Coalition Says Grooming Requirements Organization
Please respond to these discussions in 200 words each.
1. As I read through Netflix 7 Aspects of Culture I began to ponder on the culture of the organization that employs me. While I make a decent living and am extremely grateful for every opportunity that I have been afforded, I also see quite a few deficits in our cultural demeanor. As the slides state, “lots of companies have nice sounding value statements” but often they fall short when it comes to walking the walk. (Jonsson)
Developing a flatter structure is something that I believe to be very beneficial. I work for an organization that has an extremely strict hierarchy. This vertical structure takes decision-makers too far away from the work. Often pronouncements are made by someone that has no clue as to what is going on. Having a flatter structure allows for input from members of every level. 360-degree reviews allow leaders to see how their followers view them instead of only those that they answer to. Feedback from followers can provide valuable insight on how to become better leaders.
The following statement from the slides is very telling, “the real company values, as opposed to the nice-sounding values, are shown by who gets rewarded, promoted, or let go.” (Jonsson) Systems and cultures should be designed to develop new leaders and truly empower people. This is something near and dear to my heart. I have been with the same organization for over seven years now. Unfortunately, there is no system in place that provides avenues for people like myself to grow. The culture all but says, “kiss up to management to advance.” Now as a BSBA graduate and MBA candidate, I actively seek employment elsewhere because I have seen how other organizations develop leaders internally.
I honestly believe that “old school” managers should be replaced by leaders that prescribe to a new way of thinking and operating. As I shared earlier about my status within my current organization, old habits die hard. Attrition has been growing rampant lately, yet the same stringent structure remains intact. The culture needs to be rebuilt and systems need to be created. It is evident that the current regime is opposed to making necessary adjustments. New blood is needed to aid in moving forward.
If my organization were to build a culture more like the one that Netflix has established people would want to stay on board. Furthermore, we would be able to recruit the talent required to become the world-class organization that we claim to be. Our leader often says that he wants our site to be “the best place to work.” Nonetheless, our culture has not been modified to reflect such a desire. Culture is about actions, not words.
Source
Jonsson, P. (2019). Netflix 7 Aspects of Culture [PowerPoint presentation].
2. Online retail giant Amazon has patented-but not yet deployed-smart wristbands to track employees; the bands will sense warehouse workers’ hand movement and buzz if an employee is moving to the wrong item (Collier, 2018). The bands would increase production and could possibly decrease items returned due to the wrong item being shipped. Do these bands get these employees terminated if they are in the wrong place in the warehouse? Do the bands track their lunch, breaks and even time spent in the restroom? It could violate privacy of going to bathroom, a camera in place would have already documented the employee entering the bathroom. The band would have that employee’s exact location in the bathroom. What if the restroom had different areas, such as a locker room, sitting area and the toilet area, this could result in the employer knowing exactly the location and would know each and every time the employee goes to the bathroom. U.S. law has not kept up technologies change, but U.S companies with employees in Europe are subject to restrictive new digital privacy laws enacted there (Collier, 2018).
3. Discrimination in the workplace occurs when an individual is discriminated against because of one or several other factors. It can create uncomfortable and sometimes even dangerous work environments, and can include such factors as age, race, disability, compensation, and sexual orientation. Most forms of discrimination are prohibited by federal law and the majority of companies have Anti-Discrimination policies that define what measures the company takes to be proactive in avoiding discriminatory actions from taking place in the workplace. However, not all forms of discrimination are covered under law or in company policy.
One form of discrimination that has received significant attention over the last several months is that of hair discrimination. In general, employers have been allowed to regulate how their employees’ present themselves as long as they avoided discriminating against the employee. While most company policies address hair length and style, some policy requirements could be seen as a form of discrimination. For example, a policy requiring a man to have short hair might be seen as discriminating against any employee whose religious beliefs prevent them from having short hair. Another example of hair discrimination is women who are not allowed to wear their hair in its natural style. This type of situation made the news earlier in the year when a television news anchor from Mississippi filed a complaint against her employer after deciding to wear her hear in its natural style and being told by her employee that the style of her hair was not professional.
Recently, New York City passed a law that bans hair discrimination by employers, schools, and other public places. Instituted by the New York City Commission on Human Rights, the new law “protects the rights of New Yorker’s to maintain natural hair or hairstyles that are closely associated with their racial, ethnic, or cultural identities.” Also recently, a group from California known as the CROWN (Creating a Respectful and Open Workplace for Natural Hair) Coalition came forward in a support of a bill that would prohibit employers for discriminating against employees based on hairstyles. The coalition says grooming requirements often disproportionately affect black women. The bill has gained wide spread support and the CROWN coalition is looking to advance similar bills in other states.
On a work trip recently this topic surfaced in one of our breakout sessions. I found the conversation interesting and enlightening. It also allowed for further dialogue on how topics such as this can be added to future workplace diversity and inclusion trainings. Is this a topic being discussed within your organization or professional settings? How does your employer address different hair styles/lengths and what policies, if any, govern hair styles at your place of employment?