Category: University of Mumbai BMS Notes

The benefits of promoting positive workplace mental health, as well as the existing psychosocial risks linked to work and employment, are widely acknowledged. Most of us will also know from our own experience the important place that work takes in our lives and how it impacts our mental health and well-being for better or worse.

The main psychosocial risks factors in the workplace include heavy or unmanageable workload, unrealistic expectations, role ambiguity, organisational changes, low job satisfaction and personal accomplishment, lack of recognition, poor work-life balance, interpersonal relations and support at work and workplace violence, including harassment and bullying. When one or many of these factors become part of our everyday lives they can lead to stress, anxiety, depression, burn-out, somatic health issues or even, in severe cases that go unaddressed, suicide.

Despite this, there is still poor recognition of the importance of good management for mental health in most workplaces across globe and many employers and employees lack knowledge and awareness on how to create mentally healthy workplaces and how to address and minimise the risks. This is why mental ill health has become one of the leading causes of absenteeism from work and early retirement all over globe. On top of this, getting back to work after a period of mental ill health is often a challenge due to lack of support. This can lead to a negative spiral for mental health and leads to long-term unemployment and exclusion from the labour market.

Work-related stress is the second most reported health problem in the workplace in World. The human and social costs that come with mental ill health are too important to be ignored. Moreover, the costs for employers and society in terms of absence from work and presenteeism (being less productive or effective at work due to mental ill health) are huge.

Our mental health is influenced by different social determinants including factors which are not always related to work, however, there is a lot that can be done in the workplace. Creating mentally healthy workplaces starts with understanding and commitment at a senior level. Fostering mentally health working conditions begins with looking at how the culture of the workplace and work organisation impact on the wellbeing of all employees.

Research has shown that even the simplest mental health promotion programmes are cost-effective in improving the mental health and productivity of workplaces. Managers have a key role to play here in supporting an organisational culture that promotes positive mental health. Having a good manager can help employees to better cope with work-related stress or mental ill health and there are good training programmes available that can equip managers with the skills and confidence they need to support people showing signs of distress.

Early Warning Signs

Not sure if you or someone you know is living with mental health problems? Experiencing one or more of the following feelings or behaviors can be an early warning sign of a problem:

• Eating or sleeping too much or too little
• Pulling away from people and usual activities
• Having low or no energy
• Feeling numb or like nothing matters
• Having unexplained aches and pains
• Feeling helpless or hopeless
• Smoking, drinking, or using drugs more than usual
• Feeling unusually confused, forgetful, on edge, angry, upset, worried, or scared
• Yelling or fighting with family and friends
• Experiencing severe mood swings that cause problems in relationships
• Having persistent thoughts and memories you can’t get out of your head
• Hearing voices or believing things that are not true
• Thinking of harming yourself or others
• Inability to perform daily tasks like taking care of your kids or getting to work or school.

Mental Health and Wellness

• Realize their full potential
• Cope with the stresses of life
• Work productively
• Make meaningful contributions to their communities

Creating a healthy workplace

An important element of achieving a healthy workplace is the development of governmental legislation, strategies and polices as highlighted by the European Union Compass work in this area. A healthy workplace can be described as one where workers and managers actively contribute to the working environment by promoting and protecting the health, safety and well-being of all employees. An academic report from 2014 suggests that interventions should take a 3-pronged approach:

• Protect mental health by reducing work–related risk factors.
• Promote mental health by developing the positive aspects of work and the strengths of employees.
• Address mental health problems regardless of cause.

Building on this, a guide from the World Economic Forum highlights steps organizations can take to create a healthy workplace, including:

• Awareness of the workplace environment and how it can be adapted to promote better mental health for different employees.
• Learning from the motivations of organizational leaders and employees who have taken action.
• Not reinventing wheels by being aware of what other companies who have taken action have done.
• Understanding the opportunities and needs of individual employees, in helping to develop better policies for workplace mental health.
• Awareness of sources of support and where people can find help.

Interventions and good practices that protect and promote mental health in the workplace include:

• Implementation and enforcement of health and safety policies and practices, including identification of distress, harmful use of psychoactive substances and illness and providing resources to manage them.
• Informing staff that support is available.
• Involving employees in decision-making, conveying a feeling of control and participation; organizational practices that support a healthy work-life balance.
• Programmes for career development of employees.
• Recognizing and rewarding the contribution of employees.

Consequences of poor mental health in the workplace:

Productivity and job performance. High performance is mental strength in motion. When we don’t feel good, accessing the behavioral skills that foster creativity and resilience is challenging. Without these skills, we don’t have the psychological resources to perform well at our jobs.

Engagement with one’s work. Poor mental health leads to demotivation and lack of focus. When we have mental health issues, our minds wander or fixate on our problems, making it difficult to regulate our thoughts and emotions.

Physical capability and daily functioning. From social anxiety to a reduction in cognitive performance and working memory, poor mental health takes a major toll on your daily living and physical capability. You feel depleted.

Poor decision-making. Poor mental health can lead to a lack of impulse control, unhealthy thoughts, and poor decision-making. Poor decision-making may lead to missed meetings, showing up late, dropping commitments, or not adhering to company policies.

Communication. It’s difficult to communicate well when we’re emotionally not feeling well. Poor mental health may lead to misinterpreting or over-reacting to colleagues. It may come across as speaking with a passive-aggressive tone, being a poor listener, or having a negative attitude.

Productivity Levels Decrease

The main goal of any corporation is to drive through sales from customers to maintain a strong presence in the business world. Unfortunately, when a level of unethical behaviour starts to form, it can cause productivity levels to decrease which surround the person or corporation in question. When this happens, errors start to form in a once productive production line. This, in turn can cause other employees to feel unmotivated resulting in a complete slowdown of the sale process that can lose you valuable time and money.

Loss Of Respect

In episodes where managers or leaders start to make unethical decisions, it can lead to employees losing a lot of respect for their bosses. When this occurs, it can be difficult for the leader to gain back the respect and trust that’s been lost. It also causes problems for them to run a successful business when their team feels as if they’re making poor corporate choices. Employees may also feel resentful towards their leaders. This is because, as a part of the company, they feel their reputation is also starting to fall apart along with the business’s reputation.

