My UBIS ONLINE Class: MGT602_Organisational Behaviour

Message from Anh Tho Andres

Anh Tho Andres is a professor in Marketing and Communication at UBIS University based in Geneva, Switzerland.

As a multilingual Translator and Interpreter, and Lecturer in Communication, Anh Tho understands the challenges faced by Professionals in a globalized Corporate World.

Working on her DBA Degree at Paris-Est University (France), Anh Tho Andres is authoring a series of articles on Intercultural communication. She is also working on a series of glossaries in English-French-and Vietnamese on Management subjects. Contact: anhtho.andres@gmail.com for further details.

On this blog, Anh Tho is sharing with students and colleagues her research findings as support material to her ON-GROUND and ONLINE classes.

Showing posts with label MGT602_Organisational Behaviour. Show all posts

Post 1 by Kay

DQ 1: Taken from a managerial point of view, what do you think is the major organizational behavior challenge facing businesses today?

Organizational behavior is the characteristic of interaction between employees within organization. In modern organizational society, relationship between the employees, especially those between managers and subordinates are crucial factor for organizational effectiveness. Both work and personal relationships of the different employees vary mainly on social factors of each person such as cultural ethnicity, race, gender or age. Among these factors, cultural diversity is the most common issue that causes difficulties in organizational behavior. Especially in today’s globalized world, it is common that people from different cultural backgrounds work in the same organization, and they all have their own beliefs and attitude towards work and relationship with co-workers. Most of the times there are certain difficulties and barriers between these people from different cultural background and ethnicity. Most organizations with international employees offer diversity-training programs, and workshops to reduce the issues caused by diversity.

DQ 2: How can managers increase job satisfaction and what are the organizational consequences when there are high or low levels of job satisfaction?

Job satisfaction is an important factor to keep employees motivated. Job satisfaction of an individual depends on many factors such as their emotional feelings towards the job or physical satisfactions like working environment and salary. Low job satisfaction among employees can pose many great threats to the organization. It can hurt the organizational effectiveness and productivity due to unmotivated employees. Furthermore, low job satisfaction leads organizations to lose their top employees with high potential. Monitoring the job satisfaction and taking relevant actions constantly is an effective managerial solution to avoid job satisfaction within the organization. Rewarding employees and recognizing their hard work also boosts up the satisfaction and appreciation towards the management. Quality of working environment and good relationship between employees are also important factors for job satisfaction.

Final Assignment for MGT 602 Organisational Behaviour

Course: MGT 602 Organisational Behaviour Professor: Anh Tho AndresModule: F (2013)
Due Date: December 19, 2013 with Oral Presentation in classFinal Assignment

Question for assignment:

1. Based on your mid-term assignment which had helped you to identify your dream job. Now the task is about to find the ideal employer for your ideal job and justify your choice. Use the following steps:

a. Investigate the company through non-traditional sources listed above:

i. Request annual report of the company;
ii. Find out about products and services from the sales office
iii. Find out about the company culture on FB, web, blog, employee forum, news release.

b. Take action:

i. Under Career opportunities of their website, find out the job profile that best suits your career plans and personality. Refer the job profile of the position you are applying. Note that this has been done for mid-term assignment. Those who have not submitted the documents still have a chance to complete it by 19 December.
ii. Find out the name and title of the director of the department who has the authority to hire you.
iii. Send in your job application which includes: coverletter (letter of motivation), résumé (including references). Note that this has been given as mid-term assignment. However you must adapt the letter of motivation which describes your interest in the company, including company information that indicates that you have done research on the company, and explains how you can benefit the company. You have to submit a report from the results of your investigation under a and re-adapt your letter of motivation under b.

3. Reference reading material:

Sharon K Ferrett, Strategies – Getting and keeping the Job you want, pp. 48-49, chapter 2, Exploring and Networking, Glencoe/McGraw-Hill

“Knowing how to research jobs and companies is crucial to a successful job search. There are 2 main paths for discovering what jobs are available (and most suited to your skills and personality).

