Application of Social Psychology at Vodafone New Zealand - Essay Example

?Part Application of Social Psychology at Vodafone New Zealand Introduction Social psychology is concerned with the social and communal interactions among humans (Gajendra & Ye, 2010). Organizations of various walks of life are made of people and therefore they are prone towards experiencing advantages and disadvantages of group dynamics to say the least (Gergen, 1985). However the Japanese organizations are the first ones which experimented with the integration of teamwork in their strategic planning. Moreover the international and local companies of Japan are largely made up of autonomous teams that work on various projects and continue to move from one project to another. The major purpose of this essay is to highlight the importance of social psychology with reference to organizational behaviour. The organizational behaviour is concerned with the evaluating the impact of individuals and structure on organizational performance whereas organizational social psychology states that relaxed work environment and strengthening social relations among employees and management are going to further enhance the organizational performance in all regards(Heine, Lehman, Markus, & Kitayama, 1999). In the most practical sense an organization is basically a social entity because employees and management work through different social phenomena in order to accomplish organizational goals. According to recent studies organizational development and progress occur in real sense when a sense of family and belonging significantly prevails amongst the ranks of a particular organization. This essay will also highlight application of various facets of social psychology at Vodafone that include advanced training of top management in counselling techniques, power to initiate innovative projects, cross cultural teamwork and reward for performance system. Finally Vodafone is used to hire tolerant and flexible individuals in order to apply melting pot technique for managing cultural and gender diversity in employees (Eisenberger, Stinglhamber, Vandenberghe, Sucharski, & Rhoades, 2002). The operational concepts of organizational social psychology are decentralized authority, participative management and flexible timing and they mainly spread from Japanese organizations to those that are operating in other regions of the world (Heine, Lehman, Markus, & Kitayama, 1999). Furthermore it is imperative to note that Australian continent is the second most efficient geographical region in terms of adopting modern management concepts. However the American companies are rather slow regarding implementing the contemporary managerial concepts of the 21st century. But the basic purpose of this part is to evaluate the involvement of social psychological concepts and practices in a management framework for Vodafone’s unit of New Zealand. Additionally, the application of modern management is relatively easy in the featured culture due to its individualistic and professional nature. The fundamental reason for development and increased application of social psychology in organizations is the need to retain employees for longer periods of time while enhancing their organizational commitment (Eisenberger, Stinglhamber, Vandenberghe, Sucharski, & Rhoades, 2002). The social psychology stated that humans have a psychological need of receiving a reward after every six to twelve months and if companies fail to do so then they risk job turnover from core employees (Chryssochoou, 2004). Mutual respect and trust among employees and management is also a vital factor in predicting productivity of the staff. Nevertheless, according to recent research employees like to be governed by those individuals who have similar personality dimensions. Employees on the other hand spend more time in organizations that offer them reward for performance, paid and emergency leave and divert resources towards employee training and development (Crisp &Tumer, 2007). The nature of the job should also be sufficiently challenging in order to keep things interesting for the employees). At Vodafone New Zealand soft management style is deployed so that people do not get frustrated due to increased job stress whereas management remains open to mitigate personal and private problems of their subordinates as well. It is company policy to offer advanced training in counselling techniques to managerial staff. These trainings allow them to understand the importance of physical clues supporting the presence of stress of any kind among workforce under their command. Latest research on the topic suggests that open and helping managers have committed employees than other sorts of managers (Crisp &Tumer, 2007). In the featured organization the managers are fully empowered to initiate all kinds of corporate projects because innovation and invention are the best ways of surviving in the fluxed industry of telecommunications. The project based management style allows the company in helping the employees in remaining vigilant and alert towards the changing environment of the industry. Thus the company is the first telecom player that managed to offer 4G services in the most dynamically developing nation of India. The project was developed and implemented by the team of New Zealanders that worked closely with Indian employees in order to make the idea of 4G a reality (Santhi, Srivastava, SenthilKumaran, & Butare, 2003). The strategic