Essay on Self Esteem

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Introduction: The Five articles I have studied are primarily centered around self esteem and feelings of Schadenfreude occurring in individuals in multicultural set up. I have thoroughly studied the articles and have tried my best to reflect my feelings on reading it and tried to conclude with some recommendations from my side to overcome it..

1.A meta-analysis of the predictors and Consequences of organization-based self-esteem

Nathan A. Bowling, Kevin J. Eschleman, Qiang Wang

Cristina Kirkendall and Gene Alarcon

Department of Psychology, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio, USA

This article gives an impression that work environment based variables influence performance of an individual more than his self esteem. The work environment based variables in an organization influence what is known as OBSE- “Organization Based Self-Esteem “. This plays all more important role than individual self esteem as a motivator. OBSE mediates the relationship between general self esteem and the work related requirements.

Reflection:-

This paper clearly highlights the fact that an individual with high level of OBSE shows positive   attitude towards his/her work, performs effectively, considers every work as challenging and likes to work in an inherently rewarding environment. A person having low OBSE tends to have a negative attitude, goes into damage control mode and considers challenging tasks as threats. Findings in the journal explicitly states that emotional stability and OBSE are not related. But having worked in an organization before, I would say that though they are not directly related they are indirectly related:-[pic 2][pic 3][pic 4]

Emotional stability-----→ Mental well being----→Work performance job attitude--→   OBSE

An ill individual may not be willing to take up more challenging tasks which he is competent enough to handle nut may end up not doing it and loosing self esteem in the long run.

Another suggestion the author gives is that “General self esteem and self efficacy should be used as tools in section process to hire high OBSE employees”1. I don’t agree with this and I feel that general self esteem of an individual is cannot be used in work related context as the hired employee may not fit properly in to the role offered as assumed and end up affecting the organization’s performance in spite of maintaining high self esteem.  Accordingly to me OBSE acts as a facilitator between the individual’s self esteem and the work related criteria.

2.Age and Gender Differences in Self-Esteem—A Cross-Cultural Window

Wiebke Bleidorn, University of California, Davis and Tilburg University        Ruben C. Arslan, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen,  Jaap J. A. Denissen   Tilburg University, Peter J. Rentfrow-University of Cambridge, Jochen E. Gebauer-University      Of Mannheim, Jeff Potter-Atof Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts, Samuel D. Gosling-University        Of Texas Austin and Melbourne

   This paper investigates into age and gender differences in self esteem across different      cultures in magnitude of gender, age, and Gender X Age effects on self-esteem.

Reflection:-

The data results showed that men tend to have higher self esteem than women in multi cultural context too. The data results indicated that the generalization of age and gender gap in self esteem data for western countries too can be extended to other 48 countries. This according to me shows that the there is not much difference in gender gap in self esteem between western culture and other cultures. The explanation for this might be that

socio economic indicators and gender equality indicators--→leads to personality traits difference---→leads to cultural difference--→difference in timing of social responsibilities which might affect their work. In western countries this was glaring as we see the number of women executives and CEO’s in western countries dwindling in figures as gender gap affects self esteem of women which acts as a de motivator.  Moreover mean at Marriage Age and adolescent fertility age also play an important role especially in context of India where women are married at an early age and start family so early that it affects their self esteem and hence performance. It has also been mentioned that gender differentiation in self esteem does not depend much on “Masculinity Vs femininity”2 - I disagree on the same as I feel in the context of developing and underdeveloped countries in which masculinity has always been associated with assertiveness superiority,  in societies which do not hold egalitarian values and in manufacturing industry in particular which demand hard labor, self esteem  of women gets affected as the scope for them becomes narrowed. This clearly is an important influencing factor. Further Gender, age and Age X Gender effects are inconsistent with strong universal explanations and are greatly influenced by cultural specific influences such as GDP and gender inequality in economic participation.  I would conclude by saying that the author did not dwell much on age graded turning points which are very important in context of developing countries like India where age graded turning points for male and female members are different and demand differently from each in terms of social responsibility-while men are expected to work on reaching a certain specific age fulfilling which gives them self esteem, women are expected to take up other responsibilities not pertaining to work which affects their self esteem a lot. According to me the research could be furthered by taking into consideration the above mentioned factor.

3. Organization-based self-esteem as a moderator of the relationship between employee dissent and turnover intention:

Tuna Cenkcia, Ayşe Begüm Ötkenb  aOkan University, Istanbul 34959, Turkey bYeditepe University, Istanbul 34755, Turkey

This examination explores the relationship between representative difference and turnover goal, and the directing part of organization based confidence (OBSE) on this relationship. A review survey was arranged and circulated by the specialists, with an example of 211 white collar employees in Middle Eastern country taking an interest and the results compiled to study this relationship.