Ethical Decision Making in Organizations

Decisions making, is one of the most important dilemmas of the CEO’s, he is the person who has to decide what strategy is going to implement the company, and having two options the right side or the wrong side. There are two types of decisions, the programmed decisions (which need to resolve with no hurries and for certain situations) and the Nonprogrammed decisions (which need to resolve more creatively and faster).

In the decision subject, there is a topic that is the most important to highlight, is the risk that the CEO has to take in the moment that is implemented the decision previously selected. But not all of the CEO’s likes to take risk. There are two types of CEO’s; the risk takers and the risk aversions.

• Risk Takers: They are more creative, accept greater potential for loss and have tolerated greater uncertainty

• Risk Aversions: They are more classic at the time to take decisions; they don’t like to feel uncertainity. 

Group decisions must be better, but sometimes it would be complicated to handle all the opinions, for this reason the CEO has to be clear in which situation has to consider the opinion of the employees and which situation has to take decisions by himself, always acting with ethical behavior. 

Question:

How can organizations effectively manage both risk taking and escalation of commitment in the decision-making behavior of employees?

First of all the CEO, needs to be sure that the employee is capable to take these important decisions and has to know if the employee feels job satisfaction, these could assurance that the employee has a really commitment with the organization. The results would be positives if the CEO has a good motivation method that makes feel to the employees happy and comfortable.  

http://www.decision-making-solutions.com/images/DecisionTypes-Business-Ethics-FigureBeingPulledByGoodAndEvil-iStock_000005504476XSmall.jpg

References:

• Mintzberg, H. & Westley, F. (2001, Spring). Decision making: It’s not what you think. MIT Sloan Management Review, 42(3), 89 –93.
• Nelson, D.L. & Quick, J.C. (2010) OrganizationalBehavior: Science, TheReal Worldand You. South-Western CollegePublication, 7th. Ed.
• Wong, K. F. E., & Kwong, J. Y. Y. (2007). The role of anticipated regret in escalation of commitment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 545–554.

The Corporation

The documentary shows that the corporation is an organization that operates on the entire world having as it first objective the achievements of the goals. Nowadays, corporations are very important in the world, this is because they are acquire some things than another organizations never couldn’t had. For example, the corporations can be legally responsible or can buy properties and assets, but in the same way they have the freedom to act with immorally attitudes in some cases, they don't matter the consequences that they have to pay for do this horribles things.

Question:

As a legal organizational model, how does the rise of corporations influence the aspects of culture in pursuing profit?

The influence is negative, this is because the news and olds organizations are aware about the organizational culture and how this has to be based on a several values and principals that has to be accomplish. On the other hand the only objective of the corporation is to have profits, no matter how to get them. 

http://conciencianoosfera.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/the_corporation.jpg

References:

http://www.thecorporation.com/

Organizational Motivation

According to business dictionary, we can define motivation as “Internal and external factors that stimulate desireand energyin people to be continually interested in and committed to a job, role, or subject, and to exert persistent effort in attaining a goal”.

There are several theories about this subject that explain the behavior that the CEO’s has to implement to have motivated employees, inspiring them to do the work.

Principal Theories:

1. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: it is the most influential theory, which explains motivation based on a pyramid of needs.  

http://drvaleriegalante.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/maslows-hierarchy.gif

Maslow said “when an inferior rank need is satisfied, the next level need becomes dominant and the attention is dedicated to the accomplishment of this higher rank need”. This says, when a need is supplied, the next one becomes with the same importance than the last one had. However this theory has received several critics because not all the people have the same priorities.

2. Frederick Herzberg’s Two Factors Theory: He based his investigation on professional satisfactions and professional dissatisfactions, which he called; Motivation factors (psychological growth) and Hygiene factors (avoidance of pain). 

3. Theory X and Theory Y: The theory X, is about the employees that always are thinking on a negative way, are avoiding work and responsibilities. On the other hand, theory Y is about the employees that always are thinking beyond the responsibilities that already had.   

It is important motivate the employees in a positive way, this could give to the company some of certain that it will be successful in the future.

Question:

In multicultural organizational contexts what could be a good strategy to keep people motivated towards a common task?

First of all, it is important give to the employees a salary that could sustain their principal needs, and also give them all the benefits, this is not only important for the employee it is important for the company to be secure in case of accidents or another circumstances. But not only economical part is important; the way that they feel in the organization is the most important of all, because if they don’t feel comfortable and happy with their work, they don’t want to do the work with the same capability and love.  The CEO, plays an important role, he has to be very king with the employees, making sure that they feels comfortable working in his company.

References:

• Nelson, Debra L. and Quick, James Campbell. 2010. OrganisationalBehavior –Science, the Real World, and You. South-Western CengageLearning, Mason, USA. Chapter5.
• Business Dictionary (2010). Definition of motivation. Retrieved on January the 5th2011 from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/motivation.html

Personality, Perception and Attribution: Attitudes and Values

Personality is one of the most important factors on the organizational culture and behavior, this is because personality is a group of characteristics that one person have that influence an individual’s behavior. According to the employee personality the CEO could see if the person is adequate to the job, depending on what is reflecting, his tastes, his thoughts, his actions in different moments, etc.

