Tag Archives: comm292

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It is often seen that rich sections of the society often pass on their wealth to their generations. It becomes really easy for the generation to have an independent life and rashly use the leftover wealth. In various developing countries we find that a considerable amount of population lives below the poverty line who do not have access to even basic amenities such as food, water and shelter. So why not give a part or entire wealth to them to bring a ray of hope and happiness in their lives? Yes, Bill and Melinda Gates and foundation trustee Warren Buffett have pledged to give away more than 95% of their wealth to these underprivileged people who have equal rights to grow and prosper. Towards this noble cause, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has, to date, awarded more than Rs 2.4 lakh crore to support work in over 100 countries.

Being a part of comm 292 helped me realise that as informed and educated citizens, it is our duty to help and assist those who are not as privileged as we are. Their current situation might be a result of birth in a relatively poor family, effect of wars etc. Thus, it always feels special to donate some of the riches that we possess so that other people also get an opportunity to grow.

I fully support Nachiket Mor’s and Archna Vyas’s blog on “Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s sunset clause”. In their blog, the writers claim how and why Bill and Melinda decided to donate their earnings to different countries and not to their children. They believe it will be a cruel step as parents to transfer all their wealth in their children’s bank accounts. This will be not make them independent and will never struggle. In my opinion, this is the essence of organizational behaviour i.e. to become independent, to know what it takes to struggle and earn a living. Thus, the blog really focuses on reducing inequalities.

Citations

• Guest. “Gates Foundation’s Rose-colored World View Not Supported by Evidence.” Humanosphere. N.p., 23 Mar. 2017. Web. 02 Apr. 2017.
• “Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Sunset Clause Is to Ensure That Inequality Is Reduced in This Generation.” Times of India Blog. N.p., 01 Apr. 2017. Web. 02 Apr. 2017.

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Apple in recent years have had an advantage over other companies in the Silicon Valley such as Google and Facebook Inc. There exists many factors for this continual accomplishment. According to me, it is the diversity that brings about a lot of difference in the performance and global sustenance of Apple. Apple has ensured to recruit the best people from every section of the society. Be it a performance oriented minority group or a technically effective majority group, the Tim Cook led company has had a great dominance and preference among future employees.

Apple’s workforce consists of Asians, Hispanics, and Whites etc. It includes a pool of retail employees that Google and Facebook, unfortunately, do not possess. In addition to this, Apple’s global workforce consists about half of women which helps the company to grow at an exponential rate.

Jesse Jackson, who confronted Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook in 2014 applauds and says, “They are clearly setting the pace, making measurable progress for three consecutive years. They’ve acted with intention, not just aspiration. So in 2017, it has been clearly identified that decisions taken by Apple have demonstrated extremely positive results.

As learnt in class, diversity determines the extent to which an organization develops and progresses in the long run. In Michell Lau’s blog, the blogger begins by clearly expressing her opinion as “Diversity is not just a number “which I fully support. I believe that if the organization is not willing to bring variety of individuals in the work place, it cannot grow at any cost. In this 21^st century, it is almost impossible to neglect the opportunities a diverse workplace offers. Thus, every company wants to encash these opportunities by bringing in diversity.

Citations

• Todd, Deborah M. “Apple Reports Progress in Workforce Diversity.” Reuters. Thomson Reuters, 03 Aug. 2016. Web. 02 Apr. 2017.
• Reuters. “Apple Reports Improving Racial and Gender Diversity among Employees.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 03 Aug. 2016. Web. 02 Apr. 2017.

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Sadhya Sawhney’s blog on “I or we” depicts the indispensability of team work. It lays down the essence with which the team should work towards its mutual goal. Success of companies, teams and organizations is testimony to the fact that positive results from effective team work is the key to reach newer heights.

