East Asia

Convergence, Divergence, The Japanese and Korean Management Style



The Japanese management style has changed due to the new international market aspects. Before they focused in industries and products that had not been affected by the international economy and areas and their goods that were at a disadvantage in the beginning, for example, cotton and wool. The new nature of the firm in Japan is much more like a community. Property firms are treated as the property of the shareholders but in entity firms, there is some sense of being like a school, university, or public institution which continues through time and has a reputation of its own. There are three pillars of Japanese industrial relations system: lifetime employment, the seniority wage and promotion system, and enterprise‐based unions.

Japanese management beliefs that with the participation of workers and middle management the organization starts building group loyalty. Decisions are taken in group because it is important for everyone to make part of the organization. Remember that they see the firm as a community in which everyone can give ideas. They also belief in harmony and it has to be really positive. They have a fast, flexible manufacturing process and product development. Suppliers, manufacturers and distributors are really important for them and they are seen as a business partner because they will give the company good information.

The "Zaibatsu" is “a powerful family-controlled commercial combine of Japan, a Japanese conglomerate or cartel.”1 Groups of companies that have been passed from generation to generation. These companies are from families that have been accumulating power. They are close to political parties and have grown due to governmental support. They control a great part of Japan economy not only with their companies but with the banks because they own them.


Korea was a Japanese colony form 1910 up until 1945 this is why they have an evident influence from Japan. Because of Japan’s economical growth and development they became Korea’s development model. They decided to have a governmental intervention in order to face the new international market with credits and export growth benefits. This helped firms to grow fast and diversify in a better way. But gaps between large and small firms widened even more.

Korea also has a group of companies that have a clear influence in the economy. They are also from family origins that have been keeping power for decades. These groups also have a name and are known as the "Chaebol". The Chaebol is a “Korean term for a conglomerate of many companies clustered around one parent company. The companies usually hold shares in each other and are often run by one family.”2They differ from the Japanese group of companies; they don’t own banks because banks were nationalized and they have strong ties with the government and use its financing. Korea had a financial crisis in 1999 due to all the loans the companies had made and they couldn’t pay on time.

In order to explain the convergence and divergence terms we can use these two countries mentioned above. There are some countries that decide to converge into a model found in a developed country due to international pressure. Countries have to adapt to the new market rules and conditions so that is why countries are pressured to adapt their management styles to a much more developed one. But they also have domestic pressure in order to retain culturally determines forms of management. That is why they have adapted their management style to much more developed ones but without losing their identity. This is really clear in the influence that Korea received from Japan. Japan was seen as an economic development model by Korea but they didn’t adapt all of Japans management style, they just adapt their management style to the Japanese style.


Questions

1. List the main similarities and differences of Japanese and Korean management styles.

The similarities of Japanese and Korean management styles are the way they work for the organization in order to grow even more and to become much more internationalized. Improvement and growth are their main objectives for the organization. The organization as a whole is what matters for them. For both cultures having a good relationship with the employees is really important and also counting with their opinions. Decisions are taken in group and the company is seen as a community. They have a good and straight relationship with their suppliers, manufacturers and distributors and see them as trading partners with important information.

The differences between Japan and Korea are pretty clear. These two cultures diverge in their hierarchical orientation and in the economic environment. Korean government tried to tie up with business corporations in order to have a successful economy. They help companies with credit, import restrictions, sponsorship of specific industries, and a strong labor effort. The government promotes the import of raw materials, technology, and encouraged savings and investment. Korea recognizes the technology as an important tool to develop economies of scale. They compete in electronic products, machinery and equipment, automobiles, steel, shipbuilding, and clothing. Japan has a strong relationship between government and industries which work together and influence in one another. Japan is the second most technologically powerful economy in the world and third largest economy country. Japan emphasizes more on flexible manufacturing in order to have a rapid adaptation to market changes. They have been concentrated on automobile, semiconductors, office machinery, and chemicals.

2. Explain the phenomenon of convergence in terms of management styles. What are the forces or factors pushing for convergence?

As I mentioned above, convergence towards different management styles is really common when countries and companies develop. When an organization starts to grow and develop it has to start adding new ideas and considering new managerial ways. International pressure is one of the most important factors that take organizations into a managerial convergence. These companies have to make part of the international market place in order to keep growing so they start to adapt new concepts to their production systems and employees. In other words, organizations change or adapt their culture and environment in order for them to make part of the international market. They also have to converge because the international culture is in constant transformation so they have to adapt to new demands which sometimes cannot be satisfied if organizations are not aware of these. They have to adapt or converge to new production ways and norms. Also be aware of which management styles are more effective and can be helpful in the organization. Convergence in organizations is completely necessary in order to be competitive.


