Relationship between Organizational Culture, Leadership Behaviour and Job Satisfaction - Essay Example

?Cultural Differences and People Management Table of Contents Approaches to Research 3 A Glimpse of Chinese Culture 6 Relationship between Culture and Leadership 7 Management Development and Cultural Difference 10 The lecturer’s brief introduction, upon the module concerning cultural differences and people management, strongly motivated me to follow and indulge into my present and future career prospects gaining a deep understanding regarding my cultural background. The four teaching modules which I felt to be the strongest motivators in this course were ‘approaches to research’, ‘a glimpse of Chinese culture’, ‘difference between culture and leadership’ as well as ‘management development and cultural difference’. Approaches to Research In my career as a student, I have had a little scope to perform researches and therefore had limited knowledge in the field. From this particular module, emphasising on the various approaches used in a research purpose, especially those regarding cultural issues, I was able to come across multiple facts which will surely help me in my future endeavours in the field of academic researches. Research is defined as the expansion of knowledge and/or the use of existing information as a resourceful way in generating new concepts. From my learning, I understood that the collected data are implemented or used in the research process through certain approaches which are often regarded to be the strategies or steps through which the collected data are used systematically. In my study to this particular module, I learnt that the approaches to research, especially those concerning cultural differences, are categorised into four different phases such as separation, enculturation, assimilation and integration or pluralism while elaborating on the issue. With regards to my module learning, I was able to define the separation approach as a process to identify the individualistic behaviour of restraining own cultures and desires from being influenced by others. Through enculturation approach, I have been able to notice those groups’ practices in which the members keep hold of their primary rules and behaviours, without incorporating other sets of value system from differing ethnic rudiments (Kim & et. al., 2009). Similarly, with the help of assimilation approach, I gained knowledge regarding certain measures to cooperate with the superior culture in order to gain confidence from them for future career developments. From the discussion with regards to integration or pluralism approach, I learnt that it reveals the strategies of managing the cultural diversification and therefore I would categorise the approach as a more practical and objective-oriented one (Berry, 2011). After gaining an in-depth knowledge regarding the approaches, I can state that the integration, often regarded as pluralism approach, is the most realistic research method which motivated me to work in a group with different cultured members. I also learnt that research focusing on the identification and evaluation of cultural differences are often based on theoretical pursuits, such as those inscribed by Trompenaar and Hall. The theoretical explanation presented by Hall upon the cultural differences helped me to understand the levels or dimensions present within the culture. The theory focuses on the cultural differences in terms of social level, personal freedom and time management as well. From the lecture class, I was also able to gather adequate information that along with the levels of culture, the personal attitude related to liberty and time management also leads to diversification of culture within the environment (Nardon & Steers, 2004). I further learnt that from a similar perspective, Trompenaar presented the theoretical concept stating the differences of culture with the help of seven dimensions. From the Trompenaar’s theory, I learnt that five of the factors deal with the people’s relationship amid the society and the remaining two factors helped me to indicate the time management ideologies and the accordance existing between the society and the nature. From the knowledge I gained through the relevant lecture, I was able to define Universalism as the condition in which the rules and regulations are implemented equally for every individual. However, I also understand that particularism is defined as the method of implementing rules and conditions according to the situation. With reference to the context, I was able to collect the measures to reduce the cultural diversification with the help of universalism, rather by implementing the particularism. Individualism and collectivism helped me to identify the behaviour of individual performances related to personal or group contribution. Specific and diffuse factors of Trompenaar further assisted me to recognise the differences among the individuals concerning the distribution and incorporation of their role. Furthermore, the other two dimensions, i.e. neutral and affective, facilitated me to recognise the individual behaviour like hiding and showing of feelings or emotions. Achievement and Ascription, another two dimensions of Trompenaar’s study, guided my behavioural traits to serve people allowing them with respect and a well-defined social status. Time perspective, which is regarded to be the final identified dimension by Trompenaar, helped me to measure the efficiency of my daily activities from past to future and thus identify