Part-1

Occupational choice –preparation for work

An occupation is a group of similar jobs found in several establishments.

Theories of occupational choice.

There are six significant themes that can help us understand the manner in
which people make occupational choice-

1. Occupational choice as a matching process.

2. Occupational choice as a development process.
3. Occupational choice as a decision making task.
4. Occupational choice as a function of social and cultural influences.
5. Occupational choice of women.
6. Occupational choice of minorities.

Given theories are described in below-

1. Occupational choice as a matching process:

Most theories of occupational choice contend that a person, consciously or

unconsciously, chooses an occupation that matches his or her unique set of
needs, motives, values and talents. According to this viewpoint, confronted
with the necessity of choosing an occupation, an individual consciously
proceeds to make an analysis of his vocational assets and liabilities,
accumulates information about occupations and arrives at a decision.

2. Occupational choice as a development process:

The choice of an occupation can be considered as a development process that

evolves over time. For one thing, the decision to pursue a particular occupation
is really a series of decision that span a significant portion of one’s life. The
pharmacist to be may have decided to participate in the fifth grade science fair,
to take an accelerated mathematics program in junior high school, to join the
chemistry club in high school, and to seek summer employment at a local
pharmacy. A number of educational and vocational decisions and activities
culminate in an occupational choice.

3. Occupational choice as a decision making task:

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We have seen how occupational choice can be viewed essentially as a
developmental process in which experiences and increasing maturity enable a
person to develop, modify and clarify the self-concept, gain further insights into
the world of work, and attain a match between a chosen occupation and one’s
self perceived interests, abilities, needs and values.

Given a set of alternative occupations, how does one choose which

occupation to pursue? According to the career management model a person
should engage in career exploration, acquire a greater awareness of self and
alternatives occupations, and develop a career goal. In the context of
occupational choice, the career goal is to enter a particular occupation.

4. Occupational choice as a function of social and cultural influence.

Behavior is a function of the person and the environment. The choices we make
are reflections of our personal characteristics and the environment in which we
live. There are some approaches to the study of occupational choice and
decision making. In particular, the sociologic approach to careers is
fundamentally based on the nation that elements beyond the individual’s
control exert a major influence on the course of life, including educational and
vocational decisions. Undoubtedly, the environment both past and present
plays a major role in occupational decision making. A person’s past
environment includes family of origin, social class, income, and place of
residence. The present environment includes the economic, political, and
cultural climate in which a person lives.

5. Occupational choices of women.

There are differences of opinion regarding whether the existing theories of

career development are completely applicable to women. The career
development process for is essentially the same as that for women. Many
occupations are stereotyped. Some are thought to be more appropriate for men
and other are thought to be more appropriate for women.

Stereotypically female jobs are frequently characterized by low pay and modest
training requirements. Moreover they are thought to require traits that are
stereotypically feminine and require less career continuity than male
dominated occupation.

Women tend to select an occupation from a much narrower range of

alternatives than men. Women choose occupations with high levels of social

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involvement which is consistent with other findings regarding women’s
preferences for strong social relationship.

6. Occupational choice of minorities:

Because culture and environment play a significant role in the occupational

choice process, it has been suggested that members of American minorities
groups may exhibit different pattern of career behavior than non- minorities.
Undoubtedly minorities, which include African-Americans, Asians, Hispanics,
and Native Americans, have faced considerable prejudice and discrimination in
employment situation. The following issues have been observed-

 There are substantial differences in jobless rated between

minorities and nonminorities.
 Differences in income between minorities and nonminorities are
substantial even when controlling for level of education.
 Minorities tend to be concentrated in a more restricted range of
occupations than nonminorities.
 Minorities are often blocked from learning the skills necessary to
break the cycle of poverty and discrimination.
 Minorities many times come from low-and mid-class families and
may not have the resources to attend college.
 Minorities often have high aspiration that is not realized in
occupational attainment.
 Minorities, especially minority women, tend to enter less
prestigious occupations than nonminorities.

Guidelines for effective occupational decision making

Despite our position that occupational choice is a matching process,

observation and common experience tell us that many people do not
necessarily choose occupations that are compatible with their talents, values
and interests.

Development of self-awareness

Self awareness is the cornerstone of effective career management. In the

absence of a deep understanding of one’s talents, interests, values, and
preferred lifestyle, one would require considerable luck to fall into a compatible
occupation.