References

1. http://www.answers.com/topic/zaibatsu
2. http://www.investorwords.com/820/chaebol.html
- http://www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/mgmt_kaizen_main.html
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_management_culture
- http://www.applet-magic.com/zaibatsusp.htm
- http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaibatsu
- http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Zaibatsu
- http://www.worldbusinessculture.com/South-Korea-Management-Style.html
- http://www.applet-magic.com/chaebolsp.htm

Images Taken From:

- http://www.csudh.edu/global_options/375students-sp96/Japan/gifs/2.jpg

- http://www.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/2269764/2/istockphoto_2269764-south-korea-flag-icon.jpg

Communication + Virtual Teams

Communication

Communication is defines as "any act by which one person gives to or receives from another person information about that person's needs, desires, perceptions, knowledge, or affective states. Communication may be intentional or unintentional, may involve conventional or unconventional signals, may take linguistic or nonlinguistic forms, and may occur through spoken or other modes."1 It is a learned skill or process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, or behavior. For humans the interpersonal communication is an important process because it’s the base for relationships. There are some important and necessary elements involved during this process: the communicator, the receiver, the perceptual screens, and the message. But there are also some issues and barriers that humans have to overcome like the noise, distance, age, gender, encode and decode, language barriers, and the feedback. All of these have an important role in the way individuals communicate and interpret. Communication is the key to social support.

For organizations, communication plays a really important role at the moment in which managers have to express rules, goals, ideas and opinions to employees. It is what links managers and workers to share information and vice versa. Leaders have to maintain an effective communication with everyone inside the organization. Clarity, a specific objective (purpose of the message), a full understanding, consistency, completeness, feedback and time are some principles in order to have an effective communication. There are different types of managers in each organization and each one uses singular approaches. There are five different ways managers exercise their role:

1. The expressive speaker:This type of managers openly express thoughts, opinions, ideas and feelings which help employees know where they stand.

2. The emphatic listeners: These types of leaders are really patient and are willing to listen. They worry about others but don’t take responsibility for their actions.

3. The persuasive leaders: These leaders encourage others to achieve goals instead of given orders.

4. Sensitive to feelings leaders: This leader is sensible to feelings and self image. Tries to take critical perspectives and provide negative feedback in a constructive way. Works to improve employee self-esteem.

5. Informative managers: These managers are willing to maintain open communication with employees. They avoid information overload.



Virtual Teams

Virtual teams are defined as: “known as a Geographically Dispersed Team (GDT) – is a group of individuals who work across time, space, and organizational boundaries with links strengthened by webs of communication technology. They have complementary skills and are committed to a common purpose, have interdependent performance goals, and share an approach to work for which they hold themselves mutually accountable. Geographically dispersed teams allow organizations to hire and retain the best people regardless of location.”2 Virtual teams have some specific characteristics which are: geographically dispersed over different time zones, driven by a common purpose, enabled by communication technologies, involved in cross-boundary collaboration, not permanent, small team size, knowledge workers and members may belong to different companies.

There are different types of virtual teams which vary in the number of people and the degree of interaction. There are four types:

1. Teleworkers: “Allows employees to work at home or at a local telework center one or more days per week using communication tools, such as such as phone, fax, modem, Internet teleconferencing, e-mail or IM, to perform work duties from a remote location.”3

2. Virtual teams: “Are teams of people who primarily interact electronically and who may meet face-to-face occasionally.”4 They have common goals and are visible in the organization structure.

3. Virtual communities: Are larger entities with common purposes, roles and norms. “Virtual community is a social network of individuals who interact through specific media, potentially crossing geographical and political boundaries in order to pursue mutual interests or goals.”5 People participate and interact via internet.

4. Virtual groups: Are a combination of a number of teleworkers that have no common goals or objectives with independent tasks and activities. These groups are flexible, save time and money. They require strong coordination, good communication and advanced technology.

Questions

1. Communication is a process that allows organizations to send/receive messages within their own boundaries but also to interact with outside entities (customers, suppliers, the media, etc.). Messages are send/received not only through oral and written statements, there are many channels and ways that need to be considered when discussing effective organizational communication. In that sense, the use of sounds has become increasingly important.

Based on the article “If Intercontinental were a sound…what would it be?” Please discuss the implications (potential advantages, disadvantages, challenges, etc.) of using sounds to send strategic messages. You need to integrate the use of key concepts relating to the topic of communication to support your answer.

