International Leadership Institute
Individual Assignment for OB and Cross culture Course
Prepared By:
Dawit Asmelash(Sec.B)
ID-ILI/MBA/15/034/19
Submitted to: Kassu Jilcha Sileyew, PhD
June, 2020
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
1:-What Do We Mean by Organization?
An organization is defined as an entity where two or more people are working together
cooperatively within identifiable boundaries to accomplish a common goal or objective.
Implicit in this definition are several important ideas:
Organizations are made up of people(i.e. Members)
Organizations divide labor among members
Organizations pursue shared goals or objectives; and
Organizations have identifiable boundaries (delineated in terms of membership of people
place of understanding the activities.)
2:-What do we mean by Organizational behavior?
Organizational behavior (OB):- is defined as 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. For example, when reviewing topics
such as personality and motivation, again reviewing studies from the field of psychology. The
topic of team processes relies heavily on the field of sociology. In relating to decision making, it
come across the influence of economics. When studying power and influence in organizations,
borrowing heavily from political sciences. Even medical science contributes to the field of
organizational behavior, particularly to the study of stress and its effects on individuals.
3:-Why do some people do well in organizational settings while others have difficulty?
Reason out.
In order to succeed in career situation, peoples need to be armed with the tools necessary to be
lifelong learners. So, my insights may not giving all the answers to every situation peoples
encounter when they start their first job or as they continue up the career ladder. Instead, I will
give the vocabulary, framework, and critical thinking skills necessary for peoples to diagnose
situations, ask tough questions, evaluate the answers they receive, and act in an effective and
ethical manner regardless of situational characteristics.
The following were the top five personal qualities/skills that differentiate and affect people
productivity in the workplace.
1. Communication skills (verbal and written)-
2. Honesty/integrity
3. Interpersonal skills (relates well to others)
4. Motivation/initiative
5. Strong work ethic
4:-What people-related challenges have you noticed in the workplace? List out
Ethical Challenges
Lack of Employee Engagement
Technology
Flattening World
Sustainability and Green Business Practices
Aging Workforce and the Millennial Generation
The Global Marketplace for Staffing: Outsourcing
5:-Why should you care about understanding other people?
It can enable us
to resolve conflicts,
to build more productive teams, and
to improve our relationships with co-workers, clients and customers.
to get important feedback & identify improvement areas.
6:- What challenges do managers and employees face in the workplace of the twenty-first
century?
Some of the challenges are listed below
Ensure that the work of management serves a higher purpose.
Fully embed the ideas of community and citizenship in management systems.
Reconstruct management’s philosophical foundations.
Eliminate the pathologies of formal hierarchy.
Reduce fear and increase trust.
Reinvent the means of control.
Redefine the work of leadership.
Expand and exploit diversity.
Reinvent strategy making as an emergent process.
De-structure and disaggregate the organization.
7:-Discuss organizational behavior time based developmental trend.
Some of the important trends observed are mentioned below:
Globalization
Emerging employment relationships
Changing workforce
Knowledge Management
Information technology and OB
Globalization
Organization in recent days has changed the style of working and tries to spread worldwide.
Trapping new market place, new technology or reducing cost through specialization or cheap
labor are few of the different reasons that motivates organizations to become global. Moreover
the way companies integrate their business practices with other countries has also changed.
Instead of controlling the whole supply chain countries outsource some part of it to gain
advantage of specialization. There are several types of organizational changes that has occurred
to help business adopt to globalization, as the old principles no longer work in the age of
globalization Strategic changes, technological change, change in organizational cultural
including organizational structural change and a redesign of work tasks are some of the
important one. In line with these changes, there is strong expectation of employee to improve
their knowledge and become an integral part of successful business formula in order to respond
to the challenges brought by the global economy. In other words it leads to formation of a
learning organization, which is characterized by creating, gaining and transferring the
knowledge, and thus constantly modifying the organizational behavior.
Emerging employment relationship
Changing trends in organizations in recent years have made it utmost important to consider some
of the emerging employee relations issues which can affect employers in the coming decade.
Understanding these issues will help management to better plan and respond to changes in the
workplace. Employer employee relationship is also showing change in the modern era.
Employers are no more autocrats and participative style of leadership is welcomed. Flexible
working hours and increased authority motivates employees to perform to their best.
Management now welcomes upward communication and participation of lower level employees
in the decision making process.
Changing workforce
The demographic of the workforce has changed in the recent years. This is due to a number of
factors such as an aging population, labor shortages and immigration. Another significant factor
that has changed the workforce is the changes in the attitudes of workers.
Employers need to adapt their recruitment, training and management processes to adapt to
changing workforce. An example of this is that where employers may have previously looked to
younger people as a source of recruits, they may now have to broaden their view as there are
currently a large number of older people either currently employed or seeking employment.
These people may need extra training to bring their skills up to date.
New parents now want to work closer to home or from home, employers may find that they need
to make this a possible option in order to retain or find new staff. Allowing people to work from
home will also make the employer and job more attractive to a wider range of people.
Recent days is also witnessing a shortage of skilled labor in many sectors. Hence employers may
have to take on less skilled workers initially and develop them, rather than simply hiring
experienced people. Hiring employees from overseas also serves the purpose.
Knowledge Management
Knowledge management is a structured activity that improves an organization’s capacity to
acquire, share, and utilize knowledge for its survival and success. Knowledge management is
around us from a very long period of time in one form or the other. The decisions we make and
the action we take both are enabled by knowledge of some type. Hence to improve quality of
these actions and decisions it is important to understand the process of knowledge management.
There are three basic elements of knowledge management
1. Knowledge acquisition: - It is method of learning through experiences, sensation or
perception.
2. Knowledge sharing: - Knowledge sharing is a process through which knowledge is
shared among family, friends or any community.
3. Knowledge dissemination: It is conceptual and instrumental use of new
knowledge.Increased awareness and ability to make informed choice among available
alternatives are the outcomes of knowledge dissemination.
Knowledge maps: - Knowledge maps guide employees to understand what knowledge is needed
to increase their efficiency and productivity and where these knowledge are located.
Information Technology and OB
Technological change and advancement is one of the most salient factors impacting
organizations and employees today. In particular, the prominence of information technology (IT)
has grown many folds in recent years. This innovation in IT has opened new ways for
conducting business that are different from the past. Technology has changed the nature of work
as well as the roles of employees. Managerial decision making, stress handling, and attitude
towards work have changed as an impact of technology. It is also seen from decades that there is
a normal tendency of human being to resist to changes, making adoption of new technologies a
little difficult. It has become important for the business and management to understand and take
these issues into consideration while introducing or implementing any new technology. Frequent
sessions on change management can help employees understand, use and adopt new technologies
easily.
References:
Talya B. & Berrin E. (2012). An Introduction to Organizational Behavior (v. 1.1).
