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   LEARNING OBJECTIVES

 Organizational Behavior.  Actions and attitudes of individuals and groups toward one another and towards the organization as a whole, and its effect on the organization's functioning and performance.

  Contingency Approach

Features

• Management action is contingent on certain action outside the system or subsystem as the case may be.
• Organizational action should be based on the behaviour of action outside the system so that organization should be integrated with the environment.
• Because of the specific organization – environment relationship, no action can be universal.
• It varies from situation to situation.

 Limitations

• Inadequate literature.
• Complex
• Difficult emprical testing
• Reactive not Proactive.

 Managing Workplace Behavior. 

Work Etiquette is a code that governs the expectations of social behavior in a workplace, in a group or a society. Work Etiquette tells the individual how to behave when dealing with situations in a working environment however trivial the situation is. Office etiquette in particular applies to co-worker interaction and communication with colleagues.

 Common Principles

The common general codes of etiquette at the work place are:

• Greeting a person well on the first meeting of the day.
• In a meeting or in discussion, relevant references should be mentioned without mentioning any person by name who is closely related to the work.
• Persons leading a team of people should be able to understand all the views of his/her team before concluding to a decision or making a point.
• In a meeting, keeping the handphone/cellular phone in a silent / vibration mode so it does not interrupt the discussions on hand and other members of the meeting. Likewise, the person can send a message to the calling party who requires urgent attention by excusing himself/herself from the meeting or discussion.
• When a person is talking or delivering a speech, other members of the group should not abruptly interrupt him/her. If anything is to be said on the discussed topic, the questions or suggestions should be noted down and raised politely at the permitted time (mostly at the end of the speech).

In general people in higher positions or capacities would prefer to work silently in a workplace. And they expect the same kind of behavior from their subordinates or colleagues and all the people working in the same office or workplace. This helps all in concentrating on the tasks at hand by keeping the noise level down without disturbing the other colleagues or people around them.

      Approaches to Effectiveness.

Personal effectiveness is a branch of the self help movement dealing with success, goals, and related concepts. Personal effectiveness integrates some ideas from “the power of positive thinking” and Positive Psychology but in general it is distinct from the New Thought Movement. A primary differentiating factor is that Personal Effectiveness proponents generally take a more systematic approach including a number of factors beside simple positive thinking. Some proponents take an approach with similarities to business process management techniques. Others may take a holistic spiritual and physical wellness approach.

Environmental forces that initiates changes to Organizations.

 

Environmental governance is “the whole range of rules, practices and institutions related to the management of the environment in its different forms (conservation, protection, exploitation of natural resources, etc.).” A further definition describes it as “all the processes and institutions, both formal and informal, that encompass the standards, values, behaviour and organizing mechanisms used by citizens, organizations and social movements as well as the different interest groups as a basis for linking up their interests, defending their differences and exercising their rights and obligations in terms of accessing and using natural resources.”

At the international level, global environmental governance is “the sum of organizations, policy instruments, financing mechanisms, rules, procedures and norms that regulate the processes of global environmental protection.”

These are some key principles of environmental governance:

• Embeds the environment in all levels of decision-making and action.
• Conceptualizes cities and communities, economic and political life as a subset of the environment.
• Emphasizes the connection of people to the ecosystems in which they live.
• Promotes the transition from linear systems (like garbage disposal with no recycling) to circular systems (like permaculture and zero waste strategies).

Organizational Culture is an idea in the field of organizational studies and management which describes the psychology, attitudes, experiences, beliefs and values (personal and cultural values) of an organization. It has been defined as "the specific collection of values and norms that are shared by people and groups in an organization and that control the way they interact with each other and with stakeholders outside the organization."

This definition continues to explain organizational values, also called as "beliefs and ideas about what kinds of goals members of an organization should pursue and ideas about the appropriate kinds or standards of behavior organizational members should use to achieve these goals. From organizational values develop organizational norms, guidelines, or expectations that prescribe appropriate kinds of behavior by employees in particular situations and control the behavior of organizational members towards one another."

 

Socialization is a term used by sociologists, social psychologists, anthropologists, politicians and educationalists to refer to the process of inheriting norms, customs and ideologies. It may provide the individual with the skills and habits necessary for participating within their own society; a society itself is formed through a plurality of shared norms, customs, values, traditions, social roles, symbols and languages. Socialization is thus ‘the means by which social and cultural continuity are attained’.

