Managing Incorporation of Technology and Consequent Organisational Changes - Coursework Example

?Contemporary issues in Organisational Behaviour Introduction Admittedly, the issues affecting human organisations have always been almost the same. However, the modern world is much more fluctuating, and hence, the problems are even more severe today. This work intends to look into the main challenges in organisational behaviour in the current day business world. Managing incorporation of technology and consequent organisational changes According to Sims (1992), the very first challenge for organisational behaviour in organisations today is the advent of new technologies and the consequent unrest. As Bakan, Tasliyan, Eraslan and Coskun (n.d), point out, a formal organisation comes into being when the members are ready to communicate with one another and when they are ready to act for a common goal; however, the informal organisation lacks in a formal structure. In order to understand what information technology does to organisational behaviour, one should understand what information technology does in an organisation. Its main functions are information capture, information storage, information manipulation, and information distribution. It is found that computer system increased the amount of factual information, increased the involvement of employees in decision making especially related to computer issues, and increased the ability to check on activities in real time. As Bakan et al (n.d.) point out, with this increased presence of information technology, it has become possible for employees to feel that they get easy access to correct information and also that they can easily influence the decisions and behaviours of others. Though the above mentioned are the positive side, there are a large number of challenges for the organisational behaviour. Firstly, when there is more and more new technology and equipments along with newer and newer information, not all employees are good adapters and a considerable proportion of them look at the onslaught of technology with fear and disdain. For those who cannot change along with the always changing nature of workplace, changes are unsettling. In other words, when there is more and more use of technology, there is change in the nature of work employees do, and to remain in the profession, they are continuously made to upgrade their skills. In addition, more and more people lose their jobs as a result of this change. Thus, there is a feeling of insecurity and fear in employees around the world. This is one of the most important challenges for organisational behaviour to handle at present. Along with this comes the problem of lack of motivation. Admittedly, when communication takes place through modern communication devices, and when machines replace man, there is lack of direct interaction. Thus, increased insecurity along with decreased interaction leads to a drop in motivation levels. In other words, today’s organisations are spread across various geographical areas and are connected mainly using the advanced communication technology. However, this modern technology can, at times, function as hindrances for managers in knowing their employees of distant places personally. As studies have proved, it is vital to know the culture of people to motivate them. For example, there is the study by Sohrabi, Gholipour and Amiri (2011) which found the groups that are virtually linked show less job satisfaction, less job involvement, less job commitment, and less organisational citizenship. Handling globalisation and its various effects In the opinion of Chaneta (n.d), the second major challenge is the globalisation and its various impacts. Some important aspects of globalisation that affect businesses at present are the movement of valuable skills and investments, increasing cultural diversity, immigration, job migration, and multicultural workplaces. Admittedly, globalisation leads to the creation of cultural diversity within the society and organisation. These various cultures have various attitudes and ways of interaction. For example, while the Americans believe in liberalism, explicitness and immediate results, the East Asian nation China adheres to conservative, long term relationships and power distance. Thus, when there is a multicultural workforce, it becomes a tough task for the organisational behaviour to find ways to ensure proper integration of all fractions into a single system ensuring proper interaction. Evidently, the toughest task is communication. Different cultures have different ways of communication that makes communication and understanding chaos very often. It is common for colloquialism to appear in the business talks and hence many a times, people get the feeling that ‘they don’t speak the same language’. Managing multicultural workforces There are some more issues as associated with multi-cultural workforces. The very first one among them is the existence of cultural bias. Evidently, all cultures tend to believe themselves superior to all other cultures, and the same is true about Europeans, Americans, Chinese and Japanese. So, when these different cultures come together in an organisation, the problem of racism again comes up, resulting in poor interaction, and consequently, poor productivity. Another important point is the creation of a frequently changing, part-time work force instead of the past full-time loyal workforce who served an organisation for their entire lifetime. Gone are the days when organisations guaranteed an employee work for his entire lifetime with relatively les change in the nature of the work. Presently, organisations undergo radical changes on an everyday basis if not hourly, and the changes brought about are too radical for employees to digest. For example, a company may decide to outsource its operations to an East Asian nation because of the