Impact of Organizational Culture in Decision Making Essay Example for Free

Impact of Organizational Culture in Decision Making Essay In any organization, decision making has traditionally been put in the hands of the management or superiors. An organization’s hierarchy emerges when an organization experiences problems in coordinating and motivating employees. As an organization grows, employees increase in number and begin to specialize, performing widely different kinds of tasks; the level of differentiation increases; and coordinating employees’ activities becomes more difficult (Jones, 2004). As globalization and information technology has changed every sector of the world, business organizations have attuned to demand their leaders to make decisions quickly, without needless ado, and move on to other pressing matters. This creates the temptation to make the decision unilaterally, for the sake of speed and efficiency, and be done with it. On the other hand, it is becoming increasingly clear that healthy organizations characteristically find strength in opening up participation in decision making and empowering relevant people at all levels of the organization to contribute to the quality of the decisions made. There are two reasons for making decision making in organizations more dynamic. First, empowering people to participate in important decisions is highly motivating to them and second, broad participation infuses the decision making process with the full spectrum of knowledge and good ideas that people throughout the organization have to contribute. On the other hand, the concept of organizational culture is at the core of understanding organizational behavior such as decision making. Organizational culture involves the norms that develop in a work group, the dominant values advocated by the organization, the philosophy that guides the organizations policies concerning employees and client groups, and the feeling that is evident in the ways in which people interact with one another. Thus, it clearly deals with basic assumptions and beliefs that are shared by members of the organization. Taken together, these define the organization itself in crucial ways: why it exists, how it has survived, what it is about. As an organization’s culture influences decisions made by its members it also influences its members’ acceptance or rejection of decisions made by its leaders. So when an organization changes its strategy, the primary interest involves assessment of the compatibility of a decision option with the organization’s culturewhere an option is defined as a possible course of action in the case of a member who is making a decision, or a proposed course of action in the case of a decision that has been made by leaders (Beach, 1996, p. 118). For example, CEOs in different industries vary considerably from one another in terms of their background characteristics and experience, an observation that has intrigued the business and academic press. For example, a widely scrutinized and publicized CEO selection decision was Apple Computers decision in 1985 to replace founder Steven Jobs with John Sculley, an industry outsider with virtually no experience in the technology-driven personal computer industry. The arguments in this controversial decision centered around the relative suitability of these individuals given the changing nature of the personal computer industry. As a result of changing industry conditions in which marketing and advertising were viewed as increasingly important strategic levers, Sculley’s marketing background and experience at Pepsis beverage operations were expected to make him a better â€Å"fit† as CEO than the technologically oriented Steve Jobs (Datta, Guthrie Rajagopalan, 2002). In this regard, the impact of organization culture in decision making is seen to be very vital. Organizational culture is a powerful environment that reflects past experiences, summarizes them, and distills them into simplifications that help to explain the enormously complex world of the organization. Efforts to reduce this complexity through simplification processes such as imposing decision-making models on it are not likely to be very workable. In this view, therefore, the culture of the organization represents significant thinking prior to action and is implicit in the decision making behavior of the organization’s leaders. So when two organizations merge, there will be an impact in it uniting the culture as to who will make the decision and the issue of empowerment and participation. Empowerment and participation would be viewed by some leaders as losing power by giving it away to others. However, modern empowering leaders understand that one gains power by sharing it with others because in collaborative effort the power available to the group multiplies. To make this effective, this effort should be accompanied by the support of ongoing technical training and consultation to help all participants to master the group process skills that are essential to making empowerment succeed. They must also be accompanied by the development of concrete and publicly known processes through which one participates in the collaborative process.

Comparing Dignity in A Lesson Before Dying, Jane Pittman, and Of Love a

Dignity in Southern Society in A Lesson Before Dying, Autobiography of Jane Pittman, and Of Love and Dust      Ã‚  Ã‚   The ante-bellum Southern social system put blacks in a low economic and social class and limited their pursuit of happiness.   The aristocracy firmly held blacks in emotional and spiritual slavery. Cajuns, Creoles and poor whites maintained a low status in society, which frustrated them because they felt they should be superior to blacks and equal to whites. Racism was a base of southern society and a hope to improve life and gain respect.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Ernest J. Gaines grew up in Southern Louisiana and his aunt Augusteen Jefferson taught him "the art of living with dignity" (Current 201).   In The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, the main character, Jane, narrates her life that spans from the Civil War to the 1960's.   She portrays the lives of black people fighting against the stigma of social inferiority in order to live out their dreams.   Of Love and Dust depicts rebellious radical characters striving for new standards of equality in the reformation of a small traditional community.   A Lesson Before Dying shows Grant Wiggins's and Jefferson's personal battles toward reforming themselves, and their community's battle to earn self-respect.   Living in subordination compromises freedoms of socio-economic mobility.   Gaines's characters rebel by fighting against suppression to achieve deserved rights and privileges. They achieve dignity through the struggle to hold onto the honor won fro m   society. . Ernest J. Gaines describes people surviving within the social system at the same time as they overcome it to find dignity and freedom from prejudices.    Living in subordination compromises freedoms of soci... ... Yearbook, 1994. New York: Gale, 1995. Estes, David C. ed. Critical Reflections on the Fiction of Ernest J. Gaines. Athens: University of Georgia, 1994, 1-29, 89-123, 139-157, 250-264. Gaines, Ernest J. The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. New York: Bantam, 1971. _____. A Lesson Before Dying. New York: Vintage, 1993. _____.   Of Love and Dust. New York: Vintage, 1967. Graham, Judith, ed. "Ernest J. Gaines." Current Biography Yearbook   1994. New York: H. Wilson, 1994, 200-204. Larson, Charles R. "End as a Man." Chigago Tribune.   May 9 1993, 5.   Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism Yearbook, 1994. New York: Gale, 1995. Senna, Carl. "Dying like a Man: A Novel about Race and Dignity in   the South." The New York Times Book Review. August 8 1993, 21.   Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism Yearbook, 1994.   New York: Gale, 1995.

