CH-14 Human Relations in a World of Diversity – Human Relations: Strategies for Success : Chapter Notes

This document contains Chapters 14 to 16 CHAPTER 14 Human Relations in a World of Diversity Learning Objective After studying this chapter, students will be able to: Describe how human relations are affected when they are part of a diverse society. Explain how prejudiced attitudes pose a challenge to human relations. Identify the origins of prejudice. List types of discrimination. Define sexual harassment. Describe the connections among prejudice, discrimination, and self-esteem. Give examples of how to decrease prejudice. Key Terms Ageism: Prejudice and discrimination toward older people. Bias: A tendency to judge people before knowing them, basing the judgment only on their membership in some group or category of people. Cognitive categorization: A process in which the mind quickly sorts information into categories to function efficiently. Discrimination: Your behavior, or what you do (or intend to do, or are inclined to do) as a result of your stereotypes and prejudice. Economic prejudice: Prejudice and discrimination toward people who are poorer or wealthier than you are. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC): A federal agency established to monitor the laws set in place by the amended Civil Rights Act of 1972. Equal status: The condition that occurs when companies hire employees who are frequent targets of discrimination into all levels within the company. Ethnocentrism: The belief that one’s ethnic group is more normal than others; an emotional source of prejudice because of people’s gut-level feelings about how right their group is—and, in turn, how wrong they think other groups are. Institutional prejudice: Prejudice that is caused by policies in the workplace that are not intentionally set to exclude members of specific groups or to treat them differently, but which have that effect anyway. Interdependence: A relationship in which members of different groups not only must cooperate but also must depend on each other to reach common goals. Prejudice: How you feel as a result of the stereotypes you believe in. Proximity: Physical closeness; here, it refers to contact between members of a diverse workplace. Racism: Prejudice and discrimination based on race. Self-fulfilling prophecy: The tendency for a prediction to actually occur once it is believed; for example, when a victim believes that prejudice against him or her is true, then fulfills these negative expectations. Sexism: Prejudice and discrimination based on gender. Sexual harassment: Behavior that is defined by the EEOC as “Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature…” Stereotypes: Your thoughts or beliefs about specific groups of people. Lecture Outline I. A Diverse Society As the 21st century unfolds, many Americans will experience growing diversity in the workplace, with older employees, women, minorities and immigrants entering the workforce in greater numbers than in the previous century. Major demographic factors such as slower population growth, greater workforce participation of baby boomers, the declining workforce participation rate among workers in the 25-to-54 age group, and the declining workforce participation rates for teenagers and young adults have changed the employment picture considerably since the 1950s. Some workplace trends that the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has projected include: Women will continue to enter the labor force at a faster pace than men. The proportion of older employees will increase. Racial and ethnic minorities have assumed an increasing presence in the labor force. Hispanics will continue to expand their workforce participation. African Americans and Asian Americans will continue to increase their labor force participation at a faster rate than non-Hispanic whites. The number of American companies engaging directly in competition with overseas companies will increase. People with disabilities are more visible in the workplace today, as are people with diverse religious beliefs. All people will need to take a close look at the prejudices they learned, both actively and unconsciously, growing up. Besides examining prejudices, everyone needs a knowledge base. People need to know about different cultural biases, customs, and expectations of the diverse groups they will likely be working with. It is not unusual now to find companies that have regular diversity training programs, workshops, and other resources for their employees. Many companies have made a commitment to improving the workplace climate of their organizations by hiring diversity officers as part of the administrative team, and by establishing policies of working only with suppliers who have similar policies. Problems in the diverse workplace happen because of honest mistakes, as well as because of stereotyping and prejudice. II. Prejudiced Attitudes Prejudice is one type of attitude. All attitudes have three parts—what people think, feel, and do. Like other attitudes, prejudice is composed of three parts. Stereotypes are people’s thoughts or beliefs about specific groups of people. Prejudice is how people feel as a result of those thoughts or beliefs. Discrimination is people’s behavior, or what people do (or intend to do, or are inclined to do) as a result of their stereotypes and prejudice. A. Stereotype A stereotype is a thought or belief about members of a given group. That belief may be positive, negative, or neutral; and it is usually oversimplified, exaggerated, and/or overgeneralized. Stereotypes hurt minorities, women, men, and members of other groups. Hiring, promotions, and job evaluations are areas where stereotypes can affect who is accepted or passed over. B. Prejudice Prejudice sums up the negative feelings or evaluations about people and groups that are stereotyped. Prejudice causes bias, which is a tendency to judge people before you know them, basing the judgment only on their membership in some group or category of people. Bias can be negative or positive; that is, people may lean toward or favor a person or group, or lean away from or disfavor a person or a group. Everyone has certain prejudices, whether conscious or otherwise, and whether people believe it or not. It is disruptive and causes low morale in the workplace or in any other place where it occurs unquestioned. C. Discrimination Prejudice is a feeling; discrimination is an act. Not all feelings of prejudice result in acts of discrimination, but individual acts of discrimination usually come from prejudiced feelings. Discriminatory acts that are not caused by prejudice include discriminatory policies in the workplace that are not intentionally set to exclude members of specific groups or to treat them differently, but which have that effect anyway. These policies are referred to as institutional prejudice, or exclusionary policies. A step toward eliminating discrimination in the workplace came with the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Civil Rights Act was amended in 1972. In that year, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was established to monitor these laws. III. Origins of Prejudice The origins of prejudice can be divided into three broad categories—social causes, cognitive (thinking) causes, and emotional causes. A. Social Causes of Prejudice Many theories have been put forth about how social factors cause prejudice. One theory is that people form prejudices to try to raise their self-esteem. It’s easier for people to feel superior when they are able to identify other groups of people as inferior. Another social theory is that prejudice helps people define themselves and feel socially accepted. Conforming to a group’s standards helps people feel more accepted, and many groups encourage us-versus-them feelings and behaviors. A final social theory of prejudice looks at institutional support systems, or the way organizations and society itself unintentionally create institutional racism, sexism, or exclusionary policies. All it takes to create prejudice is for people to identify themselves as part of a group (the in-group) while they see others as part of a different group (the out-group). B. Cognitive Causes of Prejudice Cognitive causes have to do with thinking and reasoning processes. Some psychologists believe that prejudice originates with a process called cognitive categorization, in which the mind quickly sorts information into categories to function efficiently. Cognitive categorization is generally a necessary skill. The problem is that cognitive categorization allows people to categorize others quickly, and this can lead to prejudice. C. Emotional Causes of Prejudice Ethnocentrism is the cause of a great deal of prejudice that people experience. Human beings tend to see their own ethnic groups