UNDERSTANDING HUMAN BEHAVIOR

IN THE ORGANIZATION

Objectives:

At the end of this topic, you should be able to:

● Define the concept of organizational behavior

● Conceptualize the specific elements that tend to explain human behavior in the
workplace

Timeframe: 6 hours

WHAT IS ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR?

According to Fred Luthans, “Organizational Behavior is directly concerned with the

understanding, prediction and management of human behavior in organizations.”

 
“ORGANIZATION BEHAVIOR is the study of behavior of individuals and groups in organization
and organizations themselves as they act and interact to attain deserved out comes”

Organizational Behavior (OB) is the study of human behavior in organizational settings, the
interface between human behavior and the organization, and the organization itself.

This area of study examines human behavior in a work environment and determines its impact
on job structure, performance, communication, motivation, leadership, etc.

It is the systematic study and application of knowledge about how individuals and groups act
within the organizations where they work. OB draws from other disciplines to create a unique
field.

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For example, when we review topics such as personality and motivation, we will again review
studies from the field of psychology. The topic of team processes relies heavily on the field of
sociology.

When we study power and influence in organizations, we borrow heavily from political sciences.

Even medical science contributes to the field of Organizational Behavior, particularly in the study
of stress and its effects on individuals.

Although there is still considerable debate as to the relative importance of change, there
appears to be general agreement that OB includes the core topics of motivation, leader
behavior, and power, interpersonal communication, group structure and processes, learning,
attitude development, and perception, change processes, conflict, work design, and work stress.

HISTORY AND EVOLUTION OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR STUDIES

Origin of Organizational Behavior can trace its roots back to Max Weber and earlier
organizational studies.

The Industrial Revolution is the period from approximately 1760 when new technologies
resulted in the adoption of new manufacturing techniques, including increased mechanization.

The industrial revolution led to significant social and cultural change, including new forms of
organization.

Analyzing these new organizational forms, sociologist Max Weber described bureaucracy as an
ideal type of organization that rested on rational-legal principles and maximized technical
efficiency.
In the 1890’s; with the arrival of scientific management and Taylorism, Organizational Behavior
Studies was forming it as an academic discipline.

Failure of scientific management gave birth to the human relations movement which is
characterized by a heavy emphasis on employee cooperation and morale.

Human Relations Movement from the 1930’s to 1950’s contributed to shaping the
Organizational Behavior studies.

Works of scholars like Elton Mayo, Chester Barnard, Henri Fayol, Mary Parker Follett, Frederick
Herzberg, Abraham Mas low, David Mc Cellan and Victor Vroom contributed to the growth of
Organizational Behavior as a discipline.

Herbert Simon’s Administrative Behavior introduced a number of important concepts to the

study of organizational behavior, most notably decision making.

Simon along with Chester Barnard; argued that people make decisions differently in
organizations than outside of them. Simon was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics for his
work on organizational decision making.

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In the 1960s and 1970s, the field became more quantitative and produced such ideas as the
informal organization, and resource dependence. Contingency theory, institutional theory, and
organizational ecology also enraged.

Starting in the 1980s, cultural explanations of organizations and organizational change became
areas of study.

Informed by anthropology, psychology, and sociology, qualitative research became more

acceptable in OB.

FOUR GOALS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

Mitonkumarsha (2015)uoda-mba; wordpress-com.cdn.amproject.org

1. To describe – top describe how people behave under various conditions.

Ex. As a manager, I have information a particular junior officer that he comes to office
late and leaves early.

2. To understand – to understand why people behave as they do. Managers must

understand the reason behind a particular situation.
Ex. As a manger, I must find out the reason why the junior officer is coming late and
going earlier.

3. To predict – predicting future behavior of employee. Managers would have the capacity
to predict why the employees are committed to the organization or not.
Ex. For instance, I have to realize why he wants to leave my organization, how can I hold
the officer in my organization, what should be done by me in this situation or what my
role is.

4. To control – control and develop a friendly atmosphere for the organization (teamwork,
skills and commitment). Managers should take necessary action for themselves.

FEATURES OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

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 interprets people-organization relationships in terms of the whole person, the whole
group, the whole organization, and the whole social system.

Its purpose is to build better relationships by achieving human objectives, organizational

objectives, and social objectives.

Organizational Behavior is:

1. A Separate Field of Study and not a Discipline Only - has a multi- interdisciplinary
orientation and is, thus, not based on a specific theoretical background.

2. An Interdisciplinary Approach - as it has borrowed concepts, theories, models and

practices of physical sciences as well as social sciences.

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 3. Applied Science - takes a systematic approach that understands the reason behind
the behavior and influences it in a way that benefits attaining business goals.

4. Normative Science - it prescribes how the findings of applied research can be applied to
socially accepted organizational goals.

5. A Humanistic and Optimistic Approach - applies a humanistic approach towards people

working in the organization. It deals with the thinking and feeling of human beings.

6. A Total System Approach- integrates all the variables, affecting organizational

functioning.

It has been developed by behavioral scientists to analyze human behavior in view of his/her
socio-psychological framework

KEY FORCES AFFECTING ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

There is a complex set of key forces that affect organizational behavior today. These key forces
are classified into four areas:

▪ People.
People make up the internal social system of the organization. That system consists of
individuals and groups and groups may be large and small, formal and informal. Groups
are dynamic.

▪ Structure.
The structure defines the formal relationship and us of people in the organization. There are
managers and employees, accounts assemblers in order to accomplish a different kind of
activities.

▪ Technology.
Technology provides the resources with which people work and affects the tasks that they
perform. They cannot accomplish work with their bare hands.

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 ▪ Environment.
All organizations operate within an internal and external environment. A single organization
does not exist alone.

An organization is a part of a larger system that contains many other elements, such as
government, the family, and other organizations. Numerous changes in the environment
create demands on organizations.

There is an interaction between people, structure, and technology and these elements are
influenced by the environment. 

Ex. I can increase the financial benefits of the officer if it is not satisfactory for him of I can
help him solve his personal problem, or I can negotiate him to solve any organizational
problem.

OBJECTIVES OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

The organizations in which people work have an effect on their thoughts, feelings, and actions.
These thoughts, feelings, and actions, in turn, affect the organization itself.

Organizational behavior studies the mechanisms governing these interactions, seeking to

identify and foster behaviors conducive to the survival and effectiveness of the organization.

1. Job Satisfaction - can foster higher productivity and reduced turnover, while providing
more leverage for the recruitment of top talent.
2. Finding the Right People - can assist in deciding who to include in a team or task force,
as well as in deciding who to promote to a leadership position or even the ideal profile
for new hires.
3. Organizational Culture – can be useful for understanding and designing the
communication channels and leadership structures
4. Leadership and Conflict Resolution - can assist in fostering leadership, pro-activity
and creative problem-solving.
5. Understanding Employees Better - help us understand why employees behave the
way they do, and also thereby predict how they are going to behave m the future.
6. Understand how to Develop Good Leaders - help in predicting who among the
employees have the potential to become leaders. They also teach us how to mold these
employees so that their leadership potential is utilized to its fullest.
7. Develop a Good Team - An organization is only as good as the weakest member of its
team. All members of the teamwork in coordination and must be motivated to work
together to achieve the best results.
8. Higher Productivity - If implemented well, the organizational behavior principles help in
motivating all the members to do their best. The levels of motivation can be the
difference between a good and a bad result.

These 8 objectives of organizational behavior show that OB is concerned with people within the
organization, how they are interacting, what is the level of their satisfaction, the level of
motivation, and find ways to improve it in a way the yields most productivity.

FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

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Organization Behavior is based on a few fundamental concepts which revolve around the nature
of people and organizations.

● Individual Differences - The idea of the individual difference comes originally from
psychology. From the day of birth, each person is unique, and personal experiences
after birth tend to make people even more different.
● Perception - Peoples’ perceptions are also different when they see an object. Two
people can differently present the same object. And this is occurring for their
experiences.
● A Whole Person - An employee’s personal life is not detached from his working life.
● Motivated Behavior - An employee has so many needs inside him. So, they want to
fulfill those needs. That’s why; they had to perform well in the organization.
● The desire for Involvement - Every employee is actively seeking opportunities to work
to involve in decision-making problems. They hunger for the chance to share what they
know and to learn from the experience.
● The value of the Person - they want to be treated with carrying respect, dignity and
other things from their employers and society.
● Human Dignity - it recognizes human dignity because people are of a higher order; they
want to be treated with respect and dignity and should be treated this way.
● Organizations are Social System- Just as people have psychological needs, they also
have social roles and status. Their behavior is influenced by their group as well as by
their drives.
● Mutuality of Interest - Mutual interest is represented by the statement that
organizations need people and people also need organizations. Organizations have a
human purpose. They are formed and maintained by some mutuality of interest
among their participants.
● Holistic Concept - It takes across the board view of people in organizations to
understand as many as possible of the factors that influence their behavior.

Issues are analyzed in terms of the total situation affecting them rather than in terms of an
isolated event or problems.

TYPES OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR IN THE WORKPLACE

There are five main management models of organizational behavior in the workplace.

Autocratic Model of Organizational Behavior

The autocratic model of organizational behavior puts the boss in charge and the
subordinates in a position to obey commands or be fired. It is black and white, regarding
who is in charge and quickly establishes consequence for subordination or lack of
performance. This environment uses a paycheck as the reward system rarely
implementing any other incentive programs.

Loyalty, if it exists, is generally to the boss and not the company. This model can create
a fearful workforce, unsure if any mistake could lead to disciplinary action.

Custodial Model of Organizational Behavior

Custodial models seek to make employees feel as if the boss is caring for their personal
needs. This is often done through benefits packages such as healthcare, retirement

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 plans and other incentives. An executive, visiting various territory offices could get a
company car as an incentive.

The custodial model looks to retain quality people by providing incentives that are
meaningful to the employee. Loyalty is to the company and not individual company
leaders.

Collegial Model of Organizational Behavior

The collegial model works to develop a structure in which managers are more like
coaches and employees are team members. Power is shared to some degree. The
coach leads through inspiration. In this model, the loyalty is to the bigger goal and team
responsibility rather to an individual. Employees feel invested in the success of the
company and take pride in the successful execution of goals.

Supportive Model of Organization Behavior

The supportive model seeks to understand what motivates employees and focuses on
those things to motivate and inspire. When employees are given opportunities to
improve themselves, they often take personal initiative to perform better at their job.
Managers support employees as they work toward established personal goals such as
promotion or acquisition of new skills. In this model, a manger would ask employees for
professional goals and would work with them to establish an action plan to succeed with
them.

System Model of Organizational Behavior

The system model is really the foundation of positive corporate cultures. When people
think about why LinkedIn is a great place to work, for example, it is because of the
incentives, work schedule flexibility and creative encouragement that leadership
provides. It is nurturing yet challenging, and so efficiency and productivity increase in a
happier work environment that is loyal to the company and excited to share its vision.

Small business owners do not need to try to compete with what LinkedIn does, but
should develop strategies within their resources to build a positive corporate culture.

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The OB model Shows the 3 levels, Individual-level, Group level, and Organization System-level
and how they impact the elements of human output.

The above figure presents the skeleton on which constructed the OB model. It proposes that
there are three levels of analysis in OB and that, as we move from the individual level to the
organization systems level, we add systematically to our understanding of behavior in
organizations. The three basic levels are analogous to building blocks; each level is constructed
on the previous level.

Group concepts grow out of the foundation laid in the individual section; we overlay constraints
on the individual and group in order to arrive at organizational behavior.

THE FIVE ANCHORS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

The Multidisciplinary Anchor

Organizational behavior is anchored around the idea that the field should develop from
knowledge in other disciplines, not just from its own isolated research base. Some OB experts
have recently argued that the field suffers from a “trade deficit”—importing far more knowledge
from other disciplines than is exported to other disciplines. Although this is a possible concern,
organizational behavior has thrived through its diversity of knowledge from other fields of study.

The Systematic Research Anchor

A second anchor for organizational behavior researchers is their belief in the value of studying
organizations through systematic research methods. Traditionally scholars have relied on the

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scientific method by forming research questions, systematically collecting data, and testing
hypotheses against those data. This approach relies mainly on quantitative data (numeric
information) and statistical procedures to test hypotheses. The idea behind the scientific method
is to minimize personal biases and distortions about organizational events.

More recently OB scholars have also adopted qualitative methods and, in particular, grounded
theory to understand the workplace. Grounded theory is a process of developing a theory
through the constant interplay between data gathering and the development of theoretical
concepts. Through observation, interviews, and other forms of data collection, researchers form
concepts and theories. But as they return to gather more information each time, they also test
the concepts and theory created up to that point in the research study.

The Contingency Anchor

“It depends” is a phrase that OB scholars often use to answer a question about the best solution
to an organizational problem. The statement may seem evasive, yet it reflects an important way
of understanding and predicting organizational events, called the contingency approach. This
anchor states that a particular action may have different consequences in different situations. In
other words, no single solution is best in all circumstances.

The contingency anchor explains why OB experts tend to be skeptical about surefire
recommendations that are so common in the media and consulting literature. Although the ideal
situation might be to identify universal theories—where the concepts and practices have equal
success in every situation—in reality there are usually too many exceptions to make these “one
best way” theories useful.

The Multiple Levels of Analysis Anchor

Organizational behavior topics are divided into three levels of analysis: individual, team, and
organization. The individual level includes the characteristics and behaviors of employees as
well as the thought processes that are attributed to them, such as motivation, perceptions,
personalities, attitudes, and values. The team level of analysis looks at how people interact.
This includes team dynamics, decisions, power, organizational politics, conflict, and leadership.
At the organizational level we focus on how people structure their working relationships and on
how organizations interact with their environments.

The Open Systems Anchor

The open systems anchor of organizational behavior refers to the notion that organizations are
organic systems that need to interact effectively with the external environment. Organizations
take their sustenance from the environment and, in turn, affect that environment through their
output. Thus, a company’s survival and success depend on how well employees sense
environmental changes and alter their patterns of behavior to fit those emerging conditions.

PERSPECTIVE OF ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS

Organizational Effectiveness – a broad concept represented by several perspectives,

including the organization’s fit with the external environment, internal subsystems, configuration
for high performance, emphasis on organizational learning, and ability to satisfy the needs of
key stakeholders.

The best yardstick of organizational effectiveness is a composite of four perspectives: open

system, organizational learning, high-performance work practice, and stakeholder.
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Organizational are effective when they have a good fit with their external environment, are
learning organization, have efficient and adaptive internal subsystems (i.e., high performance
work practices), and satisfy the needs of key stakeholders.

