¶ … Psychology of Work Politics in the organizational context represent unofficial, informal, and sometimes, secret attempts at selling ideas, increasing power, achieving other aims, or influencing the organization. This phenomenon has been occurring since many millennia. Companies need skills to manage changing power bases and contradictory agendas. Successful politics does not mean to win at any cost; rather, it is concerned with maintaining relationships whilst achieving desired results. While this is typically depicted in a negative light, company politics aren't intrinsically bad. Nevertheless, knowing the likely destructive elements associated with organizational politics, for minimizing its adverse effect, is imperative. Examples of negative politics are: circumventing organizational command chain for receiving authorization for any special venture; lobbying people at the top of the organizational hierarchy leading to any major promotion decision or using improper channels for obtaining special favors (Riggio, 2015). Such actions undermine workplace fairness, as every employee won't involve in politicking for serving personal interests. Normally, the resources organizations have at their disposal are limited. Company groups and individuals might not agree with how these resources are being allocated, and therefore, may attempt to acquire them to serve personal or group motives; this results in organizational politics. To put it simply, organizational politics pertains to individuals allying themselves with those who are like-minded, in the firm, for winning scarce organizational resources. They participate in behavior characteristically observed in governmental organizations, like bargaining, forging alliances, resolution of conflicting interests, and negotiation (Bauer & Erdogan, n.d).

Company managers have to understand the techniques and causes of company politics. For instance, during downsizing, an organization's Chief Executive must beware of transparent efforts at pleasing him/her and back-stabbing.

1. Open communication within organizations can serve to limit political behavior's effects. For example, through open communication, all company members can understand the rationale behind resource allocation in the firm, thereby reducing instances of politics.

1. One powerful means of minimization of work group politics is avoiding favoritism. If work group members feel that being a favorite of the boss holds much less weightage compared to good performance on the job, when it comes to receiving rewards, their focus will shift to attempting to impress their boss via job-related activities.

1. Another means to reduce organizational politics is goal congruence in the company. In other words, management and workers must share common goals, while thoroughly grasping what those goals mean.

1. Top management must set a good example to help decrease organizational politics' intensity and frequency (Mitchell, 2005).

Question 2

Employee stress denotes a common issue across many occupations, affecting job performance. While it emphasizes stress's adverse impact on work performance (distress), eustress or mild stress has been proven to actually improve performance. Taking a holistic view of precursors to workplace stress, by incorporating the impacts of personality, family-work interaction, and organizational factors in perceiving job stress is vital. Stressed workers can be afflicted with major health issues like headaches, backaches, anxiety, depression, and gastrointestinal disturbances when subjected to long-term stress. Behavioral alterations like excessive alcohol consumption and tobacco smoking, obesity, nervous disorders, diabetes, heart diseases, etc. are associated with stress as well. Job dissatisfaction results in job stress and this successively lowers productivity. Prolonged or acute stress adversely affects one's physical as well as mental health. While every occupation has some fair level of stress linked to it, there are some work settings that pose relatively more stress than others. For instance, occupations wherein staff members have to display certain emotions, such as teaching, nursing, and social work, are more stressful. Burnout denotes extreme stress -- at this stage, an individual begins treating clients impersonally, as nothing, but objects (depersonalization), experiences emotional exhaustion, and evaluates him/herself negatively. In these extreme cases, work performance drops significantly, owing to stress. Work-related stress is an immense problem, affecting people's physical as well as mental health. Stress management covers organizational elements such as peer support, leadership, corporate policies and culture, reporting of arrangements, work design, staff selection, job analysis, and training, for enhancing role clarity, ensuring a balance of individual and work environment. Sound performance management and employee motivation systems are necessary. For instance, managers need to take care not to eliminate rewarding job-related elements. Work-related stress doesn't always result in distress. When work-related challenges are effectively handled, positive changes and growth may ensue in the individual. Managers must balance resources with demand. Instead of directly decreasing demands or increasing resources, managers need to train individual employees to positively evaluate these demands (Gupta & Chandwani, n.d).

Question 5

The term absenteeism means non-attendance of workers expected and scheduled to work. Turnover denotes the ratio of employees replaced in a specific period of time to average workers in the firm. Job satisfaction represents the extent to which individuals enjoy...

