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Professional Behavior In The Workplace Running head: PROFESSIONAL BEHAVIOR

Professional Behavior in the Workplace

Workplace Behavior December 3, 2008

Professional Behavior In The Workplace

Table of Contents Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 3 Professional Behavior in the Workplace..4 Benefits of Professional Behavior in the Workplace ...................................................................... 6 References ....................................................................................................................................... 7

Professional Behavior In The Workplace Introduction The workplace is an environment in which there is generally a high degree of personal interaction. Recent technological advances have made it much easier for people to communicate with one another. The emergence of the Internet in the 1990"s has forever changed the way that people will interact with one another. E-mail has become a way to connect with co-workers anywhere in the world. No longer is one confined to only communicating with people in their department or office. The increasing popularity of cellular phones had also changed human relations. One can now be reached virtually anytime, anywhere.

Just about every business, will occasionally encounter employees who do not know what it is to be professional/behave professionally. When individuals do not perform or behave in a professional manner, those individuals and their organizations do not achieve their potential. The gap between the results that are achieved in an unprofessional environment and the results that could be achieved in a professional environment is huge.

Professional Behavior In The Workplace Professional Behavior in the Workplace Many organizations are experiencing declining levels of employee responsibility and accountability, increasing employee dissatisfaction and disengagement, the disappearance of company loyalty, deteriorating customer service, and the evaporation of a solid work ethic. In addition, many organizations are seeing an alarming trend towards arrogance, disrespect, and an outright disregard for policies, procedures, rules, and authority. Many of these problems and

challenges stem from the absence of professionalism at school, home, and in the workplace. This lack of professionalism challenges business leaders and managers in the form of lying, dishonesty, mediocrity, rudeness, incompetency, indifference and other unprofessional behaviors that cut across all levels of an organization. Professional Workplace Behavior is supporting the values and mission of the organization that you work for, building positive relationships with others, communicating in a respectful manner, holding oneself accountable and pursuing change within the system. Employees at every level of any workplace should foster an environment that encourages professionalism and discourages disrespectful behavior. All employees should behave respectfully and professionally and refrain from engaging in inappropriate workplace behavior. All professional managers will say that professional behavior is a fundamental part of their profession. Professional behavior is a study that gives managers knowledge on how they should act in the most effective ways working in organizations, especially when it comes to large organizations. It is laid out in several major models that differ from each other in some basic features. It was probably easier to know how to behave at work in 1984 than it is today. Standards were set, policies were written, dress codes were uniform and the daily

Professional Behavior In The Workplace work structure was mostly from 9 to 5. Along with the business world, society also had a stricter code of conduct that made it easier to honor the rules simply because we knew what the rules were. Over the last 20 plus years so many of the standards of behavior have changed and this has created a constant state of confusion over what to do, how to do and the right thing to do with regard to professional behavior. The casual world of today affords you the luxury of working out of your home, you have flextime for greater mobility, dress codes are almost non-existent and there are more options for work/life balance (HRMagazine). However, even with the positive aspects of becoming a more informal society, all of this casual behavior has a price.

A great number of people, particularly those just beginning their careers, do not know what it means to be professional and they do not know what they should do to become professionals. They never have been motivated to think, act, and behave professionally. They do not understand how being a professional will benefit them directly. In addition, many experienced individuals who know better have allowed their professional behavior to slip. Professionalism, like any other life skill or value belief, can be taught and inspired. Everyone can learn how to think and act in a professional manner. Everyone can be inspired to improve his or her professional skills and behavior. The first step to creating and maintaining a professional culture is to establish the rules that everyone is to follow. This means adopting a written code of conduct in some tangible form that prescribes clear policies, procedures, values, and behaviors that everyone understands. The second step to creating and maintaining a professional culture is to teach individuals

Professional Behavior In The Workplace the rules and standards of behavior that they should know and follow. In other words, you have to teach the principles and techniques of professionalism and professional behavior. The third step to creating and maintaining a professional culture is to continually reinforce and enforce the principles of professional behavior. Once leaders establish the ground rules for professionalism, they cannot tolerate noncompliance, coasting, or mediocrity.

Benefits of Professional Behavior in the Workplace Reinforce trust and respect among leaders and associates Increase teamwork and cooperation Improve accountability and reliability of associates Reduce turnover and disciplinary problems Improve the happiness, joy, and quality of life of associates Engage and inspire employees and eliminate apathy

The above benefits are just a few, we are rewarded these benefits and more when there is professional behavior in the workplace. When we learn what it means to be professional and are motivated to think and act professionally, we become more valuable as employees, coworkers, and leaders.

Unprofessional Behavior in the Workplace

Unprofessional behavior will exist when people in a leadership role inadvertently allow it to exist by failing to proactively establish, communicate, and enforce a code of conduct and standards of excellence. People perpetuate unacceptable performance and behavior when they

Professional Behavior In The Workplace accept mediocrity. People reinforce unprofessional behavior when they are permissive and look the other way. We/people sabotage professionalism and our own standards of conduct when we do not provide for and enforce consequences for noncompliance. Workplace behavior is a term used to describe the behavior one uses in the workplace and is normally more formal than other types of human behavior. This varies from profession to profession, as some are far more casual than others are. For example, a computer programmer would usually have far more leeway in their work behavior than a lawyer.

People are usually more careful than outside of work in how they behave around their colleagues, as many actions intended to be in jest can be perceived as inappropriate or even harassment in the work environment. In some cases, men may take considerably more care so as not to be perceived as being sexually harassing than they would ordinarily.

Conclusion It is important to recognize and reward the professional behaviors we want. It also is important to have consequences for noncompliance. In addition, leaders and managers cannot allow associates to cruise along just doing their jobs and meeting basic or minimum requirements. Everyone must continually press for professional excellence, growth, and improvement. The differences between behaving professionally and not behaving professionally often are small differences However, there are many of them. Like the effect of compound interest, over the course of a career, these small differences dramatically effect what individuals become and achieve. Correspondingly, the small differences in individuals accumulate to become very large differences in the organizations they represent.

Professional Behavior In The Workplace

References Kasar, J., & Clark, E. N. (2000). Developing professional behaviors. Thorofare, NJ: SLACK. Lord, R. G., Klimoski, R. J., & Kanfer, R. (2002). Emotions in the workplace: Understanding the structure and role of emotions in organizational behavior. The Jossey-Bass business & management series. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. What's New - Workplace behavior and ethics program; online background verification service; employee survey tool; more. (2006). HRMagazine. 51 (1), 116.

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