Open Systems Perspective – a perspective that holds that organization depend on the
external environment through their output, and consist of internal subsystems that
transform inputs to outputs

As open systems, organizational depends on the external environment for resources,

including raw materials, job applicants, financial resources, information, and equipment.
The external environment also consists of rules and expectation, such as laws and
cultural norms, that place demand on how organization should operate. Some
environmental resources (e.g., raw materials) are transformed into output that are
exported to the external environment, whereas other resources (e.g., job applicants,
equipment) become subsystem in the transformation process.

Inside the organization are numerous subsystems, such as department, team informal
groups, information systems, and technological processes. These subsystems are
dependent on each other as they transform inputs into outputs. Some outputs (e.g.,
products and services) may be valued by the external environment; other output (e.g.,
employee layoffs, pollution) are undesirable by-products. Throughout this process,
organization receive feedback from the external environment regarding the value of their
outputs, the availability of future inputs, and the appropriateness of the transformation
process.

Organizational Learning Perspective

This perspective takes the view that organizations are effective when they find ways to
acquire, share, use, and store knowledge. Knowledge is a resource or asset, called
intellectual capital, which exists in three forms: human capital, structural capital and
relationship capital.

1. Human capital – refers to the knowledge, skills and abilities that employees
carry around their heads. It is a competitive advantage because employees are
essential for the organization’s survival and success and their talents are difficult
to find, to copy, and to replace with technology. Human capital is also a huge risk
for most organizations because it literally leaves the organization ever day when
employees go home.
2. Structural capital – includes the knowledge captured and retained in an
organization’s systems and structures, such as documented work procedures,
physical layout of production and office space, and the finished products.
3. Relationship capital – the value derived from an organization’s relationships
with customers, suppliers, and others who provide added mutual value for the
organization. It includes the organization’s goodwill, brand image, and
combination of relationships that organizational members have with people
outside the organization.

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 - Acquiring knowledge – refers to bringing in knowledge from the external
environment as well as through discovery.
- Sharing knowledge – refers to distributing knowledge throughout the
organization
- Using knowledge – employees need a mental map (sense making) so they are
aware the knowledge exists and know where to find it in the organization.
- Storing knowledge – the process of retaining knowledge, which is known as
organizational memory

High Performance Work Practices Perspective

The high-performance work practices (HPWPs) perspective states that organizations

become more effective through workplace practices that enhance human capital.
Motivated and skilled employees offer competitive advantage by generating more
efficient, adaptive and innovative transformation of inputs to outputs, by providing better
sensitivity to the external environment, and by having better relations with key
stakeholders.

Stakeholder Perspective

The stakeholder perspective offers more specific information and guidance by focusing on the
organization’s relationships with stakeholders. Stakeholders include organizations, groups, and
other entities that affect, or are affected by, the company’s objectives and actions. The
stakeholder perspective personalizes the open systems perspective; it identifies specific social
entities in the external environment as well as employees and others within the organization
(internal environment). This perspective also recognizes that stakeholder relations are dynamic;
they can be negotiated and influenced, not just taken as a fixed condition. In general, the

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stakeholder perspective states that organizations are more effective when they understand,
manage, and satisfy stakeholder needs and expectations.

Research has identified several factors (such as values, ethics and corporate social
responsibilities) that influence the prioritization of stakeholders, including the entity’s power and
urgency for action, its legitimate claim to organizational resources, how executives perceive the
organization’s environment, the organization’s culture and the personal values of the corporate
board and CEO.

MAIN CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

Challenges and opportunities of organizational behavior are massive and rapidly changing for
improving productivity and meeting business goals.
1. Improving Peoples’ Skills.
2. Improving Quality and Productivity.
3. Total Quality Management (TQM).
4. Managing Workforce Diversity.
5. Responding to Globalization.
6. Empowering People.
7. Coping with Temporariness.
8. Stimulating Innovation and Change.
9. Emergence of E-Organization & E-Commerce.
10. Improving Ethical Behavior.
11. Improving Customer Service.
12. Helping Employees Balance Work-Life Conflicts.
13. Flattening World.

LIMITATIONS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

Recognize the limitations of organizational behavior. Organizational Behavior will not abolish
conflict and frustration; it can only reduce them. It is a way to improve, not an absolute answer
to problems.

Three major limitations of OB are:

1. Behavioral Bias. - people who lack system understanding may develop a behavioral
bias, which leads them to develop a narrow viewpoint that emphasizes employee
satisfaction while overlooking the broader system of the organization about all its
stakeholders
2. The Law of Diminishing Returns - According to the law of diminishing returns, at some
point, increases of a desirable practice produce declining returns, finally resulting in zero
returns, and then follows negative returns as more increases are added.
3. Unethical Manipulation of People - A significant concern about organizational behavior
is that its knowledge and techniques can be used to manipulate people unethically as
well as to help them develop their potential. People who lack respect for the basic dignity
of the human being could learn organizational behavior ideas and use them for selfish
ends.

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APPROACHES TO ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR STUDIES

Organizational behavior approaches are a result of the research done by experts in this field.

1. Human resources Sometimes called (supportive approach) recognizes

approach
2. Contingency approach
3. Productivity approach
4. Systems approach
the fact that people are the central resource in any
organization and that they should be developed
towards higher levels of competency, creativity, and
fulfillment.
(sometimes called the situational approach) is based
on the premise that methods or behaviors which work
effectively in One situation fail in another.
Productivity which is the ratio of output to input is a
measure of an organization’s effectiveness. It also
reveals the manager’s efficiency in optimizing
resource utilization.
The systems approach tells us that the activity of any
segment of an organization affects, in varying degrees
the activity of every other segment. A systems view
should be the concern of every person in an
organization.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

The understanding and effective application of organizational behavior depend on a

rigorous research methodology.

The search for the truth of why people behave the way they do is a very delicate and
complicated process.

In fact, the problems are so great that many scholars, Chiefly from the physical and engineering
sciences, argue that there can be no precise science of behavior.

The research method of organizational behavior starts with Theory, use of research designs,
and checking the validity of studies

REASONS FOR STUDYING ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

Organizational Behavior is concerned with the study of what people do in an organization and
how that behavior affects the performance of the organization.

OB studies put the focus on motivation, leader behavior and power, interpersonal
communication, group structure and processes, learning, attitude development and perception,
change processes, conflict, work design, and work stress.

OB draws heavily from behavioral and social sciences, most importantly from psychology.

There are several practical reasons, why we study Organizational Behavior:

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 1. OB is the study of learning how to predict human behavior and, then, apply it in some useful
way to make the organization more effective. It helps in the effective utilization of people
working in the organization guarantees the success of the organization.
2. OB helps the managers to understand the basis of motivation and what he should do to
motivate his subordinates.
3. OB helps to maintain cordial industrial relations which help to increase the overall
productivity of the industry.
4. It helps greatly in improving bur inter-personal relations in the organizations.
5. It helps managers apply appropriate motivational techniques in accordance with the nature
of individual employees who exhibit a learning difference in many respects.

CONCLUSION

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 interprets people-organization relationships in terms of the whole person, the whole
group, the whole organization, and the whole social system.

Its purpose is to build better relationships by achieving human objectives, organizational

objectives, and social objectives. OB encompasses a wide range of topics, such as human
behavior, change, leadership, teams, etc.

Organizational behavior has a great impact on individuals and also in organizations that cannot
be ignored. In order to run the businesses effectively and efficiently, the study of organizational
behavior is very essential.

Keep in mind:
● OB’s goal is to understand and predict human behavior in organizations.
● Fundamental consistencies underlie behavior.
● It is more important than ever to learn OB concepts.
● Both managers and employees must learn to cope with temporariness.

ACTIVITY NO. 1: WORKPLACE BEHAVIOR

NAME: DATE:
YEAR/BLOCK SCORE:

Direction: Fill in the diagram below and answer the given question

1. Create a list of emotions and moods which you think can affect person’s well-being in the
workplace. Then, think of a management model of organizational behavior that will fit the
list of emotions and moods. Lastly, in the last diagram, write down its effect to the
organization.

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1. Do you think your diagram, can definitely change the atmosphere in the organization? Justify.

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CHAPTER TEST

NAME: DATE:
YEAR/BLOCK SCORE:

Direction: Select among the given choices which you think will best define the given question.
Write your answer before each number.

1. It forms a formal relationship of individuals within the organization.

a. people c. technology
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 b. structure d. environment
2. When the organization is unfolding the behavior of its employees, we can define it as:
a. describe c. predict
b. understand d. control
3. “Every member of an organization has its own way of behavior.” We can define this
statement as:
a. perception c. individual differences
b. the value of the person d. mutuality of interest
4. It is considered as the foundation of positive corporate culture.
a. custodial model c. collegial model
b. supportive model d. system model
5. It recognizes that effectiveness of an action may depend on the situation.
a. systematic research anchor c. contingency anchor
b. multidisciplinary anchor d. multiple level of analysis anchor
6. A company’s stock of knowledge, including relationship capital among others.
a. intellectual capital c. structural capital
b. human capital d. relationship capital
7. An evaluative beliefs that guide our preferences for course of action in a variety of
situations.
a. values c. ethics
b. attitudes d. emotions
8. It personalizes the open system perspective.
a. stakeholder’s perspective c. values perspective
b. high performance perspective d. behavior perspective
9. Learning orientation can be a part of:
a. storing knowledge c. sharing knowledge
b. acquiring knowledge d. using knowledge
10. The interaction of people, structure and technology are influenced by:
a. organization c. government
b. environment d. justice

SHORT ESSAY: Justify the statement: “We don’t manage people; we manage behaviors”

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WORKPLACE COMMUNICATION

Objectives:

At the end of this topic, you should be able to:

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 ● Evaluate the communication behavior of others and themselves through a variety of
contexts
● Enhance Communication skills
● Apply effective communication in a variety of context

Timeframe: 6 hours

KEY TERMS

● Communication – the process by which information is transmitted and understood between

two or more people
● Communication process – the transmission of information, and the exchange of meaning,
between at least two people
● Communication channel - A medium through which a message is transmitted to its
intended audience, such as print media or broadcast (electronic) media.
● Social intelligence – the ability to understand the thoughts and feelings of others and to
manage our relationships accordingly.
● Coding – the stage in the interpersonal communication process in which the transmitter
chooses how to express a message for transmission to someone else.
● Decoding – the stage in the interpersonal communication process in which the recipient
interprets a message transmitted to them by someone else.
● Feedback – processes through which the transmitter of a message detects whether and how
that message has been received and decoded.
● Persuasion – the use of facts, logical arguments, and emotional appeals to change another
person’s beliefs and attitudes, usually for the purpose of changing the person’s behavior.
● Information overload – a condition in which the volume of information received exceeds the
person’s capacity to process it.
● Management by walking around (MBWA) – a communication practice in which executives
get out of their offices and learn from others in the organization through face-to-face dialogue
● Grapevine – an unstructured and informal communication network founded on social
relationships rather than organizational charts or job descriptions.

IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNICATION

Effective communication is vital to all organizations, so much so that no company could exist
without it. The reason? Recall that organizations are defined as groups of people who work
interdependently toward some purpose. People work interdependently only when they can
communicate with each other. Although organizations rely on a variety of coordinating
mechanisms, frequent, timely, and accurate communication remains the primary means through
which employees and work units effectively synchronize their work.

Chester Barnard, a telecommunications CEO and a pioneer in organizational behavior theory,

made this observation back in 1938: “An organization comes into being when there are persons
able to communicate with each other.”

The following points can illustrate the importance of communication in human resource
management:

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1. Base for Action: Communication acts as a base for any action. Starting of any activity
begins with communication which brings information necessary to begin with.

2. Planning Becomes Easy: Communication facilitates planning. Planning is made easy by

communication. Any type of information regarding the human resource requirement of each
department of the organization with their qualifications, the type and kinds of job etc. can be
collected through communication which helps in human resource planning. Policies and
programmed for their acquisition can be prepared and implemented.

3. Means of Coordination: Communication is an important tool for coordinating the efforts of

various people at work in the organization.

4. Aids in Decision-Making: The information collected through communication aids in

decision-making. Communication facilitates access to the vital information required to take
decisions.

5. Provides Effective Leadership: A communication skill brings manager near to his

subordinates and exchange ideas and submits appropriate proposals, knows their opinions,
seeks advices and make decisions. This enables a manager to win confidence of his
subordinates through constantly communicating with them and removing probable
misunderstandings. In this way he leads his people to accomplish the organizational goal.

6. Boosts Morale and Motivation: An effective communication system instills confidence

among subordinates and workers ensuring change in their attitude and behavior. The main
cause of conflict and dissatisfaction is misunderstanding which can be removed through
communication skills. The removal of misunderstanding makes manager and his
subordinates understand each other and create good industrial relations. This boosts up the
morale of the people and motivates them to work harder.

THE COMMUNICATION PROCESS

For communication to take place, a message needs to be conveyed between a sender and a
receiver. The sender encodes the message (converts it to a symbolic form) and passes it
through a medium (channel) to the receiver, who decodes it. The result is the transfer of
meaning from one person to another.

To understand the key features of effective interpersonal communication, let’s examine the
model presented above, which provides a useful “conduit” metaphor for thinking about the
communication process. According to this model, communication flows through one or more
channels (also called media) between the sender and receiver. The sender forms a message
and encodes it into words, gestures, voice intonations, and other symbols or signs. Next, the
encoded message is transmitted to the intended receiver through voice, text, nonverbal cues, or
other channels. The receiver senses and decodes the incoming message into something
meaningful. Ideally, the decoded meaning is what the sender had intended.

A Model of Communication

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In most situations, the sender looks for evidence that the other person received and understood
the transmitted message. This feedback may involve the receiver repeating the message back
to the sender or demonstrating awareness of the message indirectly through the receiver’s
subsequent actions. Notice that feedback repeats the communication process. Intended
feedback is encoded, transmitted, received, and decoded from the receiver to the sender of the
original message. 

This model recognizes that communication is not a free-flowing conduit. Rather, the
transmission of meaning from one person to another is hampered by noise—the psychological,
social, and structural barriers that distort and obscure the sender’s intended message. If any
part of the communication process is distorted or broken, the sender and receiver will not have
a common understanding of the message.

Influences on Effective Encoding and Decoding

According to the communication process model, effective communication depends on the

sender’s and receiver’s ability, motivation, role clarity, and situational support to efficiently and
accurately encode and decode information.

Four main factors influence the effectiveness of this encoding–decoding process.

● First, the sender and receiver encode and decode more effectively when they have
similar “codebooks,” which are dictionaries of symbols, language, gestures, idioms, and
other tools used to convey information. With similar codebooks, the communication
participants are able to encode and decode more accurately because they assign the
same or similar meaning to the transmitted symbols and signs. Communication
efficiency also improves because there is less need for redundancy (repeating the
message in different ways) and less need for confirmation feedback (“So, you are saying
that…?”).

