Introduction
There are many aspects that should characterize a good work environment, including the organization’s culture, remuneration, the opportunity for advancement, and the nature of work. The company should not just be concerned with how they can extract value from employees to achieve their mission but also how workers can benefit. There should also be effective communication and respect for all people regardless of their ranking or other individual differences. In 2019, Cisco was recognized as the “world’s best workplace” by Great Place to Work and Fortune (Moorhead, 2019). According to an internal survey, 93% of Cisco employees said that the company was a great place to work, and 98% said that the environment was safe (Moorhead, 2019). The objective of this paper s to analyze Cisco’s environment, policies, and diversity practices influenced by attitude.
Driving Forces of Cisco
There are three primary driving forces for Cisco, including connectivity, innovation, and benefit to everyone. In 2020 the company launched the Integrated Workforce Experience (IWE), which was intended to change how the company works through the integration of a wide range of collaboration, communication, personal productivity, and knowledge management. The result is that the employees are enabled to augment company-specific information. There are also community owners who serve as catalysts for communication by urging team actions, sharing knowledge, and building relationships. With this strategy, the company has become a leader in the global market.
According to Cisco (2020), 54% of organizations expect to receive half of their revenues from international clients. According to Motel (2016) “disclose diversity goals and outcomes whether the company aspires to genuinely promote greater representation or avoid greater regulation” (p.328) To achieve a better international presence, Cisco has expectations for its multicultural workforce to work with customers all over the world. One of the strategies that the company uses is recruiting foreign students studying in the United States.
The company also upholds corporate social responsibilities since one of its principles is that all the stakeholders, including workers, managers, shareholders, customers, and the community. For example, the company has a Networking Academy, which offers training to more than two million students globally studying courses related to information technology (Moorhead, 2019).
The firm also has various projects for communities, such as cleaning and education sponsorship, which shows its commitment to morality. In addition, Cisco pays substantial attention to continuous innovation and research. The company offers its employees a psychologically safe environment where they can suggest new ideas.
Cisco’s Workplace Practices and Policies
One of the practices that Cisco has implemented to become one of the best companies to work for is to utilize technological innovations in offering flexibility in jobs. For example, the corporation has Remote Office Connectivity, which enables workers to have secure wireless connectivity regardless of their physical location. The other practice is engaging in community programs through such avenues as TacOps disaster response, which is aimed at helping the neighboring families whenever there is a crisis (Moorhead, 2019).
Behaviorally, the company is shaped through the consciousness of individual differences to encourage people from diverse backgrounds to work together. In addition, employees are required to have professional conduct while at the workplace. Management practices are informed by the leaders who are qualified and effective in mobilizing all the stakeholders to work together and comply with the vision of the company. From the executive team to the lowest ranking worker, the practices are guided by transparency and accountability.
The company adheres to its strict CSR policy, which plays a significant role in employee satisfaction. People can respectfully communicate their minds without fear of losing their jobs. The company has a policy for cultural consciousness, and workers are trained to be effective in their relations with colleagues. The rule of everyone’s benefits has made the company to be committed to providing fair remuneration to the workers.
For example, the Sales Incentive Compensation (SIC) policy provides the strategic alignment logic for employees and customers (Chatterjee et al., 2016). The program is transparent and fair and even helps to determine people who deserve career advancement. In addition, Cisco offers training, team building, and other fun activities to the employees. The policy promotes an environment where job efficacy and satisfaction are possible.
Work Attitude Practices Affected by Diversity
Many organizations in the contemporary world offer their services to people from different cultural backgrounds, to create a diverse workforce. The challenge is, that when people from distinct religious groups, ethnicity, educational qualification, sexual orientation, and country of origin try working together, it is difficult to find a common platform. Issues such as prejudice and misconception are frequently the reason behind misunderstandings and frustrations among team members from various cultures. In some cases, diversity creates a positive attitude when people learn to appreciate their individual differences and focus on achieving the goal of the firm.
One of the work attitude practices influenced by diversity is forming small groups of people who comply with the mission. The Caucasians may relate well with each other and not to the black Americans (Pitchforth et al., 2020). Such fragmentation in the workplace may hinder effective communication and cooperation due to negative attitudes. The solution is to design a work environment that encourages interactions among all employees.
According to Pitchforth et al. (2020), the answer to this challenge is adopting an Open-plan office that has minimal space separation. Studies indicate that such structures drive negative attitudes and behaviors through increasing contact with co-workers (Pitchforth et al., 2020). Relationship between all employees helps in understanding individual differences to make it possible for people to work together.
Practices such as promoting male employees or giving them higher salary than their female counterparts in the same workgroup is commonly influenced by sexist attitude. Some of the misconceptions may be that women are more committed to their families rather than jobs. The solution is to have policies followed during the recruitment and selection process as well as to encourage competent personnel. Training employees to accord equal respect while at work is also important in enhancing positive organizational culture. As stated by Cisco (2020), enterprises need to reassess their approach to advancement, human resource activities, and cultural suppositions. The company can then establish new baselines for value propositions and enhance the engagement of workers.
Conclusion
People consider the physical, social and psychological environment of an organization before sending their work applications. Companies with good reputations are most likely to attract many talented workforces. Cisco is an organization that was recognized as the world’s best workplace. The firm has practices that promote positive culture, communication, diversity, and benefit to all. In addition, it adheres to CSR practices and observes other policies to enhance the performance of its stakeholders. With increased globalization, the company employs people from different cultural groups. In a diverse workplace setting, negative attitudes like discrimination and unfair rewards may emerge. The solution is to encourage interaction through open-plan offices and have transparent and justifiable policies that are fair to all workers.
References
Chatterjee, S., Narayanan, V., & Malek, W. (2016). How strategy execution maps guided Cisco system’s sales incentive compensation plan. Strategy & Leadership, 44(6), 25-34. Web.
Cisco (2020). Transitioning to workforce 2020. White Paper. Web.
Moorhead, P. 2. (2019). Why no one should be surprised Cisco named ‘world’s best workplace’ for 2019. Forbes. Web.
Motel, L. (2016). Increasing diversity through goal-setting in corporate social responsibility reporting. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, 35(5), 328-349. Web.
Pitchforth, J., Nelson-White, E., van den Helder, M., & Oosting, W. (2020). The work environment pilot: An experiment to determine the optimal office design for a technology company. PLoS One, 15(5), 1-33. Web.