However, personality is not only about the actions or behavior, this definition also includes values, emotions, cognitions, attitudes, expectancies and fantasies. On the other hand, Organizational personality has several highlights points in Core self-evaluation:

·        Locus of control: This factor is about the internal and individual control versus external control in several situations.

·        Self-esteem: This factor is about the love of self-work. It is important because this factor gives him security of himself.

·        Generalized self-efficacy: This factor is about believed in yourself like a capable person, who has the capacity to be a successful business.  

It is important for the employee to have a good attitude from himself, always thinking that is a successful entrepreneur capable to be any business in the market.

Question:

What is your perception of a Japanese aid worker before and after the talk with Yasuko? On what do you base your perception?

Before I met Yasuko, I thought that the aid workers from Japan or from other countries used this opportunity to learn some languages depending of the country assigned. After Yasuko talk, I think that the aid workers from any part of the world are trained already, and they need the language before the travel to the country, also the commitment of these aid workers it is very relevant, and the mission of the workers needs to be achieved.     

http://www.ere.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/istock_000006207858xsmall.jpg

References:

• Harrison, D.A., Newman, D.A., Roth, P.L. 2006. How important are job attitudes?
• Nelson, D.L. & Quick, J.C. 2010. OrganizationalBehavior: Science, TheReal World andYou. South-Western CollegePublication, 7th. Ed.

    

Organizations Behavior and National and Organizational Culture

Organizations Behavior.

To understand the organizations behavior, first of all is important to explain the definition of organization; "Is a structured social system consisting of groups and individuals working together to meet some agreed-upon objectives". There are too many variables that affect the human behavior at work, complementing the study of this science, for example jobs, the design of work, communication, performance appraisal, organizational design, etc. From this, now we can define organizations behavior like "The study of individual behavior and group dynamics in organizations".

Kurt Lewins thought that the organizations behavior was very important to the organizations, for this reason he created an equation and a definition that explain that:

 “Behavior is a function of both the personand the environment (system)”.

B = f (P/E)

The study of organizations behavior is based on several sciences that we already know like medicine, management, anthropology, psychology, sociology, engineering, there have a huge influence on the behavior of the employees. All of these sciences are important to the developing of the organizational behavior because in a different way all are related to the subject in some aspect (minimum or maximum) that we are talking about. 

 

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In organizational behavior there are several levels that evaluate it, to be easier to understand and to handle it. There are 3:

·        Group Processes: Is based on the communication

·        Individual Processes: Is based on the work individual attitudes.

·        Organizational Processes: Is based on the structure of the organization.

It is important to highlight that there are two perspectives to see the organizations behavior, the internal perspective, which considers factors inside the person to understand behavior, and the other one is the external perspective which focuses on factors outside the person to understand behavior.

This subject is very important to the managers and CEO’s to know how to handle their employees and how to be more competitive in the market. 

Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCOOnlEnudY&feature=related

National and Organizational Culture.

The national culture is one of the most important influences that organizational culture has, this is because the people that works in the company normally acts following the national culture and acting in this way. From the last one we can define what it is an organizational culture: “A set of values or beliefs that is unique to any one organization”.

If the culture is well established could gives the company guides decision making, guides employee behavior, however could provides identity for the employees creating a commitment between them with the organization. For example, the organizational culture in Japan is based on the collectivism creating lifetime work, on the other hand, United States works based on the individualism.

The organizational culture needs to be diversify, this is because not all the time the employees has to be from the same country or from the same culture, given them the facility to have a comfortable adaptation in the company even if they are from another culture. But this is not the only reason; another one is when the company wants to internationalize the company. 

Videos about Organizational Culture:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO2vNyBroco&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOvw6a0R3J4&feature=related      

Question for Organizational Culture:

• Why is managing organizational behavior in changing times challenging?

In Changing times, is very important to have a good managing of organizational behavior, because these are times that the company needs to take several decisions that are going to make the difference in the organization envionment. It is important that the CEO shows a good attitud towards the crisis, because he is the reflects of the company and he can gives to the employees a security environment. In changing times it is easier to the company work in teams, implementing methods like brainstormings having solutions in a quickly way.

References:

Nelson, Debra L. and Quick, James Campbell. 2010. Organisational Behavior –Science, the Real World, and You. South-Western Cengage Learning, Mason, USA. Chapter 1 and 2.

Cameron, K., & Quinn, R., (1999). Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture. New York: Addison-Wesley.

Mead, Richard. 2004. International Management: Cross-Cultural Dimensions.London: Blackwell Publishing. Chapter 1.

Nelson, D.L. & Quick, J.C. 2010. Organizational Behavior: Science, The Real World and You. South-Western College Publication, 7th. Ed. Chapter 1.