The Greatest Challenge Facing Organizational Behavior - Research Paper Example

Challenges to Organizational Behavior With the greater visibility and importance of organizational behavior in today's international marketplace, corporate structures are challenged to modify their culture, make-up, and accept new sets of values. These changes reach far beyond equal employment and legal requirements for opportunity. The change necessary is a vital component of a healthy corporate structure. The reluctance to implement the changes needed to compete in the global economy successfully are often ingrained in corporate culture and often serve as barriers to change. Diversity in the workforce is a complex task that can bring in the necessary new ideas, yet can be difficult to implement. Creating a diverse workforce in a company with an existing culture and belief system can be a dilemma. Management has a reasonable desire to bring in people of different ages, gender, and ethnic backgrounds. It is also desirable for the new diverse workforce to accept the organization's existing values. Failure for the new employees to accept these values can result in the new employee not being accepted into the mainstream corporate core. Yet, for the employee to limit their diverse behavior, or act in the traditional corporate mode, reduces the effectiveness and the value of the diversity. It is incumbent on the organization to assure that these new employees can be accepted and valued for their diversity within the existing system. The outdated concept of a melting pot culture no longer holds validity in today's world. The melting pot approach assumed that people would blend their differing cultures, ideas, and beliefs into a new and unique community. This previously held system eliminated the positive effects of diversity by demanding conformity. People of diverse backgrounds were forced to set aside their differences and in doing so limit their opportunity to effect positive change. Organizational management has an increased responsibility to bring in these new cultures and backgrounds into the existing system without disruption of the current system and create recognition of the need for change. Bringing these changes into the workplace and workforce is a major challenge for management. Thirty years ago the workforce was dominated by white males who supported a family and were the primary wage earner. Today's workforce has a much larger ratio of females and minorities (Robbins, 15). These dynamics have brought about a natural resistance to change and resulted in friction and inappropriate actions by peers and management. Organizations are faced with the need to properly train and educate their workforce to elicit the positive effects of diversity. Diversity training can help assure that the diverse workforce works together. Failure to recognize these barriers to change and being reluctant to institute adequate diversity training may result in the diversity being a net negative effect. Management is faced with additional challenges with respect to the ever expanding definition of diversity and the growing list of divergent people and ideas. These can include ethnic background, physical challenges, sexual preference, race, age, and socio-political considerations. Bringing these widely differing people together into one culture while maintaining and valuing their diversity is a daunting task with paramount importance. Creating a workplace that can accommodate widely divergent needs and requirements, access and recognition, as well as the physical requirements necessary will require retraining the existing workforce to accept these new changes. The challenge facing organizational behavior is to insure the successful implementation and eliminate the chance of failure of a diversity policy. Resistance to change and the subsequent failure of a policy is almost always due the human failure to account for people's reluctance to accept a disturbance of their set routine (Palmer). The corporation will need to be clear on the necessity to change, offer meaningful training, and support their efforts with measurable goals. Often, failure to follow up and institute the well-intentioned training results in a failed diversity policy. There may be no system put in place to assure management's commitment, and no way to hold people to an effective standard for effective diversity management. Employers are starting to realize that when you hold people accountable for behavioral and business changes in the diversity area, you will build an organizational climate that is conducive of change and a culture supportive of diversity. More importantly, you'll create a culture that uses diversity for competitive advantage (Digh). Setting a standard for diversity and creating a method of measurement is a major task facing organizational behavior today. The motivation and incentive to implement diversity and diversity awareness is a challenge corporations face as we move into the world of globalization. The multi-national concept of selling in other countries has given rise to globalization and its unique requirements. Diverse workforces with new ideas that can be applied globally will not only be a competitive advantage, it will be a necessity as corporations deal with other cultures around the globe. With the new demand and increased focus on globalization, there is a newly adopted transformation in the culture, strategic planning, and methods that the Multi National Corporations employ, creating a new breed of organization. The Global Firm (Palmer). This new way of doing business will place high demands on understanding not only the global market, but will also require an intense understanding of other countries' history, traditions, and cultures. Global trade organizations, such as NAFTA, are increasingly important to planning corporate strategy (Wheelen and Hunger). Globalization presents a special set of problems to organizational behavior. Capabilities that require evaluation are the skills of individuals as well as the organizational methods which dictate how resources are coordinated (Fahy and Smithee). The need to attract and retain a competent workforce able to operate across borders will be crucial. Styles of communication, methods of motivation, and respect for tradition will be a necessary part of evaluating the workforce (Robbins, 299). Globalization brings into play specialized job skills and necessitates a rethinking of the global strategy. Knowledge of laws, respect for intellectual property, and existing business customs are areas that add value to an organization. These characteristics of the organization are abstract, yet are instrumental in operating globally effectively. Effective allocation of workforce resources is another intangible area that has heightened importance in a global organization. When determining the employees needed for an assignment across borders, questions arise as to the composition of the workforce. Determining who will manage the project, where will the employees come from, and what specialized skills are required are obstacles that can create success or instill failure. With the increased mobility of the global workforce it is essential that the organization be able to properly balance the workforce when engaging in international business. Along with the need for a balanced and properly managed global workforce is the need to understand local laws and customs. Knowing the local laws may not prove to be enough. Laws are often skewed by their application and enforcement. A thorough knowledge of local laws and their relevance is a necessity that may only be gained by the involvement of local experts with an intricate knowledge of the local legal system. The customs and techniques may be vastly different from our own in the ways of securing permits, government applications, and filing the required paperwork. Communication skills are another area that organizational behavior will need to address in the global marketplace. The language barrier is only the first obstacle to be encountered when working outside your own country. Communication skills go beyond the language and enter the area of mannerisms and unspoken communication. Determining if a handshake is appropriate or not may seem innocuous, but it can have a devastating effect in some cultures. Appropriate dress, conduct, and body language all contribute to a mission's success or failure. Yet, these are difficult to learn and may only be acquired by employment of local workers. This presents the problem of integrating the new workforce into the existing corporate culture. This integration of a global workforce again highlights the need for an effective diversity program. Globalization and diversity go hand in hand and are monumental challenges facing organizational behavior today. Firms that fail to think globally will limit their success and be isolated from the available success of the global marketplace. But it will also require that the organization begin to view themselves as sufficiently diverse to be able to confront the vast differences around the world. The greatest challenge facing organizational behavior is the need to rethink the composition and makeup of the workforce. Routine allocation of workers as resources will fall short of the required goals of the future. New methods of quantifying skills, abilities, and knowledge must be integrated into a new way of planning. Diversity needs to meet the challenge of globalization as we begin to view commerce not as working outside our country, but rather working in another country. Works Cited Digh, Patricia. "The Next Challenge: Holding People Accountable." HR Magazine Nov. 2001. 20 Jan. 2006 . Fahy, John, and Alan Smithee. Strategic Marketing and the Resource Based View of the Firm. 1999. Academy of Marketing Science Review. 20 Jan. 2006 . Palmer, Brien. "Making Change Work." ASQ Quality Press (2004). 20 Jan. 2006 . Robbins, Stephen P. Organizational Behavior. 10th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003. Wheelen, T. L., & Hunger D. J. Strategic Management and Business Policy. 10th ed.. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc., 2003 Read More