as the most normal, and they believe their way of seeing and doing things is the right way. Most societies are ethnocentric. This phenomenon is not intentional; the familiar way of doing things just seems right to most of us. People are creatures of habit, and if it is people’s habit to live a certain way, they almost automatically begin to think that doing otherwise is strange or unusual. Another theory about the emotional causes of prejudice is that people look for a target to blame when they are frustrated. When members of two groups are competing for scarce resources, this competition can lead to frustration, then aggression, prejudice, and discrimination. IV. Types of Discrimination A. Racism Racism, which is prejudice and discrimination based on race, is one of today’s most important social topics. Minorities in the United States still experience widespread discrimination and prejudice. Genocide, which is the systematic murder of an entire racial, ethnic, or national group, continues around the world. In the 1990s, genocide occurred in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. In the 2000s, the location was Darfur when in 2004 the U.S. government declared genocide to be occurring in this area of the Sudan. Racial prejudice is proving to be extremely difficult to overcome, and many people in America still have not been accepted as part of mainstream society. Ethnocentrism is one of the factors in this problem, but certainly not the only one. Prejudice is another major reason. America’s history of racial inequality has created large gaps in education and employment that are still very real today. Many employers fail to realize that by discriminating against employees because of their racial prejudices, the employers are damaging their own productivity (by reducing morale) and not capturing the skills and talents of these employees. B. Economic Prejudice Economic prejudice, which can be defined as the struggle and resentment between the haves and the have-nots is an ancient and often ugly battle. The American Revolution in 1776, the Russian Revolution in 1917, and India’s independence from Britain in 1947 are a few historical examples. One of the theories of prejudice is that competition leads to frustration and aggression. In the U.S., when economic times are hard, prejudice can focus on groups—often ethnic groups—that are seen as taking something away from Americans, even if they are Americans. As with all prejudice, economic prejudice goes both ways. Not only do the poor resent the rich and stereotype them as selfish and uncaring, but the rich often look down on the poor and stereotype them as lazy or worthless. C. Sexism The term male chauvinism was coined during the 1960s to describe a feeling of male superiority over females that is quite similar to ethnocentrism. This is also known as sexism. Sexism is very similar to ethnocentrism. Because a man may have attitudes and stereotypes of women in society, he may choose to see them as being of less worth—in other words, he dehumanizes women. Women in most societies are expected to be feminine, a term associated with disempowering behavior like dependence, instability, emotional insecurity, a willingness to take orders but not give them, and passivity. When these expectations toward women exist in a workplace, so does prejudice. The feminist movement has made great progress in obtaining equal rights for women over the past 30–40 years. However, American society still contains a number of areas where very little progress has been made. Workplace Conditions for Women Although women find it possible to be promoted to the supervisory level (the lowest level of management), many report great difficulty in getting into middle- and upper-level management, where the major decisions are made. One reason may be that women are perceived by men as not being able to handle power when they get it. Women’s average income has been rising in recent years, but women still do not make as much as men do, even in the same occupations. On average, women earn as little as 77 cents for every dollar a man earns, with women of color at an even greater disadvantage with 64 cents on the dollar for African American women and 56 cents for Hispanic women. The Fast Track versus the Mommy Track Another problem women often face in the workplace is being expected to choose between the fast track and the mommy track when climbing the career ladder. In the fast track, employees are expected to work extra hours, ask for extra work, and work nights and weekends. What happens in the mommy track is just the opposite. When women try to balance family responsibilities with work responsibilities, they receive fewer promotions or raises, and are often stuck in low-wage jobs. What most women want (and what many employers are slow to give) is a compromise—a job that offers satisfying work and a chance for advancement, with enough flexibility to allow for raising a family, too. This can be offered through flextime, manageable workloads, the option to telecommute all or part of the week, setting up onsite child care, and through other ways that reflect an employer’s understanding of employees’ personal needs. By not allowing this kind of flexibility, many employers are restricting women with families from certain jobs, which is another type of discrimination. Not only are these employers shortchanging women who would like to have had such jobs, but they are also shortchanging their own businesses by not employing (or by underemploying) a large pool of potential employees with a high degree of talent and skills. D. Overweight People During the past few decades, with the national emphasis on dieting and fitness, the overweight person has increasingly become the target of prejudice. However, court cases over the past decade have ruled against this type of prejudice, at least where hiring and firing are the issues. It’s a fairly common, though unfounded, belief that overweight people are to blame for most high health-care costs. This issue is likely to emerge more often in years to come. E. Homosexuals The controversy about homosexuality revolves around two questions: The first is whether homosexuality is a freely chosen lifestyle or is it genetically determined (and therefore not a choice). The second is whether homosexuality should be protected from institutional and other types of discrimination in the same way that categories of gender, race, religion, and national origin are. There is no reason to believe that homosexuals (or heterosexuals) do their jobs any better or worse than anyone else. Nonetheless, if a workplace becomes a battlefield over the issue, everyone’s work performance is affected. Many current employment policies forbid discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or sexual preference. A number of states, counties, and cities have passed laws to make discrimination against gays and lesbians illegal. In some states, religious groups have backed initiatives eliminating this protection. Another policy issue under discussion is whether or not life partners of homosexuals, especially in states in which same-sex marriage has not been allowed, should receive the same employment benefits as legally married spouses. Such heated discussions around the issue will continue to evolve. F. The Elderly Until 1967 no law protected older people from discrimination. Many employers justified discrimination on the grounds that older people are slower and less healthy, and therefore do not perform as well as younger employees. In 1986, President Reagan signed an amendment to the 1967 law, making it illegal to discriminate against anyone over 40. Specifically, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) protects employees and job applicants from being discriminated against because of their age in hiring, promotions, discharge, pay, terms or conditions of employment, and privileges given by the employer. It also abolishes mandatory retirement for some employees (including federal employees) and raises the mandatory retirement age for others from age 55 to 70. Recent studies show that ageism, or negative attitudes toward older people, is still very much alive. More than most other groups, though, the elderly are fighting back. Currently, employees age 40 and older are covered under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). This is a huge group of employees, and as the baby boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964) age, it will grow even more. G. People with Disabilities The greatest barrier to the hiring of people with physical or developmental disabilities is prejudiced attitudes that are based on largely inaccurate information. Employees who are disabled are protected by law from discrimination, originally under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. That law was never greatly effective because the courts kept struggling with the definitions of handicapped and disabled. The remedy to this issue came in July 1990, when the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) became law. The overall purpose of this law is to allow people with disabilities to enjoy most of the benefits that everyone else enjoys. The ADA prohibits discrimination by companies in any of the following areas—employment, public transportation, telecommunication, and other privately owned services to the public (hotels and motels, restaurants and bars, public gathering places). Also, the law requires that benefits and opportunities for people with disabilities must be of the same quality as those offered to everyone else, if possible. H. Religious Groups The EEOC reports a steady increase in complaints based on religion. In the fiscal year 2012, the number of charges of religious discrimination was 3,811, with $9.9 million in monetary benefits recovered. The facts show that members of religious groups often find themselves the objects of discrimination both at work and in social circles. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbids discrimination against members of any religion. Employers are generally required to accommodate employees who express a need to practice religious beliefs at work, but they do have some flexibility in how these accommodations will be made. I. Pregnant Women The issue of pregnancy is being reexamined in an increasing number of workplaces. Through the 1970s a female job applicant was routinely asked if she was pregnant or planning to become pregnant, and what her employment, child care, and other plans would be if she were to have children. These types of questions are now illegal because they have been shown to severely affect hiring decisions and hurt women’s chances for employment and advancement. Even today, a visibly pregnant woman runs risks of discrimination. V. Sexual Harassment The phrase sexual harassment was coined by Lin Farley, author of Sexual Shakedown, in the late 1970s. Sexual harassment is spelled out clearly by EEOC guidelines: “Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature…” The problem of sexual harassment in the workplace goes back to the time when men and women first started working together, but people like Farley have called attention to this long-ignored problem. As women and men work together more and more, this problem of sexual harassment will need to be examined and resolved before it gets worse. The EEOC reports that the most common type of harassment consists of unwanted sexual teasing, jokes, remarks, and questions. A survey by the AFL-CIO found that among top workplace concerns, 78 percent of women cited sexual harassment. Sexual harassment is not limited to male supervisors harassing female employees; anyone can become a victim of sexual harassment. While fewer reports are filed by men, sexual harassment can occur between people of either—or even the same—sex. The simplest and most effective method to tackle sexual harassment is just to ask or tell the person to stop. According to one survey by the U.S. Merit System Protection Board, this simple tactic worked for 61 percent of the women who tried it. Telling fellow employees about the problem, or threatening to do so, proved in the same study to be second best. On both individual and companywide levels, sexual harassment can best be prevented by people who know what it is, know the laws forbidding it, and know what to do when it happens. VI. Prejudice, Discrimination, and Self-Esteem A general observation about extremely prejudiced people is that they may suffer from low levels of self-esteem. In contrast, tolerant people may tend to feel more comfortable with who they are and have little trouble accepting the basic humanity of others. Unless the victim is a person with a firmly grounded, high self-esteem level, discrimination can lower his or her self-esteem temporarily or permanently. Victims of violent hatred have been known to side with those who oppress them, once their self-esteem has been broken down. In his classic 1954 book The Nature of Prejudice, Gordon Allport stated that the effects of being victimized by discrimination fall into two basic categories: The first category is blaming oneself, which can be seen in withdrawal, self-hatred, or aggression against one’s own group. The second category is blaming external causes, which is seen in fighting back against the discrimination, becoming suspicious of outsiders, or having increased or exaggerated pride in one’s own group. One of the saddest dangers of discrimination is its tendency to become a self-fulfilling prophecy, which occurs when a victim believes that prejudice against him or her is deserved and then becomes what the stereotype states. VII. Looking Ahead Prejudging others seems to be inevitable. When a member of a group acts in the way people expect, their stereotype is confirmed. When the person acts differently from the way people expect, they may decide that the person is the exception to the rule. These negative ideas are hard to get rid of. But, some negative feelings and behaviors can be permanently eliminated. A key ingredient for people to begin to understand and appreciate members of other groups is contact; communication as a result of contact is crucial to understanding others. Employees need the opportunity to interact and communicate with each other, because proximity (physical closeness) and exposure to other people generally increase the chance that they will come to like each other. Contact by itself is not enough. One of the causes of prejudice and discrimination is unequal status. If this is the case, prejudice will not diminish. Businesses can take steps to hire employees who are frequent targets of discrimination into all levels within the company. So the second necessary ingredient in reducing prejudice and discrimination is ensuring equal status for everyone. A third important ingredient in reducing prejudice and discrimination is cooperation instead of competition among members of “different” groups. Psychologists have discovered that when members of different groups not only cooperate but also depend on each other to reach common goals—also known as interdependence—conflict is greatly reduced. CHAPTER 15 Business Ethics and Social Responsibility Learning Objective After studying this chapter, students will be able to: Define ethics. Explain the importance of a code of ethics. Describe the process of rationalizing unethical behavior. Explain ethics in the context of the U.S. workplace. Describe the influence of group goals on ethics. Give examples of global ethics issues. Define social responsibility. Describe the process of whistleblowing. Key Terms Boss massaging: The practice of currying favor, or kissing up, with a manager to achieve your own goals. Categorical imperative: A principle developed by philosopher Immanuel Kant, which asks the question, “What would the world—or my company—be like if everyone were to do this?” Ethical codes: Formalized sets of ethical guidelines developed by some companies for use at all levels of an organization. Ethics: The expression of the standards of right and wrong based on conduct and morals in a particular society. Future favors: A practice commonly seen in developing countries based upon mutual obligation and resulting in the exchange of favors over years and even generations; also used in some industrialized countries such as Japan and South Korea. Gift exchange: A strong tradition in many cultures, in which giving gifts creates a future obligation to the receiver; it can also be a rite of passage into an inner circle. Inner circle: A clique of trusted family members, tribal members, or friends (depending on the culture), who are at the center of power or influence. Morality: A system of conduct that covers all broadly based, mostly unwritten standards of how people should behave and generally conform to cultural ideals of right and wrong. Principle of individual rights: An ethical philosophy that holds that all decisions should respect basic human rights and the dignity of the individual. Principle of individualism: An ethical philosophy that holds that all primary goals should achieve long-term self-interests, with the emphasis on long-term; self-interest should not justify short-sighted actions. Principle of justice: An ethical philosophy that holds that all decisions should be consistent, unbiased, and based on fact. Principle of utilitarianism: An ethical philosophy that holds that all decisions should do the greatest good for the largest number of people. Rationalize: To justify unethical behavior with excuses. Social responsibility: The practice of acting ethically while understanding that your actions are part of the larger, interactive picture