I think that communication by sounds can make things much more difficult and confusing. For some people understanding certain words, languages and concepts can be hard. For organizations having a good communication with their employees can be hard if leaders don’t use simple language and basic ideas. Imagine if sometimes people don’t understand what their boss is trying to say even though they speak the same language, how it would be if they communicate by sounds. An organization to communicate all of its components by sounds will not only be hard but it will also leave important information aside and maybe it won’t be clear.

Clarity, a specific objective (purpose of the message), a full understanding, consistency, completeness are some of the principles for an effective communication which are not completely satisfied when a message is given through a melody. This type of messages are unclear and confusing, and don’t send a clear purpose. They don’t give a general image of the organization and the message is not consistent because they can be subjective.

“There are many aspects to verbal communication and social interaction with others. To communicate well on a verbal level a person must be able to: hear well, translate thoughts into words with fluency, speak well, feel confident in themselves and desire to make contact. Any difficulties in one of these areas will restrict the exchanges needed for an easy conversation.”6 If we analyze this we can conclude that verbal communication can be affected easily and it is kind of complicated. Communication by sounds could be easier because people don’t have to speak, don’t have to learn language rules but they have to hear well.


References

1. http://www.unm.edu/~devalenz/handouts/defcomm.html

2. http://managementhelp.org/grp_skll/virtual/defntion.pdf

3. http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/T/teleworking.html

4. http://www.seanet.com/~daveg/vrteams.htm

5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_community

6. http://www.soundtherapy.com.au/information_sheets/communication.pdf

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpersonal_communication

Images Taken From:

- http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/thumb_185/1189978433pU44RK.jpg

- http://pmtips.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/virtual_team1.jpg

Motivation

Motivation

“The definition of motivation is to give reason, incentive, enthusiasm, or interest that causes a specific action or certain behavior. Motivation is present in every life function”.1 It’s a set of forces that make people act in certain ways and behave according to the event.

There are many theories that explain what motivates humans and what takes them to behave in certain ways. According to these theories behavior can be predicted and influenced through motivation. The teacher introduced some of the most important and known theories which are: Maslow's hierarchy of needs, McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y, Herzberg's two-factor theory, Alderfer's ERG theory and McClelland's need theory

The Maslow’s hierarchy of needs or theory of motivation assumes that human beings are motivated by unsatisfied needs. There are certain lower factors that need to be satisfied before higher needs can be satisfied. “According to Maslow, there are general types of needs (physiological needs, safety needs, belonging and love needs, self-esteem needs and self actualization) that must be satisfied before a person can act unselfishly”.2 In other words, individuals are motivated if their needs are met. Maslow’s pyramid is really popular and explains on a simple way his theory.


Douglas McGregor in his book “The Human Side of Enterprise” proposed two theories in order to understand employee’s motivation. The McGregor theory describes two different attitudes toward workforce motivation which he named Theory X and Theory Y. Companies follow either one of the theories. Theory X shows that the average human being dislikes work and will avoid it if he can. Workers described by this theory have no ambition, wants no responsibility, they prefer to follow than lead, are self-centered, don’t care about organizational goals and resists change. Theory X assumes that people work only for money and security. The Theory Y shows that management assumes employees may be ambitious and self-motivated, that employees enjoy their mental and physical work duties. Workers have the ability for problem solving, but most of the time their talent is underused in most organizations. This theory believes that the satisfaction of doing a good job is a strong motivation. Employees under Theory Y can be seen as people that show that work can be as natural as play and rest, self-directed to meet their work objectives if they are committed to them, committed to their objectives if rewards are in place that addresses higher needs such as self-fulfillment and they will seek responsibility. Both theories give recommendations of how managers should deal with workers. The Theory X recommends that money and security are the main motivators for workers. Theory Y recommends having a good relationship and communication with workers and also converting the organizations goals into individual needs and goals.

Herzberg made a lot of research and studies in order to determine which factors caused satisfaction or dissatisfaction on people working in an organization. He discovered that people are influenced by two factors which he called motivation factors and hygiene factors. Motivation factors are needed to ensure that the employee doesn’t become dissatisfied. This can be achieved by giving them challenging work, recognition, responsibility and other challenges that give positive satisfaction, achievement, or personal growth. Hygiene factors are needed in order to motivate an employee to higher and better performance. Such factors are: salary, status, security, working conditions, quality of supervision, interpersonal relations and company policies and administration among others.

