Organizational Profile

"Christmas  For Sale"

_Learning Objectives_

Organizational Behavior (OB)

Is the field of study that draws on the theory methods and principles from various disciplines to learn about individual’s perceptions and Learning capacities is actions while working in the groups and within the organization and to analyze the external environments effect on organization and its human resources mission, objectives and strategies.

Contingency approach

To manage in every situation and managers must find different ways. that will fit to different situations. There are several ways to mange people, organization and company.

Managing Workplace Behavior

Here in the Philippines, the managing workplace behavior is different from the other countries, like in Germany; they offer wireless onboard computers that use global positioning satellites to give vocal directions to any destination. But the Philippines we seldom use Technology, or sometimes we cannot afford to go with the new flow of technology, and worse some of are people doesn't know how to use wisely the technology.  

Approaches to Effectiveness

Goal approach

That emphasizes the central role of goal achievement as an intention for assessing effectiveness. Then the goal approach reflects purposefulness, rationality, and achievement.  And evaluating effectiveness is the oldest and most widely used evaluation approach.

System approach

Also enables us the internal and external access and the different activities and transactions for the other company, and of course internally we able to see the people working in our company doing their assign task and Internal the people inside organizations perform their individual and group tasks. While external organization is a transaction with other organization and institutions.

Multiple-constituency approach

It means that achieving balance among the various parts of the system by satisfying the interests of the organization's constituency.

Environmental forces that initiates changes to Organization

The change of the organization is needed to adapt to different innovations. These leaders establish direction align people with their vision and inspire people to overcome and political and personal to change. Because competition is becoming stronger each day, organizations have no choice- they must be change. 

Organizational Culture

The employees perceive and how this perception creates a pattern of belief, values and expectations. And how you communicate to your employees and talk about positive culture and negative culture.

Difference in how some employees talk about positive culture and negative culture

            Management at Alberto-Culver believes that a positive culture can result in positive performance.  Culture and performance are linked.  The culture of Alberto-Culver is based on honesty, trust, commitment, customer orientation, fun, innovative risk, speed, teamwork, and ownership. Bruce Pfau, a vice president of the Hay Group of Philadelphia, states that firms such as Pfizers have unique organizational cultures.  He states, "The corporate cultures of high-performing companies are dramatically different from those of average companies."

The impact of an organization's culture on individual and team behavior

Organizational culture involves shared expectations, values, and attitudes; it exerts influence on individuals, groups, and organizational process.  It had studied the impact of culture on employees indicate that it provides and encourages a form of stability.  There is a feeling of stability, as well as a sense of organizational identity, provided by an organization's culture.

Spirituality

Spirituality has found its way into the organizational literature.  It is a state or experience that can provide individuals with direction or meaning, or provide feelings of understanding, support, inner wholeness The spirituality benefits in addition to improved effectiveness include attaining a broader worldview; concern with working with integrity; acquiring a strong sense of community; and a willingness to work to make a positive difference by making contributions to colleagues, stakeholders, and society. In addition to these benefits there is also the individual benefit of creating a more reasonable work/life balance, attitude, and set of behaviors.

Socialization
           is the process by which organizations bring new employees into the culture.  In terms of culture, socialization involves a transmittal of values, assumptions, and attitudes from older to newer employees. 

Specific practices and programs used by organizations to facilitate socialization

The organization’s primary activities during the first stage of socialization are recruitment and selection and placement programs. Recruitment programs are directed toward new employees, those not now in the organizations. This program encourages other person that is not part of the organization to be part of the organization.

Aside from this programs, there are effective accommodation socialization comprises five different activities such as:

1. Orientation Programs

– This program enables new employees to meet the rest of the employees as soon as possible. These individuals should be selected for their social skills and be given time off from their own work to spend with the new people.

2. Training Programs

– This program is necessary to instruct new employees in proper techniques and to help them develop requisite skills.

3. Performance Evaluation

– In socialization, it provides important feedback about how well the

individual is getting along in the organization.

4. Assigning challenging work

– This is for new employees and the principal feature of effective socialization programs.

5. Assigning demanding bosses

 – is a practice that seems to have considerable promise for increasing the retention rate of new employees.

Other effective socialization practices are:

Anticipatory Stage                          

● Recruitment using realistic job previews    

            ● Selection and placement using realistic career paths

Accommodation Socialization           

● Tailor-made and individualized orientation programs

● Social as well as technical skills training

● Supportive and accurate feedback

● Challenging work assignments

● Demanding but fair superiors

Role Management Socialization     

● Provision of professional counseling

● Adaptive and flexible work assignments

● Sincere person-oriented managers

Globalization
              It is the interdependency of transportation distribution, communication and economic networks across international boarders.

Cross-cultural Management
          It involves the study of the behavior of individuals in organizations around the world.  It attempts to understand and improve the interaction and behavior of co-workers, clients, supplies, and alliance partners from different countries and cultures.

The global skills managers must learn, practice, and refine to deal with a changing world.    

The global skills that the managers must learn and practice are the following:

1. Global Strategic Skills

- Wherein the global managers operating in a globally shifting work environment will need a working knowledge of international relationships and foreign affairs, including global financial markets, international law, and exchange rate movements.

2. Team-building Skills

- The increased complexity of global operations will require more use of work teams, including culturally diverse group.  The need for global teamwork is obvious when considering how accounting and auditing are conducted in various parts of the world.  Teams should not ignore or minimize either cultural differences or the difficulty faced in trying to develop and manage multicultural teams.