of your workplace, community, and world. Stakeholders: Any group that a business interacts with, such as customers, competitors, unions, suppliers, consumer groups, and government agencies. Whistleblowing: Turning in or otherwise exposing people who behave unethically in your company. Lecture Outline I. What is Ethics? Ethics deals with the standards of conduct and morals in a particular society; in short, ethics expresses the standards of right and wrong. However, ethics and morality are not identical concepts. Morality deals with how behavior should generally conform to cultural ideals of right and wrong. It represents broadly based, mostly unwritten standards of how people should behave. Ethics is more precise and is often based on written guidelines. The practice of business brings many benefits to society. The business world has provided jobs for millions, created a high standard of living, and given many people an opportunity to achieve the dream of business ownership. However, businesses do not always uphold the highest ethical standards. Highly publicized scandals damage the public image of many businesses, and because of the alarming number of scandals in the global financial sector in recent years, a new awakening to the issues of business ethics has emerged. In addition to being different from morality, ethical standards are also different from law, which is another code of conduct. Although both ethical standards and laws are generally agreed upon within specific cultures, laws are different because they are always set down in writing, and descriptions of them are available to the public. One common public perception is that business and ethics are terms that can hardly be used in the same sentence. That perception is based on the misunderstanding that profit and morality simply do not mix, and that one can’t make money without becoming corrupt. The following are other misperceptions that affect peoples’ understanding about ethics: All ethical problems have simple solutions in which right and wrong are always obvious. Ethics is simply a matter of complying with a set of rules or regulations. Even the most ethical person should be willing to admit that all of us are sometimes faced with ethical and moral dilemmas. The most ethical course of action isn’t always clear-cut and obvious. A. Ethics and the Internet Perhaps the stickiest ethical issue today is how to behave ethically on the Internet. Every day companies monitor employee e-mails and track Internet usage, looking for the personal misuse of company property. The Internet has introduced enormous compliance risks and ethical issues. There’s the potential for sexual harassment, improper contact with competitors, people using [illicit] chat rooms, [viewing or downloading] pornography, and employees sending out proprietary information over the Net. With rapid advancements in information technology comes the added risk of fraud and sexual exploitation. In what many see as another invasion of privacy, online merchants regularly purchase confidential information about people’s buying habits that has been provided by electronic profilers (also called cookies). This issue has caused conflict since the beginning of online commerce, because consumers often resent having their personal information sold without their consent. Another Internet ethics issue is copyright infringement, where online businesses have been caught using, distributing, and even selling copyrighted materials such as text, images, and music. II. Codes of Ethics Some companies have developed specific ethical codes that are accepted and abided by in all levels of the firm. Codes of ethics are usually based on one of the following ethical approaches: The principle of justice focuses on making sure that all decisions are consistent, unbiased, and based on fact. The principle of individual rights focuses on basic human rights and the dignity of the individual. The principle of utilitarianism means making decisions that promise to do the greatest good for the largest number of people. The principle of individualism holds that a person’s primary goal is to achieve long-term self-interests, with the emphasis on long-term; self-interest would not justify shortsighted actions. The categorical imperative is an ethical principle that results from the question, “What would the world—or my company—be like if everyone were to do this?” Additional principles are listed in Figure 15.3. Some choices are better and more popular than others. III. Rationalizing Unethical Behavior Even people with a good knowledge of ethical principles can fall prey to the temptation to rationalize unethical behavior. Management expert Saul Gellerman warns that unethical behavior in the workplace often starts with one or more of four basic rationalizations: A belief that the unethical behavior is within ethical and legal limits—because it is more convenient to believe that it is. A belief that because the chosen behavior will work for the best interest of either the individual or the company, the company would expect that it be carried out. A belief that nobody will notice. A belief that because the chosen behavior helps the company, the company will go along with it and protect the person if he or she is caught. Whenever people are expected to make a work-related decision, they should be aware of these four rationalizations. When people are justifying a decision that seems unethical, they should ask themselves whether they are being honest with themselves in the rationalizing. People with high self-esteem are more likely to feel good about themselves, which allows them to not seek the short-term gains of unethical behavior and not engage in rationalization to justify it. People with high self-esteem are also more likely to feel a healthy connection with others around them, and so are more likely to act in a socially responsible way. IV. Ethics in Context It is important to use self-disclosure and be honest in one’s relationships with others. This can become an ethical issue when people act insincerely in their relationships with other people in order to achieve their own ends. Politics exists in any company, and gaining political power isn’t in itself an unethical behavior. In the United States there is a widespread belief that if one is agreeable and easy to get along with, one’s job will remain secure. The idea seems to be that, although unpleasant and dishonest, the practice of “sucking up,” “kissing up,” or boss massaging, is a necessary price one must pay for success. The employee wishing to rise above this disharmony can have trouble remaining detached from it. If people find themselves in such a position, they should remember that no one can force them to act unethically. If the boss is being massaged, an honest look at the power realities should show that he or she is free to take many actions to discourage such behavior. The manager should be a manager who makes it clear that his or her employees’ performance is based on merit, and be consistent in the application of that philosophy. V. The Influence of Group Goals When encountering someone in need, many people look the other way because other people’s goals or a group’s pressures override the need. This creates an ethical conflict—even when people have learned helping behavior in their families and communities, they sometimes find themselves unable to transfer those behaviors to the workplace. Research by social scientists shows that many people change their ethical standards between home and work. Whatever the company attitude, everyone who works for a company should closely examine how his or her personal ethics fit into the ethics of the firm. Few situations cause more stress than compromises with one’s own conscience. VI. Global Ethics Issues As trade expands, people need to recognize differing ethical views among the nations of the world and acknowledge these differences with an attitude of acceptance. American values, beliefs, and practices are not the only ones in this world. A. A Historical Perspective The values and customs of other countries are not inferior, primitive, or degraded. They have different origins, evolutions, and applications through history. They are based on differing histories and cultural memories. If people do business with foreign companies, especially in developing countries, they need to understand three concepts—the inner circle, future favors, and the gift exchange—that seem to be widely believed and practiced: B. The Inner Circle Most communal societies make a strong distinction between insiders and outsiders. Those who are in the inner circle are, depending on the culture, family members, tribal members, or trusted friends. The possibility of unjust treatment toward outsiders is always a consideration, and outsiders should watch carefully for this. In some