Social business interaction and cultural preferences in organizational settings

.....organisational environment can be an important source of wellbeing for individuals. This is particularly true if the environment encourages social interactions. Indeed, literature has demonstrated that social interactions in an organisation are crucial for generating positive emotions, which may in turn contribute to desirable employee outcomes such as lower cases of interpersonal conflict, reduced absenteeism, increased loyalty, and higher productivity (Biggio & Cortese, 2013). The connection between positive employee outcomes and positive organisational outcomes cannot be understated. Humans are naturally social beings, and their contact with others is as important as food and other basic needs. Since majority of adults spend a substantial portion of their life at work, the organisational environment is crucial for promoting individual wellbeing. It provides an ideal breeding ground for positive relationships. However, it is unfortunate that most organisations are yet to realise the value of social interactions. The widespread cases of unhappiness at the workplace attest to this. It is important for organisations to view social interaction at the workplace as a vital driver of employee wellbeing.

An important factor that influences the nature of social interactions at the workplace is culture. Culture, which denotes the beliefs, values, norms, and practices common to a certain group of people, generally dictates the group's behaviour, perceptions, and attitudes (Henrich, 2015). It influences how people interact with one another, how they create relationships, how they communicate, how they conduct work, their approach to solving problems, and so on. Culture affects literally every aspect of human life. This means that the nature of social interaction in an organisation would most likely reflect the underlying culture preference. In an individualistic culture, for instance, relationships revolving around non-work issues may not be prevalent as individuals would tend to be more focused on work as opposed to social relationships. On the contrary, social relationships in a collectivist culture may be more widespread as individuals tend to value group cohesion. Therefore, culture may affect the value attached to social interactions at the workplace.

Question 2

Though literature reports mixed findings, it is increasingly argued that cultural diversity can be an important driver of organisational performance in today's world. Nonetheless, it is quite unclear whether cultural background predicts individual productivity. Generally, cultural background influences the behaviour, perceptions, values, beliefs, and attitudes of an individual (Torelli et al., 2014). Does this mean that individuals from certain cultures tend to be more productive at the workplace than others? Would an individual of European background be more productive than an individual of Chinese background, or vice versa? There is no tangible evidence to demonstrate that cultural background predicts employee productivity. Literature extensively shows that employee productivity is often driven by factors relating to the work environment such as working conditions, compensation, leadership and management style, organisational culture, interpersonal relationships, career-growth opportunities, as well as management support (Alias, Rasdi & Ismail, 2013). Employee productivity may further be driven by factors unique to the individual such as personality, character, determination, and work experience.

Even so, the influence of cultural background on individual productivity cannot be ignored altogether. Culture tends to influence values, beliefs, behaviour, and attitudes, which can affect an individual's behaviour at work. For instance, there are some cultures whose members tend to be more competition- or achievement-oriented than others (Torelli et al., 2014). Anglo-American cultures are a perfect example. Individuals from these cultures are often driven by the desire to succeed and to stand out from the rest. This is unlike individuals from collectivist cultures, especially Asia and Africa, where group harmony appears to be more important than anything else. Therefore, it may not be unusual to observe greater productivity in individuals of Anglo-American background compared to individuals of Asian or African background. This perhaps explains why Anglo-American countries are generally more successful than the rest of the world. On the whole, however, it may be said with certainty that cultural background is a determinant of individual productivity.

Question 3

Organisational leaders can choose from a host of tools as far as cultural assessment is concerned. These include Cultural Compass Assessment, Social Intelligence Profile, Painchaud IEP Proficiency Audit, SLOCI, Organisational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI), the leadership culture survey, and Cultural Values Assessment (CVA), among others. Whereas each tool is useful in its own way, their utility may vary to some extent with the leader's experience or duration in an organisation. In essence, some tools may be more useful to new or novice leaders than others, while others may be more useful to seasoned or experienced leaders than others. This is particularly because novice leaders tend to have different needs from seasoned leaders. For instance, a novice leader would generally have limited knowledge of the organisation's culture compared to a seasoned leader. Also, compared to a seasoned leader, a novice leader may have little understanding of their followers' thought processes, values, assumptions, and other cultural aspects.

Arguably, the OCAI tool provides a more appropriate tool for a novice leader. Built on cultural aspects such as values and assumptions, the tool essentially enables a leader to examine organisational culture, especially when navigating organisational change (Suderman, 2012). With this tool, a new leader is able to learn the culture they are stepping into. They develop an understanding of aspects such as norms, organisational values, decision-making processes, teamwork practices, and so forth. The new leader can then determine how to fit into the prevailing culture or introduce a different culture. For a seasoned leader, however, the OCAI tool may not be useful. A seasoned leader has more duration and experience in leadership positions, and hence their focus would not be on understanding the prevailing culture. They would be more focused on aspects such as developing their followers as well as organisational change and performance. In this regard, the leadership culture survey offers a more useful tool. The tool provides an ideal framework through which a seasoned leader can measure the effectiveness of their leadership culture. Organisational culture and leadership style are two highly intertwined aspects which drive organisational performance (Abdullah, Shamsuddin & Wahab, 2015). A leader must, therefore, determine the extent to which their leadership style facilitates or hinders organisational performance.

References

Abdullah, N., Shamsuddin, A., & Wahab, E. (2015). Does organisational culture mediate the relationship between transformational leadership and organisational commitment? International Journal of Organisational Leadership, 4, 18-32.

Alias, M., Rasdi, R., & Ismail, M. (2013). Predictors of workplace deviant behaviour: HRD agenda for Malaysian support personnel. European Journal of Training and Development, 37(2), 161-182.

Biggio, G., & Cortese, C. (2013). Well-being in the workplace through interaction between individual characteristics and organisational context. International Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being, 8, 10.

Henrich, J. (2015). Culture and social behaviour. Current Opinion in Behavioural Sciences, 3, 84-89.

Suderman, J. (2012). Using the new organisational cultural assessment (OCAI) as a tool for new team development. Journal of Practical Consulting, 4(1), 52-58.

Torelli, C., Leslie, L., Stoner, J., & Puente, R. (2014). Cultural determinants of status: implications for workplace evaluations and behaviours. Organisational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes, 123(1), 34-48.