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Organizational Culture

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Organizational Culture A discussion will be conducted on irrational and rational decision making. The terms will be defined and an explanation will be given on how organizational culture impacts a leader’s psychological processes when attempting to diagnose organizational problems. An organization problem will be identified and discussed in related to differences in cultural perspective. A description of the issue and the cultural perspectives that have caused tension will be addressed. Based on the research a recommendation will be given on how leader’s individual organizational members give voice to their cultural perspectives in a way that helps the leader make better decisions to achieve organizational mission and vision. An explanation of the recommendations and action steps that will help leaders make higher quality decisions based on what was discussed will be given.
Robbin and Judge discusses the rational decision making model that should be followed to make sound decisions, but has found out the model is not followed by leaders. Robbin and Judge (2011) state “rational decision making model relies on a number of assumptions, including that the decision maker has complete information, is able to identify all the relevant options in a unbiased manner, and chooses the option with the highest utility (p. 178).” “Irrational decision making is without the faculty of reason; deprived of reason (Dictionary, 2011, par. 1).” Irrational decision making is usually deprived of emotion. Robbin and Judge (2011) states “the inability to express emotion takes away from the ability to reason (p. 104).” Leaders cannot make sound psychological decisions because organizational culture does not allow he or she to think and feel without considering what is best for the organization.
Organizational culture determines the organizations performance. Leaders are trained and instructed on the organizational culture that outlines the organization’s mission, values, and vision. Leaders are expected to instruct the employees in the same mission, values, and vision and by doing so improve the organizations effectiveness. The process can affect the leader’s psychological process because it dictates the leader’s decision making and problem solving ability. Adeyoyin (2011) states “organizational culture can create an environment that is conducive to performance improvement and the management of change or it can work against an organization by erecting barriers that prevent the attainment of goals (par. 2).”
Leaders should be able to solve problems by redirecting the employee back to what is important for the success of the organization. For example in the collection business there are financial options for customers that are not able to make his or her loan payment. Although these options are available the collector is trained and instructed to follow the hierarchy of the organization. Top of the hierarchy is collecting the money. Several attempts are made to collect the amount although the borrower has indicated he or she cannot pay. Only then can the collector offer any financial assistance. These attempts can affect the employee’s culture prospective.
The employee’s culture prospective can be affected because the employee is aware of the declining economy and the borrower is unable to make payments because of the loss of employment or decrease in salary. The employee feels that he or she should not continue to bagger the borrower to pay when he or she says they are unable to pay. When the employee does not follow the hierarchy the employee does not fit in with the organizational culture. Leaders should have detected the misfit before this could have happened.
Robbin and Judge (2011) indicates that the selection and promotion policies are particularly important devices that work against cultural change because employees selected for the position should perceive his or her values to be a good fit with the organizations values (p. 543).” Leaders of organizations should be able to motivate employees to follow the organizations culture. The organizational culture makes the organization successful. The culture supposed to give the employees the motivation and drive to be productive. This can only occur with affective leadership. Leaders have to be problem solvers and able to implement what is important to the success of the organization.
In recommendation for leaders to get employees to voice concerns on cultural prospective that will help the leader make better decisions to achieve organizational mission and goals is to allow an open door policy. Employees should be able to come to his or her leaders with concerns about the organizational culture without having restraints on who he or she can discuss issues. Robbins and Judge (2011) informs “organizations structured around high levels of formalization and specialization, strict adherence to the chain of command, limited delegation of authority, and narrow spans of control give employees little autonomy (p. 512).” Employees may not voice his or her concerns when he or she feels limited to which he or she can trust to discuss his or her concerns. Leaders should follow action steps to help make higher quality decisions.
Robbins and Judge (2011) states
“The rational decision making model should be followed because it has considerable merit, because to improve how to make decisions in organizations, we must understand the decision-making errors people commit in addition to the perception errors. The rational decision making model follows six steps: define the problem, identify the decision criteria, allocate weights to the criteria, evaluate the alternatives, and select the best alternative (p. 177).”
Although these steps would be the best to follow it is unlikely because leaders are conformed to organizational culture that can sometimes make his or her decision bias.
Conclusion
Decision making can be rational and irrational. Rational decision making should follow the rational decision making model that goes through a process to get to the solution. Irrational decision making is deprived of emotion and is made in a rash manner. Organizational culture can affect leader’s psychological process when attempting to diagnosis organizational process because leaders cannot use his or her thinking and emotions. Leaders are expected to follow the organization mission, values, and goals that makes up the organizational culture to solve problems regardless of the employees cultural prospective. Action steps for leaders to follow should be the Rational Decision Making Model which outlines six steps that would help leaders makes sound decisions without being bias.

References
Dictionary (2011). Retrieved on January 2, 2011. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/irrational.
Olu Adeyoyin, Samuel (2006). Managing the library’s corporate culture for organizational efficiency, productivity, and enhanced service. Retrieved on January 2, 2011. http://unllib.unl.edu/LPP/adeyoyin.htm.
Robbin, Stephen P. & Judge, Timothy A. (2011). Organizational behavior. Prentice Hall. pp. 1-628.

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