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As demonstrate the possible influence that proactive

Asestablishments continue to face uncertainty, through increasing growth intechnology, shifting economic challenges, and a move to a global economy; understanding work behaviours of the industry players are becoming moreindispensable. Experts and intellectuals have advocated the importance ofobserving organizational participants as dynamic agents, who are able toparticipate in proactive work behaviours that enable positive changes inthemselves and their workplace (Grant & Ashford, 2008; Grant, Parker &Collins, 2009).

Employees are not just inert dummies of their workplace; instead, they can make deliberate choices to succeed in hostile and uncertainwork settings (Cameron & Lavine, 2006). The attention in extra-rolebehaviours is somewhat because they have been mostly associated with severalencouraging workplace results (Podsakoff, Whiting, Podsakoff & Blume, 2009). Despite the benefits associated with the exhibition of extra-role, Morrison & Phelps, 1999 argued that the narrow conceptualization ofextra-role behaviour has limited the examination and therefore called for arigorous review of the concept. The scholars defined taking charge as” voluntary and constructive efforts by individual employees to effectorganizationally functional change with respect to how work is executed withinthe contexts of their jobs, work units, or organizations” (Morrison &Phelps, 1999). These positive consequences of taking charge demonstrate thepossible influence that proactive work behaviours may have within the workplacecontext. Thus, a greater understanding of the antecedents of this extra-rolebehaviour is further warranted, particularly within the Nigerian workspace.

Accordingto Ukachukwu & Iherionhamma (2013), many contemporary organizations havepeople of multi-cultural backgrounds working together as employees which may bea probable basis of the administrative skirmish. Nigeria is one of the mostpopulous developing African country and splendidly gifted with rich resources, both human and minerals. However, most of the pecuniary drawbacks of thecountry may be to the apparent inability of governments and private sectororganizations to achieve optimally. People’s actions could pose a threat toperformance and ultimate progress. Therefore, a deliberate attempt atunderstanding workplace diversity is very integral to the survival of theorganization.

Individuals tend todevelop a lot of individualities across each stage of their personal andoccupational existence. Through this state, according to Ugwuzor, (2014), theyoften tend to see themselves with respect to their religion, ethnicity, gender, age, professional or educational background and therefore manifest theirdifferences across various circumstances  Managingthese diversities wrongly can be disadvantageous to the employee productivityas well job satisfaction as well going above and beyond when the time calls fortaking charge. This is because organizational members who feel more valuedcommit more to their job while the group that consider themselves as sectionalassembly feel less valued leading to lesser performance. Again, diversity inthe personality disposition and other dimensions of diversity could also affectemployee behavioural outcomes (Afolabi & Omole, 2011).  Consequently, administrators will need toknow a wide range of behaviours to bring out the best in the distinctivecompetencies of the workforce. Overall, the term “ workplace diversity” in the researcher’s framework can be defined ascomparisons and variances among employees in terms of age, ethnicity, gender, and education background. However, when an employee chooses to change his orher working environment, they must face the changes in values in the workenvironment.

This is because the employee must learn the new language and adaptto different cultural beliefs that have long embed within the people in theworking environment.  Consequently, in adapting (Brown, 2008) concept of diversity in the workplace, this studyseeks to explore its variable influence of ethnicity, education backgroundgender and age and on the employee taking charge in the public service whichcomes with varied employees in a package. Able scholars of Nigerian descent (Adeleye, Atewologun. and Matanmi, 2014), in their review of the historical and contemporary developments inequality and diversity posited that, although Nigeria is one of the mostdiverse countries in the world, with multiplicities, key stakeholders such asthe government, organizations, organizational psychologists and academia do notappear to take it as a serious priority. This, in our opinion, cannot befarther than realism.

Inthe light of the contemporary certainties businesses grapple with nowadays, itmay be contingent that workplace diversity could generate opportunities as wellas present challenges for the working and behaviour of organizations. InNigeria, a Nation with several ethnic nationalities and languages, as well asdiverse cultural and religious backgrounds, the issue of proper workforcediversity management should even be more important to managers 1. 1    Research Background  Thekey objective of this study is to investigate the factors that affectemployees’ taking charge behaviour within the Nigerian workspace. Itdistinguishes the factors that can affect employees’ taking charge behaviour bymainly focusing on the components of workplace diversity. This research wouldalso investigate the moderating role of job security in taking charge.

Otherthan that, the purpose is to develop a methodology that can be applied to theanalysis of workplace diversity towards employee taking charge behaviour. Thepurpose of this study is to inspect how some elements of workplace diversitycan potentially affect employee taking charge. Firstly, a brief review of thefactors such as ethnicity, gender, age and education background will beembarked upon. Secondly, past research findings on workplace diversity will besummarized and applied to taking charge at work.