Loss Of Public Credibility

When unethical behaviour occurs in a corporate setting, there’s a high chance it will be publicized. This, in turn can cause your company to lose its credibility, resulting in customers abandoning sales with you, bad-mouthing your business, and not holding respect for you anymore. To gain credibility back a corporation needs to create a well-planned rebranding and marketing campaign, along with hiring a public relations team to help improve their reputation. This can lead to millions of dollars in costs, especially if you’re a well know and worldwide organization.

Legal Issues

In severe cases of unethical misconduct, it can lead to severe legal issues that result in loss of time, large fines, and other penalties with possible jail time. The cost of legal battles can go on for months to years and can lead into the millions of dollars depending on the corporation’s particular situation and level of unethical behaviour. In addition to this, executives who break the law can lead employees to also follow in pursuit in facing criminal charges.

Core Elements of a Strong Work Ethic

It is difficult to define the elements of good work ethics, as it is such an individualistic approach and thinking. What may be good work ethics for me may not be the same for you. Much depends upon how each organization or person looks at work ethics and the moral values that each follows. What moral values you practice in daily life will define your attitude towards work and your work ethics. But there are a few common elements that are universally followed and employers look for it in their employees.

Honesty: This is the core element of work ethics, all the other elements are based upon your honesty. Be honest about your successes and failures, take credit only where due, do not steal other’s works or ideas, and own up to your failures.

Integrity: Do not let people down, try to fulfill your commitments, and be consistent in your thoughts, action and behavior.

Impartiality/Fairness: Be fair to all, do not practice favoritism. Treat everyone as equals.

Alertness: Be aware of what is happening around and keep an eye on things.

Openness: Share your ideas, results and resources with the other team members, so that everyone has the same opportunity and know what you are doing. Being secretive is counterproductive.

Respect for others: No matter how urgent a deadline or heated that tempers become, remain diplomatic and poised and show grace under pressure. Whether serving a client, meeting a customer or meeting with management, do the best to respect other’s opinions, even in stressful circumstances. It shows one values other’s individual worth and professional contribution.

Reliability and Dependability: Means being punctual for work and meetings, delivering assignments within budget and on schedule. Be reliable about keeping promises for reputation precedes one so that clients, customers, and colleagues do trust in you to do all that you say you will everyone appreciates the stability this embodies.

Determination: Obstacles cannot stop you as they are a challenge to be overcome. Embrace challenges positively and know that your role is to solve problems with purpose and resilience. Push on, no matter how far it is necessary to go.

Dedication: Continue until the job is complete, and delivered. “It’s good enough” is not sufficient for you and the team, as you aim to be “outstanding” in content and quality. Put in the extra hours to get things right by attending to detail and excellence.

Accountability: Accept responsibility personally for one’s actions and outcomes in all situations, plus avoid excuses when work does not proceed as planned admitting mistakes or oversights are used as a learning curve and will not be repeated again. Employers expect employees to attain to high standards, and they should fully support staff who accept responsibility, instead of passing the buck.

Confidentiality: Any confidential information of documents you have should remain confidential. You cannot discuss it or show it to anyone else, other than the people authorized to do so.

Responsibility: Take responsibility for your thoughts, actions, behavior and work.

Legality: Always work within the legal boundaries, do not break or twist the law to fit your agenda.

Competence: Improve your performance and competence by constantly learning and including the new learning into your work.

Professionalism: From how one dresses and presents oneself in the business world, to how others are treated, professionalism is such a very broad category that it encompasses all the elements of a work ethic.

Humility: Acknowledge other’s contribution, and share credit for successes. You have integrity and are open to learning from mentors and others, even as you teach via your action, example, and words. Though you take the work seriously, you are also maintaining a sense of humor about yourself.

Initiative: Do not be afraid to put forth your ideas or volunteer for work.

In a corporation, a stakeholder is a member of “Groups without whose support the organization would cease to exist”, as defined in the first usage of the word in a 1963 internal memorandum at the Stanford Research Institute. The theory was later developed and championed by R. Edward Freeman in the 1980s. Since then, it has gained wide acceptance in business practice and in theorizing relating to strategic management, corporate governance, business purpose and corporate social responsibility (CSR). The definition of corporate responsibilities through a classification of stakeholders to consider has been criticized as creating a false dichotomy between the “shareholder model” and the “Stakeholders model” or a false analogy of the obligations towards shareholders and other interested parties.

Value creation is inclusive

For companies anywhere in the world, creating long-term shareholder value requires satisfying other stakeholders as well. You can’t create long-term value by ignoring the needs of your customers, suppliers, and employees. Investing for sustainable growth should and often does result in stronger economies, higher living standards, and more opportunities for individuals. It should not be surprising, then, that value-creating capitalism has served to catalyze progress, whether by lifting millions of people out of poverty, contributing to higher literacy rates, or fostering innovations that improve quality of life and lengthen life expectancy.

Stakeholder management contributes to corporate governance by helping to handle the multiple and often conflicting stakes held by the complex networks of groups that surround any company. The interactions, coalitions, behaviours, roles, resources, and preferences within and across the various groups composing these networks are highly dynamic. Individual stakeholders have various means of exerting influence, such as rhetoric, ethics, ruling, pressure, coercion, and market mechanisms. In practice, it is often difficult and costly, if not impossible, to identify and meet all the demands of a company’s stakeholders. Consequently, it is crucial for governance to identify, analyze, and assess the meaning and significance of each individual group of generic stakeholders and to determine their respective power in order to be prepared for the conflict that may follow from the prioritizing of competing groups of stakeholders.

Employees

Employees have a direct stake in the company in that they earn an income to support themselves, along with other benefits (both monetary and non-monetary). Depending on the nature of the business, employees may also have a health and safety interest (for example, in the industries of transportation, mining, oil and gas, construction, etc.).

Customers

Many would argue that businesses exist to serve their customers. Customers are actually stakeholders of a business; in that they are impacted by the quality of service/products and their value. For example, passengers traveling on an airplane literally have their lives in the company’s hands when flying with the airline.

Government

Governments can also be considered a major stakeholder in a business, as they collect taxes from the company (corporate income taxes), as well as from all the people it employs (payroll taxes) and from other spending the company incurs (sales taxes). Governments benefit from the overall Gross Domestic Product (GDP) that companies contribute to.

