Organizational Behavior: Leadership Theories, Motivation, and Cultural Relativity

This article delves into the different aspects of organizational behavior such as leadership theories, motivation, and cultural relativity. It discusses the traits and behavioral theories of leadership, sustaining and disruptive innovations, and HRM practices. It also explores how cultural relativity affects organizational behavior.

Running head: ORGANIZATION BEHAVIOR
ORGANIZATION BEHAVIOR
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Question 1........................................................................................................................................2
Question 2:.......................................................................................................................................3
Question 3........................................................................................................................................4
Question 4........................................................................................................................................5
Question 5........................................................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................8

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Question 1
Recently, I saw a movie named `Me before You` which is a British American romantic
film directed by Thea Sharrock and adapted by the story of the author Jojo Moyes. The movie
has been produced by Alison Owen and Karen Rosenfelt. It stars Mathew Lewis and Emilia
Clark. The store is based on the life of Louisa Clark who has been living her life in a restricted
manner and as destiny brings her to a job which requires her to take care of Will, a man who has
been recently paralyzed. The story covers how they began to bond with one another however,
love was not enough to keep them to together and Will decides to take his life at the end because
he refuses to live a life in a paralyzed manner.
After watching the movie I asked my friend to do the same, however, he did not seem to
enjoy it as much as me. However, as per my beliefs, the movie was a good one and showed that
how these two characters despite all odds come closer to one another but at the end, the male
character decides to go ahead and take his life which then causes extreme distress to Louisa but
in turn he teaches her to live life on her own terms and to her fullest. According to me, the reason
why the differences in opinion between my friend and my view exists is because of the following
reason:
 Past experience: My friend has not had much of luck with love in the past and it is due to
this reason, I believe that she did not like the particular movie because she is averse to
love. She could not digest the fact why Lousie would go to this extent for her love and
Will could not reciprocate in the same manner (Luthans, Luthans and Luthans 2015).
Whereas I received the movie in an opposite manner and thereby believe that it was their
love which got them close.

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 Values and beliefs: My friend`s value and beliefs about love and life in general are quite
different from mine and this is the reason, that the difference in perception existed.
Question 2:
The different companies as given in the list are some of the best companies as present in
the United Kingdom and Europe respectively. These companies have taken considerably efforts
in order to ensure that they are successfully able to achieve success and that this success is
largely concerned with its employee and workforce base (Miner 2015). The companies use a
large variety of methods in order to ensure that they are able to motivate their employees to work
well in order to ensure that they are able to successfully work for the success of the organization.
The methods used are given as follows:
1. Creation of a positive business environment: These businesses as present, aim to ensure
that positive work culture is created which thereby goes a long way in ensuring that the
different employees are able to function well for the purpose of the firm.
2. Setting viable goals: The companies set viable goals for the employees which thereby
enables them to function well and have a particular objective set
(Greatplacetowork.co.uk. 2018).
3. Providing incentives to the employees: The companies provide a set of incentives to the
different employees which thereby acts as an instigating factor to encourage them to
work for the welfare of the firm (Minkov et al. 2017).
4. Sharing of profits: Some of the companies in the list, believe in profit sharing which is
another motivating factor for the employees.

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5. Employee engagement: Engaging the employees and allowing them to take certain
decisions is another method through which the companies in the United Kingdom
motivate the employees (Favaretto et al. 2016).
6. Rewarding achievements: Lastly, recognition and rewards go a long way in assisting the
employees to feel appreciated and they get motivated.
Question 3
Over the past few decades, various theories related to the concept of leadership have been
rightfully developed which then go a long way in ensuring that using this theory, the
organization is successfully able to form the ideal image of an organizational leader
(Youtube.com . 2018). The two popular theories of leadership are the trait theory and the
behavior theory.
The traits theory of leadership state down the certain social, physical, and intellectual
traits which separate the leaders from the non-leaders (Pinder 2014). These certain traits can be
either intelligence, assertiveness, flexibility, self-confidence, understanding of the needs of the
people, accepting of responsibility and other related factors.
On the other hand, the behavioral theory of leadership states that the behavior of leaders
is quite different from that of non-leaders and that there does not exist any in born talent with the
help of which the leaders function. According to the theory, the different leaders in an
organization can be trained easily and hence made effective. Hence the major differences
between these two theories can be identified as follows:

