The Internal Business Environment Flashcards
What is the Equality Act 2010 and it’s protected characteristics?
- prohibits any business from discriminating against, harassing, or victimising any current or future employee on the basis of these nine protected characteristics
- age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion and belief, sex, sexual orientation.
What is direct discrimination?
- when an employee or candidate fee;s that they are being treated less favourably because of one of the nine protected characteristics
What is discrimination by perception?
- discrimination against someone because they associate with another person who possesses a protected characteristic
What is indirect discrimination?
- when a business has a rule or policy that’s plies to everyone but disadvantages a particular protected characteristic
What is harassment?
- jokes, negative stereotyping, hostile acts, thoughtless comments
What is victimisation?
- when someone is treated badly because they have made/supported a complaint or grievance under the equality act
Employees right to complain after experiencing victimisation and harassment
- employees have the right to complain about behaviour they feel is discriminatory or in the case of unfair harassment
If they feel their complain hasn’t been taken seriously or dealt with they a right to make a claim in an Employment Tribunal. Employment Tribunals can be lengthy and expensive.
Impact of the Equality Act on recruitment and selection
- don’t advertise in magazines aimed at a specific gender - indirect discrimination
- don’t only use images of young people in your adverts - indirect discrimination
- format of the advert must be accessible to read for everyone
- a business should encourage as many applicants as possible
- a business must legally make reasonable adjustments to ensure it doesn’t discriminate against disabled applicants
- an employer must only ask questions relevant to the application either on the form or at the interview
- ## tests can’t discriminate against the applicant - a test in English given to an applicant that had English as a second language
What is the glass ceiling?
- experience that women go through in an organisation where find it more difficult them to get promoted than it is for men. This can also include racial minorities.
Why does the glass ceiling exist?
- female college graduates often end up working in fields that offer lower wages. Women typically choose college majors with less overall potential
- women are much less likely to take risks in the workplace than men
- women are still expected to deal with outside responsibilities such as childcare and housework which makes it harder for women to focus on their careers
- sexism
How can the glass ceiling be overcome?
- set a target for 20% of FTSE 350 board-level executive directors to women by 2025. Step towards achieving equal gender representation on boards by 2030
- make the provision of an action plan a mandatory element of gender pay gap reporting if the quality of organisations’ narrative reporting hasn’t improved since April 2020
- make sure the Equality and Human Rights Commission has the resources to prevent sexual harassment and discrimination at work by investigating and taking action against employees breaking the law
- update parental leave policies to better effect the changing nature of modern families which will help to progress gender equality at work
- give women family-friendly work policies such as longer maternity leaves, flexible hours, and remote working options
- new technologies may make it easier for women in the work-place
Fayol’s management
- planning
- organising
- commanding
- co-ordinating
- controlling - all employees working towards a common goal on time and within budget
Mintzberg’s management
- interpersonal relationships - relationships with people
- informational relationships - handling and passing on information
- decisional relationships - manager’s choice of course of action
Interpersonal roles
- figurehead - representing business during conference
- leader - motivating staff through the appraisal process
- liaison - coordinating with other departments
Informational roles
- monitor - checking organisation’s sales figures
- disseminator - producing the monthly production report for directors
- spokesman - speak about new product development at board meeting
Decisional roles
- entrepreneur - identify new markets
- disturbance handler - resolves conflict amongst staff
- resource allocator - allocates budget to departments
- negotiator - represents department during union talks
What are the stages of change?
- preparation - change shouldn’t be rushed
- unfreezing - breaking down beliefs and assumptions that already exist
- changing (transforming) - business implements the process of change required to achieve the desired outcome
- refreezing - consolidation of the new state begins once changes have been successfully implemented
- evaluation - has the change has the desired effect? Are further adjustments required?
What are the reasons for resistance to change?
- employee fear - believe it may lead to job losses, technology advancements
- resource limitations - business might not have the necessary capital
- uncertainty - fear of the unknown
- resistance - enough of the workforce needs to be behind the change
What are the advantages of the top-down approach to managing change?
- top level management have an overall overview so can make change in line with the business’s objectives
- works best in a crisis as decision making time is short and the survival of the businesses may be at risk
- efficient method of implanting change is change is inevitable especially when the main drive to change is an external factor
What are the different approaches to managing change/
- top-down - management make the decisions. Communication is directed from the top and little to no attention is paid to th employees.
- action-centred - practical approach, finding a solution to a problem
- negotiated - change is created through a bargaining process between employees, employers, and other stakeholders
- participative - result of discussion and consensus among all those involved. Employees feel they are part of the process.
- piecemeal initiatives - small bits of change being made over time
What are the disadvantages of the top-down approach of managing change?
- staff resistance can be high if they feel they are being overlooked, undervalued, or not listened to
- employees’ have skills, knowledge, and experience but those views aren’t taken into account
- could result in high levels of staff turnover and absenteeism if motivation is low
- could create a culture of low morale
What are the advantages to the negotiated/participative approach to change?
- change is more likely to be successful as everyone has been involved
- more trust between management and employees
- reduces staff resistance and improves morale
- allows for staff skills, knowledge, and experience to contribute
What are the disadvantages to the negotiated/participative approach to change?
- time consuming as they involve lengthy discussions and consolation through the use of focus groups and quality circles
- trust can be easily damaged if management retract the empowerment or employees abuse it
- not effective in a situation of urgency or crisis
What are the advantages of the action-centred approach to change?
- allows a business to try out possible solutions on a small scale for a limited time before making a permanent change
- explores many different options and therefore strategies for possible scenarios can be formed
- allows employees to have an input which leads to better decisions being made
What are the disadvantages to the action-centred approach of managing change
- doesn’t work when the change is being driven by external factors such as government legislation
- piloting ideas can be a lengthy and expensive process
- often used as part of continuous improvement and may not be suitable for large changes
What are the advantages to the piecemeal approach of managing change?
- employees become accustomed to the change as it is gradually introduced
- smaller changes are less likely to result in staff resistance
- gradual change is easier to manage and control so reduces risk
What are the disadvantages to the piecemeal approach of managing change?
- a sense of overall direction may be lost
- the smaller components of the changes may be in conflict with each other
- decentralised changes may not be fairly rolled out across the firm which can upset some staff
What is a change agent and what are they used for?
- people responsible for bringing about change
- instrumental in ensuring change takes place
What are the barriers to effective change?
- change agent must have the correct experience in managing change
- change agent must work well with the staff
- change agent must ensure that the organisational culture is in line with the change that needs to take place
- change agent must ensure that the organisation has the resources required to make the change
