Organizational Behavior

The study of organizational behavior will be a very interesting and valuable study to all students. In order to work on a day-to-day basis with many different types of persons and organizations, one must learn how to understand how and why things are done. In this paper, the basic terminology and concepts associated with organizational behavior will be briefly explained and examples given on how those terms and concepts affect my workplace, Best Drug Pharmaceuticals.

What is organizational behavior? According to Professor Salome O. Siaton (2005), the term organizational behavior is the study and application of knowledge about how people Ð'- as individuals and groups Ð'- act in organizations. We must learn to read people and figure out how they work. We must learn how people respond to different situations and act accordingly. For example, if my boss were to be called to a meeting in New Jersey the very next day, I know how she would respond. She would begin working on a flight and do her best to make it to the meeting on time. Even though she has other responsibilities such as a husband and two children, I know that her job is very important to her and she is very dedicated. Fortunately, that sort of thing does not happen very often because Best Drug does understand that people do have families and spur of the moment meeting do not make employees very happy.

Organizational culture as defined in the text says that it is the things that go on inside an organization such as the shared beliefs and values that influence the workplace and its employees. (Schermerhorn, Hunt, Osborn, 2005, p. 16) At Best Drug Pharmaceuticals there is an overall organizational culture called ACTION. It is called the ACTION culture. All employees should adopt this culture and their daily routine should be based on these beliefs. The A stands for accountability. Employees should be accountable for their actions, productivity, and results. The C stands for communication, which means that the lines of communication are open to management. The T stands for transparency, which basically means that the upper management will keep all employees informed about how and why decisions are made. I stands for Initiative, which is self-explanatory. Every employee must have the desire to make plans to succeed, bring new ideas to the table and strive to achieve that success. The O is for objectives and every employee and their manager go over these objectives on a regular basis to make sure that goals are being met. Finally, the N stands for now. This simply means do not procrastinate. Take action immediately before problems grow into larger ones or until productivity suffers. Best Drug believes that if every employee things and acts on these five things in everything they do, the company atmosphere will be better than ever.

Diversity is a word that anyone in business today should have a full understanding. Diversity is differences, variety. In the workplace, diversity often times means diverse candidates or employees of different ethnic groups. Diversity in the workplace is very important to get a good balance to an organization. Different thought processes come from different backgrounds and ideologies and those differences create many wonderful ways of considering solutions for problems or projects. Best Drug Pharmaceuticals is diverse in the field but upper management is what I call the good old boys club. That is why I do not believe the company will move forward quickly because they are resistant to looking at other approaches and trying to find new and different ways to do things. Just because an organization has "diverse" employees does not mean they put those differences to good use. It simply means they meet the quota for diverse candidates.

The communication in any organization defines their success. If employees and managers cannot communicate their problems to each other then no resolution can be found. Employees must be able to talk to their managers on a personal basis so they feel comfortable working with them. Most of us spend forty hours a week in a working environment and we must be able to relax and feel comfortable