Organizational behavior and cultural conflicts
Question:
Discuss about the Develop The Idea Of The Cultural Dispositions In The Organization.
The purpose of this essay is to develop the idea of the cultural dispositions in the organizational context and what impacts can the different cultures have on one particular organization. It is indeed important to know that the multinational organizations in the modern times operate in several countries and they have to recruit local people according to their locations. The organizations try to hire the local people in their new expanded destinations to avoid the labor costs and this sometimes becomes fatal if the cultural conflicts arise. This issue has been dealt in the essay question in the organizational context. The various organizational conflicts due to the cultural issues would be discussed in this essay along with some hypothetical examples. It is very important indeed to look upon this issue as a serious one as this is becoming a barrier for the international expansion for most organizations.
“It is better to rely on stereotypes than to enter into a relationship with someone from another culture without any idea of what they believe in”. Discuss the merits and problems in this statement.
Organizational behavior is believed to be one of the most important aspects for the organizations in particular. In an organizational setting of the modern context, it is very common that the employees might belong to several cultures because of the demographic and geographic differences (Greenberg 2012). It is the responsibility of both the managers and employees to keep away from these cultural conflicts. Otherwise it is very much probable that the performance of the employees and overall organization would be hampered badly. The role of the managers is not only to dictate the orders but also they have to lead the organization by moving away from making the distinctions according to one’s culture (Robbins and Judge 2012).
The entire organizational workforce will continue to have the people from the different cultural backgrounds. It is very much common to have people from different backgrounds since they have to collaborate in their works (Wagner and Hollenbeck 2014). The employees might be from different cultural backgrounds but they have to understand the fact that they have been hired because of their skills and capacity. It is not because of their cultural backgrounds. This is why they hve to get off this ill practice of plunging into discussions about the cultural conflicts in the workforce. As per the essay question, someone might think that they should approach the people within his or her same cultural background so it would be easier for them to deal with the problems. However, they ignore the fact that the people from their same background might not have the proper skills or capacities (DuBrin 2013). They are of this opinion because they fear that they might have to face some challenges or issues in this regard. They often forget that the people from different backgrounds might have better skills or capacities to solve a problem. Many times the people from the different cultural backgrounds might have the ability to lead the organizational teams way better than the people belonging to the same backgrounds (McShane and Von Glinow 2013).
Theories related to inter-group conflicts and interpersonal conflicts
Some theories in this matter would help things to get clearer. This will be helpful to assess the limits to which the organizational managers need to implement the theories properly.
One of these theories is about the inter-group conflict among the employees. It is the duty of the employees to work together in the organizational settings (Moran, Abramson and Moran 2014). It might happen that there are people from different cultural backgrounds in the sales and IT departments. The decision of the sales department regarding some event can be different from that of the IT department. This does not mean that cause of the difference should arise from the cultural conflicts (Pinder 2014). If these conflicts arise the employees will have to mitigate these problems instantly to avoid any further problems in the system. A very small misunderstanding between the employees of these departments can cause huge disasters for the organizations. This is why the organizations would need to take proper action to make the work smooth going between all the departments. This is very much significant indeed. These conflicts could result in bigger disputes arising from these cultural issues.
The interpersonal conflict is one of the major effects of the distinction between the conflicts in the organizations. If the organizations expand into a region where the people follow the exact opposite lifestyle and cultural values from the people of the home country, there will be high implications in this context (Stahl and Tung 2015). The managers cannot force the people to deal with one another with a smile on the face until they are on the same page. This is why the organizations must train their employees very well so they could learn to co-exist with the people. However, the people from the different cultural backgrounds mostly acquire different kinds of skills and the managers want to utilize these versatile skills into one. This would help the organizations to perform better (Stahl and Tung 2015). The employees from these different cultures might believe in individualism or collectivism. However, they have to work together in order to achieve the organizational objectives. The employees must have to understand the behavior of one another in order to cater to the organizational objectives. Then they must have the capacity to predict what they will have to say in the contexts. The employees must understand the behaviors of one another and then focus on the team building properly (Stahl and Tung 2015).
