In any organization that wishes to develop positively, constant changes must be enacted that are in line with the needs of an organization. In Canada, many employees are experiencing different levels of work dissatisfaction thus reducing productivity. Additionally, employees have to deal with systems that have remained unchanged for many years and are not well defined to deal with the problems of the 21st Century. In this view, there is the need to create work reforms that make work more satisfying, interesting and challenging. Work must also be made more participatory for people at all levels thus making communication easier. Work reforms cannot be developed and implemented by one person but requires the contribution of employees, management, …show more content…
This is especially so for the management and the government. First, in the implementation of organizational work reforms, the consent of the management is important. In fact, it is the sole determinant on whether the reforms will be implemented or not.[vii] In most cases, if the management does not approve the reforms suggested, it becomes difficult to implement them in any way. At times, the management usually acts as barriers intentionally as they may not be pleased by the demands of the employees. In analyzing areas of reform, managers may intentionally block certain ideas from being developed so that the reforms are not successful. Additionally, the management can act as a barrier to work reform through the refusal to allocate resources to the reform agenda. Managers who do not want the reforms implemented may pass them during discussions only to say later that the organization does not have enough resources to implement them successfully.[viii] In most cases where work reforms fail, it is the management that acts as a barrier to their implementation by either denying consent at the development stage or by refusing to allocate funds in the implementation stage. Despite the enormous steps taken by employees to draft work reforms, he support of the management is of utter …show more content…
One of these include the determination of employees to challenge the status quo and pressure employers to improve the working conditions thus making jobs more satisfying and participatory. This can be done at the organizational level or at the union level where employees use their unions as a platform of raising their problems. Additionally, work reform can be facilitated by lobby and human rights groups which can work with employees to champion for the improvement of working conditions.[x] The reform agenda can also be facilitated by political leaders who may work together with employees in pushing the government into creating laws that advocate for reforms in different sectors. However, despite advocating for humanistic reform goals, it is important to consider how these may affect an organization’s overall productivity and profit. In order to ensure that an organization maintains its profit margins, the reforms must be aimed at increasing employee productivity and subsequently overall organizational productivity. This will ensure that the organization does not focus on the reform agenda at the expense of its profits.
In sociology, there are three major theoretical perspectives that are used to explain different societal issues. In this case, the most applicable perspective that can be used to explain the prospects of work reform in Canada is
Today we see the labor reforms put in place along with organizations that hold business to safety precautions like OSHA, Occupational Safety and Health Association. Today, worker’s fight for higher minimum wage but outside of America, there are worker’s fighting for the same rights we did back in the 1900’s. Back in 2013, in Bangladesh, a series of fires occurred. This raised questions about safety and treatment of workers. Within a few months, the government allowed the garment workers to form trade unions along with a plan to raise the minimum wage. And soon after, the United States pushed for Bangladesh to improve their labor standards. All of this happened within half a year, where back in the 1900’s it took over 50 years, starting with the coal miners. Without the workers as a sturdy base for the business, the company with crumble and fall. And without those businesses to help the economy grow, the government will cease to
Curtis, J. E., Tepperman, L., & Albanese, P. (2012). Sociology: A Canadian perspective(3rd ed.). Don Mills, Ont: Oxford University Press.
Canadian workplaces today seem to be a fairly diverse place, with a blend of many religions, ethnicities, and genders present. However, although people preach affirmative action and melting pots in current times, many inequality and power issues still abound. One strikingly noticeable example is gender discrimination. Women in the workforce face many challenges like smaller wages, harassment, male privilege in hiring or promotions, and lack of support when pregnant or raising children. One half of the planet is women, and it can be assumed the same for Canada, but they still face judgment at work because they lack the authority to dispute against big corporations or even their male supervisor. It cannot be argued that Canadian women’s status has worsened over the past hundred years, of course, thanks to feminism and activism. However, their status is not as high as it could be. Women as a group first started fighting for workplace equality during the second wave of feminism, from the 1960s to the 1990s. Legislation was approved during the second wave to try to bring gender equality to the workplace. Feminists both collided and collaborated with unions and employers to ensure women received fair treatment in an occupation. Quebec had the same issues, only the province approached the conflict differently than English Canada with its own unique viewpoint. It became clear that women were entering the workplace and did not plan on leaving. Second-wave feminism in Canada shifted power from the government and businesses to women in order to try to bring equality, although the discrimination never completely disappeared.
