ORGANIZATION BEHAVIOR
Organization Behavior
Introduction
The culture or behavior of an organization determines the performance of the firm and how it sustains its employees. The organizational behavior is determined by the people working in the organization, the groups in which these people are and how the organization is structured (Stephen 2012). The paper focuses on the Organization behavior and culture of AU Optronics (AUO) which is a global company that was formed in the year 2001 from Acer Display Technology Inc. and Unipac Optoelectronics Corp. The company is the leading manufacturer of TFT-LCD worldwide with operations in Taiwan, Mainland China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, The United States and Europe (Stephen 2012). The company’s products can be used in personal computers, mobile phones and in factories. The company has a staff of about 45,000 in all the countries it operates with revenue of US$10.9 billion in 2015 alone. The company is always working towards achieving its vision of; bright innovation, better life, through constant innovations and use of technologies which have changed its customers’ visual experience through its displays. The company’s mission of being the leading green solutions globally is almost accomplished (Stephen 2012). This has been made possible by the strategy formulated by the company in which global customers can get solar module locally from its outlets in Taiwan, Europe and the United States. The customers can easily access customer care services through the sales channels established in these regions. The company has strategic partners to ensure production, distribution and customer support are all well-coordinated. The aim of this essay is to discuss the culture of AUO, how it has emerged and the working climate it has created.
Culture is unique to each organization, and it is cultivated by practices that have worked for an organization in the past through the beliefs, attitudes and language in that organization (Orla and Richard 2008). The culture can be derived from an organization's mission statement or be passed from the founders to the current employees (Kermit 2016). It's, therefore, the leaders of an organization’s responsibility to shape its culture through practicing it and influencing the other employees. AUO has its unique culture that will be discussed under; Innovation and risk taking, attention to Detail, Outcome orientation, people orientation, team orientation, aggressiveness and stability.
Innovation and Risk Taking
This characteristic of organization culture examines the extent to which employees are given a chance to be creative and how much they are encouraged to be risk takers (Roger 2006). In the case of AUO, the majority of the employees agreed that they were allowed to come up with new ways of performing their duties to improve efficiency and reduce time taken to perform tasks. This is proof that AUO values innovation.
Attention to Detail
Some companies expect their employees to perform their duties accurately whereas others have the mentality of ‘man error’ notion. It all depends on the industry in which the company operates (Linda 2011). In our case study, the organization must demand accuracy because it operates in one of the most sensitive industries; electronics, which cannot be faulty. To achieve this, the employees must understand the goals and objectives of the organization so that they can work towards achieving it, accurately. In AUO, the majority of the employees understand the organization's goals and objectives and therefore it is clear to them why they should be accurate in their work.
Outcome Orientation
Organizations that have an outcome orientation usually focus on the end results or final product. They do not care about processes that bring about results are achieved (Roger 2006). AUO is the kind of these organizations. This in manifested in the number of employees that are permitted to arrange or decorate their places of work in a way that suits them, 6 out of 10 employees can decorate their workplace. This means that the management is not concerned with how or where the employees work for as long as the desired result is achieved.
People Orientation
Companies that value this characteristic usually place a lot of importance on their employees. The impact of decisions made by management, on the employees is keenly observed, and employees are always the priority (Roger 2006).AOU has embraced this culture since five out ten employees feel that their contribution to the company is noted and appreciated.
Team Orientation
This characteristic entails assigning work activities to groups rather than individuals (Roger 2006). This is achieved through departmentalization at AUO (Linda 2011). This culture at AOU cultivates a good relationship among employees, and they feel a sense of belonging. For a company to work perfectly towards the achievement of a common goal all departments must be well coordinated and the duties and tasks of each department clearly defined (Linda 2011). In AUO, this characteristic is missing from the majority of the employees feel that the departments are not well aligned, 6 out of 10 employees.
Aggressiveness
This characteristic is manifested at AUO in how the employees and the whole organization are competitive in the market. It is usually adopted by organizations that want to be the leading in the industry (Linda 2011). Aggressiveness among employees is encouraged by controls put in place to measure performance, like appraisals, recognition and rewards. AUO practices this culture since the majority of the employees feel that their contribution is noted and respected. Some feel that promotions are earned through performance, even though they are unsure of monetary benefits.
Stability
This culture is practiced by organizations that only focus on maintaining their success in the industry and rather than growth (Linda 2006). Such organizations pay less attention to innovation and emerging trends in the market. Clear observation is that AUO has not reached that state since it still encourages employees to innovate new ways of performing their duties to improve efficiency and minimize time.
How Employees Learn Culture
There are some ways through which culture is passed to employees in an organization, but we focus on the four main keys which are; stories, rituals, material symbols and language (Sree 2008).
Stories
Stories are among the most effective way of transmitting an organization’s culture especially when the stories are about real people that all the employees in the organization (Schein 2010). Stories answer questions like; how do the CEOs or top management respond to mistakes committed by employees, what could get one to be fired or how do retrenchments occur, how is the organization’s reward system, what are the rules of the organization and who is above those rules and how much support can employees expect from the organization during transfers (Sree 2008).
Rituals
Rituals are activities performed by an organization repeatedly. These activities may include company parties to celebrate and reward top performing employees, the launching of a new product line or year-end parties for employees before they break for holidays (Robbins and Judge 2013). Through such repeated activities, new employees can learn; the values of the organization, which objectives are most important to the company and the importance of everyone in the organization (Sree 2008).
Material Symbols
The way in which an organization’s building is designed, the interior layout including the desks and chairs, partitions and piece of art hanging on walls will depict its culture (Ivancevich and Matteson 2011). The size of offices belonging to the top management, the cars they drive and how they dress will be a clear indicator of an organization’s culture (Sree 2008).
Language
Each organization has a unique language the employees use among themselves depending on the industry in which the organization operates. The language arises from vocabularies formed from abbreviated terms used in the organization which new employees must learn (Sree 2008).
Personal Report
This assignment has exposed me to a deeper understanding of organizational behavior and culture. One thing I have learned is that; culture is practiced through the values of an organization, the beliefs and the processes and procedures of doing things. My contribution to the assignment was researching on how employees learn the culture. It was informative on my part to know that just looking at the physical structure of an organization, that is; the office building, office size, the interior layout and furnishings depict a statement about an organization’s values and beliefs. The organization's is critical to its success. Integrating employees to organization culture will increase the level of creativity, innovation, information sharing, exploration of talents and other significant attributes that can lead to organizational success. Based on my views, it is the responsibility of man agent to ensure that all employees are oriented to the culture of the organization. Orienting employees to the culture of the organization will help them understand the company's objectives, mission and visions and this will play a vital role in ensuring organizational success.
Conclusion
It is important to note that organizational behavior and culture contribute a company’s attainment of competitive advantage in the market. The cultures are either passed by the founders of an organization to the employees are cultivated by the leaders who influence the employees into adopting them. Management and employees can determine the culture of their organization by evaluating the seven characteristics of culture. New employees should keenly observe the organization's structure, language, and the rituals and should listen carefully to the stories told if they are to learn an organization's culture.
References List
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