Competitors

Mr. Schantz said that, FedEx and United Parcel services (UPS) are their main competitors in Sweden. He also said that there are times when they meet as a network to organize programs for the community as well as discuss different issues on customers and on CSR. He procited out that, although they are competitors in the courier service industry, they strive to reach a common goal for their customers on CSR issues.

For businesses to do well in the market place for the benefit of customers there is the need for competition between different brands, companies and parties. It gives incentives for self improvement. Business parties and competitors must do so in a mutual and fair manner taking into consideration the welfare of customers.

The concept of CSR should enable DHL and its competitors such FedEx and UPS as efforts on the market to stimulate innovation, encourage efficiency and drive down prices which are fair for the benefits of customers. It must create efficiency for commercial firms to develop new products, services, and technologies. This will give consumers greater selection and better products.

Society

Communities are major stakeholders in large businesses located in them. They are impacted by a wide range of things, including job creation, economic development, health, and safety. When a big company enters or exits a small community, there is an immediate and significant impact on employment, incomes, and spending in the area. With some industries, there is a potential health impact, too, as companies may alter the environment.

A system of beliefs that helps one to make decisions (personal/business) is known as a value system. In a professional environment, such core values form the foundations that build any business. These values need to be upheld and implemented across the entire business. The employees need to treat such value systems as sacrosanct and use them regularly throughout the decision-making process. When they are used optimally, these core values can provide benefits to a company to grow fast and evolve into a larger organization.

Importance of Workplace Values

Your workplace values are the guiding principles that are most important to you about the way that you work. You use these deeply held principles to choose between right and wrong ways of working, and they help you make important decisions and career choices.

Some (possibly conflicting) examples of workplace values include:

• Being accountable
• Making a difference
• Focusing on detail
• Delivering quality
• Being honest
• Keeping promises
• Being reliable
• Being positive
• Meeting deadlines
• Helping and respecting others
• Being a great team member
• Respecting company policy and rules
• Showing tolerance

Strong work ethics and values play an important role in the workplace. The following mentioned are few important workplace values in an organization.

Values are the foremost thing which makes a company:

Nowadays, the companies are not only mere business entities, but they are more than that. Now companies breathe, live by focusing on many brands at a time. The companies are tapping large part of the market, changing the demands and building altogether different environment to work in.

It promotes a cooperating environment in the company:

The company is known by the employees who work in it. If the employees leave the company one by one, the company will not work and may come to an end. So, this is the behavior of the employees which promotes a good and cooperating environment in an organization.

Promotes positivity among the employees:

If the employees will not adhere to good behavior in an organization, it will ultimately affect the work and the output. So, in order to promote happiness and positivity among employees, good values are expected within an organization.

Enhances the interpersonal behavior:

Interpersonal behavior means the communicating behavior among the employees within an organization. If there will be no rules and code of conduct for the employees to follow and the employees are unwilling to talk to one another, then it promotes negativity within the organization.

To prevent chaos within the organization:

No values in the workplace, no ethics in the workplace to follow, no codes of conduct, and then,

how can peace and friendly atmosphere be expected?

This is not at all possible. So, in order to make it possible, the first and the foremost thing is to let employees adhere to the values. Else there would be only chaos and no work within the organization. To avoid all those, the values are important for workplaces.

To maintain discipline within the organization:

Discipline is the father of success. If you are disciplined in your work, you are going on the right track, but if you are not disciplined you are astray from your path. So, if you want to achieve the goals you have desired, it is important to work with values within the company.

Values set the tone for the company’s culture:

The culture of the company is decided by the values it’s employees follow. It tells what is your organization on the whole. It is important that the people within the organization adhere to the values set by the company.

Values within the workplace attracts more employees:

The values are something which attract more employees. This is because if the company will follow proper values, it will establish a good work culture and if the work culture is satisfying then ultimately more employees would want to work within the organization.

Helps in the growth of the company:

The values form a good work culture. If there will be no values, no rules to follow, no one would want to work unless the environment is work friendly. So, the more valuable work environment is, more it will be good for the growth of the company itself.

Right things are done at the right time:

The values teach many other values like discipline and so on. The discipline helps in keeping the things at right place. Also doing the right things at the right time.

Generally, value has been taken to mean moral ideas, general conceptions or orientations towards the world or sometimes simply interests, attitudes, preferences, needs, sentiments and dispositions. But sociologists use this term in a more precise sense to mean “The generalised end which has the connotations of rightness, goodness or inherent desirability”.

These ends are regarded legitimate and binding by society. They define what is important worthwhile and worth striving for. Sometimes, values have been interpreted to mean “such standards by means of which the ends of action are selected”. Thus, values are collective conceptions of what is considered good, desirable, and proper or bad, undesirable, and improper in a culture.

According to M. Haralambos (2000), “a value is a belief that something is good and desirable”. For R.K. Mukerjee (1949) (a pioneer Indian sociologist who initiated the study of social values), “values are socially approved desires and goals that are internalised through the process of conditioning, learning or socialisation and that become subjective preferences, standards and aspirations”. A value is a shared idea about how something is ranked in terms of desirability, worth or goodness.

Familiar examples of values are wealth, loyalty, independence, equality, justice, fraternity and friend­liness. These are generalised ends consciously pursued by or held up to individuals as being worthwhile in themselves. It is not easy to clarify the fundamental values of a given society because of their sheer breadth.

Characteristics:

Values may be specific, such as honouring one’s parents or owning a home or they may be more general, such as health, love and democracy. “Truth prevails”, “love thy neighbour as yourself, “learning is good as ends itself are a few examples of general values. Individual achievement, individual happiness and materi­alism are major values of modern industrial society.

Value systems can be different from culture to culture. One may value aggressiveness and deplores passivity, another the reverse, and a third gives little attention to this dimension altogether, emphasising instead the virtue of sobriety over emotionality, which may be quite unimportant in either of the other cultures. This point has very aptly been explored and explained by Florence Kluchkhon (1949) in her studies of five small communities (tribes) of the American south-west. One society may value individual achievement (as in USA), another may emphasise family unity and kin support (as in India). The values of hard work and individual achievement are often associated with industrial capitalist societies.

The values of a culture may change, but most remain stable during one person’s lifetime. Socially shared, intensely felt values are a fundamental part of our lives. Values are often emotionally charged because they stand for things we believe to be worth defending. Often, this characteristic of values brings conflict between different communities or societies or sometimes between different persons.

