MASCULINE VALUES IN ORGANIZATIONS.   Term Paper ID:28830 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Gender equity issues. Impact of more women in organizations. Historical impact of organizations founded by and for men. Challenge for managers.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Gender equity issues. Impact of more women in organizations. Historical impact of organizations founded by and for men. Challenge for managers. Paper Introduction: DEALING WITH THE MASCULINIST VALUES INHERENT IN ORGANIZATIONS Introduction In 1996, the World Futurist Society ran a long article in its magazine, The Futurist, detailing what the new millennium would hold for women in the future. The fact that the article was written by a man brought such ire to the editorial offices that in May, 1997, the magazine devoted almost the entire issue to the responses from women around the world, citing what they felt would be the real issues. In the introduction to the special article the editors summarized the recurring themes that appeared in most of the articles. Those themes were: * No more glass ceilings. In business, women would become entrepreneurs, hiring and mentoring other women. Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. A great deal of confusion about gender roles and other diversitysituations can be cleared up by making sure that policies and all corporatepersonnel documents are gender-free in their use of language. For example, the norms give preference to thefield-based disciplines (where more men are represented) and diminish theimportance of the lab-based disciplines (where more women arerepresented)(Ettore, 1992). This indicates that until that same time, most organizations inthe world were created by and for males. Borisoff(quoted above) says "...even when all parties use the same language withequal familiarity, the very nature of language provides a source formisunderstanding any cultural conflict. Schlesinger (1994), suggests that taking a consistent managementapproach can ameliorate gender differences and perceived problems relatingto them. Women began joining the workforcein certain types of work in the early 2 th century, mostly in the teachingand secretarial roles. However, when the war was over, therewas an equally vigorous campaign to get the women out of the work force andback into the home. When something is labeled masculine or feminine, it does notnecessarily relate to intrinsic characteristics of actual men or women; itis, however, culturally associated with the categories male and female.Feminist theorists have argued that asymmetrical cultural evaluations ofthe categories male and female have created the idea that feminine traitsare of lesser value, subordinate, and suppressed with respect to masculinequalities To overcome this cultural difference, they take the stance of valuingwomen's experience and feminine characteristics. 36). Ettore, B. . or just windowdressing? While on the surface these traits may appear both laudable and genderneutral, they actually lean toward masculinity in some interesting and notnecessarily helpful ways. Racism andhomophobia will be relegated to the history books* More women will choose to stay single and benefit humankind as leaders ingovernment, religious, business, and humanitarian jobs* World wide safe control over childbirth.* Worldwide community-and business-based childcare* Human-scaled institutions, where corporations and governments should belocal and decentralized, down to the level of the neighborhood or even thehome.* Equal education for women throughout the world, including technologicalliteracy.* A clean environment based on principles of sustainability.* Less war, crime, and violence in general; no more nuclear weapons (oreven nuclear power). In the introduction to the special article the editors summarized therecurring themes that appeared in most of the articles. Using this definition of assessment, the manager has a template tofollow when dealing with gender-specific issues in an organization.According, again, to Borisoff, "Perhaps one of the most significantachievements that research in conflict management is has brought to bear onU.S. (1983, June), Marginality and the organizationalsocialization of female managers, Human Relations, 36:12,1125-114 . Gender proportions and the experience of managerial andprofessional women, Human Relations 1 93-11 4. Managers have had littleguidance on how to approach these multiple concerns in a way that isintegrated yet appropriately attentive to the unique aspects of each(Buono& Kam, 1983). The Challenge for Managers Eliminating completely the gender differences that still appear incompanies, it is apparent, will be some time coming. The manager should also make it clearthat the organization has no patience with incompetence or inefficiency andlooks for qualities, regardless of gender or other divisive factors, suchas excellent organizational abilities, a