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 Development of accurate occupational information

Self awareness needs to be combined with a satisfactory understanding

of alternative occupations. However lack of relevant work experience,
stereotypes of occupations and unfamiliarity with certain occupational fields all
detract from development of a solid base of occupational information.

Effective goal setting

One of the most significant components of the career management

process is the development of realistic, appropriate career goals. In the context
of occupational choice, the goal is to enter specific occupational fields.
Assuming that a person has conducted sufficient self and occupational
exploration, how should he or she decide from among alternative occupations?

Development of career strategies

Once a career goal is selected, we need to identify strategic behavior,

activities and experiences that facilitate goal accomplishment. Some strategies
relevant to the occupational choice process-

Skill development each occupational fields has a somewhat unique set of

job duties, the necessary skill and abilities can vary significantly from one
occupation to the next. Therefore, one component of an effective career strategy
is to acquire or develop occupationally related skills. Such skills can be
developed by exposure to appropriate educational environment.

Competence in current activities although it may seem obvious, mere

participation in academic, extracurricular, and work activities is not sufficient.
For skills to be developed, real learning needs to take place. For most people,
this demands some combination of natural talent, hard work, and effective
work or study skills. Any activity that can help one to become more proficient
is worth doing well.

Opportunity development refers to activities designed to convey one’s

interests and aspirations to others and to become aware of opportunities
consistent with this aspiration. Self-nominatin is an important career strategy
in many different situations.

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 Part-2

Organizational Entry

Organizational entry is the process by which individuals cross the boundary

from outside to inside an organization; it reflects the movement into such
entities business, schools, or the armed forces.

The organizational entry process consists of two simultaneous activities.

On one hand, individuals assess organizations to determine which one is most
likely to meet their career needs and values. On the other hand, organizations
assess candidates’ talent so they can select hose with the highest likelihood of
succeeding in the firm, just as candidates make decisions about organizations;
organizations make decisions about job candidates.

The ultimate objective of organizational entry is to match between the

individuals and the organization. The candidate’s capabilities and job’s
recruitments must match, as should the individual’s needs and the
organization’s rewards or reinforcements. The capability- job requirement
match can affect the level of job performance an employee attains, whereas the
need-reinforcement match can influence the level of job satisfaction an
employee experiences. Both matches affect the contribution a new employee
makes to his or her organization.

Theories of organizational entry

APPLIED two psychological models- expectancy theory and programmed

decision making- to the occupational process. These models have also been
used to understand how people chose a specific job in an organization.

According to expectancy theory, job candidates are attracted to the

organization that is most likely to provide desirable outcomes and avoid
undesirable outcomes. In this sense, individuals would gather relevant
information during the recruitment process and would then use this
information to estimate the each hood that alternative employees will provide
the desired set of outcomes. The individual (consciously or unconsciously)
multiplies the value of each outcome by these estimates and sums the
products across all possible outcomes. This an individuals would be expected
to accept a job offer from the firm that is most compatible with one’s
values(i.e.), the one most likely to provide thus positive outcomes as interesting

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work, pleasant working conditions, advancement opportunities, and others). A
rival theory, un programmed decision making, portrays job candidates as
considerably less through and rational than does expectancy theory. According
to this view, candidates initially attracted to organizations that are acceptable
according to just one or two critical outcomes of a long set of outcomes, develop
an implicit (often unconscious) choice of an organization, and then engage in
perceptual distortion in favor of the organization they have already implicitly
chosen. Organizational choice, in this view, is based on the subjective
perception that an organization can provide a satisfactory opportunity to attain
just few highly significant outcomes. Further, research has shown that an
organization’s ―corporate image‖ has a strong influence on an individual’s
choice to pursue employment with that organization.

Role of Expectations in Organizational entry

Both models of organizational choice–expectancy theory and unprogrammed

decision making–reflect a matching process in that people choose jobs that will
satisfy significant values. In effect, both models suggest that candidates
develop expectations about an organizations capacity to provide valued
customer. These expectations guide us toward or away from various job
opportunities. A person’s attraction to a certain job is based on the
expectations that the job will provide such desirable outcomes as interesting
work and autonomy on the job. A new employee holds some expectations when
he enters into an organization. But when these expectations become dissatisfy
and he faced with the realities of a job and ultimately, may choose to level the
organization. Some of the factors are given below to develop unrealistic
expectations

1. Career Transition:
This is the most fundamental explanation for an unrealistic expectation
is that the path from the job seeker role to the employee role represents a
career transition. A career transition is a period in which a person either
changes a career role (interrole transition) or changes orientation to a
current role (intrarole transition).For example: when a person leaves school
and enters a work organization (an interrole transition), there are many
differences between the old and new settings: differences in tasks, required
behaviors, norms and expectations. Indeed, the lives of students and
employees are vastly different.

