Impact of International Culture on Organization Behavior - Coursework Example

Name Course Professor Date Impact of International Culture on Organization Behavior Introduction Organizations are no longer limited by national boundaries hence forcing organizations to adapt ways doing work in different cultures of the world. No country has a universal work behavior because what is just and acknowledged in one nation maybe unacceptable and condemned in the neighboring or distant placed nation. Organization managers and owners have a big task in aligning their organization culture into a neutral culture that is acceptable in the entire world. International culture requires employees to see the organization and the world from a multicultural perspective by acknowledging cultural differences brought up by international nature of the organization (Gelfand, Erez, and Aycan 120–133; Cox 78–142). Organization behaviour refers to the behavior manifested by people in an organization and the meaning that they attach to those behaviors. It represents the beliefs, values, and principles that members of the organization embrace. In addition to that, the organization culture is a product of history, type of employees, management styles, and type of products or services that the organization uses. The organization philosophy, mission, and vision of the organization in addition to language, symbols, and habits of the people in the organization define the organization culture at a particular time considering the culture keeps changing with changing employees, products and leadership styles of the managers alongside other external factors such as international culture at that moment (Leung et al., “Culture and International Business” 47–55; Miroshnik 25–21). Besides, organization behavior can be defined based on the shared assumptions that make an organization do what it does and that influence how the organization does what it does (BusinessDictionary.com, 1). The behavior of one organization in a particular situation is different from the behavior of another organization in the same situation. Such disparities are influenced by different organization culture that is the product of internal assumptions and external expectations by its clients, competitors, governments and virtually everybody internationally (Hofstede, 87–95). International culture is not predictable and keeps changing due to emerging issues and complexity of interbreeding various cultures to create a brand that is acceptable and approved by all. Understanding the basis of international culture and its effects on our organization culture is a primary guide for organization employees and employers to modify their thinking patterns, attitudes, and behavior. Moreover, it provides a basis for evaluating their organization behavior and using to influence growth and success of the organization (Hofstede, “Culture and Organizations” 87–95). Effect of International culture on organization behaviour Existence of multiple cultures among the employees of international organizations has strong implications on work ethics, behavior, and conflict resolutions mechanisms. The organization behavior towards its employees takes into consideration the cultural obligations and expectation of an individual or group or employees. The organization assigns duties based on society expectations of a certain person since responsibilities can be determined by age and gender in some cultures. The employees have an obligation to learn the cultural expectation of interaction with other employees from diverse culture. For example, in some cultures women are not greeted by the hand while in others people great each other by hand (Usunier 312–345; Adler and Gundersen, International Dimensions of Organizational Behavior 127–156). The organization understanding that employees have come from different backgrounds, the need to develop organization culture based on certain rules, and expected code of conduct is essential to enable multinational employees coexist peacefully. International organizations are geographically dispersed and operate beyond the limits of national cultures. Therefore, they create a working environment that is different from an country and generate their own rules of conducting their business. An organization is influenced to define, create, and distribute its own values across its branches (Dowling, Festing, and Engle Sr 479–503). How employees communicate in international culture is complicated by individual culture and language. Hence, an individual organization needs to develop communication channels and means of passing various information to ensure mutual respect of all employees despite their organization management level. Sharing of code of behaviors and common meanings creates an international culture that enables organization employees’ work together towards achievement of organization goals with minimal friction. The organization is able to address its employees by adhering to agreed behaviors that respect the internationality of its employees (Dowling, Festing, and Engle Sr 479–503). The organization induction and indoctrination process ensures that new members have adopted the organization culture through interaction with stakeholders thus giving them an identity in the organization, which is expressed in their interaction with all stakeholders. How the organization treats its clients, employees and the wide community is part of organization culture. The extent of freedom that various employees have in coming up with new ideas, making decisions and expressing their opinions defines the organization culture (Dowling, Festing, and Engle Sr 479–503). Market forces, trends, and business environment created by multinational companies have a direct impact on the organization culture. Organization culture is subject these forces in the market as companies compete to improve their image and brand to attract employees, partners, and customers. Moreover, various forces define how organizations