Organizational Behavior and Terminology

Organizational Behavior and Terminology

1050 words

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

Business owners, their management and scholars have been trying to give their companies the edge for many years. In doing this they have studied all aspects of companies and management. Around the mid twentieth-century it became evident that the way in which people reacted to group environments played an enormous part in an organization's success. In other words a common belief was established, "People are an organization's most important assets!" as stated in Organizational Behavior by John R. Schermerhorn, James G. Hunt, and Richard N. Osborn. This began the study of Organizational Behavior. In the study of Organizational Behavior there are several key concepts and terms that come about. By understanding this concepts and terms a greater understanding of Organizational Behavior is reached. In this paper I will discuss Organizational Behavior, organizational culture, diversity, communication, organizational effectiveness, organizational efficiency and organizational learning, which are just a few of the concepts and terms. I will also give examples of these key concepts and terms from my work experience at A.A. Dodge.

First it is important to understand that Organizational Behavior is the study of human behavior in an organization (Schermerhorn, Hunt, Osborn, ch1, p.4). Organizational behavior goes a step farther than most other studies by giving knowledge that can help in real-work applications. By having a better understanding of organizational behavior one is more capable in creating an atmosphere that will be highly beneficial for a company and a company's employees.

ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

Organizational culture is the next concept that is important to understand. An organizational culture is made up by beliefs and values that the members of an organization govern their actions by (Schermerhorn, Hunt, Osborn, 1, p. 10). The culture of a group aids them in establishing their goals and discovering how to reach those goals. A.A. Dodge built an organizational culture that promotes teamwork and allows employees to implement new ideas to achieve goals. The management team accomplished this by creating a family like relationship between their employees and themselves. By creating this type of relationship they have effectively given their employees a higher desire to achieve the organizational goals.

DIVERSITY

The value of diversity is slowly becoming evident. Diversity has a huge impact on organizational behavior because it holds a huge amount of responsibility in the forming of employees' and community's attitudes toward an organization. Therefore, an individual studying organizational behavior needs to understand diversity as well as the importance of it. Diversity is "the presence of individual differences based on gender, race and ethnicity, age, able-bodiedness, and sexual orientation" (Schermerhorn, Hunt, Osborn, ch. 1, p. 11). At A.A. Dodge had a high-level of diversity, although it seemed to be just the nature of the hiring individuals, because it was something that was never discussed or people even seemed to think about.

COMMUNICATION

Communication is the next term and it is greatly responsible for the fluidity in which the company or organization operates. Communication is a means to change the views of people, increase the knowledge that individuals hold and/or to alter the behavior or people. With the advancements in technology in the past decades the way in which organizations communicate has changed. There are now many different avenues for communication. Some of these avenues are face-to-face contact, letters, and telephone as well as some of the newer ones, such as e-mail and online discussions. At A.A. Dodge communication between employees has stayed relatively simple, due to the small size of the company. Although the communication with lenders and other venders has turned more toward the high tech, using mostly internet conferencing, e-mail and faxes.

ORGANIZAIONAL EFFECTIVENESS AND EFFICIENCY

The organizational effectiveness and efficiency are measurable items that allow for organizations to understand how well they are doing. There are at least