3. Organization Skills

- In addition to multicultural diversity, managers must consider individual differences when organizing firms, units and jobs.  Minimum requirements for managers operating in shifting world would include:

>Creativity and inventiveness in designing organizations and jobs.

>High tolerance for ambiguity and cultural differences.

>Ability to coordinate finance, marketing, operations managements, and human resources interdependencies.

4. Communication Skills

- Managers will need to be able to communicate with diverse group of people.  The communication task would be easier if managers possessed multilingual skills and high levels of cross-cultural awareness and sensitivity.  Lack of communication skills would result in misunderstanding.

5. Transfer of Knowledge Skills

- The increased competitiveness throughout the world has placed special emphasis on technological advances for products and process innovations.  This emphasis has increased the need to transfer knowledge.  Learning about the practice, technique, or approach in one country that can be transferred elsewhere is a skill that managers can apply on a regular basis.

Characteristics of culture that influence in behavior and

attitudes of employees

Culture is a set of values, attitudes, norms and beliefs shared by majority of inhabitants of a country.  These become embodied in the laws and regulations of the society as well as in the generally accepted norms of the country’s social system. People in the society learn what to notice and what not to notice, how to behave with each other and how to handle responsibility, success and failure.

Hofstede's original cultural dimensions

    -Geert Hofstede, a dutch researcher who studied how cultures in countries are similar and different. His research has resulted into four dimensions explaining differences and similarities in cultures these are the: 

1. Uncertainty Avoidance

 Concerns the degree to which the people are comfortable with ambiguous situations and with the inability to predict future events with accuracy.

2.  Masculinity- Feminity

High masculinity in a culture designates assertiveness, dominance and independence.  High feminity in a culture designates interdependence, compassion, and emotional opinions. 

3. Individualism- Collectivism

Individualism emphasizes pursuits of individual goals, needs and success.  Collectivism emphasizes group needs, satisfaction and performance.

                                    

_Taking it to the Net_

1. How much of each company's revenue and profit is generated outside its country of origin? 

Gulfmark Offshore, Inc.

GulfMark reported net income of $21.5 million, or 84 cents per diluted share, compared with net income of $14.2 million, or 56 cents per diluted share, in the first quarter of 2009. The figure for the past quarter includes a $15 million, or 59 cents per diluted share, benefit from accrued taxes and repayments from the Norwegian government after a revision to the tonnage tax system in 2007 was declared unconstitutional in February this year. Revenue for the period was $84.7 million, down from $108.8 million a year ago. The company said the fall in revenue was due low utilization of its vessels as a result of the slowdown in offshore activity amid the worldwide recession. Effective average day rates for its vessel also fell in Europe and the US. In Europe this was due to dollar strengthening against local currencies, while in the US it was due to the return of several lower-day rate vessels to the operating fleet in the region. However, GulfMark said its operating income rose to $8.9 million in the period from just $1.6 million in the year ago period.

SMART Communications, Inc.

SMART Communications, Inc. increased operating revenues in this period by 40% to P31 billion, compared to P22 billion this same period. Operating income increased to 91%, to 15.27 billion, and net income by 90% to 11.64 billion.

2. What does the code of ethics statement for each company say?

Code of Business Conduct and Ethics- Gulf mark Offshore, Inc.

The Board adopted a Code of Business Conduct and Ethics applicable to all of our employees and agents as well as a Code of Ethics for our Principal Executive Officer and Senior Financial Officers, which are posted on our website at www.gulfmark.com. We intend to satisfy the disclosure requirement regarding any changes to our code of ethics we adopt and/or any waiver from our code of ethics that we grant by posting such information on our website, www.gulfmark.com, or by filing a Form 8-K for such event.

Code of Business Conduct and Ethics-SMART Communications Inc.

Our company, directors, officers and employees strive to promote a culture of corporate governance by observing and maintaining our core  business principles of accountability, integrity, fairness and transparency in our relationships among ourselves and with our customers, suppliers, competitors, business partners, regulators, and the public.

3. What changes have they had to cope with in their people policies and product/service mix in the past decade?

Gulfmark Offshore, Inc.

The Company defines the North Sea market as offshore Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, Great Britain and Ireland. The North Sea market is divided into three service segments: exploration support, production platform support and field development and construction (which include sub sea services). Its North Sea-based fleet provides support vessels that work in the markets, including production platform support and field development and construction. The Company’s vessels based in the North Sea but operating temporarily out of the region are included in its North Sea operating segment statistics, and all vessels based out of the region are supported, through its onshore bases in Aberdeen, Scotland and Sadness, Norway.

The Southeast Asia market is defined as offshore Asia bounded roughly on the west by the Indian subcontinent and on the north by China, then south to Australia and east to the Pacific Islands. This market includes offshore Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand and Vietnam. All vessels based out of the region are supported, through its onshore bases in Singapore and Malaysia.

SMART Communications, Inc.

By applying rapid, relentless, and relevant innovation, they are making technology work to fit the needs of our subscribers. In the past years, SMART has refocused, overhauled and expanded its business by "thinking out of the box" while sticking to the basics. By applying rapid, relentless, and relevant innovation, we are making technology work to fit the needs of our subscribers. “

    

4. How effective are the firms? (Describe what basis you use to determine effectiveness.)

Gulf mark Offshore, Inc. is very effective because of the profit that is gaining and it is one of the Top 100 transportation companies in the world. Even the SMART Communications, Inc., it is also effective because of the number of people who use their services.

5. Would you want to work for either of these firms? Why?

If I will have a chance to work in SMART Communications, Inc., maybe I will grab that opportunity because we all know that it is one of the companies that are best performing today.