Functions

• Values play an important role in the integration and fulfillment of man’s basic impulses and desires in a stable and consistent manner appropriate for his living.
• They are generic experiences in social action made up of both individual and social responses and attitudes.
• They build up societies, integrate social relations.
• They mould the ideal dimensions of personality and range and depth of culture.
• They influence people’s behaviour and serve as criteria for evaluating the actions of others.
• They have a great role to play in the conduct of social life.
• They help in creating norms to guide day-to-day behaviour.

Features

1. Integrity

Honesty and integrity are the cornerstone of sustainable success. In order for people to want to follow their leader they must have complete trust in his honesty, his dedication, his commitment and his unshakeable ethics and high standards and values. Managers who are open, truthful and consistent in their behaviors are more likely to inspire trust, loyalty and commitment in their teams.

2. Willingness to take Risk

Leaders are not afraid of taking risks or making mistakes. They take calculated as opposed to reckless risks and while they weigh their options and alternatives carefully they do not allow themselves to fall prey to the “analysis paralysis” syndrome. The best leaders learn from their mistakes and emerge from them resilient and ready to take on the next challenge.

3. Optimism and Enthusiasm

A great manager inspires others with their infectious enthusiasm, their disarmingly genuine keenness, passion and their zeal for what they do. Rather than dwelling on problems they are solution-oriented and focus on how to make things work and succeed. They are willing to see the silver lining in every cloud and have a ‘can-do’ optimistic attitude that leaves no place for negativity.

4. Commitment to Growth

Leaders recognize that learning is a life-long process and never stop doing what it takes to grow professionally and personally and maintain a grip with emerging trends and tools and business realities and technologies. The best leaders realize that to remain at the vanguard of their particular function or industry requires constant learning, enquiry, exploration and innovation as well as continuous self-scrutiny and analysis.

5. Vision

Leaders know precisely what they want and make clear detailed and achievable plans to get there. They are not vague or ambiguous in their goals nor do they leave anything to chance. Leaders are also able to articulate and communicate their vision clearly and in no uncertain terms and inspire and win others to their platform with their vision.

6. Pragmatism

While leaders may have lofty visions and ideals, they do not hide their heads in the clouds and are mindful of the hard facts and figures that surround them. They are very realistic when it comes to assessing the landscape they operate in and practical about the decisions they make.

7. Responsibility

Leaders can be depended on to take responsibility for their actions and to live up to their responsibilities completely. They stand firmly behind the commitments they make and do not let their teams down; nor do they assign or allocate blame to deflect from their own responsibilities. They do not have a victim mentality that holds others responsible for their poor choices and deficiencies but stare challenges in the face and confront them head-on.

8. Hard Work and Conscientiousness

Leaders work hard and accept no short cuts. The best leaders lead by their example demonstrating a stellar work ethic by being the first in the office, the last out and the most productive, persistent and dedicated while at work. They have a strong sense of duty and very high standards of excellence and they apply these rigorous standards to themselves first always seeking better, smarter, more effective ways of doing things.

9. Self-confidence

Leaders have no shortage of that essential commodity of self-assurance that enables them to risk giant strides, be bold and tough-minded and ‘fall forward’ in the rare instances when they do fall/fail. Leaders generally have little need for approval and are motivated by an inner strength, maturity and drive. Leaders are very cognizant of their inner strengths, weaknesses and the impact they have on others and knowledgeable of what they can and cannot realistically do/achieve/influence. They do not wallow in self-pity or guilt over past mistakes or doubt.

10. Emotional Intelligence

Empathy, self-awareness, decisiveness, self-discipline, intuitiveness and social competence are all key to successful leadership and all are associated with high levels of emotional intelligence. Congeniality, the ability to put oneself in another’s shoes and relate with others, the ability to read between the lines and analyze the pulse of a relationship or situation, the ability to focus on the positive and refrain from negative and self-defeating attitudes and behaviors, are all elements of emotional intelligence that contribute to leadership success.

11. Expertise in Industry

While there are many generalists in leadership positions the best leaders become generalists not by knowing a little about many fields but my being experts in a multitude of fields. Good leaders are characterized by a very high level of energy, conscientiousness and drive and spare no efforts to become experts in their field and harness all the information and knowledge and competence they need to maintain an edge over their competitors.

12. Ability to Engage Others

A key leadership trait is inspiring, motivating, engaging and bringing out the best in others. The best leaders encourage leadership in all around them and strive to develop and empower others to assume roles of leadership and responsibility. They are able to propel others to elevated levels of performance through their own energy and enthusiasm and insight and can maximize the strengths and capabilities of their team for the benefit of the whole organization.

Types:

(1) Individual values:

These are the values which are related with the development of human personality or individual norms of recognition and protection of the human personality such as honesty, loyalty, veracity and honour.

(2) Collective values:

Values connected with the solidarity of the community or collective norms of equality, justice, solidarity and sociableness are known as collective values.

Values can also be’ categorised from the point of view their hierarchical arrangement:

(1) Intrinsic values:

These are the values which are related with goals of life. They are sometimes known as ultimate and transcendent values. They determine the schemata of human rights and duties and of human virtues. In the hierarchy of values, they occupy the highest place and superior to all other values of life.

(2) Instrumental values:

These values come after the intrinsic values in the scheme of gradation of values. These values are means to achieve goals (intrinsic values) of life. They are also known as incidental or proximate values.

Values Formation

Value formation is the confluence of our personal experiences and particular culture we are entwined in. Values are imposed from our family in childhood and reinforced through culture and life experiences. The value of, for example, kindness was imposed on me from my parents, and reinforced throughout early childhood. Then I applied that value on the school playground and experienced how it helped me create greater social bonds with my school mates. My personal experiences growing up reinforced the value of kindness as I experienced the adaptive effects of showing kindness and the maladaptive effects when choosing malice over kindness. All through my upbringing, both my personal experiences and cultural surroundings both reinforced the value of kindness.

Having been born and raised in Dallas, Texas, the values of rugged individualism, church, and God was ingrained in my psyche from birth. Each of those three values, as I grew older, eventually formed the foundation of my worldview and politics. In a sense, our values, imposed upon us early in childhood, become the spectacles in which we view and judge the world.

