Making Sense of Organizational Concepts

This assignment requires you to critically examine and analyze various concepts related to organizational theory. You'll delve into topics like institutional trust, innovation, paradox, sense-making, and ethical decision-making within organizations. Drawing upon the provided readings, you'll need to demonstrate your understanding of these concepts by explaining their significance, providing real-world examples, and discussing their implications for organizational success.

Making sense of
organizations

ABSTRACT
Culture is a word which define as a social behaviour of individuals, norms founded in
societies. In fact it covers various rituals, customs and beliefs followed by native people living
their livelihood in UK, Germany and China. Every nation have their own culture and language
which is used by whole society. Apart from this, it can be stated that cultures are emerges on the
basis of traits which is followed by individuals living there. Along with this, they can also
perform their work in a peaceful manner by creating a mutual understanding between employees
and employer. Instead of this, this assignment also throw some lights on numerous issues which
is identified at work place for example differences in languages which creates problems in
understanding opinions of other customers, distinct lifestyle which also influence business
places. Cross cultural training are given to employees so that they can understand the types of
cultures which are followed by different nations. Hofstede models are useful in making the
people understand how language and cultures can act as barriers in interacting with people of
other states.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT.....................................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Background of the case....................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12
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INTRODUCTION
Culture is a concept which highlights the norms, beliefs and behaviour of various nations
that differentiate every country from each other (Bolden, 2011). In every nation different beliefs
are followed and according persons have to do their working. This is valuable for the new
employees to understand how they had to carry out their working in new organisations. The main
reason behind development of cultures are linked with traits which are followed by employees at
work place. In every business there are differences in cultures and these had to be resolved in
order to adopt smooth functioning at work place. There are differences in language spoken by
persons, lifestyle followed, cultures which are adopted by them create huge differences among
people if they are moving towards another nation. This report contains study about joint ventures
between banks of china and HSBC Banks. They are having largest shares in banking areas.
Hafstede models are based on six different elements and different issues are resolved in relation
with advantages gained from cross cultural development and training programmes.
Background of the case
According to this scenario there is a presence of three countries in which they are going
to make a joint venture for understanding the culture of a different nations because it is very
much beneficial for entire team in different manner. Major reason behind establishing alliance is
to understand the culture of a different nations for introducing products as per choice of foreign
customers which resulted in profit maximization.
Example: Amazon is a multinational online enterprise which is famous for its internet
services across international borders by offering trendy and attractive products. Additionally, it
also helps in acquiring maximum profit by exchanging products with china and Germany.
The business of HSBC banks are rapidly expanding in the china markets as they have
developed various types of schemes in order to help customers by borrowing and lending money.
This is beneficial in gaining larger market shares by attracting large number of customer who can
use their services. They are was partnership business developed between bank of china and
HSBC banks in order to increase their growth by achieving higher profits. This is also valuable
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in order to enhance overall development of economy. In case of joint ventures two firms are
working as partners and they are sharing their overall profits.
Every nation implements their own norms, beliefs, rules and regulations by considering
all the cultures available in society which differentiate them from other countries. Likewise, UK,
Germany and China are having unique culture which are mentioned as below:-
Culture
Culture of UK is greatly affected by their history or past evidences and developed as an
island nation by having mixture of four countries that is England, Wales, Scotland and Northern
Ireland. In fact, literature, music, cinema, art, theatre, etc. are very much indispensable part of
British culture (Bolman and Deal, 2017). Apart from this, UK is also talented in field of science
and technology by introducing two of the leading or most knowledgeable personalities and their
names were Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin. In addition, sports are considered as one of the
mandatory components of UK culture as there are many sports locations which includes football
also. Last but not the least; it has been understood that UK has been represented as a “cultural
superpower” and on the other hand, London is considered as the “world cultural capital”
(Alvesson, and Spicer, 2012).
Germany: Culture of Germany is based on German speaking persons which are now spread
across overall nation (Boykoff, 2011). Indeed, it is fully designed through major intellectual as
well as famous designers of Europe religious. Basically, this country is popular for its traditional
holidays as German society believes in celebrating every single festival as they are very much
religious and dedicated towards spiritual things.
China: Culture of China is considered as one of the oldest civilization which covers numerous
geographical areas in eastern Asia by having different customs and traditions that differentiate
between provinces, states and township. Indispensable element of Chinese culture consists of
architecture, ceramics, music, literature, impressive arts, philosophy and several number of
religions (Bryson, 2011). Apart from this, approximately, 56 officially labelled ethnic groups are
there in all over China.
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Culture is a term which highlights different norms, behaviour and beliefs found for
human societies which are followed by every social group. In fact, it is considered as the central
concept in anthropology which is sent through social learning. Therefore, culture of society
consists of behaviours of humans, language and society practices for example kinship and
marriage (Clegg, Kornberger and Pitsis, 2015). Apart from this, communicative forms such as
art, music and dance, etc. also come under the same. Every individual and person has his/her
own customs, traditions and norms by following beliefs of their ancestors as well as philosophy
of their life is also based on their culture.