the limitations along with motivating me to perform better (Nardon & Steers, 2004). A Glimpse of Chinese Culture After attending the lecture upon the glimpse of the Chinese culture, certain aspects strongly motivated me towards gathering more knowledge regarding different cultures and especially a unique culture such as that of China’s. The most attracting feature of China which centred my attention was the fact that with the gradual development in the globalisation process, Chinese tradition has not yet forgotten its rich ancient history and cultural rudiments even though the nation attempts to flourish imbibing positive aspects from various other cultures. China is known for its culture because of its friendly nature towards its guests and business partners. From my lessons in this module, I learnt that the culture and tradition also gives an identity to every individual apart from skills and personality. China is quite famous for its cultural tradition. From the lecture, I learnt that Chinese traditional cultures are built with exceptional philosophical thoughts, astounding antique technologies, standard rituals, distinctive folk way of well-beings and traditional arts. I was further astonished to learn that these factors yet behold the uniqueness of the Chinese culture from its ancient time. The geographical location of China states that it is the largest country in Asia and has covered a major proportion of the East Asian region. It also comprises of a picturesque terrain with thick mountains to vast coastal plains. Beijing, being the capital city of the nation, also operates as the cultural, economical and communication centre of China. Based on the module, I also had the scope to make a wide research on the cultural dimensions of China and learnt that there are broadly seven languages identified me while reviewing the Chinese culture, namely Mandarin, Gan, Cantonese, Xiang, Hakka and Min. Mandarin is the common language of China with more than 70% of its citizens speaking in this particular language. China is a multicultural country comprising of a broad variety of social beliefs, including Chinese Folk Religion, Religious Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, Non-Han Indigenous Religion, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Manichaeism, Hinduism and Zoroastrianism among others (Grand River Hospital, 2011). From a modern point of view, the socio-economic stance of China has been regarded to be in its developmental phase. In reviewing the culture of China, I noticed that in 2007 the global health care expenditure of China stood at the 8th position. I also observed that prior to this period, China lacked in effective measures to provide healthcare facilities for the growing population. However, in 2009 Chinese State Council took certain measures for healthcare reforms. I further recognised that most of the task-oriented work is done in a group to fulfil specified objectives. This process is known as high score as well as masculine. In Chinese society, the feminine process of achieving objectives, i.e. standing apart from the crowd, means working alone and thus is somewhat criticised. However, as per my understanding, with the increasing globalisation and modernisation, the Chinese society is also changing towards a more flexible society rather than a rigid masculine culture (Geert Hofstede, n.d). It is worth mentioning in this regards that mostly owing to its masculine socio-cultural framework, China acts as a centralised governing country (Frost & Sullivan, 2011). Relationship between Culture and Leadership From my learning in this particular module, I can certainly state that culture is the depth of basic assumptions and ways of life and that culture helps to differentiate individuals from a group. This aspect is further shared among the members of an organisation to run the process systematically. I have learned from the organisational point of view that culture is fundamentally learned and conveyed by members. The effective knowledge which I acquired from the context made me believe that culture in relation to leadership helps to develop better rules and regulations within the organisation. Leadership quality can also be measured through the culture considering the fact that a good leader always attempts to maintain and follow the respective culture of the socio-economic environment in which he/she belongs. I found that culture and leadership are inter-related and can be observed in every task performed by students, employees and social groups while progressing towards the achievement of the desired objective(s). Moreover, various aspects of culture represent the responsibility of leaders in maintaining and leading a group with versatility in terms of cultural beliefs. I further learnt a quite significant lesson on leadership from this module that effective maintaining and leading of the group represents the quality of an individual as a leader which is again on the perceived cultural values of that particular individual (Mozaffari, 2008). The development of national cultures, in the globalisation, has further augmented national interdependence through economic, social, political and technical factors. Along with the interdependence, the leadership qualities are also becoming increasingly complex with every passing time owing to the major objective to strengthen the relation between the nations controlling the diversification of culture among the social groups. Hence, from my understanding I can state that leaders should obtain a