Our culture plays a huge role in our value formation. Culture gives us a community and shared reality so that we can cooperate in activities and customs that give meaning, purpose, and significance to our existence. Culture gives us prescriptions for appropriate conduct so that we can learn best how to get along with others. All you have to do is travel to another country to see how values ebb and flow with culture. You can travel to China and see how they elevate the group and family over the individual in contrast to most Americans; you can see how South Americans elevate hospitality and care for their elderly unlike most Americans; and how Hawaiians elevate relaxation and balance unlike most urban metropolitan cities in the U.S.

Value Based Management (VBM) is the management philosophy and approach that enables and supports maximum value creation in organizations, typically the maximization of shareholder value. VBM encompasses the processes for creating, managing, and measuring value.

The value creation process requires an understanding of the attractiveness of the market or industry where one competes, coupled with one’s competitive position relative to other players. Once this understanding is established and is linked with key value chain drivers for cash flow and profitability, competitive strategy can be established or modified to maximize future returns.

The three elements of Value Based Management:

• Creating Value. How the company can increase or generate maximum future value. More or less equal to strategy.
• Managing for Value. Governance, change management, organizational culture, communication, leadership.
• Measuring Value. Value Based Management is dependent on the corporate purpose and the corporate values. The corporate purpose can either be economic (Shareholder Value) or can also aim at other constituents directly (Stakeholder Value).

Benefits of Value Based Management

• Can maximize value creation consistently.
• It increases corporate transparency.
• It helps organizations to deal with globalized and deregulated capital markets.
• Aligns the interests of (top) managers with the interests of shareholders and stakeholders.
• Facilitates communication with investors, analysts and communication with stakeholders.
• Improves internal communication about the strategy.
• Prevents undervaluation of the stock.
• It sets clear management priorities.
• Facilitates to improve decision making.
• It helps to balance short-term, middle-term and long-term trade-offs.
• Encourages value-creating investments.
• Improves the allocation of resources.
• Streamlines planning and budgeting.
• It sets effective targets for compensation.
• Facilitates the use of stocks for mergers or acquisitions.
• Prevents takeovers.
• It helps to better manage increased complexity and greater uncertainty and risk.

Phases to developing a Value-based corporate culture:

1. Assessment:

Determine the company’s position on its values culture and figure out what the values need to be.

2. Improve initiatives:

To develop improvement initiatives that tightly align to the strategies developed means that they must contain measures and outcomes that link directly to the measures and outcomes stated in the strategy. To do this, management must look inward to its knowledge workers for solutions. This requires that management to communicate its strategies and objectives. It requires management to view the organization in terms of how its processes function and to pose challenges to cross functional groups that represent those processes.

Take the example of a car manufacturer who might have a strategy to improve customer satisfaction with its cars by building cars with low price, high mileage, good design, 5 years warranty etc. the management than organize a team of knowledge workers to purpose ways to achieve the goal. The team would comprise collectively and explore how to reduce material weight, streamline production, and develop engines that to achieve the goal.

All organizations have implicit values, yet few have taken the trouble to make them explicit. Aligning Values with the management practice is the essential component.

3. Program development:

Once the company determines where it stands on its selected values, it decides how to make progress towards them. Create a code of conduct that represents the ethical values established during assessment. Keep the code precise, based directly on the selected values. Establish a training plan for getting the required information to everyone working with the company.

Employees are not the only one’s to introduce to the new effort. Do not forget about vendors and contracted staff, though the company may introduce them to the program after its successful internal launch. Each of these other stakeholders needs training based on their role in the business.

4. Program Implementation:

Communicating the program effectively throughout the organization is an essential to a successful program. Communicating the program frequently is another important success factor. Distribute the “Code of Conduct” and train people so they understand it. Verify that all levels of staff are getting the desired message. Establish an anonymous reporting system to raise questions about the values and any suspected lapse. If the company is successful with investigations, several things can happen. First, giving each incident the appropriate investigation will establish the credibility of the program.

5. Re-assessment and Modification:

After the initial implementation of the program’s major elements, review if again. Find out the communications effective in getting the right message to all levels of staff.

6. Evaluation:

This process is more comprehensive than the re-assessment. It comes on a less frequent basis, usually annually. Consider adding questions about the ethic s program to your annual employee questionnaire. This will not only help the evacuation process but can also moderate the costs of gathering such information. Re-evaluating the program and keeping it relevant are essential to its continued health. Remember that ethics are about people and how they interact. The program is about building a culture that supports sound decision-making based on respect for all stakeholders. That asset is a way to draw concerned parties into the company culture and create an environment where they all can be productive.

Recent happenings about accounting practices, conflicts of interest, document shredding and retaliation against employees in companies heighten interest in spiritual values.

Secular Values in Management

• Profits: Business is done for profit for the organization by which it can survive and develop. This profit should be justified in context of service and development of society.
• Productivity: Business value emphasis on productivity through which an organization serve the society. It doesn’t make any difference on the basis of caste, religion or any other difference of customer.
• Goodwill and Reputation: Goodwill is the important things for the business people. All the customer of any society should be satisfying from the services of any organization. It makes an organization a real unit of service oriented industry.
• Strategy and Achievement: All the professionals of an organization have their strategy for achieving their goal and objective to serve the society and make profit again for the development.
• Responsibility: Business people and organization are equally responsible to the whole society for the safe development and harmony.

Characteristics of Secular Values

• Focus on factual realities: In secular value system approach the facts of life are the major source of inspiration and not the religious way.
• It treats the person on the basis of actuality.
• Secular values focus on scientific facts.
• These values believe in equality: it emphasis that there is no superior or inferior caste; in the same way there is no superior or inferior religion. All human beings are equal and should be treated in the same manner.

Spiritual Values in Management

Ego–Lessness: Spiritual persons have a concept of unity of all life they don’t have a sense of separate or individual existence where they feel egoistic. They see themselves in all and all themselves. They don’t have greed, anger, jealousy or any other such bad feelings, which made differences. Ego is the cause of all the evils.

Self-fulfilment: spiritual persons should have a feeling of self-completeness. They should have no personal desire or goal where they seek anything anybody. They should not deficit driven personality.