Precarious employment is work that is not secure, generally does not include any type of benefits, and is paid so lowly that it generally does not meet the living wage. This type of employment is unfortunately a growing trend in today’s societies due to many factors such as outsourcing, globalization, a saturated job market, shifts from manufacturing to the service sector and jobs also being replaced by computerized units. When speaking on precariousness these trends also affect European societies due to the fact that the outsourcing is generally to places where labour is extremely cheap in order to lower the costs of goods such as Asia and South America. This growing trend is also resulting in negative effects on the economy such as the bottoming out of the middle class and a large amount of citizens living below the poverty line and not able to earn a livable wage. Minimum Wage is on the incline, however, it is still not enough to live on practically and there are many other factors that make precarious work disadvantageous other than the wages such as job security and room for growth and promotion within the company. The negative changes to the job market brought on by the changes to it have resulted in higher expectations and demands from the employers which reduce the amount of people which are eligible for what are now known as “good jobs”. These good jobs generally entail a livable wage, benefits, more flexibility and better job security. Precarious work is categorized and gendered as women and immigrants make up the vast majority of employees in this type of work. Since precarious work affects citizens on a global scale, in this essay, there will be comparisons and contrasts drawn between precarious work in Canada ...
Based on the preliminary research I conducted, I have been able to identify two key topic areas that are of interest to me and these include: immigrant women attaining jobs in Ontario and violence experienced by women in Canada. In regard to immigrant women attaining jobs, there are significantly higher unemployment rates and lower wages that they are faced with, in comparison to other immigrant men and Canadian-born men and women. The debate circulating around this issue seeks to answer whether gender, immigrant class, age, ethnicity and sexuality all play a role in an immigrant woman’s ability to be employed (TIEDI, 2010, p.1). Some key questions that have arisen focus on workplace policies and programs that create further disparity within the gender gap, rather than aiding immigrant women who have differing needs in the labour market. Questions posed, seek to find the contributing factors to lower wages and what can be changed in the regulations to create equity (TIEDI, 2010, p.6). As well, a study conducted by Anucha et al. (2006) examines what are the outcomes of immigrant women participating in the economy and how this varies from other males, along with the social impacts of being employed (p.5).
Change had always been a value at Winning Ways, but how change is managed is as important as the substance of the ideas. The implementation of new ideas as well as the mobility of the employees within the company became areas of concern. There was a great deal of confusion regarding company decisions and the purpose of certain initiatives. Although there was a commitment to seeking new management approaches, employees felt as though many ideas were pushed off to the side without ever being considered. Others were implemented, such as teams, but the actual structures were not sustained, creating confusion and tension as employees tried to work within a framework that did not always make sense. Although constant change was once embraced as a vehicle for innovation and increased success, it became increasingly difficult for the employees to follow large shifts. While change can create progress, it can also reflect a lack of focus and/or signify a lack of clear interest in a strategy or approach. In order for changes to be effective, they have to be clear and be implemented in a way that allows for their evaluation. Furthermore, as the company continued to hire from the outside, current employees found themselves isolated with no opportunity for upward mobility. New hires often had higher levels of education as compared to older workers who provided experience, were committed to the company, and had a strong interest in learning. Because people often feel out of the loop, it would be wise for Winning Ways to introduce employee involvement programs. For example, participative management allows for joint decision making in which subordinates share decision-making power with their supervisors (Robbins & Judge, 2012). As a result, employees would feel as though their voice can be heard and have a better
Legislation in Ontario affects human resources. Some can be bad well others can be beneficial to the workplace. My paper will be focusing on the federal legislations in Ontario and how it is improving various non-unionized workplaces. At the end of my report I will be summarizing the concept of family status related to the 11 prohibited grounds in a case study regarding a single mom and how she almost lost her job with CN Rail.
Firstly, according to Reskin (1993), the notion of occupational segregation is the understanding that men and women are guided into different professional jobs and responsibilities. This notion is based on society’s stereotypical viewpoints of what a man’s jobs are and what a female’s job is. In the occupational field, men are often holding superior roles than woman (Reskin, 1993). It is evident that occupational segregation is still existent in contemporary society; females are still tolerating occupational segregation in the workplace environment. This notion can be supported by Gazso (2004) according to his literature about workplace inequality, it is distinct that Canadian men still inhabit superior employment statuses and greater waged positions than women, men are
Krahn, Lowe, Hughes (2008) Work, Industry, & Canadian Society. (5th ed.) Toronto, ON: Nelson Education Ltd.
