Research Korner: Employee Empowerment

Sample Analysis on the Perceptions of Organizational Culture and Women’s Advancement in Organizations: A Cross-Cultural Examination

Executive Summary             This is an essay that summarizes the journal article on a research entitled Perceptions of Organizational Culture and Women’s Advancement in Organizations: A Cross-Cultural Examination. Furthermore, in the latter part of the essay, the findings and results of the study are concisely evaluated and analyzed. Summary This journal article gives focus on the efforts of organizations to stamp out the glass ceiling phenomenon. However, due to various difficulties that working women encounter, male domination in the management level has not been fully resolved yet. One fundamental reason behind the glass ceiling phenomenon is the significant influence of the dominant gender in the shaping of an organization’s culture. More specifically, companies that are dominated by males normally possess an organizational culture that gives importance on independence, hierarchy, and top-down communication (Bajdo and Dickson, 2001, p. 399). On the other hand, organizations that are dominated by females typically have a culture that gives emphasis on allocation of authority and interpersonal relations. Hence, this journal aims to find out whether the quantity of female human resources in organizations are affected by the organizational culture, specifically with regard to power distance, humane orientation, power equity, and performance orientation. To do so, quantitative and qualitative research were performed by the Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) Project, on 3,544 middle managers from 114 organizations— telecommunications, financial services, or food services—in 32 nations (Bajdo and Dickson, 2001, p. 399). Analysis of Findings             Based from the research, it has been found out that corporations which practice performance orientation, high humane orientation, low power distance, and high gender equity in their organizational culture are related to the advancement of women with regard to their careers (Bajdo and Dickson, 2001, p. 399). In addition, organizational values that give emphasis on high gender equity and high human orientation are likewise related to the advancement of females in their companies. Hence, the characteristics of an organization’s culture have a significant effect on the opportunities of women in management.             With regard to these findings, it is therefore important for companies all over the world to formulate an organizational culture that would cater to the needs of both men and women. More specifically, in order to attain managing diversity and eventual organizational development and success, corporations should create an organizational culture that promotes variety in thought and practice, and likewise works for all types of human resource that have diverse styles of functioning and leading (Bajdo and Dickson, 2001, p. 399).             Furthermore, it has also been found out that females are more likely to succeed in organizations that give importance on gender equity with regard to training and development opportunities. Likewise, females also have a high probability for success in companies that equally value female-oriented and male-oriented management characteristics. Therefore, change agents who aim to strengthen opportunities for females in organizations should give emphasis on gender equity as a vital and essential factor of organizational culture.           Executive Summary             This is an essay on the journal article on a research entitled The Person/Environment Dynamics of Employee Empowerment: An Organizational Culture Analysis. Furthermore, in the latter part of the essay, the findings and results of the study are concisely evaluated and analyzed. Summary             Nowadays, organizations from all over the world realize the importance of employee empowerment, or what Fawcett (1994) defines as the “process of gaining influence over events and outcomes of importance to an individual or group (as cited in Foster-Fishman and Keys, 1997). One such company is called SERVE, a statewide human service organization. SERVE aims to promote the empowerment of its frontline employees, with regard to decision making and regulation formulation, through the use of the Inverted Pyramid Approach (Foster-Fishman and Keys, 1997, p. 345).             However, certain cultural factors common to public bureaucracies collides with the employee empowerment promoted by SERVE. This, then, interferes with the company’s confidence-building efforts, which leads to suspicion and misgivings within the organization. Hence, this study’s main goal is to further assess the organizational culture features that contribute to such collision. Moreover, this research also aims to assess how, despite this collision, numerous island for employee empowerment continue to survive and thrive throughout SERVE (Foster-Fishman and Keys, 1997, p. 345). With these objectives, the study finally aims to aid managers, for them to understand how and where empowerment programs will be most effective and applicable. In order to do so, interviews, observations, and archival data reviews were performed on the concerned human resources as SERVE. Analysis of Findings             In general, it has been found out that SERVE has two organizational cultures, namely organizational system and local site, which influence the existence of the preconditions necessary for worker empowerment (Foster-Fishman and Keys, 1997, p. 345). To be more specific, its public bureaucratic culture possesses traits that are contradictory with the generation of a more empowering work culture, which is why some employees do not feel encouraged with their work conditions at SERVE. Conversely, other workers in the organization still perceive themselves as empowered, and these are the employees who consider themselves as human resources of two organizations—the bigger public bureaucracy and their local, organizational site (Foster-Fishman and Keys, 1997, p. 345). The fact that SERVE inefficiently implements employee empowerment at the system level, but effectively employs worker empowerment at the site level leads to the conclusion that efforts by the grassroots may be the best source of successful empowerment endeavors in organizations (Foster-Fishman and Keys, 1997, p. 345). Furthermore, the study also found out that when there is a sizeable power differences between the corporate leaders and the local site staff that is assimilated in the company culture, employee empowerment was unattainable (Foster-Fishman and Keys, 1997, p. 345). Alternatively, when a participatory organizational culture exists, employee empowerment is feasible. Hence, it could also be assessed that the organizational culture issues of control, power, trust, and inclusion could also influence the success of an empowerment endeavor.

Sample Analysis on the Perceptions of Organizational Culture and Women’s Advancement in Organizations: A Cross-Cultural Examination

Executive Summary This is an essay that summarizes the journal article on a research entitled Perceptions of Organizationa...