Managing Workplace Relations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Managing Workplace Relations - Essay Example Glass Ceiling is a term which refers to certain situations where a qualified person is stopped from advancing or being promoted in his or her job within the hierarchy of the organization that he or she works in, and is not given a fair chance to move ahead from the lower level position because of discrimination. Most of the discrimination was basically related to racism and gender inequality, but also includes discrimination against age and disabled people although this is not as common as Discrimination against women and people from different race. We can also say that this situation can occur for men as well where there are certain job designs where women are preferred over men just for the fact that they are women. For example jobs like house cleaning and baby sitting. This is where a woman would be given preference over men. This problem uses the word ceiling because there is a block that limits people form getting higher positions and it is termed as glass because there are no written rules for such discrimination. Sometimes the limitation is not as obvious or apparent. The transparency of glass defines the transparency or the ambiguity of the reason for such limitations. This can only be made obvious if we compare it with the education, work experience and other obvious factors for critiquing and judging a person's capabilities. The glass ceiling terminology is not simply used t... anizations or less in proportion, neither is it a cry or a statement that suggests that discrimination against women is persistent at all levels of organizational hierarchies. It is a statement or a metaphor that simply tells us about the problems, difficulties and obstacles women face when it comes to going higher in an organization relative to men systematically increase as they move up the hierarchy. What is the Sticky Floor There are many social barriers that sill exist. these social barriers was the reason the concept of glass ceiling was coined but now a new concept has arose from the limitations women face due to these social barriers. This concept of "sticky floors" describes the reason why women are stuck working in their old positions and are unable to go up the hierarchical ladder and keeps them at low level, non-managerial and mostly support roles such as assistants or subs, and discourages them from getting promotions. It hinders their job and career development. This term basically highlights the barriers such as family commitment, associations with colleagues, stereotyping and other social barriers that hold these women down, hence the term sticky floor. Even if the women go up the hierarchical level there is discrepancy in the wage rate. This term generally is related to the females, but can also be applied to other working members as well. According to Rebecca Shambaugh in her article, "Gla ss ceiling or sticky floor The real reason women don't make it" in the Washington business journal, "In fact, our most useful insights may come from exploring what keeps us stuck: our outmoded, self-defeating and, let's face it, unconscious behaviors". This shows that it is the behavior and the attitude that women hold while working in a corporate world, that keeps

Outline the main features of ethnographic research and discuss when Assignment

Outline the main features of ethnographic research and discuss when and how it might be used - Assignment Example These are naturalism, understanding and discovery. Naturalism is the view that social research should capture the human beings in their natural environment directly. Understanding conveys that human beings do not give out fixed responses each time and each response has to be understood individually. Lastly, ethnographic research is defined as being inductive or discovery-based, rather than merely testing hypothesis. According to ethnography, cultural understandings need to be identified for research interest. An ethnographic study can overestimate the role of cultural perceptions or underestimate the role of objective forces. Ethnography can identify the relevant community of interest though often this isn’t easy. Factors like community, formal organization, informal group, and individual-level perceptions may affect the subject of study. An ethnographic focus may overestimate the role of community culture and underestimate the casual role of individual psychological or of sub-community forces. It is also believed that the researcher has complete knowledge of the subject under study including the language and customs of the population. In this case, the researcher may get influenced by his or her own culture during the