In this reflective essay I will be sharing the results of three essays that I took. One in chapter thirteen, attitudes toward diversity, one in chapter fourteen , individualism-collectivism, and one in chapter sixteen, individual vs. team rewards. In this essay I will reflect back the outcomes of each survey, and how it relates to me in the work field. I will share with you my results, and any that I struck me interesting; followed with my strengths and weaknesses identified by the survey. The purpose of the survey in chapter thirteen is to increase my awareness of how well I enjoy working in a diverse team.
The survey shows me what attitude that I have toward diversity; behavioral, cognitive, and affective components. After concluding the survey I ended up with two sums; I obtained the relativistic appreciation score of fifteen, and obtained the sense of connectedness score of eight. The relativistic appreciation synced with the cognitive appreciation of similarities and differences in people, and the sense of connectedness refers to the affective component or the degree of comfort interacting with others.
After reviewing the results my cognitive component is my highest attribute when dealing with diversity. The cognitive component is both good and bad; the good part about having a good cognitive component is that it helps categorize people into different groups. The primary reason people categorize others is to simplify the world (Srull & Wyer, 1988). By putting people into categories it makes it easier to determine what people are like, but this only goes by your own perception. This is where stereotypes come into play, and sometimes they can be positive, negative, or a mixture of both combined.
This is what makes the cognitive component good; you can group people together, but the downfall is that by grouping people together it falls on false judgement through your own perception. You do not actually know what people are like until you interact with them. Though the survey points this out to be a strong attribute that I have, I find it to be a weakness on my part. It is a great that I can categorize people into groups, but it also shows that I need to interact more with people to better understand who they are.
My lower score, sense of connectedness makes me aware that my affective component is weak. Finishing the survey shows me that I am not entirely comfortable with interacting with others that are a different ethnicity than myself. After reading this chapter I know how to make myself more comfortable to interact with other, and this by increasing my awareness of different ethnicities. Battagilia (1992) mentions that the goal of having awareness program is to increase knowledge and awareness of diversity issues, challenge existing assumptions about minority groups, and eliminate stereotypes (p. 53).
By understanding diverse groups it makes me knowledgeable about who they are, and where they came from. By understanding them it gives me more confidence to confront different people, and work together. If awareness programs do not exist in your organization it is possible to seek knowledge from different sources such as a library, Internet, or basically just confronting that person to better understand who they are. Doing this will strengthen my sense of connection with others and will eliminates any social perceptions that I have from my cognitive component.
Next, the chapter fourteen survey, and its purpose is for me to understand my position along important cultural dimensions. Individualism-collectivism is considered by many to be the most important dimension for explaining differences among cultures. By doing this survey it connects teamwork with how you view people, and how you relate with others. The survey outcome totals in two separate categories with my self-perception a score of fifteen, and collectivist social norms with a score of fourteen. This survey shows that I am well balanced with both with myself as an individualist, and a collectivist.
I think that this is good because I know when I should work on my own, or when put in a situation with a group I am willing to cooperate. Being an individualist means only looking out for yourself, and taking responsibility into your own hands. You also seek self-rewards for your hard efforts, but the issue with this is that being an individualist makes you competitive, and not willing to collaborate with others. Being a collectivist, you follow the norms of the group, and you are willing to cooperate as a group to accomplish a task; team work is vital in being a collectivist.
Doing this survey I was not surprised to find out that I have a well-balanced score between both the categories. Last, chapter sixteen, individual versus team rewards. The purpose of this survey is for me to understand how I think teams should be rewarded and what best motivates my performance on a team project. Doing this survey gave me three sums with team rewards a score of 25, individual rewards a score of 21, and a combination of individual and team rewards with a score of 25. The results show me that I highly approve of both team rewards, and a combination of both individual and team rewards.
I think that team rewards are better than individual rewards, but rewards should be given to those who have put in hard work to achieve their goals. The reason why I chose team rewards over individual rewards is because by giving out an individual reward it singles one person out, and that person could be become a target at the work place causing conflict. The organization would benefit from team rewards by gaining more moral through numerous employees rather than just one, but I think that it is important to involve both individuals who work just as hard as the team.
Having both within an organization shows that the company is willing to compensate their employees for all their hard work, and it also prevents any conflict between people by having various rewards. Levi (2013) mentions that there should be several levels or amounts of award to recognize different levels of contribution. To ensure fairness, there should be an organization-wide system for nominating and selecting team for recognition (p. 316). When there are rewards there are also problems that arise; that is why it is important to maintain fairness when compensating teams or individuals.
One potential problem with team incentive programs is that they may inadvertently create competition among teams within an organization (Lawler, 2000). A way to stop corruption with teams organizations use profit sharing, gain sharing, and other rewards to deal with this problem. Rewards are important within organizations however, it is also important that any rewards or incentives should be fair to ensure that employees are all greatly appreciated for all their efforts for the organization. In conclusion have learned a lot about myself and what I need to improve.
I found out that I have a high cognitive component, and that I need to focus on my sense of connectedness to better to connect with others that are different ethnicities than myself. I also learned that I am well balanced between being an individualist, and a collectivist. I know when I should work on my own and take full responsibility for whatever actions I take, and that any reward given to me was earned through my hard efforts. I know when to be a collectivist, and that working with a group that team work is vital.
Being cooperative is also key when working in a group and by abiding the team norms. Doing this creates a strong bond with the group, and also in a group you can also be competitive with other groups rather just being competitive on my own. Lastly, rewards, they are important to have in an organization, but there are also problems with having them as well. It is best to have a combination of both individual and team rewards within an organization so that no one or group is singled out. Having incentives or rewards should be fair to avoid any conflict within the organization.