inner circles, fairness and kindness to those outside the circle are not considered to be necessary. C. Future Favors Within the inner circles, one will find the assumption of future favors. The practice can be found in nearly any culture that respects the inner circle concept. The trading back of favors can go on for years, even generations. D. Gift Exchange Americans who witness a gift exchange in another country may suspect bribery, but such an accusation would horrify most people who practice this custom. In some cultures, this tradition of exchanging gifts goes back into ancient times. In today’s global marketplace, it often becomes a standard tool of business. This tradition is related to the concept of the inner circle, too, as the gift exchange is often the rite of passage into that circle. VII. Social Responsibility Social responsibility means putting ethical standards to work in all areas of the global community in which you live. Social responsibility includes acting ethically with customers, co-workers, suppliers, competitors, and the community in which you live. Every workplace has an obligation to make choices or decisions about issues such as environmental pollution, discrimination, employee safety and health, dishonesty, and community commitments such as volunteerism. The growing awareness over the past few decades of such obligations has prompted many companies to become more socially responsible. One of the difficulties in deciding whether or not a company is socially responsible is that there is disagreement about just whom the company should be responsible to. Three views of social responsibility that are commonly accepted are: Traditional social responsibility says that a company or organization is responsible only to itself and to making a profit. Stakeholder social responsibility holds that companies are responsible to stakeholders—that is, to any group they interact with as a business. Affirmative (or public) social responsibility is the most broadly based of the three perspectives. In this view, companies are not just responsible to their profit margin and their stakeholders, but they are also responsible to the general public and society at large. A. A Few Cautions About Social Responsibility Just as there are many difficult questions regarding ethics, there are also many difficult questions regarding social responsibility. When a company can no longer afford to support charities or organizations that have become dependent on them, a move to protect the company’s economic health by cutting charitable funding may seem selfish to outside observers. Choosing among equally important organizations can create hard feelings among nonprofit organizations or charities, although this may not be obvious to corporate donors. Companies or individuals may also find that their acts of social responsibility are misunderstood and resented by the community. VIII. Blowing the Whistle When people find unethical conduct taking place in the company, they mostly use strategies that involve whistleblowing—turning in the offending person or people and exposing the truth. The first law passed to protect whistleblowers was the Lloyd–La Follette Act of 1912, which protected federal employees who gave information to Congress. Wider protection for those who blow the whistle on dangerous, fraudulent, or unethical practices in their workplace has been in existence since the 1970s. Although free speech rights are guaranteed under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution, retaliation against whistleblowers was so widespread that enacting specific laws became necessary. The Whistleblower Protection Act was passed in 1989 and strengthened in 1994. In addition to federal laws, many individual states also have their own whistleblower protection laws. The Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2007 was introduced into Congress but wasn’t signed into law for another five years until November 2012, likely due to the complexity of the issue of whistleblowing. Some of the strategies available to the person who faces the moral choices of the whistleblower include: Secretly threatening the offender with blowing the whistle unless the action is stopped or corrected. Anonymously blowing the whistle within the company, keeping your identity a secret. Secretly threatening a responsible manager that one will blow the whistle outside of the company unless a change is made in the conduct. Sabotaging the results of the unethical behavior in some way. Publicly blowing the whistle within the organization. Quietly refusing to carry out an unethical plan. Secretly or publicly blowing the whistle outside of the company. For reasons that remain unclear, people have traditionally looked down on the person who “tells on” someone else, especially in some areas of life. For this reason and others, even many otherwise moral and ethical people are afraid of blowing the whistle. After all, one’s job might be at risk, or the whistleblower might be excluded from the informal work group. Other, less rational fears include losing one’s nerve at the last minute, not having the courage to follow through once the accusations have been made, or worrying that the purity of one’s intentions might be mistaken for backstabbing. These types of fear are not unfounded. A new movement encourages whistleblowing in a few U.S. companies by providing rewards. Such a system, though, may only create distrust among employees if it leads to increased spying. The best solution is the kind of leadership that makes whistleblowing unnecessary. The ethical tone of an organization nearly always originates in top management and moves downward. Thus, top management is in an ideal position to create an ethical environment for everyone who works in the company. Management can also create low ethical standards by any of the following managerial mistakes: Favoritism occurs when one employee is given extra privileges and allowances. “Fudging” with the expense budget is a managerial mistake. Managers who allow employees to use company expense budgets for items of doubtful use to the company, or for obvious personal use, are allowing unethical treatment and encouraging it to continue. Lying to or otherwise manipulating other departments or offices within one’s company creates an atmosphere of distrust, which erodes team spirit. CHAPTER 16 A Productive Workplace and Success Learning Objective After studying this chapter, students will be able to: Understand factors that create and maintain a productive workplace. Learn methods of improving morale and appraisal techniques. Learn strategies to improve your use of time. Recognize substance abuse and other behaviors that reduce workplace productivity. Know what employers and employees can do to deal with substance abuse as well as other personal or financial problems. Explore the concept of success and the attainment of goals. Focus strategies to increase and to maintain your personal success. Key Terms Compulsive gambling: The inability to control one’s betting habits. Employee appraisal: Feedback to an employee from supervisors on how he or she has performed over a given period. Employee assistance programs (EAPs): Company-sponsored programs that help employee’s substance abuse problems, family conflict, and financial difficulties. Entrepreneurship: The risk-taking entrance into one’s own enterprise. Family violence: Violence that can be defined as physical, emotional, verbal, or sexual against another family member. Fear of failure: The fear that occurs when people are afraid of looking bad in front of others. Fear of success: The fear that occurs when people who have not experienced much success feel that they do not deserve it. Finding your niche: Finding the place where you thrive and are most content; includes finding the type of job or career where you will be most satisfied. Imposter phenomenon: A feeling that successful people experience when they are afraid that they did not really succeed because of their own talents and hard work. Intergenerational care: Day care not only for children, but also for elderly family members. Long-term goals: Those things you decide to work for after developing a life plan for the future. Overloading time: Planning too many activities into one time slot. Positive psychology: A subfield within psychology that focuses on experiences, individual traits, and institutions that create happiness and hope rather than focusing on mental illness. Priority setting: Deciding ahead of time which tasks are most, and least, important. Procrastination: Putting off until later the things a person should be doing now. Productivity: The ratio of an organization’s inputs, or its resources, to its outputs, or the goods and services it produces. Sandwich generation: Middle-aged adults who are taking responsibility for children