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 ● Second, the encoding–decoding process improves with experience because the sender
learns which words, symbols, voice intonations, and other features transmit the message
more clearly and persuasively to others.

● Third, the encoding–decoding process is better when the sender and receiver are skilled
and motivated to use the selected communication channel(s). Some people prefer
face-to-face conversations, others prefer tweets and text messages, and still others
prefer writing and receiving detailed reports. Even when the sender and receiver have
the same codebooks, the message can get lost in translation when one or both parties
use a channel that they dislike or don’t know how to use very well.

● Fourth, the encoding–decoding process depends on the sender’s and receiver’s shared
mental models of the communication context. 

Mental models are visual or relational images of the communication setting, whereas
codebooks are symbols used to convey message content.

For example, a Russian cosmonaut and American astronaut might have shared mental
models about the layout and features of the international space station (communication
context), yet they experience poor communication because of language differences (i.e.,
different codebooks).

Shared mental models potentially enable more accurate transmission of the message content
and reduce the need for communication about the message context.

COMMUNICATION CHANNELS

A central feature of the communication model is the channel (also called the medium) through
which information is transmitted. There are two main types of channels: verbal and nonverbal.

● Verbal communication uses words, so it includes spoken or written channels.

● Nonverbal communication is any part of communication that does not use words.

Spoken and written communication are both verbal (i.e., they both use words), but they are
quite different from each other and have different strengths and weaknesses in communication
effectiveness.

Also, written communication has traditionally been much slower than spoken communication at
transmitting messages, although electronic mail, Twitter tweets, and other online communication
channels have significantly improved written communication efficiency.

INTERNET AND DIGITAL COMMUNICATION

Instant messaging, social media, and other contemporary activities didn’t exist in organizations
a dozen years ago, whereas they are now gaining popularity. However, email is still the medium
of choice in most workplaces.

Email messages can be written, edited, and transmitted quickly. Information can be effortlessly
appended and conveyed to many people. Email is also asynchronous (messages are sent and
received at different times), so there is no need to coordinate a communication session. With
advances in computer search technology, email software has also become a somewhat efficient
filing cabinet. Email is the preferred medium for sending well-defined information for decision
making. It is also the first choice for coordinating work, although text messages may soon
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overtake email for this objective. The introduction of email has substantially altered the
directional flow of information as well as increased the volume and speed of those messages
throughout the organization. In particular, email has reduced face-to-face and telephone
communication but increased communication with people further up the hierarchy. Email
potentially improves employee–manager relations, except where these messages are used by
the manager to control employee behavior. 

Several studies suggest that email reduces social and organizational status differences between
sender and receiver, mainly because there are fewer cues to indicate these differences than in
face-to-face interactions. However, status differences still exist to some extent in written digital
communication.  For instance, one recent study found that managers signaled their status by
replying to emails less quickly and with shorter messages. Even text messages can convey
status differences. Emerging evidence suggests that people assign higher status to senders of
messages that include an elite signature (e.g., “Sent from my iPhone”). 

Email and other forms of written digital communication potentially reduce stereotyping and
prejudice because age, race, and other features of the participants are unknown or less
noticeable.  Text messages and emails allow more time to craft diplomatic messages than in
face-to-face interactions. However, diplomatic writing mainly occurs when there is potential
conflict or perceived prejudice. In other situations, the lack of face-to-face contact may increase
reliance on stereotypes and produce messages that reflect those biases.

PROBLEMS WITH EMAIL AND OTHER DIGITAL MESSAGE CHANNELS

Email, text messages, and other written digital message channels dominate organizational
communication, but they have several limitations. Here are the top four complaints:

● Poor Communication of Emotions – People rely on facial expressions and other

nonverbal cues to interpret the emotional meaning of words; email and text messages
lack this parallel communication channel.

● Less Politeness and Respectfulness – Digital messages are often less diplomatic than
written letters. Indeed, the term flaming has entered our language to describe messages
that convey strong negative emotions. Receivers are partly to blame because they tend
to infer a more negative interpretation of the digital message than was intended by the
sender.

● Cumbersome Medium for Ambiguous, Complex, and Novel Situations – Digital

messages are incredibly efficient for well-defined situations, such as confirming the
location of a meeting or giving basic instructions for a routine activity. But this form of
communication can be cumbersome and dysfunctional in ambiguous, complex, and
novel situations. These circumstances require communication channels that transmit a
larger volume of information with more rapid feedback. In other words, when the issue
gets messy, stop emailing or texting and start talking, preferably face-to-face.

● Contributes to Information Overload – Digital messages contribute to information

overload.  The phenomenal growth of email is one culprit. Approximately 72 trillion
emails—more than half of which are in business settings—are now transmitted annually
around the world, up from just 1.1 trillion in 1998. Almost two-thirds of all emails are
spam! The email glut occurs because messages are created and copied to many people
without much effort.

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CHOOSING THE BEST COMMUNICATION CHANNEL

Employees have more communication channels to choose from than ever before, ranging from
physical and technological forms of face-to-face interaction to a multitude of ways to transmit
written messages.

COMMUNICATION BARRIERS

In spite of the best intentions of sender and receiver to communicate, several barriers (called
“noise”) inhibit the effective exchange of information. As author George Bernard Shaw once
wrote, “The greatest problem with communication is the illusion that it has been
accomplished.” One barrier is that both sender and receiver have imperfect perceptual
processes.

As receivers, we don’t listen as well as senders assume, and our needs and expectations
influence what signals get noticed and ignored. We aren’t any better as senders, either. Some
studies suggest that we have difficulty stepping out of our own perspectives and stepping into
the perspectives of others, so we overestimate how well other people understand the message
we are communicating.

The main barriers to effective organizational communication are:

● Power differences - Research consistently shows that employees distort upward

communication, and that superiors often have a limited understanding of subordinates’
roles, experiences and problems.
● Gender differences – Men and women use different conversational styles which can lead
to misunderstanding; men tend to talk more and give information while women tend to listen
and reflect more.
● Physical surroundings – Room size and layout influence our ability to see others and our
readiness to participate in conversations and discussions.

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● Language – Even within one country, variations in accent and dialect can make
communication difficult.
● Cultural diversity – Different cultures have different norms and expectations concerning
formal and informal conversations; lack of awareness of those norms creates
misunderstanding.

Information Overload a condition in which the volume of information received exceeds the
person’s capacity to process it.

information overload occurs whenever the job’s information load exceeds the individual’s
capacity to get through it. Employees have a certain information-processing capacity—the
amount of information that they are able to process in a fixed unit of time.

CROSS-CULTURAL AND GENDER COMMUNICATION

Increasing globalization and cultural diversity have created more cross-cultural communication
issues. Voice intonation is one form of cross-cultural communication barrier. How loudly, deeply,
and quickly people speak varies across cultures, and these voice intonations send secondary
messages that have different meanings in different societies.

Language is an obvious cross-cultural communication challenge. Words are easily

misunderstood in verbal communication, either because the receiver has a limited vocabulary or
the sender’s accent distorts the usual sound of some words. In one cross-cultural seminar, for
example, participants at German electronics company Siemens were reminded that a French
coworker might call an event a “catastrophe” as a casual exaggeration, whereas someone in
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Germany usually interprets this word literally as an earth-shaking event. Similarly, KPMG staff
from the United Kingdom sometimes referred to another person’s suggestions as “interesting.”
They had to clarify to their German colleagues that “interesting” might not be complimenting the
idea.

Communication includes silence, but its use and meaning vary from one culture to another. One
study estimated that silence and pauses represented 30 percent of conversation time between
Japanese doctors and patients, compared to only 8 percent of the time between American
doctors and patients. Why is there more silence in Japanese conversations? One reason is that
interpersonal harmony and saving face are more important in Japanese culture, and silence is a
way of disagreeing without upsetting that harmony or offending the other person.

In addition, silence symbolizes respect and indicates that the listener is thoughtfully
contemplating what has just been said.  Empathy is very important in Japan, and this shared
understanding is demonstrated without using words. In contrast, most people in the United
States and many other cultures view silence as a lack of communication and often interpret long
breaks as a sign of disagreement.

Nonverbal Differences Across Cultures

Nonverbal communication represents another potential area for misunderstanding across

cultures. Many nonconsciousness or involuntary nonverbal cues (such as smiling) have the
same meaning around the world, but deliberate gestures often have different interpretations. For
example, most of us shake our head from side to side to say “No,” but a variation of head
shaking means “I understand” to many people in India. Filipinos raise their eyebrows to give an
affirmative answer, yet Arabs interpret this expression (along with clicking one’s tongue) as a
negative response. Most Americans are taught to maintain eye contact with the speaker to show
interest and respect, whereas some North American native groups learn at an early age to show
respect by looking down when an older or more senior person is talking to them.

GENDER DIFFERENCES IN COMMUNICATION

Men and women have similar communication practices, but there are subtle distinctions that can
occasionally lead to misunderstanding and conflict.  One distinction is that men are more likely
than women to view conversations as negotiations of relative status and power. They assert
their power by directly giving advice to others (e.g., “You should do the following”) and using
combative language. There is also evidence that men dominate the talk time in conversations
with women, as well as interrupt more and adjust their speaking style less than do women.

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Men engage in more “report talk,” in which the primary function of the conversation is
impersonal and efficient information exchange. Women also do report talk, particularly when
conversing with men, but conversations among women have a higher incidence of relationship
building through “rapport talk.” Women use more tentative speech patterns, including modifiers
(“It might be a good idea . . .”), disclaimers (“I’m not certain, but . . .”), and tag questions (“This
works, doesn’t it?). They also make more use of indirect requests (“Do you think you should . .
.”), apologize more often, and seek advice from others more quickly than do men. These gender
differences are modest, however, mainly because men also use these speech patterns to some
extent. Research does clearly indicate that women are more sensitive than men to nonverbal
cues in face-to-face meetings. Together, these conditions can create communication conflicts.
Women who describe problems get frustrated that men offer advice rather than rapport,
whereas men become frustrated because they can’t understand why women don’t appreciate
their advice.

IMPROVING INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION

Effective interpersonal communication depends on the sender’s ability to get the message
across and the receiver’s performance as an active listener

Getting Your Message Across

To get your message across to the other person:

1. need to empathize with the receiver, such as being sensitive to words that may be
ambiguous or trigger the wrong emotional response.
2. Be sure that you repeat the message, such as by rephrasing the key points a couple of
times. your message competes with other messages and noise, so find a time when the
receiver is less likely to be distracted by these other matters.
3. If you are communicating bad news or criticism, focus on the problem, not the person.

Active Listening

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Active listening is a process of mindfully sensing the sender’s signals, evaluating them
accurately, and responding appropriately. These three components of listening—sensing,
evaluating, and responding—reflect the listener’s side of the communication model. Listeners
receive the sender’s signals, decode them as intended, and provide appropriate and timely
feedback to the sender. Active listeners constantly cycle through sensing, evaluating, and
responding during the conversation and engage in various activities to improve these
processes.

● Sensing – the process of receiving signals from the sender and paying attention to
them.
● Evaluating – this component of listening includes understanding the message meaning,
evaluating the message and remembering the message
● Responding – involves providing feedback to the sender, which motivates and directs
the speaker’s communication.

IMPROVING COMMUNICATION THROUGHOUT THE HIERARCHY

Three organization-wide communication strategies: workspace design, Internet-based

communication, and direct communication with top management.

Workspace Design

To improve information sharing and create a more sociable work environment, Intel has torn
down the cubicle walls at its microchip design center near Portland, Oregon. “We realized that
we were inefficient and not as collaborative as we would have liked,” acknowledges Neil
Tunmore, Intel’s director of corporate services. The refurbished building includes more shared
space where employees set up temporary work areas. There are also more meeting rooms
where employees can collaborate in private.

Intel and many other companies are improving communication by redesigning the workspace
and employee territorial practices in that space. The location and design of hallways, offices,
cubicles, and communal areas (cafeterias, elevators) all shape to whom we speak as well as
the frequency of that communication. Although these open-space arrangements increase the
amount of face-to-face communication, they also potentially produce more noise, distractions,
and loss of privacy.  “There were a lot of distractions, and it was hard to stay focused,”
complained one GlaxoSmithKline employee soon after moving to the company’s open-space
work center in Raleigh, North Carolina.  Others claim that open workspaces have minimal noise
problems because employees tend to speak more softly and white noise technology blocks out
most voices. Still, the challenge is to increase social interaction without raising noise and
distraction levels.

Internet-Based Organizational Communication

For decades, employees received official company news through hard copy newsletters and
magazines. Some firms still use these communication devices, but most have supplemented or
replaced them completely with web-based sources of information. The traditional company
magazine is now typically published on web pages or distributed in PDF format. The advantage
of these e-zines is that company news can be prepared and distributed quickly.

Employees are increasingly skeptical of information that has been screened and packaged by
management, so a few companies such as IBM are encouraging employees to post their own

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news on internal blogs and wikis. Wikis are collaborative web spaces in which anyone in a
group can write, edit, or remove material from the website.

Direct Communication with Top Management

According to various surveys, effective organizational communication includes regular

interaction directly between senior executives and employees further down the hierarchy. One
form of direct communication is through town hall meetings, where executives brief a large
gathering of staff on the company’s current strategy and results. Although the communication is
mostly from executives to employees, town hall meetings are more personal and credible than
video or written channels. Also, these events usually provide some opportunity for employees to
ask questions. Another strategy is for senior executives to hold roundtable forums with a small
representation of employees, mainly to hear their opinions on various issues.
A less formal approach to direct communication is management by walking around (MBWA).
Coined by people at Hewlett-Packard four decades ago, this is essentially the practice in which
senior executives get out of their offices and casually chat with employees on a daily or regular
basis.

Communicating through the Grapevine

Organizational leaders may try their best to quickly communicate breaking news to employees
through emails, Twitter tweets, and other direct formal channels, but employees still rely to
some extent on the corporate grapevine. The grapevine is an unstructured and informal network
founded on social relationships rather than organizational charts or job descriptions.

To understand the significance of grapevine communication, leaders need to know why it

happens in the first place. In the workplace, things can change at a moment’s notice. New
procedures, new hires, layoffs, the implementation of new software are all things that workers
have to think about daily. As a result, employees have a desire to know about happenings that
could impact their work day in a way that is not filtered through the messaging of senior
management. Combine this with the fact that humans have an inherent desire to communicate
with others and promote a sense of belonging, and you have the makings of a highly active
grapevine. While this type of communication is informal, it is still vital for leaders to understand
the impact it has on the work environment.

