Positive Changes In The Workplace Essay Example For Students

Positive Changes In The Workplace Essay Positive Changes in theWorkplace Hi ho, hi ho, its off to work we go. So sang the charminglyquirky dwarfs in Disneys Snow White. In many ways theystood for the hopes of mid-century Americans: Hold down asecure job, produce your share of goods or products, dowhat the boss says, go with the program, and earn enough tosupport a comfortable lifestyle for yourself and your family. Things havent really changed all that muchor have they?Only a few of us are currently involved in any type of manuallabor or production. In fact, more than 80% of the workforceis in a service position according to most of the informationwe receive in our Human Resource office. In the past 100years, the tools of the trade have changed dramatically. Wevegone from plows to assembly lines to computers as theprimary drivers of our livelihood. What about off to work wego? All indicators point to an ever-increasing rise intelecommuting, home offices, and part-time and just-in-time ortemporary workers, spurred on in large part by theincreasingly transnational nature of corporations. So this placecalled work is rapidly becoming any place at all. Changes likethis are happening in all aspects of the workplace and can beattributed too much of the stress that employees are feelingtoday. I have noticed that many employees are complainingthat the high stress of their jobs is causing employee burnou tat a very young age, but all of this change is not ascatastrophic as it may seem. There are many positive effectsto be garnished from the inevitable changes in the workplace. This paper is going to look a four of these positive resultsfrom change. 1. Changes allow for freedom on new ideas. 2. Changes meet the Generation Xs needs for a constantvariation in the workplace. 3. Employees work better with alittle stress (Fight or Flight). 4. Done right, involvingemployees in change can create a feeling of ownership. Changes allow for freedom on new ideas. Without changes inthe workplace you are stifled with the age old traditions. Ifemployees are seeing new ideas tried out regularly, they will inturn, try to provide new ideas in the workplace. A topexecutive, interviewed for the book The Leadership Challengestates that If organizations societies are to make progress,then, leaders must be able to detect when routines arebecoming dysfunctional. They must be able to see whenroutines are smothering creative planning and blockingnecessary advancements.(Kouzes, Posner 47) This was amajor problem when I was working for the newspaper. Wehad some long time employees, many who dated back to thehand set press days. These employees were very resistant tosome of the methods we needed to change to make uscompetitive in the marketplace. Many of the old routines thatwere established eons ago were still in effect because it wasthe newspaper way with unnecessary deadlines and extraprint runs. Those ways needed t o change to bring in the newtechnology needed to run a competitive newspaper in todayssociety. We needed to look at the demands of the advertiserand reporter which was our ability to react at a momentsnotice without unnecessary delays. Once we were able tobreak the old traditions, the new technology became acceptedand the old seemed cumbersome and tiresome. Some changeis inevitable, a totally stable company can cause you tobecome stagnant in you working environment. You never get achance to shine with your ideas. The only direction up in atraditionally stable company can be a pre-determined routethat you will need everybodys consent to take. If thecompany had been totally stable, I might have stayed a vicepresident or who knows what. I just wouldnt have had theopportunities that I had states one top executive interviewedin the book Smash the Pyramid (Doyle, Perking 234). Everyone wants to protect his/her status in the company andchange can challenge this on a regular basis. But, JamesKouzes, author of The Leadership Challenge recommends thatif leaders do not challenge the process any system willunconsciously conspire to maintain the status quo and preventchange. This change may be the one thing that stagnates thecompany and will eventually cause the company to looseground in this world. Embrace change and it will become apositive force for you in your travels to the top of your field. Youve heard that every problem is an opportunity, and astough times begin to close in, you can probably spot severalways to do something good for your company. So, let thetough times roll? and the new ideas will follow. Changesmeet the Generation Xs needs for a constant variation. Wehave a new type of work force developing in the horizon. Theschools are experiencing trying to teach these futureemployees now. These youth are going to require a differentworkplace than what our parents had. They will not be able tosit and perform the same task over and over for eight hours aday because since birth, they have been constantly stimulatedwith all of the high technical devices available in the modernday world. These people have been