Business psychology - Essay Example

Background of the problem Here are the following problems experienced by HIM as a newly instituted company. Poor quality of interaction within the teams Unproductive work Poor quality of products and services The above problems are upshots of the prevailing conditions within the company. Employees are not accustomed to working as a team because most of them are experts and are used to work as individuals. Different cultural backgrounds lead to communication failures. Relevant theories Hofstede’s theory Geert Hofstede come up with four bipolar dimensions in understanding cultural differences and these include power distance, individualism-collectivism, masculinity-femininity, and uncertainty avoidance.

The power distance will help measure or evaluate the level in which subordinates are willing to accept their status and submit to formal hierarchical authority. Thus, in a high power distance culture, subordinates are willing to submit to formal hierarchical authority, but in a low power distance culture subordinates are willing to share authority (Silverthorne, 2005). Prestige, power and wealth are more valued in a high-power distance culture which emphasised the existence of inequality while those cultures low in power distance often want to share equal distribution of them (Schumann, 2009).

Individualism and collectivism measure the extent to which people are willing to work as a team or individuals. Cultures with high value placed on individualism “respect and value personal achievement, autonomy and personal achievement” while those with high value placed on collectivism “emphasize group harmony, social order, loyalty and personal relationship” (Silverthorne, 2005). A highly individualistic culture has certain degree of separation and distance from their groups, the basic characteristics of a team that could not be found in a highly collectivistic culture (Kim, 1995).

Organizational communication theory The ultimate purpose of organizational communication is to help managers achieve command and control within the organization (Corson et al., 2000). There are three broad groups of organizational theory and these include classical theory, human relations school and social system school. Under the classical theory for instance, it assumes that organizational members are instruments of the management and under human relations, attitudes, values and personal needs are important, and under social system school, organizations are assumed based on decision making and problem solving.

Therefore, Laswell’s model of communication is a significant model to be applied in every organization considering that it specifies who says about the communication, in which channel, to whom and with what effect (Reddi, 2009). This certainly implies that it can be applied in organizing a group due to its general functionality. Findings Based on Hofstede’s theory of cultural dimension, HIM is found low in power distance, and has a highly individualistic culture. The reason of this is that employees are not accustomed to working as a team because most of them are experts and are used to work as individuals.

Most of them do want to share the same authority because they believe they are all experts in their field. Recommendation It is time to change the way how HIM manages its employees. It needs to highlight important core values within the team prior to developing its distinct organisational culture. Under these core values, it has to emphasise the value of hierarchical authority, respect, and teamwork. As it is also important to preserve the innate strengths of the team, excellence, initiative and innovation or something to emphasise the good things about low power distance and individualism should also be highlighted in the core values.

However, it is not only enough to set these core values, but the hardest thing is on how to implement and integrate them in the company’s system. Now, it is time for HIM to conduct effective communication steps in order that everyone can understand the vision of where the company is exactly heading on. After the core values are successfully integrated in the company’s system and everyone seems to achieve the vision, a remarkable evaluation on a regular basis is needed by the company in order to make adjustments or improvements if necessary.

References Corson, D., Heath, R. L., and Bryant, J. (2000) Human communication theory and research: concepts, contexts, and challenges. 2nd ed. Mahwah, New Jersey: Routledge. Kim, U. (1995) Individualism and collectivism: a psychological, cultural and ecological analysis. Denmark: NIAS Press. Reddi, C. V. N. (2009) Effective Public Relations And Media Strategy. New Delhi: PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd. Schumann, J. H. (2009) The Impact of Culture on Relationship Marketing in International Services: A Target Group-Specific Analysis in the Context of Banking Services.

Wiesbaden: Gabler Verlag. Silverthorne, C. P. (2005) Organizational psychology in cross-cultural perspective. London: NYU Press.