leadership of the company is also attached to the concept of time based competitive advantage and therefore persistently working in order to develop a new edge over its competitors before the previous one expires. The success of 4G in India is the representation of social psychology’s success as both local and foreign employees worked together in terms of making it a success. The creation of common culture and objectives induced people from different regions, religions and races to work as a team that is the core motive of modern social psychology (SenthilKumaran, &Butare, 2003). The detailed and uninterrupted application of social psychological concepts is permitting Vodafone to become an organization that has a human centric environment and therefore it posses the most brilliant minds that are working for it in all parts of the world. Nonetheless the company perceived the importance of South Asian nations as telecom market and due to this reason it fabricated a foot hole in the Indian market before any other company (Santhi, Srivastava, SenthilKumaran, & Butare, 2003). Interestingly the company’s New Zealand based operations are offering an asexual work environment where inter-gender communication barriers are low and males and females work in cross functional teams. The mixed teams cause a healthy competitive work environment to develop in the organization and it enhances organizational performance. Vodafone also offers non-racial work environment and it hire enlightened and tolerant people so that racism cannot propagate amongst its ranks. In the light of recent survey employees at Vodafone are showing less signs of job withdrawal than employees of other organizations. The main cause of this sort of attitude is the effective and efficient use of social psychological rules and regulations. The company also sponsors recreational activities such as tours, picnics and even concerts. In a practical sense the company is offering a relaxed work environment where people can enjoy their work that counteracts burnout and fatigue, in this way people can work long hours without having a break, the tendency in employees to work long hours without interruption enhances organizational performance and profitability (Senthil, Kumaran, & Butare, 2003). . Conclusion The usage of social psychology at Vodafone is helping the company in managing a productive and healthy work environment where people can unfold while performing their jobs. Moreover the company sports a soft management style so that subordinates can consult with their superiors both freely and frankly. The telecom service provider is also offering training in social psychology to top management in order to help them in deciphering clues of stress and withdrawal in physical and non-verbal language of their subordinates. The company on the other hand has a policy of offering annual paid and emergency leave. All of the policies based on social psychology’s rules are significantly contributing towards making the environment ideal for strengthening job commitment and minimizing job withdrawal in the employees. Moreover the employees of Vodafone throughout the world are showing lesser and lesser signs of job turnover while other companies are facing notable challenges of retaining the workforce. Finally the company has recently adopted project based management style so that it can seek and find competitive advantage every now and then. Part 2 The Impact of Domestic Environment on Organizational Behaviour Introduction The domestic culture of New Zealand in that the company is operating has a significant and notable impact on the organizational culture and therefore largely influences organizational behaviour activities as well. According to famous cultural scholars the organizations have to create a reasonable fit between internal practices and external culture so that employees and customers do not feel alienated while interacting with the organization (Lu, 2006). The Vodafone is however famous for creating an acceptable level of harmony between internal issues and external influences of the economy and society at large. In majority of the cases organizations fail to grow due to their lack of respect for the overall culture of the society for example in developing nations employees did not work well when introduced to the concept of decentralized authority as there were accustomed to an authoritative style of leadership. The cultural harmony among internal practices of an organization and external environment helps people in considering the corporate entity as the part of their own culture and therefore they do not hesitate while interacting with it. The Multinational companies are famous for conducting cultural studies in order to understand the physical and psychological needs and wants of the people living in a particular geographical location. Thus, greater level of cultural knowledge permits organizations in attaining a favourable position in the local marketplace that can be converted in competitive advantage in the long run prospective(Lu, 2006). The organizational behaviour is defined as the life process of any organization. In general, organizations tend to grow in the early stages of their life and then within ten to fifteen years they experience maturity and soon after that the stage of decline sets in (Staw, B, Sandelands, & Dutton, 1981). Importantly those organizations that are operating in culturally acceptable industries and those that manage to create an