Organizational Behavior Terminology and Concepts

Introduction

What makes a company great? Why some organizations are so successful in energizing and motivating their employees thereby enhancing their own profitability and survival. Over these years we have seen many examples of such charismatic organizations like GE, Ford, SONY etc. which has weathered successfully with multiple changes like technology, share markets etc. These changes have the potential of undermining any organization, no matter how successful it had been. Employees worship these companies and studies dreams of working for them. This paper is an attempt to learn about the characteristics which makes these companies truly great. We will look at this analysis from five different perspective organizational culture and behavior, diversity, communication, business ethics, and change management.

Analysis

A strong culture and behavior not only provides direction to an organization but it is also helpful in developing a strong structure. An organizational culture can be defined as a condition that occurs when an organization takes on a life of its own, apart from any of its members, and acquires immortality (Stephen Robbins 2008, 573). Study shows that strong organizational culture generally includes empowering employees, having a team orientation, having a clear strategic direction and intent, and possessing a strong recognizable vision ("Organizational Dynamics" Feb 2004, 98-109). On the other hand Organizational Behavior is the study and application of knowledge about how people, individuals, and groups act in organizations. It does this by taking a system approach. That is, it construes people-organization relationships in terms of the whole person, group, organization, and social system. Its purpose is to build better relationships by achieving human objectives at the same time satisfying objectives of the organizations and society. For example, In Google, the company provides its employees with 11 eateries free to employees when they are doing so well financially.

Globalization has brought a wide diversity in almost every workforce. It has been recognized as an advantage that serves multiple benefits like, serving organization's bottom line, increases employee and customer satisfaction, and enhances productivity. Workplace diversity refers to the variety of differences between people in an organization. That sounds simple, but diversity encompasses race, gender, ethnic group, age, personality, cognitive style, tenure, organizational function, education, background and more (Directory, business.com). An organization's success and competitiveness depends upon its ability to embrace diversity and realize the benefits. When organizations actively assess their handling of workplace diversity issues, develop and implement diversity plans, multiple benefits are reported such as: Increased adaptability, broader service range, variety of viewpoints, more effective work execution. For example, in Google, the company believes that the company by engaging with our local and global communities, we help make our company stronger, our employees happier and our society healthier.

Organizational communication, as a field, is the consideration, analysis, and criticism of the role of communication in organizational contexts (Wikipedia, Communication). When we consider it we reflect on what message our organization as a complete entity is transmitting and how best to send it to different stakeholders. For example, because of Google's flexible working environment employees are free to work from home. They communicate effectively with their team using PDA, phones and laptop. Effective communication is maintained at all the levels, employees can directly approach their seniors without any formal appointment.

Every organization or business is expected to follow some general business ethics, which can be defined as a type of applied ethics that examine the ethical principles, along with ethical or moral problems, arising inside a business environment. Business ethics is no different from the overall philosophy of the business. It governs the business's decision