Organizational Behavior - International Management and Culture

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

Human Behavior in organizations is complex and often difficult to understand...

·       Internal Perspective: considers factors inside the person to understand behavior.

·       External Perspective: focuses on factors outside the person to understand behavior.

Organizational?  What is an organization??

·       Clockworks in which human behavior is logical and rational 

·       A structured social system consisting of groups and individuals working together to meet some agreed-upon objectives. 

Organizational Behavior is the study of individual behavior and group dynamics in organizations.

Organizational Context...

1.       Organizations are presented as systems: organizations are open systems of interacting components, which are people, tasks, technology and structure, which at the same time interact with elements of organization´s environment.

2. Formal and Informal Organizations: The formal org' is the official, legitimate, and most visible part that enables people to think of organizations is logical and rational ways and the informal org' is the part unofficial and less visible but not less important:

3. Six Focus Organizations: Understand the diversity of organizations in the economy is exemplified by the 6 focus organizations that are: CarMax (1992), Facebook (2004), Nordstrom (1901), IKEA (1943), Research In Motion (RIM, 1984), Deloitte (1833, 1990).

Change Creates Opportunites!!!

Recognizing the opportunities that change creates for organizational behavior is an important task when competition comes. Global competition is the leading force driving change at work and American companies can learn from the competition.

·       3 challenges for managers related to change : Globalization - Workforce diversity - Ethics

·       Customer Focus in High Quality : quality has the potential for giving organizations in viable industries a competitive edge in meeting international competition. Total quality is defined in many ways

1.                  Total Qualitity Management (TQM): The total dedication to continuous improvement and to customers so that the customers’ needs are met and their expectations exceeded.

2.                  Six Sigma: A high-performance system to execute business strategy that is customer-driven, emphasizes quantitative decision making, and places a priority on saving money.

INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT AND CULTURE

WHAT IS CULTURE?

The collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from another…Culture, in this sense, includes systems of values; and values are among the building blocks of culture. (Hofstede (1984))

WHEN IS CULTURAL IMPORTANT AND WHEN NOT?

The importance of culture depends both on the particular circumstances of the event being analyzed and on the professional interests of the person making the analysis.

FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE DECISION MAKING

INTERNAL FACTORS (Inside the organization)	SOME EXTERNAL FACTORS (Outside the organization)
The CEO’s psychological make-up	Financial markets
The organizational strategy	Local, national, regional, and international politics
Resources (financial, plant, staff, technology) already secured	Law and regulations
Organizational history	Infrastructure factors (transport, power, etc
Policies and systems	INDUSTRY INTERESTS
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE	NATIONAL CULTURE

USING CULTURE

Culture is not the only factor to influence individual values. His or her personality is influenced by: Genetic transmission, Family, Gender Stereotypes and Age.

Culture analysis gives predictability

Models of culture analysis give the manager invaluable instruments in his/ her work of interpreting and predicting the behavior of the workforce, but models that are never 100% reliable.

Culture is learned…

National Culture: since the early years of life you learn how to interact with others (initially members of your family), how to negotiate for what you want and how to cause and avoid conflict.

Positive Aspects of an Organizational Culture

• ·         Guides decision making
• ·         Provides identity for members
• ·         Amplifies commitment
• ·         Guides employee behavior
• ·         Provides justification for actions.

Types of cultures

Clan Culture	Hierarchy Culture	Adhocracy Culture	Market Culture
A very friendly place to work where people share a lot of themselves. It is like an extended family.	A very formalized structured place to work. Procedures govern what people do.	A dynamic entrepreneurial, and creative place to work. People stick their necks out and take risks.	A results oriented organization whose major concern is with getting the job done. People are competitive and goal-oriented.

CROSS CULTURAL AND INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT

Developing the skills: Development and application of knowledge about cultures in the practice of international management, when the people involved have different cultural identities

Managing cultural diversity: The Company’s ability to attract, retain, and motivate, people from different cultures, which give competitive advantages in cost structures, creativity, problem solving and adapting to change.

The alternative of ignoring diversity occurs:

1. When the negative effects of recognizing diversity seem likely to cause greater problems than ignoring it.

2. When the expected benefits of recognizing and managing diversity do not justify the expected costs.

3. When the work offers no opportunities for deriving advantages from diversity.

QUESTION

Why is managing organizational behavior in changing times challenging?

When the companies face a changing time the people show their feelings of instability by their behavior, so the major challenge for the managers is try to moderate the tasks as normally being also inside this period of changing. In this type of situation managers have to manage equilibrium, taking into account people´s thoughts and feelings but not leaving the company goes through this because this would cause more instability. Using this equilibrium while the time runs, the company could get a period of stability again.

REFERENCES

• Organizational Behavior: Science. The real world and you. South Western College Publication. 7th Edition. Chapter 1.
• International Mangement: Cross Cultural Dimensions London: Blackwell Publishing. Chapter 1.