Global Decision Making
In today’s fast-changing global economy, the rapid expansion of international businesses has become one of the most significant world trends. Organizations are noticeably getting diverse and multicultural. Teams are built of professionals from different backgrounds and cultures no matter what these differences are. Managers are expected to lead the multinational teams and success in their assigned tasks. They often have to make significant and ethical decisions under economic, professional and cultural pressure. This pervasive growth in market interpenetration and the growth of international businesses make it challenging and difficult for any organization to perform an ethical behavior. With the spread of global businesses, organizations should provide managerial directions to make sure ethical issues are considered in business decisions. The focus of this paper is on understanding how the international dimensions of organizational behavior help managers make better and more ethical decisions and the impact of organizational behavior on creating more effective global leaders.
The Concept of Organizational Behavior
Organizational behavior is regarded as the basis of management studies because it is mainly a study of human behavior and individual performance within an organization (Knights and Willmott, 2007). It is the study of individuals and group behavior within an organizational structure. Individuals are the center of organizational behavior. The way teams are organized and how to empower all team members to work together and be productive are significant within a specific organizational structure. The organizational structure of an organization makes up a set of hierarchical positions and relationships of depends on its size, activity, location, products or services (Dolan, S. L., & Lingham, T, 2008). In other words, individuals, groups, and organizational structure are the three main components of behavior that represent this field. The study of organizational behavior examines how individuals and groups are expected to work together and behave in teams in workplaces in order for them to pursue efficiency and effectiveness. The importance of organizational behavior derived from achieving goals and making an organization runs successfully. OB involves a variety of subjects include employees' motivation, leadership behavior, cross-cultural communication, group structure and process, productivity, job satisfaction, and lastly, making ethical decisions (Knights and Willmott, 2007).
Making Ethical Decisions
Organizational behavior helps organizations to establish an ethical culture that built on a high value on ethical behavior. Josephson (2002) has defined ethics as the consistency of what we claim we value and what our actions actually say we value (p.4). A decision can either break or respect rules and standards. Ethical issues are carefully considered in business decisions in international organizations. Organizations should provide mandatory training to decision makers to enforce its code of ethics and always keep track of the decisions that are made (Josephson, 2002). Building a code of ethics or an ethical framework help manager to perceive and examine the moral dimensions of an issue.
Global competition is placing pressure on managers to make faster and better business decisions. In order for managers to make better and more ethical decisions they, first, have to generate and sustain their teams' trust. Managers need to understand the differences between cultures and people's differences in behaviors and understand the ethical nature of the organizational culture. They need to show respect, responsibility, fairness and caring for all team members equally.
Ethical decision-making process starts with addressing all the multiple options, drawing on the knowledge of all these different options and lastly, being aware of the cultural issues involved. Organizational managers and leaders are regularly expected to make ethical, right and honest judgments on whatever problems or issues they may face. These decisions should be matching up with the leader’s personal and organizational values. In order for managers to decide whether a decision is ethical or not, managers can consider the two core principles, first, in this given situation, the only one with the power to decide what to do and what to say is you and second, you are morally responsible for the consequences of this decision you are making.
Characteristics of Global Business Leaders
In an international setting,
By understanding international organizational behavior, global leaders and managers are expected to develop some personality traits that can guide them to become effective global business leaders.
1- Understanding and sensitivity to cultural diversity
Managers should take cultural variations into account while communicating ideas and instructions in a clear and brief manner.
2- Flexible personality
As emphasized by Deardorff, behavioral flexibility is an important skill for all leaders (2009, p70). It is essential for managers in multinational organizations to accommodate his or her behavior to others’ team members. They should also have the ability to adapt to a wide range of challenges and unforeseen events quickly.
3- Great negotiation and communication skills
Interpersonal skills are significant since it is propelling for leadership career. Global leaders need to refine their communication and negotiation skills to deal with many situations. Negotiation skills are important for managers whether they are mediating a difficult breakdown in communication, working on a complex client deal, negotiating a new a change in working conditions, there will be some compromises needed to agree on an acceptable solution.