Organizational Behavior Terms

Abstract

Organizational behavior studies organizations and the individuals or groups who make up the organization. The terms organizational behavior, organizational culture, diversity, communication, organizational effectiveness and efficiency, and organizational learning will be defined and examples of how these terms are used in the banking business will be given.

Organizational Behavior Terms

Organizations today are using resources that were considered taboo only twenty years ago. Organizations have been studied and through these studies it has been found that organizations are just like living organisms. Terms of organizations basics means have been defined for all to understand and use in everyday working life. Throughout this paper we will discuss these terms and provide examples of these terms are used within the banking business. To start we will discuss the term itself, organizational behavior.

Organizational Behavior

Organizational behavior is defined as the study of individuals or group's behavior in the workplace and how that behavior inhibits or facilitates the company to achieve its goals (Hunt, Osborn, and Schermerhorn 2005). In order for companies to achieve goals they must acknowledge that their workforce is the backbone of the company. Most companies try to control their workforce by offering incentives. For example, the author use to work for Bank of America and they offered a program called "child care plus." This program would help the companies members pay for child care so the members would not be able to use their children as an excuse to miss work. By providing this program Bank of America would control its member's behavior of absenteeism and increase the company's productivity with a fully operational staff.

Organizational Culture

Going hand in hand with organizational behavior is the organizations culture. While the organizational behavior describes how an organizations members interact to achieve the companies goals, the organizational culture is described as guiding the organizational behavior with a shared values or beliefs (Hunt, Osborn, and Schermerhorn 2005). Quite often companies set their values or beliefs down with a simple statement. Within this statement the company will lay out goals that it wants to achieve over the life time of the company. Currently the author works for Washington Mutual Bank and the mission statement is as such, "to be the nation's leading retailer of financial services for consumers and small businesses" (www.wamu.com). This guides employee's beliefs everyday to provide customer service as they think a leading financial institution should. Another example of the organizational culture is the founding story. The story of how the company began and who founded it is usually used as an inspirational tool for the members of the company (Hunt, Osborn, and Schermerhorn 2005).

Diversity

While the workforce is the backbone of the company, a company also relies on how diverse their workforce is. Diversity in the workforce is no longer another obstacle to overcome in the organization, instead organizations are turning that obstacle around and using it as a "competitive asset" (Huynh, Kerr, Struthers). More companies are seeing diversity as an advantage over the competition by using the new and innovative ideas that emerge form a diverse workforce. For example, several employers that the author worked for have paid extra money per hour if you spoke another language. This helps the company serve minority customers more efficiently and brings more business from these minority groups.

Communication

Communication is defined as receiving and sending messages, through various channels, that have meaning (Hunt, Osborn,