Satisfaction may also be defined as people's response to different aspects of their respective jobs; an individual may be fairly satisfied with certain aspects of their job, while being dissatisfied with some other aspects. When employees fail to show up at the workplace as scheduled, major problems may be posed for companies. With increased pressures on competitiveness and corporate budgets, more emphasis is placed on reducing absenteeism and associated costs. Increased job satisfaction decreases absenteeism. Similarly, it is typically expected that poor satisfaction levels are associated with high absenteeism rates. Turnover has numerous potential causes. Economic conditions of the locality and conditions in the labor market influence turnover rates in general, and may prove rather hard to manage. But certain causes of personnel turnover in specific companies or jobs are manageable; these are: high stress, inadequate training, non-competitive job compensation, monotony, working conditions, poor supervision, poor job-worker fit, and poor organizational practices and communications. The link between job satisfaction, absenteeism, and turnover is normally perceived as arising from withdrawal from taxing work situations. Therefore, there is a constant inverse association between absenteeism and job satisfaction. Work satisfaction impacts several other workplace variables, including turnover and performance (work variables) and satisfaction with one's life, and health (non-work or personal variables) (Josias, 2005).
Job performance is anticipated to forecast voluntary and involuntary absenteeism, and voluntary turnover; however, it doesn't necessarily predict voluntary turnover. Job satisfaction has one major effect on voluntary absence, and there are also interactive impacts of organizational trust and tenure on such absenteeism (i.e., lower-tenured workers with lower organizational trust will have higher rates of absence). Job dissatisfaction is a precursor to turnover; however, where there are unions, this doesn't occur. Numerous justifications have been presented for explaining this paradox, of which one is "reverse causation"; the primary reason for worker union organization is low satisfaction on the job (Romero, 2011).

Question 6

Challenges linked to workplace diversity;

1. Communication -- Cultural, linguistic, and perceptual obstacles must be surmounted for the success of diversity programs. Ineffectively communicating major objectives leads to confusion, low morale, and absence of cooperation.

1. Resistance to Changes -- There will always be some individuals who don't accept cultural and social modifications at their workplace. The "things have always been this way here" attitude hinders progress and the generation and acceptance of fresh ideas.

1. Implementing Diversity in Workplace Policies -- Such a step may be the dominating challenge to every diversity advocate. Using research and personnel assessment results, organizations must develop and execute a company-tailored strategy for maximizing diversity's effects at the workplace.

1. Successful Workplace Diversity Management - Diversity training doesn't suffice by itself. A strategy has to be devised and implemented for creating a corporate culture of accepting and espousing diversity, permeating all organizational departments and functions.

Advantages of Workplace Diversity;

1. Greater Adaptability

Companies with a diverse staff can offer a wider range of solutions when it comes to issues in sourcing, service, and resource allocation. Personnel hailing from different backgrounds bring unique experiences and talents, and suggest flexible ideas when adapting to changing customer demands and markets.

1. Wider Service Range

Through a diverse range of experiences and skills (e.g. cultural understanding, languages), firms can deliver their services on a worldwide scale.

1. Various Viewpoints

Diversity of workforce, where workers are comfortable with communicating divergent viewpoints, enlarges a company's pool of experiences and ideas. The company can pick from this diverse pool for more efficiently meeting its strategic needs as well as the needs of clients.

1. Better Execution

Firms encouraging workplace diversity inspire every staff member to give their best. Organization-wide plans may then be implemented, leading to increased profits, ROI (returns of investment), and productivity (Greenberg, n.d).

References

Bauer, T., & Erdogan, B. (n.d.). Organizational Behaviour, v. 1.0. Retrieved February 06, 2016, from http://catalog.flatworldknowledge.com/bookhub/3?e=bauer-ch13_s03

Greenberg, J. (n.d.). Diversity in the Workplace: Benefits, Challenges and Solutions. Retrieved February 06, 2016, from http://www.multiculturaladvantage.com/recruit/diversity/diversity-in-the-workplace-benefits-challenges-solutions.asp

Gupta, M., & Chandwani, R. (n.d.). JOB STRESS AND PERFORMANCE. Retrieved February 06, 2016, from http://tejas.iimb.ac.in/articles/24.php

Josias, B. A. (2005). The relationship between job satisfaction and absenteeism in a selected field services section within an electricity utility in the Western Cape (Doctoral dissertation, University of the Western Cape).

Mitchell, R. (2005, January 17). INTRODUCTION TO ORGANIZATIONAL POLITICS. Retrieved January 6, 2016.

Riggio, R. (2015). Introduction to industrial and organizational psychology. Routledge.

Romero, T. (2011, October). Absenteeism in a Represented Environment. Retrieved…