Universal or Unconditional love: Spirituality loves all the human being. It is concern for the sharing, caring and giving out their humanness to others their conduct and behaviour are guided by the ethics of love. They don’t have any fear from anyone and nobody has any fear from them. This is called the great spiritual value of ‘Abhaya’.

Complete freedom: Spiritual people are free from all human limitations or personal attachments. They have overcome all dualities conflicts and suffering of life. So, they are living a blissful life from heart and soul.

Characteristics of Spiritual Values

Wisdom and Skills: Any act performed by a person must follow an approach of wisdom which has always support of spirituality and is automatically get reflected in the skills. Every soul has a potential of God in it than all the skills he practice and exhibits get reflected in his deeds. With this belief he would enjoy his life more purposefully.

Consciousness: The spiritual value for managers suggest on having a higher level of consciousness, which means that a manager must be aware of positive and negative effects of his action and decisions undertaken, which are consciously performed.

Spiritual values in terms of divine qualities: There are number of divine qualities which are present in an individual and can be termed as spiritual values e.g. respect for self, respect for god, belief in giving than grabbing, enjoying satisfaction to maximum level. All these factors present the divine qualities.

Spiritual values in terms of Inspiration. High level of inspiration can be achieved through any of the source of life. Purification in terms of vale means purification of heart, feelings and expression. Inspiration can be achieved through God or may be form of any living or non-living objects.

Karma Yoga: to be able to perform one’s responsibility and duties properly, is a major source of inspiration.

Strong belief in Religion: the way we behave is the reflection of our religion on a broader level. People being different follow different religion, respect different god that leads to a moral strength in them. As has rightly been said, ‘belief in religion is a mirror of our spiritual values’.

Control over Mind: it is another important features in terms of our spiritual values. So right from the childhood one must be taught to keep a control and balance over mind also helps in proper usage of pure energy and resources. Aim is to attain a state of pure mind

Balance between Need, Wants and Demand: the most important factor in terms of spiritual value is to maintain a balance between need wants and demand. The most satisfied person is the one who has a clear idea about his expectations from life and accordingly identifies what are his need, wants and demands are.

Difference between secular and spiritual values in management

• In secular management, there are no spiritual values employed while on spiritual values of management there are spiritual procedures lain in order to manage any institution.
• On secular values in management there is no reference to any supreme being while on spiritual values there is reference to a supreme being.
• On spiritual values there is reference to a spiritual book whereas on secular there is no reference from any book.
• On secular values the leader can be selected from anywhere while on spiritual the leader must be one of the spiritual believers.

Highly important values in transcultural conflicts include equality, communication, respect, open-mindedness, honesty and truth, calmness, appreciation, politeness, co-operation, teamwork and punctuality. It is clear that values which have been under-represented in apartheid (Hart, 2002), particularly, lead to conflicts in the described context in South Africa. Managers highlighted equality as one major value which still stayed unfulfilled in their work context. Values such as calm and appropriate communication, mutual respect, equality, appreciation, politeness and co-operation were experienced as missing. This shows that values which were described as “Missing” in the apartheid society and which have not completely been reinstalled in post-apartheid South Africa still spill over into today’s organisations in this country.

Misunderstanding and transcultural conflict seemed to arise through miscommunication between members of different cultural groups. They particularly included values, such as non-existence of collective transparency in communication processes, as well as unacceptable and inappropriate behaviour, such as shouting or cursing. Transcultural conflicts were interpreted as occurring due to cultural variations in values across managers of different cultural groups. Managers did not seem to have appropriate skills to manage these value conflicts appropriately in all respects and therefore cultural and value diversity within the organisation could lead to transcultural conflicts.

Cultural practices & values have become significantly important in corporate business. The synergy between corporate culture & managerial values gives rise to cross-cultural practices which helps in making effective strategic options & performing the business tasks successfully. Skills, capabilities, knowledge, technology & experiences are better facilitated by cross-cultural approach particularly in multinational organizations.

Compatibility between societal values & managerial practices influences the critical organizational success. Institutions of higher education can serve as the sources for providing global perspectives of multicultural education.

Multicultural education has two viewpoints:

Assimilation or melting pot: In this, small cultural people should give their original culture, identities, language, values, behavior & communication styles & merge into the predominant bigger culture.

Global perspective: It promotes trans-cultural human values & equity amongst all cultural groups in the society. It allows people to respect & appreciate all existing cultural groups.

Trans-cultural competence is the process in which a person adopts multiple ways of perceiving, evaluating, believing & solving problems to understand & learn to negotiate cultural diversity among nations.

Equity pedagogy: It aims at achieving fair & equal educational opportunities for all the children.

Curriculum reform: It should include curriculum theory & historical inquiry so that bias in textbooks, media & other educational materials can be easily detected.

Teaching for social justice: It develops understanding of the evidence of the individual i.e. what exactly an individual is.

This dimension includes the value domains of:

Universalism: Referring to issues of respect, transparency, open-mindedness, tolerance, understanding and appreciation; and

Benevolence: Referring to helpfulness, honesty, forgiveness, and mutual giving and taking.

Transculturalism is the mobilization of the definition of culture through the expression and deployment of new forms of cultural politics. Based on Jeff Lewis’ From Culturalism to Transculturalism, transculturalism is charactized by the following:

• Transculturalism emphasizes on the problematics of contemporary culture in terms of relationships, meaning-making, and power formation; and the transitory nature of culture as well as its power to transform.
• Transculturalism is interested in dissonance, tension, and instability as it is with the stabilizing effects of social conjunction, communalism, and organization; and in the destabilizing effects of non-meaning or meaning atrophy. It is interested in the disintegration of groups, cultures, and power.
• Transculturalism seeks to illuminate the various gradients of culture and the ways in which social groups create and distribute their meanings; and the ways in which social groups interact and experience tension.
• Transculturalism looks toward the ways in which language wars are historically shaped and conducted.
• Transculturalism does not seek to privilege the semiotic over the material conditions of life, nor vice versa.
• Transculturalism accepts that language and materiality continually interact within an unstable locus of specific historical conditions.
• Transculturalism locates relationships of power in terms of language and history.
• Transculturalism is deeply suspicious of itself and of all utterances. Its claim to knowledge is always redoubtable, self-reflexive, and self-critical.
• Transculturalism can never eschew the force of its own precepts and the dynamic that is culture.
• Transculturalism never sides with one moral perspective over another but endeavors to examine them without ruling out moral relativism or meta-ethical confluence.

