Organizational Behavior Assessment: Hybrid Organizations and Culture

This assignment delves into the realm of organizational behavior, specifically focusing on hybrid organizations and the application of Trompenaars' cultural dimensions theory. The paper begins by defining hybrid organizations, which blend profit and non-profit aspects, and highlights their key elements: autonomy, rewards, and ownership. It then introduces Trompenaars' seven cultural dimensions, including universalism vs. particularism, individualism vs. communitarianism, and others, explaining how these dimensions influence organizational dynamics. The core argument of the assignment is that understanding Trompenaars' theory is crucial for the successful management of hybrid organizations, given their diverse cultural backgrounds and values. The analysis explores how each cultural dimension can be applied to create effective organizational strategies, fostering employee satisfaction, innovation, and overall performance. The assignment also touches upon the importance of balancing different cultural approaches and adapting reward systems to suit the organizational culture and the need for organizations to create a balanced approach to neutral and emotional responses. The paper concludes by emphasizing the importance of aligning cultural dimensions with organizational practices to achieve optimal outcomes in hybrid settings.

Running head: ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR ASSIGNMENT
Organizational Behavior Assignment
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Organizational behavior has become one of the most important sectors of study. As
the cultural and territorial boundaries are diminishing with time, leaders of different
organizations are coming up with new concepts, methods and frame works that will allow the
organization to work in any cultural scenario (Durand & Paolella, 2013). In this light, the
emergence of Hybrid organizations is an important phenomenon. These are organizations that
focus both on the profit and non-profit aspect of business. Thus, their working is different as
well. To meet their aim and objective it is necessary that they incorporate cultural aspects into
their organization from the very beginning. Related to that is Trompenaar’s cultural
Dimension theory that gives light on the different cultural aspects. In this paper, the aim is to
assess the characteristics of Hybrid Organizations and the theory of Cultural Dimension and
evaluate how the cultural dimension theory can be applicable to Hybrid Organizations.
Theorists and researchers have long since emphasized for the integration of
organizational behavior theories to practicality. Since the inception of organizational study
many theories have been introduced, while in most cases these theories have remained
conceptual (Daft, 2015). It is thus necessary to bridge the gap between the theories and
establish connections among those theories so that they can be applied for the enhancement
of organizations. The two theories that have been selected for the purpose are: Hybrid
Organizational Theory and Trompenaar’s Seven Dimension Cultural Model and Orientation
Theory. These two theories have the potential to become aligned with each other to create
synergy in an organization.
The idea of Hybrid organization lies between two extreme concepts of Pro-profit and
Non-profit organization. Hybrid Organizations are those organizations that have
characteristics of both the organizations. In the past 20 years, a rapid growth of organizations
that are integrating both traditional and economic factors have been seen. A hybrid
organization is based on three key elements- autonomy, reward and ownership. The core idea

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of any hybrid organization is to facilitate social or environmental impacts that are positive in
nature. In most cases, it is seen that the growth of hybrid organizations are due to the fact that
securing grants and donations are becoming more and more difficult due to governmental
policies and lack of funding from government’s side (Battilana & Lee, 2014). This led to the
birth of organizations that have goals that are related to impact positive changes to society or
environment, like, childcare, poverty reduction, education, sustainable development and
many more, while their operations are concentrated on acquiring money for the said projects.
The key features of these organizations, namely, Autonomy, Rewards and Ownership, control
how these organizations work. It has been seen that, the better the decentralization of power
in organizations, which implies greater autonomy, better the organization performs. Higher
autonomy means the employees have more freedom to work as per their own method and
innovate new methods that will have better chances to achieve results. In organizations that
have high autonomy, the employees have a voice in the decision making process. These two
factors lead to higher job satisfaction and innovation (Maleki & Jong, 2014). The reason
behind this is the importance of perceived control within the employees. It motivates the
employees as they feel that they have certain control on the operations of the organization.
Moreover, it also denotes that the organization has superior understanding and management
of the employees’ knowledge and skills. Autonomy also gives the employees an opportunity
to create a network within the organization so that they are able to gather the necessary
knowledge, tools and information in order to complete the job at hand. It is also beneficial to
the employees as it hones their knowledge and skills. Rewards are another factor that are
characteristic of a hybrid organization. Due to the high requirement of innovation in a hybrid
business organization, reward system needs to be introduced to motivate the employees.
Rewards give the employees a drive to work harder and ensure success in their endeavor.
Theorists also argue against this factor. Some believe that incentives may lead to high

