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Learning Objective

Organizational Behavior

Organizational Behavior

>      The field of study that draws on theory,methods, and principles from various disciplines to learn about individuals perceptions, values,learning capabilities, and actions while working in groups and to analyze the external environment's effect on the organization and its human resources,mission,objectives, and strategies.

>     Organizational Behavior is the study of individuals and their behavior within the context of the organization in a workplace setting. It is an interdisciplinary field that includes sociology, psychology, communication and management. 


 Contingency Approach

Managing Individuals

>      The basic idea of the contingency approach is that there's not one best way to manage; a method that's very effective in one situation may not work at all in others. Contingency approach to management that believes there's no one best way to mange in every situation and mangers must find different ways that fit different situations.
     The contingency approach has grown in popularity because research has shown that given certain characteristics of a job and certain characteristics of the people doing job, some management practices work better than others.  


Managing Workplace Behavior

>      Here in the Philippines, the managing workplace behavior  is slightly different from the managing workplace from other country, such as Germany.

Workplace in Germany

 In Germany they offer wireless on board computers that use global positioning satellites to give vocal directions to any destination. Other countries already use internet-ready cars an some use devices, combined with database,multimedia interferences, and software, are affecting every profession, company, and business practice, while here in the Philippines although we use technological gadgets or high tech facilities it is not fully improved compared to the facilities of other rich countries.

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Approaches to Effectiveness

Approaches to Effectiveness

>       The Goal approach to effectiveness is the oldest and most widely used evaluation approach. According to this approach, an organization exist to accomplice goals and perspective on effectiveness that emphasizes the central role of goal achievement as a criterion for assessing effectiveness.The goal approach reflects purposefulness, rationality, and achievement - the fundamental tenets of contemporary Western societies while System Theory is a grouping of elements that individually establish relationships with each other and that interact with their environment both as individuals and as a collective. System theory enables us to describe organizations' internal and external behavior and stresses the organization's connection to the larger system of which it is a part. Multiple Constituency means achieving balance among the various parts 

of the system by satisfying the interests of the organization's constituency compared to 

goal approach which emphasizes that organizations are chartered to accomplish goals.

In  Multiple - Constituency to effectiveness, emphasizes the relative importance of different group's and individuals' interest in an organization.

 Environmental Forces that Initiate Changes to Organization

Forces that Initiate Organization

External Force

1. Technology - when there is a change in technology in the organizational environment and other organizations adopt the new technology, the organizations under focus become less cost effective and its competitive position weakens. Therefore, it has to adopt new technology, its work structure is affected and a new equilibrium has to be established.
2. Market condition - Since every organization exports its outputs to the environment,an organization has to face competition in the market. There may be two types of forces which may affect the competitive position of an organization –other organizations supplying the same products and, buyers who are not buying the product. Any changes in these forces may require suitable changes in the in the organization
3. Social changes - Social changes reflect in terms of people’s aspirations, the needs,
   and their ways of working. Social changes have taken place because of the several forces like level of education, urbanization, feeling of autonomy, and international impact due to new information sources. These social changes affect the behavior of people in the organization. There, it is required to make adjustment in its working so that it matches with people. 
   4. Political and legal changes - Political and legal factors broadly define the activities which an organization can undertake and the methods which will be follow by it in accomplishing those activities. Any changes in these political and legal factor may affect the organization operation.
   
   
        Economic and market circumstances and technological innovations make up an organization's environment, as do federal, state, and local legislation and political, social, and cultural conditions external to the organization. Together, these components of an environment influence how an organization operates, as well as how it is structured.

Organization Culture and Socialization

>     Organizational culture is what the employees perceive and how this perception 

creates a pattern of beliefs, values and expectations. It involves shared expectations, 

values, and attitudes, it exerts influence on individuals, group, 

Organizational culture and socialization

and organizational process.

>     Organization socialization is the process by which organization brings new employees into the culture. In terms of culture, socialization involves a transmittal of values, assumptions, and attitudes from older to newer employees.

Difference in how some employees talk about a positive culture and negative culture

Positive and Negative Culture

>    Organizational culture involves shared expectations, values, and attitudes, it exerts influence on individuals, group, and organizational processes. Employees of an organization has their own values and attitudes, expectation, has their behavior it could be taken as positive culture especially if some employees is similar to others’ behavior, values etc.Positive culture is said to exist where staff respond to stimulus because of their alignment to organizational values. In such environments, strong cultures help firms operate like well-oiled machines, cruising along with outstanding execution and perhaps minor tweaking of existing procedures here and there.