One is the traditional path using newspaper ads, advertisements, and employment agencies [...]

The non traditional path for exploring the job market includes networking through both professional and trade organisations and researching jobs through various publications.”

[…]

Nontraditional Sources include:

1. Library

2. Phone book

3. Community

4. Organisations

5. Observation

6. Internship"

“Nation branding – Key for the Success of States in Transition” | Institute for Cultural Diplomacy BLOG

Excellent speech and Impressive Achievement by H.E. Eka Tkeshelashvili

Biography

Eka Tkeshelashvili was appointed to her first government post as Deputy Minister of Justice of Georgia on February 1, 2004. Afterwards she was appointed as Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs on September 1, 2005 and then became a Chairperson of the Tbilisi Court of Appeal from May 1, 2006 to August 1, 2007. Ms. Tkeshelashvili served as Minister of Justice of Georgia from August 1, 2007 to February 1, 2008, and as Prosecutor General of Georgia from February to May 2008. On May 5, 2008 she was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, this she held until December 5, 2008. In December 2008, she was appointed to head the National Security Council. From 2010 to 2012, she was Vice Prime Minister for Reintegration. She is currently president of Georgian Institute for Strategic Studies.

“Nation branding — key for the success of States in Transition”

A Lecture by Former Vice Prime-Minister, State Minister of Georgia for Reintegration; Former Foreign Minister, Eka Tkeshelashvili

“…National branding basically for the country at the 20^th century and the end of it, you have many actors at the global scene which are already well established and then the national branding really encompasses more for streamlining what could be the new elements of the branding rather than an initial start-up of creating even the basic understanding about the country…”

“Nation branding – Key for the Success of States in Transition” | Institute for Cultural Diplomacy BLOG

(Source: Institute of Cultural Diplomacy, culturaldiplomacy.org)

Welcome to my UBIS ONLINE Class: MGT602: Module 7 Overview

Welcome to my UBIS ONLINE Class: MGT602: Module 7 Overview: Description of Module This Module examines some of the various means in which organizations can be structured for maximum effectiveness...

Employability Skills - Learning

Employability Skills - Initiative and Enterprise

Employability Skills - Planning and Organising

Employability Skills - Teamwork

Employability Skills - Communication Skills Part 2

Employability Skills - Communication - Part 1

Introducing Employability Skills

Highest paying Jobs without a Degree 2013 Online Interview

Top 10 Highest Paying Jobs In The World 2013

Cross-Cultural Issues: How Culture Affects Political, Economic and Legal environments

In relation with D.1 - Organisational Culture and Cross Cultural Issues (MGT 602)

Saudi Arabia Case Study: Role of women, attitude towards insurance, business discussion in public)
Some issues to consider:
1. intercultural management issues include:
- Team management
- Leadership
- Organisational Structure
- Core values
- Communications
- Conflict resolution
- Implementation of intercultural managementt in transnational corporations:
- commitment by managers
- management styles
- Nationalism
2. Finance: Based on personal relationship depending on culture. this affect business (loan, investment, other contractual relationship)
3. Marketing (Publicity, Packaging, Price, communication with customers)
4. HRM (codes of conduct, ethical and legal behaviour, recruitment based on merit or family ties, social status, gender)
Hence need of understanding cultures and local conditions
Managing diversity of workforce
_organisational behaviour
-Work practices and policies
-strong corporate culture
5. Cross Cultural negotiations
- Ethics
- Trust
- Style of communication
- Knowledge of culture
- Context for negotiation
See Geert Hofstede cultural dimensions model
- Individualism / Collective Index (IDV)
- Power Distance index (PDI)
- Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI)
- Masculinity/Feminity index (MAS)
6. Production and Operations
-Cultural attitude towards cost, quality, technology, flexibility, technical training, learning, blue collar work, coordination, materials management, efficiency, innovation, research & development etc. as determining elements for a firm to establish in a country.
7. Business practices and customs
- Language
- Knowledge of business cultural, management attitudes, business methods, religious practices, business tempo, political structure, family loyalty
8. Business ethics
- What is right? What is legal?
- Issues of bribery
- Can law and penalties reduce corruption practices
9. Corporate culture as melting pot should enhance economic performance without losing the sight of different cultures within a firm.
- Need to develop transcultural competencies.

