Critical Review: Group Decision Making in Organisational Behaviour

This assignment report provides a critical review of group decision-making within an organisational behaviour context. The student recounts their experience in a multicultural team, highlighting the challenges of communication and collaboration among members from different national backgrounds. The report details the initial communication lapses, the development of a solution involving team-building activities, and the positive impact on team performance. The analysis includes reflections on the importance of effective communication, the influence of cultural differences on team dynamics, and the strategies employed to overcome obstacles and improve group cohesion. The report underscores the significance of proactive communication and the value of diverse perspectives in achieving successful outcomes. The student emphasizes the importance of recognizing and addressing communication barriers to foster a more inclusive and productive team environment. The report concludes with a discussion of the lessons learned and the potential applications of these insights in future team settings.

Running head: ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Organisational Behaviour
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Notes:

1ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Competitive advantage is an issue that is the ultimate aim of companies operating in the
modern business environment. Hence, companies are constantly in the search for opportunities
that can help in satiation of the needs of the stakeholders (Sekar and Dyaram 2017). Among
various issues that can be catered to by companies, staffing is a major function that shapes the
nature of outcomes that an organisation is subject to (Carrier and Wilhelmson 2016). Hence,
companies always aim to increase the viability of their operation by hiring people who will be
able to guide the organization towards excellence. This leads to hindrances in operations as a
result of the diverse background of the workforce associated to the organization. I was part of a
project in which I had to team up with 4 people and work on the same project. Two members of
the group were from the United States, myself and another member were from Australia and the
other member was from the United Kingdom.
Studies have shown that the likeliness of hindrances in operations are elevated when
people within a said team are from different background (Duhigg 2016). Furthermore, it has been
found that gaps in understanding as a result of faulty communication is the biggest issue that is
faced by multicultural workforces and teams (Cheraghlou, Zadeh and Haghparast 2016). On a
contradictory note, it has been presented that a team or workforce is more likely to be successful
if it is an assimilation of different groups of people. An organization with a multicultural
background is subject to diverse sets of advantages as a result of the diverse skills that are
present in the workforce of the organization (Szymanski, Fitzsimmons and Danis 2019). This has
given rise to the incidence of issues such as inclusion and diversity which has been recognised as
a popular CSR activity carried out by organizations in the present day.
The team that I was a part of was an assimilation of people from three different
nationalisms. However, I felt that I was lucky enough to be a part of a team in which all the

2ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
members spoke in English. However, the fact was not undermined that all the members had
different dialects. This, is an issue that determines the effectiveness of communication.
Moreover, I have been able to understand the importance of communication. Communications is
very important when it comes to the smooth operations of teams (Kim, Kandampully and
Bilgihan 2018). It is an important factor that helps in exchange of ideas that help in the transfer
of ideas and knowledge between members of the task or concerned organisation.
As mentioned before the group was multicultural and even though the language that we
spoke on ease similar the where issues that hindered the effectiveness of collaboration among the
members of the group. It can be said that there exists different norms and values streams in
different countries. The late shaped the reaction that people have to certain situations. Hence,
purple act according to the values and norms that they deem to appropriate. Now, the current
case encompasses individuals with different values, norms and styles of communication. Hence,
it is evident that there were lapses in communication that hindered the effectiveness of the
performance of the group as a result of the same. Soon after the project commenced, it was found
that there were lapses in communication. While people belonging to the same country developed
bonds or prayers pretty fast, there was lack of communication and collaboration between all the
members. The individual from the UK was left alone and hardly interested with anyone. This
was an issue that hindered the effectiveness of the operations of the project team as a whole even
if individual performance was at par. If this carried on, we realised that the project would fail.
Hence, a solution had to be developed.
I was the one who initiated the process of identification of the issue. I decided to
individually go too every member and communicate that this issue could weigh down the
performances of the team. Soon everyone agreed that this was an issue that could bring the

3ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
team’s performance down. Soon we started trying to develop solutions for solving the issue that
was at hand. While someone suggested that we should carry out team building exercises,
someone stated that nothing needs to be done. Finally, after several brainstorming sessions it was
decided that we should be going out after work every other day. This would help in bolstering
communication and would help in developing a bond between the members. This plan worked,
not our surprise. Soon we started interacting with each other and communication became
smooth.
In the future, I am sure that I would have somewhat similar situations, and in case of such
situations, I would ensure that would not wait for too long to communicate. I have learnt the
importance of effective communication.

4ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
REFERENCES
Carrier, C.A. and Wilhelmson, N., 2016. Encouraging Accountability in Instructional Staff Selection:
Experience of One University’s Journey to Creating a Simplified Staffing Model. Journal for the Study of
Postsecondary and Tertiary Education, 2, pp.013-022.
Cheraghlou, M.N., Khadem-Zadeh, A. and Haghparast, M., 2016. A survey of fault tolerance
architecture in cloud computing. Journal of Network and Computer Applications, 61, pp.81-92.
Duhigg, C., 2016. What Google learned from its quest to build the perfect team. The New York
Times Magazine, 26, p.2016.
Kim, S., Kandampully, J. and Bilgihan, A., 2018. The influence of eWOM communications: An
application of online social network framework. Computers in Human Behavior, 80, pp.243-254.
Sekar, S. and Dyaram, L., 2017. What drives employees to participate in corporate volunteering
programs?. Social Responsibility Journal.
Szymanski, M., Fitzsimmons, S.R. and Danis, W.M., 2019. Multicultural managers and
competitive advantage: Evidence from elite football teams. International Business Review, 28(2),
pp.305-315.