     Conversely, there is negative culture where there is little alignment with organizational values and control must be exercised through extensive procedures and bureaucracy also others describe a negative culture is that they could not accept that there are employees that have that kind of attitude or behavior that the others do not want. 

>     Culture can generate a sense of loyalty and commitment. Individuals by joining an organization and working hard to perform and compete creates sense of "we" and "me".

Individual and Team behavior

The impact of an organization's culture on individual and team behavior

>      Because organizational culture involves shared expectations,      values, and attitudes, it exerts influence on individuals, group and organizational processes. Employees are influenced to be a good citizens and to go along, Thus, if quality customers service is important in the culture , then individuals are expected to adopt this behavior.

IMPACT OF ORGANISATIONSAL CULTURE ON EMPLOYEE MORALE

     The nature of corporate culture that exists in a company is going to decide the degree to which the desired results from the employees are obtained.  The common perceptions of the individual members about the organisation determines the types of the organisational culture, individuals with realm of universal truths and are broad enough to accommodate any variety of circumstance.

An organisation culture consists of two primary components.

• The primary value of the organization and
• The existing management style and systems.

     These two components significantly determine the degree to which the desired result from the employees is obtained.  The value system to which the employees support directly or indirectly or by their behaviour indicates the direction in which organizations are likely to move in the future.  A strong culture is a powerful lover for guiding behaviour.  It helps the employees to do their job better.

The essence of the organizational culture can be stated in its five characteristics namely.

• Individual autonomy
• Organizational Structure
• Reward organization
• Consideration and
• Conflict

     Organizational culture is concerned with how employees perceive each of the five characteristics slated above whether it may be positive or negative.  An effective culture is a system of informal rules that spell out how employees are behaving most of the time.  It also enables people to feel better about what they do, so they are more likely to work harder.  It provides a sense of common direction and guidelines for day to day behaviors.


Spirituality is considered to have some positive benefits in the workplace

Spirituality

> Spirituality is a state or experience that can provide individuals with direction or meaning, or provide feelings of understanding, support, inner wholeness, or connectedness.


> Spirituality is often experienced as a source of inspiration or orientation in life.It can encompass belief in immaterial realities or experiences of the immanent or transcendent nature of the world.


>     Spirituality involves feelings, beings connected to the work and to colleagues. Because work is such a major part of the lives of employees, organizational culture and practices can contribute to a person's spiritual development and growth.


     The spirituality benefits in addition to improved effectiveness include attaining a broader worldview; concern with working with integrity; acquiring a strong sense of community; willingness to work to make a positive difference by making contributions to colleagues, stakeholders, and society . In addition to these benefits there is also the individual benefits of creating a more reasonable work/life balance, attitude, and set of behavior.


Specific practices and programs used by organization to facilitate socialization

Socialization in an organization

> Orientation programs - Organization should design orientation  programs that enable new employees as soon as possible. The degree to which the orientation programs is formalized can vary, but in any case, the programs should not be left to chance. Orientation programs is the process of welcoming a new employees into your organization.

         Orientation programs  includes spending time to doing the jobs in each departments  to understand the flow of the product or service through the organization. 

> Training programs - are invaluable in the breaking - stage. Training programs are necessary to instruct new employees in proper techniques and to help them develop requisite skills.  Training programs designed for training employees in specific skills. Employee training is a necessity. You need to get new hires up to speed as quickly as possible so they can become productive members of your team. And you want to update the skills of existing employees so they'll be ready for you to implement new technology, develop new processes and acquire new market.

> Performance evaluation - provides important feedback about how well the individual is getting along in the organization. This takes place in face- to-face sessions meetings between individual and manger and that in the context of the job, performance criteria  must be as objective as possible.

     Cumulative consideration of factors (that may be subjective or objective) to determine a representative indicator or appraisal of an individual or entity's activity, or performance in reference to some subjective (or standard) over some period of time. Factors to consider may include degree of goal attainment, how items are measured, and what standards are to be applied.

> Assigning challenging work - this are the task given  to new employees to test how effective the individual in the given position.

> Assigning demanding bosses - is a practice that seems to have considerable promise for increasing the retention rate of new employees. In this context, "demanding" should not be interpreted as "autocratic". Rather, the boss most likely to get new hires off the right direction is one who has high but achievable expectations for their performance.

Other socialization practices are:

> Anticipatory Socialization -  The primary purpose of these activities is to acquire information about new organization and /or new job.Involves the informal adoption of norms or behavior appropriate to a status not yet achieved by the individuals concerned, so providing them with experience of a role they have yet to assume. For example, children may anticipate parenthood by observing their parents as role models, and the careerist may anticipate promotion by emulating the occupational behavior of his or her superiors.