interact with customers and how they behave towards competitors to ensure they have a sustained business performance (Usunier 312–345; Adler and Gundersen, International Dimensions of Organizational Behavior 127–156). Advance in science and technology has made companies grow fast to be multinationals since communication with stakeholders worldwide is possible. New electronics, advance in telecommunications, internet and media are continually changing the world. They have influenced learning of new organization behaviors from all parts of the world. Distribution of business branches into different parts of the world brings new experiences that are blended with the culture of the people in that region. If shared, this new information influences change of organization behavior (Ostroff, Kinicki, and Tamkins 346; Schein, Organizational Culture and Leadership 243–268). International conduct of business influenced emergence of a global village leading to dramatic advances and evolution of organization culture. It requires organizations that have built a culture that can change with advance in technology. Through application of internet products such as teleconferencing, Skype and similar others, meeting are held when people are geographically far away thus eliminating the usual boardroom meetings (Ostroff, Kinicki, and Tamkins 346; Schein 256). An international organization has to develop mechanisms of communication that is fast, less costly, and immediate thus influencing how the organization conducts its meetings, regular supervision visits, and consultations. Similarly, international culture of sharing information and experts is possible through internet. Hence, the organization does not require having all experts at a certain branch. Knowledge and skills can be sought from an expert who is far distant away (Schein, 623). In addition to that, the internationalization of organizations led to development of organizations that are hosted in the internet without physical address. International organizations are able to address their stakeholder needs via a website, a feature that improves the presence of the organization in all parts of the world instantaneously. Many organizations have shifted their marketing behaviors from normal campaigns held over radio, television and magazines into online websites and social programs such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter among others where the organization can meet its international stakeholders with minimal waste of resources such as money and time. People can learn what an organization behaves without physical interaction (Usunier 312–345; Adler and Gundersen, 127–156). Another major change on organization behavior is related to the management of income and the processes used to pay for services and goods. International culture of using various currency and the challenge of geographical distant areas forced organizations to change their banking ways. Electronic payment has eliminated the usual visit into a bank to pay or receive payment. International businesses adopt electronic payment systems that can enable them pay or receive money in different currencies thus speed up the process of manual transfer or receipt of payments (Usunier 312–345; Adler and Gundersen, 141). Schein (417), acknowledges that the international culture of embracing skills and output in the work has influenced organization leadership structure and styles. Through competitive choice of leaders, the organizations are able to get transformational leadership that influence growth of the company towards a desired vision. A competitive recruitment of employees internationally has led to congregation of employees with different leadership skills, styles, and expectations. Besides, the language of communication is influenced by the language of international employees forcing organizations to adopt a specific language that is common amongst its employees (Cox 423; Deresky 175). Changes in distribution of wealth and knowledge in the world has influenced change of organization behavior from racial discrimination towards embracing different races and tapping on potential of people from various races. International culture dictates understanding, respect and emulating a universal culture that is acceptable worldwide. Hence, it has eliminated racism tendencies in appointment and recruitment. International organizations are composed of employees from all races to reflect the nature of the customers the organization serves as well as to improve its marketability in all races. (Hofstede (67-79), argues that people all over the world have differing religions and political ideologies that have influence on the organization behavior. The behavior of an organization towards its stakeholders is anchored on the religion and political ideologies of the stakeholders. For example, organizations whose customers comprise the Muslim religion must conform to the behaviors of the Muslim in branding, marketing, selling, and distribution of its products. The behavior of an organization depends on the religion and political ideologies of the region where a specific organization branch is situated. In some countries, international organizations are required by law to ensure three quarters of the employees come from a defined geographical region (Hofstede, 95). Therefore, the organization must conform to the existing political ideologies to be allowed to operate in a certain region with undue conflicts. However, the world is full of differing ideologies that influence how people use their time and resources. The international culture on embracing what is valuable and leaving what is not valuable for an organization is essential to control influence of deferring political and social ideologies that influence the organization to behave negatively (Adler and Gundersen, 115). The code of conduct for international organization requires organizations to adhere to environmental regulations that ensure sustainability and not degradation