considerable knowledge regarding the international culture considering various factors such as political, social, environmental and cultural among others. However, I was able to learn that culture generally varies from nation to nation as the ancient cultural prospects (which are likely to be quite distinctive in nature when compared to any other nation) give identity to the belongings of the modern presentation of a particular society. I also identified that an exceptional function of leadership is concerned with culture rather than management and administration functioning. This is because of the fact that leaders often tend to influence cultural beliefs with innovative ideas. From the mentioned context I assumed that this practice gives rise to certain cultural practices notifying that individual beliefs play a major role in shaping the social representation of a particular group. It is also assumed by me that whenever a new employee or leader enters the premises, he/she also autonomously follows the present cultural norms and helps the organisation or family to adopt innovative ideas imbibing those within the past culture. It was furthermore explicitly noted to us that a leader should possess a clear vision on the culture which further improves the performances of the team members and helps them to develop their social skills in future. In respect to the context it is often assumed that the culture implemented by the leader should match with that of the organisation and the employees so as to avoid conflicts (Pennington & et. al., 2003). Based on this context, I learnt that effectiveness of leadership can be measured through certain qualities as flexibility which in turn signifies that with the change and development of the environment, a leader should be able to accept the changes and lead its group with advantageous alterations. Leader should have the managing capability to deal with diversity in terms of culture present within the organisation or within the socio-economic environment at large. Effectiveness of culture can be measured through the observation of the environmental or the organisational development (Mozaffari, 2008). After attending the lecture on this module, I acquired a considerable knowledge and innovative ideas regarding the modern contextualises towards organisational culture and leadership. The primary aspect that I gained was that both culture and leadership represent each other to become effective. Furthermore, I learnt that culture helps individuals throughout the life and in every step of decision making. This is by helping individual to indulge in another or different culture and adjust according to the norms of the relevant culture. Along with the cultural aspects, I had also been able to gain information about the leadership and cultural involvement in its process. The factors in relation to leadership concerns will help me throughout my life assisting me in adopting the style of representing an organisation by managing its employees. Flexibility in mentoring the team with new innovative ideas and cultural norms is regarded as another factor of leadership. From my obtained learning, I can state that the effective relationship between culture and leadership helps an individual, economy and culture at large, to develop in the present as well as in the future. The effective relations are measured with the development of organisation and environment. From an individualistic perspective, it can be measured by observing the changes in its personality, way of controlling various issues and accepting as well as indulging in other cultural groups. Management Development and Cultural Difference From the referred context, I was able to expand my knowledge in management development, which can be controlled by training and learning processes with the aim of educating the employees with relative information regarding working procedure of the organisation. As per my understanding, management development should include certain principles to run the organisation systematically in order to attain the desired organisational objectives. Management development should have broad application with mixture of various skills. Based on these ideologies, I believe that qualities needed to be possessed by organisational leaders in developing management should comprise of adequate knowledge about the functioning of the organisational structure. Leaders should further be aware regarding the financing, marketing, sales and human resource activities of the entity along with the organisational culture, prevailing philosophies and procedures. From my broader point of view, I was able to further affirm that the training sector of every organisation should be familiar with the entire organisational process as well as should be served with changes made within the premises with due consideration to the fact that each dimension of a particular organisational environment are linked and thus creates a strong influence on each other. The training and development of the organisation should further involve the practicing of field work, practical work and presentation among others (Grensing-Pophal, 2002). With the effects of globalisation, I can see that cultural diversification is rapidly increasing in every corner of the world. It is majorly because of the global trading, educational facilities and employment growths among others that cultural differences are becoming increasingly evident in the modern business environments. In the present scenario, it is further observed by me that