Diversity in the workplace in Singapore. 'Surface-level diversity' and Essay

Diversity in the workplace in Singapore. 'Surface-level diversity' and 'Deep-level diversity' - Essay Example Diversity is used as an umbrella term to represent the dissimilarity of the individuals that make a team on the basis of their individualistic characteristics (Jackson, 1992). Surface-level diversity has been referred to as visible (Pelled, 1996) and demographic (Williams and O’Reilly, 1998) and is conventionally understood as inclusive of such variables as gender, ethnic origin and age (Harrison et al., 2002; Lawrence, 1997; Tsui et al., 1995). Denying demographic attributes is cumbersome, though people may find several ways to categorize themselves. Deep-level diversity, on the other hand, reflects a disparity of characteristics that are not apparently noticeable. Such characteristics include but are not limited to viewpoint, ideology, extremism and connectedness. Managers need to have a fair understanding of both in order to deal with the frequently arising problems in the contemporary workplace. With the rapid expansion of economies over the last twenty years, diversity and inclusion have become factors of extreme significance in many Asian countries including Philippines, Hong Kong and Singapore. Increased workforce diversity in these countries can fundamentally be attributed to the fact that more women enjoy management positions in organizations in these countries as compared to the trend in US or Europe. According to 20-First (n.d.), Singapore’s share of women senior managers is the maximum among all Asian nations. In their research, Dimovski, Skerlavaj, and Man (2010) examined if growth of women managers in the organizations of Singapore are restrained by a glass ceiling. The term â€Å"glass ceiling† is a â€Å"well enshrined phenomenon supported by conclusive evidence† (Simpson and Atlman, 2003). Dimovski, Skerlavaj, and Man (2010) studied the perceptions of female mid-level managers in Singapore regarding whether or not they have to deal with a gl ass ceiling in the workplace with respect to corporate climate, corporate culture and the general practices. Dimovski, Skerlavaj, and Man (2010) concluded that the promotion of female managers in the Singapore organizations is inhibited. Female mid-level managers expressed lack of development opportunities including initiatives that are family-friendly, mentoring and networking. 32.5 per cent of the respondents said they had encountered the invisible women syndrome in the workplace and 37.5 per cent women managers said that the judgment of their work performance was unfair. 35 per cent respondents of these respondents said that the organization in which they worked valued diversity and had a corporate climate. Women expressed dissatisfaction for the organizational practices and culture in place and rendered them generally unsupportive for them. Despite this, when so many women express dissatisfaction towards the work environment, it means much needs to be done in order to address th e concerns of surface-level diversity and deep-level diversity. A lot of women managers in Singapore are still caught in the issues of sexual harassment and intellectual underestimation. Surface-level diversity is visualized as a potential threat by many local workers of Singapore because of the managers’ biased behavior in favor of the foreign workers in general and the Chinese workers in particular. Singapore has

An Approach to Morality Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

An Approach to Morality - Essay Example They are self-conscious, reflecting on their past and future, on life and death. Before discussing them as good or bad it is essential to describe what do we mean by being "good" or "bad". (Gmez-Lobo, p. 1-3) I believe being good means to fulfill the criteria of morality, that is, the customs, habits, aims, and values adopted by a given society, or, stated differently, the quality of rightness or wrongness the society attributes to the acts and attitudes of an individual as these conform or fail to conform to prevailing custom. In a moral sense "Bad" is contrasted with "Good". If an orderly, rational universe is postulated, and particularly if it is assumed that there is an omnipotent and beneficent creator, the bad or evil disrupts the order and results in sorrow, distress, or calamity. In a derived sense, being bad is equated with any suffering or other misfortune. Its cause and what can be done about it are perennial philosophical and theological problems. (Cooley, p. 61-63) Observing the above criteria I believe that nature has created human beings with both negative and positive potentials. He is provided with all awareness of ethics and morality but, somehow, possesses a natural inclination towards bad deeds also. This tug-of-war between good and bad constitutes his life pattern and the ultimate end. Moreover, I have observed that these potentials of goodness and badness may be augmented or mitigated, unknowingly, due to the type of environment and brought up an individual comes across. No child is a born criminal or saint, but most definitely it's his type of environment and the kind of brought up given to him or her by the parents determine his negative or positive responds towards the society. David T. Lykken, a professor of psychology considers the psychopath as a hero and believes that "The psychopath and the hero are the twigs of same branch." He thinks so as both are comparatively daring. He believes such behaviors develop as a result of the t ype of brought up given to a child by his parents. (Akers and Lanier, p. 397-402) In my opinion human beings are not angels. Angels by nature are not inclined towards bad deeds or sins, but human beings have this natural inclination, which he mostly controls successfully but at times these negative desires overwhelms his positivity and compel him towards being bad, this is why, concept of crime has been a part of society ever since people began to live together in groups. Where there is involvement of human mind the potential of crime is there as it is rightly said by a British poet W. H. Auden that "Evil is unspectacular and always human and shares our bed and eats at our table". (Nietzsche & Kaufman, p.167) To conclude I would say that there cannot be love without the possibility of hate, or good without the possibility of evil. One cannot choose to excel unless there is the possibility of failure. To deny the possibility of moral evil is to deny human freedom. Yet in the exercise of freedom, innocent persons are maimed or killed. The consolation of the topic is that although evil is real, God does not will it and actually suffers with humankind, and that a person's faith in God's goodness will be vindicated in the life hereafter. In order to overcome evil people need to fight with the devil inside them instead of blaming and accusing others. Works Cited Akers, Timothy A.,