MGMT5940 - Career Management Skills

Week 12, Lecture 11 – 15th October 2018

For the Assignment…

 LinkedIn – you can download a PDF format (profile)

 Given straightforward questions to answers (provided soon)
 DUE MONDAY NEXT WEEK 5pm (turnitin)

Scale

- Middle or below/down
o Relatively low core self-evaluation
- Middle and above/up
o Relatively high core self-evaluation
- 4 traits
o Neuroticism
 More stable / need habits to change this
 Subject to change depending on events that occur in life
 Tendency to focus on negative aspects of self
o Self-esteem
 How you feel/regard yourself – value
 Something you can usually change
o Locus of control
 Belief that you or the environmental controls the outcomes of events
around you (low – internal locus)
 More stable / need habits to change this
o Generalised self-efficacy
 Belief in self
 Something you can change
- What can I do to improve my behaviours in such a way to have a higher core self-evaluation?
o question we need to ask ourselves
- Core Self-evaluations linked to job and work success
o Associated with higher initial levels of work success (start career higher) and steeper
work success trajectories
o Answers why some people are better off than others
o Occupational status – individuals with high rather than low core self-evaluations
gained occupational prestige more rapidly
o Pay – increase quicker over time than those low in CSE
o Job satisfaction – increased to greater degree over time than those with low CSE
o Cumulative Advantage
o Education
 More likely to invest in it with high CSE
 Is a mediator
o NB: may not generalise across all cultures
o * See when they do this across different countries of origin, and various times
  Physics – if you catch a ball, what do you decide to do with it? Hold it, let it
weigh you down? Use it to grow?

Reading Notes

Reading 1: How the Rich (Happy) get Richer (Happier)

Introduction

- Career success definitions so broad that it’s not only one’s status relative to others at point B
that defines success but also how far and how quickly one has moved since point A
- Cumulative Advantage
o Early achievement sets the stage for a more rapid growth rate, deepening inequality
over time
- Matthew Effect
o Productivity and rewards accumulate disproportionately for those scientists who
distinguish themselves at the outset of their careers.
- Precocious individuals – rewarded with inducements and expectations that not only
privilege them with greater resources but also motivates them further
o Self-confident and tolerates frustration, absorbs repeated failures
- Core Self-Evaluations
o Basic assumptions people make about themselves – used to predict both between-
individual differences in early career success and within individual career growth
trajectories.
- First study to investigate dispositional influences on individual career trajectories
- 3 objectives
o 1. Whether core self-evaluations might influence both initial success that triggers
Matthew Effect as well as the pattern of cumulative advantage
o 2. Shed light on why core self-evaluations might influence career growth trajectories
by examining rates of change in two possible mediators: educational attainment and
health problems that interfere with work
o 3. Demonstrate that inequality in career success should be considered not only as a
finite point that individuals reach after years of working but as a dynamic process in
which the very pace at which individuals experience career growth varies
- Visible markers of career success
o Status
o Wealth

- Their definition of career success

o The real and perceived achievements individuals have accumulated as a result of
their work experiences
- Career Trajectory
o A curve or surface passing through a given set of points, or intersecting each of a
given series of curves or surfaces.
- Operational career success
o Measure is pay
 - Sociologist and empirical view
o Powerful indicator of achievement is occupational status.
 Power, prestige, and authority provided by an occupation
- Limitations of happiness and satisfaction as measures of success
o Feelings might not take into account prior career achievements (or lack thereof),
potential opportunities, or other factors one uses to evaluate whether a career is
going well.

Core Self-Evaluations and Early Career Success

- Recognition that early career success might set the tone for long-run success
- Early upward mobility in a corporation predicted career outcomes more than later
promotions
- Challenging work assignments were related not only to strong initial performance but also to
the maintenance of competence and performance by engineers throughout their careers.
This research indicated that early successes set individuals on course for stronger career
progress over time
- Individuals with high core self-evaluations may be more likely to obtain early career success
– more motivated, perform better, tend to hold more challenging jobs, are more satisfied
with their jobs.
- Neuroticism
o Linked to career self-efficacy and interests
o Also neuroticism, external locus of control, low self-esteem are associated with
career indecision among young adults
- College students with positive self-core evaluations are more likely to attain more (higher
goal attainment) and to be happier with what they do attain (greater job and life
satisfaction)

