chapter - Pearson

Chapter 1
Organizational Behavior and Management
29
ity employees. Managing diversity is an ongoing activity that has important implications
for organizations, particularly as diversity is forecast to increase as more and
more women and minority employees enter the workforce.
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CHALLENGE 5: MANAGING THE GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT
The challenge of managing a diverse workforce increases as organizations continue
to expand their operations internationally. Thus, managing in the global environment
is the fifth challenge that we focus on. Global companies like GM, Toyota,
PepsiCo, and Sony all face similar problems of effectively managing diversity across
countries and national boundaries. 51 In Chapter 17, we discuss the global organization
and take an in-depth look at problems of managing behavior in global organizations.
Here, we summarize some of the main issues involved in this increasingly
important task—issues that we also discuss in most other chapters.
First, there are the considerable problems of understanding organizational
behavior in global settings. 52 Evidence shows that people in different countries may
have different values and views not only of their work settings but also of the world
in general. It has been argued, for example, that Americans have an individualistic
orientation toward work and the Japanese people have a collectivist orientation.
These individual orientations reflect cultural differences that affect people’s behavior
in groups, their commitment and loyalty to the organization, and their motivation to
perform. 53 Understanding the differences between national cultures is important in
any attempt to manage behavior in global organizations to increase performance.
Second, the management functions of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling
become much more complex as an organization’s activities expand across the
globe. On the planning dimension, decision making must be coordinated between
managers at home and managers in foreign countries who are likely to have different
views about what goals an organization should pursue. The way managers organize
the company and decide how to allocate decision-making authority and responsibility
between managers at home and abroad is one of the most significant functions of
global managers. 54
On the leadership dimension, managers must develop their management skills
so that they can learn to understand the forces at work in foreign work settings.
They must also tailor their leadership styles to suit differences in the attitudes and
values of workforces in different countries. There is considerable evidence that the
problems managers have in managing diversity inside their home countries are compounded
when they attempt to manage in different national cultures. 55 Finally, controlling
involves establishing the evaluation, reward, and promotion policies of the
organization and training and developing a globally diverse workforce.
All management activities are especially complex at a global level because the
attitudes, aspirations, and values of the workforce differ by country. For example,
most U.S. workers are astonished to learn that in Europe the average shop-floor
worker receives four to six weeks of paid vacation a year. In the United States, a comparable
worker receives only one or two weeks. Similarly, in some countries promotion
by seniority is the norm, but in others level of performance is the main determinant
of promotion and reward. The way in which global organizations attempt to
understand and manage these and other problems can be seen in the way managers
use different methods, including information technology, to manage organizational
behavior. The Global View Insights in this and other chapters, particularly in
Chapter 17, examine the topic of managing global organizations. (See Insight 1.7.)