The Nature of Organizations and the Contemporary Environment
World English Dictionary states that culture is the shared behaviors and beliefs of a particular social, ethnic, or age group, and an environment can be defined as the external conditions or surrounding in which people live or work. Organizational culture is a system of shared meaning and beliefs held by organizational members that determines how they act, (Robbins & Coulter 2003). It also refers to working language and habits. Most times the environment will determine an organization’s culture but each environment is vastly different. One of the keys to being successful in a different environment with strong cultural beliefs is to be aware of the cultural differences within the environment. The right level of knowledge will determine success or failure.
Cultural values, assumptions and beliefs affect organizational performance and management. The organizational culture affects employee and managers behaviours. Poor organizational culture affects the management of an organization negatively. Also, the business environment affects performance and management differently. Managers should understand culture and environment a firm operates in order to manage effectively (Green, 2011).
Linda. Myers had what seemed to be all of the right credentials on paper that would make her the ideal candidate for a foreign assignment, except one, she was female. Although she realized initially that the agency contacting her for the assignment referred to her as “Mr.”, she pressed on and assumed it was a simple mistake, however, her experience would be reflective of this later as she reflects on her choice to accept the assignment and some of the things that went wrong (Green, 2011). She assumed that she had all the necessary attributes required to take on any country and its cultural challenges. This was not accurate. She faced cultural challenges, and this affected her performance in the organization. The...