Economía y Empresa


Professional Skills: Organizational Behaviour


CRITICAL THINKING ASSESMENT NO. 2

  • Describe four cultural types and the characteristics of employees who fit best with each. (Question #10 for review from chapter 17).

  • Networked culture. High on sociability and low on solidarity. The characteristics of employees who fit best in this category are: 1) A high level of loyalty and commitment to colleagues, 2) A lot of creativity, and 3) Flexibility. (ROSARIO, 2002a)

  • Mercenary culture. Low in sociability and high on solidarity. The characteristics of employees who fit best in this category are: 1) Ability to manage competitive siege, 2) Improving productivity and performance , 3) Ability to change fast and rampantly, 4) The ability to make the organization moves quickly and in concert, 5) Goal-driven persons. (ROSARIO, 2002b)

  • Fragmente3d culture. Low on sociability and low on solidarity. The characteristics of employees who fit best in this category are: 1) People who can develop new products very rapidly, 2) Ability to sustain long working hours, 3) Ability to sustain formal management meetings and regular informal meetings or contacts with colleagues, suppliers and customers. (THOMSON LEARNING, 2002)

  • Communal culture. High on sociability and high on solidarity. The characteristics of employees who fit best in this category are: 1) Goal-driven persons, 2) Inspirational and charismatic persons, 3) Ability to have a clear vision of the organization's future. (ROBBINS, 2001)

  • Is socialization the same as brainwashing? Explain. (Question #2 for critical thinking from chapter 17)

  • I would say it is so, because in the end of the socialization process the employee is so embedded with the culture of the company that it would look like the result of brainwash process, but various authors try to sell the idea it is not as these two. "No, socialization is an adaptation process that the corporation uses to help new employees to adapt to its culture" (ROBBINS, 2001). While brainwashing is "a process of systematically, forcibly and intensively, indoctrinating a person to destroy or weaken his beliefs and ideas so that he becomes willing to accept different or opposite beliefs or ideas" (KAUKE, 2002)

  • "Learning organizations attack fragmentation, competitiveness, and reactivates." Explain this statement (Question #7 for review from chapter 18)

  • The people that support learning organization says that it is the remedy for three fundamental problems: fragmentation (Redesigns trough learning organizations "throw down the walls" between different functions may have little enduring effect unless they also change the mental models that created the walls in the first place), competition (Diminishing the Overemphasis on competition also lessees our fixation on short-term measurable results. Consequently, we gain the discipline needed for steady practice and deeper learning, which often produces few manifest consequences for long periods of time.), and reactiveness (Preventing the "double ban on continuous learning. First, the attitude, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," prevents the steady improvement of products and processes. Moreover, when something is broken, the reaction is to call an expert-a specialist-to fix it. Regardless of the specialist's success, his intervention will create a black-box mentality that prevents the organization from developing its own capacities for continual learning."). (SENGE, 2002)

  • Discuss the link between learning theories discussed in Chapter 2 and the issue of organizational change. (Question #4 for critical thinking from chapter 18)

  • The organizational change can be enforced by these techniques, the learning theory and the technique used depends it depends on how hard the management want to enforce it. As Robbins says the learning theories discussed in chapter 2 are tools that shall be used in order to lead the organizational change and overcome the resistance to change, for example if we are using as tactic the manipulation we may find very useful the classical conditioning. But if our tactic is education and communication, it would be better to use the social-learning theory in order to lead the way. (ROBBINS, 2001)

  • Discuss the link between second-order change and double-loop learning. (Question #5 for critical thinking from chapter 18)

  • If we want a deep change, that not only suppress the conflict but attack the root, then we want a double-loop learning system combined with a second order change, as this describes a situation where the norms of the system themselves are challenged and changed, that would lead us to use the double-loop system as this loop examines and changes the governing value of suppressing conflict. Thus in a Second Order Change the conflicting norm is discarded and substituted with a new one. (ANDERSON, 2002)

    Is for example when doing process reengineering one encounter policies that are contradictory with each other, then we have to erase them and create a new one.

  • How is team leadership different from one-on-one leadership? (Question #7 for review from chapter 11)

  • In team leadership the team leader have to learn skills such as patience to share information, to trust others, to give up authority, and understanding when to intervene, they must know when to leave their teams alone and when to intercede. They have to be liaisons with external constituencies, troubleshooters, conflict managers, and coaches. (ROBBINS, 2001)

    In contrast in the one-on-one mode the leader needs to foster the link between the teams and its environment and this leads to a emotional custodianship, thus in this kind of relationship requires more strong abilities regarding to connectedness, empathy, direct and tactful expressiveness, instinct and even compassion. (LEARNING CENTER, 2002)

  • Contrast the three types of trust. Relate them to your experience in personal relationships. (Question #10 for review from chapter 11)

    • Deterrence-based trust. It is the willingness to trust to the belief, that there is a credible threat of punishment for failure to cooperate. I have been able to see this kind of trust in a relationship between a bad manager and labor people, the manager believed that using this kind of trust he would gain hegemony.

    • Knowledge-based trust. It is when trading partner's dispositions are well known, that their behavior can be reliably predicted. I've seen this kind of trust between friends from school, as you get to know them very good, one gets to know which people are trustful for each kind of task.