The Alderfer's ERG theory is based on the Maslow’s theory. It has much in common with it but differs in some important aspects. He classifies needs into three categories and ordered them hierarchically as Maslow did. He talks about the growth needs (development of competence and realization of potential), relatedness needs (satisfactory relations with others) and existence needs (physical well-being). Alderfer believed that as people start satisfying higher needs, they become more intense or even become an addiction. The main difference between Alderfer’s theory and Maslow’s theory is that the needs can be met at the same time, so various levels of needs can cause motivation simultaneously.


The McClelland's need theory explains that the individual specific needs are achieved over time and shaped by life experiences. He said that individuals have three needs; the need of achievement, the need of power, and the affiliation need. People are motivated by achievement and that is why they look for challenging goals, moving up in the organization, progress and accomplishment. Human beings are also motivated by power which produces a need to be influential, effective and to make an impact. They want to be a leader and their ideas to prevail; this can generate an increasing personal status and prestige. Affiliation is also really important because people has a need for friendly relationships and is motivated towards interaction with other people; this can lead to be popular among a group and creates a need to be liked among others.

Questions

1. What are the Hawthorne Studies? Explain its importance for studying motivation at the workplace and its influence over diverse motivation theories. (Include key findings and limitations)

The Hawthorne Plant of the Western Electric Company in Cicero, Illinois was the place selected in order to carry out the research project about how individual behaviors may be altered because they know they are being studied. This research was lead by Elton Mayo, F.J. Roethlisberger and William J. Dickson between 1927 and 1932. They started to examine the influence that the environment had over workers and production. First they measured if the lighting of the workplace increased employee productivity and they realized that it actually worked. Then they moved into the psychological aspects like breaks, group pressure, working hours, managerial leadership. All of these changes tend to improve production because workers were pleased to receive attention from the researchers who expressed an interest in them.

“Four general conclusions were drawn from the Hawthorne studies:

o The aptitudes of individuals are imperfect predictors of job performance. Although they give some indication of the physical and mental potential of the individual, the amount produced is strongly influenced by social factors.

o Informal organization affects productivity. The Hawthorne researchers discovered a group life among the workers. The studies also showed that the relations that supervisors develop with workers tend to influence the manner in which the workers carry out directives.

o Work-group norms affect productivity. The Hawthorne researchers were not the first to recognize that work groups tend to arrive at norms of what is "a fair day's work," however, they provided the best systematic description and interpretation of this phenomenon.

o The workplace is a social system. The Hawthorne researchers came to view the workplace as a social system made up of interdependent parts.”3

This study demonstrated how working conditions influence the behavior and performance of individuals. There are factors that motivate employees but like the McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y says, not all workers are motivated by the same things. It is really important for managers to understand and differentiate the kind of workers the organization has.

The Herzberg's two-factor theory can also be related to the Hawthorne studies because it shows that there are other factors that involve the employee to work and do a good performance but not with satisfaction. In this study they discovered that improving lighting, giving workers time to rest, water, comfort, less humidity are all better working conditions that can make workers feel better but deep inside those are not strong motivators. For workers when they receive challenging work, recognition, responsibility and other challenges that give positive satisfaction, achievement, or personal growth are much more important motivators.

Managers play an important role in any organization. They have to analyze and study the organizational environment and the people that make part of it. When employees realize that they are being observed they can feel important because they feel that they are part of the organization. Sometimes workers can also become depressed or feel uncomfortable because they feel they are being observed because they are doing something wrong. A positive result depends on the way managers manage things and people. If the leader observes workers in a good and friendly way they will feel comfortable. Also a good communication creates a positive environment.

2. Based on the class activity about "Flight 001: Motivating Employees", please answer the following question: ¿Which motivation theory do you think has the most relevance for understanding the behavior of Griffin and fostering her motivation at work?

I think that the McGregor's Theory Y has the most relevance for understanding the behavior of Griffin and fostering her motivation at work. This theory shows that employees may be ambitious and self-motivated, that they enjoy their mental and physical work duties. They have the ability for problem solving and the satisfaction of doing a good job is a strong motivation.

In the Flight 001: Motivating Employees is really clear that Amanda Shank is a good example of a person that has been fulfilled the basic or lower order needs. After her basic needs are completely fulfilled she wants to move on and start with the higher order needs. Amanda Shank starts to look for a further responsibility in the organization and knows that she is completely capable of having a better performance and help with the achievement of organizational goals. She has the ability of problem solving and going further on with her tasks. All of these are good reasons for why he enjoys working in Flight 001.


