Barriers to Effective Group Functioning - Coursework Example

Barriers to Effective Group Functioning Work force dynamics have changed significantly over the year, which has resulted in major changes in organizational behavior. One major change inheret to today’s work force environment relate to globalization, motivation, employee relations, values, and similar topics which have changed as time has passed. The paper looks to present a thesis on the way apart from work habits other factors such as “skills, knowledge and learned behavior” (Hunt, 2006, p. 123) all of which influence a firm’s social culture and bring a change in behavior. The thesis looks towards identifying it through various research & studies and the present the manner it has on group effectiveness. Various research studies that have examined diversity management have, highlighted that work habits are influenced by the changing global environment (Hunt, 2006). Globalization is considered one of the major factors that have increased the role of diversity in the workplace. The world began to witness globalization during the 1990’s when the world began to become more integrated as the borders between countries began blur. Different economies started to share resources such as intellectual capital, goods, and services and so on (McShane, Olekalns & Travaglione, 2010). This led to a situation in which trade between countries was considered essential for growth. Economies like the Middle East countries united and started to function as a single unit on matters that required amalgamating knowledge. This causes such economies to look toward employing a workforce that was representative of different cultures, socioeconomic classes and gender, thereby increasing participation of workforce in important decision making and ensuring diversity in the work place. Research has shown that employees come from different cultures and castes and the manner of influencing them differs. This makes it difficult for management to identify a single way to influence the entire workforce, often resulting in delayed decision making (Hailey, Ferndale & Truss, 2005). This situation has made it difficult for the organization to ensure that diversity in the workforce actually helps the organization achieve the best results. Another study by Katz (1974) supported this notion stating that managers need to look into different aspects of workforce diversity and employ managers who can guide employees to ensure that they work together toward a common goal. This has increased complexity for the organization, however, because finding an effective leader who is able to lead a diverse workforce is difficult. Another problem organization’s experience when dealing with diversity in the workforce is that it creates inequity among employees thereby affecting employees’ growth (Davidson, Simon, Gottschalk, Hunt, Wood & Griffin, 2006). This study found that when an employee does not perceive equity, this perception is reflected in the work culture. When the employees do not perceive equity performance is affected. This decreases productivity and creates disharmony among the workforce and leading to multiple problems. Cultural globalization has argued that capital investments made to develop projects of large magnitude have resulted in growing the local economy (Kotler, 1990). This has been substantiated by a finding stating that in Europe; approximately 60% of the products consumed are imported and have not resulted in cultural changes (Kotler, 1990). Developing countries that rely on the external world for investments fall in the trap of cultural changes because looking towards accomplishing the development brings mass changes in the cultural environment. This has been supported by the fact that most Western multinational companies look to make changes in the cultural environment so that organization is able to grow (Hunt, 2010). This problem is more significant for products that are essential and producing those means integrating cultural changes, which brings about cultural globalization and sunsequently impacts the local culture. It has also been found that different economies have different cultures. Some economies look toward protecting their culture and want to preserve it from being influenced by other culture. Since the 16th century, however, Western civilization has tried to dominate the world and had tried to undermine other cultures (Hunt, 2010). This has resulted in widespread diversification and influence of Western culture on other cultures. Added to this the fact that people believe that globalization has an effect on culture, often because one culture looks toward dominating the local culture (Hunt, 2010). For example, it has been identified that the American culture is somewhat different from other cultures, where people aspire to wear Levis, watch CNN and drink coffee at Starbucks but forget their traditional life, which is absolutely different from other cultures. This has the affect of influencing another culture by destroying the local culture. The influence of cultural domination is magnified for countries that are weak on certain fronts and are adapted easily to the influence of outside cultures (Kotter, 1990). The effect of this has been so strong that it has resulted in many cultures losing their relevance. Subsquently, cultural globalization has taken place. This highlights the important fact that local cultures are influenced by cultural globalization. This can be seen in Abeokuta in West Africa where the local people received Western education without knowing that it was being influenced by British power, which gradually transformed the culture (Akande, 2002). Another example is that, America has been influenced by the fascism of the food industry which has transformed the culture and resulted in creating chains such as McDonalds (Marcel, 2003). The impact of cultural globalization has been very strong, especially for developed countries. Globalization helps developed