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1. The traits theory states that the efficiency of a leader is based on the individual
characteristics whereas the behavioral theory suggests that it is based on the task and
relationship orientation.
2. The traits theory believes that leaders are born whereas the behavioral theory believes
that leaders are trained (Wagner III and Hollenbeck 2014).
3. The traits theory believes that leaders are required to have certain inherent qualities and
broadly focuses on the mental qualities. On the other hand, the behavioral theory depends
on more democratic qualities.
The manner in which organizations can select and develop effective leaders are as follows:
A good recruitment as well as a selection plan will assist the firm to choose efficient
leaders (Robbins and Judge 2014). The recruitment test needs to comprise of tests and
competencies which shall evaluate the qualities of the employment and engage in effective
career planning activities.
Moreover, the organization needs to share its ideas effectively and take ownership of
their tasks. For instance, Tim cook is an exceptional leader for Apple.
Question 4
Answer to part 1: five sustaining innovations
Sustaining innovation can be rightfully defined as the improvement in the performance of
the existing products so that the company enjoys sustained positioning in the market. Given
below are certain sustained innovations which have affected me in the past year:
 The upgradations in performance of Apple iPad and iPhone

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 The various home appliances like smart TVs, ACs and others
 Moreover, the upgradation in the DTH Services as well.
These products have reflected an improvement in their performance and thus for this
reason these improvements act as a sustainable advantage for the firm.
Answer to part 2: five disruptive innovations
The disruptive innovations can be defined as one where the creation of a new market is
done by a firm and the value network is completely displaced and the old product is discarded
(Gelfand et al. 2017). The innovations of these kinds usually take place in order to make the life
of the individual better and make it easy for them to carry out their operations. Certain disruptive
innovations which have taken in the past are as follows:
 Amazon Fire-stick
 The Smartphones which are used.
 The ear pods
 The OLED Technology
 The devices like smart watches.
These disruptive innovations have been welcomed by the different consumers because of
the benefits they provide to the customers and make their lives easier.
Question 5
Organizational Behavior can be rightfully defined as the management of the behavior of
the different employees as present in an organization (Saleem and Larimo 2017). The
organizational behavior primarily seeks to deal with the interpersonal skills of the individual, the

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motivational levels, the leadership style of the employees and the manner in which the different
conflicts may be managed in an organization. However, another point worth noting is that these
HRM Practices as well as training and leadership style are culturally relative. This means that,
the manner in which the organization is dealt with depends on the culture of the company and the
country as well.
Figure 1: The Hofstede`s comparison between States and United Kingdom
(Source: Hofstede-insights.com. 2018).
For instance, if the Hofstede`s cultural dimensions are taken into consideration, the
culture of the United States of America and the companies present there can be stated to be quite
different from the culture of the United Kingdom. This means that, with respect to individualism
the dependence of the people on the society is large in case of the United Kingdom and in case of
the United States the different individuals are not highly dependent on one another. With respect
to aspects like Power distance, masculinity, long term orientation and uncertainty index the two
different cultures are quite different from one another and hence, these aspects can stated to be
culturally relative.

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References
Favaretto, R.M., Dihl, L., Barreto, R. and Musse, S.R., 2016, September. Using group behaviors
to detect hofstede cultural dimensions. In Image Processing (ICIP), 2016 IEEE International
Conference on (pp. 2936-2940). IEEE.
Gelfand, M.J., Aycan, Z., Erez, M. and Leung, K., 2017. Cross-cultural industrial organizational
psychology and organizational behavior: A hundred-year journey. Journal of Applied
Psychology, 102(3), p.514.
Greatplacetowork.co.uk., 2018. Great Place to work. [Online]. Available at:
www.greatplacetowork.co.uk (Accessed on: 25 Sept. 2018).
Hofstede-insights.com., 2018. National culture. [online]. Available at: https://www.hofstede-
insights.com/models/national-culture/ (Accessed on: 25 Sept. 2018).
Luthans, F., Luthans, B.C. and Luthans, K.W., 2015. Organizational Behavior: An
EvidenceBased Approach. IAP.
Miner, J.B., 2015. Organizational behavior 1: Essential theories of motivation and leadership.
Routledge.
Minkov, M., Dutt, P., Schachner, M., Morales, O., Sanchez, C., Jandosova, J., Khassenbekov, Y.
and Mudd, B., 2017. A revision of Hofstede’s individualism-collectivism dimension: A new
national index from a 56-country study. Cross Cultural & Strategic Management, 24(3), pp.386-
404.
Pinder, C.C., 2014. Work motivation in organizational behavior. Psychology Press.

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Robbins, S.P. and Judge, T., 2014. Essentials of organizational behavior. Pearson.
Saleem, S. and Larimo, J., 2017. Hofstede cultural framework and advertising research: An
assessment of the literature. In Advances in Advertising Research (Vol. VII) (pp. 247-263).
Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden.
Wagner III, J.A. and Hollenbeck, J.R., 2014. Organizational behavior: Securing competitive
advantage. Routledge.
Youtube.com ., 2018. Ten Leadership Theories in 5 minutes [online]. Available at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKUPDUDOBVo (Accessed on: 25 Sept. 2018).