References

1. http://ezinearticles.com/?Definition-of-Motivation&id=1567108
2. http://www.envisionsoftware.com/articles/Maslows_Needs_Hierarchy.html
3. http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/history/hawthorne.html
- http://www.accel-team.com/human_relations/hrels_03_mcgregor.html
- http://www.netmba.com/mgmt/ob/motivation/mcgregor/
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_X_and_theory_Y
- http://www.valuebasedmanagement.net/methods_herzberg_two_factor_theory.html
- http://www.netmba.com/mgmt/ob/motivation/herzberg/
- http://www.envisionsoftware.com/articles/ERG_Theory.html
- http://www.valuebasedmanagement.net/methods_alderfer_erg_theory.html
- http://www.businessballs.com/davidmcclelland.htm
- http://www.netmba.com/mgmt/ob/motivation/mcclelland/

Images taken from:

-http://informationrain.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/400px-maslows_hierarchy_of_needssvg.png

-http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://dept.sfcollege.edu/crc/musselman/cwp/erg.jpg&imgrefurl=http://lukasz-janczak.blogspot.com/2009_11_01_archive.html&h=183&w=285&sz=7&tbnid=yiCvFwcbK4dIqM:&tbnh=74&tbnw=115&prev=/images%3Fq%3DAlderfer%2527s%2BERG&zoom=1&usg=__dVpnXnsSfuecM5uIZkGG5hSemw8=&sa=X&ei=Q9huTK-dO4OBlAe54tyMDg&ved=0CDEQ9QEwBQ

Personality, Perception and Attribution + Attitudes and Values

Personality, Perception and Attribution

Perception, personality and attribution are characteristics that have a really big and direct influence in the organizational behavior.



“Personality is made up of the characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that make a person unique. “In addition to this, personality arises from within the individual and remains fairly consistent throughout life.”1 Each and every person has their own personality. People have a dynamic and organized set of characteristics which influences motivations, behaviors and cognitions in different situations. This is what makes each person unique. Some people can be extroverted and others introverted. The extroverted ones are the ones oriented towards the external, objective world; have a better interaction with others and are open mind towards certain things. The introverted people are the ones oriented towards the inner, subjective world; their interaction with others is limited and sometimes can have problems when they have to express their feelings toward something or someone.

“Perception is the process by which organisms interpret and organize sensation to produce a meaningful experience of the world… perception in humans describes the process whereby sensory stimulation is translated into organized experience.”2 This is a really basic but simple definition given by Peter Lindsay and Donald A. Norman in the book Human Information Processing: An Introduction to Psychology.


Perception is the way in which each individual see, feel, and understand the world in a particular way. Perception is always changing because it is linked to past experiences. If a person has a bad experience about something maybe the perception will be negative because of the bad experience, or if someone has a good experience about something the perception will probably be positive. You can see that perception is reflected on the way people act and behave in different places and with different people. Perception may also vary depending on others experiences because generally people talk about their past experiences and they can influence others perspectives about things. Perception can be easily persuaded by situations, events, other people and the environment. Sometimes people even have a distorted perception about things and misplace reality.

There is a theory for attribution and it was developed by Fritz Heider, Harold Kelley, Edward E. Jones, and Lee Ross. “The attribution theory explores how individuals "attribute" causes to events and behavior.”3 There are two categories that explain behavior. The internal attribution is related with personal factors (personality, ability and motivation) and the external attribution is associated to the environment and its factors (organizational rules, luck and natural environment).

Attitudes and values

Attitude is defined as “Predisposition or a tendency to respond positively or negatively towards a certain idea, object, person, or situation.”4 The attitude can influence a person’s choice of action, and responses to challenges, incentives, and rewards. There are four major components of attitude, they are: Affective (emotions or feelings), Cognitive (belief or opinions held consciously), Conative (inclination for action) and Evaluative (positive or negative response to stimuli). Our attitudes are reflected in our actions and reactions which most of them are formed because individuals are not born with certain attitudes. People adapt certain attitudes after past experiences that have had positive or negative impacts on them. Human beings are constantly evaluating their every day experiences and start behaving according to what they learn about them. Eventual situations and persuasion may change a person’s behavior towards something. Attitude is something really important when someone is developing a job because it can affect the result and the workers commitment with the organization.



Values are the set of ideas and beliefs of a group or a society. They are defined as “Important and enduring beliefs or ideals shared by the members of a culture about what is good or desirable and what is not. Values exert major influence on the behavior of an individual and serve as broad guidelines in all situations.”5 Values can vary in each culture, group or sub-culture. Generally they contain rules and beliefs of what is right or wrong. This can also be seen inside organizations because they have their own set of values and people that make part of the enterprise have to act according to those ideas and beliefs established in the organization.