Globalization

  

Globalisation (or globalization) describes the process by which regional economies, societies, and cultures have become integrated through a global network of political ideas through communication, transportation, and trade. The term is most closely associated with the term economic globalization: the integration of national economies into the international economy through trade, foreign direct investment, capital flows, migration, the spread of technology, and military presence. However, globalization is usually recognized as being driven by a combination of economic, technological, sociocultural, political, and biological factors. The term can also refer to the transnational circulation of ideas, languages, or popular culture through acculturation. An aspect of the world which has gone through the process can be said to be globalised.

     Hofstede's original cultural dimensions. 

Gerard Hendrik Hofstede (born 3 October 1928, Haarlem) is an influential Dutch organizational sociologist, who studied the interactions between national cultures and organizational cultures. He is also an author of several books including Culture's Consequences and Cultures and Organizations, Software of the Mind, co-authored with his son Gert Jan Hofstede. Hofstede's study demonstrated that there are national and regional cultural groupings that affect the behaviour of societies and organizations, and that these are persistent across time.

Hofstede's Framework for Assessing Culture

Hofstede has found five dimensions of culture in his study of national work related values. Replication studies have yielded similar results, pointing to stability of the dimensions across time. The dimensions are:

• Small vs. large power distance

How much the less powerful members of institutions and organizations expect and accept that power is distributed unequally. In cultures with small power distance (e.g. Australia, Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Israel, New Zealand), people expect and accept power relations that are more consultative or democratic. People relate to one another more as equals regardless of formal positions. Subordinates are more comfortable with and demand the right to contribute to and critique the decisions of those in power. In cultures with large power distance (e.g. Malaysia), the less powerful accept power relations that are autocratic or paternalistic. Subordinates acknowledge the power of others based on their formal, hierarchical positions. Thus, Small vs. Large Power Distance does not measure or attempt to measure a culture's objective, "real" power distribution, but rather the way people perceive power differences.

• Individualism vs. collectivism

How much members of the culture define themselves apart from their group memberships. In individualist cultures, people are expected to develop and display their individual personalities and to choose their own affiliations. In collectivist cultures, people are defined and act mostly as a member of a long-term group, such as the family, a religious group, an age cohort, a town, or a profession, among others. This dimension was found to move towards the individualist end of the spectrum with increasing national wealth.

• Masculinity vs. femininity

The value placed on traditionally male or female values (as understood in most Western cultures). In so-called 'masculine' cultures, people (whether male or female) value competitiveness, assertiveness, ambition, and the accumulation of wealth and material possessions. In so-called 'feminine' cultures, people (again whether male or female) value relationships and quality of life. This dimension is often renamed by users of Hofstede's work, e.g. to Quantity of Life vs. Quality of Life. Another reading of the same dimension holds that in 'M' cultures, the differences between gender roles are more dramatic and less fluid than in 'F' cultures; but this strongly depends on other dimensions as well.

• Weak vs. strong uncertainty avoidance

How much members of a society are anxious about the unknown, and as a consequence, attempt to cope with anxiety by minimizing uncertainty. In cultures with strong uncertainty avoidance, people prefer explicit rules (e.g. about religion and food) and formally structured activities, and employees tend to remain longer with their present employer. In cultures with weak uncertainty avoidance, people prefer implicit or flexible rules or guidelines and informal activities. Employees tend to change employers more frequently.

Michael Harris Bond and his collaborators subsequently found a fifth dimension which was initially called Confucian dynamism. Hofstede later incorporated this into his framework as:

• Long vs. short term orientation

A society's "time horizon," or the importance attached to the future versus the past and present. In long term oriented societies, people value actions and attitudes that affect the future: persistence/perseverance, thrift, and shame. In short term oriented societies, people value actions and attitudes that are affected by the past or the present: normative statements, immediate stability, protecting one's own face, respect for tradition, and reciprocation of greetings, favors, and gifts.

These cultural differences describe averages or tendencies and not characteristics of individuals. A Japanese person for example can have a very low 'uncertainty avoidance' compared to a Filipino person even though their 'national' cultures point strongly in a different direction. Consequently, a country's scores should not be interpreted as deterministic.

References: Wikipedia, Yahoo, and Google.