desire for creating order andstructure, someone who follows projects through to completion and isstraight-forward and honest. If taken as a guideline and not abible, the R factor could be a handy management tool, one that would behelpful in a bag of instant management tricks and philosophies especiallywhen dealing with problems of diversity. Burke, R.; McKeen, C. . The challenge formanagers, as suggested by the literature, is to first become aware of thedifficulty of maintaining both diversity and common vision as one commonconstruct for organizational success. Ask a snake to swallow itself. Using this construct, corporate affairs such as promotions, jobassignments, and pay increases would be based on employee attitudes such asloyalty, hard-work, dependability. culture is the growing recognition of the influence conflict plays inour daily lives and our simultaneous need to view conflict as anopportunity to become more proficient communicators"(Borisoff and Victor,3, 1998). Ask a person to changeform--think or want differently--and you ask the impossible, for it is thethinking and wanting that is required to change the thinking and wanting.Form cannot be self-changing (Borissoff & Victor, 1998). For the past twenty years, many organizations have tried, with varyingdegrees of success and commitment, to make the workplace fairer to women.In a situation in which attributes and life situations that are sociallyascribed to men and masculinity are perceived as normal and neutral, andthose socially ascribed to women and femininity are perceived as differentor deviant, not only do gender inequities arise, but the organizationitself suffers from a narrow, conscripted view of its options for how to doits work (Burbridge, 1994). Cohen, A.R. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. During World War II, women were actively recruited by the governmentsof Britain and the United States to take on all sorts of new jobs in thedefense industries and the military. Among the most-often citedbarriers to conflict-free cross cultural communication if the use ofvarious languages, slang phrases, and dialects (Borisoff & Victor, 1995,155). Giventhat situation, the relationships within the firm are cemented and held inplace by strong rituals and methods of compensation, and denial ofcompensation. The gender equity problem reveals itself in informal concepts ratherthan policy edicts. In general, writers refer to the "masculine" values inan organization as being "aggressive"(Allen, Russell & Rush, 1994),"clubby"(Burbridge, 1994), "intolerant" (Etttore, 1992), "egotistical","chauvinistic",(Burbridge, 1994)"insensitive", and "sexually exploitative"(Ettore, 1992). One of the informal rules that has been praised bymany management experts is that time spent at work, regardless ofproductivity, is a measure of commitment, loyalty and organizational worth. Schlesinger, L.A. DEALING WITH THE MASCULINIST VALUES INHERENT IN ORGANIZATIONS Introduction In 1996, the World Futurist Society ran a long article in itsmagazine, The Futurist, detailing what the new millennium would hold forwomen in the future. New York: JohnWiley & Sons, Inc. In fact most current management writing tends to suggest that thefocus be on abilities, rather than gender or any other measure ofdiversity. Effective management includes creating the potentialfor achieving good results over the long term" (Schlesinger, 1994, 15). Beginning in the 196 s, however, women once againbegan taking an active role in business and most of them were confronted bya basically male organization. As one of the leading theorists on diversity says "Form is inherent,ingrained, indelible. and Devanna, M.A. (1994, July), The effects ofgender and leave of absence on attributions for high performance: Perceivedorganizational commitment and allocation of organizational rewards, SexRoles, 31:7 443-64. The situation R factors we will examine are roles, relationships,rewards and rites" (Cohen, 1994, p. One of the management challenges to this situation is that once acompany begins dealing with gender issues, other kinds of equity concernstend to surface, such as differences in race, ethnicity, nationality,social class, sexual identity, and religion. What they have in the present is quite another story. The effective manager, therefore, is the one who is alwaysaware of the interlinking nature of these four "R" factors in the dailycourse of short-term management. That's what women wantin the future. (1994). "With only a bit ofstretching and poetic license, we can fit an abundance of social scienceresearch and theory into a conceptual scheme where all key words begin with'R'. Borisoff, D.; Victor, D.A. Much analytical literature has been devoted to this topic, and it isfar from settled. Typically, these companies begin by dealing with the genderissue since women were among the first among the many traditionallyunderrepresented groups to enter the managerial and