Culture Present in the Field of Organizational Behavior - Coursework Example

The work force dynamics has changes a lot over the years which have resulted in major changes being witnessed in organizational behavior. A major change that is seen in the work force environment relates to globalization, motivation, employees relations, values, and similar other topics which has changed with the passage of time. Various research and studies carried out in the direction of social culture, highlights that the work habits are influenced by culture. This situation is called at “cultural consequences” (Jacob, 2003, p.3). Apart from the work habits there are various other factors like “skills, knowledge and learned behavior” (Harris, 1998, p.15) which has an influence on the social culture and brings a change in behavior. This is due to the fact that culture at the work place has undergone change with time. The paper looks into the various aspect of culture present in the field of organizational behavior and the changes that have to be done to accommodate it. The paper also presents the importance of culture for their success and the steps that the management needs to take to achieve it. Globalization is seen as one of the major factor which has revolved many cultures. The world started to witness globalization during the 1990’s when the world integrated as on the borders between countries disappeared. Different economies started to share different things like intellectual capital, goods, services etc. (Mcshane, 2008, p.10) leading to a situation where trade between countries was considered essential for growth. Economies united and started to function as a single unit on matters which required amalgamation of knowledge. This resulted in the creation of BPO’s and KPO. This created a situation where the employees were not given the luxury of free time and had to work hard. This made the job monotonous and exerted heavy pressure on the employees leading to chronic health problems. This also changed the mind set of the employees and made them more money oriented. The overall changes witnessed due to globalization made the work force evolve so that the changes could be accomodated. In order to be successful culture is one of the most important things for organizations. The management needs to ensure that culture is addressed in a proper way, so that the organization benefits over a period of time. This is supported by a research which states that; with decreasing customer base organisations have to ensure that customers stay back, and at the same time new customers become a part of it. (Considine 1995) This will help to identify the area that needs to be worked on. It will also help to evaluate areas where the organisation is lacking and will help to grow. The magnitude of the problem multiplies due to increase in the work force diversity. This makes it important that the management looks towards managing the workforce with greater efficiency. A research shows that employees come from different culture and caste and the manner of influencing them also differs. This makes it difficult for the management to identify a way to influence the entire workforce resulting in delayed decision making (Ralston, Hallinger, Egri & Naothinsuhk, 2005). This has made it difficult for the organization to ensure that the diversity in the workforce helps the organization to achieve best results. A study also supports this and states that the management needs to look into a different aspect of the workforce diversity and have managers who are able to guide the employees and ensure that they work together towards a common goal (Wright & Pandey, 2010). This has increased the complexity for the organization as finding an effective leader who is able to lead the workforce is difficult. A problem witnessed by the organization dealing with diversity in the workforce is that it creates inequity among the inmates thereby affecting their growth (Lively, Powell, Claudia & Carr, 2008). The study finds that when an employee does not perceive equity it gets reflected in the work culture. When the inmates do not perceive equity performance gets affected. This decreases productivity and creates disharmony among the workforce leading into multiple problems. This becomes more necessary for multinational companies who render services in the UK as the behaviour of consumers are irrational. This makes it important that the marketers are able to understand the caste and custom of the consumers and market the services accordingly (Kundu & Merchant, 2008). This is seen by the fact that companies who were able to “delve themselves on the basis of customs were successful”. (Kundu & Merchant, 2008) This is seen in the UK. The region is dominated by a mix of various different religions. So a multinational company coming with a service that goes along with the custom of that country helps to build relations. Those companies are favored, and they find it easy to market themselves. This is a concern for company as it can backfire. A miscalculation or interpretation might result in ruining the name. This would put a stop for the company to grow in countries which are similar as they loose reputation. Thus, understanding the local typology helps multinationals to pave a path which they can follow for their success. Cultural globalization argues that capital investments made with the intention to facilitate growth of large projects have helped the local economy to grow. This has been substantiated by a finding, which states that in Europe around 60% of the products consumed are imported and have not resulted in cultural changes (Fukuyuma, 2009). Developing countries that rely on external aid in the form of investment from abroad face major cultural consequences, resulting in changes in the working culture. This is witnessed by companies moulding their culture so that they can work in the western world (Akande, 2002). The problem gets intensified for essential goods. Economies have to transform their culture so that they continue to receive the essential commodities from the outside world. It has been noted that economies are also taking steps to protect their culture from the influence of external culture. However, since the sixteenth century, western civilization had tried to dominate the world. This has resulted in widespread diversification and influence of western culture on other culture. This is added by the fact that people believe that globalization has an effect on culture as the other culture looks towards dominating the local culture. For example, it has been identified that the American culture is somewhat different where people look towards wearing Levis, watching CNN and drinking coffee at Starbucks by forgetting their traditional life which is absolutely different from other cultures (Wasserstrom, 2003). This thus has an influence on other culture as it destroys the local culture. The influence of culture magnifies for countries which are weak on certain front and gets easily adapted to the influence of outside culture. The effect of this has so strong that many economies have lost the relevance of culture. This brings an important highlight that local culture gets influenced by cultural globalization. This can be seen in Abeokuta in West Africa, where the local people followed the western education without knowing that it was getting influenced by British power, which gradually transformed their culture (Akande, 2002). Also, America has been influenced by the fascism of the food industry which has revolved the culture and resulted in the creation of chains like the McDonalds (Marcel, 2003). The impact of cultural globalization has been very strong especially for developed countries. It has resulted in a situation where the developed economies have divided the world based either on economic or cultural concepts thereby showing their dominance. This can be witnessed during the 1980’s when Disney entered China and was sold on the streets. The resulted in the popularity of the