Core Self-Evaluations and Career Success Trajectories

- Seek to determine whether the advantages found for people with positive core self-
evaluations stem not only from their starting out on a better footing, but also from faster
career growth, consisted with the Matthew effect
- Jobs become attached more to personal identity rather than need, over time
- Core self-evaluations seem to affect the likelihood, duration, and health effects of
unemployment as well as the success of job changes.
o People with high core self-evaluations search for jobs more assiduously when
unemployed, and experience sustain good health and life satisfaction during
unemployment spells
- Men low in emotional stability (high in neuroticism) are more likely to experience job
changes that are shifts downward in socioeconomic status
- Self-verification theory suggests that people seek out environments and interactions that
enable them to maintain their self-views, even when those views are negative
- Those with high core self-evaluations may also be well-equipped psychologically to take
increasing amounts of satisfaction and fulfillment from work – an greater satisfaction from
their extrinsic success
o Stronger psychic rewards from their career success triggering upward spirals in well-
being
The Mediating Roles of Education and Health

- Human capital theory explains that a large gradation in earnings by level of education
reflects returns to individuals’ investment in education
- Individuals who pursued postsecondary education and credentials, those who did so early in
their careers generally received greater wage boosts from their schooling than did those
who returned to school later.
- Having a college degree was positively associated with managerial career attainment
- In pursuing greater challenge, those high core self-evaluations may also be more likely to
pursue additional formal education
- Motivation
o Internal locus of control
o And anxiety
- Some evidence indicates that poor physical and mental health creates obstacles for
launching a career
- Health problems may interfere with the ability to sustain a career and may dampen one’s
subjective experience of the job
- Individuals high in neuroticism select themselves into more stressful situations, engage in
more risky behaviour, and have more accidents at work, and more likely to be diagnosed
with mental disorders
- Health-promoting behaviours
o Self-esteem
o And self-efficacy
- Cumulative advantage in health trajectories so that those with higher education have better
health early in adulthood and experience lower rates of decline as they age

Discussion

- The premise of positive thinking contains at least a kernel of truth

o Those with high core self-evaluations tend to be better performers, are more
satisfied in their work, are better able to recover from job loss, and are happier in
life
- Positive individuals are the beneficiaries of a trend toward cumulative advantage in their
careers. They tend to being on a better footing and enjoy steeper career growth over time
- Those with negative core self-evaluations acquired education more slowly which affected
their pay, occupational status, and job satisfaction.
o They also experienced a steep rise in health problems that interfered with work,
compromising growth in pay and job satisfaction.

Limitations and Future Research

- Interesting to determine the degree to which individuals’ definition of career success evolve
over time as well as how such shifting construals might be related to indivdiuals’ self-
concepts.
- Considering other traits such as conscientiousness and proactive personality
Conclusion

- Study established that the Matthew Effect is prevalent across the career spectrum
- It is also the first to apply personality to understanding this pattern of cumulative advantage
supporting the assertion that self-assurance plays a role in establishing and perpetuating the
effect
- Those with high core self-evaluations enjoy higher job satisfaction
- Education and health problems play a role in that those with high core self-evaluations
acquire the former more quickly and the latter less quickly, and both affect career growth.

Reading 2: Communication, Conflict and Negotiation in Organisations

Introduction

- No amount of new technologies will eliminate daily communication obstacles occurring in all
types of organisations such as differences, misunderstandings, and disagreements
- Leaving conflict unresolved exposes organisations to greater risk of losing employees: those
involved
- Costs of hiring and training a replacement employee
- Managers need to strive to improve communication, address conflict and engage in
appropriate negotiation processes.
- Construct conflict promotes creativity and makes people reassess situations, identify
problems and find new solutions

Communication in Organisations

- Interpersonal communication – sending symbols with attached meanings from one person
to another
- When we communication, we are usually trying to influence others’ understandings,
behaviour, or attitudes. We try to share meaning in some way

