Flexible Work Practices and Firm Characteristics Essays -- Business Ma

INTRODUCTION An increasing amount of companies are implementing flexible work practices as more US households have dual incomes, working longer hours, and labor force participation rates increase (Winder, 2009). Flexible work practices can enable workers with care giving responsibilities to perform at their peak capacity instead of conforming to standard work schedules that stifle their efforts to succeed (Glass, 2004). If, true the productivity of workers should rise with the use of flexible work practices and should be positively correlated with enhanced wage growth over time. This productivity enhancing effect should particularly lead to higher wage growth among those impeded by rigid work schedules and long hours of work, namely mothers of dependent children (Sharpe, Hermsen & Billings, 2002). However this may not be the case with women. Currently women are not on par dollar for dollar with men. Yet economists think that the gap between pay for women and men is due to different personal ch oices men and women make about personal fulfillment, child rearing and hours at work. Following this further, in the past women would choose to work less hours to allot more time to their children, but there is an increasing number of women who continue to work fulltime throughout motherhood with the help of flextime (Glass, 2004). However these women still encounter the same pattern of wage stagnation (McCrate, 2005). Parents are using flexible work options but mothers appear to be penalized for it. Previously in this paper it was stated that flextime enables workers to achieve the same or greater productivity levels than standardized schedules. So with other factors being accounted for such as personality, seniority, financial sta... ...em? American Behavioral Scientist, 44(7), 1157-1178. Goldin, C. & Katz, L. (2011). The Cost of Workplace Flexibility for High-Powered Professionals. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 638(1), 1-23. McCrate, E. (2005). Flexible Hours, Workplace Authoirty. and Compensating Wage Differentials in the US. Feminist Economics, 11(1), 11-39. Ralson, D.A. (1989). The Benefits of flextime:Real or Imagined? Journal of Organizational Behavior, 10 (4), 369-373 Ralston, D. (1990). How flexitime eases work-family tensions. Personnel, 67, 45-48. Sharpe, D. L., Hermsen, J. M., & Billings, J. (2002). Gender differences in use of alternative full-time work arrangements of married workers. Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal, 31, 78-111. Winder, K. (2009). Flexible Work Arrangements and Wages: Do Firm Characteristics Matter.

Inequality and Its Effects in the Workplace

Inequality and its Effects in the Workplace Ashford University Contemporary Social Problems and the Workplace – SOC 402 July 19, 2010 ? Inequality and its Effects in the Workplace Gender, ethnicity, and race inequalities and the issues surrounding them in the workplace have been on the forefront of society’s mind for decades. The problem of inequality in the workplace has become one of the most important and vital issues in our society today.In order to understand fully the reasons for these inequalities, one must try to understand the factors that cause gender, ethnicity, and racial issues within the workplace, yet in this case, we will tend to focus mostly towards gender inequality in the workplace. One typically thinks locally in these situations, and Americans have fought hard for equality, yet over half of illiterate people throughout the world are females. Gender inequality is an issue that has been shaped by men from generations to generations.Each man carrying d own his own ideologies mixed in with the previous generation’s to create this mold that women are expected to conform and fit into. In America, women have fought long and hard to have many of the same rights as men. Education, the right to vote, and career status are just a few examples of some of the many important things these women fought for. In other countries, women are not as fortunate to have such a voice to be heard, and thus their fight ends before it begins. On April 11, 1996, President Bill Clinton proclaimed â€Å"National Pay Inequality Awareness Day†.The goal of the government was to change and eliminate discrimination in the workplace in 1972 when the Equal Employment Opportunity Act was established. The heart of both of these acts was and is to protect the individual’s rights as well as promote employment opportunities for everyone within the workplace. Obviously the government is aware and trying to prevent and protect the rights of these indiv iduals through the passing of these acts; so the question remains what are the reasons why women, ethnic groups, and minority races still being treated unfairly at work?The gendered income inequality can also be attributed in part to occupational segregation, where groups of people are distributed across occupations according to ascribed characteristics; in this case, gender. Occupational sex segregation can be understood to be made up of two directions. The first direction would be made up of occupational sex segregation and occurs as men and women are thought to possess different physical, emotional, and