It is essential for leaders not to underestimate the reach of grapevine communication. In an

organization where formal communication is poor, informal discussions can complement
whatever is lacking. These systems can also reveal the source of misinformation and the spread
of harmful rumors. It can be a temperature check for management to see if workers are
satisfied, which can provide some insight into potential turnovers. Grapevine communication
can reveal a lot about an organization: how much workers trust senior management, an
increase in conflict, workplace satisfaction, and informal groups who have power in gaining and
spreading information. Grapevine communication is natural, but leaders have to decide how
much it is benefitting or hurting the company.

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ACTIVITY NO. 1: EXPRESSING INDIVIDUALITY

NAME: DATE:
YEAR/BLOCK SCORE:

1. Draw pictures using plain white paper and colored pencils/crayons. Make sure that you
do not place an emphasis on artistic abilities. It is okay to draw simple stick figures that
represent people or other objects. You could cut pictures out of old magazines and paste
them on a poster board.
2. Then, ask these questions:
- Why did you choose to make what you did?
- What does it mean to you?
Write it below your artwork for submission or you may send a video presentation.

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ACTIVITY NO. 2: ASSESSING OTHERS COMMUNICATION SKILLS

NAME: DATE:
YEAR/BLOCK SCORE:

1. Call a friend or a classmate or interview someone near your place. Then ask the
following question: (Adapted from cornerstone coaching and training)

Answer each statement “true” or “false”.

1. Do you listen more than you talk?

2. Do you speak specifically and personally, instead of generally and abstractly?
3. Does your body language correspond with your words and your tone?
4. Do you check your tone (especially in written communication) to make sure it
corresponds with your message?
5. Do you pay attention to one person/conversation at a time?
6. Do you rely primarily on written (e-mail and text) conversations?
7. Are you clear enough in what you’re saying and in sharing your expectations with others.
8. Do you make it comfortable or “safe” for others to talk to you about sensitive subjects?
9. Do you avoid certain people or conversations? or do you tackle the hard conversations
with ease?
10. Do you deal with issues as soon as they come up?

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 2.Write your assessment based on their answers.

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CHAPTER TEST:

NAME: DATE:
YEAR/BLOCK SCORE:

Direction: Write TRUE if the statement is correct and FALSE if the statement is wrong. Write
your answer before each number.

_________1. Communication is critical for organizational learning

_________ 2. Communication is often a deliberate attempt to change someone’s thoughts and
actions.
_________3. Communication is not a free-flowing channel.
_________4. A central feature of the communication model is the channel through which
information is transmitted.
_________5. Email reduces social and organizational status differences between the sender
and the receiver.
_________6. Digital messages contribute to information overload.
_________7. Millennials are the strongest advocates of social media in the workplace.
_________8. Nonverbal cues are more ambiguous and susceptible to misinterpretation.
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_________10. Social presence depends on symbolic meaning of the channel.
_________11. A communication channel has low richness when it is able to convey multiple
cues.
_________12. Written communications tend to be more persuasive than spoken
communications.
_________13. Filtering messages is another source of noise in the communication process.
_________14. Silence is not considered as communication.
_________15. Effective communication occurs when the other person receives and
understands the message.
_________16. Active listeners constantly cycle through sensing only.
_________17. Cloistering of employees into team spaces is a workspace strategy.
_________18. A less approach to direct communication is management by walking around.
_________19. Grapevine works through informal social networks.
_________20. Grapevine relieves anxiety.

ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE &

WORKPLACE DIVERSITY

Objectives:

At the end of this topic, you should be able to:

● Categorize the elements of organizational culture & workplace diversity

● Analyze the impact of culture and workplace diversity in the organization
● Solve practical situations on organizational culture

Timeframe: 6 hours

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WHAT IS ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE?

Organizational culture is defined as the shared social knowledge within an organization

regarding the rules, norms, and values that shape the attitudes and behaviors of its employees.
This definition helps highlight a number of facets of organizational culture.

● First, culture is social knowledge among members of the organization. Employees learn
about most important aspects of culture through other employees. This transfer of
knowledge might be through explicit communication, simple observation, or other, less
obvious methods. In addition, culture is shared knowledge, which means that members
of the organization understand and have a degree of consensus regarding what the
culture is.
● Second, culture tells employees what the rules, norms, and values are within the
organization.

Organizational culture is also defined as the shared and learned values, beliefs, and attitudes
of its members. Culture is rooted in the countless details of an organization’s life and influences
much of what happens to employees within an organization. The culture of an organization
influences who gets promoted, how careers are either made or derailed, and how resources are
allocated. More specifically, organizational culture includes:

• routine ways of communicating, such as organizational rituals and ceremonies and the
language commonly used;

• the norms shared by individuals and teams throughout the organization, such as no
reserved parking spaces;

• the dominant values held by the organization, such as product quality or customer
service;

• the philosophy that guides management’s policies and decision making, including
determining which groups are included or consulted on decisions;

• the rules of the game for getting along in the organization, or the “ropes” that a
newcomer must learn in order to become an accepted member;

• the feeling or climate conveyed in an organization by the physical layout and the way in
which leaders and employees interact with customers, suppliers, and other outsiders.

Organizational culture refers to a system of shared meaning held by members that

distinguishes the organization from other organizations. Seven primary characteristics seem to
capture the essence of an organization’s culture:

1. Innovation and risk taking. The degree to which employees are encouraged to be
innovative and take risks.
2. Attention to detail. The degree to which employees are expected to exhibit precision,
analysis, and attention to detail.
3. Outcome orientation. The degree to which management focuses on results or outcomes
rather than on the techniques and processes used to achieve them.
4. People orientation. The degree to which management decisions take into consideration
the effect of outcomes on people within the organization.
5. Team orientation. The degree to which work activities are organized around teams rather
than individuals.

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 6. Aggressiveness. The degree to which people are aggressive and competitive rather than
easygoing.
7. Stability. The degree to which organizational activities emphasize maintaining the status
quo in contrast to growth.

Each of these characteristics exists on a continuum from low to high. Appraising the
organization on these seven dimensions, then, gives a composite picture of its culture and a
basis for the shared understanding members have about the organization, how things are done
in it, and the way they are supposed to behave.

Do Organizations Have Uniform Cultures?

Organizational culture represents a perception the organization’s members hold in common.

● A dominant culture expresses the core values a majority of members share and that
give the organization its distinct personality.

● Subcultures tend to develop in large organizations to reflect common problems or

experiences members face in the same department or location.

If organizations were composed only of numerous subcultures, organizational culture as an

independent variable would be significantly less powerful. It is the “shared meaning” aspect of
culture that makes it such a potent device for guiding and shaping behavior.

For example, that WestJet’s culture values customer care and service more than rigid
compliance with formal policies, and to use that information to better understand the behavior of
WestJet’s executives and employees.

The Functions of Culture

1. Culture has a boundary-defining role: It creates distinctions between organizations.

2. It conveys a sense of identity for organization members.
3. Culture facilitates commitment to something larger than individual self-interest.
4. It enhances the stability of the social system. Culture is the social glue that helps hold
the organization together by providing standards for what employees should say and do.
5. It is a sense making and control mechanism that guides and shapes employees’
attitudes and behavior. Culture defines the rules of the game.

When formal authority and control systems are reduced, culture’s shared meaning can point
everyone in the same direction. However, employees organized in teams may show greater
allegiance to their team and its values than to the organization as a whole. In virtual
organizations, the lack of frequent face-to-face contact makes establishing a common set of
norms very difficult. Strong leadership that communicates frequently about common goals and
priorities is especially important in innovative organizations.

Elements of Organizational Culture

Organizational culture consists of shared values and assumptions.

● Values are stable, evaluative beliefs that guide our preferences for outcomes or courses
of action in a variety of situations. They are conscious perceptions about what is good
or bad, right or wrong.

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 ● Shared assumptions—a deeper element that some experts believe is the essence of
corporate culture. They are non-conscious, taken-for-granted perceptions or ideal
prototypes of behavior that are considered the correct way to think and act toward
problems and opportunities.

Shared assumptions are so deeply ingrained that you probably wouldn’t discover them
by surveying employees. Only by observing employees, analyzing their decisions, and
debriefing them on their actions would these assumptions rise to the surface.

Espoused Versus Enacted Values

● Espoused values contribute to the development of normal standards of the organization

for how it conducts business now and in the future. They are usually socially desirable,
so they present a positive public image. Even if top management acts consistently with
the espoused values, lower-level employees might not do so.

Example: Demonstrated traits; managers serve as examples by modeling

the values they
wish to see in their company.

● Enacted values, when they actually guide and influence decisions and behavior. They
are values put into practice. Enacted values are apparent when watching executives and

34
 other employees in action, including their decisions, where they focus their attention and
resources, how they behave toward stakeholders, and the outcomes of those decisions
and behavior. An organization’s culture is defined by its enacted values

DECIPHERING ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE THROUGH ARTIFACTS

Shared values and assumptions are not easily measured through surveys and might not be
accurately reflected in the organization’s values statements. Instead, an organization’s culture
needs to be deciphered through a detailed investigation of artifacts.

● Artifacts are the observable symbols and signs of an organization’s culture, such as the
way visitors are greeted, the organization’s physical layout, and how employees are
rewarded. A few experts suggest that artifacts are the essence of organizational culture,
whereas most others view artifacts as symbols or indicators of culture. In other words,
culture is cognitive (values and assumptions inside people’s heads) whereas artifacts
are observable manifestations of that culture. Either way, artifacts are important because
they represent and reinforce an organization’s culture.

Artifacts provide valuable evidence about a company’s culture. An organization’s

ambiguous (fragmented) culture is best understood by observing workplace behavior,
listening to everyday conversations among staff and with customers, studying written
documents and emails, viewing physical structures and settings, and interviewing staff
about corporate stories. In other words, to truly understand an organization’s culture, we
need to sample information from a variety of organizational artifacts.

Organizational Stories and Legends

Alibaba is a relatively young company, yet the e-commerce firm’s culture is already supported
by several stories and legends. One famous story describes how a small band of employees
joined a secret project to create Taobao, Alibaba’s consumer trade portal, to compete directly
with eBay in China. The group worked out of Alibaba’s original offices, Jack Ma’s former
apartment which had been vacated a couple of years earlier. Through perseverance and “fire in
their belly,” the Taobao team built a business that whittled away at eBay’s 80 percent market
share. Within six years, Taobao was China’s dominant consumer trading portal and eBay closed
its operations.

Organizational language

The language of the workplace speaks volumes about the company’s culture. How employees
talk to each other, describe customers, express anger, and greet stakeholders are all verbal
symbols of shared values and assumptions. “What we say—and how we say it—can deeply
affect a company’s culture,” advise Tom Kelley and David Kelley, leaders of design firm IDEO.
An organization’s culture particularly stands out when employees habitually use customized
phrases and labels. At The Container Store, for instance, employees compliment each other
about “being Gumby,” meaning that they are being as flexible as the once-popular green toy to
help a customer or another employee.

Rituals and Ceremonies

● Rituals are the programmed routines of daily organizational life that dramatize an
organization’s culture. They include how visitors are greeted, how often senior

35
 executives visit subordinates, how people communicate with each other, how much time
employees take for lunch, and so on. These rituals are repetitive, predictable events that
have symbolic meaning of underlying cultural values and assumptions

● Ceremonies are more formal artifacts than rituals. Ceremonies are planned activities
conducted specifically for the benefit of an audience. This would include publicly
rewarding (or punishing) employees or celebrating the launch of a new product or newly
won contract.

Physical Structures and Symbols

Winston Churchill once said: “We shape our buildings; thereafter, they shape us.”  The former
British prime minister was reminding us that an organization’s culture affects building decisions,
but the size, shape, location, and age of the resulting structure subsequently reinforces or alters
that culture. Physical structures might support a company’s emphasis on teamwork,
environmental friendliness, hierarchy, or any other set of values.  As the opening case study to
this chapter described, Alibaba’s recently built headquarters tries to symbolize and reinforce the
company’s culture, particularly its emphasis on teamwork, collaboration, and community.

Even if the building doesn’t make much of a statement, there is a treasure-trove of physical
artifacts inside. Desks, chairs, office space, and wall hangings (or lack of them) are just a few of
the items that might convey cultural meaning.30 Each physical artifact alone might not say
much, but put enough of them together and you can see how they symbolize the organization’s
culture.

Workspace Design and Organizational Culture

IS ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE IMPORTANT?

36
Does organizational culture improve organizational effectiveness? Launi Skinner thinks so.
“You can have the best strategy in the world, but culture will kill strategy,” warns the CEO of First
West Credit Union in Vancouver, Canada, and former senior executive at Starbucks in the
United States. Quicken Loans CEO Bill Emerson agrees. When asked why the Detroit-based
finance company has grown so quickly, Emerson replied: “The No. 1 thing is culture. It allows us
to move very quickly and react very quickly in making business decisions.”

Under the right conditions, companies are more effective when they have strong cultures
because of the three important functions:

1. Control system. Organizational culture is a deeply embedded form of social control that
influences employee decisions and behavior.

2. Social glue. Organizational culture is the social glue that bonds people together and
makes them feel part of the organizational experience.

3. Sense making. Organizational culture helps employees make sense of what goes on
and why things happen in the company. Corporate culture also makes it easier for them
to understand what is expected of them. For instance, research has found that sales
employees in companies with stronger organizational cultures have clearer role
perceptions and less role-related stress.

Potential Benefits and Contingencies of Culture Strength

Adaptive culture - an organizational culture in which employees are receptive to change,

including the ongoing alignment of the organization to its environment and continuous
improvement of internal processes

Organizational Culture and Business Ethics

An organization’s culture influences the ethical conduct of its employees. This makes sense
because good behavior is driven by ethical values, and ethical values become embedded in an
organization’s dominant culture.

For example, AIA Group, Hong Kong’s largest life insurance company (by number of policies),
has a strong culture focused on “doing the right thing, in the right way, with the right people, and

37
the results will come.” This means that employees are expected to think through the
ramifications of their actions (right thing) and ensure they always work with integrity and
teamwork (right way).
MERGING ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURES

Bicultural Audit

Organizational leaders can minimize cultural collisions in corporate mergers and fulfill their duty
of due diligence by conducting a bicultural audit. A bicultural audit diagnoses cultural relations
between the companies and determines the extent to which cultural clashes will likely occur.

Strategies for Merging Different Organizational Cultures

In some cases, the bicultural audit results in a decision to end merger talks because the two
cultures are too different to merge effectively. However, even with substantially different cultures,
two companies may form a workable union if they apply the appropriate merger strategy. The
four main strategies for merging different corporate cultures are assimilation, deculturation,
integration, and separation:

● Assimilation occurs when employees at the acquired company willingly embrace the
cultural values of the acquiring organization. Typically, this strategy works best when the
acquired company has a weak culture that is either similar to the acquiring company’s
culture or is dysfunctional, whereas the acquiring company’s culture is strong and aligned
with the external environment. The cultural assimilation strategy seldom produces cultural
clashes because the acquiring firm’s culture is highly respected and the acquired firm’s
culture is fairly easily altered.