2. Recruitment process:

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 The recruitment process has often been viewed as the most significant
source of unrealistic expectations. In essence, it is claimed that organization
often portrays jobs in overly optimistic terms, thus inducing unrealistic
expectations on the part of the job candidate. To keep qualified candidates
interested in the organization, recruitment often focuses on ―selling‖ the
organization.

3. Organizational Stereotypes:
Many candidates hold images and stereotypes of certain companies or
industries even before they have had extensive contract with an
organization .For example: Research has been found that job candidate’s
holds specific stereotypes of all small companies that differ substantially
from those of big firms.

4. Educational process:
Some of the major distinctions between the student role and the role of a
new employee have been considered .Also to be considered is the extent to
which specific courses at the college or graduate level prepare students for
the reality of the work world. For example: technically oriented courses in
engineering or business reduce the problem in working within an
organizational structure as a new employee.

5. Lake of prior work experience:

Job candidates without extensive prior work experiences may be
particularly susceptible to the development of unrealistic expectations. Job
candidates with a variety of prior work experiences seem to engage in a
more thorough information search during recruiting than candidates
without such experiences.

6. Self-Delusion:
The effects of environment (recruiting, selecting, education ,work
experience) on the development of unrealistic job expectations .Several
studies have demonstrated a strong positive relationship between a persons
values and his or her expectations. In other wards, people come to expect
job characteristics they want to experience.

Organizational actions during the entry process:

Organizations have 3 major tasks to accomplish during the entry

process. First they need to attract talented and qualified candidates into the
applicant pool and keep them interested in the organization. Second, they need
to attract candidates in such a way as to minimize the development of

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unrealistic job expectations on the part of the candidates. Third, they must
assess candidates accurately. Some of the factors must be considered in this
purpose.

1. Attraction of the job candidates:

Extensive research on candidate’s reactions to recruitment has only
recently begun. Several issues have been identified that has significant
implications for organizations.

Impact of the researcher: for many candidates for managerial,

professional, and technical positions, the first formal contract with the
organization is with the recruiter, and the first activity is the screening
interview. Researchers are beginning to accumulate information on the
desirable qualities of this initial interaction between the candidate and the
organization. Candidate’s reactions to interviews are most positive when the
recruiter is perceived as knowledgeable. Recruiters who are familiar with the
candidate’s background and understand the organization and job qualifications
in detail are viewed favorably.

Follow-up activities: On completion of the initial screening interview with

a candidate, organizations decide whether to carry the process to the next step
or to terminate the relationship with the candidate .In summary, Organizations
can take step to attract candidates during the recruitment process. The
importance of the recruiter and the initial interview can not be overemphasized.
The manner in which the site visit is planned and implemented and in which
the job offer is extended also influence candidates attitude. All these activities
contribute to the image and organizations projects to the public.

2. Realistic Recruitment:
Realistic Recruitment means presenting candidates with relevant and
undistorted information about the job and the organization. It is often
contracted with traditional job previews (TJP), in which organizations paint
overly optimistic pictures on their job and practices.

The presentation of realistic information to job candidates should reduce the

level of voluntary turnover among candidates who ultimately join the
organization. Several arguments have been advanced to support such a
position. First, Realistic previews lower candidates expectations to more
appropriate levels-expectations that are more likely to be meet on the job.
Employees whose expectations have been met tend to be satisfied with their
jobs, and satisfied employees are less likely to quit than are dissatisfied
employees. A Second explanation views a realistic preview as a vaccination
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against the reality of the job. A third explanation is that realistic job preview
(RJP) conveys an air of honesty to job candidates. This can have two effects.
First, candidates may admire and respect an organization that is candid
enough to ―tell it like it is‖. This attitude can bond a new employee to the
organization and reduce the likelihood of turnover. Fourth, it has been
suggested that realistic previews offer candidates a basis to self-select out of
the recruitment process. In other words, they should enable candidates to
determine whether a job will meet their significant values.

