Professional Documents
Culture Documents
for Managers
By:
Chapter 1
THE PROBLEM
Introduction
countries in the macro perspective. Later on, these economies grow on to build what is
now referred to as “global corporate mechanism” that relies heavily on the value of
human work.
Stripped down to its very core, the global corporate mechanism functions mainly
amounts of work of various sorts in various fields. If one is to dissect the framework on
which global economies depend on, it will come to attention that all hard work is done by
human resources—the vast collection of humans who gather together for the sole purpose
of working as a unit to benefit the company and contribute to its success (Bennet, 2012).
In the ideal workplace, all humans work together without suffering from major
personal and interpersonal setbacks. But as Aristotle has correctly pointed out, once two
or more individuals band together, conflicts are bound to arise regardless of purpose or
motive. To work with another means to be open to conflict. Add to this the innate human
tendency of supremacy and the personal drive to be calling the shots on how things
This tendency for conflict has paved the way for the adoption of the hierarchy
system where people in the workplace are sorted through qualifications, salary grades,
positions and entitlements (Kaplin, 2007). The amount of benefits and leverage one gets
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in the workplace gets better as one goes up the corporate ladder either thru direct hiring
or promotion.
The peculiar thing about the hierarchy system is the little room it allows for
people to do away with the ranking of employees. In this system, any deviant behaviour
which normally is expressed thru offensive actions by people in the lower echelon of
positions show to the people who are in the higher stages of the hierarchy. This is what is
highlights any untoward actions, either via act or omission, showed by a person to his
superior to whom the former is legally expected to show obedience, faithfulness and
respect.
in actual practice, superiors who believe they have been wronged by their employees thru
insubordination have the urge, if not the obligation, to respond to these threats thru
On the point of view of the employees, once asked with "If your employer was to
ask you to do a task, would you obey?", majority of employees would respond that they
would obey. The majority of employees would see themselves as owing their employer
an obligation to obey their instructions. The employer is usually the one who gives
instructions and sets out what the employee is to do during working hours. For
This symbiotic relationship is not only based on ideal concepts like obedience and
loyalty but by fear of loss and punishment. The current study contends that the essence or
nature of the employment relationship, which indicates the unique role of each party in
the contract of employment, is that the employee, by contracting away his or her
investigation.
The aim of the study is to locate and define the nature of "subordination" in the
employment relationship, and then to investigate how the breaching of this "position"
would justify dismissal, as interpreted and applied by the courts and actual practice. This
is to indicate indirectly the restrictions placed on the "legal right" of the employer to
ensure that the employee does not breach the "position" of subordination. What has been
deemed a fair reason to dismiss for insubordination is set out and this in turn will clarify
is then highlighted that contract is the source of the employment relationship. The
contract of service is set out historically to introduce the reader to the nature of the
relationship. Definitions of the employment relationship are then offered and it is through
this that the reader is introduced to the employee's obligation to be subordinate. It is from
this foundation that the thesis turns to the location of the nature or essence of the
be achieved by an analysis of the three common law tests - Control, Organisation and the
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Dominant Impression - which have been used in both locating and distinguishing the
In discussing the common law tests it will be shown that the tests are merely tests
which tend to focus on indicators that represent the essence or nature of the relationship.
"subordination", the breach of which would be insubordination. This will include, though
not exclusively, disobedience and disrespect directed towards the employer. Any conduct
that breaches the employer's right to demand that the employee act according to the
The consolidation and digesting of all these information will be used to come up
with means on how to critique the disciplinary approaches superiors use on the face of
effectively devised.
1.1 Age;
1.2 Gender;
2. What is the level of work leadership values among respondents in terms of:
and
accomplished)?
4. Is there a significant difference on the level of work values and the disciplinary
5. Is there a significant relationship on the level of work values and the disciplinary
This study will be conducted at various workplaces across Batangas City during
the school year 2017-2018. Particularly, it will investigate the profiles of the respondents
in connection to their level of work values, particularly terminal and instrumental values
and their disciplinary measures in terms of affective, continuance and normative aspects.
The descriptive research design will be utilized, with 250 superiors as respondents
This study will be delimited to superiors in a workplace that has at least 100
sole proprietorship, general or limited partnerships will not be covered by the study as
Its limitation lies on the fact that the work values and disciplinary measures of the
respondents will be based on purely personal factors like profiles and other biases like
experiences and level of knowledge which strongly differ from one person to another
which is why the results of the respondents may not aptly speak for other superiors from
previous years, from different institutions or even other professionals engaged in another
corporate setting.
This study intended to shed light that would be beneficial to the following:
have the information on the quality of the present corporate setting through this research.
This shall help the administrators assess the strength of its workforce, evaluate their
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weaknesses, objectify incentives and overall improve the conduct of work to effectively
manage insubordination.
To employees, since they are the beneficiaries of the study, can facilitate the drive
towards developing the optimal levels of performance coupled with respect and loyalty
and renewed sense of purpose which in the long run can help the institution produce
To Policy Makers, the result of the study will provide the policy makers an
values needed not only in the applicable in the workplace but living life as a whole
through the adoption of programs that target interpersonal development amongst people.
To readers and future researchers, this will surely serve as a source of reference
researchers could investigate how the work values exhibited by employers can be used as
Hypothesis
1. There is no significant difference on the level of work values and the disciplinary
Bibliography
Bennet, C (2012) "A Guide to the Law of Unfair Dismissal in South Africa" Lexicon
Publishers.
Imber, Michael and Tyll Van Geel (2011). “A Teacher's Guide to Education Law”.
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. p. 196. Google Book Search.
Kaplin, William A. and Barbar A. Lee (2007). “The Law of Higher Education”. Jossey-
Baass. p. 234. Google Book Search.
Ringrose, HG (2006) "The Law and Practice of Employment" Juta and Co.
Schmidt, Jeff (2011). “Disciplined Minds: A Critical Look at Salaried Professionals and
the Soul-battering System That Shapes Their Lives”. Rowman & Littlefield
Publishers, Inc. p. 41. . Google Book Search.
der Merwe, Van (2013), Van Huyssteen, Reinecke, Lubbe, and Lotz "Contract: General
Principles" Juta and Co.