Organization Behavior and Theory Research Paper

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Organizational culture theory and the role and impact of both formal and informal groups on the functioning of modern day organizations.

Organizational culture is the way organizations conducts its business transactions. It also refers to the different perspectives that a company sees things. An organization builds its own organizational culture through structure, history and the traditions of the company (Shafritz 2005). Theories of organizational culture suggest that culture gives an organization a sense of identity and defines what the company stands for. It also tells us what the company is. Culture also gives details to the principles of the company. Organizational culture in broader terms is the collective behavior of humans and the meaning of the actions that people do.

It involves the vision, norms, systems, beliefs and the organization values. Organizational culture contains values accepted by the employees of an organization. There are four main categories of organizational culture. Dominance and power drives from the power culture. The role culture outlines the roles and duties that one has (Shafritz 2005). The task culture will exist when there is the formation of teams. The person culture exists when the organization allows its employees to express themselves and be involved in decision-making.

According to Shafritz (2005), the role of formal groups is to perform certain specified tasks aimed at attaining the goals of an organization. The impact of formal groups is that the organization can achieve its set goals. This is because the formal groups perform specified tasks. The groups do not deviate from the tasks given ensuring that it performs accordingly. Informal groups have the role of satisfying individual needs of the employees who decide to seek membership. The impact of this group is that security, social interactions and knowledge acquisitions get addressed since the group pushes the management team to act accordingly. Informal groups exist because of the shared interests that develop and exist between the members of the organization.

The relationship between values and decision-making incorporating the impact and influence of ethics, politics, economics, environment, growth, diversity, and technology

A person's values determine the decision that he or she makes when faced with a situation. The values also determine whether the decisions that he or she makes are ethical or unethical. Good and accepted values enable a person make just and right decisions. Immoral and culturally unaccepted values make one make bad decisions that will affect him or her negatively in life (Van Wart 1998). These bad decisions will also affect other people directly or indirectly. Ethics is moral principles that define the good and the bad in the society. Ethics define what is good or bad. Good ethics lead to good decision-making processes that lead up to good outcomes.

Ethics influence the decisions that people make in their day-to-day lives. The society has moral accepted ways of doing things, therefore, influencing the decisions that one make (Van Wart 1998). Politics has influenced both positively and negatively to the society. Most of the time, negative impacts outweigh the positive impacts. Many people make political decisions considered as ethical while others are not. Many at times, politicians make decisions that are corrupt and immoral in nature. These decisions aim at benefiting the politicians at the cost of the common people. People have the desire of achieving success in terms of money. Many people have different methods in the acquisition of wealth. These different methods may be ethical where a person may decide to work hard to earn money. Others may decide to involve crime in the acquisition of acquire wealth.

According to Van Wart (1998), a person's environment influences what decisions a person will make. A person will make unethical decisions if he is in the company of bad people. Technology, diversity and growth influence the decision-making processes in much the same way. Technology brings about pollution of the environment. It is ethical that manufacturing companies seek ways of minimizing the pollution of the environment. The decision to do this is ethical.

Discuss how Herbert Simon's Bounded Rationality Model (page 31-34) affects decision making in a bureaucratic environment. Cite a particular example where you may have used this model in making a decision in your professional role/environment

Bounded rationality is the fact that, in decision-making, the information that a person has limits the rationality of the person. According to Herbert (1976), rationality is "a style of behavior that is appropriate to the achievement of given goals, within the limits imposed by given conditions and constraints.

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" Other scholars state that, in a bureaucratic environment, there are two types of economic rationality models: substantive and formal rationality. The formal rationality refers to quantitative accounting processes that are technically possible and easily applied. The substantive rationality refers to how an economic action serves an ultimate value no matter what it is.

Gormley (2008) goes ahead to state that substantive rationality which comes from the rationality complex in economics as the " achievement of given goals within the limits imposed by given conditions and " The other model of rationality to Herbert is the procedural rationality that refers to behavior, which comes because of deliberation. Many people across the world are rational in their behaviors. The remaining part is the emotional or the irrational part. Classic rationality models are realistic. The bureaucratic environment views human beings as average rational beings who act in accordance to their set preferences. The dimensions that make human beings rational beings include recognition of costs incurred at gathering information, possibility of a vector utility function and limitation of utility functions.

An example of bounded rationality is when I was in a jewelry shop where I wanted to acquire a piece of jewelry for a friend. I wanted to acquire a gold chain, but did not have a clue how much gold chains cost at the markets. With my impatience, I wanted to buy the chain as fast as possible so that I could not get late at my friends' birthday party where I would present him with the chain. With my impatience and lack of knowledge about gold, I was not rational enough to bargain price of the chain and, therefore, bought the chain at relatively higher price than the required price.

Provide a comprehensive description of "bureaucracies" including network theory, values, client participation, and the five lessons learned from evaluating bureaucracies in light of theories. (b)Additionally, please include five positive aspects of bureaucracies from your perspective

Administration applied through the division of labor is what is bureaucracy is. A bureaucracy in broader terms means a form of government with non-elected officials that implement laws and rules and the primary functions of their institutions (Herbert 1976). It is the division of labor in the administrative works of the government. Another deep definition of bureaucracy is the organization of some characteristics such as rules and authority hierarchy. Other scholars define bureaucracy as a body consisting of non-elected officials in the government. These officials carry out administrative works and ensure that all the people follow the laws and rules set up by the judiciary.

Values are the things that are most relevant to the life of a human being. Values differ from one person to another. Values are the rules that affect how we behave or react to certain circumstances that occur (Gormley 2008). Client participation is the central determinant values in which people believe that the involvement of clients brings more effectiveness in the tasks and duties undertaken. It is common knowledge that client participation leads to effectiveness. Bureaucratic structures have evolved from following some changes that include. Jurisdiction areas are specified clearly where the activities regarded as official duties. It is mandatory for organizations to follow hierarchical principles. Administration and production means belong to an office. Officials in a bureaucracy appointed according to their academic qualifications. In an organization, the employment is a career.

The main positive aspects of bureaucracy are that technical competences determine the appointment and the promotion of an official. This leads to employment of officials qualified and competent to tackle the tasks in the office. Bureaucracy enables the growth of organizations into complex systems that (Gormley 2008). The formulation of bureaucracies enables an organization to achieve the set goals that it has set. The hiring of a competent team of officials enables work done professionally.

(a) Discuss how each (task, relationships, political support, and leadership) is approached based on gender (both male and female) and (b) how these differences impact bureaucratic performance.

Men and women perform different tasks in the society. There are tasks that women cannot do whereas the men are competent. Other tasks are hard for men to perform while the same tasks are easy for the women. The changing world enables women to work in the fields that many people regarded as belonging to the men. Women are now working in construction companies as a form of employment. The tasks affect positively in a bureaucratic performance since women incorporate their skills.....

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