Organizational Behavior Terminology and Concepts

Organizational Behavior Terminology and Concepts

University of Phoenix Online

MGT331, Organizational Behavior

August 28, 2005

Organizational Behavior Terminology and Concepts

Organizational behavior is the behavior of individuals, either one or a group. It is not the behavior of an organization, but rather the behavior of the people in an organization. This can be anywhere from a family at home to a church to a work group within a company. Some of the challenges that make behaviors challenging in today’s workplace are high performance, ethical behavior, productivity improvement, technology utilization, quality, diversity, work-life balance, and the global economy, (Schermerhorn, 2003, P. 1).

Starting with Garrett through the many merges and acquisitions to Honeywell, we have gone from the good ol boy behavior to a global corporation that for the most part as sound behavior. We are not prefect, if there can be such a thing, but we a continuing improving our behaviors as individuals. Those individuals whose behaviors are less then required and terminated. Our workforce comes from many cultures and the barriers can cause problems at times. It is the speed in which those barriers are knock down that will make us more successful. As a manger and the more I learn about the different behaviors and the actions of them the better I can correct problems as they arise.

Organizational culture is having the same actions, values and beliefs in a group. Again this can be as small as a family and the culture that it lives by and as large as a country and the culture they live by. In the readings I read that in Japan, they have to change their culture as we did many years ago with the emergences of women in the workplace. In the U.S. and the passing of women rights, the Japanese culture was men first, followed by women.

With companies now operating in a global setting we are learning more and more about each others cultures and understanding how to act and understand behaviors of each culture.

Within a culture you may have subcultures that have many of the same beliefs as the majority, but have things that are totally different. Within Honeywell we have a global culture with many subcultures. Within our campus the belief and actions of the Engineering group is slightly different then the manufacturing community although we all share the same organizational beliefs and goals. There are fewer differences within a manufacturing department and all manufacturing departments are very similar.

Diversity as defined in our material is the differences based on gender, race, ethnicity, age, and sexual orientation. Today’s workforce is forever changing and more importance is put on the managing of a diverse work group. Thinking of it as each person in a spur on a gear and each person is different by the above definition. The gears most align and blend to make the organization move forward, (Schermerhorn, 2003, P. 1).

Within my department we are not as diverse as other areas but we do have individuals of different age, sex and race. We were a male oriented department until recently and we have had to make adjustments to our behaviors with the addition of a female employee. She was very quickly accepted into our department very quickly. Even though we have people of different races and backgrounds we have never had an ethnicity issue. What may be a problem with our building is the age average age of employees. When I started with Honeywell in 1990 our average age was 32, now it is 49 years old. What has caused this is the many slow downs in the aerospace industry and each time there is a reduction it is the less senior people leaving. We are developing an age problem of older people ready to retire and losing the skills they take with them.

Communication is the transfer of information in either a written or verbal form or by pictures. Managers spend a lot of time receiving different kinds of communication and analyzing the information and then passing forward the necessary information to others. This can be done either informally or in a formal setting. Since many organizations are becoming more global, communication becomes a problem with the language barrier. Also with the new technology and software on the market, communications can now be faster and sometimes even live with people across the world. The problem may be that even if there are plenty of forms of communication, you have to make sure that the information that is given is understood. This is sometimes hard.

Group size plays an important part of the level and success of communication. The larger the group, the more difficult it makes it to give the information and lot lose people.