ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR + NATIONAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

(http://natyrpo.blogspot.com/2010_03_01_archive.html, September 2010)

Human behavior is a deeper subject and as Nelson, Debra L. and Quick, James Campbell said is “complex and often difficult to understand”. Since the perspective of human behaviors we can see two the internal and external perspective. “The internal perspective has given rise to a wide range of motivational and leadership theories” (Nelson, Debra L. and Quick, James Campbell, 2010) in a few words the internal perspective is inside the person, versus the external that is “focuses on factors outside the person to understand behavior” (Nelson, Debra L. and Quick, James Campbell, 2010). Those alternatives gave as an alternative explanation of human behavior. Also human and organizational behavior can be looked as “clockwork” or “snake pit” those metaphors can show the difficult that can be understand human behavior.
Organizational culture are a series expectations, norms, goals common to a group inside of an organization, institution, company or group of people and usually it may change between organizations, in the organizational culture is common to see symbols, stories, power structures, rituals and routines, control systems, and organizational structures all this as organizational values and culture. Also inside the organizational culture is very important to understand the national culture and as Mehri Ezadi Yeganeh said in his document “The impact of national and organizational culture on information technology (IT)” “Notion of culture as multiple and inclusive definitions. Sometimes the description culture is applied exclusively to what is observable or recordable. An alternative conception of culture is: subjective, or implicit. As a whole Culture is a pattern of thinking, felling and acting that is learned throughout a person’s life, beginning in early childhood Groeschl and Doherty pointed out that culture is more complex and difficult to define. Culture consists of several elements of which some are implicit and others are explicit. Most often these elements are explained by terms such as behavior, values, norms and basic assumptions. Several recent studies have suggested that values are important category of culture. Values and practices are acquired early in life through childhood socialization and education then stable in nature but they can change over time and these changes can reflect in the culture. Practices develop in life by activities in society and they more likely to change than values. Hofstede defined national culture as "the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one group or people from another"
All those elements culture, organizations, national and organizational culture gave us the key to understand pretty much the human behavior were the external and internal factors are very important.
This video can show us a little bit of human behavior: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2uaw_bjork-human-behaviour_music (BJORK, Human behavior)

REAL LIFE EXAMPLES
Implications of national and organizational culture may affect business one case can be a Colombian enterprise and Japanese; as we know Colombian culture in terms of time is very relaxed and flexible manner. Punctuality is not essential and planning things to the minute is not common also Colombians tend to communicate in an indirect and subtle manner. It is important to not offend others and always be as diplomatic as possible. Colombian companies tend to have vertical hierarchies. This hierarchy is an important part of Colombian business culture and should be respected whenever possible. In Colombian business culture, cultivating close personal relationships and building trust are considered vital components for a successful working environment. Colombians prefer to do business with people whom they know/trust and it is not uncommon to find many family members working for the same business. (http://www.communicaid.com/access/pdf/library/culture/doing-business-in/Doing%20Business%20in%20Colombia.pdf, August 23, 2010). In other hand Japanese culture deals “with its roots in Confucianism, hierarchical structures classify an individual's position within a group and in society. Status is determined by factors such as age, employment, company and family background. The hierarchical system dictates that due respect be afforded to those of higher status. When doing business in Japan be aware of hierarchy and adapt your behavior accordingly. When doing business in Japan a successful relationship with a Japanese colleague or client is based on three factors: sincerity, compatibility and trustworthiness. Sincerity means that you are compromising; understanding and you want to conduct business on a personal level. Compatibility is established when you are seen to be concerned about the personal relationship, the well being of the company and not just focused on financial gain. Trustworthiness relates to the faith put in you to protect from loss face.” (http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/etiquette/doing-business-japan.html, August 23, 2010). For all those things is very important to understand and to know each of the cultures and in this specific case Colombia – Japan organization also time zone can affect relations.
Another example can be the business negotiations with Saudi Arabia has several implications because to their culture is to first create the trust with potential business partner, have several lunches, meetings and meetings before closing a business. They use to give great importance to words rather than the documents in the negotiations. Dialogue is usually very slow, since it must involve the family and friends, because they are an important part of their culture and of the day by day, to the point of participation and voice in the negotiations.
Negotiations and talks are quiet and slow, as mentioned above, are indirect people never go straight to the point, like to know about in visitors, family, culture, etc. but keeping the distance and respect, as might be done by asking about their lives. Never interrupt a meeting, if there is a circle of people must make a detour to pass, not by the medium. It is forbidden for men to wear shorts and go out in public with a woman, unless there is a family relationship with her.
At lunchtime, you must first thank on behalf of Allah, you should always eat or drink with your right hand, never left, because that is considered "unclean." Do not reject or make negative comments about food, you must eat everything and is in poor taste to repeat a lot.

- DO YOU THINK THERE IS A CORPORATE CULTURE IN EVERY ORGANIZATION?
- IF WE ASSUME THERE IS: CAN IT BE MODIFIED?

"Organizational culture is the set of operating principles that determine how people behave within the context of the company. Underlying the observable behaviors of people are the beliefs, values, and assumptions that dictate their actions." ( Khan, Asim. 2005.“Matching People with Organizational Culture”). The organizational culture may exist in every organization because since the organization is established or thought the time of the organization, is because it was created with the born of the organization or it was created for each behavior, value or attitudes of the human resources, this is an essential thing for an organization because it is necessary that everybody goes in the same way with particular goals, and it is necessary that they work as a team even if they are is different areas.
According to Ed Petry (Ethikos Draft) "Every organization has an existing culture. For most, the good news is that their existing culture, while containing a few bad elements, is largely in good shape. The task, therefore, is not to create or invent a new culture, but to identify what exists, assess where improvements are needed, develop an action plan and implement. This may seem obvious and yet the temptation may be strong to skip the preliminaries and jump right into action plans and implementation. Too many organizations assume they know what their culture is and that it can be summed up in a slogan like: “we have a culture of innovation” or “we’re an action-based culture.” Others assume their values statement adequately represents their unique culture. Ideally, your values statement should be an expression of your “shared values” and as such a concise description of your corporate culture, but don’t assume that it is."
After all of this we can get deeper in the question: Can it be modified? It is possible to say it can be modified but some cultures are more inflexible than others and the changes in those cultures are harder to do. For instance organizations with older people are meant to be more reluctant to changes because their behaviors, beliefs and attitudes are so different and sometimes they don’t accept the innovation and the tecnification of the process and procedures, also “Managers and employees alike are challenged to meet change in positive and optimistic way: change in how work gets done, change in psychological and legal contracts between individuals and organizations, change in who is working in the organization, and change in the basis for organization” (Nelson, DL, & Quick, JC. 2010)