How Managers can Effectively Make a Difference

HOW MANAGERS CAN EFFECTIVELY ‘MAKE A DIFFERENCE TRYING TO MAKE A WORKPLACE FAIRER AND MORE EQUAL FOR ALL EMPLOYEES
Name
Course
Professor
University
City/State
Date
Introduction
Contemporary workplaces have become dynamic and diversified, requiring increased consideration of diverse aspects of the workforce to create an embracing environment. Researchers reveal that managers have a fundamental role in ensuring that all employees feel appreciated in their capacities through diverse ways. According to Kropp, Knight, and Shepp (2022), recent research indicates that a significant proportion of workers, up to 82%, feel their work settings are not fair or equitable enough. Although companies have made significant efforts to integrate progressive policies for advancing equality and fairness, gaps persist that lead to such statistics. This awareness indicates that managers need to devise creative ways of improving their internal operations, interactions with their employees, compensation, employee involvement, promotional approaches, and recruitment processes to ensure that they make a difference and transform their establishments into fairer and equal workplaces.
Techniques for Making Workplaces Fairer and Equal
Trends reveal that productivity declines when workplaces are unfair and unequal for the workers. For instance, Gabriel and Aguinis (2022, p. 184) indicate that such settings trigger work-related burnout that compromises individual performance and diminishes their motivation to excel. Stone, Cox, and Gavin (2020, p. 172) agree with this observation by indicating that workers become demotivated and disengaged when they perceive their work environment as unfair. Such an aspect requires managers to reorganize their firms and incorporate work-oriented changes that positively transform the workforce’s perception. These stakeholders can only achieve this objective through systemic changes that include different approaches.
Fair Remuneration, Benefits, and Promotion
Employee compensation for their work is the leading metric for equality and fairness. Stone, Cox, and Gavin (2020, p. 434) emphasize the need for strategic implementation of this component because it determines the company’s perception of whether it is fair and equal. As a result, integrating approaches such as pay for performance is progressive and determinative of the requirements by the firm from the workers for every reward they receive. Remuneration and benefits offered by a firm can either be financial or non-financial. While the latter plays a critical role in increased motivation, the former is the leading performance trigger and should remain commensurate to the position, workload, and other determinants (Stone, Cox, & Gavin, 2020, p. 434). In this context, the manager has a central role in ensuring employees feel adequately appreciated by transparent pay structures. The absence of secrecy confirms fairness and equality and promotes managerial trust.
Other than payments, the managers should ensure the promotional processes of their company are transparent, non-discriminative, and timely. Stone, Cox, and Gavin (2020, p. 457) consider shifting an employee from one job position to another as a reward for exemplary performance. The manager should ensure this process occurs openly, informed by non-disputable performance metrics, to ensure that other workers become motivated to receive similar recognitions. Such an approach ensures that no individual feels overlooked or undervalued since the process is transparent.
Informational Transparency
Modern companies exist in an informative world where workers demand transparency from their employers to ensure they remain aware of their work settings and related operations. Kropp, Knight, and Shepp (2022) indicate that employees feel alienated and demotivated when their managers fail to update them with essential information related to their work. Statistics reveal that despite the call for transparency in organizations, only 33% of global firms have made significant efforts to achieve this goal. Stone, Cox, and Gavin (2020, p. 97) indicate that managers can improve this aspect by promoting a human resource information system (HRIS) that prioritizes relational goals. Such an approach would establish a system that keeps the workers informed of appropriate changes in the company through open communications. It would also improve trust and relationships since the workers feel engaged and appreciated through timely and consistent transparency.
Recognize the Contributions of Workers
Although employees are compensated for their services through their salaries and associated packages, integrating other forms of recognition for their output would improve fairness and equality. Stone, Cox, and Gavin (2020, p. 294) acknowledge that workers who contribute significantly to the company’s achievement of a firm’s objectives require recognition to keep them motivated and challenge others to emulate a similar commitment. However, managers must remain careful and thorough to ensure such recognition is fair and equitable through standardized rewards for specific employees across the different departments. Implementing this aspect ensures that workers do not feel devalued.
Determining the recognition process will be a complex and challenging endeavor for managers. One of the reasons for this observation is that emerging statistics demonstrate that a smaller proportion of workers, about 24%, feel appreciated (Kropp, Knight, and Shepp, 2022). In this context, managers must introduce evaluation approaches that consider each job’s unique aspects without preference for senior or junior positions. They can complement this method with technological options for monitoring the contributions of each employee to ensure the supervisors do not take...