of environment. The international culture of abiding to international regulations influences how an individual organization behaves concerning those laws. The most common is the environmental laws that require safe practice that does not destroy the environment. Others include complying with certain human rights and adherence to international financial policies and regulations. An individual organization must tailor its behavior to suit and abide to such laws. Hence, it has created a global super culture of respect to humanity, service to humanity and safe environment today and for the coming generations (Jameson, Miyoshi, and others 836). International culture demands that the organization behavior respect the laws of international conduct of business in its engagement with stakeholders. Moreover, the behavior set by other companies in their corporate social responsibility influence how a certain organization behave. For example, corporate social responsibility is a marketing tool that is aimed to influence social and economic growth of the community that the organization serves or works with. Any company that has no corporate social responsibility activities is regarded as mean and not valuable to the community. Hence, the social pressure created by competition to prove the most useful corporate socially responsible company influences how the organization behaves towards its customers and employees. It influences the organization to treat customers and employees fairly (Jameson, Miyoshi, and others 845). International culture of embracing competition to stir creativity, quality, and growth of organizations influence the behavior of organizations. Globalization of organizations brings new competitors in the market who are stronger and competing on different platforms. Hence, individual organizations are forced to adapt measures that protect their strength as well as understand weaknesses of the competing organizations thoroughly (Griffin and Moorhead 379). Organizations behavior shifts from not merely providing services and goods but also improving efficiency that leads to more returns with minimal costs. Hence, organizations adapt measures that reduce expenditure and maximize on measures that increase output and sales to enable the organization meet its requirements to serve geographically distant stakeholders in the midst of stiff competition without withering (Alvesson 202-268). Managers who are foreign nationals have an obligation to understand that employees from the host nation will have a different taste for various organization structure depending with the culture that they are used to (Robbins and Judge 547). The organization structure adopted in a certain region is balance d to ensure it does not conflict with the local culture or regional culture. For international companies to remain successful they must be sensitive to foreign customers and employee needs through all the processes of producing, selling, and consumption of its goods or services (Leung et al., 16; House et al. 189–213). Decision making practices also go with the current international culture practice. The process of decision making is replicated from one successful organization to the other. For instance, currently successful organizations involve their juniors in decision making to increase creativity and innovation. The practice has been adopted as an agreed international culture due to its scientifically proved value. Hence, other organizations are bound to practice the new concepts agreed universally in order to remain relevant in the market and assure public (Schein, 667).. Summary An organization behavior is largely influenced by how the international culture dictates. The international culture demands that organizations see the world from a multicultural perspective and have respect them in their production and sale of the organization goods and services. International culture embraces employment of people from diverse backgrounds and serving customers from unique cultures. Hence, organizations are expected to behave in a neutral way that does not compromise or belittle the culture of any of its international employee or customers. The communication channels and the organization structure depend on the international culture of that time. Currently, communication via the internet websites, emails, and social media is the order of the day. The advancement of technology internationally has made all people embrace it thus influencing organizations to adapt it in the organization communication systems. Behavior of many organizations internationally often becomes a culture that influences the decision-making and behavior of an individual organization. The corporate social responsibility activities are an example of organizations doing what others are doing to avoid bad reputation (Leung et al., “Culture and International Business” 13–49). Moreover, international laws and political ideologies influence the behavior of an organization. Adherence to international Monetary Policies, Environmental Laws, and Occupational Health and Safety guidelines influence how the organization behaves as it conducts its business. Gaps in Literature Review Not all international culture aspects have been explained. International relations as part of international culture have great significance in determining the organization behavior. Besides, outbreak of wars, conflicts, and rivalries are part of the international culture that has direct influence on how organizations behave. The role of trade patterns and regulations internationally influence the organization behavior. Moreover, the role of universal values across borders in determining the organization behavior requires in depth research and analysis. Conclusion There is need to conduct a research on this topic to understand how contemporary international culture play a role in shaping the behavior of an organization. International culture keeps on evolving. 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