3. Assessment & Selection:

Once prospective job candidates have been attracted and realistically
recruited, the next step for organization is final assessment & selection. Devid
Bowen, Gerald Ledford, and Barry Nathan offer a four step approach for
organizations to achieve total person organization fit in the selection and hiring
of employees. In the first step, the organization should assess the overall work
environment to identify specific organizational characteristics and components
that are important in determining job success. In the second step, the
organization infers the type of person required to fill a specific job. The third
step involves the use of programs that allow the organization and the individual
to assess fit. For the organization, assessment of can take many different
forms, including simultaneous of work, structured job interviews, previous
work experience, cognitive ability tests, reference checks, education, and
personality tests. The Fourth step is selection of employees to achieve person
organization fit is reinforcement once the individual is hired. Especially
organizations should provide such programs as orientation, training, mentoring
and other supportive alliances that emphasized the symbiotic nature of the
relationship between individual and organization.

4. Individual actions during the entry process:

From an individual perspective, the primary aim of organizational entry is to
obtain a job that is reasonably consists with ones preferred work environment.
Five major considering tasks that people need to confront during organizational
entry. That are-

i. Development of Self-Awareness: Effective career management decisions

rest on the foundation of self-awareness. Without understanding ones
personal values, interests, and talents. Perhaps most important, it is
essential to expose oneself to opportunities for feedback, to use daily
experiences as sources of information about oneself.

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ii. Identification of Prospective employee: Research has identified five major
sources of job leads. The five sources are college placement offices,
unsolicited direct application, personal contracts, advertisements in
newspaper and journals, and personal agencies and search firms. There
exist two broad types of personal contracts:*family members, friends,
and social acquaintances and *work contracts such as present or past
bosses, colleagues and teachers.
iii. Effective job employee Behavior: Just like an organization, a job
candidate has multiple goals during recruitment. Candidates need to
make a favorable impression to receive a job offer, and they must gather
useful information about companies so they can assess alternatives.
Sometimes, these goals can conflict with one another.
iv. Assessing Organization: To make a realistic job choice, a candidate
needs to assess organizations carefully and systematically. A useful
organizational assessment requires the collection and analysis of varied
sources. To assess a organization some factors should be born in mind-
Size of the organization, structure of the organization, outlook of the
industry, location of the organizations headquarter, financial health of
the organization, availability of training and development opportunities
etc.
v. Choosing Organization: Like the choice of an organization, the selection
of a job should not be a mechanism ―by the members‖ decision. On the
basis of ones preferred environment, one should identify a set of
desirable & undesirable outcomes and estimate the compatibility of each
alternatives job with each outcome.

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 Part-3

Contemporary issues in career management

Managing Job Stress – Overview

Job stress comes in different forms and affects your mind and body in
different ways. Small things can make you feel stressed, such as a copy
machine that never seems to work when you need it or phones that won't quit
ringing. Major stress comes from having too much or not enough work or doing
work that doesn't satisfy you. Conflicts with your boss, co-workers, or
customers are other major causes of stress.

Look for these signs of job stress:

 Headaches
 Trouble sleeping
 Problems concentrating
 Short temper
 Upset stomach
 Job dissatisfaction and low morale

Causes of Job Stress

Most of the time, it's the major sources of stress that lead to job burnout
and health problems. Job stress can affect your home life too. Here are some
common sources of major job stress, with examples of each:

Lack of control:

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Feeling as if you have no control over your work or job duties is the biggest
cause of job stress. People who feel like they have no control at work are most
likely to get stress-related illnesses. Here's an example:

Shelly is responsible for putting together a report that her boss must deliver at
a 4 p.m. meeting. She's been waiting all day for the notes and numbers she
needs. Shelly finally gets the notes from her boss at 3:15 and rushes to prepare
the report and charts and to make copies in time. She gets it done, but she
feels mad and resentful. This is the third time this week that this has
happened.

Increased responsibility:

Taking on extra duties in your job is stressful. You can get more stressed if you
have too much work to do and you can't say no to new tasks.

Uncertainty about work roles:

Being unsure about your duties, how your job might be changing, or the goals
of your department or company can lead to stress. If you report to more than
one boss, juggling the demands of different managers can also be stressful.

