From War to Manufacturing: The US Post-WWII Boom

Following the second world war, the United States was positioned for exponential increment and growth in manufacturing as it changed its war-time capacity of production over to the civilian products such as appliances and cars. After the second world war, soldiers were recruited into various schools of business where the managerial role was reinvented from that of the resources of an organization's stewardship or the ethical concerns of the society to logistics involving production, facilities, supplies, and people (Baily et al.). Logistical coordination between military, private, and the public was a modern war primary winning aspect, and the elected new manager became a mirror of his military counterpart, including undertaking a fixed function in a power hierarchy. Additionally, as various corporations grew into larger conglomerates, the position of a manager was further removed from the core activities of the organization. It was then geared towards command delivery from exerting control and higher-ups on employees who had subordinate roles (Carpenter et al.).

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Before the action, the position of managers was alongside the lines of the physical assembly or in-walled departments where they could always oversee their employees; thus, the managerial positions chart would correlate to and follow the assembly or manufacturing route. As time progressed, the chart of the organization would illustrate the direct relationships report between the levels of the manager - which currently correspond only to power positions sustained by measures of discipline (Carpenter et al.). Therefore, only dependencies of role would be traced through the managerial or organizational chart, and the routes of work had to be analyzed or evaluated elsewhere like in Gantt Charts, that had been exclusively used by the military.

As the modern economies changed from manufacturing to knowledge and information, the management function changed again. Processes of work were no longer designed in a transparent linear function like for the assembly line. Instead, what was to be accomplished or completed flowed out and came in from all directions. How the managers would position themselves along the work route was changed, and they became less connected with the front line employees and more connected with a professional managerial pool. Management then became a different science with its techniques and tools for measuring, mapping, and modeling. In the current professionalism era, the managerial roles were based more on abstractions of generalized people as human systems that would allow them to exert distance control (Baily et al.).

In the information age, the modern organization now had two distinct structures of an organization - roles that corresponded to tasks of operation and roles that conformed to the relations of power. Moreover, since the compensation policy could be set by the managers, earnings and wages relied more on roles of power than the values, skills, and talents established through operational activities (Carpenter et al.). As a repercussion, organizations were biased towards the functions of a manager, such as more complex contract writing, policy-making, regulatory control, measurement, and abstraction, and the competition to the top meant creating and developing more complexity into the system.

The depicted were the awarded managerial roles with unprecedented compensation levels - because it was the type of task or work they were perfect at. Additionally, increasingly schools of management fed into the same process by escalating the management theory complexity in high academic contexts. By the 1980s, the function of managers was increasingly based on idealist or realist constructed notions in the brains of other academicians and managers and fed back into them.

For example, the professional class employees were less likely to have had any skill and experience with the demands of the actual task that the individuals they should be overseeing were responsible for. Also, the front line employees were always caught in the crossfire between focusing on doing perfect work and playing the game or power and role. Not surprisingly, due to the compensation bias maintained by the managers, front line employees steadily enhanced and improved system gaming with the most promising rewards.

Cultural Diversity

Cultural diversity is a group of diverse people from various societies or cultures. In most cases, cultural diversity considers ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation, race, religion, and language. In the early 21st century, organizations began to embrace and accept corporate diversity due to a changing workforce and various trends in demographics (Baily et al.).

Trends of Cultural Diversity and Examples

The Growth of a Minority Workforce

The current workforce consists of a very diverse population worldwide, which creates a dynamic multicultural and multiracial organizations. The depicted diversity brings with it numerous variance in experiences, abilities, and skills. For instance, because certain organization values having a diverse workforce, it will always ensure that human resources recruit a representation of the minority in the corporation (Ansoff et al.). The action will create an environment where various ideas and viewpoints originate from brainstorming sessions and are always welcomed.

Growth of Stereotyping and Prejudices

The action can be difficult to avoid when various cultures are united in a specific work environment. For instance, many of an organization's executives might be against hiring female workers or engineers as they are from the old education systems and think that female employees or engineers cannot be relied upon due to possible breaks of maternity.