Disney culture and resulted in cultural imperialism (Wasserstorm, 2003). Cultural globalization thus had a wide impact on imperialism and fascism. It had resulted in the transformation of culture by adopting the culture present in other economies and slowly loosing the relevance of their own culture. This brings forward to the fact that culture is one of the most important things. The management needs to ensure that steps are taken so that the cultural changes are ingrained in their working environment. This will help the management to ensure long term growth. This brings to another proposition that culture is an important phenomenon for business but managing culture is a difficult proposition for business units. Culture affects human behaviour. It is something which humans acquire. This brings a change in human pattern. It makes them do different things. Culture gets ingrained by the group he has. People belong to different caste, country, creed, colour, and region which affect the manner in which they carry out their duties. (Innah, 2009) This was also reflected in the onion diagram which looks as follows:- In this onion diagram, symbol represents people who belong to the same culture and are able to understand the different meanings and interpret things in the same light. (Hofstede, 1991) Heroes are role models and having heroes from the same culture helps to motivate one and develop according to the environment. Rituals represent things that are present in a culture which becomes easy when people belong to the same culture. Values represent good and bad which people belonging to the same culture find it easy to replicate. (Lopper, 2009) Hofstede further in the study of culture dimension highlighted that pyramid structure and the influence of different dimension which has an effect on culture. He stressed on “power distance, individualism versus collectivism, masculinity versus femininity, uncertainty avoidance and long term versus short term orientation”. (Cultural Dimensions, 2010) This study highlights that understanding the dimension helps to understand culture better. So, when this people come together it results in difference in opinion. This gives rise to conflicts which needs to be controlled. Understanding the cultural dimension according to me helps to overcome this problem. Management finds it difficult to ensure that they are able to develop a mechanism which ensures that the changes in management are accompanied by changes in culture. Finding a mechansim which ensures that changes in culture get ingrained in their working environment is a difficult proposition. Management needs to find a mechanism which facilitates cultural changes Localization for multinational companies is to understand the local conditions and get it transformed so that the local people start to favour the company. (Ellis, 2001) The reasons which are making companies work on the global arena are the profits associated with it, the ability to distribute goods where it is demanded, produce at the lower cost, and to achieve economies of scale. (Ellis, 2001) This motive is guiding every company to become a multinational. It is seen by the fact that foreign direct investment is increasing. Multinational companies working in UK has been successful as “they have the appropriate structure and support system”. (Aharoni, 1996) They along with it have the flexibility so that they can grasp the strategic options which might arise due to environmental changes. (Aharoni, 1996) This has been possible as the company was able to adapt to the local responsiveness in UK. A company which want to be in a global arena has to ensure that they understand these factors clearly. To put is multinationals need “to achieve local responsiveness, global efficiency and creating more knowledge”. (Aharoni, 1996) Multinational companies working in UK have ensured that their subsidiaries understand the typology prevalent in the local condition by creating subsidiaries. (Enright & Subramanian, 2008) This is very important that multinational companies understand the local condition. It helps them to build their strategies and helps in capacity creation and proper utilization of that capacity. (Enright & Subramanian, 2008) This ensures that companies get acclimatized to the local environment. This helps to build long term strategies. It also ensures that efforts are directed towards the right direction. Multinational companies thereby have to mould themselves according to the local requirements. They need to look into the cultural factors and integrate in their planning process so that there is cultural integration. (Slawomir, 2010) This is a very vital point for any company. This helps them to win the hearts of consumers and get loyal customers. Multinational companies need to ensure that they bring about a change in the perspective so that they can enter a new market. The effects of local factors are such that multinational companies working in UK are reorganizing their production system by producing locally. (Zeller, 2000) This helps multinational companies as they can make their products according to the local requirements. The effect is such strong that even different labour laws in different countries are looked after. (Zeller, 2000) This is helping them to comply with the government requirements. This helps the company to create synergy between institutions and multinational companies. (Muller & Tulder, 2005) A better understanding of the local responsiveness and factors helps the multinational companies to comply with the legal requirements of the different institutions thereby creating an environment of certainty of MNC’s. (Muller & Tudler, 2005) Understanding the local responsiveness is thus important for multinationals. Still with the increased usage of technology the de-localisation has slowed down. Technology is helping people communicate with each other and they do not have to face each other”. (Gray, 1999) This is more of a case in banking and retailing. In this sector, direct interaction is less. This helps companies in this sector to determine the action they would take in the future. Despite being the case, it is seen that still the local responsiveness are taken into consideration. It is seen in banks especially in UK that local talent are hired in the different states so that they can understand the local requirements better. (Gray, 1999) It also helps the companies as the customer feel a sense of belonging. They feel that the management is able to understand them and provide better services. This can been further substantiated by the fact that employment is mostly local and matches the local requirements. (Castells, 2001) This helps the multinationals as the local resident hired understand the global requirements and can pass that on to the consumers. The paper presents the different stands which an organization can and work towards ensuring that culture is ingrained in their working environment. It is important for organization to understand the importance of culture and mould them according to the cultural typology of a place. Having a proper cultural mix will ensure that the organization is able to flourish. This makes it imperative for organizations to devise strategies which facilitate cultural changes. This will make the employees work together as a unit and will help to perform better even in difficult circumstances. References Akande, W. 2002. The drawbacks of Cultural Globalization. Retrieved on October 6, 2011 from http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/162-general/27594.html Aharoni, Y. 1996. The organisation of global service of MNC. International Studies of Management & Organisation, Volume 26 Cultural Dimension. 2010. Cultural Dimension: Hofstede. 12 Manage, The Executive Fast Track Castells, M. 2001. Information Technology and global capitalization. On the edge, London Ellis, V. 2001. Enterprise or exploitation: Can global business be a force for good. The New Statesman. 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