Questions

1. Please explain, using your own words, the concept of Pygmalion Effect.

What are the potential implications, uses, or challenges that this effect may pose for organizations engaging into international operations that require the understanding of diverse cultural contexts? Can you use this concept to explain the relationship between national and organizational cultures?

The Pygmalion Effect talks about the way in which what people expect can interfere in the result of things. Your expectations of people and their expectations of themselves are the key factors in how well people perform at work. The Pygmalion effect was described by J. Sterling Livingston in the September/October, 1988 Harvard Business Review. "The way managers treat their subordinates is subtly influenced by what they expect of them," Livingston said in his article, Pygmalion in Management. What he was trying to say is that when managers have high expectations on their workers they will treat them better and have preferences for them. This high expectation will have as a result a good performance of the worker and an excellent final result. But on the other hand, when managers have low and poor expectations about someone this bad energy will be transmitted in the way he treats the person and this will interfere in the final result, which will be a bad one.

We can see that in the international environment many organizations are becoming much more competitive and want to be the market leaders to any cost. Being successful companies has become their main goal. The ones in charge of the organizations are the ones that have the responsibility to make the organization a successful and profitable company. Managers are the ones that have to be responsible for the organizational environment, be aware of what workers like or dislike, team work results and make action plans in order to improve the fallacies that the organization has.

It is important to trust and belief in the people that make part of the organization because this will help maintain and achieve a positive environment. “People tend to live up to what's expected of them and they tend to do better when treated as if they are capable of success”6. It is common that people try to adapt their behavior and performance to the expectation that other’s have of them. People in an organization like to be trusted and they feel important when significant works are assigned to them. That is why when they feel that the manager trusts them and belief they can do the best, they will normally do the best and have an excellent performance in their work in order to not disappoint the boss. People in an organization can notice if they are trusted or not by their boss because it can be analyzed in the way he or she treats them. Trust can be seen as a motivational tool in order to improve the workers performance in the organization and their jobs.

It is evident that an organization in an international context will have different cultures that will eventually meet. Each organization has its own cultural environment so that is why the national culture won’t have a big impact in the organizational environment. When a person is new in a company, he adapts its behavior according to what he observes in the organization, even though his national cultural behavior is different. The organizational culture relies on the people that make part of it so cultural differences will not affect the environment in the organization but it depends on what employees think that their superiors expect from them. As we all know organizations are in constant changes and this takes workers to adapt to different circumstances that can be hard or easy to them. But a good manager that can handle a clear and fluid communication with workers will help them adapt easily to any change. The key to a successful change is to belief in them, motivate them, listen and talk to them, encourage work and have high expectations on workers as the Pygmalion effect describes.

References

1. http://psychology.about.com/od/overviewofpersonality/a/persondef.htm
2. http://www.sapdesignguild.org/resources/optical_illusions/intro_definition.html
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attribution_theory
4. http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/attitude.html
5. http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/values.html
6. http://www.envisionsoftware.com/articles/Pygmalion_Effect.html
- http://humanresources.about.com/od/managementtips/a/mgmtsecret.htm
- http://www.psy.gla.ac.uk/~steve/hawth.html#pyg
- Peter Lindsay & Donald A. Norman: Human Information Processing: An Introduction to Psychology, 1977.
- Takao Inamori, Farhad Analoui, "Beyond Pygmalion effect: the role of managerial perception", Journal of Management Development, Vol. 29 Iss: 4, pp.306 – 321

Images Taken From:

- http://www.biziki.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/masks.jpg

- http://www.science.mcmaster.ca/psychology/images/stories/images/perception.gif

- http://www.resumecafe.net/page3/files/core_values2.jpg

Organizational Behavior + National and Organizational Culture

Organizational Behavior

¨Organizational Behavior is the study of individuals and their behavior within the context of the organization in a workplace setting. It is an nterdisciplinary field that includes sociology, psychology, communication and management.¨1

In module one the author describes Organizational Behavior as ¨the individual behavior and group dynamics in organizations. The study of organizational behavior is primarily concerned with the psychosocial, interpersonal, and behavioral dynamics in organizations.¨2

The way I see this term is that it interprets people within the organization relationships in terms of the whole person, whole group, whole organization, and whole social system. The main purpose for this is to build better relationships between the people in the organization by achieving human objectives, organizational objectives, and social objectives.