Interpersonal Communication

- Key elements
o Source – person responsible for encoding an intended meaning to a message
o Receiver – person who decodes message into a perceived meaning
o Noise
 Physical distractions
 Semantic problems
 Cultural differences
 Mixed messages
 Absence of feedback
 Status effects
 Sometimes even non-verbal communication (e.g. the way someone is
dressed)
- Information source
o A person or group of persons with a reason to communicate with some other
person(s), the receiver(s)
- Encoding
o Process of translating an idea or thought into meaningful symbols
 - Decoding
o Involves interpreting or translating the symbols sent
- Feedback
o Process by which receivers acknowledge the communication and return a message
concerning how they feel about the original message

Effective and efficient communication

- Effective communication – when the intended meaning of the source and the perceived
meaning of the receiver are the same. This should be the manager’s goal in any
interpersonal communication attempt.
- Efficient communication – occurs at minimum cost in terms of resources expended. Time is
an important resource in the communication process. E.g. Picture lecture talking to each an
every student in each class.
- Low cost communication
o Email
o Many not always achieve desired results in terms of the receiver’s perceived
meaning
- Sometimes effective communication is not efficient communication
o And may be costly
- Barriers to communication
o Cultural differences
o Defensiveness
o Misreading of non-verbal communication
o And stereotyping

Communication Channels

- Formal, informal, and quasiformal channels.

- Formal
o Chain of command
o Letters, memos, policy statements, other announcements
- Informal
o Skipping levels in the hierarchy and or cutting across vertical chains of command
o Management by walking around
o Reduce the perceive distance

Controlling Communication Access and Flow

- Social media and questions about productivity issues and possible security risk
- Blocking sites as unethical behaviour by the org – perceived by employees
- Over-control – employees feel like they are being treated like children – and are not being
trusted to decide what is right and wrong. A moderate approach characterised by
educational campaigns for employees regarding security implications, while still enabling
reasonable access, might create a healthy environment of education and social
responsibility.
Conflict

- Successful conflict is at the root of organisational effectiveness

- Conflicts can erupt in lower levels of hierarchy and in the boardroom
- Managers can spend up to 20% of their time dealing with conflict
- Managers must be skilled participants in the dynamics of interpersonal conflict. They must
be able to recognise situations that have the potential for conflict and deal with these to
best serve the needs of the org and those involved.
- Common reasons for conflict
o Personal styles
o Values
o Job perspectives
o Differing variations in skill level

Communication that can lead to conflict

1. Negative communication
a. Negativity drains enthusiasm, energy, and self-esteem
2. Blaming communication
a. Blaming stops reflection, scrutinises performance and behaviour
3. Superior Communication
a. Ordering people about, direct, advising, and moralising
4. Dishonest communication
a. Failing to practice listening to understand and failing to display empathy
5. Selective Communication
a. Only telling others what they think others need to know, hence keeping them in a
position of power other over team members.

Levels of Conflict

1. Intrapersonal or conflict within the individual

2. Interpersonal or individual to individual conflict
3. Intergroup conflict
4. Interorganisational conflict

Intrapersonal Conflict

- Actual or perceived pressures from incompatible goals or expectations of the following

types;
o Approach conflict – person must choose between two positive and equally attractive
alternatives
 E.g. valued promotion or desirable new job
o Avoidance conflict – when a person must choose between two negative and equally
unattractive alternatives
 E.g. asked to accept a job out of town or have employment terminated
o Approach-avoidance
 E.g. being offered a high paying job but one with responsibilities that will
make unwanted demands on you
Intergroup conflict

- Conflict between sales and production personnel in two plants of the same company

Interorganisational conflict

- Between organisations or between independent units in large organisations

- It reflects the competition and rivalry that characterises organisations operating in the same
markets
- Disagreements between unions and organisations for example
- Joint ventures, strategic alliances and networks have the potential to release conflicts

Conflict and Culture

- Diversity is an opportunity and a challenge

o Broaden and enrich teaching, research, admin activities, service
o But also can be a source of tension, diversion or conflict especially if related to
exclusion, disadvantage, or racism
- Key reason of expatriates is the uncertainty and frustration resulting from poor cross-
cultural adaptation

