People Matter

Since I am an international student who likes to travel the writing choice was easy, and I chose to write about the country where I would like to go to work outside the U.S.

I have a lot of international experiences under my belt, however, I have never visited Israel. Therefore, the country I would go to work in would be Israel. I have a good friend from there and I always wanted to learn more about that country. Israel has a culture that is similar to Serbia (where I am from originally), the people are friendly, hospitality is important for them, the language is Hebrew, the currency they use is called Shekel (which is weaker than the dollar so I would prefer to keep my salary to be in dollars if possible) and there are many religious rules that are followed strictly.

Based on Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, Israel is a blend between individualism and collectivism, they are a blend between masculinity and femininity as well (in religious parts of the country it tends to be more masculine culture), the country is consider to have small power distance, they have strong uncertainty avoidance as they prefer rules over anarchy, and Israel has long-term orientation when it comes to the understanding of immediate vs future benefits. Therefore, Israel is different than the U.S. based on their uncertainty avoidance as the U.S. people would handle the uncertainty better than people in Israel and by the fact that the U.S. is short term oriented culture.

The factors that I would consider when taking on this opportunity would be the language barrier (hard to learn Hebrew), the fact that Israel is high context culture in contrast to the U.S. (I really like that), the fact that I would prefer the long term orientation over the short term, and the other differences such as food (that is great in Israel based on my friend’s experience) and religion (that is very strict in certain regions).

After I completed the calculation for the “Life Stress Inventory,” I figured that I am not in the best spot because my score was pretty high. I think that this is normal given my current life circumstances. I had a tough few months so I was not surprised by this score.

When I finished the “Coping and Stress Management Skills Test” I figured that I was using problem-focused coping mechanisms, and when I completed the “Type A Personality Test” I came out to be a pretty impatient and irritable person which is completely opposite of who I am on regular basis.

From the tests mentioned above, I learned that I am a pretty stressed out person at the moment, that I get irritated quick, and that my coping strategy is problem-focused coping which means that I am looking for solutions and that is the only way that I can make a peace with myself (if I tried to find a solution). This is hard because some things might be out of my control but in my nature is to try everything to control the environment. Therefore, if that happens I might need to consult someone with better coping mechanisms. I am usually a very calm person but at this moment I had too many events/stressors, so to fix this I should learn new coping strategies and talk to people around me that know how to deal with stress in order to help me.

When it comes to organizations, they try to help employees to manage their stress by “encouraging workplace wellbeing, improving work environment (e.g. Amazon with its botanic offices in Seattle), allowing flexible hours and remote work (this happened a lot during COVID-19), encouraging social activity (creating activities outside of work to improve teamwork and to bring people together), creating quite a time, providing counseling, and by recognizing employees” (Ryba, 2019). All of these strategies are important for the productivity of the company or the organization.

Reference:

Ryba, K. (n.d.). 7 simple ways to reduce stress in the workplace. Employee Engagement Software. https://www.quantumworkplace.com/future-of-work/7-ways-employees-can-reduce-stress-in-the-workplace.

Compensation is a large part of the HR management of every company. There are two components of compensation based on our lecture, extrinsic and intrinsic rewards. The extrinsic rewards represent “the tangible, monetary and nonmonetary effects of compensation” (Lecture 1 Outline) while intrinsic rewards represent “the intangible, psychological and social effects of compensation” (Lecture 1 Outline).

The situation where I changed my behavior based on the compensation is definitely when I declined the sales/marketing position because the extrinsic rewards were not good. So, the job was paying barely a minimum wage and the workload was 40 hours a week, while there were no benefits whatsoever and no type of health plan. I declined the job offer because of the low compensation so it was mostly due to the extrinsic rewards (monetary) that were too low.

Compensation drove my behavior because of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as I thought that my safety and physiological needs would not be satisfied (therefore, my existence could be at risk). I did not like the offer that the company proposed and I would not take it due to the low compensation. This is because I wanted to be able to live a “normal” life which could be put in jeopardy if I took the job. I wanted to be able to not worry about existence and food so that I can focus on other areas of my life that I can focus on and improve. I wanted to be able to think about the new ideas and maybe even businesses that I want to start on my own instead of focusing purely on how to survive. I think that this was a great decision and I had never regretted it.

Overall, compensation is an important factor of every employee due to different reasons but I think that it is important that it is based on merit and fairness (hopefully this could be objective) while satisfying basic human needs.

Based on our lecture there are two types of interviews: Structured and unstructured interviews. Other interviews exist but these are the major two. When it comes to reliability, validity, and utility of structured interviews are supposed to be more reliable and valid than unstructured interviews. The reason structured interviews are better in the way of reliability and validity is that they are more objective and they eliminate biases by standardizing interview processes. Based on the HBR article, “companies should use analytical tools and software to bring more structure to hiring process” (How to take the bias out of interviews, 2016). The analytical tools and software would provide that objectivity and standardization in the interview processes and reduce bias because they would provide the company with data/facts instead of the hiring manager’s opinions.

When it comes to my personal experience with structured and unstructured interviews, I had an interview with Under Armor that was very structured and I did it online where a computer was just recording my answers to pre-written questions, so I did not see the person that was interviewing me. This could have been an effective interview process for Under Armor because they could compare candidates horizontally by each question/answer ones they reviewed these interviews and save the costs of flying HR managers to different locations, but I really did not like that experience as it was weird to talk to myself in the interview. Another situation that I was in included a personality test. I did it in order to understand if I would fit well with the basketball team I was supposed to play with. The test was very interesting and it seemed accurate and reliable because others and I could see me like it was explained in the test. The test claimed that I would be a great fit for the team and it was right because I absolutely enjoyed playing there, and overall, the team performed well that basketball season.

Lastly, although I was not a part of many unstructured interviews, it appears to me that they can be biased in many ways so I would recommend that companies using them substitute them by applying “work-sample tests, structured interviews, and comparative evaluation” (How to take the bias out of interviews, 2016) interview systems/processes.

The job description is a part of job analysis and there are many details and information that go into it. The job description is important for the company and its employees because it explains what is everyone’s role and what do they need to do as a part of their job. A lot of details that make up a job description mean that there are many places that someone could make a mistake and that there are many challenges that could arise from it too.

Some of the challenges with forming and practically applying job descriptions are that they “could be outdated” (Lecture 1), that if wrongly written can lead to legal issues, and “what if an employee’s job description and daily tasks do not match”(Job Worth Doing, 2013). If the job description gets outdated the company should make some changes in the organization and try to stay up to date with current technological improvements and industry standards. If a job description causes legal consequences the company should check their standards and legal papers before they submit the job description, all in hope that they improve the description before it comes to the court and makes sure to have to check processes in place to avoid negative legal consequences. If job descriptions do not match employee’s daily tasks the company should “ask the leader to come to HR to work through the issue” (Job Worth Doing, 2013). From there they should all work together to understand the problem and address it. Also, after they resolve the gap between the job description and “reality” they should make sure to make certain changes for future employees that would work on the same job.

In addition, the company should not base their job description on specific employees who have some unique skills that help them perform certain jobs because then it will be hard to find another person like that. Additionally, it is good to have different people who solve the same problem in different ways. This could bring diversity and new ideas to the organization.

Reference: Tyler, K. (2018, April 11). Job Worth Doing: Update Descriptions. SHRM. https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/Pages/0113-job-descriptions.aspx.

Welcome to the Jovana’s blog for MGMT 553 class!!!