Charles Duhigg in The New York Times Magazine writes that Google has set out to build the “perfect team”. He claims that Project Aristotle, a venture taken up in 2012 is the primary reason for the accomplishment. The results after the analysis of the study claimed that it is the “Psychological Safety” which makes the team successful and trustworthy. Psychological safety is a belief that the team or the organisational sectors are perfectly safe for taking interpersonal risks. Psychological Safety also enables the employees to share their feelings with their colleagues while taking calculated risks. It gives confidence to the employees that they would not be subjected to punishment of any kind for speaking out their hearts and contributing the way they believe would be the best for the company. Project Aristotle also found out that when employees discussed their issues (largely corporate and personal/family to some extent), they formed deep relationships with each other which helped them grow as a team.

As learnt in class, the Five Stage Model clearly states the various stages of group development. They are – forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. The model when applied in the case of Google and Project Aristotle shows how individuals move from being independent to working independently as team members. Great teams always have a CLEAR purpose, participation and listening, open communication and self –assessment. In practicality too, Google employees have been demonstrating these traits holistically.

In her blog post, Sadhya mentions that in her basketball team, strengths and weaknesses of team members enabled them to build on their efforts and perform well in matches. In my opinion, a great team knows what its strengths and weaknesses are and tries to build more upon that. You never see a team with no weaknesses. I believe, all teams have things that they can improve upon. Identifying these issues is a confident step towards success. So all in all, psychological safety along with identifying and working on weaknesses are the keys to have a great team.

Citations

• Schlossberg, Mallory. “Google Experiment Reveals the Single Most Important Quality for Teamwork.” Business Insider. Business Insider, 27 Feb. 2016. Web. 01 Apr. 2017.
• “The Five Keys to a Successful Google Team.” Re:Work. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2017.

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“No one wants feedback. We work the best and do not require suggestions.” This is what employers often listened from their employees during the 20^th century. This was because employees were only concerned about what they did solely and what they were paid for. They did not have any interest in performing in teams.

Times have surely changed. Opinions and thought processes have gone a massive change. In this 21^st century, employees rely heavily on feedback from their teams and bosses in order to improve next time while performing tasks. Companies like Deloitte, Accenture, Microsoft, Zappos and Pinterest have ditched traditional performance reviews or any other system that ranks employees. Instead, “these companies are all moving to more agile systems designed to provide continuous feedback throughout the year,” according to Rajeev Behera, CEO of Reflektive, a company that develops real-time employee performance management software.

Feedback is a two way street. Not only the boss or the peers inform individuals about the performance but also the employees voice their opinion in company’s matters. Feedback builds trust among employees as it helps in developing aspects which might have been overlooked.

I found this topic to be very attractive as nowadays every group, be in the corporate world or at a high school level requires constructive feedback. In organizational behaviour, it is found under the concept of communication.

In my opinion, feedback is very essential because it leads the team to a higher level of performance. If adequate feedback is not provided timely, the same mistakes get highlighted again and again. Proper feedback helps to eliminate future mistakes. I opine that building a feedback –rich culture is extremely important. It develops safety and trust because people get to know each other. It helps in maintaining balance in the workplace as continuous feedback makes the work path clearer. Although giving constructive feedback might be a bit awkward when companies start operations but eventually receiving and providing them becomes a habit and helps in company’s growth and survival.

• “Employee Feedback: The Complete Guide.” Officevibe. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2017.
• White, Sarah K. “The Rise of the Feedback Culture.” CIO. CIO, 19 Dec. 2016. Web. 05 Feb. 2017.
• “Building a Feedback-Rich Culture.” Harvard Business Review. N.p., 07 Aug. 2014. Web. 05 Feb. 2017.

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As the market sets new opportunities to explore, employees from different companies leave the job and start a new activity altogether. This might leave organizations in a fix because it is difficult to sustain as more and more people resign. According to Forbes and Pay Scales report, it is reported that the leading companies for highest employee turnover are Massachusetts Life Insurance Company and Amazon. Not to leave behind are Google, Inc. and Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. in the top 20 listings.