Poor communication:

Tension on the job often comes from poor communication. Being unable to talk
about your needs, concerns, and frustrations can create stress.

Lack of support:

Lack of support from your boss or co-workers makes it harder to solve other
problems at work that are causing stress for you.

Jeff works in a busy office answering customer complaint calls all day. It would
be easier to handle all the calls if he could at least trade tips with his co-
workers. But everyone else is busy too. His co-workers never make it out of
their cubicles during the day, even to let off a little steam.

Poor working conditions:

Unpleasant or dangerous physical conditions, such as crowding, noise, or

ergonomic problems, can cause stress.

Sonya is exposed to constant noise at work. She wears earplugs, but at the end
of her shift her ears are ringing. She often comes home with a headache.

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How to manage job stress:

There are a variety of steps you can take to reduce both your overall stress
levels and the stress you find on the job and in the workplace. These include:

 Taking responsibility for improving your physical and emotional well-

being.
 Avoiding pitfalls by identifying knee jerk habits and negative attitudes
that add to the stress you experience at work.
 Learning better communication skills to ease and improve your
relationships with management and co-workers.

Tip 1: Recognize warning signs of excessive stress at work

When you feel overwhelmed at work, you lose confidence and may become
irritable or withdrawn. This can make you less productive and less effective in
your job, and make the work seem less rewarding. If you ignore the warning
signs of work stress, they can lead to bigger problems. Beyond interfering with
job performance and satisfaction, chronic or intense stress can also lead to
physical and emotional health problems.

Tip 2: Reduce job stress by taking care of yourself When stress at work
interferes with your ability to perform in your job, manage your personal life, or
adversely impacts your health, it’s time to take action. Start by paying
attention to your physical and emotional health. When your own needs are
taken care of, you’re stronger and more resilient to stress. The better you feel,
the better equipped you’ll be to manage work stress without becoming
overwhelmed.

Taking care of you doesn’t require a total lifestyle overhaul. Even small things
can lift your mood, increase your energy, and make you feel like you’re back in
the driver’s seat. Take things one step at a time, and as you make more
positive lifestyle choices, you’ll soon notice a reduction in your stress levels,
both at home and at work.

Tip 3: Reduce job stress by prioritizing and organizingWhen job and

workplace stress threatens to overwhelm you, there are simple steps you can
take to regain control over yourself and the situation. Your newfound ability to
maintain a sense of self-control in stressful situations will often be well-
received by co-workers, managers, and subordinates alike, which can lead to

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better relationships at work. Here are some suggestions for reducing job stress
by prioritizing and organizing your responsibilities.

Tip 4: Reduce job stress by breaking bad habits As you learn to manage
your job stress and improve your work relationships, you’ll have more control
over your ability to think clearly and act appropriately. You will be able to
break habits that add to your stress at work – and you’ll even be able to change
negative ways of thinking about things that only add to your stress.

Tip 6: Learn how managers or employers can reduce job stressIt's in a

manager's best interest to keep stress levels in the workplace to a minimum.
Managers can act as positive role models, especially in times of high stress, by
following the tips outlined in this article. If a respected manager can remain
calm in stressful work situations, it is much easier for his or her employees to
also remain calm.

Additionally, there are a number of organizational changes that managers and

employers can make to reduce workplace stress. These include:

Improve communication:

 Share information with employees to reduce uncertainty about their jobs

and futures.
 Clearly define employees’ roles and responsibilities.
 Make communication friendly and efficient, not mean-spirited or petty.

Consult your employees:

 Give workers opportunities to participate in decisions that affect their

jobs.
 Consult employees about scheduling and work rules.
 Be sure the workload is suitable to employees’ abilities and resources;
avoid unrealistic deadlines.
 Show that individual workers are valued.
 Offer rewards and incentives.
 Praise good work performance, both verbally and officially, through
schemes such as Employee of the Month.
 Provide opportunities for career development.
 Promote an ―entrepreneurial‖ work climate that gives employees more
control over their work.
 Cultivate a friendly social climate
 Provide opportunities for social interaction among employees.
 Establish a zero-tolerance policy for harassment.

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  Make management actions consistent with organizational values.

Job stress comes in different forms and affects your mind and body in different
ways. Small things can make you feel stressed, such as a copy machine that
never seems to work when you need it or phones that won't quit ringing. Major
stress comes from having too much or not enough work or doing work that
doesn't satisfy you. Conflicts with your boss, co-workers, or customers are
other major causes of stress.