excellent fit amongst its internal process and external environment are expected to have longer productive life spans (Hofstede&Hofstede, 2010). Still the history has witnessed some violations of the rule as Adidas and Apple developed despite of cultural hatred of both the industries. The above mentioned companies managed to survive the storms of resistance because their leaders held their ground under all circumstances (House, .Hanges, Javidan, Dorfman, & Gupta, 2004). Thus the ability of top management to demonstrate leadership against invincible odds has an unexplainable tendency to cause an alien idea to flourish in a hostile environment (Robbins, Judge, &Hasham, 2010). In the art and science of organizational behaviour personality type of employees and top management matters a lot because according to modern research introverts do not make good leaders. It is because of their lack in communicative skills whereas in most of the cases people do not like working with introverts and vice versa. Nonetheless introverts make great researchers as they have an exceptional quality of focusing on something and getting it done They keep on creating new product ideas all the time and continue to wait until the right time for spilling over the intellect on to the others (Nussbaum, 2002). In the light of above argument it can be established that there is a certain kind of need for the establishment of communication between strategists (introverts) and leaders (extroverts). The former group is mainly responsible for building strategies that can lead to competitive advantage. In practice strategists develop business models that are based on strategies for gaining competitive advantage while they also calculate the costs and benefits of all the plans and select the one that has least cost (including environmental costs) and maximum benefits. In short introverts do much of the mental work required for the organization to survive, at the same time extroverts get the plans implemented and ensure attainment of the competitive advantage (Nussbaum, 2002). In case of Vodafone the research and development head in all countries is a renowned scholar and researcher. He or she has a special communication channel open with the key positions in the organization all the time. Additionally operational management is guided to give chief strategy officer a lot of space and confidence so that he or she can communicate his or her ideas easily and in a relaxed environment Modern managers on the other hand are well aware of the fact that they are always in the need of strategic advantage and therefore they set a premium on the suggestions of the strategic planning department (Cain, 2013). The being analyzed company made policies, practices and procedures in order to facilitate communication among strategists and operational managers. Ultimately the need of both the personality types is significant and therefore the company does not like its key roles of operational and strategic management to quit more often. However the company is famously known for providing above average monetary and non-monetary compensations to core employees working in the aforementioned departments. Respect is another important type of personality type and that kind of people are submissive and need continuous guidelines and supervision in order to perform their jobs effectively. They make ideal line managers whereas they take orders middle management. Finally this group of people is fundamentally for managing operations on daily basis (Staw, B, Sandelands, & Dutton, 1981). Vodafone is also wake to the fact that a strategic officer with ample amount of cultural experience is hard to find and it will cost the company sufficient financial resources to do so as well. In some nations such as New Zealand strategic experts are available as they offer consulting services and therefore the practice of hiring them on a permanent basis is decreasing with the passage of time. The key message of this section is the need to respect and understand the importance of each personality type with reference to the attainment of competitive advantage as the organization works as a team in order to survive and thrive in the marketplace (House, .Hanges, Javidan, Dorfman, & Gupta, 2004). Conclusion It was found that introverts are ideal researchers while extroverts are excellent leaders and people having respect personality type are considered as ideals for becoming line managers. But organizations need all kinds of people to attain and validate their competitive advantage in the marketplace. Vodafone is the company that is aware of the role that introverts, respects and extroverts can play in providing it with a valid edge over its competitors in New Zealand local marketplace. And therefore the company facilitates communications and interactions among the three groups. Moreover strategic units in the company are responsible for integrating and netting similar strategies in all parts of the world so that all units can relate themselves to the common objective and goal. Finally the company with the help of integrating strategic and operational efforts is quite successful in attaining a global competitive advantage in the world of telecom. Yet Vodafone has to continue the process of translating research and development into the operational edge because if it does not then somebody else will. The company is reaping the fruits of soft and participative management style in the form of steady growth in