countries show their dominance and power, and they have looked toward dividing the world based either on economic or cultural concepts. That thereby has a much larger role to play in cultural globalization. This concept is being illustrated by Disney entering China in the 1980’s which influenced the market. This resulted in increased popularity of the Disney culture and resulted in cultural imperialism (Wasserstorm, 2003). Cultural globalization thus had a wide impact on imperialism and fascism and has resulted in transforming cultures by adopting other cultures and losing the relevance of the culture present in the country. Another example is the case of McDonald’s in India. India is a very culture-sensitive country and those who are highly religious tend favour companies that value these fundamental principles. When it entered the country, McDonald’s brought beef with it in its products. It even used oil that contained animal fats. India’s religious custom did not allow these foods to be consumed. McDonalds was subsquently not able to gain market share. The company understood the culture and offered a variant relative to the culture. They launched a vegetarian variety menu and removed beef from its menu. It even stopped using oil that contained animal fat. This resulted in the company gaining market share. Consumers started liking the product and McDonalds was able to capture a significant share of the Indian market. Organizations can look toward designing their compensation package to ensure that both intrinsic and extrinsic demands are met. This will help ensure that employees are highly motivated and remain part of the organization. This tool will thus help the organization design compensation packages according to each employee and ensure maximum return for the organization and employees. This will help reduce differences that exist between the various cultural workforces and will help reduce the problems inherent to diversity in the workforce. This problem can be mitigated by developing a model that helps to communicate effectively and ensure maximum efficiency in operations. Managers at all levels, including top, middle and lower level managers in small or large organizations ensure that employees carry out activities efficiently. This ensures effective communication and proper strategy as managers communicate among themselves (Mintzberg, 1975). This will help improve the value for a poor performing organization because the efforts will be directed in the right direction. Developing this model will help improve the objectives of workforce diversity and help guide the organization through difficulties. The paper thereby presents the ways in which growth in workforce diversity has resulted in increasing the complexities for the organization. This makes it important for the organization to ensure that they are able to develop a model that helps guide the workforce in order to yield maximum efficiency in their working environment. This will help organizations yield advantages that accrue due to workforce diversity and guide employees in a direction that helps them achieve both the common and personal goals of the organization. Such efforts will thereby guide the workforce to ensure such that they are able to prosper in their jobs and fill responsible positions in the organizations (Zaleznik, 1977). To conclude, this essay has presented the manner in which cultural globalization has hampered local culture and customs and brought about widespread changes. The result has been strong due to the economic benefits that make societies look towards cultural transformation. The effect is stronger when the local culture becomes weak in the presence of other culture. This leads to erosion of the culture and influences the local heritage. This has caused many economies to understand the imperialism and fascism of globalization, which is affecting culture. Economies have understood the negative effects of globalization and are looking toward preserving their local culture. This increases the role of the government and third parties to ensure that the local culture is not affected by cultural globalization and ensure that appropriate steps and strategies are developed to counter changes in culture. This will help develop the economy and will prevent them from experiencing the shocks of cultural changes. Thus, the modern working society needs to dwell on various factors that look to improve group effectiveness so that work force diversity is able to accomodate the changes required in the working environment. Group effectiveness needs to be shaped according to the changing working conditions so that the business is able to perform most effectively and deliver on different aspects of management. This will help the organization match the required changes in the working environment and will ensure that benefits are matched with the changing work culture. Such efforts make it important for business units to understand the importance of changing culture and look toward creating diversity in the workforce. This requires addressing all the different issues related to the well-being of the organization. This will help ensure better performance and will shape the manner in which development takes place. References Akande, W. (2002). “The drawbacks of Cultural Globalization”. Global Policy Forum. Retrieved October 21, 2011 from http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/162-general/27594.html Davidson, P., Simon, A., Gottschalk, L., Hunt, J., Wood, G. & Griffin, R. 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Retrieved October 21, 2011 from http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/162-general/27599.html Wasserstorm, J. (2003). “A Mickey Mouse Approach to Globalization”. Global Policy Forum. Retrieved October 21, 2011 from http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/162/27612.html Zaleznik, A. (1977). Managers and Leaders: Are they Different? Harvard Business Review, 55 (3), 67-78. Read More