Theoretical Reflections on Transcultural Management

This report aims at describing the status quo of transcultural management in selected focus areas in two global firms. More precisely, as part of a so called “field project”, we conducted case study research which allowed us to understand and describe transcultural learning processes that we consider constitute an inherent and fundamental element of transcultural management. In the following, we will briefly outline the major theoretical concepts behind transcultural management and transcultural learning, which serve as a basis for conceptualizing and analyzing our case study research.

Culture and Leadership

Culture can most simply be defined as how we view and do things. Within our community we construct our own world. Thus, culture is a shared set of meanings and interpretations of a collective represented by a group, a community or by an organization. Culture is embedded invisibly in the deep structure, which is called the core or inner layer, and has fundamental impacts on perception and behavior patterns influencing the interactional dynamics of that community. The outer layers are visible. The inner layer consisted of basic assumptions influences the way we cope with daily life, solve problems and meet changes and challenges. Consequently, culture defines our perception of truth and shapes community’s identity. In that sense, culture is a social construction based on shared experiences reflected and expressed in history and memory, and representing of the past in multiple ways. Language is the vehicle to construct and deconstruct the meanings of the experiences, and supports the process of attachment or detachment of the members in regard to their community’s organization. Within this context, culture has several functions. First it is a system of orientation, second it defines identity, and third it supports internal integration and external adaptation. It is constructed by and refers to the process of defining meaning in which a collective is involved.

Thoughts:

• Setting direction: “Every organization needs to have its mission, vision, and values established, and everyone looks to the company leaders to either deliver that vision, and values established, and everyone looks to the company leaders to either deliver that vision or facilitate the process of generating it collectively…”
• Gaining commitment: “Leaders don’t make people do what the leader wants; they make people want to do what the leader wants, and feel valued for doing it. When people talk about what energizes them about a good company, they generally rave about the company’s people and, more specifically, about the values of the people. There has to be a fit between the values of the organization and the individual. That fit is easier to accomplish if the values are clear and the company’s actions match the company’s words.”
• Delivering results: “Set incremental goals and meet them. Deliver measurable results. What you measure is what people will put the most effort into, so make sure you’re measuring the right things. Vision is necessary, but it’s also important to set a plan and manage it. Make sure there’s follow-through on commitments, and check in on results. Focus on results, provide feedback, and monitor progress.”
• Building relationships: “Investing your time and developing an awareness of yourself and others builds relationships and can have tremendous payoff in the form of committed employees, suppliers, and customers. People like to do business with people they trust and will even pay more for a service or product knowing that you are there to take care of them when needed. Build consensus, collaborate effectively, and provide support.”
• Establishing credibility: “Having a strong moral compass, following through, and being good at what you do not just being the expert – are all part of establishing credibility. Don’t forget that you can also establish credibility if you are quick to acknowledge when you don’t have the answer. Bringing in other expertise to assist you isn’t an admission of incompetence, gain respect, think innovatively, and develop trust.”
• Encouraging growth: “Are you taking interest in developing your people? Empower others, support learning, and demonstrate appreciation.”
• Managing self: “Knowing and sharing your own strengths and weaknesses is a precept to leading others. A leader can create a supportive environment by modelling the need for support as well as a self-reliant approach to getting support in a timely and appropriate manner. Be persistent and reliable.”

Leadership is a practical skill that involves the guidance and coaching of others, such as teammates or employees. They set directions, build or cultivate visions and create new ideas altogether. Examples of leaders include Politicians, Executives, Managers and Business owners.

Leadership revolves around the planning and strategizing of ways in which you, your team and your company exceed expectations. Being a leader is a dynamic position filled with decisions that determine the type of person you are. Being a great leader involves adhering to a set of values you believe in.

Value defines the level of importance placed on an item or action when determining the best choice. Values are fundamental beliefs that guide or motivate actions by determining what is most important.

Values specify the relationship between people and their goals. What one person chooses as an important value in their leadership, others choose something more specific to themselves. The values they choose have a significant impact on their leadership. For example, a leader who values honesty might report wrongdoing by one of their team members. Another leader who prefers loyalty might prefer to remain silent in this same situation.

If, as a manager, you are in touch with your own values about what is important and why, you can make more informed choices about what you do in the workplace and how you do it and also what you won’t or can’t do.

This will give you more sense of personal control and will directly impact the way you are perceived by others. Your behaviour will be contributing to the style and culture of the organisation and how others in turn behave.

Articulating what is important to you and why, combined with knowing what is important to your team members, will give you more options about how to keep yourself and those who work with you engaged and motivated.

Your reputation as a manager, and that of your organisation, will depend on the way people your Board, executive leaders, employees and customers alike see you. If your management style motivates groups of people to do their jobs consistently well, then your pivotal role in the success of the team and the organisation will be seen.

Components:

Respect

Respect or esteem is a positive feeling or action shown toward a person or item of importance. Leaders demonstrate respect through both self-respect and the respect of others, regardless of differences or experiences. Respecting an individual involves treating them with compassion and the ability to earn others’ respect.

Authenticity

The concept of authenticity relates to your presence, living with conviction and staying true to yourself. Leaders demonstrate authenticity through consistency and congruency within their beliefs and actions. They integrate principles within the workplace that create purpose and contribute to others’ growth.

Service

The concept of service relates to the intent of supporting others beyond one’s self. Leaders demonstrate service through a steady commitment that stretches beyond their self-interest. Service-oriented leaders have a degree of personal humility that helps them work for a greater cause.

Wisdom

Wisdom is a quality that comes with experience, knowledge and good judgment. Individuals acquire wisdom over time throughout their life. Leaders demonstrate wisdom through a broad understanding of interpersonal dynamics and how individuals work together. It’s the ability to balance the interest of multiple individuals when making decisions. Wise leaders consider long-term perspectives when deciding between courses of action.

Transparency

Transparency is the ability to communicate information to all affected individuals and being honest in every situation. Leaders demonstrate transparency by discussing imminent changes with their employees or team members and ensuring their opinions find value within the organization.

Innovation

Innovation is the act of consistently introducing new ideas and methodologies. Leaders demonstrate innovation through both imagination and communication. Not only do they come up with new and unique ideas that benefit the business, but they also listen to and account for the ideas of other team members.