> Accommodation Socialization - the second stage of socialization occurs after the individual becomes a member of the organization, after he or she takes the job. During this stage, the individual sees the organization and the job for what they actually are. Through a variety of activities, the individual attempts to become an active participant in the organization and a competent performer on the job.

> Role Management -  In contrast to the accommodation stage, which requires the individual to adjust to demands and expectations of the immediate work group, the role management stage takes on a broader set of issues and problems. Specially, during the 3rd stage, conflicts arise.A common conflict is between the individual's work and home lives.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Globalization

> Globalization -  interdependency of transportation, distribution, communication, and economic networks across international borders. It means business is mutually and physically responsible to supply the demands of customers globally. A business is engaged in performing tasks internationally.

> Worldwide movement toward economic,  financial, trade, and communications integration. Globalization implies opening out beyond local and nationalistic perspectives to a broader outlook of an interconnected and inter-dependent world with free transfer of capital, goods, and services across national frontiers. However, it does not include unhindered movement of labor and, as suggested by some economists, may hurt smaller or fragile economies if applied indiscriminately.

Importance of Cross-Cultural Management

> it is the study of the behavior of individuals in organizations around the world. It is important because in cross-cultural management, we are dealing with organizational behavior within countries and cultures. We are not just talking about an organization’s culture or behavior but we are also comparing it to the other organization’s culture within and outside the country. It tends to extend the study of domestic management to encompass global and multicultural considerations.

Global skills managers must learn, practice, and refine to deal with a changing world

>    Global manager is a person who views markets, production, service and opportunities globally who seeks higher profits for the firm on a global basis. He is aware of and understands the major cultural differences from country to country.

> Suggested Global Strategic Skill  for the global managers for  their economies of scale and competition can be addressed follows:

• Team Building Skills - One of the international business, the need for global teamwork is seen considering on how accounting and auditing are conducted in various parts of the world. In operation management, of course, it is important to develop systems, processes and procedures across subsidiaries.
• Organization Skills - Managers must consider individual differences when organizing firms, units and jobs. Minimum requirements for managers operating in a globally shifting world would be:

*      Creativity and inventiveness in designing organizations and jobs.

*      High tolerance for ambiguity and cultural differences.

*      Ability to coordinate finance, marketing, operations management, and human resource interdependencies.

• Communication Skills - engaging in an international business, managers needs to have the communication skills to be to be able to communicate with the other people especially to the diverse group of people. The communication task would be easier for the managers of a business if he possessed multilingual skills and high levels of cross-cultural awareness and sensitivity.
• Transfer of Knowledge Skills -competition throughout the world has placed a special emphasis on technological advances for product and process innovation. The skill that the managers can apply on a regular basis is the learning about a practice, technique, or approach in one country that can be transferred elsewhere.

Characteristics of culture can influence the behavior and attitudes of employees

>     It has been influenced to the behavior and attitude because culture is consists of patterns of behavior acquired and transmitted within a society. National culture 

is a set of values, attitudes, beliefs and norms shared by a majority of the inhabitants of the country. These become embodied in the laws and regulations of the society which is generally accepted as the norms of the country’s social system.

     

 Other characteristics of culture that can influence the behavior and attitudes of employees are subcultures, organizational culture and history influence behavior patterns of employees and the structures and processes found in organizations. The complexity of these patterns, structures and processes requires careful analysis of many different variables.  

Hofstede's original cultural dimensions

>   Geert Hofstede, a Dutch researcher, studied how cultures in countries are similar and different. His initial survey data resulted in four dimensions being identifies as explaining differences and similarities in cultures: Uncertainty avoidance, Masculinity – femininity, Individualism - collectivism and Power distance.

Uncertainty  Avoidance

     - concerns the degree to which people are comfortable with ambiguous situations to predict future events with accuracy.

Masculinity  – Femininity 

     - Hofstede used the term masculinity to designate the degree to which a culture emphasizes assertiveness, dominance and independence. Femininity describes a culture’s tendency to favor such values as interdependence, compassion, and emotional openness.

Individualism – Collectivism

     - This dimension refers to the tendency of a culture’s norms and values to emphasize satisfying individual needs or group needs.  Individualism emphasizes pursuit of individual goals, needs, and success and Collectivism emphasizes group need, satisfaction and performance

Power Distance

     - This dimension refers to the degree to which members of a society accept differences in power and status among themselves.