Organizational behavior + national and organizational culture

When we talk about organizational behavior, we refer to the study of individual and group dynamics in an organization, and at the same time the nature of the organizations themselves. Always when people interact in the organizations, there are a lot of factors that are very important to have in mind. Those factors will always be related to the internal and the external perspectives of each individual, and refer to the feelings, motivations, thoughts and the external environment the individuals relate to, respectively. The main objective of the organizational behavior studies focuses on trying to understand and model these factors. This subject is becoming more important as people with diverse backgrounds and cultural values have to work together effectively and efficiently.

Organizational behavior looks for understanding behavior in organizations in order to develop competencies that make us able to know how people are likely to behave. This knowledge may help us try to control those behaviors that are not beneficiating the objectives of the organizations.

One of the main topics related to organizational behavior is the organizational culture. The organizational culture in few words is the way that companies do things. Explaining and analyzing the last sentence a little bit more, what I meant is that each organization is just like a different country, with its own norms, rituals, values, power structures and control systems that vary from one company to another. Each company has its own organizational culture.

To be able to understand the meaning of organizational behavior and organizational culture, is would be really good for us to get a little closer to the meaning of culture itself, in order to be able to analyze and understand the possible impact that culture may have over the business environment of any organization. If you are able to understand a culture, for sure, you will be able to understand the behavior of any individual of that culture within an organization. Also understanding a culture will give us a series of advantages over our competition talking in terms of different organizations. You will be able to interact with the workforce, develop cultural sensitivity and empathy, and use these advantages as a competitive advantage to increase opportunities and developing the adequate strategies, increasing your expertise to manage different countries’ environments.

Power Distance

Situation 1:

There is a Japanese company that is looking to reduce costs on the production on one of the most important and sold products. They are also looking to keep the same quality and that the product doesn’t get affected. Since Japan is one of the countries with lower power distance, the Japanese executives’ first idea is to ask the plant of production employees for ideas. The production employees will be more than happy to give out their ideas to their boss.

Situation 2:

If the same situation I explained previously happens in India, the employees will never give their ideas out. India is one of the countries with highest power distance, and they respect a lot the hierarchical positions between them and their bosses. They will never be able to say to their boss what to do or what they think about their jobs or the production process of the company. The Indians will be always expecting that the boss will tell them what to do and even how to do it without any objection.

REFERENCES

• http://www.unesco.org/education/aladin/paldin/pdf/course02/unit_14.pdf

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

• http://managementhelp.org/org_thry/culture/culture.htm