Hofstede’s model
Hofstede's cultural model is coined by Geert Hofstede which is a framework of cross
cultural interaction whose main motive is to throw some light on the influence of society’s
culture on beliefs of available members and its relations with behaviour of humans with the use
of impressive structure from factor assessment (Eisner, 2017).
This model is important in the following aspects which are described as:
 It is very beneficial process in order to resolve the issues which are arising due to
differences in cultures among the people while they are moving from one nation to
another.
 There is advancement in technologies so people are coming and interacting with each
other who belongs to different cultures. They are able to learn and speak new languages
so that they can adopt themselves to any cultures.
 This model is beneficial for all the individuals as they can easily learn different types of
life styles and cultures which are followed at different parts of world.
The four dimensions of the models are described below as:
Power/Distance: It is related with the inequalities factors that are rapidly developing
among people of the nations. If there is high powers than it indicates that individuals of society
are accepting the inequalities and they are not raising their voices. On the other hand low power
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indicates that all employees are treated equally thus they are equal in defining roles and
responsibilities.
Applications: According to the above model if there is higher power and distance in UK
that reports can be prepared and these can be given to higher authorities. After this meetings are
conducted with selected leaders in order to solve the issue.
Individualism (IDV): This is related with strong relations that are developed among the
employees at work places. The higher IDV implies that there is weak relations among the
workers. They are not able to share any thing among the family members. They are involved in
themselves and does not have any concern for the people of society. They are not interested in
making close friends and they operate their business activities by themselves. The places where
IDV are low the are sharing their roles and responsibilities and they are focusing on making
friends with whom they can share all their problems. This is vital in building trust and
confidence by making good relations among people. The members of society are large in
numbers and they are sharing their problems with each other in relation to carry out their
working in effective ways.
Applications: This model states that in most of the American countries the sources
developed for IDV are very less. In order to evaluate the advantages of communities there is
marketing campaign organised so that they can easily know the future results. The people of
Germany and UK have developed good relations among the employees so that they can execute
their working in planned ways.
Masculinity (MAS): It is evaluates as the process by which the members of the societies
are gaining the important values which are useful, the roles which have been played by all the
members of the society. High degree of MAS is evaluated at those places where men is having
high degree of expectations that he will work hard and also be assertive in his working. It is
believed that if women are working outside their homes than they do different work from their
husbands. In relation to low MAS the roles played by different gender groups are simply blurred.
As there is development in the economical aspects all persona are working while cooperating
with each other. This is beneficial in achievement of higher profits for firms. All man are doing
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the business operations in sensitive ways than man who had to work hard in order to complete
their business operations.
Application: According to this model the people of Japan are more masculine while
making comparison with China and UK as they are having very low values to measure. If plans
are developed in order to establish new office in Japan than they had to recruit male candidates
who are having the skills to carry forward business activities. In relation to UK and Germany are
selecting people on the basis of their capabilities not gender.
Uncertainty/ avoidance Index (UAI): It is linked with the degree of anxiety which are
felt in uncertain situations. In higher UAI all the individuals are trying to remove the situations
which are difficult. They had to apply plans and policies in order to carry out business
operations. The lower UAI implies that members of society are enjoying the differences among
them in order to enjoy various programmes. There is less focused on development of plans and
policies and they had belief on their own truth.
Application: This model states that if there had to be discussion on any element with the
people of Belgium. Than it can be executed with the help of research and development
programmes and the topics which have been chooses detailed study have to be made in order to
analyse risk factors and barriers.
All these models have to be used in order to develop team effectiveness among all the people of
the people of the society so that they can execute their working in planned ways. They are
valuable in removing all the differences among male and female members. Thus each individual
should be treated in equal aspects at work place. All the people of the society should cooperate
with each other in performing business operations.
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(Source: Hofstede's Model, 2016)
According to the above graph it can be stated that comparison are made between UK and
China in which UK have achieved higher Individualism growth in relation with China as the
people who are residing in UK have focused on developing good and healthy relation with other
employees in order to carry out their working with co-operations among the members of society.
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(Source:- Geert Hosfsted, 2017)
From the above graphs it can be concluded that comparison are made between china and
people of Germany. According to the graphs China had achieved higher long term orientation
programmes because they have adopted new technologies in order to carry out business
activities. Where both the countries have achieved equal growth in relation to Masculinity where
that are gaining values from the society which are useful in performing business activities.
Reasons for cross cultural training and development
Cross-cultural training and development is not an easy task due to its complexity and
society full of different choices. Therefore, it is essential to conduct impressive training and
development sessions so that managers learn the way to deal with people preferring different
culture. HSBC banks are going to expand their business in various countries by making a joint
venture with Chinese and German companies for capturing the minds of millions of customers
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Illustration 1: Geert Hosfsted

(Jay, 2013). There are number of reasons available which motivate an enterprise to conduct
cross-cultural training and development programmes that are stated as follows:-
 Understanding the choice of Chinese and German clients: - First and foremost reason is
to get aware about recent trends used by numerous customers so that they can design
their products accordingly.
 Language: - Another reason is to understand their language which is spoken by people
from different culture and customs.