mental capacities. These different characteristics make the genders vary in the types of jobs they are suited for.This can be specifically viewed with the gendered division between manual and non-manual labor. The second direction is made up when occupational sex segregation occurs as occupations are stratified according to the power, authority, income, and prestige associated wit h the occupation and women are excluded from holding such jobs. An example of this type of gender inequality includes women that obtain a role in the workplace that is assumed for a man. Women have celebrated obtaining such roles, but once occupied, have had to fight to keep them.Caitlin Crawshaw interviewed Gail Powley for her article depicting workplace diversity and quickly learned Gail’s success in such a role. Ms. Powley revealed that her secret was â€Å"It’s all about attitude, so when they saw my attitude wasn’t to make them change at all, but to find ways to work with them, they actually welcomed me† (2010, para. 2). Historically, inequality has favored white males relative to similarly qualified females, ethnic, and minorities especially in the workplace.Wage discrimination is the discrepancy of wages between who groups due to a bias towards or against a specific trait with all or other characteristics of both groups being equivalent. In the cas e of gender inequality, wage discrimination exists between the male and female gender. Gender inequality wage discrimination can still be seen clearly today in specific organizations and careers, i. e. food industry. In the workplace, a female chef must work twice as hard as her male counterpart when competing for the same Executive Chef position.If you were to ask any woman in that position, she would comply. She knows her challenge before it begins, so she must know in her heart how badly she wants the prize and be extremely confident in herself to achieve this position. If you were to ask her male counterpart, he would deny the accusation. He does not see her challenge however, that does not mean that it does not exist. The challenge in this same workplace would at least doubles if the female chef were African American, or Native American.With or without the existence of this challenge, women have been gaining a steady foothold in the workplace. In fact, in America it has become a natural cultural trend for there to be dual incomes within the family and many families could not live the lifestyle that they do without the female’s contributing income to the family. This is the new norm in our local society. The new roadblock that we face now is when it comes to a single-income family in which the breadwinner is the female. So now the question becomes, why?Why is this idea so difficult for us to accept? Stay at home dads, aka; Mr. Mom’s, are becoming more and more a trend of today. Some of the factors that go into a decision like this are things like benefits, childcare, and which earner has the bigger income. Kathleen Gerson (2007) offers her view on this social attitude by stating that, â€Å"We are all quite comfortable with the dual-earner household. It’s become a cultural template, but for some reason we hit a roadblock when it comes to single-income households where the single earner is a woman† (para. ). According to Gersonâ €™s research as well, the number of households where the wife is the primary earner of the home jumped from about 4. 1% in 1970 to 7% in 2000 (2007, para. 8). This statistic is hard to accept in our economy today because it is almost a necessity for the presence of a dual income to survive and adequately provide for the family. One study has shown that a marriage that has both husband and a wife providing for the family is more satisfying than a marriage with only one sole income.Even though women struggle with keeping up with the men in the workplace, they also struggle with additional obstacles at home as well. What they experience here is a type of career discrimination because they, more than men will experience conflict between their work and home responsibilities. This conflict is intensified if the woman holds the primary responsibility for childcare because they naturally take on the role of the nurturer of the family. Other sacrifices that women will make in their caree r that men will not are things like maternity leave and extra sick days in order to take care of sick children.Because of these factors, some women feel the intense pressure to choose between that of having a career or having a family. A study that Lauer and Lauer reported states that out of 51 women, â€Å"faculty members reported that a higher proportion of younger faculty women chose to remain childless or to have fewer children than older faulty women, primarily because of the requirements of getting tenure and promotion† (2006, p. 200). The glass window effect is also considered a possible contributor to the gender income inequality.This ideology suggests that significant disadvantages exist towards the top of the career ladder which becomes worse as a person’s career goes on. The term glass window indicates that there are invisible barriers that exist that prevent women from advancements in their careers and promotions. These barriers exist in spite of the