stimulated with everythingfrom dolls that read to you to Nintendo games that give youvirtual reality. The teachers of today are now learning how totrain these future employees and we are going to have tochange our workplace to meet their needs. Students, however, conditioned by years of television, interactive video gamesand computers, are looking for something other than continualdiscourse from the teacher. They want to manipulate thejoysticks, move the mice, and be on-line with theireducational process. In other words, they want to be activeparticipants, not passive observers, in their learning. Thesituation has prompted a call to action by the United StatesSecretary of Education, R. Riley: We cannot sit still rootedto the chalk board and pencil at a time when a 12-year-old canliterally touch his or her mouse pad and travel from web site toweb site around the world (Riley, 1998) Generation Xerstake longer to make job choices. They look upon a job astemporary instead of as a career, partly because they want tokeep their options open. They are always looking to jump shipwhen they can upgrade their situation. They will often leave ajob at the hint of a better position(Losyk 29-44). States BobLosyk in his analysis of this new generation. He ma kes a pointof noting that this generation does not expect the loyaltiesfrom the companies, with their downsizing, and in turn are notnear as loyal to their place of employment. To attract theseemployees and provide a beneficial work place environmentfor them many companies are changing their workplacestrategies. Where once you were encouraged to bring youchildren on a specific day to see where you work, then theycame up with the idea of workplace child-care, now theemployees are being allowed to bring their pets with them towork. These new Generation Xers are going to change theface of the workplace creating an environment of excitementand innovation. As long as our economy continues to improvethis generation will provide us with many new looks to the oldstandby workplace. People work better with a little stress(Fight or Flight) When humans first appeared on this world,they needed a little stress to survive, to kill the mastodons andlive for another season. We really have not change d all thatmuch. Todays workplace requires us to give our best as oftenas possible. James Kouzes feels that Opportunities tochallenge the status quo and introduce change opens thedoors to doing ones best. Challenge is the motivationenvironment for excellence (Kouzes, Posner 39). The onlyexception that needs to be brought out by that is that we needto give people a change to get used to the changes before weintroduce more. The major reason for stress is when you donot allow for the adjustment period in-between major changes. This side of paradise EssayKeeping top performers happy can be a full-time job, but inthis economy with 1-2% unemployment rate, its worth theeffort. Just ask Walter Noot, who is head of production forViewpoint DataLabs International, a company in Salt LakeCity that makes 3-D models and textures for film productionhouses, video game companies, and car manufacturers. Hecompares the modelers and digitizers on his team to sportsstars: high performers who sulk if they suspect theyre gettingless than they deserve. Noot decided to do something radical. Now no one in his group gets a salary. Theyre still full-timeViewpoint employees, with benefits, but theyre paid as if theywere contract workers. Every projects team splits 26% of themoney Viewpoint expects to receive from a client. Almostovernight salaries have jumped 60% to 70%. But productivityhas almost doubled. Where the group used to have set hours,they now work when they please. One fellow works 24-36-hour marathons, keeping a pillow and blanket under his deskfor catnaps. Some people work only at night. Whatever. Now life is bliss,: says Noot. It has totally changed attitudes,I never hear complaints. (Munk 62-6+-) Noot has learned, asother managers are learning, we need to give the employeescontrol over their destiny and then the changes that go intoeffect will come from them and they will accept them and evensometimes embrace them. Bibliography Works Sited Doyle, Willima and Perkins, Willima Smash thePyramid Warner Books 1994 Colvin, Geoffrey. Let the toughtimes roll!. Fortune. , v. 138 no12 (Dec. 21 98) p. 243-4Jarboe, Kenan Patrick.; Yudken, Joel Time to get seriousabout workplace change. Science and Technology. , v. 13(Summer 97) p. 65-7 Kouzes, James M. and Posner, Barry Z. The Leadership Challenge Jossey-Bass Publishers 1987Losyk, Bob Generation X: what they think and what they planto do., The Futurist, V. 31 Mar./Apr. 97 p. 29-44 Montague,James TQM reduces problems and stress. Business Credit.,v. 97 (Feb. 95) p. 16 Munk, Nina The new organization man.,Fortune. v. 137 Mr. 16 98 p. 62-6+ Riley, R., (1998, March). Education first: Building Americas future. Vital Speeches ofthe Day, 64 (11), 322-327. Verespej, Michael A. The oldworkforce wont work: technology isnt the only thing tochange. Industry Week, v. 247 no17 (Sept. 21 98) p. 53-4 Computers Essays