Discussion Q1/ Q2

DQ 1: Taken from a managerial point of view, what do you think is the major organizational behavior challenge facing businesses today?

There are many different challenges that organizations face in today’s competitive business environment. Among the challenges such as workplace diversity, stimulating innovation and change, improving ethical behavior etc., the biggest challenge that many businesses face is globalization. Managers encounter innumerable challenges when they carry out operations abroad as they need to take into account different social, cultural, political and economic factors to be able to plan, organize, lead and control successfully. Globalization is leading countries to become interdependent through the increasing volume of variety of cross-border transactions in goods and services and of international capital flows, labor flows and information flow through the more rapid and widespread diffusion of technology. One of the aspects to do with globalization is outsourcing and the ethical dilemmas managers face when doing operations in a country where an ethical and environmental standards may vary greatly compared to their host countries. The purpose of outsourcing is to save money, improve quality or free company resources for other activities. It became a significant part of business activity in the 1980s as companies considered different ways to reduce costs to become more competitive. Despite the fact that it provided a huge potential for both the host and outsourcing destinations, there are some ethical dilemma over the loss of employment in order to save costs and outsourcing blue collar works. Furthermore, if environmental standards are lax, there’s an ethical dilemma whether the managers should adapt to the standards in which they operate or abide to the ethical norms of the host country. In addition, it may be considered a norm to pay bribes to government bureaucrats to speed up approval for business investment in some countries. While facilitating payments, or speed money, are excluded from both the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the OECD convention on bribery, ethical implication of making such payments are unclear. Some bypass this unclear and gray area about bribery since even though it may not be ethically desirable; it is at least ethically acceptable, acknowledged and exempt by the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other convention on bribery.

ATA: Another challenge facing Organisation Behaviour is the intercultural management due to multi-cultural workforce. See my posting on 21 November on this Topic.

DQ 2: How can managers increase job satisfaction and what are the organizational consequences when there are high or low levels of job satisfaction?

The three main components that cause job satisfaction are the work itself, social component and pay. In order to increase job satisfaction, managers need to take into consideration of these components to bring about positive impact in the organization. Managers can implement job enrichment programs to keep employees feeling that their wok is more than just a job by attempting to add motivating factor to job activities such as assigning special projects and so on. Empowering the employees through participative management is essential as it increases job satisfaction by giving employees a voice in the management of their jobs and the company. For instance, empowering through the process of enabling or authorizing an individual to think, behave, take actions and control work and decision making autonomous way allows employees to be self-directed and motivated. This in return leads to high productivity yields and overall greater and positive impact on the organization. Furthermore rewards and recognition can be a powerful tool in building morale and motivation as mark twain once said “I can live for two months on a good compliment”. In addition, providing positive working environment can be also one of the ultimate ways of enhancing job satisfaction. Google seems to be on the lead when it comes to enriching work environment as their offices and campuses around the globe reflect the company’s overarching philosophy, which is nothing less than “to create the happiest, most productive workplace in the world…” Moreover, along with these components, modified work schedule could further enhance motivation of the employees through work sharing, flextime programs or telecommuting.

High levels of job satisfaction improve quality and productivity of the work, reduce turnover and lower unionization. If companies ignore the importance of boosting job satisfaction of employees, the consequences may be dire and irrevocable leading to lower productivity, poor overall morale, high employee turnover rates etc.

MY UBIS-CLASS