Organizational Behavior Terminology and Concepts

Organizational Behavior Terminology and Concepts Paper

Change is the universal characteristic of all business environments and the growing role of business ethics is a universal constant in the equation for organizational success. Ethics is generally defined as the set of regulations that distinguish between right and wrong and help the leader make the best decisions. The components of business ethics are numerous, some of the most outstanding ones being organizational culture and behavior, diversity or communication. The aim of this paper is to explain these concepts.

Organizational culture and behavior

Organizational culture can be defined as the totality of internal regulations that set the ground for the behavior within the respective organization. The specialized literature provides the reader with a multitude of definitions, but the common understanding is that organizational culture is something to be sensed, rather than defined. "Basically, organizational culture is the personality of the organization. Culture is comprised of the assumptions, values, norms and tangible signs (artifacts) of organization members and their behaviors. Members of an organization soon come to sense the particular culture of an organization. Culture is one of those terms that's difficult to express distinctly, but everyone knows it when they sense it" (McNamara, 2008).

Organizational behavior on the other hand is a more scientific concept and refers to the actual analysis of the behavior manifested by various players that interact with the organization. More specifically, it studies the relationships between employees, management, individual persons, groups at various levels, culminating with the organizational level and the social system (Clark, 2008).

The organizational culture and behavior play an important role within the Microsoft Corporation. The company has set a new culture, one that focused on reducing the levels of bureaucracy and focusing on increased operational efficiency. This basically translated into an empowering of the organizational staff members in the detriment of a strict vertically integrated structure. In this process, emphasis was placed on getting things done, and most importantly, continued and sustained improvement (Organizational Culture101, 2007).

b. Diversity

In the business community, diversity is understood in the context of business components that reveal differences. The good leader will be able to integrate the differences of his staff members for instance, and in the same time not only create a positive working environment, but also create sustainable comparative advantages. Microsoft has for instance created numerous groups based on the diverse features of its employees, such as the group of the single parents or other groups based on cultural criteria. The recognition of employee diversity materialized in increased levels of employee on the job satisfaction, to culminate with increased levels of performance. Another relevant example of well implemented diversity strategies is offered by some managers in the hospitality industry who have placed their culturally diverse employees at front desk jobs, rather than hide them in kitchens. The strategy allowed better communications between the hotels and their culturally diverse customers.

c. Communication

Communication is the key to any success, but even more so to a business triumph. The process is understood as the mechanism by which people exchange information. This is pivotal within any economic entity in order to transmit the most adequate data at the required time. Additionally, it is compulsory that the information transmitted be accurate and reliable and as such able to support the decision making process.

d. Business Ethics

As mentioned in the introductory part, the role of business ethics has significantly grown throughout the past decades. The concept is generically defined as the set of norms and regulations which help the individual make the right decision in a context of raised morality issues. Business ethics refers to all types of relationships and actions undergone by the company and it is obvious at all levels, including employee-manager or manager-customer interactions. An article under the aegis of the University of Illinois at Chicago (2009) states that "business ethics consists of a set of moral principles and values that govern the behavior of the organization with respect to what is right and what is wrong. It spells out the basic philosophy and priorities of an organization in concrete terms. It also contains the prohibitory actions at the workplace. It provides a framework on which the organization could be legally governed."