Globalization and Culture

Understanding and managing global organizational
behavior begins with understanding the nature of the
differences between national cultures and then tailoring an
organization’s strategy and structure so that the organization
can manage its activities as it expands abroad. To succeed,
global companies must help their managers develop skills
that allow them to work effectively in foreign contexts and
deal with differences in national culture. A global
organization is an organization that produces or sells goods
or services in more than one country. Global companies treat the world as one large market. The
presence of organizations in countries other than their home country is so common that local people
assume they are domestic companies. Organizations expand globally to gain access to resources as
inputs and to sell outputs. Labor costs are lower in many other countries, and raw materials can be
obtained more cheaply, due to lower labor costs. Companies seek the expertise found in other countries
(e.g., the design skills of Italian automakers or the engineering skills of German companies). Customers
are a resource that motivates companies to expand globally. To operate abroad, to obtain inputs or
customers, an organization must understand differences in national cultures. A national culture is a set
of economic, political, and social values in a particular nation. People who move to a foreign country
feel confused and bewildered by the country’s customs and will have difficulty adapting. This is known
as culture shock. Culture shock can include homesickness, and citizens living abroad tend to buy
national newspapers or frequent stores or restaurants similar to those in the home country.
High Quality and Low Cost Technology is changing people’s jobs and their work behavior. Quality
management and its emphasis on continuous process improvement can increase employee stress as
individuals find that performance expectations are constantly being increased. Process reengineering is
eliminating millions of jobs and completely reshaping the jobs of those who remain, and mass
customization requires employees to learn new skills.

The e-organization, with its heavy reliance on the Internet, increases potential workplace distractions.
Managers need to be particularly alert to the negative effects of cyber-loafing. In addition, the e-org will
rely less on individual decision making and more on virtual-team decision making. Probably the most
significant influence of the e-organization is that it is rewriting the rules of communication. Traditional
barriers are coming down, replaced by networks that cut across vertical levels and horizontal units.
An understanding of work design can help managers design jobs that positively affect employee
motivation. For instance, jobs that score high in motivating potential increase an employee’s control
over key elements in his or her work. Therefore, jobs that offer autonomy, feedback, and similar
complex task characteristics help to satisfy the individual goals of employees who desire greater control
over their work. Of course, consistent with the social information-processing model, the perception that
task characteristics are complex is probably more important in influencing an employee’s motivation
than the objective task characteristics themselves. The key, then, is to provide employees with cues that
suggest that their jobs score high on factors such as skill variety, task identity, autonomy, and feedback.
Workspace design variables such as size, arrangement, and privacy have implications for
communication, status, socializing, satisfaction, and productivity. For instance, an enclosed office
typically conveys more status than an open cubicle, so employees with a high need for status might find
an enclosed office increases their job satisfaction.