Descriptive norm:  “Many employees make personal phone calls during business hours.”

Constructive:  Those that make these calls might start cutting back.

Destructive: Those that don’t might start making personal calls.

Constructive: Add, “and we appreciate those who wait for their break to make personal calls.”

Injunctive: Don’t make personal calls during business hours.
Slide 8:  I Would think the team you are closest to has the most influence because you see them and they see you day to day, so you feel most affected by their reactions rather than by someone from afar.

Slide 7: In My Own Environment

Descriptive norm- It isn't necessarily allowed to wear open-toed shoes at the office but little by little, everyone start to do so. Announcement: “Many employees have been seen wearing inappropriate clothing to work.”

Constructive: Those who have been dressing inappropriately to be more aware of their attire.

Destructive: Those who have been dressing appropriately might become more relaxed with their attire since most employees around them seem to be as well.

Injunctive: Announcement: “Please abide by the work attire guidelines required of you, and a thanks to those who continue to comply with it.”

Slide 8: The team that you are working directly with will influence the way you behave in the workplace because you identify most with them. It almost functions like a clique. You will do what they do so you can feel accepting into a subgroup at the office. It’s an evolutionary survival instinct to want to be a part of a group.

Slide 10: I would incorporate the reward system to encourage a group to follow team norms. For instance, I would offer a reward to the team if all of them were to never break a rule for a specific amount of time. This would encourage them to all abide by this rule and it would become the team norm. 

 

An example of Injunctive and descriptive is 

·      Even though we shouldn’t be using our cell phones on class many of us do anyways. 

·      The Injunctive part is the thought of its not right to use our cell phones but descriptive is people do it anyways its considered normal acceptable behavior amongst the students in the classroom.

 

 

1.     Descriptive: on average 25 percent of the people print non-work related things over the year at the office to save copying and printing costs”

 

2.     Constructive: Those that print non-related work stuff at the office will stop printing or reduce printing

 

3.     Destructive: “Those that never print from work start printing since they see that 25 percent of the people do it and its acceptable”

 

4.     We are thankful to the employees that utilize work related equipment for office purposes only. Please keep up the great work. 

 

 

I think the most powerful group is the one that’s on an eye view but not in direct contact with you. When I am at work, I find the people that are executives sitting in an office maybe nearby have a big influence over the employees in my branch. This is because they pose this role model like quality that everyone wants to achieve which automatically derives with power. When the executives sit together and especially get a long and express work that needs to be done. I automatically consider them as powerful group.

 

 

 

I believe teams can be motivated if they have a role model like team quality in the higher ups. In an organization if the executives are working together and creating a great team like dynamic they can motivate other teams to achieve goals and try to use them as a standard. Basically, the executives modeling a team behavioral standard to influence other teams to achieve higher goals.

If employee norm isn't going hand in hand with the organizational norms. This can create a dysfunction in the workplace. This will have an emotional impact on the employee since they wont be able to fit in and it will impact the organization negatively since the employee wont be able to work towards making the organization better as a whole. 

Slide 10
Motivating employees to follow norms can be done if someone they closely relate to follows the norm. At work, there are often people who connect with certain co workers compared to others due to similarities they share.

1) The descriptive norm is employees are leaving work early.

2) It is constructive because “Those who do leave work early will start to stay to the end of the day."

3) It Is descriptive because “Those who do not leave early at the end of the day will start doing so because it has become the norm now.

4) Reconstructive: “Thank you for the employees who stay to the end of the day and prep for the next school day.”

1) How could you use contextual similarity to motivate employees to follow norms? I think the management should implement mandatory guidelines and have a meeting once a month to go over those specific guidelines. This will encourage employees to follow the guidelines as they would feel they are being monitored by management.

2) What would happen if the organizational norm was different from the contextual norm? The organizational norm and contextual norm can both be revamped so they go hand in hand. This way employees do not feel that there is an entire shift within the organization.

1) How can you induce critical thought norms in organizational teams? You can induce critical thinking in organizational teams by giving individuals an equal opportunity to voice their opinions. The more suggestions being discussed, the better the feedback. Each team should focus on a specific issue and then bring all issue to the table.

2.     The norm is constructive because employees are able to devote more time to other important projects instead of taking up time on reading through the trainings. 

3.     The norm is destructive because employees aren’t reading the content and therefore may not be reviewing the necessary skills to do their jobs correctly or their skills become stagnant. 

4.     In order to reduce this destructive norm there can be a statement in the beginning of the training that states that staff who read and understand all the topics of this training benefit in some way. An example of a statement could be “support staff who read all the safe driving training slides have 20 % less driving accidents or offenses compared to staff that don’t read through the slides” followed by a required e-signature to confirm understanding.

Since the trainings are already time stamped so it’s possible to analyze and compare the data. Since the injunctive norm is that staff should be reading all the contents of the trainings. 

 

Activity:

 

In the health and human services industry, the current contextual norm among direct-care staff is doing the most to provide opportunity for clients to live more person-centered lives. Person-centered means that clients focus on their own personal goals and what they want to live more satisfied lives outside the antiquated institutionalized perspective. 

Working with clients to train them for employment creates a tension between client/staff contextual norm of the person being the focus. When clients are interested in gaining competitive employment, they are now faced with the challenge of becoming part of a social group that they are no longer the main focus and their focus becomes providing value to a greater community. 

An intervention can be a shift in care by instilling that clients have freedom of choice but also that they are part of a larger social group of which it’s their responsibility to provide value to. The abilities of a single individual aren’t the focus but the focus is on the evolutionary perspective of people helping others in their social group. In order to create an intervention, meetings among staff and clients should focus on individual goals and an individual’s contribution to a social group of some sort. The idea of focusing on providing value to others as well as the self will help decrease a self-directed mindset and increase contribution to improve social and workplace performance.