and elder parents at the same time—and being sandwiched by these obligations. Self-direction: The ability to set short-term and long-term goals for yourself. Self-discipline: The ability to teach or guide yourself to set up and carry out your goals and plans. Self-sabotage: Damaging one’s own credibility or confidence. Short-term goals: The specific plans of action for the things you would like to accomplish now or in the immediate future. Substance abuse: The continued use of a psychoactive substance even though it is causing increasing problems. Task maturity: having the skill set necessary to complete a job, as well as the ability to set and meet realistic goals and the ability to accept responsibility. Time management: Making effective use of one’s available time. To-do lists: A list of what you need to do, when, and where. Underutilizing time: Making poor use of available time. Lecture Outline I. A Productive Workplace Productivity can be defined as the ratio of inputs (that is, an organization’s resources) to its outputs (that is, the organization’s goods and services produced). It can be increased by focusing on input and output separately. There are many ways to improve efficiency in productivity. The organization can simplify its products, or improve the production process. Another way to improve productivity is to increase the efficiency of employees at the individual level. A. Increasing Morale to Boost Productivity The following steps can improve the morale at the workplace: Understand the morale of the environment. Let everyone in the company know “what’s in it for them?” Get everyone in the organization involved in goal setting, individually and collectively. Let employees know that the company is dedicated to helping them succeed and to be promoted. Encourage communication between employees, among departments, and within teams. Don’t relax on individual and group accountability. Several other factors encourage a productive workplace. One factor is the manner in which employees and managers are appraised (evaluated). The traditional once-a-year employee appraisal in which all of the negatives are saved up and thrown at the employee in one giant toss has to become a thing of the past. Creative appraisal systems stimulate productivity by encouragement, two-way communication, and motivation. B. Productivity and Task Maturity Another way to encourage productivity is to consider an employee’s task maturity. Meeting goals and taking responsibility are skills that can be developed over time. Individual job performance can be increased by discovering and reducing behaviors that sabotage people performance, including managing time better. C. Avoiding Self-Sabotage Self-sabotage means damaging our own credibility or competence. There are many reasons people sabotage their own efforts; these are mostly related to fear or apprehension, low self-esteem or insecurity, or lack of motivation. In a survey asking people to name the most common ways they sabotaged themselves, clinical psychologist Dan Neuharth found that procrastination was at the top of the list. Procrastination is the act of putting off till until later the things that we should be doing now. Procrastination is not only a form of self-sabotage; it is also a major source of stress. Stress is damaging both physically and mentally. The obvious benefit of procrastination is that we can put off an unpleasant task until some later time. Hidden benefits of procrastination exist as well. These may only benefit the procrastinator (and cause others to suffer), but include: Being able to get back at people who are making demands on us Being able to avoid unpleasant tasks if others get tired of waiting and complete the work for us Being assigned less to do if others decide we are overwhelmed by existing tasks Perhaps getting to work on other things we like better and shifting responsibility for unpleasant tasks onto others D. Steps to Stop Procrastinating The following suggestions can help people get started on the tasks that they put off: Get going on the task Make a plan Reduce the task to smaller components Think positive Reward oneself along the way Give oneself credit II. Time Management Time management refers to making effective use of available time. This sound simple, but it takes planning. People often overload their time by planning too many activities into one time slot. At other times, people may underutilize time by making poor use of available time that they have. Procrastination is one cause of underutilization. Using time more efficiently can truly help with acting impulsively, getting distracted or losing focus, taking on too many things at once, having unrealistic expectations, not asking for help when needed, rushing through things, worrying too much, and not finishing what was started. Making use of a time analysis tool enables people to examine their time effectiveness in an ongoing process. Taking a look at how people use their time can allow them to see in print how long they spend on activities. Seeing such a pattern in time use can help people manage time better and set priorities. Setting priorities means people decide ahead of time which tasks are the most important, and which are the least important. Creating a to-do list by keeping lists of what people need to do, when, and where, will take a little time. The time people save in efficiency, however, will more than make up for the time they spend. III. Behaviors That Reduce Workplace Productivity Individuals who don’t handle personal situations very well can affect the overall well-being and productivity of their workplace. In a productive workplace, morale is high, relationships between co-workers are positive, and self-esteem is maintained. When employees bring personal problems to work, these problems can affect the entire workplace. Employees, managers, and entrepreneurs are all responsible for handling situations in their personal lives effectively. A. Substance Abuse: Alcohol and Other Drugs Substance abuse is one of the most common—and expensive—employee problems that companies face. Abuse of alcohol and other drugs together cost the American economy an estimated $276 billion per year in lost workdays and lowered productivity (mistakes on the job, incomplete work, and tardiness). Since at least 80 percent of heavy drinkers work, and 76 percent of people who abuse illegal drugs work part- or full-time, no business can consider itself immune to the problems of employee substance abuse. Everyone pays for these costs when tax dollars pay for government services such as highway safety, criminal justice services, and special education for babies damaged prenatally by drugs or alcohol. B. Recognizing Alcohol Abuse in the Workplace Alcoholics may be difficult to identify because they can be found in all occupational groups; they can be of any age, gender, race, or ethnic group. Changes may arise in the person’s appearance (e.g., unsteady walking, or smelling of alcohol) or behavior (e.g., slurred speech, missing work, reduced productivity, taking long breaks, irritability). C. Employee Drug Abuse and Dependency When people think of drug abuse, they usually think of illegal drugs such as cocaine or heroin. However, legal drugs can also be abused, including prescription drugs such as tranquilizers or pain-killers (for example, oxycodone or hydrocodone) and over-the-counter drugs, such as diet pills. Substances that aren’t normally thought of as drugs, such as nicotine and caffeine, can also be abused. Any substance that affects a person’s judgment, behavior, mental processes, mood, conscious experience, or perceptions is referred to as a psychoactive drug. What qualifies as drug abuse really depends on the user’s dependence on the drug and how the substance affects his or her behavior. D. The Effects of Substance Abuse in the Workplace Substance abuse is a very expensive employee problem for the employee with the problem, but also for everyone else. There is no way to quantify the loss to employee morale and group unity when employees are substance abusers, or when nonabusing employees work with substance abusers. Non-substanceabusing employees may resent the abusing employee’s lost time or productivity, they may feel obligated to pick up the slack, or may even feel obligated to protect the substance-abusing co-worker from getting into trouble. Nonabusing employees may also feel less safe, especially if substance-abusing employees are operating machinery. A substance-abusing employee may also go into withdrawal at work, which can cause distress for everyone in the workplace. E. Marital, Family, and Other Personal Problems Employees often bring family difficulties to work, whether they are marital conflicts, separation or divorce, difficulties with child care or elder care, or other family-related issues. These