The organizational settings in this context are very important indeed. This is why the employees need to be conscious about their behavior in the organizations. They have to come out of their comfort zone in order to manage the issues in the organizational settings. The employees will have to work with their colleagues without any feeling of disgust. This will be very useful for them to meet the objectives of the organization. Wherever the expansion takes place they have to maintain the same good will for the organizations (Vaara et al. 2012). This is why the employee might have to abide by some ethical policies by which they can enhance the grandeur of the organization. However, they cannot just choose to mingle with the people who belong to their own culture only. They must mix with the people of the other cultures as well. This is the way they can get the best results for the organization in terms of the organizational success. The staff members have to engage with each other very effectively to collaborate and make a better understanding indeed (Vaara et al. 2012) They have to interact with their colleagues in the best ways so they can improve each other’s performance and give suggestions to each other as well.
Importance of organizational settings
The business environments are not at all in the favor of the employees. Sometimes they have to make the proper adjustments in the adverse business environments to cope up with the severe challenges (Patrick and Kumar 2012). In order to so, they have to intermix with each other. Many situations can arise in terms of the cultural differences in the organizations. This is why the organizations have to mitigate the issues that have arisen in the organizations. All the employees must be able to respect the values and beliefs of each other. Only then they can put up a proper organizational culture in the place. These things would give the rise to the enhancement of environments in the multicultural organizations.
The impacts of the individualism and collectivism will have to be measured in this context (Triandis 2018). The various big multicultural organizations like Wal-Mart, Tesco, Samsung, Apple and all others have several issues related to the multiculturalism in their organization. They have always dealt with these issues with strictness. It is done to keep the integrity of the organizations at its proper place. It might happen that a Chinese employee might have to go to any European country for Samsung. He might feel cultural issues when interacting with the European employees. He might have to leave the job and apply for transfer in his own region if he cannot adjust with the situations (Kawar 2012). The case might be such that his skills are very much needed in that branch. This is when the organizational managers have to give him the training on how to integrate with those cultures. Thus he will be able to adjust in the opposite cultures and give his best efforts indeed. All the employees must build a healthy relationship between themselves to get the best results for the organizations.
Conclusion
The conclusion of this essay can be drawn by saying that organizational behavior is determined by the ways on how the employees can cope up with the challenges in the organizations regarding the cultural differences. If the employees decide to stick to their home culture they might not be able to show their skills. This is why they should mingle with the other cultures as well to utilize their skills and capacities.
References
DuBrin, A.J., 2013. Fundamentals of organizational behavior: An applied perspective. Elsevier.
Greenberg, J., 2012. Managing behavior in organizations. Pearson Higher Ed.
Kawar, T.I., 2012. Cross-cultural differences in management. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 3(6).
McShane, S. and Von Glinow, M., 2013. M Organizational Behavior. New York, New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Moran, R.T., Abramson, N.R. and Moran, S.V., 2014. Managing cultural differences. Routledge.
Patrick, H.A. and Kumar, V.R., 2012. Managing workplace diversity: Issues and challenges. Sage Open, 2(2), p.2158244012444615.
Pinder, C.C., 2014. Work motivation in organizational behavior. Psychology Press.
Robbins, S.P. and Judge, T., 2012. Essentials of organizational behavior.
Stahl, G.K. and Tung, R.L., 2015. Towards a more balanced treatment of culture in international business studies: The need for positive cross-cultural scholarship. Journal of International Business Studies, 46(4), pp.391-414.
Triandis, H.C., 2018. Individualism and collectivism. Routledge.
Vaara, E., Sarala, R., Stahl, G.K. and Björkman, I., 2012. The impact of organizational and national cultural differences on social conflict and knowledge transfer in international acquisitions. Journal of Management Studies, 49(1), pp.1-27.
Wagner III, J.A. and Hollenbeck, J.R., 2014. Organizational behavior: Securing competitive advantage. Routledge.