● Deculturation –imposing their culture and business practices on the acquired

organization. The acquiring firm strips away artifacts and reward systems that support the
old culture. People who cannot adopt the acquiring company’s culture often lose their
jobs. Deculturation may be necessary when the acquired firm’s culture doesn’t work, even
when employees in the acquired company aren’t convinced of this. However, this strategy
is difficult to apply effectively because the acquired firm’s employees resist the cultural
intrusions from the buying firm, thereby delaying or undermining the merger process.

● Integration –combining the cultures of the two firms into one new composite culture that
preserves the best features of the previous cultures. Integration is slow and potentially
risky because there are many forces preserving the existing cultures. Still, this strategy
should be considered when the companies have relatively weak cultures or when their
cultures include several overlapping values. Integration works best when the cultures of
both merging companies could be improved, which motivates employees to adopt the best
cultural elements of the separate entities. Incorporating the best cultural elements of the
original companies symbolizes that employees from both firms have meaningful values for
the combined organization. “Find one thing in the organization that was good and use it as
a cornerstone for a new culture,” advises a respected executive who led several mergers
and acquisitions. “People don’t want to work for an organization for years and then be told
its rubbish.”

● Separation – A separation strategy occurs when the merging companies agree to remain
distinct entities with minimal exchange of culture or organizational practices. This strategy
is most appropriate when the two merging companies are in unrelated industries, because
the most appropriate cultural values tend to differ by industry. Separation is also the

38
 preferred approach for the corporate cultures of diversified conglomerates. The cultural
separation strategy is rare, however. Executives in acquiring firms usually have difficulty
keeping their hands off the acquired firm. According to one estimate, only 15 percent of
mergers leave the acquired company as a stand-alone unit.

CHANGING AND STRENGTHENING ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

Is it possible to change an organization’s culture? Yes, but doing so isn’t easy, the change rarely
occurs quickly, and often the culture ends up changing (or replacing) corporate leaders. A few
experts argue that an organization’s culture “cannot be managed,” so attempting to change the
company’s values and assumptions is a waste of time. This may be an extreme view, but
organizational culture experts generally agree that changing an organization’s culture is a
monumental challenge. At the same time, the external environment changes over time, so
organizations need to shift their culture to maintain alignment with the emerging environment.

We will highlight five strategies that have had some success at altering and strengthening
corporate cultures. These strategies are not exhaustive, but each seems to work well under the
right circumstances.

1. Actions of Founders and Leaders – Whether deliberately or haphazardly, the

company’s founder usually forms an organization’s culture.  The founder’s personality,
values, habits, and critical events all play a role in establishing the firm’s core values and
assumptions. The founder is often an inspiring visionary who provides a compelling role
model for others to follow. In later years, organizational culture is reinforced through
stories and legends about the founder that symbolize the core values.

2. Align Artifacts with the Desired Culture - Artifacts represent more than just the visible
indicators of a company’s culture. They are also mechanisms that keep the culture in
place or shift the culture to a new set of values and assumptions. Corporate cultures can
also be strengthened through the artifacts of stories and behaviors.

3. Introduce Culturally Consistent Rewards and Recognition – Reward systems and

informal recognition practices are artifacts, but they deserve separate discussion
because of their powerful effect on strengthening or reshaping an organization’s culture.

39
 4. Support Workforce Stability and Communication – An organization’s culture is
embedded in the minds of its employees. Organizational stories are rarely written down;
rituals and ceremonies do not usually exist in procedure manuals; organizational
metaphors are not found in corporate directories. Thus, a strong culture depends on a
stable workforce. Workforce stability is important because it takes time for employees to
fully understand the organization’s culture and how to enact it in their daily work lives.
The organization’s culture can literally disintegrate during periods of high turnover and
precipitous downsizing because the corporate memory leaves with these employees.

5.  Use Attraction, Selection, and Socialization for Cultural Fit – A valuable way to
strengthen and possibly change an organization’s culture is to recruit and select job
applicants whose values are compatible with the culture. One recent survey of more than
2,000 American hiring managers and human resource managers found that a job
applicant’s fit with the company’s culture was the second most important factor in hiring
that person (applicant skills was the top priority). A global poll of almost 170,000 people
in 30 countries reported that the organization’s culture has the greatest influence on their
decision to apply for a job.

This process of recruiting, selecting, and retaining applicants whose values are
congruent with the organization’s culture is explained by attraction–selection–attrition
(ASA) theory. ASA theory states that organizations have a natural tendency to attract,
select, and retain people with values and personality characteristics that are consistent
with the organization’s character, resulting in a more homogeneous organization and a
stronger culture.

ORGANIZATIONAL SOCIALIZATION

Organizational socialization is another process that companies rely on to maintain a strong

corporate culture and, more generally, help newcomers adjust to the workplace. Organizational
socialization is the process by which individuals learn the values, expected behaviors, and
social knowledge necessary to assume their roles in the organization. This process can
potentially change employee values to become more aligned with the company’s culture.
However, changing an employee’s personal values is much more difficult than is often assumed,
because values are fairly stable beyond early adulthood. More likely, effective socialization gives
newcomers a clearer understanding about the company’s values and how they are translated
into specific on-the-job behaviors.

Along with supporting the organization’s culture, socialization helps newcomer adjustment to
coworkers, work procedures, and other corporate realities. Research indicates that when
research-supported organizational socialization practices are applied, new hires tend to perform
better, have higher job satisfaction, and remain longer with the organization.

Learning and Adjustment Process

Organizational socialization is a process of both learning and adjustment. It is a learning

process because newcomers try to make sense of the company’s physical workplace, social
dynamics, and strategic and cultural environment. They learn about the organization’s
performance expectations, power dynamics, corporate culture, company history, and jargon.
They also need to form successful and satisfying relationships with other people from whom
they can learn the ropes.  In other words, effective socialization supports newcomers’
organizational comprehension. It accelerates development of an accurate cognitive map of the

40
physical, social, strategic, and cultural dynamics of the organization. Ideally, this learning should
be distributed over time to minimize information overload.

Organizational socialization is also an adjustment process because individuals need to adapt to

their new work environment. They develop new work roles that reconfigure their social identity,
adopt new team norms, and practice new behaviors. The adjustment process is fairly rapid for
many people, usually occurring within a few months. However, newcomers with diverse work
experience seem to adjust better than those with limited previous experience, possibly because
they have a larger toolkit of knowledge and skills to make the adjustment possible.

Psychological Contracts

The psychological contract refers to the individual’s beliefs about the terms and conditions of a
reciprocal exchange agreement between that person and another party (the employer in most
work situations). The psychological contract is a perception formed during recruitment and
throughout the organizational socialization process about what the employee is entitled to
receive and is obliged to offer the employer in return.

Types of Psychological Contracts

● Transactional contracts are primarily short-term economic exchanges.  Responsibilities

are well defined around a fairly narrow set of obligations that do not change over the life
of the contract. People hired in temporary positions and as consultants tend to have
transactional contracts. To some extent, new employees also form transactional
contracts until they develop a sense of continuity with the organization.

● Relational contracts, on the other hand, are rather like marriages; they are long-term
attachments that encompass a broad array of subjective mutual obligations. Employees
with a relational psychological contract are more willing to contribute their time and effort
without expecting the organization to pay back this debt in the short term. Relational
contracts are also dynamic, meaning that the parties tolerate and expect that mutual
obligations are not necessarily balanced in the short run. Not surprisingly, organizational
citizenship behaviors are more likely to prevail under relational than transactional
contracts. Permanent employees are more likely to believe they have a relational
contract.

Stages of Organizational Socialization

Organizational socialization is a continuous process, beginning long before the first day of
employment and continuing throughout one’s career within the company. However, it is most
intense when people move across organizational boundaries, such as when they first join a
company or get transferred to an international assignment. Each of these transitions is a
process that can be divided into three stages. Our focus here is on the socialization of new
employees, so the three stages are called pre-employment socialization, encounter, and role
management (see figure below). These stages parallel the individual’s transition from outsider to
newcomer and then to insider.

Stages of Organizational Socialization

41
AN INTRODUCTION TO WORKPLACE DIVERSITY

Diversity refers to identity-based differences among and between two or more people that
affect their lives as applicants, employees, and customers. These identity-based differences
include such things as race and ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and age. Groups in society
based on these individual differences are referred to as identity groups.

These differences are related to discrimination and disparities between groups in areas such as
education, housing, healthcare, and employment. The term managing diversity is commonly
used to refer to ways in which organizations seek to ensure that members of diverse groups are
valued and treated fairly within organizations in all areas including hiring, compensation,
performance evaluation, and customer service activities. The term valuing diversity is often
used to reflect ways in which organizations show appreciation for diversity among job
applicants, employees, and customers.

Three kinds of diversity exist in the workplace: 

1. Surface-level diversity represents an individual’s visible characteristics, including, but

not limited to, age, body size, visible disabilities, race, or sex. A collective of individuals
who share these characteristics is known as an identity group.

2. Deep-level diversity includes traits that are non-observable such as attitudes, values,

and beliefs.

3. Hidden diversity includes traits that are deep-level but may be concealed or revealed at
the discretion of individuals who possess them. These hidden traits are called invisible
social identities and may include sexual orientation, a hidden disability (such as a mental
illness or chronic disease), mixed racial heritage, or socioeconomic status. Researchers
investigate these different types of diversity in order to understand how diversity may
benefit or hinder organizational outcomes.

Diversity presents challenges that may include managing dysfunctional conflict that can arise
from inappropriate interactions between individuals from different groups. Diversity also
presents advantages such as broader perspectives and viewpoints. Knowledge about how to
manage diversity helps managers mitigate some of its challenges and reap some of its benefits.

Benefits of Workplace Diversity

42
 ● Increased adaptability – organization employing a diverse workforce can supply a
greater variety of solutions to problems in service, sourcing, and allocation of resources
● Broader service range – a diverse collection of skills and experiences allows a
company to provide service to customers on a global basis.
● Variety of viewpoints – a diverse workforce that feels comfortable communicating
varying points of view provides a larger pool of ideas and experiences. The organization
can draw from that pool to meet business strategy needs and the needs of customers
more effectively.
● More effective executions – companies that encourage diversity in the workplace
inspire all their employees to perform to their highest ability.
● Attract and retain talent – Andrade (2010) states that talent can add a competitive
edge to any organization. Feeling included and appreciated can increase loyalty.
Language skills pool is increased and propels organization forward either to compete in
the International global world or to increase its diverse customer base.

Four Layers of Diversity

Personality – this includes an individual’s likes and dislikes, values and beliefs. Personality is
shaped early in life and is both influenced by, and influences, the other three layers throughout
one’s lifetime and career choices.

Internal dimensions - these include aspects of diversity over which we have no control. This
dimension is the layer in which many divisions between and among people exist and which

43
forms the core of many diversity efforts. These dimensions include the first thing we see in other
people and on which we make many assumptions and base judgements.

External dimensions – these include aspects of our lives which we have some control over,
which might change over time, and which usually form the basis for decisions on career and
work styles. This layer often determines, in part, with whom we develop friendships and what we
do for work. This layers also tells us much about whom we like to be with.

Organizational dimensions – this layer concerns the aspects of culture found in a work setting.
While much attention of diversity effort is focused on the internal dimensions, issues of
preferential treatment and opportunities for development or promotion are impacted by the
aspects of this layer.

THE IMPACT OF CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN THE WORKPLACE

With the increase of globalization in the world, cultural diversity in the workplace has grown as a
trend. “Cultural diversity is when differences in race, ethnicity, language, nationality, religion, and
sexual orientation are represented within a community” (Amadeo, 2013). Although the media
and contemporary literature embark upon the benefits of cultural diversity in the workplace,
citing enhancements to employees’ competence and creativity, this recognition does not reflect,
in actual practice, as strongly as in theory (Al-Jenaibi, 2011, p. 49). Cultural diversity can affect
the workplace in numerous ways. Negative effects can include miscommunication, creation of
barriers, and dysfunctional adaptation behaviors. Positive effects can include building a sound
knowledge base with in-house talent, which can make for smoother integration of the
organization into foreign cultures.

One negative effect of cultural diversity in the workplace is the increased tendency of
organizational personnel to indulge in interpersonal conflicts. Culturally diverse workers have
different opinions, thoughts, beliefs, norms, customs, values, trends, and traditions. “The
analogy of an iceberg comes to mind in the face of these potentially endless dimensions; the
obvious characteristics of race, ethnicity, gender, age, and disability relate to the small, visible
portion of the iceberg and are the basis of much anti-discrimination legislation around the world”
(Białostocka, 2010, p. 6). Not so obvious dimensions, such as culture, religion, and politics, only
show up with the passage of time. The core of individual identity constitutes the tertiary
dimensions and exists deep beneath the surface. These deeply buried qualities offer the actual
essence of diversity. “An individual’s spirituality is personal and although effects of their
spirituality may be seen at the surface level, the source is still a deep-level artifact” (Moore, n.d.,
p. 83).

A positive effect of cultural diversity in the workplace is that employees belonging to different
culturesusually have different ways of thinking and can thus analyze a matter at hand from a
variety of perspectives. This is hard to achieve when employees belonging to the same culture
are asked to analyze the same matter. Employees coming from different cultures have different
experiences, which can be beneficial by providing the organization with a sound and vast
knowledge base.

Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner concluded that what distinguishes people from one culture
compared with another is where these preferences fall in one of the following seven
dimensions*:

1. Universalism versus particularism. (rules vs. relationships)

44
 Dimension Characteristics
Universalism People place a high
importance on laws, rules,
values, and obligations.
They try to deal fairly with
people based on these
rules, but rules come before
relationships.
Particularism People believe that each
circumstance, and each
relationship, dictates the
rules that they live by. Their
response to a situation may
change, based on what's
happening in the moment,
and who's involved
2. Individualism versus communitarianism. (the individual vs. the group)
Dimension Characteristics
Individualism People believe in personal
freedom and
achievement. They
believe that you make
your own decisions, and
that you must take care of
yourself.
Communitarianism People believe that the
group is more important
than the individual. The
group provides help and
safety, in exchange for
loyalty. The group always
comes before the
individual.
Strategies
● Help people understand how their
work ties into their values and
beliefs.
● Provide clear instructions,
processes, and procedures.
● Keep promises and be consistent.
● Give people time to make
decisions.
● Use an objective process to make
decisions yourself, and explain
your decisions if others are
involved.
● Give people autonomy to make
their own decisions.
● Respect others' needs when you
make decisions.
● Be flexible in how you make
decisions.
● Take time to build relationships
and get to know people so that
you can better understand their
needs.
● Highlight important rules and
policies that need to be followed.
Strategies
● Praise and reward individual
performance.
● Give people autonomy to make
their own decisions and to use
their initiative.
● Link people's needs with those
of the group or organization.
● Allow people to be creative  and
to learn from their mistakes.
● Praise and reward group
performance.
● Don't praise individuals
publically.
● Allow people to involve others
in decision making.
● Avoid showing favoritism.
45
3. Specific versus diffuse. (How far people get involved)
Dimension Characteristics
Specific People keep work and
personal lives separate.
As a result, they believe
that relationships don't
have much of an impact
on work objectives, and,
although good
relationships are
important, they believe
that people can work
together without having a
good relationship.
Diffuse People see an overlap
between their work and
personal life. They believe
that good relationships
are vital to meeting
business objectives, and
that their relationships
with others will be the
same, whether they are at
work or meeting socially.
People spend time
outside work hours with
colleagues and clients.
4. Neutral versus emotional. (How people express emotions)
Dimension Characteristics
Neutral People make a great
effort to control their
emotions. Reason
influences their actions far
more than their feelings.
People don't reveal what
they're thinking or how
they're feeling.
Strategies
● Be direct and to the point.
● Focus on people's objectives
before you focus on
strengthening relationships.
● Provide clear instructions,
processes, and procedures.
● Allow people to keep their work
and home lives separate.
● Focus on building a good
relationship  before you focus
on business objectives.
● Find out as much as you can
about the people that you work
with and the organizations that
you do business with.
● Be prepared to discuss
business on social occasions,
and to have personal
discussions at work.
● Try to avoid turning down
invitations to social functions.
Strategies
● Manage your
emotions  effectively.
● Watch that your body
language  doesn't convey
negative emotions.
● "Stick to the point" in meetings
and interactions.
● Watch people's reactions
carefully, as they may be
reluctant to show their true
emotions.
46
 Emotional People want to find ways ● Open up to people to
to express their emotions, build trust  and rapport .
even spontaneously, at ● Use emotion to communicate
work. In these cultures, your objectives.
it's welcome and accepted ● Learn to manage
to show emotion. conflict  effectively, before it
becomes personal.
● Use positive body language .
● Have a positive attitude 

5. Achievement versus ascription. (How people view status)

Dimension Characteristics Strategies

Achievement People believe that you ● Reward and recognize good

are what you do, and they performance appropriately.
base your worth ● Use titles only when relevant.
accordingly. These ● Be a good role
cultures value model .
performance, no matter
who you are.
Ascription People believe that you ● Use titles, especially when
should be valued for who these clarify people's status in
you are. Power, title, and an organization.
position matter in these ● Show respect to people in
cultures, and these roles authority, especially when
define behavior. challenging decisions.
● Don't "show up" people in
authority.
● Don't let your authority prevent
you from performing well in your
role.

6. Sequential time versus synchronous time. (How people manage time)

Dimension Characteristics Strategies

Sequential Time People like events to ● Focus on one activity or project

happen in order. They at a time.
place a high value on ● Be punctual.
punctuality, planning (and ● Keep to deadlines.
sticking to your plans), ● Set clear deadlines.
and staying on schedule.
In this culture, "time is
money," and people don't
appreciate it when their
schedule is thrown off.
Synchronous Time People see the past, ● Be flexible in how you
present, and future as approach work.
interwoven periods. They
often work on several
47
 projects at once, and view
plans and commitments
as flexible.
7. Internal direction versus outer direction. (How people relate to their environment)
Dimension Characteristics
Internal Direction People believe that they
(This is also known can control nature or their
as having an environment to achieve
internal locus of goals. This includes how
control .) they work with teams and
within organizations.
Outer Direction People believe that
(This is also known nature, or their
as having an environment, controls
external locus of them; they must work with
control  .) their environment to
achieve goals. At work or
in relationships, they
focus their actions on
others, and they avoid
conflict where possible.
People often need
reassurance that they're
doing a good job.
● Allow people to be flexible on
tasks and projects, where
possible.
● Highlight the importance of
punctuality and deadlines if
these are key to meeting
objectives.
Strategies
● Allow people to develop their
skills and take control of their
learning.
● Set clear objectives that
people agree with.
● Be open about conflict and
disagreement, and allow
people to engage in
constructive conflict.
● Provide people with the right
resources  to do their jobs
effectively.
● Give people direction
and regular
feedback , so that they know
how their actions are affecting
their environment.
● Reassure people that they're
doing a good job.
● Manage conflict  quickly and
quietly.
● Do whatever you can to boost
people's confidence .
● Balance negative and positive
feedback .
● Encourage people to take
responsibility  for their work.
48
CHAPTER ACTIVITY: DISCOVERING CULTURE

NAME: DATE:
YEAR/BLOCK: SCORE:

Direction: Read and follow the instructions provided.

1. Ask yourself “what clues can you gather by looking at your community as an outsider?”
Imagine you are an anthropologist encountering your community in the wild for the first
time. What sayings do you hear? What customs and rituals do you observe? What
artifacts do they hold as having great importance?
2. After gathering such information, what will be your assessment in the community?
3. In case, you are going to create your own organization, will you follow the assessment of
your assessment? If not, what will it be like to manage culture diversity in the workplace.

49
CHAPTER TEST:

NAME: DATE:
YEAR/BLOCK SCORE:

Direction: Each statement contains suggested words for you to choose from. Select among the
given choices which you think will best define the given statement. Write only the letter of your
choice before each number.

A. Specific vs. B. innovation C. organizational D. Personality

diffuse socialization

E. Rituals F. Shared values G. Shared H. Subcultures

assumptions

I. Culture J. Organizational K. Ethical values L. Individualism vs.

performance communitarianism

M. Controlling and N. Universalism vs. O. Separation P. Organizational

competitive particularism culture

Q. Enacted values R. Adaptive culture S. Artifacts T. Diversity

1. It is the values and assumptions shared within the organization.

2. Conscious beliefs are considered as_______________
3. It is considered by experts as the essence of corporate culture.
4. Values that are being put into practice are considered as_______.
5. Opportunity seeking and experimenting are considered as_________
6. It enhances the dominant culture inside the organization.
7. It provides a valuable evidence about a company’s culture.
8. It is the programmed routines of daily organizational life that dramatize the
organizational culture.
9. When the organization are more structured and has symmetrical layout, we can say that
it has ______________ cultures.
10. It is pervasive and works operates non-consciously.
11. It is considered as an organizational outcome.
12. When employees embraces change, creativity and learning, they portray ________.
13. Good behavior in the organization is driven by _________
14. It is the preferred approach for the corporate cultures of diversified conglomerates.
15. The process where the individuals learn the values and expected behaviors to assume
their role in the organization.
16. It is the similarities and differences of people found in our workplace, workforce and
marketplace.
17. Individual likes and dislikes, values and beliefs are considered as __________-.
18. It is about the conflict between an individual’s desire and the interest of the group which
they belong.

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 19. It is the standards by which relationships are measured.
20. This dimension concerns how the people view the picture of life and also concerns the
degree of involvement in relationships.

GETTING TEAMS TO WORK

Objectives:

At the end of this topic, you should be able to:

● Identify issues, processes and behavior that relate to team formation and development
of team performance.
● Modify the team effectiveness model to make viable recommendations in a new team
environment.

Timeframe: 7.5 hours

Key Terms

▪ Team – group of people who are joined for achieving a common goal within a stipulated
period, having collective accountability; any group of people organized to work together
interdependently and cooperatively to meet the needs of their customers by
accomplishing a purpose and goals.

▪ Group – is an assemblage of persons who work, interact and cooperate with one
another in achieving a common goal in a specified time; a collection of individuals who
have regular contact and frequent interaction, mutual influence, common feeling of
camaraderie, and who work together to achieve a common set of goals.

▪ Decision making – is the process of making a choice between a numbers of options

and committing to a future course of actions.

▪ Team Processes – the interactions that occur among team members while performing
the team task and combine individual efforts into collective results.

▪ Team effectiveness – is the capacity of a group of people, usually with complementary

skills, to work together to accomplish goals set out by an authority, members, or leaders
of the team.

TEAMS VS. GROUPS: REVISITED

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Nowadays, group or team concept is adopted by the organization, to accomplish various client
projects. When two or more individuals are classed together either by the organization or out of
social needs, it is known as a group. On the other hand, a team is the collection of people, who
are linked together to achieve a common objective.

Most of the work in a business entity is performed in groups. Although the individual personality
of an employee is important, their effectiveness depends on the teams in which they are working
collectively to achieve any objective. In a particular team, there can be several groups in which
the group members individually help their leader to accomplish the goals. Below you can see
the difference between group and team in an organization, explained in tabular form.

Comparison Chart
Basis for Group Team
Comparison
Meaning A collection of individuals who A group of persons having collective
work together in completing a identity joined together, to accomplish a
task. goal
Leadership Only one leader More than one
Members Independent Interdependent
Process Discuss, Decide and Delegate. Discuss, Decide and Do.
Work Products Individual Collective
Focus on Accomplishing individual goals. Accomplishing team goals.
Accountability Individually Either individually or mutually

In an organization, the groups are made on the basis of common interests, beliefs, experience
in common fields and principles, so that they can easily coordinate with each other. There are
two kinds of groups:

● Formal Group: These groups are created by the management of the organization for
performing a specific task.
● Informal Group: The formation of these groups is done naturally in an organization, to
satisfy the social or psychological human needs.

For example: Ethnic groups, trade unions, friendship circles, airline flight crew, etc.

The agenda of the team is “one for all and all for one”. Apart from sharing information, the team
members also share the responsibility of the team task. The team is always responsible for the
outcome (i.e. Result of the collective efforts of the team members).

The team members have a mutual understanding with other members. They work jointly to
maximize the strengths and minimize the weakness by complementing each other. The most
important feature of a team is “synergy” i.e. the team can achieve much more as the members
can achieve individually. The three key features of team functioning are:

● Cohesion
● Confrontation
● Collaboration

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For example: Cricket team, team for accomplishing a project, team of doctors, management
team etc.

Where does the responsibility lie?

The first team vs team issue to consider is where the focus of overall responsibility for
performance is located. One of the key differences between the team leadership and group
leadership is: “Who is responsible for delivering the total outcome of the individual’s efforts?”

Individual responsibilities – In a group, each member is responsible for only their own
individual contribution. He or she achieves outcomes or makes his/her contribution to the
organization in (relative) isolation. Individuals need to have any concern about what other
members of the group achieve. Group members are likely to develop and individual relationship
with the group leader. Relationship between group leader and different individuals may vary
considerably in their tone and quality.

One individual may need to be managed much more forcefully than another, for example. Other
group members may not be aware of this … and if they were, it is likely to be of little
consequence to them.

Collective responsibility – In a team, such as a sports team, all the players know they ae
interconnected. They understand that it is the quality of their collective performance that
determines the final result: success or failure. In an effective team, each member knows that
they are dependent on the other members for achieving the final result. This means team
members have an interest in helping each other where they can.

TEAMS AND INFORMAL GROUPS

Teams are group of two or more people who interact with and influence each other, are mutually
accountable for achieving common goals associated with organizational objectives, and
perceive themselves as a social entity within an organization.

Team Components:
● Team exist to fulfill some purpose, such as creating an industrial mold, assembling a
product, designing a new social welfare program or making an important decision.
● Team members are held together by their interdependence and need for collaboration to
achieve common goals
● Team members influence each other, although some members may be more influential
than others regarding the team’s goals and activities.
● Team exist when its team members perceive themselves to be a team.

There are many types of teams in organization, and each type can be distinguished by three
characteristics: team permanence, skill diversity, and authority dispersion:

● Team permanence – refers to how long that type of team usually exists. Example:
accounting, marketing, and other departments are usually long-lasting structures, so
these teams have high permanence.
● Skill diversity – a team has high skill diversity when its members possess different skills
and knowledge, whereas low diversity exists when team members have similar abilities
and, therefore are interchangeable.

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 ● Authority dispersion – refers to the degree that decision making responsibility is
distributed throughout the team (high dispersion) or is vested in one or a few members of
the team (low dispersion).

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF TEAMS

Under right conditions

• Teams make better decisions
• Teams can quickly share information and coordinate task, whereas these
processes are slower and prone to more errors
• Develop better products and services
• Create a more engage workforce then those employees working alone
• Provide superior customer service

Project Teams

Project teams are groups of employees who work collectively toward shared goals. This type of
team allows you to structure work in a specific, measurable, and time-constrained way. You can
assign clear roles, responsibilities, and deadlines.

There are four main types of project teams:

1. Functional Teams – These teams are permanent and always include members of the
same department with different responsibilities. A manager is responsible for everything,
and everyone reports to him. These types of teams are more likely to be found in
companies that incorporate traditional project management.

Sometimes, in order to complete a project, several departments need to work together.

For example:

● Work on the new product starts with the idea from the marketing department;
● The idea is passed down to research and development to determine its feasibility;
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 ● After R&D, the design department is tasked with giving it an appealing look and feel;
● And finally, the product is made by the manufacturing department.

This type of approach is known as ‘baton passing’. It requires a manager that has
oversight of the entire project and ensures that there are no obstacles when it comes to
transferring work from one team to another.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Functional Teams

Advantages:
● Handles routine work
● Line management has control of projects
● Pools technical and professional expertise

Disadvantages:
● Difficult communication across areas
● Pushing the decision-making process upwards
● Inflexible

2. Cross-functional Teams – are made up of members from various departments.

These teams tackle specific tasks that require different inputs and expertise.

Advantages and Disadvantages of

Cross-functional Teams

Advantages:
● Greater speed of task completion
● Can handle a wide array of projects
● Source of unconventional ideas

Disadvantages:
● Takes long to develop cohesion
● Management can prove to be challenging
● Diversity can cause conflict

3. Matrix Teams - These teams are characterized by a “two-boss system”, where an

individual report to a different manager for various aspects of his work.

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 Let’s say Jeff, a designer, was given a task of making a design for a new product that
marketing provided an idea for and that R&D deemed feasible. By being included in this
project, Jeff all of a sudden has two bosses: the first one is a project manager who only
cares about the design being done, while the other one is his functional line manager
who’s in charge of Jeff’s training, career development, and routine tasks.

While this approach helps the top management retain control over the project without
being included in day-to-day decisions, employees are often faced with challenges of dual
command: Jeff now has to report to two managers, whom might give him conflict
instructions, which causes confusion and frustration.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Matrix Teams

Advantages:
● Acceptable to traditional managers
● Flexibility for assigned personnel
● Top management controls projects, stays out of daily activities

Disadvantages:
● Dual reporting
● The team leader is usually unable to choose who will be on the project
● Difficult performance appraisal

4. Contract Teams – are outsourced teams that are tied down by a contract and brought
in to complete a part of a project. After the project is completed and the contract has
ended, the client can cut all ties to the team, no questions asked.

