Susan Littlefield
Self-Concept Theory
610
Organizational Behavior
Week Three Written Assignment
12//12/2011
Self-Concept Theory
Self Concept Theory is based off of a person’s motivation which means that he or she will unconsciously be analyzing what their ideal self is, what their self perception is (whether it is accurate or not) how they feel about themselves and what the social group around that person thinks of them (Schmidt, 2011). Traits are quality’s that a person has that are most noticeable by others, a person will most likely know what their traits are if they are good, but the co-workers will be more aware of the negatives. People can be labeled by their traits, go-getter, computer nerd, out-going, office-gossiper, and sometimes people can have conversations at work by just going off the traits and people who are in the group will automatically think of the person without mentioning that person’s name. Competencies are the skills we posses that we know without a doubt that we can do, sometimes people on their resumes will put down more than enough that people begin to wonder did he or she really do all those things? Values are what people hold close them in their subconscious and he or she will react to different situations using their values to help solve problems, so what is important to someone may not be as high on the list as others.
People behave at work however they would like to but some people will follow the in- crowd so that person will be well-liked and that will help them meet the company standards as well as forming a good relationship with his or her boss. These types of social groups can be formed and people involved in them may benefit from this special type of relationship down the road and because he or she is friends with others of different groups and there is more than one person to go to for help. At one job this author had moral was very low because we knew our company was closing and we only had ninety days to prepare for it, we had a powerful union called the Communications Workers of America Local 1298 (CWA) and many people were involved from different social groups. “Even if I have to be on the phone all day, whatever it takes, we're going to have to do it," said Bill Henderson, president of the Communications Workers of America Local 1298 (Associated Press, 2008). Unfortunately it did not happen for us, but it is interesting to note that when Obama was having his inauguration we were notified to look for Mr. Henderson and sure enough he was standing right behind the new President.
Everyone learned everything through word of mouth because many meetings were being held and when the union leaders came back to their desks the rumors would fly from person to person. People were very tense at work and the managers really kept things quiet so there was a level of distrust especially with people who were going to union meetings, which at times was just about everyone. While on the phones we learned that there was a major layoff that gave people two week notices and it was based on their hire date and that date was a week after I started. So everybody the week after me was let go they had two weeks’ notice, my manager was out of town so I was told I was safe only after someone from the union who started the same day as me said so. The problem here I would like to address is what happens when really bad news comes to a large group of people who are very upset about losing their jobs?
This situation was tough to be in because many people had a low-level of competencies and because they were a little strange or unusual they were able to provide information to the customers with anonymity and be somewhat successful at their jobs. Charles Schmidt Jr. from the University of Rhode Island from the Labor Research Center in his article on Motivation Overview speaks to the fact that these people are in the low-weak category (Schmidt, 2011). People who have a low self efficacy are going to feel most threatened by this news; this group of people may not be able to handle this because he or she does not believe that their skills are transferable to another job. At my company people could ask for help and get special favors that might not be able given at other companies, so people we knew were not going to make it through this event because our company overlooked certain things. People could come to work with tattoos, purple hair, looking like they just rolled out of bed, and most people would not think anything of it because those traits matched the person. Most people did not fit that group and we had a causal work environment so we could wear jeans and we did not have to dress up only when we had special visitors like people from Department of State.
People began to do really stupid things because they were mad about losing their job and one person took his anger out on the customers because he would hang up on them during the call. Scott was someone who was not liked by others because he was a known trouble maker; he had so many seat changes because he could not get along or leave his co-workers alone. He did not know really how bad he was but we all knew what his traits were, loud-mouth, gossip monger, instigator, and he always talked about his mother who he lived (he must have been in mid-40’s). I am setting the stage for something big that occurred people turned on each other which brought the stress level up and trust level down so when Scott got walked out of the building we were all shocked. He lost everything right before we lost our jobs someone who he picked on wanted to get even with him and that person told our manager that Scott was hanging up on callers. Before knowing about losing our jobs he would have never behaved this way because he was always at the top of the list when it came to getting intrinsic awards.
The managers decided to offer vacation time to people who had worked there the longest and we had a lot of people out so the people who were left at the call center really had to hustle on the phones there was little or no break in-between calls, so that brought the stress level up even more and people would fight with each other and it was just awful at the end because people who already liked to spread gossip got worse and the best solution for me was to stay out it. I even had to move to another cubicle because people were so negative and one woman would start all the talk and then it was a cannonball people were mad that our contract had not been renewed. It is hard to say what I would have done back then if I was a manager I would have had more team meetings to discuss what will happen after the company closes. People who were once at the self-actualization level where they felt proud, helped others and had a basic solid foundation on which they lived, we dropped down two or three levels down on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (Chapman, 2011). Some people who had not made it that high on the level were pretty much stuck because they had little resources to help them bounce back from this awful situation.
Because of the layoff and the company closing we added to the unemployment population in New Hampshire probably over 500 people because in total there were 2 layoffs and then the company closed. Someone on unemployment can stay on it for more than two years in NH. I did a lot of temporary work and which I really enjoyed but they were short-term assignments. The first full-time position I was offered was at John Hancock and because I aced school I figured I could learn anything, I feel that right now I am meeting my safety needs, that sometimes I can go all the up the Hierarchy and then come back down based on my day. Most of the time I am at the Self-Actualization level when I talk about things in class but it not always easy to stay there. My Safety Needs are met because I have a great home to live in with my cat; my dad gives me money when I ask for it but the area I need to work on is Belongingness and Love Need. Getting a job is important to me and I have had to apply for special services that I never thought I would have to, like food stamps, free medicine, discounts on my utilities and heat and that makes feel like I am at the Safety Needs level.
References
Associated Press. (2008, December 3). Dover call center to close eliminating 300 jobs. Retrieved
Chapman, A. (2011, Decemeber 7). Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Retrieved from
Schmidt, C. (2011, Decemeber 12). Work motivation overview. Retrieved from http://www.uri.edu/research/lrc/scholl/webnotes/Motivation.htm
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