achiev ements or qualifications of the women trying to achieve these positions. Even further, these barriers continue to exist when other job-relevant characteristics are achieved like experience, education, and abilities.There are few women holding these higher-powered, high income positions due to this glass window effect. This effect also indicates the existence of limited chances of women for income raises, promotion, or advancement to more prestigious positions or jobs and increase over the course of a woman’s career. The gender income earnings ratio indicates the existence of an increase in women’s earnings comparative to men. Men’s wages reached a plateau in the late 1970’s which allowed for women’s incomes to gradually close in the ratio between the two.Despite the smaller ratio between men and women’s incomes, inequality continues to exist. Even more, this income gap varies widely within different races as well. Whites comparatively have t he greatest income gap between the genders. Within the Caucasian race, women earn 78% of the wages that Caucasian men do. Comparatively, African American women earn 90% of the wages African American men do and Hispanic women earn 88% of the wages that Hispanic men do. There are some exceptions in which women earn more than men, although they are rare.Other inequalities that women face, especially those women in the workplace with ethnic backgrounds is that of prejudged, preconceived ideologies held by others in leadership/management. Women of ethnic backgrounds in the workplace are primarily found in factory and service work. Primarily today, Americans are very conscious of illegal aliens and border issues and therefore tend to prejudge and develop social attitudes towards these ethnic groups. This is referred to as racial profiling. This makes career advancement in the workplace for these women especially hard to achieve.Most ethnic women choose not to fight the uphill battle that this kind of discrimination presents and therefore they settle for the factory and service jobs previously mentioned. Arizona legislature recognized the rising potential for racial profiling and began to revise laws stating that â€Å"police may not consider race, color or national origin†¦except to the extent permitted by the United States or Arizona Constitution† (2010, para. 9). Racial profiling can be individually overcome, but honestly, some women do not see enough value in the rewards to pursue it.Lori Latrice Martin addresses this same issue in her article concentrating mostly on African Americans when she stated that â€Å" careful examinations of racial differences in the types of levels of asset ownership have painted a bleak picture of racial economic inequality in America† (2010, para. 2). Despite the awareness of gender inequality, there are still arguments about gender difference and assumptions that women and men are from different planets; women an d men are still treated so differently in society.The workplace still remains an unequal playground that is polluted by persistent sex segregation, income inequality, sex discrimination, and sexual harassment. Women and men work because they want to, and because they have to. Employers should not judge women as being any less dependable than men because that is simply not true. The truth is that family structure has changed drastically over the years. Today the family responsibilities are now being shared by both the mothers and the fathers.In order to compensate for these changes, some companies have introduced flex time, job sharing, parental leave, on-site child care, and telecommuting just to name a few. Employers should accommodate a woman’s needs and therefore expand the gender diversity of their company. They may just find that positive outcomes will emerge from such a move. There was a time where the balance of respect and roles never existed between a husband and wif e, but today, they are redefining themselves, their relationships, and their family units to accommodate what works for them and not what society says should work.More importantly, women have successfully broken from the bondage of dependence on men. They no longer have to submit themselves to one main role in the family life solely as the mother. As for men, the need for dominancy has changed dramatically because for some men, they have been found to be the nurturing stay-at-home fathers for their family. As well, men and women have emerged to work together as a unit. ?References Crawshaw, C. (2010). Workplace diversity pays dividends; having a wide range of backgrounds helps with innovation. Leader Post, H, 1. Retrieved July 19, 2010, from ProQuest Direct database. Dunleavey, M. P. (2007). A breadwinner rethinks gender roles. New York Times, C, 6. Retrieved July 19, 2010, from ProQuest Direct database. Lauer, R. H. , & Lauer, J. C. (2006). Social problems and the quality of life ( 10th ed. ). Boston: McGraw-Hill. Sullum, J. (2010, Aug/Sept). Arrest everybody. Reason magazine, 8. Retrieved July 19, 2010, from ProQuest Direct database. Martin, L. L. (2010, Fall). Non-married women and black ethnicity: an analysis of the likelihood of homeownership. Western journal of black studies, 325-336. Retrieved July 19, 2010, from ProQuest Direct database.