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The project manager is the key to success when it comes to contract teams. The
project manager has to:
● maintain constant communication between the team and the client,
● compensate for the lack of a team’s physical presence (given that most contract teams
work remotely),
● bear full responsibility for the success or failure of a project

Advantages and Disadvantages of Contract Teams

Advantages:
● Easy employment of experts
● A team can use the existing management structure
● No need for client training

Disadvantages:
● Difficult assessment of project progress for the client
● Difficult to resolve political and organizational issues
● The client is the only judge of success

Self-managed Teams

Typically, members of self-managed teams are employees of the same organization who
work together, and even though they have a wide
array of objectives, their aim is to reach a common
goal. There is no manager nor authority figure, so it
is up to members to determine rules and
expectations, to solve problems when they arise,
and to carry shared responsibility for the results.

One of the first major companies that decided to

implement self-managed teams was software
company Valve in 2012. Around 300 employees
have neither bosses nor a formal division of labor.
Instead, they are expected to organize themselves
around individual or group projects and are
obligated to take care of customer support
themselves. The work ethic at Valve relied heavily
on individual responsibility.

When setting up a self-managed team, you have to define two parameters:

● Levels of responsibility
● Autonomy that is given to the self-managed team

Research has shown that employees in self-managed teams feel more useful on the job and
find their jobs more challenging, although there is no proof that they are actually more
productive.
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Advantages and Disadvantages of Self-Managed Teams

Advantages:
● Autonomy improves employee motivation;
● Team members can manage their own time and handle tasks when it suits them;
● You don’t have to pay for an office;
● Shared responsibility instills pride in team accomplishments.

Disadvantages:
● The lack of hierarchical authority can put personal relationships over good judgment;
● It can lead to conformity that suppresses creativity and critical thinking;
● An added layer of responsibility is time-consuming and requires skills that some people
simply don’t have;
● Training time and costs are higher due to a broader scope of duties.

Virtual Teams

Virtual teams are made up of people

who work in different physical
locations and who rely heavily on
collaboration tools to get things done
together. Virtual teams provide
members with better life-work
balance and allow business owners
to employ the best experts in the
field, regardless of the fact that they
live on another continent.

One of the organizations that had the

most success with its virtual teams is Automattic, best known by their company, WordPress.
Over 100 employees in 43 different countries use Wordpress plugin P2 that enables them to
communicate with each other in real-time. Also, when a new employee gets on board he
receives $2.000 stipend to improve his home office, gets the latest Macbook, and an open
“time off” policy to use take free time whenever they need.

It may seem a little farfetched, but this policy is one of the key factors behind Automatic’s
success: Wordpress is now used by 27.5% websites globally.

Types of virtual teams

According to the Manager’s guide to virtual teams, virtual teams are characterized by three

dimensions:

● Time - WHEN people work. They could work during different hours, on different shifts, or
in different time-zones.
● Space - WHERE people work. They could be working right next to each other or
hundreds of miles away.

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 ● Culture - HOW and WHOM people work for. ‘Culture’ dimension includes factors such
as gender, race, language, profession, education, nationality, as well as political, social,
religious, and economic factors.

Operational teams

Operational teams support other types of teams. They are formed to make sure that all back
office processes go smoothly.

For example, the Human Resource department does not handle any projects but it has to
perform candidate screening, interviewing, and recruiting. If one of the key players decides to
leave, HR has to find a substitute so the respective team can carry on its work.

Also, operational teams can have their own projects and function like a project team because
they have well-defined roles and responsibilities. For instance, if accounting department
received a task to make an annual financial report by a certain date, they will most likely
devise a timeline, delegate tasks, and keep track of deadline just like any other project team.

The Challenges of Teams

Teams are potentially very productive, but they are not always as effective as individuals
working alone. The problems is that teams have:
● Process losses – resources (including time and energy) expanded toward team
development and maintenance rather than the task
● Brooke’s law – the principle that adding more people to a late software project only
makes it later.
● Social loafing – the problem that occurs when people exert less effort (and usually
perform at a lower level) when working in teams than when working alone.

For teams to work:

1. Form smaller teams
2. Specialize task
3. Measure individual performance
4. Increase job enrichment
5. Select motivated, team-oriented employees

TEAM EFFECTIVENESS MODEL

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Different Team Effectiveness Models

Team effectiveness is the capacity of a group of people, usually with complementary skills, to
work together to accomplish goals set out by an authority, members, or leaders of the team.
Team effectiveness models help us understand the best management techniques to get optimal
performance from our teams. There are several critical factors to achieve maximum group
effectiveness as the six models of team working below will show. 

The diagram integrates the main components of team effectiveness model. This diagram is a
meta-model because each component includes its own set of theories.

Different Team Effectiveness Models

Smart leaders and project managers should be aware of unique dynamics and relationships

within their teams and create room to consistently improve team performance. Google, a
company known for their innovative models of team effectiveness, spent years analyzing what
makes some teams better than others. Their findings? It's less about who's on the team and
more about how well they work together.

Understanding these team effectiveness models will help you figure out which of the team
models would be best to optimize your team by shedding a light on what works and what needs
to be improved.

Rubin, Plovnick, and Fry's GRPI Model of Team Effectiveness

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This model of team effectiveness was proposed by Rubin, Plovnick, and Fry as early as 1977. It
is also known by the acronym GRPI, which stands for Goals, Roles, Processes, and
Interpersonal relationships. Represented as a pyramid diagram, this model outlines four parts
teams need to be effective:

1. Goals: well-defined objectives and desired results, plus clearly communicated priorities

and expectations
2. Roles: well-defined responsibilities and acceptance of a leader
3. Processes: clear decision-making processes as well as work procedures
4. Interpersonal relationships: good communication, trust, and flexibility

Because of its simplicity, the GRPI model is great when starting a team or when encountering a
team-related problem with an unknown cause.

The Katzenbach and Smith Model

After studying teams across several

companies and their various work
challenges, authors Jon Katzenbach and
Douglas Smith unveiled this team
effectiveness model in 1993. Their book,
"The Wisdom of Teams," lays out their
model of efficient teams in a triangular
diagram with the three points representing
the larger deliverables of any team:
collective work products, performance
results, and personal growth. 
To reach these goals, productive teams
must have three necessary components.
These make up the sides of the triangle:
● Commitment: Teams are
committed when they have a
meaningful purpose, specific goals, and a common approach to their work
● Skills: Team members need skills in problem-solving, technical skills to accomplish their
craft, and interpersonal skills to enhance teamwork
● Accountability: Team members must have personal and mutual accountability

The T7 Model of Team Effectiveness

In 1995, Michael Lombardo and Robert

Eichinger developed the T7 Model to define
what factors affect team effectiveness. They
identified five internal and two external
factors, all starting with "T," hence the name,
T7 model.

The internal team factors are:

● Thrust: a common objective or goal

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 ● Trust: the knowledge that your team has your back
● Talent: skills to do the job
● Teaming skills: the ability to function as a team
● Task skills: the ability to execute tasks

The external team factors are:

● Team leader fit: whether the leader works well with the team
● Team support from the organization: how the organization enables the team to work

For a team to be high performing, all five internal factors must be present. However, no matter
how complete the internal factors, if leadership and organizational support are lacking, the
team's effectiveness will be hampered.

The LaFasto and Larson Model

Authors Frank LaFasto and Carl Larson proposed a model in 2001 called Five Dynamics of
Teamwork and Collaboration. They gathered insights from investigating 600 teams across
various industries to answer the question, "what is an effective team?"

The resulting model features five layers or components that increase the likelihood of team
effectiveness:

● Team member: What are his or her skills and behaviors? Picking the right person is the
first step.
● Team relationships: The right behavior in a team builds healthy working relationships
between its members.
● Team problem solving: Good team relationships make it possible to work together to
solve problems.
● Team leadership: The right leadership enhances a team's success.
● Organization environment: The right processes and company culture in an
organization promote commitment from teams.

The Hackman Model of Team Effectiveness

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Richard Hackman proposed an effectiveness model in his 2002 book, "Leading Teams: Setting
the Stage for Great Performances." It outlines five conditions that must be present for teams to
work together successfully.

Hackman's study of analytic teams in the U.S. intelligence community confirms the validity and
effectiveness of these five conditions:

1. Being a real team as opposed to a nominal team: Effective teams have a boundary that
delineates who is a part of the team, the members are interdependent, and membership
is typically stable.

2. Having a compelling direction that everyone works toward: This means setting goals that
are clear, challenging, and of sufficient consequence to motivate team members to strive
together.

3. Having an enabling structure that allows for teamwork: The team's structure — its
conduct and the way it organizes and works on its tasks — has to enable teamwork and
not impede it. For example, if only one person gets to approve the work of 20 people,
then that structure is hampering the team's effectiveness.

4. Having a supportive context within the organization that allows the team to work
efficiently: This means the team receives adequate resources, rewards, information, and
the cooperation and support needed to do their work.

5. Having expert coaching and guidance available to the team: Effective teams in business
are those with access to a mentor or a coach who can help them through issues.

The Lencioni Model

Patrick Lencioni's 2005 book "The Five

Dysfunctions of a Team" lays out a work
team effectiveness model based on the
causes of dysfunctions, conflicts, and
political maneuverings in a workgroup. He
mapped out five qualities effective teams do
not want. To know your team's dysfunction
is to understand how to cure it. The five
dysfunctions are:

1. An absence of trust: If team

members are afraid to be vulnerable
or afraid to ask for help, then they
won't turn to their teammates for
assistance.

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 2. A fear of conflict: If everyone tried to preserve peace at all costs, there wouldn't be any
dynamic conflicts that result in productive ideas.
3. A lack of commitment: If people aren't committed to their work or team, then they won't
follow through on their decisions or deadlines.
4. Avoidance of accountability: This is another drawback of the fear of conflict where no
one wants to hold others accountable for their work.
5. Inattention to results: If personal goals become more important than the success of the
group, no one will monitor and optimize team performance.

Lencioni's team effectiveness leadership model is illustrated as a pyramid, where you tackle
each dysfunction one by one from the bottom up.

Choosing the right team effectiveness model for your team

The different team effectiveness models help you identify specific gaps that hinder your team
from collaborating and producing successful results. Remember that the way a team works
together determines their success much more than the strength of individual team members. 

Therefore, leaders who focus on creating effective teamwork models elevate the work of
everyone involved, and thus the success of their organizations.

TEAM DESIGN ELEMENT

● Task Characteristics

• Teams are particularly well suited for complex work that can be divided into more
specialized roles, and where the people in those specialized roles are able to coordinate
frequently with each other. In contrast, ambiguous and unpredictable tasks are more
difficult to coordinate among team members, which leads to higher process losses and
errors. Fortunately, teams can perform these less structured tasks reasonably well when
their roles are well defined.

For example:

During surgery, medical team members—the surgeon, scrub technicians,

operating room nurses, anesthesiologist, and others—have enough role clarity
and associated expertise to generally know what to expect of each other and how
to coordinate even when unique situations arise

● Task interdependence

The extent to which team members must share materials, information, or expertise in order to
perform their jobs.

● Pooled interdependence, occurs when an employee or work unit shares a common

resource, such as machinery, administrative support, or a budget, with other employees
or work units
● Sequential interdependence, in which the output of one person becomes the direct
input for another person or unit
● Reciprocal interdependence, in which work output is exchanged back and forth among
individuals, produces the highest degree of interdependence.

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Team Size

Teams should be large enough to provide the necessary abilities and viewpoints to perform the
work, yet small enough to maintain efficient coordination and meaningful involvement of each
member.

There should have a balance between having enough people to do all the things that need to be
done, while keeping the team small enough so that it is cohesive and can make decisions
effectively and speedily

Team Composition

Team effectiveness depends on the qualities of the people who are members of those teams.
Teams perform better when their members are highly motivated, possess the required abilities,
and have clear role perceptions to perform the assigned task activities

Five C’s of Effective Team Behavior

Cooperating. Effective team members

are willing and able to work together
rather than alone.

Coordinating. Effective team members

actively manage the team’s work so that
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it is performed efficiently and harmoniously.

Communicating. Effective team members transmit information freely (rather than hoarding),
efficiently (using the best channel and language), and respectfully (minimizing arousal of
negative emotions).

Comforting. Effective team members help coworkers maintain a positive and healthy
psychological state.

Conflict handling. Conflict is inevitable in

social settings, so effective team
members have the skills and motivation to
resolve disagreements among team
members.

Team Diversity

Diversity, is another important dimension of team composition, has both positive and negative
effects on teams. The main advantage of diverse teams is that they make better decisions than
do homogeneous teams in some situations.

Reasons:

• People from different backgrounds tend to see a problem or opportunity from different
angles
• Diverse team members have a broader pool of technical abilities.

Stages of Team Development

Forming, the first stage of team development, is a period of testing and orientation in which
members learn about each other and evaluate the benefits and costs of continued membership.

Storming stage is marked by interpersonal conflict as members become more proactive and
compete for various team roles

Norming stage, the team develops its first real sense of cohesion as roles are established and
a consensus forms around group objectives and a common or complementary team-based
mental model

Performing stage, team members have learned to efficiently coordinate and resolve conflicts.

Adjourning stage occurs when the team is about to disband.

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Team Roles

A role is a set of behaviors that people are expected to perform because they hold formal or
informal positions in a team and organization.

Some roles help the team achieve its goals; other roles maintain relationships within the team.
Team members are assigned specific roles within their formal job responsibilities.

For example,

Team leaders are usually expected to initiate discussion, ensure that everyone has an
opportunity to present his or her views, and help the team reach agreement on the
issues discussed.

Team Norms

Norms are the informal rules and shared expectations that groups establish to regulate the
behavior of their members. Norms apply only to behavior, not to private thoughts or feelings.
Furthermore, norms exist only for behaviors that are important to the team.

• Norms develop during team formation because people need to anticipate or predict how
others will act.
• Norms also form as team members discover behaviors that help them function more
effectively.
• Norms are influenced by the experiences and values that members bring to the team.

Team Cohesion

Team cohesion refers to the degree of attraction people feel toward the team and their
motivation to remain members. It is a characteristic of the team, including the extent to which its
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members are attracted to the team, are committed to the team’s goals or tasks, and feel a
collective sense of team pride

Team Trust
Any relationship—including the relationship among team members depends on a certain degree
of trust. Trust refers to positive expectations one person has toward another person in situations
involving risk. Three foundations of trust in teams includes:

● Based on common mental models

Identification-based and values
trust ● Increases with person’s social identity
with team

● Based on predictability and

Knowledge-based competence
trust ● Fairly robust

Calculus-based trust ● Based on deterrence

● Fragile and limited potential because
dependent on punishment

Identification-based trust is based on mutual understanding and an emotional bond among

team members.