    • Identification-based trust. It occurs when trading partners have taken on the needs and desires of other trading partners as their personal goals and acted in ways to consider joint gains. I've seen for example when my father sells me an idea of one of his goals and convinced me to help him so good that it becomes right away my goal too. (RATNASINGHAM, 2002)

  • Do you think trust evolves out of an individual's personal characteristics or out of specific situations? Explain (Question #4 for critical review from chapter 11)

  • I think that most of the time trust depends in the individual's characteristics, such as honesty and common sense, although there are sometimes specific situations which make us behave different, for example making deals with a person that has already betrayed us in the past, in that case I've seen that the trust diminishes to an almost imperceptible level . It takes a long time to build trust and just one situation to lose it, so its a combination of those two factors.

  • What are the managerial implications from the research contrasting male and female communication styles? (Question #9 for review from chapter 10)

  • It is essential that the manager acknowledge that "men talk to give information or to report. They talk about things rather than people. They divulge facts, not details. They are goal-oriented. They focus on solving problems and are less likely to ask for help or directions. Men compete." (SACHS, 2002).

    On the other hand women"talk to get information and to connect or to gain rapport. They talk about people rather than things. They convey feelings and details. They are relationship oriented. They are quicker to ask for and accept help or directions. Women cooperate." (SACHS, 2002)

    These differences create conflict between sexes, and the managerial implications born from this situation is that there must be a kind of improvement methodology for improving communications, as the one suggested by Lilian Glass in her book "he says, she says", where she develops a series of steps to improve communication working with 105 gender differences in communication patterns. (SACHS, 2002)

  • What can you do to improve the likelihood that your communiqués will be received and understood as you intended. (Question #2 for critical thinking from chapter 10)

  • First of all I would make sure that the communiqué state what I want it to stay, I would try it first in any person and if s/he understood what I intended to say then I' d approve it. Then as Robbins says I would use a mixture of channels to deliver the communiqué, thus the clarity would be improved. (ROBBINS, 2001).

    The last stage is require feedback from my audience, just to make sure it was 100% understood, if it is not clear for the audience, I'd clarify it, but chances are that it wouldn't be necessary as I've previously tested it.

  • Analyze the application of Maslow's and Herzberg's theories to an African or Caribbean nation where more than a quarter of the population is unemployed. (Question #3 for critical thinking from chapter 6)

  • In the case of African or Caribbean, even Latin American countries I think it is more real to apply Maslow's theory, because Herzberg's talk more about events that lead to extreme job satisfaction (being the top two: achievement and recognition), in the other hand Maslow says that first the individual has to fulfill the lower-order needs (physiological and safety needs) in order to fulfill later the high-order needs (social, esteem and self-actualization needs). (ROOBINS, 2001)

    I've seen this in my country (Mexico) where the unemployment rate is around 3.1% (INEGI,2001) and it reaches the point where the people just seek any job, no matter if it brings satisfaction or achievement. Why?, because families need to eat and first there are the physiological needs and much later the job satisfaction. Now if we are talking about a quarter of the population, I really think the same situation but in much great scale would be seen.

    Bibliography

    ROBBINS, Stephen. ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR. Prentice Hall, 9th Edition. New Jersey, United States of America, 2001.

    ROSARIO, Franco. CORPORATE CULTURE, A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE?. http://www.inq7.net/bus/2001/oct/29/bus_19-4.htm, Inquirer news service. Manila, Philippines. 2002.

    ROSARIO, Franco. CORPORATE CULTURE. http://www.inq7.net/bus/2001/oct/29/text/bus_19-1-p.htm, Inquirer news service. Manila, Philippines. 2002.

    THOMSON LEARNING. ORGANIZATION CULTURE. http://www.businesspress.co.uk/strategy/thompson3/thompnote3.htm, United Kingdom, 2002.

    KAUKE, Janet. WHAT IS BRAINWASHING?. http://www.jredwards.com/jredwards.com/Academic/ClassMaterials/PRESENTATIONS/Section3/cults/sld003.htm. Jredwards Academic Page. International website, 2002.

    SENGE, Peter. PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION. http://www.sol-ne.org/res/kr/transform.html. SoL public site. United States of America, 2002.

    ANDERSON, Liane. ARGYRIS AND SCHON'S THEORY ON CONGRUENCE AND LEARNING. http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/gcm/ar/arp/argyris.html. Resource papers in action research, Southern Cross University, Northern New South Wales. Australia. 2002.

    LEARNING CENTER. ONE ON ONE COACHING. http://www.learningcenter.net/1on1.html, San Anselmo, California. United States of America. 2002.

    RATNASINGHAM, Pauline. IMPLICIT TRUST LEVELS IN EDI SECURITY. http://www.addsecure.net/jisec/1999-02.htm, Department of Information Systems, University of Melbourne, Australia. 2002.

    SACHS, Marilyn. MALE/FEMALE COMMUNICATION STYLES. http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/5000/5280.html, Ohio State University Extension Fact Sheet, Family and Consumer sciences. Columbus, Ohio. United States of America. 2002.

    INEGI. INDICADORES ECONÓMICOS DE COYUNTURA PARA EL DISTRITO FEDERAL Y LA CIUDAD DE MÉXICO. http://dgcnesyp.inegi.gob.mx/pubcoy/estatal/df/tdat.html, Instituto Nacional de Estadistica, Geografia e Informatica. Mexico City, Mexico. 2001.

    Professional Skills (PSK) CT 2

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    Enviado por:Corrosive Angel
    Idioma: inglés
    País: México

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