availability of cheap labour. Another organisation may decide to downsize itself to meet the recession. In this volatile work environment, employees feel no security as there is no guarantee that they will be able to do the same job for their lifetime. So, they tend to be multi-skilled in nature. However, this change has its adverse impact on organisations too. As organisations have no guarantee to offer, employees have started offering less loyalty and attachment towards the organisations they work for, and they have developed a ‘work for money’ attitude. As a result, when an employee gets a better chance, he does not hesitate to shift the job. In addition, a considerable proportion of employees have started working for more than one organisation at the same time. As a result of these changes, features like motivation, commitment, and dedication have become a picture of the past, and it is for the organisational behaviour managers to find newer and newer ways to make employees show their maximum productivity in the minimum amount of time. As a result of all these issues, the present day managers are not simply regional managers, but are global managers. As Quisenberry (2007) opines, managers have to develop a global mindset that knows how to manage business in various cultures and contexts; and they should know how to perform acquisitions and mergers without any effect on the functioning of the organisation. In addition, they should have adequate knowledge about the various vultures and the ways to interact with these various cultures. Handling religion, uncertainty avoidance and power distance It includes handling religion too. For example, religion is an important aspect of every culture that is visible everywhere. It is for the organisational behaviour to learn how the various religious sentiments can be protected without affecting the interest of the organisation. It becomes a duty of organisational behaviour to develop codes of ethics and moral behaviour in the organisation that ensure the sustenance of a multicultural workforce. Thus, in a globalised business arena, the factors to be taken into consideration are power distance, uncertainty avoidance, factors of individualism and collectivism, features of masculinity and feminity, and long term and short term orientations. The first point is power distance. Certain cultures love to have a highly hierarchical workplace setting while others prefer to have a liberal one. In the present day multicultural workplace, this is a big organisational behaviour challenge to meet both the needs. For example, it is common for employees in China to consider power distance a very important factor while the opposite is true about America. The second point is uncertainty avoidance. As already seen, the short term orientation of the workplace is associated with high degree of uncertainty in the workplace. Evidently, the feeling of work security has an important role in productivity and employee wellbeing. So, it has become an important challenge for organisations at present to devise ways to make employees feel secure in their jobs. Admittedly, various cultures have various attitudes towards uncertainty. While people in Japan are known for less uncertainty avoidance tendency, the French exhibit high levels of uncertainty avoidance. (House et al (n.d). In total, it becomes evident that the toughest task for organisations at present is to develop a work culture and an ethical stand that do not hurt the sentiments of any culture. The very first ethical challenge is the existence of various cultures within the organisation and also within the society it operates. Secondly, there is the attitude of governments from various geographical areas. For example, the act of bribery is considered highly unethical in certain cultures but is inevitability in some others. So, if a company wants to operate in such a culture, certainly it will have to change its ethical stand. Terrorism and organisational behaviour The last of point of consideration is the rising threat of terrorism and its impact on employee emotion motivation and communication. Admittedly, the terrorism around the world has created fear in the minds of people as Howie (2007) points out, people from certain cultures and certain geographical areas are considered the proponents of terrorism; another prejudice that is deep rooted in the society. As a result, it is natural to expect cultural bias towards the people from such cultures. So, it is for managers to identify any such issues that affect employees in their organisations and remove them. Conclusion From the above discussion, it becomes evident that the challenges for organisational behaviour at present and for some time ahead are the result of the mixed effects of technological advancement, globalization, and economic downturn. References Bakan, I, Tasliyan, M, Eraslan, IK & Coskun, M n.d, ‘The effect of technology on organizational behaviour and the nature of work’, Viewed 23 November 2011, Chaneta, I n.d, ‘Organizational Behavior’, Journal of Comprehensive Research, vol.8, pp.13-18, Viewed 22 November 2011, House, RJ, Hanges, PJ, Ruiz-Quintanilla, SA, et al n.d, ‘Cultural influences on leadership and organizations: Project globe’, pp.1-903, Viewed 22 November 2011, Howie, L 2007, ‘The terrorism threat and managing workplaces’, Disaster Prevention and Management, vol.16, no.1, pp.70-78. Sims, RR July 1992, ‘The challenges of ethical behaviour in organizations’, Journal of Business Ethics, vol.11, no.7. Viewed 22 November 2011, Sohrabi, B, Gholipour, A & Amiri, B 2011, ‘The influence of information technology on organisational behaviour: Study of identity challenges in virtual teams’, International Journal of E-collaboration, vol.7, no.2, p. 20. Quisenberry, W 2007, ‘Organizational behaviour and motivation: Psychological and sociological insights’, Helium.com, Viewed 22 November 2011, Read More