispanic employee further explains, "It is essential that the organization has a specific number of minorities working for them" and assures her, "There are only two other minorities beside the two of us working here this year."

Critically analyze and formulate responses to the following questions:

1. How do you think the Asian employee feels when she hears this?

2. If you were the colleague, how would you respond to your colleague?

3. In your opinion, do you think that minority employees should be preferentially accepted and maintained, even if their performance is poor?

4. Has a situation like this ever occurred in your experience?

5. In the workplace, do employees believe that there are different standards for minority employees? If so, in what ways?

6. How would this affect your interaction with minority colleagues, if at all?

7. Provide three ways an effective organization could address this issue.

Case Study: Preferential Treatment

An African-American female employee walks into a team meeting with three Caucasian male colleagues. One of them is extremely antagonistic to her, saying that her promotion prevented him from being promoted. He says, "It's not fair that you get treated better than everybody else, just because you're a minority." The female employee becomes very distraught and states that she earned her promotion. She adds that she just wants to be treated the same as others. The male employee continues to berate her, however, saying, "I'll be watching you, and you better be able to prove to me that you deserved that promotion based on your merit, which I strongly doubt."

Critically analyze and formulate responses to the following questions:

1. Why would the Caucasian employee have the perception that the African- American employee is "treated better than everybody else"?

2. Why do you think neither of the two other men spoke up during the discussion?

3. If you were an observer to this scene, would you intervene? If so, how?

4. How should an organization "sensitize" employees to issues of racial and cultural bias?

5. What do you think the African-American employee is feeling? The Caucasian employee?

6. Provide three ways that an effective organization could address this issue.

Case Study: Technology and Globalization

Rapidly developing technology has broken down geographic boundaries, making multinational corporations and overseas employment the wave of the future in both industry and government. An employee who lives in Europe works remotely for an organization that is based in the United States. He has been experiencing health issues due to lack of sleep, as his supervisor requires him to be available during regular U.S. working hours. This results in the employee having to work in the middle of the night.

Most of his work is done independently, and he doesn't understand why he can't do his work according to European time. He has scheduled an appointment to meet with his supervisor, who resides in the United States. During the call his supervisor adamantly refuses to consider allowing the employee to work any differently than all his other employees. He states that the employee will just have to make adjustments if he wants to continue to work for this organization.

Critically analyze and formulate responses to the following questions:

1. How do you think the employee feels when he hears his supervisor's response?

2. In your opinion, do you think that the employee should have to adhere to the policy of working during the organization's normal business hours?

3. Has a situation like this ever happened to you or someone you know, perhaps as a student? If so, how was it handled?

4. If the supervisor allows the employee to work different hours, do you believe that this indicates that there are different standards for international employees? If so, in what ways?

5. How could this possibly impact the morale and productivity of international and U.S. employees, if at all?

6. Provide three ways an effective organization could address this issue.

With this in mind:

Post by Day 3 a critical analysis of one of the case studies presented: Affirmative Action, Preferential Treatment, or Technology and Globalization. Address all the questions that accompany the case study in your post. Title your post with the case study that you selected.