Strebel (1996) indicates that employees should adapt their ongoing behaviors and attitudes to align with the desired outcomes of the changes as they are responsible for effecting changes, aligned with success as they carry out the necessary activities differently in order to achieve organizational strategic goals. If the employees do not feel as part of the changes, the changes will not be successful; it is the obligation of executives to set employees up for success but most important is that employees need to understand why change is
Working in today’s society has changed in the last few decades. The economy and technology are the main reasons for this change. The type of job and environment where one works has also changed. The fact that many people work from home via the internet has drastically changed the workforce and the environment surrounding it. With this change have come new demands, expectations, and opportunities for employers. Everyone deals with these demands differently, affecting the employee’s quality of life and job satisfaction. Though the job and office types and locations have changed over the years the need for job satisfaction has not. In today’s economy the job is not as stable as it used to be. One must be prepared for changes in the future.
Employers favor and consider the unitarist approach rather than the pluralist approach. The unitarist approach includes common interests between employers and employees and refer to the responsibility of management to control and manage conflict (Moore&Gardner, 2004, p. 275). The unitarist approach indicates that employees should have loyalty to only one authority that is management (Ross & Bamber, 2009, p.25). The unitarist approach discusses legitimacy on managerial authority to prevent third party involvement from unions and treat them unnecessary. Trade unions play a key role in the employee relationships, although the membership of trade unions have been declined because of the unitarism approach. The pluralist approach recognizes that the organizations are made up of “sectional groups that interest may agree or may conflict with rival sources of leadership and attachment” (Geare, Edgar& McAndrew, 2006, p.1191). The Industrial relations explain the relationship between the employees and management which arise from either directly or indirectly from union-employer relationship (Saif, 2013, p. 34- 35). Saif (2013) states that “it is in the interest of all to create and maintain good relations between employees (labor) and employers (management) (p.34).industrial relations covers the aspect of trade unionism in collective bargaining, industrial disputes and employees participation in management. Employees’ associations and trade unions appear to have developed a ‘protest movements’ against the working condition in the
An organization goes through many barriers when implementing changes to restructure the daily routines when the foundation is surrounded by a person in charge changing on a recurring basis. Let's take a look at a variety of levels a company endure when making changes to shaping and anticipating the future of an organization. The company will need to assess their weaknesses and strengths to possibly move into opportunities to improve the mission and goals while an organization goes through changes. The next level is to define the mission with expectations by attempting to create a strategic plan to put into action when making changes in an organization. And then, the company move into implementing the plan to reorganize the goals to substantially fulfill or work toward productivity, customer service, effectiveness, and the quality of work of a specific organization. Finally, the last stage is working toward changing the process. It will best to take small steps into getting employees accumulated to changes in order for it to focus on the less important changes to existing and future work processes. Ultimately, the goal must be measureable to determine if the changes will be useful or counterproductive and the best way to test the method is through a plan or strategies because they look at the how, which is very similar to the goal and evaluate what will transpire in the course of each level. The goals are sought by taking advantage of the moment in time before the opportunity passes by. Also, can the goal be attainable, realistic, a step by step action and come to the conclusion of observable results that can be accomplished through the many changes an organi...
The theory holds work to be governed by a wide range of formal and informal rules and regulations, which cover everything from recruitment, holidays, performance, wages, hours, and a myriad of other details of employment. It asserts that these rules are what industrial actors try to determine, that their establishment is influenced by the wider environmental context in which the actors operate, and that the actors themselves share an interest in maintaining the processes of negotiation and conflict resolution. On the back of these assertions four elements are held to make up the system of industrial relations rule-making. The first is industrial actors, which consists of employers and their representatives (i.e., employer associations), employees and their representatives (i.e., trade unions), and external agencies with an interest in industrial relations (i.e., government departments and labour courts). The second is the environmental context, which
In Today’s world, the composition and how work is done has massively changed and is still continuing to change. Work is now more complex, more team base, depends greatly on technological and social skills and lastly more mobile and does not depend on geography. Companies are also opting for ways to help their employees perform their duties effectively so that huge profits are realized in the long term .The changes in the workplaces include Reduction in the structure of the hierarchy ,breakdown in the organization boundaries , improved and better management tactics and perspectives and lastly better workplace condition and health to the employees. (Frank Ackerman, Neva R. Goodwin, Laurie Dougherty, Kevin Gallagher, 2001)