Different Thinking Between Generations Essay

Young people usually think differently than older people. Each generation doesn’t think the same way in their values, their goals, their fears, or their hopes. I always have to argue with my parents when we have different thinking. It seems that older people always think negatively about young people’s ideas. They don’t want to change because they have never experienced those ideas in their young life. I sometimes feel uncomfortable and misunderstand my parents’ thinking. In my idea, each generation has their own thinking about the subject as living together without marriage, studying at school, and living style. Older people are very strict about the topic: living together without marriage, but young people think that is the way to find out the best spouse for their life. For example, a woman was punished if she was caught that living with a man who wasn’t her husband. My parents think that is the bad girl. Everybody stayed away from her because she did the worst things ever in the social’ standards. Now is different because I think that is normal. Most of my friends are living with their boy/girl-friends in the same house nowadays. In the modern world, young people are more concentrating on finding their perfect half, so they live together before getting married to know each other well. I heard most couples were getting married with people arranged for them in the past. Now, we have freedom in thinking, so young people want to find their best spouses more than living with the person arranged from their parents. The difference in thinking about this subject always makes me to f eel argumentative with my parents. In the past, older people concentrated on studying at school, but young people don’t think they will successful in future by going to school only. For example, my parents and I always have differences in thinking about my studying. They always want me to finish my college quickly and get good grades to find a good job. I tried to convince them that most companies nowadays require more experience than a degree from college. I know the importance of getting business degree which will give me a shot to apply for a large corporation. If I don’t have any experiences in business, I can’t pass the job interview even I have good grade at school. In my parents’ time, the economy was stable and developed, so most of the companies wanted to hire more people. They cared about quantity more than quality, so they didn’t put many requirements for hiring employers. Now, time changes because the economic is going down to the lowest level. All of the companies are hiring only experienced and skilled employers. That is the reason for me to work and study half and half. My parents don’t realize that and they keep expecting me to finish my study to get a job. That is their only thinking, and we always have a fight every time when my parents talk about this subject, because of the difference in thinking between my parents and me. The biggest difference between young people and older people is living style. My parents and I have different thinking about using money for living. In my parents’ past, my country had a war and has just gotten independence since 1975. Everybody was poor and starveling, my parents worked hard to earn money when they were very young. They learnt that saving money is very important because they needed to survive during the country’s hard time. At my time, the country is developing and the society was improved. People make more money than before, but my parents still keep their own thinking that they should save money as much as they can. When I spend money on shopping, hanging out, or playing games, they blame me that I am wasting money. I explained many times that the country is developing, and my parents should spend more money to enjoy their life. They don’t think that is good idea and keep saying to me that I need to save money. In contrast, each generation has difference in thinking from each other in any subject. My parents always remind me to get a good wife and shouldn’t live with other girls if I don’t plan to marry her. They usually complain me that I should study hard and finish my study, and they often warn me to save money. In my opinion, I think differently because my parents’ thoughts are no longer suitable to the modern world.

How Crime Scene Insects Reveal the Time of Death

When a suspicious death occurs, a forensic entomologist may be called to assist in processing the crime scene. Insects found on or near the body may reveal important clues about the crime, including the victims time of death. Insects colonize cadavers in a predictable sequence, also known as insect succession. The first to arrive are the necrophagous species, drawn by the strong scent of decomposition. Blow flies can invade a corpse within minutes of death, and flesh flies follow close behind. Soon after coming, the dermestid beetles, the same beetles used by taxidermists to clean skulls of their flesh. More flies gather, including house flies. Predatory and parasitic insects arrive to feed on the maggots and beetle larvae. Eventually, as the corpse dries, hide beetles and clothes moths find the remains. Forensic entomologists collect samples of crime scene insects, making sure to take representatives of every species at their latest stage of development. Because arthropod development is linked directly to temperature, she also gathers daily temperature data from the nearest available weather station. In the lab, the scientist identifies each insect to species and determines their exact developmental stage. Since the identification of maggots can be difficult, the entomologist usually raises some of the maggots to adulthood to confirm their species. Blow flies and flesh flies are the most useful crime scene insects for determining the postmortem interval or time of death. Through laboratory studies, scientists have established the developmental rates of necrophagous species, based on constant temperatures in a laboratory environment. These databases relate a species life stage to its age when developing at a constant temperature, and provide the entomologist with a measurement called accumulated degree days, or ADD. ADD represents physiological time. Using the known ADD, she can then calculate the likely age of a specimen from the corpse, adjusting for the temperatures and other environmental conditions at the crime scene. Working backward through physiological time, the forensic entomologist can provide investigators with a specific time period when the body was first colonized by necrophagous insects. Since these insects almost always find the corpse within minutes or hours of the persons death, this calculation reveals the postmortem interval with good accuracy.