The moderating role ofperceived job insecurity will also be explored. Then, the result of anempirical study, which examines issues related to workplace diversity andemployees proactive work behaviours will be broadly x-rayed.   1.

2     Problem Statement Inrecent years questions have been raised on the reasons why employees and evenmanagers especially in Nigeria are hardly willing to take charge in theworkplace despite the benefits of doing so. Recently, researchers who havebegun investigating the possible reasons to this question have advocated thatmore contextual and individual variables be examined, specifically within theNigerian work environment (Onyishi & Ogbodo, 2012) to encourage thebehaviour.     In this study therefore, attempt will be made to provide answers and expand the taking charge conceptwhich according to Morrison and Phleps (1999), is a response to theshortcomings of overly narrow conceptualization of extra role behaviours thathas mainly focused on helping contemporaries, being punctual, and attending tonon-required work functions, as opposed to more extensive behaviours embeddedin a desire to help one’s organization develop, advance, and improve (Moon, etal., 2005). Also, understanding the impacts of diversity on organizational consequences, such astaking charge and efficiency has become indispensable. Even though there areconcerted efforts to invest in workforce diversity management to boost employeemorale and performance, organizations rarely achieve their expected benefits inadvanced countries. This cannot be said of Nigeria is because the promotion oftaking charge behaviour as well as workforce diversity is also very low amongNigerian institutions given that diversity initiatives have no basis in law inmost of the organizations (Adeleye, Atewologun and Matanmi, 2014).  1.

3    Proposed Research Objectives Establisha better understanding of the antecedents of an employee taking charge and itsrelationship with all the components of workplace diversity. 1. 3. 1    General Objective Thefirst goal of this study is to offer insights and detailed understanding of theworkplace diversity that will affect taking charge in an organization. Secondly, the purpose of this research is to identify whether the variablesinclude gender, age, ethnicity and education background would affect takingcharge in an organization.

Lastly, the specific objectives of this research areas follows: 1. Investigate the relationship of gender towards taking charge in anorganization. 2.

Investigate the relationship of age towards taking charge in an organization. 3. Investigate the relationship of ethnicity towards taking charge in anorganization. 4. Investigate the relationship of education background towards taking charge inan organization. 5.

Investigate the impact of independent variables towards the dependent variable. 6. Investigate which independent variable has greater influence on the dependentvariable7. Investigate the mediating role of perceived job security on workplace diversityand taking charge 1. 4    Research Questions  The research questions of this proposed studyare: 1.

What is the relationship between gender and taking charge? 2. What is the relationship between age and taking charge? 3. What is the relationship between ethnicity and taking charge? 4.

What is the relationship between educational background and taking charge? 5. What is the relationship between workplace diversity and taking charge? 6. What are the factors affecting taking charge behaviour in the Nigerian publicservice? 7. What are the factors affecting taking charge s in private sector-ledorganizations? 8. What is the mediating role of job insecurity in taking charge and workplacediversity? 1. 5Hypothesis of the Study Inthis proposed study, taking charge is our dependent variables. Meanwhile, gender, age, ethnicity and education background will be our independentvariables. Thus, our hypothesis is that there is the significant relationshipbetween these dependent variables and independent variables.

Either one ofthese independent variables or some of them does have the positive effect toinfluence taking charge in an organization. Jon insecurity will be reviewed asa possible moderating variable H1: There is significant relationship between gender and taking chargeH2: There is significant relationship between age diversity and taking charge H3: There is significant relationship between ethnicity and taking charge H4: There is significant relationship between educational background and takingcharge H5: The four variables (gender, age, ethnicity, and educational background) are significantin explaining the variance in taking charge. 1. 6Knowledge Gap Ina multi-ethnic country like Nigeria, there is need to be more thoughtfulresearch efforts on approaches to encourage taking charge behaviour by managingworkforce diversity if apprehensions over ethnicity and gender imbalance in theworkplace are going to be limited before they detonate and become human rightsproblems. So far, many studies have been done in the field of workforcediversity management in Nigeria focusing on the challenges of managing diverseworkforce, equity, inclusion, corporate performance, effects of workplacediversity management on organizational effectiveness (Ugwuzor, 2014; Ukachukwu& Iheriohanma, 2013; Adeleye, Atewologun and Matanmi, 2014). Some conductedthese research with a local perspective, however, there is no research that hasbeen done on the effect of the various components of workforce diversity onextra-role behaviour, particularly, taking charge. The strategies adopted bythese researchers clearly leaves a vacuum to be filled with the role of theworkplace diversity as it relates to the employee going above and beyond attheir workplace in Nigeria.