Work–family conflict

Family conflict is ―a form of inter role conflict in which the role pressures from
the work and family domains are mutually incompatible in some respect. That
is participation in the work (family) role is made more difficult by virtue of
participation in the family (work) role‖ (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985, p. 77).
Accordingly, the conflict takes place at the work-life interface. Conflict between
work and family is important for organizations and individuals because it is
linked to negative consequences. For example, conflict between work and
family is associated with increased absenteeism, increased turnover, decreased
performance, and poorer physical and mental health. it is a tight connection
between families Conceptually conflict between work and family is bi-
directional. Most researchers make the distinction between what is termed
work-family conflict, and what is termed family–work conflict. Work-to-family
conflict occurs when experiences at work interfere with family life, like
extensive, irregular, or inflexible work hours, work overload and other forms of
job stress, interpersonal conflict at work, extensive travel, career transitions,
unsupportive supervisor or organization. For example, an unexpected meeting
late in the day may prevent a parent from picking up his or her child from
school. Family-to-work conflict occurs when experiences in the family interfere
with work life like presence of young children, primary responsibility for
children, elder care responsibilities, interpersonal conflict within the family
unit, unsupportive family members. For example, a parent may take time off
from work in order to take care of a sick child. Although these two forms of
conflict–work interference with family (WIF) and family interference with work
(FIW) are strongly correlated with each other, more attention has been directed
at WIF more than FIW. This may because work demands are easier to quantify;
that is, the boundaries and responsibilities of the family role is more elastic
than the boundaries and responsibilities of the work role. Also, research has
found that work roles are more likely to interfere with family roles than family
roles are likely to interfere with work roles. This is largely attributed to the idea

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of what Arlie Russel Hochschild termed "the ideal worker". Hochschild astutely
points out that the image employers have of an ―ideal worker‖ already rests on
some unrealistic assumptions about how the family should operate. Many
employers expect that employees with families have someone tending to
everything at home, leaving the worker unencumbered. Despite the fact that a
majority of families in the U.S. are dual earning, the image of the "ideal worker"
persists and causes work-family conflict by demanding too much of working
parents.

How Are Work- Family Conflicts Being Addressed?

With advances in technology, individuals who work outside of the home and
have intense schedules are finding a way to keep in touch with their families
when they can not physically be with them.

What Is Dual-Career Lifestyle?

Rapoport and Rapoport define dual-career couples as individuals who, rather

than being simply employed, have "jobs which require a high degree of
commitment and which have a continuous developmental character." They
define a dual-career family as "one in which both heads of household pursue
careers and at the same time maintain a family life together." Extension
professionals have an opportunity to help individuals meet the challenges and
cope with the stress so that they can enjoy the positive aspects of the dual-
career lifestyle.

Challenges To Be Faced

The dual-career lifestyle has created a unique set of challenges, many of which
relate to socialization and role expectations, work role conflicts, and family role
conflicts. Many couples have difficulty resolving role expectations because the
likelihood is great that the individuals involved have been socialized for roles
very different from those they're apt to experience as part of this lifestyle.

A woman who tries to combine a career and a family is soon reminded

that she's flaunting the socially accepted norms. She finds herself in a
seemingly no-win situation. The qualities associated with the role of wife-
mother are seen to be incompatible with those qualities associated with
success in the occupational sphere The man, too, is struggling with his
definition of masculine and feminine roles as he has been socialized to
understand them.

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 A man grows up expecting to be the head of a household, to be the one
who earns the money and has the power. For the most part, men aren't
socialized or educated to fill roles calling for skills in child rearing or
homemaking. Even if a man has the skills, he may perceive that devoting a
great deal of time and emotional energy to domestic activities may negatively
affect his career, particularly if he's competing with other men who don't have
similar family roles.

Tips for Two-Career Families:

 Have a schedule and stick to it, but be flexible to deal with things that
come up.
 Make daily and weekly to-do lists for work and home—ticking things off
the list is a great motivator.
 Plan and shop ahead; buy in bulk. (Shannon checks the monthly
calendar for birthday parties and buys all the gifts at once.)
 Have a place for everything, and put things in their place.
 Plan errands so you are travelling in a circle that begins and ends at
home; don't waste time zigzagging back and forth across town.
 Go for a walk or run in the morning before children are awake. Thirty
minutes in the fresh air makes a world of difference in the day.
 Remember to thank the people at work, at school and your friends and
family who help you make it all happen.