It is really important to understand the way people act and why they act this way. The human behavior is something really complex. Human behavior is the behaviors exhibited by humans and this behaviors are influenced by different factors such as culture, attitudes, emotions, values, ethics, authority, rapport, hypnosis, persuasion, coercion and genetics. Some people might act on a common way, on an unusual way, some on an acceptable way, and some outside the acceptable limits. ¨The acceptability of behavior is evaluated relative to social norms and regulated by various means of social control.¨3 Human behavior has two different perspectives; the internal and the external perspective. ¨The internal perspective explains people’s actions and behavior in terms of their history and personal value systems.¨4 it shows the way how past events in someone’s life can interfere in future behaviors. ¨The external perspective shows that a person’s behavior is best understood by examining the surrounding external events and environmental forces.¨5 People might act and behave on a different way depending on the place and the people that surround them, the external factors influence the way people act.

In an organization people have to adapt to different circumstances and surroundings. Organizations are systems that have people, technology, structure, and purposes. All of them have to interact with elements in the organization’s environment and these is where sometimes people adapt really well or sometimes they just have trouble adapting to the organizations environment. This is one of the many problems a manager can have inside the company. There are three other factors that can become a challenge for managers and the people that make part of the organization: Globalization, workforce diversity and ethics.

There can be two different types of organizations, the formal and the informal. The formal organization has a group of goals, objectives, policies and procedures that define the way that employees should act inside the company. The informal organization is the set of beliefs, assumptions, values, attitudes, feelings and perceptions that determine the way in which workers of a company actually behave. For managers can be a challenge to achieve understanding the behavior of an organization, these can require skills, knowledge and patience in order to analyze and get to an accurate conclusion of what are the reasons that determine the actions of the members in the organization.



National and Organizational Culture

These two terms can be related because one can influence the other one. But before explaining them it is important to understand the definition of culture. Culture according to the Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is a definition highly misunderstood and misused, thus the need for an explanation: Culture refers to the following Ways of Life, including but not limited to:

-Language : the oldest human institution and the most sophisticated medium of expression.

-Arts & Sciences : the most advanced and refined forms of human expression.

-Thought : the ways in which people perceive, interpret, and understand the world around them.

-Spirituality : the value system transmitted through generations for the inner well-being of human beings, expressed through language and actions.

-Social activity : the shared pursuits within a cultural community, demonstrated in a variety of festivities and life-celebrating events.

-Interaction : the social aspects of human contact, including the give-and-take of socialization, negotiation, protocol, and conventions.

All of the above are components of the human culture and all of them define the meaning of culture. Together they shape the values, beliefs, morality and arts of the culture, giving the rules and framework for each different social system. These are inputs we get from generations to generations. Our parents teach us their way of living, behaving and acting on different situations and places.

Organizational culture according to Edgar Schein, one of the most prominent theorists of organizational culture, gave the following very general definition. ¨The culture of a group can now be defined as: A pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group learned as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, that has worked well enough to be considered valid and therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems.¨6

A much more simple and brief definition for me is, the beliefs and values shared by all members of the organization and they are reflected on the everyday operations in the organization.

National culture involves characteristics of a specific territory. These characteristics can be their values, languages, religion, art, understandings, assumptions and goals. Those characteristics are shared by the members of a society and passed through generations. Hofstede defines the national culture as "the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one group or people from another"7. That is why people all over the world have different ways of assuming life and behaving. National cultures shape strong value systems among their members but the resulting shared values, preferences, and behaviors of population groups differ widely between countries. This can also be seen between different subgroups within a country, so we have to keep in mind that the term “national culture” can be misunderstood because It may be referred to just a part of the population in a given country.

Geert Hofstede created five dimensions in order for people to understand and differentiate countries and their cultures. The dimensions are: Power distance, Individualism, Masculinity, Uncertainty avoidance and Long term orientation. These dimensions can be really useful in order to have a clear view and perspective of a culture. With these dimensions we can compare different countries and find out why they have some issues, act and behave on a different way.

Questions

1. Considering the conference "Dealing with Cultural Differences" by Nick B. Meyer, choose 1 cultural dimension and use 2 hypothetical but realistic situations - or real ones - to illustrate the business implications of cultural differences. You may not use situations or examples already discussed in class or in the conference.

