Introduction
The culture of any organization defines its performance depending on whether the employees have a performance culture. As such, organizations need to ensure that they have a conducive work environment for employees to develop a strong performance culture and pass it to new employees. Organizational behavior refers to the study of human behavior, attitudes, and performance in organizations. These aspects are determined by the culture of the organization. This paper provides a scenario of XYZ Ltd, a company that has been experiencing cross cultural challenges in its new subsidiary in United Arab Emirates. The scenario will be used as basis of putting up strategies to deal with the problem.
Scenario
XYZ Ltd opened a new branch in United Arab Emirates as part of an expansion program from Europe. The top management of the branch is headed by expatriates from its headquarters in Europe except the human resource manager. The other employees are locals. The branch has been facing many challenges due to cross-cultural issues. For example, there is lack of team work which has resulted in the subsidiary’s inability to gain competitive edge. The local employees use Arabic to communicate while the expatriates use English. The interaction between the employees has been minimal with a lot of mistrust between the two groups. The other challenge has been the working hours and the general work ethics.
Ritual/Ceremony
In order to overcome the cross-cultural challenges, XYZ will introduce a ceremony that will be conducted in every last weekend of the month. The ceremony will be referred as Staff Development Day. The main aim of the ceremony will be to foster understanding among the employees and to create a unified team. In addition, the day will instill a sense of belonging and commitment to the employees. During this day, both the administration and the subordinates will meet and have a meal together. This time will give the organizational members a good time together to eat, talk, and celebrate one another. Apart from the benefits of being together, the ritual will help in building openness and trust between the staff and their administrators. The togetherness helps the employees to embrace the different cultures and discuss policies that can be put in place to enhance the company culture that is in line with its core practice. The ceremony will also be used as a means of understanding the ways to treat customers without infringing on their culture. Such a ritual is not only important for strengthening the organizational bonds, but will also help in the sharing of the accepted organizational ethical values and principles. These shared principles will give a sense of purpose to the organizational members, motivating them to work hard and achieve the set goals. As such, they will be willing to work stay for the organization as a team and hence eliminate the mistrust.
Organizational Language
Communication is very critical for effective performance and growth of any organization. As a result, XYZ will develop a unique organizational language to enhance understanding in the organization and ensure members can interact freely and give easily understandable information. The common language in the organization will reveal the psychological contract of both the employees and the employer reducing the chances for disappointments. It will also enhance the organizational culture and employees will develop a sense of belonging to such culture. The language developed will incorporate employee sentiments regarding shared meaning of words. The language will entail striking the balance in relation to use of Arabic and English. The core mandate of the company is to serve customers diligently and ensure team work in the organization. Thus, the organizational language will entail use of English in the organization while Arabic will be used to reach customers. The managers will also sensitize the expatriates on the use of gestures and what is required of them while interacting with the locals.
Values for Strong Adaptive Culture
The values to help in adapting a strong corporate culture will depend on the stability or dynamism of the environment and the organization’s orientation both internally and externally. In the case on XYZ, the interaction between organizational orientation and changes in the environment will help the organization to adapt strong corporate culture. A competitive culture will involve the values that guide the management in encouraging and valuing high competition in the workplace. The operation of any company that has a robust competition culture relies on an environment that is grown and stable with high competition for greater market share. The organization will thus focus on the operations of its competitors as it needs to learn the strategies used such that it can identify any weaknesses, as well as potential opportunities in the market. With these shared values, organization’s members will be in a position to develop a sense of motivation and willingness to continue working for the organization.
Further, XYZ Ltd will use rigid leadership that emphasize on aspects such as prestige, mandate, effectiveness, as well as stability. Leaders of the organization will work hard to ensure employees maintain a culture of stability with the internal focus of their strategies. These values will put a lot of consideration on the role of the company to stick to values that it has set, procedures, as well as policies that ensure a smooth operation of the organization. The company will adopt corporative culture that involves values of strong belief in leadership and the strengthening of the bonds between employees and their employers. As such, the organization will design its standards, tasks, policies, and procedures with the main goal of encouraging power-sharing, cooperation, companionship, and teamwork. As such, success will be achieved if the internal employee interactions are friendlier than the external interactions. Such a culture will ensure employees work towards attaining both the long-term and short-term goals of the organization, the provision of core values, and upholding of business principles in their operations. As such, the organization will encourage creativity, innovation, and flexibility amongst employees. This will be critical in achieving competitive edge.
The Process of Socialization
The process of socialization in organizations will involve three stages. The first stage will be the anticipatory socialization stage. This stage will involve any form of learning newcomers will get prior to joining the organization. Practicality, it will entail the degree of expectations held by the newcomer concerning the organization and the job they are expected to perform. The second stage will be the encounter stage in which the newcomer will be required to discover the tasks of the organization that associates with the job. It is still in this stage that the newcomer will get clarity on roles and explained how to establish work relationships. The final stage will be the change and acquisition during which there will be the mastery of the job demands. This stage will end when the newcomer is considered an organizational insider by other organizational members.
Defining Characteristics of Organizational Culture
The defining characteristics of the culture of any organization help in understanding the organization. Culture defines what an organization stands for from its sayings, slogans, and mottos and the manner of interaction between employees and customers. In most of the organization, culture can be assessed from the leaders of the organization, while the source of culture in other organizations is defined from the organization’s mission. XYZ Ltd will have unique acronyms, expressions, and sayings that are only understood by its members. Other cultural defining characteristics will be the mission and values of an organization. The company will have a clear mission statement to define how the company intends to function for the attainment of its goals as stated in its vision statement. Sharing common values as well as valuing employees of the organization will act as motivators for better organizational performance. In addition, the company will use symbols that enhance the cross-cultural integration. The symbols will act as powerful statements of the company as they represent trademarks or behavioral patterns that communicate the culture without any word of mouth.
Influence of Culture on Performance
Culture has a tremendous effect on the performance of employees in any organization. This relationship is because culture is characterized by the behavior of individuals which then determines their performance. Some of the factors affecting the behavior of employees include the religion, beliefs, and the family background of individuals. The determinants of performance are individual values, attitude, norms, and beliefs about work that result from culture. As such, a strong positive culture at XYZ Ltd will increase the performance of employees.