 Enhancement of learning:- According to this, it is essential to improver learning as well
as knowledge of managers so that they can easily run their business in different countries
by fulfilling the demand of domestic as well as foreign clients.
 Increase in confidence level: - Another reason behind training process is to maximize
the self-confidence of employees so that they can easily resolve their problems and
become able to hedge business risk which influence their performance (Kirschner and et.
al., 2012).
 Creation of positive environment:- According to this, one of the major benefits of
training and development programmes is to improve the working environment of
organization as internal and external surroundings have a great impact on the success of
whole enterprise.
Issues leaders or the team focuses
There are different types of issues at work places which are faced by the workers and
employees are described as:
If there are variations in respects to cultures than it is difficult for new employees to
follow the plans according to which they had to execute their working. It also applies different
policies which are adopted by the workers in order to achieve all their aims and objectives.
Basically difference in culture creates problem for newly hired labours for example while
company of UK which is going to make a joint venture with china and Germany is not an easy
task to expand their business because all these three countries different in culture or beliefs.
Therefore they are going to face this problem if they will appoint employees from distinct
culture. Thus it is essential for them to throw lights on these things for overcoming issues related
with culture.
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Due to differences there is no coordination among the employees while they are
performing their roles and responsibilities. While working in a team lot of issues may occurs
because of variations in thoughts and opinions which resulted in conflicts between employees.
Therefore managers of employees requires to pay full attention in improving relations of staff
members so that they work by coordinating between each other which helps them in attaining set
targets and objectives.
The problems which are faced by the workers are not resolved in desired time frames for
example issues due to hiring of employees of different culture create problems while working in
a team due to different language, norms and ideas towards particular topic. Thus supervisor of a
company pay full attention on minimizing barriers in a given time frame. Another example is
that supervisors needs focus on basic issues like availability of necessary facilities because it
influence performance of employees.
There should be effective time management strategies designed in order to get the work
completed by employees in desired time frames. It means management of duration is essential
for strengthening employees performance and motivate them towards their personal or
professional objectives.
Concept of behavioural modification
Behavioural modification is an appropriate method of influencing behaviour of
employees with the use of proper stages and techniques. Basically, it is used by the managers to
reform existing nature of workers in a positive manner by considering relevant facts and figures
(What is Cross Culture Management, 2016). But it is not easy for higher authority to achieve
their set targets and goals by enhancing the employee’s knowledge and talents which resulted in
creation of positive environment. In fact, concept of behavioural modification is very much
beneficial for lower level and managers by creating a healthy relations with them to imrpove
their work productivity (Pyrczak, 2016). Main motive of this change is to improve the unusual
behaviour of individuals so that they can easily adjust themselves in a new environment. In
addition, behavioural modification is an effective method used by managers to recover their staff
members from any problems and in addition mental stress which influence their work life. Thus,
proper stages are followed by them which are shown and described as follows:-
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 Pre-contemplation stage: - In this stage, individuals don't even recognize about their
problems and they don't want any change or reformation in their behaviour. In fact, they
are very much pessimistic towards their attitude and behaviours which means employees
think that they don't need any change (Siles and Boczkowski, 2012). Contemplation stage: - Secondly, people wanted to know about the benefit of
behavioural modification before taking any action or change. Preparation stage: - Now, in this phase, they want to get prepared for modification in
their behaviour to remove their inner negativity. Action stage: - It is the time for execution of changes which was planned earlier and
implement it properly by considering relevant facts as well as figures. Therefore, it means
that at this stage, they are aware about their negative attitudes and try to fully eliminate it
as soon as possible (Thiel and et. al., 2014).
 Maintenance: - At the end, this is the time for maintaining change which was
implemented by individuals by following appropriate stages or phases.
Therefore, behavioural modification is a process of reforming nature of individuals or
employees at workplace. In fact, this method is very much beneficial for developing the overall
personality of workers and candidates so that they can perform their job role in a proper manner.
Main concern on cross cultural management
Cross cultural management is all about creating an environment free from any
discrimination between employees who belong from different culture at workplace and trying to
make them familiar. Major concern by management is to make the surroundings of organization
more familiar. It means they need to interact properly with each other through involved in
business operations and attaining their personal and professional goals. In fact, it is valuable and
plays an eminent role in creating healthy working environment so that workers may cooperate
between each other while performing their job role by considering accurate information and data
(Vander Zwan, 2014). Apart from this, major concerned areas which may be focussed while
doing cross cultural management are stated as follows :-
 Respect ideas and thoughts of people from different backgrounds
 Understand the customs and rituals of employees who belong from various cultures
 Make strategies for maintaining a friendly environment of an organization
 Offers products of every culture (Wolfsfeld, 2011)
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CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that there are different cultures which are
followed in various nations thus people had to execute their working according cultures which
are followed in those nations. Cross cultural training are vital in order to make the employees
know about different life styles and languages which are spoken by people in different parts of
world. There should be effective time management strategies designed by employees so that they
can complete there activities in desired times. This is beneficial in achieving success for
business.
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REFERENCES
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Online
What is Cross Culture Management?. 2016. [Online]. Available through:
<https://hbr.org/topic/cross-cultural-management>. [Accessed on 26th August 2017].
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