can reduce workplace productivity when employees miss work, have accidents at work, make poor decisions, pay poor attention to detail, have conflicts with co-workers, or relate poorly to customers. Managers can spot employees who are troubled by family conflict by looking for warning signs like: Excessive tardiness or absenteeism Unusual behavior such as crying or losing one’s temper A decline in the quality of work or work performance Trouble concentrating A decline or change in appearance The end of marriage or a relationship can lead to depression, with problems in sleeping (too much or too little) or eating (loss of appetite and weight), inability to work, and feelings of hopelessness. Even people who have been unhappy in their marriages and asked for the divorce or separation may still become depressed. Family violence, which can be defined as physical, emotional, verbal, or sexual violence against a family member, is another problem that spills over into the workplace. Substance abuse may be linked to family violence and abuse problems. If an employee is the abuser, he or she may be afraid to ask for help for fear of possible legal action. To add to the problem, co-workers may be fearful of violent acts occurring in the workplace because of the employee’s situation, either as a victim or as an abuser. F. Financial Problems Employees who are under severe financial pressure may experience difficulties, such as lowered productivity and increased stress levels. Financial problems can also make the employee susceptible to stealing from the company (time or resources). Financial pressures may be tied in with other problem behaviors as well, such as substance abuse, or even domestic violence. Some employee financial problems may transition into compulsive gambling. Compulsive gamblers are unable to control their betting. They may also become depressed and have relationship problems in their personal lives or at work. They may borrow huge amounts of money from friends and family or co-workers, or themselves (borrowing against credit cards, life insurance policies, etc.). IV. Responses to Substance Abuse and Other Nonproductive Behaviors When supervisors suspect substance abuse is a problem, they should not directly accuse employees of having such problems. A supervisor’s main responsibility when handling any employee problem behavior is to make the employee understand that his or her job performance is not acceptable. Supervisors should not try to counsel or advise employees themselves. Since most supervisors are not trained in counseling, they should refer employees to the appropriate resource, such as an employee assistance program (EAP), community counseling center, or substance abuse professional. A. Employee Assistance Programs Employee assistance programs, or EAPs, have been around since the 1940s, when large companies (together with Alcoholics Anonymous) first started them as alcoholism treatment programs. In the 1960s, these programs expanded to treat employees with other life issues, such as marriage and family conflicts or financial difficulty. In order for EAPs to work, supervisors must be able and willing to observe employees and watch for problems. They must be willing to approach employees who appear to be having problems, refer these employees to the EAP, and follow through. EAPs can help employees with: Abuse of alcohol and other drugs Mental health issues Financial problems Legal trouble Poor physical health Stress, depression, anxiety, and other emotional issues Family and marriage conflict Other personal problems or concerns When an employee problem involves substance abuse, EAPs have the advantages of informing the employee that a problem exists and providing a chance for rehabilitation. Rehabilitation improves employee attendance and safety practices, while reducing health care costs for the company. B. Workplace Substance Abuse Policies Before taking action regarding employee substance abuse, employers must develop a company policy on substance abuse and put it into place. The policy should clearly state all testing and (if applicable) search procedures. It should also outline any possible disciplinary actions that the company may take against employees who are abusing alcohol or other drugs. Regarding workplace substance abuse policies: Companies must determine their stand on substance abuse with input from human resources representatives, as well as medical, security, safety, and legal staff. Once the policy is developed, it must be clearly communicated to the entire staff. Supervisors must be trained to recognize symptoms of substance abuse and understand how it impairs performance. Employees and their families should receive drug awareness education. Policies should include a counseling and referral component so employees can seek help confidentially before being referred by management. For larger companies, substance abuse policies that include health plans, education, and drug testing may be cost-effective within a short time. Within a small business, substance abuse can cause a financial drain that means the difference between economic survival and collapse. Because of this issue, the Department of Labor, the Small Business Administration, and the Office of National Drug Control Policy can provide resources to help small businesses deal with substance abuse policy problems. Another resource for small and mid-sized companies is the “Drugs Don’t Work” program. At the national level, the program provides free booklets and step-by-step guidance on substance abuse policy writing. At the statewide level, states recruit corporate sponsors to help with funding and leadership to develop drug-free workplace partnerships for writing policy, training management, screening, and developing EAPs. In addition, local chambers of commerce, assisted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, can provide information and services to local businesses. C. What Else Can Be Done for Employees? Managers often feel they should not get involved with an employee’s personal problems. They may feel that problems at home are too private to discuss with employees, but when these problems affect the employee’s job performance, the manager must take action. EAPs can steer employees toward appropriate resources for help. Those with credit management problems can consult consumer credit counseling services, usually with no charge to the person using the service. EAPs can also steer those with temporary and financial emergencies to an appropriate resource, such as a credit union. Employees facing temporary emergencies may not be aware of outside help and services that are available to them. Good human relations skills are needed to identify, confront, and solve these challenges to workplace productivity. Maintaining a productive workplace is rarely easy. Many factors, both negative and positive must be carefully monitored to make it all work. V. Human Relations in Your Future Many changes will undoubtedly take place in the next several years in typical home life and in the workplace. How people react in their work and personal environment in the next few years will be determined mainly by them. A. Your Definition of Success Until recent years, success in the business world was often defined as the bottom line, or the profit margin. Employees themselves often defined their individual success simply by their paychecks and individual wealth. Now, in the early 21st century, many Americans define success in a different way. According to this redefinition, employees should be able to feel a sense of self-satisfaction and fulfillment at work, and also have the time and freedom to lead a satisfying family life or to spend time on hobbies or outside interests. The successful balance of work and family life is not just a topic that the general public is interested in. This topic is also of ongoing interest to business leaders, policy makers, and social scientists, as well. This importance is partly because of the increasing diversity of the workforce, especially with women working at all levels in greater numbers than ever before, and with the many different compositions of family that exist today. Work and family issues continue to be important because employers need to attract and keep good employees. With more than half of all American mothers in the workforce, and with the general aging of the U.S. population, employees today often need intergenerational care, which is day care not only for children but also for elderly family members. The National Council of Aging states that over 40 percent of the American workforce is taking care of both children and elderly family members, and that number will rise dramatically as the American population ages even more in the next several decades. This sandwich generation, middle-aged adults taking care of