Ugwuzor, 2014, in his study of workforce management and corporate performance of firmsin Nigeria has advocated that more studies should be conducted in the NigerianCivil Service. This study, therefore, seeks to bridge the gap by reviewingvariables that are largely voluntary but play the integral role in the survivalof an organization. Also, a cursory look at possible mediating factors such asjob insecurity will be explored. 1. 7Scope of the Study Thestudy will focus on finding approaches for managing workforce diversity inNigerian public service. The framework will seek to evaluate the attitudes thattend to encourage taking charge of the employees in these organizations. Theresearch focuses on major establishments in Nigeria picked based on how diversethey are in terms of ethnicity, gender, cultural background, education and age.

A review of organizational activities of corporations to identify thestrategies they use for managing their workforce diversities will also beembarked. 1. 8Conceptual Framework Thestudy will attempt to explore workforce diversity across various sectors inNigeria. Personnel in an organization is the demographic and cultural/socialunit whose diversity can affect the organization’s performance. The dependentvariable for this paper, therefore, is taking charge. Thevarious components of workforce diversity which includes; ethnicity, gender, cultural background, education and age put in place as measures of a diverseworkforce are the independent variables.

Specifically, the relationship between taking charge and the components of workforcediversity will be explored. Job insecurity was proposed as a plausiblemoderator. In addition, there is a strong need for the examination ofcontextual antecedents of positive work behaviours. Finally, this study offers timely contributions to the literature on the extra-rolebehaviour of taking charge and workplace diversity, which are currentlyflourishing. It attempts to bridge these two important and popular streams ofresearch. 2.

Theoretical Framework Thefollowing theories will be reviewed: i.    Expectancy theory (Victor Vroom, 1964)ii.    Attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969/1982)iii.    Social exchange theory (Peter Blau, 1964)iv.    Leader-Member Exchange Theory (Graen, Haga& Dansereau, 1975)v.    Self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2002)vi.

Goal-setting theory (Locke & Latham, 1990)vii.    Realistic Conflict Theory and viii.    Social Identity Theory) Severaltheories link workforce diversity and extra-role performance. However, thisstudy will rely heavily on the Realistic Conflict Theory (RCT and SocialIdentity theory. Workplace diversity in any corporate entity is valuable to theperformance of the organization given the varied abilities of the individualsinvolved.

Diversity is also tough to handle as failure to manage diversity candistress the economic and social well-being of an organization, be they publicor private sector driven. When people feel isolated or discriminated against, their efficiency is typically lowered. Other attendant implications could alsobe segregation, truancy, indiscipline, rebellion, low level of taking chargebehaviour amongst others. Globally, organizations of varying sizes have begunto develop strategies for ensuring smooth day-to-day business management andgood relations among their workforce by enhancing accountability for diversityat the workplace. This hasn’t been the case in Nigeria, nonetheless.  Workforcediversity integrates various groups of people who work together and there areseveral theories that try to explain the concept of intergroup relations thatare relevant to organizations’ workforce.

These models bring out the questionsthat are relevant to workforce particularly when they are characterized intodiverse groups carried by cultural, gender, educational background and evenintellectual disparity. This study will base its opinions on two theories; first, the realistic conflict theory (RCT) which postulates that people’s actsare driven by their self-interests whereby conflicts can arise betweendifferent people or groups due to the ambition of maximizing their own orgroups benefits at the expense of others (Sherif, 1966). When applied toworkforce diversity, employees in different levels can act to defend theirinterests at the workplace with the consequence of conflicts in the long run.

This can lead to an unhealthy rivalry that comes in from discrimination andbias that arises. Socialidentity theory (Tajfel, 1982) is another vital theory that elucidatesintergroup relations. This theory hypothesizes that people tend to categorizethemselves into social groups that must mean for them and this shape the wayindividuals interrelate with others from their own identity group and fromother groups. Social identity stems from the knowledge of an individual thatthey belong to a certain group. This classification may stem from the aspectsthat are related to a group formation making others fall in a group they wouldwish not to be associated with. At the workplace, such labelling can lead toexclusion in which some folks are left out of some events by the virtue ofbeing part of a certain group.

According to (Larkey, 1996), to support this, with the conflict theory, self-interest becomes the motivation for prohibitingcertain individuals or groups from accessing valuable resources and power. Those who belong to groups with advanced perceived social status will admit andinclude people they consider to be like them while excluding and be selectiveof those they perceive to be dissimilar from them.

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