“A high employee turnover rate isn’t always because the company isn’t a good one to work for. When workers are willing to hop from job to job, it is usually an indicator of an improving job market” Payscale’s lead economist Katie Bardaro said. “Workers might be job-hopping more than before. This means that the industry is hot and the economy is improving,” she told Business Insider.

As learned in Organizational Behaviour class, it is natural and correct on an individual’s part to leave an organization at his will. I found it useful to relate this situation towards fulfilling self-actualization needs (the motivation to realize one’s own maximum potential and possibilities) in Maslow’s theory. I am of the opinion that it is the self-actualization needs that lead to change of jobs in this case or scenario. An individual always wants to perform at the best of his capabilities in the company he works for. If he sees a greater opportunity and benefits in another company, he leans towards changing his current job.

The market in today’s world keeps changing at a rapid pace in terms of jobs available, various employee stock option plans, job security along with several perks such as paid sick leaves and many more. All these aspects are taken into consideration while moving from a current job to a lucrative future job. The employee feels that he could utilize his talents more efficiently and effectively in the new company. In my view, the company should ensure that its best employees are treated in the best manner. The company should also ensure that in improving economy, its employees are provided adequate monetary and non-monetary benefits as it is always a strenuous task to find new and competent people. If this is successfully implemented, there will be relatively less employee turnover.

• Giang, Vivian. “A New Report Ranks America’s Biggest Companies Based On How Quickly Employees Jump Ship.” Business Insider. Business Insider, 25 July 2013. Web. 05 Feb. 2017.
• Mahapatra, Lisa. “Amazon.com Has Second Highest Employee Turnover Of All Fortune 500 Companies.” International Business Times. N.p., 05 Dec. 2015. Web. 05 Feb. 2017.
• “What Is Self-actualization? Definition and Meaning.” BusinessDictionary.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2017.

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It is not of much surprise that US-based software giant Google continues to top the charts for “World’s Best Multinational Workplaces”. Maintaining that position consecutively requires special efforts. With Google receiving continent wide applications for limited jobs, there has to be a force which is driving the applicants to apply and the present employees to perform at the best of their abilities and talents.

The California based company provides perks for employees such as unlimited sick leaves, onsite medical staff and a salon, increasing monetary benefits, massage programmes to relieve stress and many more. It allows employees to take frequent breaks to go to the gym or even play a volleyball match. Along with this, the company allows its employees to spend 20% of the work time doing things that interest them leading to innovative thinking. More importantly, the company due to these efforts gets the most productivity. Despite all the fun activities and pampering, Google constantly ensures that employees perform. The truth is that not only does work get done, but the staff usually surpass management expectations by delivering exemplary work.

I believe that it is a great method adopted by Google to keep its employees satisfied by ensuring that they all love coming to the workplace. It ensures that all its employees are motivated to carry out the tasks before the deadline. I am of the opinion that the motivation strategy adopted by the tech company has a lot to do in its success. The thinkers have greatly researched on motivational techniques which can increase productivity of individuals from different countries.

Having read a Google article before on social media, I could relate it to the Organizational Behaviour lecture on “Motivation and its methods”. We learned that motivation is not only restricted to monetary benefits but also achieved through organizational and team rewards. Employees on a whole, want to have an enriching experience in the workplace in order to work efficiently and effectively. They should constantly be motivated which, I believe Google is perfect at. Well, if someone needs to learn how to motivate employees, Google’s office is a perfect place to visit.

• “The Google Way of Motivating Employees.” Cleverism. N.p., 06 Sept. 2016. Web. 05 Feb. 2017.
• Http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/reporters/agamoni-ghosh. “Google Is the Best Company to Work For, Third Year in a Row.” International Business Times UK. N.p., 14 Oct. 2015. Web. 05 Feb. 2017.
• D’Onfro, Jillian. “An Inside Look at Google’s Best Employee Perks.” Inc.com. Inc., 21 Sept. 2015. Web. 05 Feb. 2017.