both children and elderly parents at the same time, includes about 16 million Americans. About two-thirds of the members of the sandwich generation work outside the home, either full-time or part-time. Most of those caring for two generations feel more squeezed than stressed, mostly just pressed for time. Issues of cultural diversity, along with age-related family obligations, arise when talking about work and family balance. White non-Hispanic-Americans have the lowest rates of sandwich generation responsibilities, but there are more of them in total numbers. Asian-Americans provide even more care, taking parents to appointments, and doing other time-consuming tasks. They are also more likely to feel stress from the time pressures, and guilt over feeling they should be able to do more. African-Americans also report facing stressful situations, but are more likely to say they have family networks (siblings, cousins) to share in the tasks. They are more likely than other groups to ask for help from doctors or agency resources. Overall, most people in all groups say they are optimistic about their futures and their ability to handle their sandwich generation duties. As the United States’ life expectancy rates rise, employers should expect even higher numbers of these sandwich generation employees. Over the past 15 years or so, companies have been getting creative in providing care for employees’ dependents. Some companies offer day care for dependents regardless of age (from infants to the elderly), and some offer a cafeteria-style benefits package in which employees can choose only the benefits they want. Other companies offer intergenerational care where children and elders are cared for in the same facility. B. Self-Esteem, Confidence and Success A key to building self-esteem is developing confidence in oneself and one’s decisions. Confidence is something that has to come from within oneself, but one can build it up with positive self-talk. People who act in a self-confident way on the outside, whether they feel it or not on the inside, are often described and evaluated by others as being capable and competent. Their behavior becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy—by acting with self-confidence, they become more self-confident. C. Self-Discipline and Success Self-discipline is the ability to teach or guide oneself to set up and carry out one’s goals and plans. This is important to one’s future success because in order to carry out the plans one has made and to meet one’s goals, one must teach oneself strategies to keep working toward those goals. According to Denis Waitley, an expert in motivation and performance, self-discipline includes breaking bad habits and replacing them with new ones. This can be accomplished through positive self-talk. Waitley reminds us that the kind of self-talk we do creates our self-image—either better or worse. The choice is ours. If people are stuck in negative self-talk and having trouble thinking of things that are right with them, Waitley suggests that they should write a list of their professional and personal assets. People should list their skills, experiences, potential, and talent. People should use this same self-discipline to help meet their goals. Once people have identified these goals and prioritized them, they will need to muster their self-discipline in order to put a plan of action into place. People shouldn’t be afraid to ask for advice and to learn from others. One should get to know people who have goals similar to one’s own. Taking responsibility is an important part of self-discipline. This does not include trying to change or control other people, but it means that they don’t control one, either. Another component of self-discipline is to make conscious choices that lead to a more healthful and productive life. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle, stress reduction, etc. all relate to long-term success because they promote health and happiness. VI. Self-Motivation, Self-Direction, and Success Psychological studies show that the strongest kinds of motivation come from internal rewards, not external ones. Self-motivation is the central to this idea of self-direction, which is the ability to set short-term and long-term goals for oneself. Short-term goals are the specific plans of action for things people would like to accomplish right now or in the immediate future. Long-term goals are those things people decide to work for after developing a life plan for the future. Both short- and long-term goals are important to individual success; breaking long-term goals into manageable short-term ones is a way of creating a ladder of success that increases your chances of future success in the long term. VII. Fear: The Enemy of Success Fear is a negative emotion that can stop people from carrying out their plans and working toward their goals. One of the most common fears in the business world is the impostor phenomenon, in which successful people are afraid that they did not really succeed because of their own talents and hard work. They are afraid that they are not smart, hard-working, or talented enough to continue to succeed, and that someone will find them out as impostors. Another common fear is fear of failure, which occurs when people are afraid of looking bad in front of others. People with extreme fear of failure may stop trying to achieve anything, or stop trying anything new in order to avoid the possibility of being criticized. People who have fear of success may have not experienced much success in their lives, so they feel they do not deserve it. They may feel that they will not live up to the reputation that goes along with success, and that others will reject or demote them. People can eliminate these fears by practicing emotions that are just the opposite, such as courage and self-confidence. It is impossible to feel two opposite feelings at the same time, so people can probably outweigh the fear with something more positive. VIII. Positive Psychology One of the newest and most exciting developments in psychology in recent years is a movement called positive psychology. This new area came about as a result of some leading psychologists thinking that psychology is too focused on what’s wrong with people, rather than what is right with them. Positive psychologists believe that we all have strengths that can overcome barriers to healthy self-development. These barriers include low self-esteem, for example, along with its related fears. The strengths that protect against poor outcomes in mental health include optimism, good interpersonal skills, courage, good work ethic, perseverance, honesty, and ability to think toward the future. These strengths can be learned through training. And when people begin using them, such ideals become a type of self-fulfilling prophecy. IX. Finding Your Niche To be successful throughout life, people must find a place where they thrive and are most content. This is called finding your niche, which includes finding the kind of job or career where you will be most satisfied. Richard Bolles, an expert on job hunting describes three essential families of skill: Skills with information or data include gathering or creating data, managing it, computing it, storing it, and putting it to use. People with these skills may become data entry technicians, computer programmers, research analysts, or demographers. Skills in working with people include helping and serving others, counseling, entertaining, supervising, negotiating, and mentoring. People with these skills may find satisfaction in becoming counselors or psychologists, occupational or physical therapists, teachers, actors or comedians, or consultants. Skills in working with things include specific skills in athletics, in the fine arts, with construction, and with agriculture or farming. People who have these skills may enjoy work as farmers, construction workers, cabinetmakers, dancers, or architects. X. Prepare For a Career Choice Some people seem to know, from very early on, what type of job they will eventually do. They select high school classes and decide on their educational plan on that basis. Other people are not so sure what they will “be” when they grow up. They may decide to return to school later, or go through years of education and still not have a career figured out. There are thousands of online sites that offer career guidance; some are free, others charge a fee, and the quality varies greatly among all the sites. But before investing time and (possibly) money into these career guidance tools, people should first do some introspection—that is, looking inward. It is difficult to know how to get somewhere if people don’t know where they are going. Instructor Manual for Human Relations: Strategies for Success Lowell Lamberton, Leslie Minor-Evans 9780073524689