Orginizational Behavior

The study of organizational behavior seeks to help us to understand human behavior in organizations. Drawing from disciplines in the fields of economics, sociology, political science and physiology, OB has become an interdisciplinary field of study. OB is essential in organizations because it helps not only management but employees to understand, predict and influence not just their working environment but the world we live in. It seeks to understand things such as diversity, communication, Organization effectiveness and efficiency and Organizational learning

An organization's foundation Clark D (1998) "rests on management's philosophy, values, vision and goals. This drives the organizational culture". Culture is the learned behavior of a society that encompasses beliefs, customs, knowledge, and practices. Culture is composed of the formal organization, informal organization, and the social environment. Clark D (1998) "The culture determines the type of leadership, communication, and group dynamics... within the organization" Performance, individual satisfaction, and personal growth and development combine to build the model or framework that the organization operates from.

Employees depend on this cultural framework as it gives them stability, security, understanding, and the ability to respond to a given situation. Organizations with a well developed culture will benefit because employees hold the dominant values of the organization. Organizations with weaker corporate values will experience dissenting subcultures whereby the employees cannot make sense of the processes around them. During my interview process at Menaco Aerospace they stressed that the company was a family oriented business that believed in family values and teamwork. Shortly after I joined they were purchased by Goodrich Aerospace and the company was merged with their existing Landing gear division in Cleveland, Ohio. Overtime all of Menasco's upper management either left or were dismissed Cleveland's culture was forced upon Menasco's environment even though they were the better performing organization. This merger has caused countercultures as Menaco's dominant culture was different than Goodrich's. Only time will tell how the new emerging culture affects the remaining employees of Menasco.

The study of OB helps us to understand and accept diversity. A healthy organization is one in which efforts is made to get people with different backgrounds, skills, and abilities to work together. A culturally diverse organization is one whose culture includes all of the varying groups representing the environment in which it operates. The organization's values, vision, mission, policies, procedures, and norms should depict a culture that is adaptable to varying values, beliefs, and communication styles. In an organizational culture that is truly diverse you would expect practices such as promoting minorities to responsible positions, and maintaining accountability for diversity goals. I believe that my current employer's work force is diverse in the fact that they have minorities working for the company but when I look at the upper management It is not representative of our diverse culture. This to me suggests that Goodrich has to revisiting its promoting/hiring practice's.

The company has an Intranet that all employees can access, some of the things it contains are a list all open positions across the entire Goodrich division, and the latest news and awards. Our division has a weekly newsletter that is emailed to all employees religiously. There is a Quarterly Web cast from CEO outlining the general affairs of the corporation. Communication is the key to part of organizational success. The Stedman's Medical Dictionary defines Communication as "The exchange of thoughts, messages, or information, as by speech, signals, writing, or behavior" Communication is one of the most important things to an organization; business success revolves around effective communication both within a business and its outside customers and suppliers. Messages can be transmitted through

different channels some are: electronic media such as e-mail, intranet, internet teleconference, and print media such as memos, newsletters or the most common way face-to-face. Over the last decade, e-mail as taken over as the number one form of business communication. I currently receive over 100 e-mails a day and find it time consuming and a waste of time to weed through the junk to actually read the ones that actually require action or a response I believe that our company could really benefit from holding or teaching some kind of e-mail adequate courses.

Organizations receive inputs (orders) from there external