a majority of global population is emphasising on acquiring adequate knowledge to adjust with other cultures as a result of which confusion and cultural conflicts have reduced to a large extent. Generally, the mixture of various cultures present in an economy tends to shape the environment for business, employment and education and thus to sustain in the respective environment an individual needs to accept the culture (Hooker, 2008). From the study I can classify that cultural difference can also be examined with respect to non-verbal communication along with verbal communication. I had further obtained understanding concerned with certain factors through which the difference of culture can be identified as gestures which present a personalised way of interacting with other through signs that can be referred as movements of hands and facial expressions among others. Touch also represents certain differences in culture from various cultural points of views. Non-verbal communication in terms of eye contact also states about the difference in culture while communicating with different personnel as it is often regarded that different forms of eye contacts can symbolise the state of disrespect, honesty and attentiveness among others (Vermont Department of Health, n.d.). I also observed that immigration ratio is increasing globally, the blend of various cultures within an economy are also increasing rapidly. Consequentially, certain miscommunication and conflicts arises too. Hence, I was able to identify that the certain culture related issues of conflicts as the movements of individuals are regarded as one of the basic measurable. It often happens that as a migrant, an individual might not perceive adequate likeness towards the culture in which they have migrated. According to the respective country’s culture, the native people can also dislike the migrant’s way of leading life. Hence, identifying the primary dispute of cultural difference, a proper communication and understanding among the migrants and their locality can be built which at large can assist organisations towards attaining the desired growth. With the help of this factor certain dispute related to cultural diversification in international level can be solved or reduced. Manner of addressing with personnel belonging to other culture also varies from region to region. I also observed that while interacting with national level certain measures or way of communicating represents disrespectful. However, the same process might be practiced in another nation which represents a contradictory view. I recognised another aspect which can lead to miscommunication as well as misconceptions between the nations. It is in this context that religion is regarded as the most important factor of culture and differs from person to person in relation to their practices along with believes of religion. As per my learning from this particular module, I believe that in the international level, every nation should respect other nation’s religion culture and as a result, conflicts between nations based on religious divergences can be mitigated. Language is another aspect of cultural diversification. It may so happen that languages known and spoken are different from one region to another; however, unknown languages should not be dishonoured but accepted with humility. Therefore, I can state that divergences of languages, natives of one region can help to learn different languages which are practiced in other regions and thus the degree of cultural diversification can be reduced by a large extent. To be precise, from my lessons in this module, I have gained certain strong learning related to the effectual management development processes and cultural differences. With the identified measures, I shall be able to train my subordinates with all the required information related to the organisation in which I will be serving in my future career. My subordinates will be trained with all the factors of an organisation such as finance, marketing and human resource among other sectors, so as to share a common belief towards the organisational culture and objectives. For the better future and development, I will suggest the organisation to segment a department for training and developing of the new employees educating them not only regarding the organisational procedures but also regarding cultural differences prevailing within the organisation. Conclusively, I would like to state that in relation to cultural differences, I have learned how to deal with the different cultured personnel. The learning aspects were mostly challenging in respect to non-verbal way of communicating where an individual should maintain proper gestures, eye contacts, and specific notes as well while interacting with other individuals, especially those belonging to other cultures. I would also like to note that my overall experience in the module was quite overwhelming and advantageous assisting me in identifying a better view towards the social concerns of modern business environment. References Berry, J. W., 2011. Integration and Multiculturalism: Ways towards Social Solidarity. Queen's University. [Online] Available at: http://www.psych.lse.ac.uk/psr/PSR2011/20_02.pdf [Accessed June 28, 2012]. Frost & Sullivan, 2011. China Healthcare Policy Study, 2011. Tekis. [Online] Available at: http://www.finnode.fi/files/36/China_Healthcare_Policy_Study.pdf [Accessed June 29, 2012]. Geert Hofstede, No Date. What about China? China. 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