Addition of Sensitivity or Diversity Training

The depicted type of training educates people about cultural differences so that they can appreciate and understand each other. The aim of diversity or sensitivity training is always to train workers on how to communicate and act properly in a corporate environment (Carpenter et al.). The topics covered in the training session might be management styles of anti-bullying, improvement of communication skills, appropriate terminology, learning proper etiquette, and ways of eliminating sexual harassment in an organization. For example, an organization can run a sensitivity training class for its employees who never accepted the hiring of female workers or engineers.

Large Increase of Females in the Workforce

Over the past decades, the participation of women in the workforce has increased to account for approximately half of the labor force. For example, it might not be a surprise that most applicants of a certain organization might be females, more so, in the tough fields such as engineering and construction, as they are considered as masculine jobs. The organization might realize that they bring a unique approach to the involved fields.

Economic Benefits of Cultural Diversity

When the action becomes successful, diversity increases the profits as the employees will know how to handle clients from different cultural diversities too. Moreover, cultural diversity drives profitability through marketing, where having a diverse workforce creates trust in a company's brand with a diverse target market. Also, through operations where valuing diversity cuts costs by decreasing absenteeism, turnover, and avoid legal expenses (Baily et al.). It does this by enhancing the engagement of employees by showing that the organization respects and understands people or employees from different cultures. Additionally, when an organization values diversity, it gives it the freedom to go after talented and skilled people, regardless of their cultural differences. Moreover, profitability can be driven through innovation such that when it is in synchronization with many diverse markets, employees or the dedicated team will always establish new products that satisfy the needs of the market. The reason is that a diverse workforce understands better various diverse markets (Ansoff et al.).

Law and Ethics

Law is described as a set of regulations and rules established by a government to rule or govern a society or state at large. The law is always universally enforced, recognized, and accepted. It is also created to maintain justice, peace, and social order in society and to protect the public and safeguard their wants and interest (Carpenter et al.). Additionally, the law is made only after considering moral values and ethical principles. The country's judicial system is responsible for making the law, and every citizen in a country is always bound to follow the law. The law also defines what an individual must or must not do in society. Therefore, any case of law breach might lead to penalty or punishment or both (Carpenter et al.).

Ethics, on the other hand, is a moral philosophy branch that directs individuals on what is good and bad. It is a collection of important principles and concepts of an ideal character of a person. The depicted principles assist people in making decisions regarding wrong or right. It also informs people on how to act in a certain situation and make better decisions (Ansoff et al.). Moreover, ethics are the conduct code adopted and agreed by the people as it sets a specific standard of how one should interact and live with other people.

Laws and ethics are found in virtually societal spheres. They govern people's actions worldwide daily. Ethics and law work together to ascertain that citizens act in a specific way, and likewise combine and coordinate efforts and abilities to protect the welfare, safety, and health of the public. Though ethical principles are embodied by the law, ethics and law are not co-extensive. Moreover, based on the ethics of society, laws are enforced and created by various governments to mediate people's relationships and to protect citizens.

Nevertheless, while laws have a violation of punishment, in the end, ethics do not. Moreover, the behaviors people are expected to follow are always enforced by the law. At the same time, ethics suggest what should be followed and assist people in exploring options to enhance their decision-making. Moreover, ethical decision-making originates with the moral sense of an individual as well as the desire to preserve self-respect (Hill et al.). Laws are specific ethical values codification that helps in social regulation and influence the decision-making of people.

For instance, because a person might not want to hurt or injure someone means making decisions based on ethics. Also, carefully driving within the required speed limit because one sees a police vehicle behind them suggests that they fear to break the law and being punished for their actions. Many actions that might be broadly condemned as unethical are always not prohibited by the law. For example, betraying the confidence or lying to a friend. Also, breaking laws punishment can be harsh and might break various standards of ethics, for example, the death penalty. According to ethics, killing is prohibited or wrong, yet the law punishes individuals who break it with death.

Planning and Teamwork

Planning and teamwork or team-based planning are when members of a team come together to discuss and analyze objectives and goals, to develop a strategic management plan for the future. Planning and teamwork are among the best tools that high-performing teams utilize in the success quest. The benefits of planning and teamwork are that it provides direction, clarity, and focus for every team member. The activity allows a team to controls its schedule, create a long-range view, and see how the actions contribute to the overall objective of the organization (Hill et al.).

Additionally, planning and teamwork explore how people want to operate a...