I decided to choose the cultural dimension for masculinity. Masculinity is one of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. The meaning he gave to masculinity is: “distribution of roles between the genders which is another fundamental issue for any society to which a range of solutions are found. The IBM studies revealed that (a) women's values differ less among societies than men's values; (b) men's values from one country to another contain a dimension from very assertive and competitive and maximally different from women's values on the one side, to modest and caring and similar to women's values on the other. The assertive pole has been called 'masculine' and the modest, caring pole 'feminine'. The women in feminine countries have the same modest, caring values as the men; in the masculine countries they are somewhat assertive and competitive, but not as much as the men, so that these countries show a gap between men's values and women's values”.8

Masculinity defines men’s and women’s roles in a country and it also explains if the culture in the country has a masculine or feminism value behavior. All of this can also be seen in organizational cultures because they also have masculine or feminism values and behaviors. For example, in a security and safety company generally the people that work there are men. In these companies they prefer men to be the security guys because they look stronger and have better qualities in order to perform the job. Women are not well seen in these jobs and sometimes the ones that have a security job are not respected as men are. Men are seen as much more coersitive and strong than women and in many countries it is strange to see women working as police officers, driving a taxi, working as security agents, etc. those jobs are masculine.

Another clear example in our culture for masculinity is when a man goes to a bank and needs talk with the manager. When the man enters the office and realizes that the manager is a woman sometimes they feel that that’s not the job for a woman. They even prefer to change to another bank or branch. Some managerial jobs exercised by women are not well accepted in cultures like ours because people tend to think that women are not capable of handling the job in a good way and this generates insecurity to the clients.

2. Do you think there is a corporate culture in every organization? If we assume there is: Can it be modified?

Yes, I think that there is a corporate culture in every organization and that it can be modified. But let’s start by defining corporate culture. “What is corporate culture? It is something that managers have to establish and run all the way through a business, with clear values and beliefs, successful business principles and operations, and a suitable emphasis on human resources and customer satisfaction.”9 In other words managers are the ones in charge of the culture inside their companies and how they are flowing. The culture inside an organization is created by managers and workers on their everyday living. They start creating ways of acting, norms, beliefs, ideals and behaviors. That is why people in an organization start to adapt to those norms, values, beliefs inside their jobs and start to make part of the organizational culture, but for many organizations their existing culture may have good and bad elements that make part of it. This is where managers have to implement their knowledge and try to improve those fallacies.

Organizations have the capability to be modified because they are completely dynamic and depend upon the leaders they have in the moment. Changes depend on the managers and the way they perform and communicate with the workers. It’s obvious that changes are not easy to implement and they can take time but that is why managers have to plan good strategies in order to modify an organizational culture. Many managers have problems identifying the organizational culture and sometimes they try to create one and that is not a good idea. The manager’s job is not to create or invent a new culture, but to identify the one that already exists and try to find out which improvements are needed, develop an action plan and implement it. It’s a good idea to analyze the mission and vision of the company and determine if it is adequate for the future or the idea that the manager has for the company. If not the manager has to modify them and adapt them to the company’s new cultural ideal.

The communication between managers and employees play an important role at the moment in which a cultural modification is trying to be established. Some managers pretend to generate changes without taking into account the workers. It is important to ask them what they think about the organizational culture and what they think that can be improved. With all of this information a manager can create a better plan and probably the modification will take place on a fastest way. Communication should be clear and managers have to talk about what is expected of the company, clarify doubts and define policies. This is important because each member of the company has to be informed and understand what is happening.

To conclude the idea, the company culture is unique and can be modified by managers and workers together. It is important that managers can identify the organizational culture and its failures, and then try to implement a solution with a good communication and understanding by everyone that makes part of the company.

References

1. www.ilr.cornell.edu/library/research/subjectguides/organizationalbehavior.html

2. Mead, Richard. 2004. International Management: Cross-Cultural Dimensions London: Blackwell Publishing. Chapter 1.

3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_behavior

4. http://www.orgb4me.com/sample/ORGB_Ch1.pdf

5. http://www.scribd.com/doc/19010954/Introduction-to-the-Field-of-Organizational-Behavior

6. http://www.soi.org/reading/change/culture.shtml

7. http://www.carla.umn.edu/culture/definitions.html

8. http://www.geert-hofstede.com/

9. http://www.thinkingmanagers.com/business-management/corporate-culture.php

- http://www.roshan-institute.org/templates/System/details.asp?id=39783&PID=474552

http://humanresources.about.com/od/organizationalculture/Organizational_Culture_Corporate_Culture_in_Organizations.htm

- http://www.clearlycultural.com/geert-hofstede-cultural-dimensions/

- http://humanresources.about.com/od/organizationalculture/a/culture_change.htm

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