Constructive and destructive conflicts

- Conflict in organisations can be destructive

o By-product of conflict is stress
- Constructive conflict and destructive conflict
o Constructive – results in benefits to the group or organisation
 offers change to identify otherwise neglected problems and opportunities
 positive conflict can also help organisations become more innovative and
nurtures creativity
o Destructive- works to group or company’s disadvantage
 Employees may be unable to work together as a result of interpersonal
hostility or when members of a committee fail to act because they cannot
agree on group goals.
 Decrease work productivity and job satisfaction
- How to prevent destructive conflict
o Listen carefully to employees to prevent misunderstanding
o Monitor employees’ work and assist them to understand and coordinate their
actions
o Encourage employees to approach you when they cannot solve difficulties with co-
workers on their own
o Clear the air with regular meetings that give employees a change to discuss
grievances
o Provide suggestion box
o Offer as much information as possible about decisions to minimise confusion
o Use surveys to identify possible conflicts that have not yet surfaced
Conflict situations faced by Managers

- An effective manager is able to recognise and deal with each of the following conflict
situations
o Vertical conflict
 Between hierarchical levels, disagreements over resources, goals, deadlines,
performance results
o Horizontal conflict
 Occurs between people or groups at the same hierarchical level and
commonly involves goal incompabilities, resource scarcities, or purely
interpersonal factors
o Line-staff conflict
 Occurs between line and staff reps, over control, authority, personal
selection, and termination practices
o Role conflict
 Communication of task expectations, uncertainties, overloads, underloads,
incompatibilities
- Characteristics predisposed to conflict
o Work flow interdependence
o Power and/or value asymmetry
o Role ambiguity or domain ambiguity
o Resource scarcity (actual or perceived)

Conflict Management Approaches

- Conflict resolution
o Conflict resolution should be the goal, a situation in which the underlying reasons
for a given conflict are eliminated
- What can be done to better manage workplace conflict?
o Reinforce manager responsibility for conflict
o Develop conflict management strategies
o Ensure employees familiar with policy on conflict
o Facilitate discussions
o Coach employees to effectively communicate
o Appoint conflict contact offers to listen to concerns
o Provide support services (EAP)

Conflict-Resolution Styles

- Blake and Mouton

o 1. Forcing
o 2. Withdrawing
o 3. Soothing
o 4. Compromising
o 5. Problem solving
- Kenneth Thomas
o 1. Assertiveness
o 2. Self-Confidence
- Afzalur Rahim
o 1. Integrating
 o 2. Obliging
o 3. Compromising
o 4. Dominating
o 5. Avoiding
- In organisations life, the status of an organisational member could well influence the choice
of conflict-resolution style.

Conflict Resolution and Organisational Design

- Decoupling – separating them or reducing contact between them. In some cases, tasks of
units can be adjusted to reduce the number of required point of coordination
- Buffering – when inputs of one group are outputs of another group – build an inventory
between the two groups so any output slowdown or excess is absorbed by the inventory and
does not put pressure on the group directly
- Linking Pins – between groups to prevent conflict – people who are assigned to manage
conflict between groups that are prone to it.

Negotiation

- Negotiation can be used to improve effectiveness and performance

- Negotiation is the process of making joint decisions when parties involved have different
preferences.
- Can be a way of getting what they want from others in a process of making decisions.
- As more people get involved in decision making, so more disagreement are likely to arise
over such diverse matters as wage rates, task objectives, performance evaluations, job
assignments, work schedules, work locations.

Four types of negotiation situations

1. 2-party negotiation
a. Manager negotiations directly with other person. E.g. salary increase
2. Group negotiation
a. Manage part of a team or group whose members are negotiating to arrive at a
common decision; e.g. committee that must reach agreement on sexual harassment
policy
3. Intergroup negotiation
a. Manager is part of a group that is negotiating with another group to arrive at a
decision regarding a problem or situation affecting both; e.g. negotiation between
groups and organisations to form a joint venture or strategic alliance
4. Constituency negotiation
a. The manager is involved in negotiation with other people and each individual party
represents a broader constituency. Team representing management.
Different approaches to negotiation

1. Distributive
a. Claiming certain portions of the available pie
b. Competitive and positional
c. Both parties may be dissatisfied because both don’t get what they want
(compromise or accommodate)
2. Integrative
a. Enlarge the available pie
b. Win-win orientation

Summary

- Communication is a process which org members share meanings by exchanging information

- We communicate to inform, instruct, motivate or seek information to achieve coordinate
action
- To develop information in order to benefit org, express feelings and emotions, and to
explain respective job responsibilities, roles, and expectations.