BA 204

HUMAN BEHAVIOR IN
ORGANIZATIONS

Chapter 2: The Changing Environment of

Organizations
 Learning Objectives

After studying this chapter you should be able to:

• Discuss the emergence of international management
and its impact on organizations.
• Describe the nature of diversity in organizations and
identify and explain key dimensions of diversity.
• Discuss the changing nature of technology and its
impact on business.
• Describe emerging perspectives on ethics and corporate
governance.
• Discuss the key issues in new employment relationships.

HUMAN BEHAVIOR IN ORGANIZATIONS

 The Changing Environment of Organizations
The Environment
• The changing environment of
business presents both
opportunities and challenges
for managers today.

• Five important environmental

forces are globalization,
diversity, technology, ethics
and corporate governance,
and new employment
relationships.

HUMAN BEHAVIOR IN ORGANIZATIONS

 The Changing Environment of Organizations
Globalization

Growth of International • Businesses have expanded

Business
• Globalization is the
internationalization of business
activities and the shift toward
an integrated global economy.
• There are four major factors
account for much of the
growth in international trade.
• Communication and
Transportation have
improve dramatically over
the past decades.
internationally to increase
their markets.
• Businesses are moving into
international markets to
control costs especially to
reduce labor costs.
• Business organizations
have become international
in response to
competition.

HUMAN BEHAVIOR IN ORGANIZATIONS

 The Changing Environment of Organizations
Globalization
Cross-Cultural Differences • Culture itself is one major cause of
and Similarities differences.

• Culture is the set of shared • The causes and consequences of

values, often taken for
granted, that help people in a
group, organization, or society
understand which actions are
considered acceptable and
which are deemed
unacceptable.
• The five basic assumptions on
international management:
• important source of synergy in
Behavior in organizational
settings does indeed vary
across cultures.
behavior within organizational
settings remain diverse across
cultures, organizations and the
ways they are structured appear to
be growing increasingly similar.
• The same individual behaves
differently in different cultural
settings.
• Cultural diversity can be an
enhancing organizational
effectiveness.

HUMAN BEHAVIOR IN ORGANIZATIONS

 The Changing Environment of Organizations
Globalization
Cultural Issues
• Individualism exists to the
extent that people in a culture
define themselves primarily as
individuals rather than as part
of one or more groups or
organizations.
• Collectivism is characterized
by tight social frameworks in
which people tend to base
their identities on the group or
organization to which they
belong.
HUMAN BEHAVIOR IN ORGANIZATIONS
• Power distance which can
also be called orientation to
authority is the extent to which
people accept as normal an
unequal distribution of power.
• Uncertainty avoidance which
can also be called preference
for stability is the extent to
which people feel threatened
by unknown situations and
prefer to be in clear and
unambiguous situations.
 The Changing Environment of Organizations
Globalization
Cultural Issues
• Masculinity also called
assertiveness or materialism is
the extent to which the
dominant values in a society
emphasize aggressiveness
and the acquisition of money
and other possessions as
opposed to concern for
people, relationships among
people, and overall quality of
life.
• Long-term values include
focusing on the future, working
on projects that have a distant
payoff, persistence, and thrift.
• Short-term values are more
oriented toward the past and
the present and include respect
for traditions and social
obligations.

HUMAN BEHAVIOR IN ORGANIZATIONS

 The Changing Environment of Organizations
Diversity
Diversity and Business • Prejudices are judgments
about others that reinforce
• Workforce diversity refers to beliefs about superiority and
the important similarities and inferiority.
differences among the
employees of organizations.

• Stereotypes are
generalizations about a person
or a group of persons based
on certain characteristics or
traits.

HUMAN BEHAVIOR IN ORGANIZATIONS

 The Changing Environment of Organizations
Diversity
Dimensions of Diversity

• Primary dimensions of
diversity are those factors that
are either inborn or exert
extraordinary influence on
early socialization.

• Secondary dimensions of
diversity include factors that
matter to us as individuals and
that to some extent define us
to others; however, they may
be less permanent than
primary dimensions and can
be adapted or changed.

HUMAN BEHAVIOR IN ORGANIZATIONS

 The Changing Environment of Organizations
Diversity
Value of Diversity

• Assimilation is the process

through which members of a
minority group are socialized
into learning the ways of the
majority group.

• Valuing diversity means

putting an end to the
assumption that everyone who
is not a member of the
dominant group must
assimilate.

HUMAN BEHAVIOR IN ORGANIZATIONS

 The Changing Environment of Organizations
Technology
Technology and Business • A service organization is one
that transforms resources into
• Technology refers to the an intangible output and
methods used to create creates time or place utility for
products, including both its customers.
physical goods and intangible
services. • Information technology (IT)
refers to everything that
• Manufacturing is a form of businesses use computers for.
business that combines and
transforms resources into
tangible outcomes that are
then sold to others.

HUMAN BEHAVIOR IN ORGANIZATIONS

 The Changing Environment of Organizations
Ethics and Corporate Governance
Managerial Ethics

• Managers face a variety of

ethical situations. In most
cases these situations involve
how the organization treats its
employees, how employees
treat the organization, and how
employees and organizations
treat other economic agents.

• Ethics are a person’s beliefs

regarding what is right or
wrong in a given situation.

HUMAN BEHAVIOR IN ORGANIZATIONS

 The Changing Environment of Organizations
Ethics and Corporate Governance
• Corporate governance refers • Core Principles of Good
to the oversight of a public Corporate Governance
corporation by its board of
directors. • Accountability

• Good corporate governance • Fairness

and social responsibility
help corporations keep things • Transparency
in good balance.
• Assurance
• It also supports the company's
efforts to develop control • Leadership
mechanisms, which will also
increase shareholder value • Stakeholder Management
and promote satisfaction with
shareholders and
stakeholders.

HUMAN BEHAVIOR IN ORGANIZATIONS

 The Changing Environment of Organizations
New Employment Relationships
• Knowledge workers are those
employees who add value in
an organization simply
because of what they know.
• Outsourcing is the practice of
hiring other firms to do work
previously performed by the
organization itself; when this
work is moved overseas, it is
often called offshoring.
HUMAN BEHAVIOR IN ORGANIZATIONS
• A contingent worker is a
person who works for an
organization on something
other than a permanent or full-
time basis.
• A tiered workforce exists
when one group of an
organization’s workforce has a
contractual arrangement with
the organization objectively
different from another group
performing the same jobs.
 ACTIVITY
CASE STUDY: Snow Job

• Read and understand the case entitled “Snow Job” on page 55 -

56 of your e-book.

• On a piece of paper, answer case questions numbers 1 – 5.

• This activity may serve as quiz in this module.

HUMAN BEHAVIOR IN ORGANIZATIONS

 THANK YOU

HUMAN BEHAVIOR IN ORGANIZATIONS