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expectations of the employees and in time may reduce their performance and innovation
capacity (Bãlan & Vreja, 2013). Ownership, the third element plays a significant role for
hybrid organizations. The inner workings of a hybrid organization is complicated. It focuses
on both profit and non-profit aspects of business. The owners of the organization, like the
directors, stakeholders are differently reactive. For hybrid organizations, it is difficult to gain
investors and thus any organizational change poses a threat to them and thus they have a
negative approach towards organizational innovation (Rushton, 2014).
Trompenaars introduced his cultural dimension theory where he explains the seven
cultural paradigm that affect an organization (Doherty, Haugh & Lyon, 2014). These
dimensions are: 1. Universalism vs. Particularism 2. Individualism vs. Communitarianism 3.
Neutral vs. Emotional 4. Specific vs. Diffuse 5. Achievement vs. Ascription 6. Sequential vs.
Synchronous time and 7. Internal direction vs. External direction. In Universalism all the
cases are treated the same way whether they belong to people that are involved professionally
or personally. In particularism, emphasis is given on relationships rather than rules. For
example, in a Universal organizational culture, salary will be the same for people of same
designation despite their different origin. In particularism, on the other hand, salary will
depend upon situations as well as personal relationships. In case of Individualism, the
employees are seen as individuals whereas Communitarianism sees people as a part of certain
group. It has been seen that the practice of Individualism is greater in western cultures while
non-western cultures are more Communitarian. Sometimes, this behavior changes, for
example, Mexico earlier was a believer of Communitarianism though due to global shift in
economy, their approach has changed to Individualism. In a Neutral culture, people are
discourages to show their emotions in public whereas in an Emotional culture, people show
spontaneous emotions and reactions. Countries like Great Britain and Japan practice neutral
culture where expressing oneself is frowned upon whereas countries like Spain and Mexico

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are much more open and have Emotional culture. In a Specific culture, people share large
public space as well as private space with different people. In Diffuse culture on the other
hand, the public and private spaces are interwoven (Beugelsdijk, Kostova, Kunst, Spadafora,
& Essen, 2018). In an Achievement culture, the worth of any person is decided on the work
they perform and how well they perform it. In Ascribed culture, a person’s worth is
determined from their origin, age, gender or social position. For example, western culture is
more achievement oriented whereas the eastern cultures are much more dependent on
ascribed culture. In a Sequential time concept, time is measured in a concrete way, past,
present and future whereas, in Synchronous concept, time is more abstract in nature and
concerns itself with human body rhythm. In cultures that are oriented to Internal Direction,
people try to control their environment whereas in outer direction, people have harmonious
co-existence with environment. This cultural theory creates empathy for other cultures and
practices and makes it easier for people to have interaction with people belonging to different
cultural background.
Trompenaars’ cultural dimension theory is consists the key to a successful running of
a hybrid organization. A hybrid organization has its place inside a spectrum where they
concentrate both on the profit and non-profit point of view. Due to the presence of the non-
profit aspect, people from different culture and background are generally associated with
these organizations (Soini & Dessein, 2016). In many cases it is seen that the directors of
different organizations come from different cultures and have different values and ethics.
Due to this reason it is necessary for the organizations to understand different cultural values.
Understanding Stompaneers’ cultural dimension theory hybrid organizations will be able to
sympathize with different kinds of culture hand work in different environment successfully.
Most theorists believe that a balanced approach to cultural dimension is necessary to attend
success in hybrid organization (Andreassi, Lawter, Brockerhoff & Rutigliano, 2014). With

