Individual Behavior: Motivational and Learning Systems

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DQ #1: Why do organizations miss the point when they focus on surface level behaviors?

The important feature of economic development at the beginning of the XXI century is a move from an industrial to a postindustrial economy. Globalization and “dramatic advances in technology that sustains work across vast spatial and temporal boundaries” (Hinds, et al., 2011, p.135) facilitated greater economic, social, and cultural connectivity, and sometimes interdependence between people in different parts of the world (Mohammed, & Angell, 2004). Organizations structures broke the frames of functional departments and business divisions. To survive in contemporary business environment organizations have to radically adapt their cultures, structures, systems and processes to cope with increasing functional and cultural diversity.
Whereas teams’ diversity and flexibility can bring added value to the organization, it can also bring challenges as it is extremely important that organization has access to right resource in right time and place. Management of teams with increasing diversity requires understanding and taking into consideration of the general context of the changes taking place in today's global heterogeneous organizations (Sadri, & Condia, 2012). “Surface-level or demographic diversity refers to the extent to which a unit is heterogeneous on characteristics such as age, gender, ethnicity, functional background, and organizational tenure” (Mohammed, & Angell, 2004, p.1015). Surface level or highly visible reactions are easily observed and measured. Whereas, patterns of human behaviors in organizations may be derived from deep-seated needs, lifetime experiences, or/and personal value systems. “The culture of a company is its collectio...

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