Knowledge-based trust is based on the predictability of another team member’s behavior. This
predictability refers only to positive expectations.

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Calculus-based trust represents a logical calculation that other team members will act
appropriately because they face sanctions if their actions violate reasonable expectations.

TEAM PROCESSES
Why You Need to Understand Your Team Process

Understanding your team process is an important part of leading a team. See the difference
when you worked with teams where everyone knew their role, what should happen when and
what steps to take to get there and with teams where there was no team process.

In both situations, work was still being done. The difference is that teams without defined
processes are running with a high degree of uncertainty and risk.

Team Process Means Repeatable Work, Which Can Be Improved

If you understand your team process, the work of your team can be repeated. When you have a
standard set of steps to follow to produce an outcome, repeating those steps will lead to a
similar result.

When you have a stable set of steps to perform work, you can start measuring them. If work can
be measured, it can be improved.

If you drive the same way to work every day, you will know it takes you 35 minutes to arrive.
When one day you decide to change your route, you can try it for a week and see whether your
journey was any faster. However, if you drive a different way to work every day, it is hard to tell
which may be best.

A consistent team process creates a baseline for comparison. Otherwise, it’s a free-for-all and
you have no way of knowing what works.

Team Process Creates Conditions for Accountability

When a team follows a stable workflow, everyone in the team knows the rules. It is easy to set
expectations when you have defined processes. It is easy because your expectation is that
everybody follows the process.

If somebody chooses not to follow the process, you can spot it. On the other hand, if everyone
in your team works a different way, it is difficult to tell which way people should be working!

Unfortunately, defined processes do not create accountability by themselves. As leaders, we still

need to be holding people accountable by setting expectations and making sure people follow
through. However, understanding your team processes will help to set the baseline so that
you can hold people accountable.

Team Process Improves Stability

If a new team member joins your team, a stable process helps you to bring them onboard.
Without it, a new team member will be extremely confused about how they need to work.
Especially when they see Bob doing things one way, and Carol doing the exact opposite.

With consistent processes, when somebody leaves your team, it is easier for another team
member to step in and fill the gap. Teams with known processes have a better understanding of
the work that everybody does, because they depend on the people around them to work in a
consistent way.

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A defined team process reduces the key person risks in your team. If Jake gets hit by a bus,
other people are more likely to know how he does his job. But if nobody ever wrote down what
Jake did, you are in trouble.

Team Process Helps You Work with Others & Reduces Risk

Teams who have defined processes are much easier to work with, because they can
communicate what they do to others. These might be other teams in your organization, or
external contractors.

Whatever the case, it is much faster to communicate a known process than it is to just work it
out as you go along.  Not only is it faster, it’s less risky.

In a repeatable process, you can make sure that you have the right checks in place to stop bad
things happening. When you follow the steps, you catch the problems more easily and reduce
the risk of serious issues.

Defining and Documenting Your Team Process

Processes are good when people know and understand them. They are even better when
someone writes them down!

You do not need to go overboard when documenting your team process. Complex process
diagrams are not always necessary. What is most important is that you have a defined set of
steps to follow for your team’s usual pattern of work. There will always be variations (which
should also be defined!) that will need to be catered for.

When defining your team process, consider the following aspects:

● Documentation: What forms, templates or other documents does your team need to

complete, and when?

● Communication: Are there any points where your team need to communicate things?
When and to whom? How is this recorded?

● Storage: If your team creates documents as part of their work, where do you store
them? On a website, network folder or in a filing cabinet?

● Metrics: How long should each process step take? If your team needs to deliver
something in two days, can you tell whether this has happened? Can you measure it?
You need to be able to measure to see whether you’re on track.

● Monitoring: As the team leader, can you see the progress of the team’s work? If you
have ten pieces of work underway, you need to be able to see where each piece is up to,
so you can see whether things are going to plan. How should your team keep records so
that you can monitor the progress?

Team processes are important for your team. Don’t leave things to chance. A stable, repeatable
process will reduce risk, help you hold people accountable and work well with others.

TEAM DECISION MAKING

Team Decision Making - teams are more effective than individuals at identifying problems,
choosing alternatives, and evaluating their decisions.

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 Constraints

• Time Constraints There’s a saying that committees keep minutes and waste hours. This
reflects the fact that teams take longer than individuals to make decisions

• production blocking - a time constraint in team decision making due to the procedural
requirement that only one person may speak at a time.

• evaluation apprehension - a decision-making problem that occurs when individuals are

reluctant to mention ideas that seem silly because they believe (often correctly) that
other team members are silently evaluating them.

• Pressure to Conform - Team cohesion leads employees to conform to the team’s norms.

• Overconfidence (Inflated Team Efficacy) - Teams are more successful when their
members have collective confidence in how well they work together and the likely
success of their team effort.

Improving Decision Making in Teams

Organizational Behavior studies have identified four team structures that encourage creativity in
a team setting. These four structures emphasize idea creation, but some also include team
selection of alternatives.

● Brainstorming – a freewheeling, face-to-face meeting where team members aren’t

allowed to criticize but are encourage to speak freely, generate as many ideas as
possible, and build on the ideas of others.
● Brainwriting - a variation of brainstorming whereby participants write (rather than speak
about) and share their ideas
● Electronic brainstorming – a form of brainwriting that relies on networked computers
for submitting and sharing creative ideas
● Nominal group technique – a variation of brainwriting consisting of three stages in
which participants:
1. Silently and independently document their ideas
2. Collectively describe these ideas to the other team members without critique
3. Silently and independently evaluate the ideas presented.

A COLLABORATIVE WORKFORCE

According to management expert Peter Drucker, tomorrow’s organizations will be flatter.

Information-based and organized around teams. Four key developments are driving teamwork
in organizations:

1. Complex Distribution Network – the process of moving a product or service from start
to finish demands complex logistical strategies that must seamlessly integrate various
aspects of the supply chain.
2. Accelerated pace of business - in an internet-based economy, companies are
operating on a 24/7/365 basis. Customers expect immediate engagement via multiple
communication channels and they are apt to find a competitor if their needs aren’t being
met
3. Knowledge sharing critical to success – to handle the rapid change that is impacting
all facets of an organization, employees need to pool their knowledge to generate a
complete picture of a situation and take a quick action

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 4. Millennials emerging the labor force – this generation has tended to learn in groups
rather than by individual study, developing strong collaborative drives best suited to
team-based environments.

THE BUSINESS IMPACT OF GROUP DYSFUNCTION

Despite the trend toward team-based work cultures and the positive impact on companies’
bottom lines, teams are not functioning as efficiently or effectively as they could be. Creating
and managing teams is still:

• Viewed as an art, not a science

• Focused on the individual level, not group
• Conducted haphazardly
• Hindered by weak team leadership

Ignoring or misreading team dynamics negatively impacts businesses in measurable ways. A

lack of visibility into how a team functions can impact employee retention, job satisfaction and
productivity which will ultimately drain revenues and increase costs.

Dysfunctional Scenarios

Though team dysfunction can be traced to several factors, organizations that struggle most
often have managers “stuck” in the following scenarios:

1. “Ineffectual” Leadership Scenario

The team leader does not know (or care) to decipher team dynamics and does not
associate team synergy with successful outcomes.

Example: A team leader in charge of a high-achieving sales team attracts the top
salesperson from the company’s primary competitor. However, the team leader
soon discovers that the top performer’s personality clashes with those of other
team members. As a result, the new rep struggles to perform at her previous high
level, and she eventually leaves the organization. Worse yet, the conflicts
generated from her caustic work interactions undermine the morale of other sales
team members, several of whom defect to competitors, leaving a once great
team in relative shambles.

2. “Subjective” Leadership Scenario

The team leader puts faith in “gut” reactions or subjective methods to make decisions
and manage group dynamics.

Example: A manager recruit’s individuals with working styles similar to her own to
join her team. The problem with her approach, as Logan, King, and
Fischer-Wright note, is that people who share “the same background,
temperament, personality, IQ, and learning style become easy targets for
competitors because the leaders all share the same blind spots, no matter how
smart or accomplished they are.” Moreover, without analyzing the behaviors and
motivational needs of her current team, she may misinterpret the true source of
conflicts and communication breakdowns among the team.
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 3. “Limited Use” Leadership Scenario
The team leader has access to behavioral information for individual team members but
fails to leverage the results effectively, if at all.
Example: A team leader uses behavioral information to assess potential
candidates to add to his team. He successfully targets new team members who
are socially adept and driven by individual achievement. However, he fails to
compare and contrast these data points against those of his current team. Too
late, he discovers that new members of the team are highly competitive and that
this unmanaged difference in behavioral styles is creating significant team
conflict.

UNDERSTANDING THE INDIVIDUALS WITHIN THE TEAM

The key to building productive and harmonious groups is the application and interpretation of
the same behavioral assessments that many leading companies already use for individuals.
This same behavioral data can be leveraged to analyze individuals within the context of a team.

It is possible to apply the data in aggregate to determine the personality of the team as a holistic
unit and to better understand team performance in light of the organization as a whole.
Academic research suggests that trait similarity, dissimilarity or a mix of complementary traits
within a group can enhance performance outcomes depending on the situation.

Team members are thought to be compatible when they share multiple (congruent) traits or
when they possess different but mutually supporting (complementary) traits. With behavioral
data in hand, a team leader can pinpoint these similarities and differences in an objective way to
better manage the group.

DEFINING TEAM PERFORMANCE

Team performance is often what makes or breaks a business – especially a small business or
startup. Often managers can be so focused on the mechanics of the business, but we forget
that the people behind it are what’s driving everything. More importantly, the performance of
your team has a huge impact on your enjoyment of work. When everyone feels as though
they’re making progress towards something important and worthwhile, it creates an enormous
sense of satisfaction and pleasure in work – both for your team members, and for you.

The ability to evaluate teams and the individuals that comprise them with scientifically validated
personality assessments turns team building from guesswork into a discipline and ultimately
serves to improve the health and success of the business as a whole.

Five Keys to high team performance

1. Clear vision for the team - a brief phrase that articulates what the team is about and
what its purpose is adds a lot of meaning to a team.
2. Goals and KPIs (Key Performance Indicator) - should be set jointly – with the team.
They can either be on a team or individual level – this may vary depending on the nature
of the team. The important thing is that they are meaningful for all team members.
3. Transparent Actions - the best way to achieve transparency across the team is to use a
platform where each team member communicates what they intend to do in the day, and

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 what they actually did in the day. Instilling this one thing as a habit for all team members
has an enormous impact on team performance.
4. Regular 1:1 Meetings - Having one-on-one weekly or bi-weekly meetings with each
team member helps you connect with each individual and address any specific issues.
During these meetings you can go over the tasks they’re currently working on, discuss
priorities, and work through any problems.
5. Motivating Team Culture - Sometimes, to build a strong and positive team culture,
you’ll need to invest in activities that don’t feel productive. Activities that help people
know each other better, learn to trust each other, and bond over common interests and
experiences all help build a stronger team culture. If you want a high performance team,
don’t ignore the impact that team culture has on your outcomes.

ACTIVITY NO. 1: MODIFYING TEAM EFFECTIVENESS MODEL

NAME: DATE:
YEAR/BLOCK: SCORE:

Direction: Follow the instructions carefully to generate a good output.

From the team effectiveness models cited in your lectures select one and modify it in
accordance with your preference of an effective team. You may create a diagram and make a
justification about your modified model.

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CHAPTER QUIZ:

NAME: DATE:
YEAR/BLOCK: SCORE:

Direction: Match Column A with Column B. Write your answer before each number.

COLUMN A COLUMN B
1. When members of the team possess different A. High task
skills and knowledge, we can say that the team interdependence
has_____.

2. Self-directed teams authority of dispersion B. Team effectiveness

3. A reason why people are motivated in teams C. Sequential

interdependence

4. It occur when individual performance is difficult to D. Accountability to fellow

distinguish from the performance of other team team members
members.

5. Maintaining team survival is considered as E. Broader pool of technical

abilities

6. The output of one person becomes the direct input F. Norming stage
for another person or unit. This statement is called:

7. __________motivates most people to be part of G. Team efficacy

the team.

8. Accommodating the needs of others is considered H. Social loafing

as_____.

9. Main advantage of diverse teams I. Team leader

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10. Developing team first real sense of cohesion can J. Ineffectual leadership
be seen in________ scenario

11. A set of behaviors that people are expected to K. High skill diversity
perform because they hold a certain position in a
team.

12. It occurs when team members think, feel, and act L. Identification-based trust
like each other.

13. The collective belief among team members in the M. Role

team’s capability to successfully complete the task.

14. The team leader does not know to decipher team N. Cooperating
dynamics is called:

15. Look at jobs and roles on a team and match O. Limited hierarchical
individuals to those job roles. authority

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 KEY TO CORRECTION

CHAPTER 1: MULTIPLE CHOICE

1. B 7. A
2. A 8. A
3. C 9. D
4. D 10. B
5. C
6. A
CHAPTER 2: TRUE OR FALSE

1. T 6. T
2. T 7. T
3. T 8. T
4. T 9. T
5. T 10. F

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 11. F 17. T
12. F 18. T
13. F 19. T
14. F 20. T
15. T
16. F
CHAPTER 3: IDENTIFICATION

1. P 13. K
2. F 14. O
3. G 15. C
4. Q 16. T
5. B 17. D
6. H 18. L
7. S 19. N
8. E 20. A
9. M
10. I
11. J
12. R
CHAPTER 4: MATCHING TYPE

1. K
2. O
3. D

Rubric for Essay

CRITERIA POINTS
Relevance of information 6
Spelling and Grammar 4
Total 10
4. H
5. B
6. C
7. A
8. N
9. E
10. H
11. M
12. L
13. G
14. J
15. I

REFERENCES:

1. McShane, SL and Von Glinow, MA (2018) Organizational Behavior: Emerging

Knowledge. Global Reality, Eighth Edition: McGraw-Hill Education, New York
2. Robbins, SP., Judge, T., and Breward, K. (2018) Essentials of Organizational Behavior:
Pearson Canada Inc.
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3. Buchanan, D. and Huczynski, A. (2013) Organizational Behavior: Pearson Education
Limited, UK
4. Hellriegel, D. and Slocum, Jr., J. (2011) Organizational Behavior, 13th Ed.:
South-Western Cengage Learning, USA
5. Mitonkumarsha (2015)uoda-mba; wordpress-com.cdn.amproject.org
6. http://www.businessdictionary.com
7. Getting Teams to Work (2015) The Predictive Index ebook

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