Managing Diversity

It is an axiom of our times that our world is rapidly changing. With change
comes not only a different view of the world, but also changes in language to
name that ―new‖ world. Old words take on new meanings and new words enter
the vocabulary, resulting in another way of ―seeing.‖ It was not too long ago
that as a nation we moved from an Agrarian Society concerned with conformity,
through an Industrial Society concerned with nationalism and uniformity, to
our present Information Society concerned with diversity within a global
context, on our way to the Global Society of the 21st century with a planetary
worldview.i Such cultural and political upheavals have given rise to
knowledgeable players in the game of social change, while leaving most people
as confused bystanders, desperately hanging on to a past, which in part is
dysfunctional to the present and in many ways irrelevant to the future.

An introduction to organizational fairness

―People like to be treated fairly.‖

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The notion of treating people fairly seems incredibly simple and intuitive. Yet
we are all readily aware of multiple instances when we have been treated
unfairly and the negative feelings that resulted from that unfair treatment.

“Why should I, as a leader, treat my subordinates fairly?”

The answer to this question is simple: because it is not only ethical, but
clearly it is also in your best interest to do so. Individuals that are treated
unfairly at work respond to this treatment with a variety of negative feelings
and behaviors that are destructive to the organization. For example,

 Unfairly treated subordinates:

 Report reduced job satisfaction
 Are less committed to the organization
 Are more likely to quit their jobs
 Are more likely to perform their job poorly
 Are more likely to somehow sabotage the organization (for example: by
stealing)3
 Tend to treat customers with less respect7
Thus, a successful leader is one that is able to treat their subordinates in a
fair manner.

Entrepreneurial Careers:

In their attempt to define entrepreneurship, researchers have identified five

relevant schools of thought, each taking a somewhat different perspective on
the term:

1. The ―Great Person‖ schools views entrepreneurs as having inborn,

intuitive abilities to successfully run an enterprise.

2. The ―Psychological Characteristics‖ school views entrepreneurs as having

unique values, attitudes and needs that drive them to be in charge of a
firm.

3. The ―Classical‖ school views entrepreneurs simply as innovators.

4. The ―Management‖ school views entrepreneurs as organizers as

managers of an economic venture.

5. The ―Leadership‖ school views entrepreneurs as leaders of people.

Entrepreneur’s personal characteristics:

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Some researchers have proposed that entrepreneurs possess certain
personality and psychological characteristics, traits and attitudes that
predispose them to the undertaking of and success in, business ventures of
their own. Those characteristics are given below:

1. Need for achievement: According to McClelland, those high in need for

achievement exhibit three main behavioral traits; (a)they take personal
responsibility for finding solutions to problems, (b)they set the moderate
performance goals and take moderate, calculated risk and (c)they desire
specific feedback concerning performance.

2. Internal Locus of Control: Individuals with internal locus of control

believe they can largely control their environment and their fate through
their own actions and behaviors.

3. Tolerance for Ambiguity: The ability to accept and deal with conflicting
and uncertain situations and to handle multiple, ambiguous
assignments does appear to distinguish the entrepreneurial personality
from no entrepreneurs.

4. Risk-Taking Propensity: Some studies have indicated that

entrepreneurs can differentiated with respect to risk taking, whereas
others have failed to show a linkage. Researchers have speculated that
entrepreneurs themselves may not have a higher willingness to take risks
but instead are blind to the degree of risks involved in their ventures.

5. Entrepreneurial Self-Concept: Individuals can have certain orientations

toward work that reflect their personal motives, values, and talents. This
orientation, known as a career anchor, is the manifestation of the
individual’s self-concept or image in his or her career choice.

6. Demographic and Background Factors: Several studies have been

conducted to see if entrepreneurs could be differentiated from non-
entrepreneurs based on a variety of demographic characteristics. Those
factors include parent’s occupation, parent’s socioeconomic status, birth
order of the entrepreneur, and several others.

Selecting and Managing the Entrepreneurial Career:

Selection of an entrepreneurial career, although admittedly somewhat

different from the choice of an organizational career. Throughout one’s
entrepreneurial career, regular reappraisal should occur regarding whether
key expectations and goals are being fulfilled.

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