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understanding of universalism versus Particularism they will be able to understand how
peoples’ values and beliefs are tied to their work. They will be able to provide instructions
regarding their work and processes data clear and to the point where necessary and give
autonomy two people and be flexible as per circumstances. to achieve balance in this case the
leaders will have to highlight some rules and norms that are mandatory for the organization
as well as take time to establish connection with people that will help them in there the
understanding of individualism versus Communiteranism organizations will be able to create
organizational structure in such a way that it will reward both the individual and the team. It
will allow them to involve subordinates in the decision making process and intern motivates
the employees innovate new ideas. The specific and diffuse cultural ideas will direct the
organizational leaders to create strategies based on the kind of people they are talking with. in
cultures where separate their work life and personal lives they will become more direct search
and give to the point instructions whereas if the culture gear working with diffusive in nature
focus on building a good relationship (Battilana, Sengul, Pache & Model, 2015). This intern
will ensure that reward system is much more based on the Particularism concept. Cultures
that are diffusive in nature also show characteristics of Particularism. It is necessary for every
organization to create a balanced neutral and emotional response when it comes to a work
environment. Neither the neutral nor the emotional approach to an extremity is helpful for the
organization. Why in any hybrid organization it is likely that people from various culture
countries and belief will behave differently, it is not possible for any organization to
accommodate too many behavioral difference into their frame work thus a balance between
these two approaches is necessary to achieve optimum result. The problem lies in the fact that
if the organization follows neutral emotional culture it will be difficult for the employees to
express their views and emotions while the organization will also struggle to find solutions
regarding the employees. From the emotional aspect the organization will suffer greatly if

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they fail to create a trust with the employees (Jay, 2013). They will fail to manage conflict
and project a positive attitude if the environment that they are working with is in direct
conflict with their own structure and views. in western culture people are rewarded according
to achievements and skills whereas in non western cultures it is due to their title power and
origin that they enjoy facilities. While working in a western cultural environment it is
necessary for the organizations to create a reward system purely based on performance and
use titles when it is absolutely necessary for example, in Facebook organization the CEO
himself avoids using a personal cabin to create a sense of equality. On the contrary in non
western cultures titles are of great value as it gives people the idea of organizational
hierarchy. They give special attention and respect to the people in the higher authority and
rarely challenge decisions that they make. to align both these concepts into one a hybrid
organization will need to keep some of the qualities from both aspects and create a model
where the reward system is based on individual performance and the final decision making
will lie with the organizational heads though they may take the opinions of the subordinates.
Organizations working with people that believe in sequential time will be much more
appreciative with clear deadlines and punctuality whereas people believe in synchronous time
will want flexible work culture (Eldar, 2017). It is necessary to keep both these ideas to
moderation to ensure best practices in an organization. In hybrid organizations change and
innovation is difficult as the ownership lies with many people. Thus integrating these two
concepts into a workable structure is necessary. The internal versus outer direction too work
much the same way for hybrid organizations. Thus a framework that allows the participants
to engage constructive conflict and solution finding will help develop their skills. The
organization can take control to the outer direction by providing them with the resources that
will ensure an affective execution of their jobs. It is obvious that a structure that is able to
assimilate all the different aspects of cultural behaviors will be a fail proof structure. Hybrid

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organizations are flourishing day by day and thus it is necessary for them to create a system
where they will be able to work cross-culturally.
From the above discussion it can be concluded that, these two concepts of Hybrid
Organization and Cultural Dimension have close connection with each other. Adopting the
Cultural dimension theory to the workings of any Hybrid organization is likely to prove
useful for the organizations. In future, the possibility of diffusing cultural boundaries also
advocates that most organizations will have to create their structure in a similar manner to
attain their goals and objective.

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References
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International Management Conference" New Management for the New Economy",
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