Integrity

Integrity is the practice of honesty and consistency in strong moral principles. Leaders demonstrate integrity through ethical strength and overall trustworthiness. Showing integrity involves keeping promises and fulfilling expectations.

Courage

Courage is either the choice or willingness to confront something perceived greater than the self. Leaders demonstrate courage by having and showing the strength required to act on behalf of a common good. They take a stand when necessary and act boldly in the service of justice.

Humility

Humility is a modest view of one’s self-importance. Leaders demonstrate humility through dignity and an awareness of their limitations. They’re open to other team member’s perspectives on certain situations that arise within the workplace.

Confidence

Confidence is the feeling or belief that an individual has when they have faith in an individual or idea. Leaders demonstrate confidence through a high degree of emotional intelligence, being open to others’ ideas and speaking clearly and effectively.

Empathy

Empathy is the ability to identify and understand how another individual feels. Leaders demonstrate empathy through listening to the needs of their employees or team members. They’re open to different perspectives and do their best to accommodate everyone as best as possible.

Trust

Trust is the firm belief in the reliability of an individual, object or idea. Leaders demonstrate trust by showing support for their employees or team members. They let them complete tasks on their own without direct supervision or oversight. Trustworthy leaders also show respect to each team member’s ideas and opinions.

Work Ethos is at the heart of why we work, what drives us and gives us purpose and meaning in the workplace. It is a state of mental being that leads to what Gallup describes as employee engagement (or Disengagement).

Work ethic is a belief that work and diligence have a moral benefit and an inherent ability, virtue or value to strengthen character and individual abilities. It is a set of values centered on importance of work and manifested by determination or desire to work hard. Social ingrainment of this value is considered to enhance character through hard work that is respective to an individual’s field of work.

An individual that possesses a positive work ethics will consider the moral implications of everything he does and will establish clear boundaries between what he considers appropriate and what he doesn’t, according to his own values and principles. Companies should establish and promote a set of organizational values that can be observed to perform adequate assessments and goals for each individual that connects somehow with the organization.

Since each person has different backgrounds, beliefs and attitudes towards different subjects, the guidelines must be provided by the company or institution in order to maintain a desirable work environment. In most cases, a company’s values are a reflection of its founder’s beliefs and principles.

Traditionally, work ethic has been understood as a value based on hard work and diligence. Capitalists, for example, believe in the necessity of working hard and in consequential ability of enhancing one’s character. Socialists suggest that a concept of “hard work” is deluding the working class into being loyal workers of the elite; and working hard, in itself, is not necessarily an honorable thing, but simply a way to create greater wealth for those at the summit of the economic pyramid.

These values have been challenged and characterized as submissive to social convention and authority, and not meaningful in and of itself, but only if a positive result accrues. An alternative perception suggests that the work ethic is now subverted in a broader, and readily marketed-to society. This perspective has given us the phrase “work smart”.

Levels

Stakeholder Level

At the stakeholder level, ethical work practices extend to customers, vendors, stockholders and the communities in which the company operates. What the stakeholders see, the public sees and companies seen by the general public as being unethical can lose customers and market share. Brand name integrity builds brand name value. Employees within the company can build positive relationships with people outside the company by interacting with them and transacting business ethically and responsibly. When stakeholders gain a sense of trust in the company, customers keep company back.

Compliance Level

At the compliance level, ethical work practices help the company to stay within the law. Working against compliance laws can cost you your job, and can cost your company money if fines are incurred. Company leaders must make sure employees adhere to the principles defined by its ethics program. Employees found to work against these principles must be held accountable. Taking action to stop unethical business practices shows the rest of the workforce that ethics do matter. Compliance not only keeps the business legal it is also promotes sustainable business by proving value to stakeholders.

Employee Level

At the employee level, ethical work practices build a positive environment founded on trust. Distrust in the workplace causes stress. Energy that should be applied to work is applied to coping with anxiety, instead. You work better when you can trust that your colleagues will work with you ethically. Your company also works better when ethical values drive all of its work. Employees, not brick and mortar, establish a company’s brand image.

Ethics Policies

Ethics policies guide employees to do the right thing at each level. Not every employee has the same expectations about how work gets done. Written policies clarify the company’s expectations and get everyone moving in the same direction. Ideally, procedures or guidelines are also available to help answer specific questions. If you’re in purchasing, for example, guidelines and rules should be available to help you understand what transactions are OK between you and vendors such as whether you should accept gifts.

Dimensions

They are:

• Meta-Ethics (Ethics about Ethics)
• Prescriptive Ethics (Normative Ethics); Which is again divided into Deontological Ethics, Teleological Ethics, and Virtue Ethics.
• Descriptive Ethics (Comparative Ethics)
• Applied Ethics; Again, divided into Bio-ethics, Cyber Ethics, Environmental Ethics, Personal Ethics, Professional Ethics, Public Ethics, International Ethics and so on.

Steps

1. Practice punctuality

Develop the habit of being on time or early for all appointments. Getting to class ahead of schedule gives you the opportunity to talk with your professor or get mentally prepared by reviewing notes. If you’re taking classes online, stick with your study schedule, hitting the books at the time you planned.

2. Develop professionalism

Professionalism goes beyond a crisp white shirt and tie. It includes your attitude, values, and demeanor. Practice being positive and cordial. Refrain from gossip. Be respectful of others. Develop a reputation of integrity, which means being honest, just, and consistent in what you say and do.

3. Cultivate self-discipline

Anything worthwhile achieving takes discipline staying focused on the long-term goal and not being side-tracked by short-term gratification. Train yourself to be persistent and to follow through on projects. Strive for excellence in your assignments.

4. Use time wisely

You might have heard it from your grandmother, but Benjamin Franklin was actually the first to say, “Never leave that ‘till tomorrow which you can do today.” It’s age-old advice, but far from outdated. Complete assignments on time. Ban procrastination from your life, keeping in mind something else Franklin, said: “Time is Money”

5. Stay balanced

Having a good work ethic does not mean keeping your eyes glued to your computer monitor. It includes knowing how to take care of yourself. Getting proper sleep. Eating right. Taking time to relax and recharge. Keeping your priorities in life clear helps you maintain the proper perspective at work.