professional ranks(Buono & Kam, 1983). This results in regarding situations that are socially andculturally ascribed to men while devaluing or ignoring those ascribed towomen. Borisoff and Victor (1998) believe "Assessment is an important initialstep in managing differences, for it provides each party with an initialunderstanding about the nature of the relationship, the course of theconflict, and the appropriate communications strategies used in addressingthe differences" (Borisoff and Victor, 5, 1998). In this view, the most valuable worker is one who is able, willing andeager to put work first (Buono & Kam, 1983). (1998) Conflict management, NeedhamHeights, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Those themes were:* No more glass ceilings. In business, women would become entrepreneurs,hiring and mentoring other women.* Equal representation of the sexes at all levels of government.* Understanding and celebration of gender differences.* Understanding and celebration of diversity of all kinds. 35). The image includes things such as being action-oriented and "hands-on," being willing to sacrifice and endure hardship in order to get the jobdone, as well as being able to travel long distances and spend long hoursto get out in the field in order to be close to the data and problems. "Managing People: The R Factor." Chapter inCollins, E.G.C. The roles can either beformal or informal, or have a strong linkage relationship between employeesand managers, depending on the individual perceptions of the roles. Cohen describes his R factor model thus. References Allen T.D.; Russell J.E.; Rush M.C. The New Portable MBA. Roles, says Mr. Cohen are positions in an "organization defined by aset of expectations of any incumbent" (p. The result has been that manycompanies, while trying to make the workplace fairer and more hospitable towomen, these same companies lack comprehensive understanding of the complexrole gender plays in organizational life to effect real change (Buono &Kam, 1983). The fact that the article was written by a manbrought such ire to the editorial offices that in May, 1997, the magazinedevoted almost the entire issue to the responses from women around theworld, citing what they felt would be the real issues. The author then adds the R words,"reinforcement""recall", "reach", "reasoning", "repetition", "reconciliation" and"reinforcement again" (pp. Since organizations were created primarily by and for men, almost allorganizational systems, work practices, structures reflect masculineexperience, masculine values and masculine life situations (Burbridge,1994). This increased female presence, and the large amounts of literaturewritten about the topic, raised senior management's awareness of inequitiesbetween masculine and feminine employees. Burbridge, L.C. (1996, Aug.), Do women at the top make adifference? Management Review, 16-22. Masculine Values in Organizations Almost every organization in the world is facing the unique managementchallenge of developing, coordinating and managing increasingly diversework forces. At the conclusion of the introduction, the editors mention that notone of the responses "we received describes a preferred future thatexcludes men or in which men are subservient to women. The preferredfuture for women, however it turns out, must be one that benefits all ofhumanity ­- even men" ("Women's Preferred" 1997). (1992, March), Breaking the glass... "Effective management is much more than the production ofimmediate results. "How to think like an Executive: The art ofManaging for the long run." Chapter in Collins, E.G.C. Buono, A.; Kamm, J. (1994), The glass ceiling in different sectors of theeconomy: Differences between government, non-profit, and for-profitorganizations, Washington, D.C.: The Glass Ceiling Commission: U.S.Department of Labor. 46-49). Until fairly recently (historically, that is), the issue of women inorganizations was hardly dealt with, since, for the most part until thelast half of the 2 th Century the role of women in society was basicallydomestic. and Devanna, M.A.The New Portable MBA. The literature arguesthat women speak, manage, learn, or negotiate in a different, not inferior,way; and they also have life experiences, professional orientations,personality characteristics and life situation that are different (Burke &McKeen, 1996). This gives a strong advantage to those workers who do not haveresponsibilities in their private lives that make it impossible for them tocommit to unbounded work responsibilities. Cohen (1994), another management theorist who uses the concept of the"R factor, a concept he claims came to him while searching for an easy andcoherent way to summarize the changes in the work force and the work placein the past few years. (1994). Women's Preferred Futures, (1997, May 1), The Futurist, 22-39. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.

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