share price and profitability. More especially the willingness to overcome the force of entropy in management is remarkable to say the least. Thus Vodafone is always engaged in the process of betterment in one way or another. Part 3 Relation of Domestic Cultures with the Quality of Business Negotiations Introduction According to gurus of cultural sciences and assimilation techniques the culture is nothing but the software of the mind and therefore it assists people in taking decisions of personal and professional nature. The culture of Japan in the case of proposed negotiations is based on secrecy and due to this reason people of Japan do not come forth in the direction of information and knowledge sharing. In Japanese society elders are respected a great deal and additionally Japanese society is considered almost hostile towards the foreigners to say the least (Denison, Haaland, &Goelzer, 2004). New Zealand’s culture is quite different when compared with the Japanese one because the former is individualistic nature and the latter one is based on collectivism. Still Japanese are doing business with the international community for a considerable period of time and thus grew accustomed to it as well (Parry, 2004). Yet New Zealand based team is suggested to stick with the business and refrain from using contemporary interactive terminologies such as dude and buddy. The team should also receive a cross cultural training so that the intensity of a cultural shock can be minimized (Darroch & McNoughton, 2003). It is a generic believe that if Japanese team gets overly silent during the proceedings of the meetings then it means that they are not interested in the meetings anymore and therefore the chances of negotiations to fail are overwhelming. New Zealand based team should also know the reality that their Japanese counterparts are used to gather information and then they will analyze it and finally reach upon a concrete decision (Parker, 2008). Additionally Japanese are also famous for moving on step by step basis that point out to the need of planning presentation in such a way that it focuses on one aspect of the project at any given time. Moreover the Vodafone’s team is suggested to act patiently because the Japanese will take quite a significant amount of time before they will reach on a decision. The Japanese may also ask foreigners to leave after completion of the meetings and will pledge to respond to the proposal in a few weeks or even months. Based on the nature of Japanese corporate culture foreign delegation’s ability to demonstrate patience is the most important attribute needed for the success of the negotiations (Denison, Haaland, &Goelzer, 2004). Japanese culture is fundamentally based on the concept of teamwork and therefore the team from New Zealand should remain ready to incorporate the efficient and effective framework for building cross functional and cross cultural teams in order to successfully complete the project (Parker, 2008). The New Zealand side of the project must prepare some excited and interested extroverts for expatriation over the span of the project. The New Zealand based workers are notorious for handling uncertainty ineffectively that can degrade any possibility of progress in terms of project activities. In the light of above argument New Zealand’s negotiation team must be enlightened about how to apply patience in corporate negotiations (Parker, 2008). Japanese people and professionals appreciate when foreigners try to accept and assimilate within their cultural norms and in response to the effort they slightly open their cage of professionalism (Casey, 1999). The foreign negotiation team is recommended to understand and practice greetings in Japanese local language because it will come in handy in terms of breaking the ice among two groups (Gelfand& Brett, 2004). The overall situation of the negotiation will reside in the ability of New Zealanders to win the trust and respect of their Japanese counterparts. Historically New Zealand and Japan did not work on a substantial amount of joint ventures that simply means that both of the nations are lacking working and operational relationship needed to complete any sort of corporate project in the modern era of the 21st century (Gelfand& Brett, 2004). Conclusion This essay was dedicated towards analysis of domestic culture’s impact on cross cultural negotiations and found that the Japan’s and New Zealand’s culture are significantly divergent in nature. The former one is based on collectivism while the latter one is sporting individualism. However the success of the proposed negotiations solely depends on the New Zealanders’ ability and willingness to win the trust and support of their Japanese counterparts. Nevertheless in order to do so they have to demonstrate patience, flexibility and tolerance towards hostile behaviour of Japanese that will remain quite prevalent in the early stages of the negotiations. In general the idea of doing international business appears to be quite attractive in the eyes of both negotiating parties and therefore both of them attempt to close the deal as soon as possible. But the differences reside in the negotiating styles of the parties involved. Nevertheless New Zealanders are famous as risk takers and have a tendency to jump without looking whereas the Japanese are known for their inclination towards demonstrating planned and risk averse behaviour. 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