Importance of Animal Testing - 804 Words

The use of animals in scientific research has made dramatic improvements in our understanding of the human race. Despite the controversies that surround this issue, without this process of testing it is certain that much of what is known today towards the quality and quantity of life would remain closed off to us. Over the years, scientists have gained the ability to solve medical problems, cure diseases, and develop vaccines all with the use of animals during scientific research. To believe that the use of animals is merely inhumane and immoral is only the denial of the overall benefits that result from research related to living organisms Ââ€" humans and animals. Animals used in scientific research has led to substantial advances that are†¦show more content†¦Animals can assist and be the pioneers that help the scientists save valuable live and continue there discoveries. While the lives of animals may be deserving of some respect, the value we place on their lives does n ot count as much as the value we place on human lives. Lets say you have a close relative with a painful and crippling disease. There is hope in the form of a new drug that in order to find its cure it has to be tested on a laboratory animal.Show MoreRelatedThe Importance Of Animals For Animal Testing1754 Words   |  8 PagesAnimal research, also known as in vivo testing, is the use of animals for experiments. Experimentation on animals dates back to as early as 500 BC, making this form of medical education and research one of the most fundamental known to humans. Almost 400 years ago, a doctor named William Harvey used animals to discover how blood circulated in the body. This discovery is considered the spark of the scientific revolution in which many lives were saved all thanks to the help of animal testing. The modernRead MoreAnimal Research And Testing : The Importance Of Animal Testing1441 Words   |  6 Pagesfor scientists to better understand medical related issues, so t hey started to perform their hypothesized experiments on specific animals. The data recovered led to a discovery that certain species’ genetic, biological and behavioral characteristics closely resemble those of the human race, allowing us to replicate many symptoms of human conditions. Although animal experimentation may seem morally wrong, as one of the largest contributors to not only medical, but other advancements benefiting theRead MoreThe Importance Of Animal Testing857 Words   |  4 Pagescomes to animal testing. A considerable amount of people believe that examinations should be banned, others think it should be continued. According to NCBI, animals have been utilized repeatedly since 384 BC. This disagreement has been debated since before the 1920’s and is still continuing. The main opposing point of animal examinations, is the extent of the experiment used on the animal. But, if scientists did not take part in animal testing, humans safety would be in d anger. Although animals shouldRead MoreThe Importance Of Animal Testing1240 Words   |  5 Pages Animal testing has long played a part in the science of testing, and it still plays a very important role in the medical world. Testing on animals in order to create a cure for AIDS is one thing, but testing on animals for human vanity is another. Animal testing is used to test the safety of a product. It has kept some very unsafe substances out of the cosmetic world. However, in this day in age, animal testing is not the only way to test the safety of a product. Animal testing in cosmetics hasRead MoreImportance Of Animal Testing1726 Words   |  7 PagesAnimal testing: Is it necessary? People take medicine, and they wear makeup. Most people own one or two or maybe more pets. Some people love their pets as if they were their own children. Pets are loved and taken care of. They are rescued and adopted. But do people know that they are treated the opposite in a laboratory? It is estimated that every year, 26 million animals are used for scientific and commercial testing in the United States. There are many reasons animals are used for testing. SomeRead MoreThe Importance Of Animal Testing1779 Words   |  8 PagesDid you know animal testing is cruel?, it puts animals lives in jeopardy and the tests are not always accurate, it needs to be stopped. Abraham once said â€Å"I am in favor of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of a whole human being† (https://www.consumerfreedom.com/2008/10/3754-abraham-lincoln-was-not-an-animal-rights-activist/). I do not believe animal testing is right, it hurts the animal and the experiments are not accurate, we should try to make this process more safe and calmRead MoreThe Importance Of Animal Testing1883 Words   |  8 PagesAnimal Testing is Essential On the other had, some individuals deem animal testing necessary for the furthering of the medical field. There have been illnesses and diseases that have been eradicated due to animal experimenting. One such disease a vaccine that was resulted by successful experimentation on animals to combat it is the poliomyelitis vaccine Continuing, one essential aspect to consider when evaluating the similarities between humans and animals is the amount shared genes. According toRead MoreAnimal Testing Should Be Banned Essay1707 Words   |  7 Pagespossibly the lives that were spent doing so. Those lives being the ones of animals tested in pharmaceutical settings to assure the safety of the product you just swallowed. It is difficult to justify the use of animals in this way, but when put simply we make the choice between putting human life, or the life of an animal on the line. While businesses have searched for other methods of testing, there is no more accurate way of testing toxicology than through a live host. Despite it not being the most idealRead MoreThe Effects Of Animal Testing Essay1432 Words   |  6 PagesThe Effects of Animal Testing Animal testing is by far, inhumane and downright unacceptable. Although, there are various types of organizations that are pro-animal care, such as, Animal Welfare information center, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare and, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals or, PETA, all in which do their best to keep animal testing as humane as possible, there are alternatives for finding cures or testing the safety of certainRead MoreThe Pros And Cons Of Animal Testing1502 Words   |  7 Pagesthat animal testing is beneficial to the advancement of human knowledge, while animal rights’ activists claim that animal testing is not humane and violates animals’ rights. The controversy over animal testing is best understood as a disagreement about whether animal testing is beneficial to humans. Each year more than 100 million animals are killed in the U.S. Every country has a law that permits medical experimentation on animals. W hile some countries protect particular kinds of animals from